Wrangell Mountains: …10,000 feet (3,000 metres), including Mount Blackburn (16,390 feet [4,996 metres]), the highest point in the range, and Mount Sanford (16,237 feet [4,949 metres]). Snowfields drain into glaciers as long as 45 miles (70 km). Most of the summits are extinct volcanoes; Mount Wrangell (14,163 feet [4,317 metres]) was the…

Thomas Blackburn was an English poet, novelist, and critic whose verse is notable for haunted self-examination and spiritual imagery. The son of a clergyman, Blackburn was educated at the University of Durham. In his autobiographical novel, A Clip of Steel (1969), he depicts a childhood tormented

Sir Kenneth Blackburne was a British colonial administrator and post-independence leader of Jamaica. The son of an Anglican curate, Blackburne was educated at Marlborough College and at Clare College, Cambridge, where he received an honours degree in modern languages and geography. He then joined

Sir Kenneth Blackburne was a British colonial administrator and post-independence leader of Jamaica. The son of an Anglican curate, Blackburne was educated at Marlborough College and at Clare College, Cambridge, where he received an honours degree in modern languages and geography. He then joined

blackcap, (Sylvia atricapilla), common warbler from Europe and northwestern Africa to central Asia. It belongs to the family Sylviidae (order Passeriformes). It is 14 cm (5.5 inches) long, with brownish upperparts, gray underparts and face, and black (male) or reddish brown (female) crown. Common

grouse: …Old World member is the black grouse (Lyrurus tetrix), of Wales, Scotland, Scandinavia, and north-central Europe; a related form (L. mlokosiewiczi) occurs in the Caucasus. The male, known as blackcock, may be 55 cm (22 inches) long and weigh almost 2 kg (about 4 pounds). He is iridescent blue-black, with…

East Ayrshire: …the east and south, where Blackcraig Hill reaches an elevation of 2,298 feet (700 metres). East Ayrshire forms part of the historic county of Ayrshire. Dairy farming is important in the lowlands, while cattle and sheep raising predominate in the uplands. Kilmarnock is the council area’s administrative centre and largest…

black currant, (Ribes nigrum), species of currant in the family Grossulariaceae grown for its edible berries. Native to temperate areas of northern Eurasia, the plant is widely cultivated in Europe and other areas with suitable climates. The tart fruits are very high in vitamin C and can be eaten

mine gas: Black damp is an atmosphere in which a flame lamp will not burn, usually because of an excess of carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen in the air. Stinkdamp is the name given by miners to hydrogen sulfide (H2S) because of its characteristic smell of rotten…

Blackdown Hills, range of hills straddling the boundary between the counties of Somerset and Devon, Eng., to the south of the town of Taunton and to the north of the town of Honiton. The hills are developed upon chalk and greensand and are drained mainly by the Rivers Culm (a tributary of the Exe)

Black horror: Notable Black horror films: • The Blackening (2022) is a comedy-horror film with the tagline “We Can’t All Die First.” In this film, a group of friends have a weekend reunion at a cabin in the woods, but a killer interrupts their plans.

African American literature: Novelists: Thurman’s The Blacker the Berry (1929) exposes color prejudice among African Americans and is among the first African American novels to broach the topic of homosexuality. The struggles and frustrations Larsen revealed in the Black female protagonists of her novels Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929) likely…

Patrick Blackett was the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1948 for his discoveries in the field of cosmic rays, which he accomplished primarily with cloud-chamber photographs that revealed the way in which a stable atomic nucleus can be disintegrated by bombarding it with alpha particles

Patrick Blackett was the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1948 for his discoveries in the field of cosmic rays, which he accomplished primarily with cloud-chamber photographs that revealed the way in which a stable atomic nucleus can be disintegrated by bombarding it with alpha particles

blackface minstrelsy, American theatrical form that constituted a subgenre of the minstrel show. Intended as comic entertainment, blackface minstrelsy was performed by a group of white minstrels (traveling musicians) with black-painted faces, whose material caricatured the singing and dancing of

blackface minstrelsy, American theatrical form that constituted a subgenre of the minstrel show. Intended as comic entertainment, blackface minstrelsy was performed by a group of white minstrels (traveling musicians) with black-painted faces, whose material caricatured the singing and dancing of

Blackfoot, Indigenous North American tribe composed of three closely related bands, the Piegan (officially spelled Peigan in Canada), or Piikuni; the Blood, or Kainah (also spelled Kainai or Akainiwa); and the Siksika, or Blackfoot proper (often referred to as the Northern Blackfoot). The three

Blackfoot, Indigenous North American tribe composed of three closely related bands, the Piegan (officially spelled Peigan in Canada), or Piikuni; the Blood, or Kainah (also spelled Kainai or Akainiwa); and the Siksika, or Blackfoot proper (often referred to as the Northern Blackfoot). The three

grouper: …many species, such as the black and yellowfin groupers (Mycteroperca bonaci and M. venenosa, respectively), individuals inhabiting deeper waters are much redder than those living near shore. Groupers are protogynous hermaphrodites; that is, they first function as females and later transform into males. They are prime food fishes and also…

tuna: obesus), blackfin tuna (T. atlanticus), and longtail tuna (T. tonggol). These different species range from moderate to very large in size. The giant of the group is the northern bluefin tuna, which grows to a maximum length and weight of about 4.3 metres (14 feet) and…

United Parks & Resorts, Inc.: 2009–2020s: Blackstone, IPO, and controversy: …following the wide release of Blackfish, a documentary that chronicled SeaWorld’s mistreatment of the orca Tilikum. The animal’s abusive captivity allegedly drove it to kill three people—including Dawn Brancheau, an orca trainer at SeaWorld Orlando, in 2010.

Tecumseh: Early life and training: …adopted by the Shawnee chief Blackfish and grew to young manhood with several white foster brothers whom Blackfish had captured.

blackfish, name given to various dark-coloured fishes, including the tautog (see wrasse), bowfin, Alaska blackfish, and black sea bass (see sea bass). Also known as blackfish are the pilot whale, a mammal; Orthodon microlepidotus, a California minnow; the black ruff (Centrolophus niger), a European

pilot whale, (genus Globicephala), either of two species of small, slender toothed whales of the dolphin family Delphinidae. They are characterized by a round bulging forehead, a short beaklike snout, and slender pointed flippers. The short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus) and the

Blackfoot, Indigenous North American tribe composed of three closely related bands, the Piegan (officially spelled Peigan in Canada), or Piikuni; the Blood, or Kainah (also spelled Kainai or Akainiwa); and the Siksika, or Blackfoot proper (often referred to as the Northern Blackfoot). The three

Blackfoot, city, seat (1885) of Bingham county, southeastern Idaho, U.S., near the confluence of the Snake and Blackfoot rivers. Founded on the Utah Northern Railroad in 1878 at the northern edge of Fort Hall Indian Reservation (1869), the city evolved as the centre of an irrigated agricultural

Blackfoot River, watercourse, southeastern Idaho, U.S., formed by the confluence of Slug and Lanes creeks, near the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in Caribou county. It flows northwestward through Blackfoot River Reservoir (used for irrigation) and then west to join the Snake River in Bingham

Blackfriars, small district in the City of London. It is located on the bank of the River Thames, east of The Temple and southwest of St. Paul’s Cathedral. From 1221 to 1538 the Blackfriars Monastery was located on the riverside. It was a wealthy and influential institution, and its halls were

Blackfriars: Blackfriars Bridge (1860–69) replaced an earlier road bridge that dated to the 1760s. The first structure was paid for by fines and by tolls exacted from its passengers. During the Gordon Riots of 1780 the tollbooths were attacked and looted, and tolls ceased to be…

Blackfriars: Blackfriars Station was opened in 1886 under the name St. Paul’s Station; its name was changed in 1937. Rebuilt in 1977, it connects with London Bridge Station in Southwark.

Blackfriars Theatre, either of two separate theatres, the second famed as the winter quarters (after 1608) of the King’s Men, the company of actors for whom Shakespeare served as chief playwright and also as a performer. The name of the theatres derives from their location on the site of a

cricket: Test matches: …of the great wicketkeepers in J.McC. Blackham.

Michael Mann: Mann then directed Blackhat (2015), a thriller that traces the efforts of a hacker and his cohort to track down a cybercriminal.

blackhead, acute liver and intestinal disease of turkeys, chickens, and other game birds, caused by the protozoan parasite Histomonas meleagridis that lives in eggs of the nematode Heterakis gallinarum. Chief symptoms are listlessness and sulfur-coloured diarrhea. Blackhead is usually fatal in

acne: …vulgaris is the comedo, or blackhead, which consists of a plug of sebum (the fatty substance secreted by a sebaceous gland), cell debris, and microorganisms (especially the bacterium Propionibacterium acnes) filling up a hair follicle. Comedones may be open, their upper or visible portion being darkened by oxidative changes, or…

iron processing: White iron: Blackheart malleable iron, on the other hand, is made by annealing white iron in a neutral atmosphere, again at a temperature of 900° C. In this process, cementite is decomposed to form rosette-shaped graphite nodules, which are less embrittling than flakes. Blackheart iron is an…

Blackheath, open common and residential area mainly in the Greater London boroughs of Lewisham and Greenwich. It lies about 6 miles (10 km) southeast of the City of London. The site of both Roman and Saxon remains, the heath was crossed by the Roman Watling Street (now partly traced by Shooter’s

Blackish, American television sitcom that aired on ABC from 2014 to 2022. It depicts an affluent Black family whose patriarch, Andre (Dre) Johnson (played by Anthony Anderson), questions whether his family’s success has come at the cost of losing their African American cultural identity. Although a

Saint Clements Island, islet (40 acres [16 hectares]) in the Potomac River, St. Mary’s county, southern Maryland, U.S., just off Coltons Point. The first Maryland settlers under the Calverts (Barons Baltimore) landed there from the ships Ark and Dove on March 25, 1634. A large cross (erected 1934)

blackjack, gambling card game popular in casinos throughout the world. Its origin is disputed, but it is certainly related to several French and Italian gambling games. In Britain since World War I, the informal game has been called pontoon. Players hope to get a total card value of 21 or to come

bomber: … and the long-range B-1 and Tu-160 Blackjack, respectively. These planes were designed to slip under early-warning radar at low level and to approach military targets using terrain-following radars and inertial-guidance systems. They could carry gravity bombs (nuclear or conventional), air-launched cruise missiles, or air-launched ballistic missiles.

forty-nine dance: Setting and style: …loss is contained in “Blackjack Daisy”:

red oak: The blackjack oak (Q. marilandica), a cover tree on sandy soils in eastern North America, is about 9 to 15 m tall, with leaves that bear three lobes at the wide apex; they are glossy and dark green above, rusty and hairy below.

Spike Lee: …race relations with the film BlacKkKlansman (2018), a satire based on the memoir of a Black police officer in Colorado Springs, Colorado, who infiltrated the local Ku Klux Klan chapter in the 1970s. The movie was lauded as a biting commentary on enduring racial tensions in the United States, and…

Texas: Soils: The Blackland Prairie, a belt of fertile black clay to the west of the Piney Woods, extends southwesterly from the Red River to San Antonio. The soil of the Grand Prairie region, just to the west of the Blackland Prairie, is more rocky and resistant to…

Liam Neeson: Neeson’s subsequent movies included Blacklight (2022), about an operative working for the FBI, and Marlowe, in which he starred as the titular brooding private eye created by novelist Raymond Chandler in his detective stories. In 2023 Neeson had a small role as a priest to the Southern gothic writer…

House Un-American Activities Committee: …several contempt-of-Congress convictions and the blacklisting of many who refused to answer its questions. Highly controversial for its tactics, HUAC was criticized for violating First Amendment rights. Its influence waned by the 1960s; in 1969 it was renamed the Internal Security Committee, and in 1975 it was dissolved.

Sara Paretsky: …be a Holocaust survivor, and Blacklist (2003), which is set in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and uses the backdrop of a murder mystery to criticize the U.S. government’s expanded policing powers. In Fire Sale (2005) Warshawski becomes embroiled in a mystery involving a local discount store when…

Hollywood blacklist, list of media workers ineligible for employment because of alleged communist or subversive ties, generated by Hollywood studios in the late 1940s and ’50s. In the anticommunist furor of post-World War II America, many crusaders—both within the government and in the private

Alan Alda: …30 Rock; The Big C; The Blacklist; and Ray Donovan. He also appeared in the Web series Horace and Pete (2016), Louis C.K.’s comedy about the goings-on at a bar. In addition, Alda hosted the TV series Scientific American Frontiers from 1993 to 2007.

extortion, the unlawful exaction of money or property through intimidation. Extortion was originally the complement of bribery, both crimes involving interference with or by public officials. But extortion and, to a limited extent, bribery have been expanded to include actions by private citizens

Alfred Hitchcock: First films: …talking picture was the thriller Blackmail (1929). One of the year’s biggest hits in England, it became the first British film to make use of synchronized sound only after the completed silent version was postdubbed and partly reshot. Polish actress Anny Ondra (who had starred in The Manxman) played a…

soca: …the 1970s by Trinidadian musician Lord Shorty (Garfield Blackman), who sang calypso, a type of Afro-Trinidadian song style characterized by storytelling and verbal wit. According to Lord Shorty, the new music was meant to be a fusion of calypso with East Indian music, a reflection of Trinidad’s two dominant ethnic…

Goldfinger: …Bond meets Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman), who oversees female stunt pilots in the millionaire’s employ. While imprisoned at the farm, Bond breaks out of his cell and overhears Goldfinger briefing a group of Mafia leaders about the true meaning of Operation Grand Slam: he intends to have Galore’s pilots…

Rosemary’s Baby: …Roman Castevet (Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer, respectively) are eccentric and nosy but seemingly harmless, and after befriending them, Guy’s acting career suddenly takes off. Rosemary’s subsequent pregnancy, however, is fraught with difficulties. After reading a book that suggests that Roman is the son of an infamous Satanist, Rosemary begins…

Richard Doddridge Blackmore was an English Victorian novelist whose novel Lorna Doone (1869) won a secure place among English historical romances. Educated at Blundell’s School, Tiverton, and at Exeter College, Oxford, Blackmore was called to the bar but withdrew because of ill health. He married

heavy metal: …Van Halen, guitarists such as Ritchie Blackmore (of Deep Purple), Randy Rhoads (with Osbourne), and Yngwie Malmsteen demonstrated new levels and styles of rock guitar technique, exploding popular stereotypes of heavy metal as monolithic and musically simple.

Sir Richard Blackmore was an English physician and writer, physician in ordinary to King William III (who knighted him in 1697 for professional services) and Queen Anne. Though he regarded poetry as merely the entertainment of his idle hours, he wrote four epics in 10 or more books, Prince Arthur

Harry A. Blackmun was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1970 to 1994. Blackmun graduated in mathematics from Harvard University in 1929 and received his law degree from that institution in 1932. He joined a Minneapolis, Minnesota, law firm in 1934, and while advancing to

Harry A. Blackmun was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1970 to 1994. Blackmun graduated in mathematics from Harvard University in 1929 and received his law degree from that institution in 1932. He joined a Minneapolis, Minnesota, law firm in 1934, and while advancing to

American literature: Moral-aesthetic critics: …reading can be found in R.P. Blackmur’s The Double Agent (1935), Allen Tate’s Reactionary Essays on Poetry and Ideas (1936), John Crowe Ransom’s The World’s Body (1938), Yvor Winters’s Maule’s Curse (1938), and Cleanth Brooks’s The Well Wrought Urn (1947). Though they were later

Britney Spears: Princess of Pop: …Baby One More Time, Oops!…I Did It Again, and In the Zone: The electronic-infused Blackout (2007) found her in a self-reflective mood; Circus (2008) featured her first Billboard number-one single (“Womanizer”) since her debut; and Femme Fatale (2011) was her most up-tempo dance-oriented offering to date. Britney Jean (2013) was characterized by Spears as being highly personal, but it…

Yemen: Resources and power: …meet national demands, and scheduled blackouts are common. In the 2000s only about two-fifths of the country was tied into the national grid.

Blackpink, South Korean K-pop (Korean pop music) vocal quartet whose brand of feminine ferocity made them one of the world’s most-popular girl groups of the 21st century. Blackpink’s lyrics and visual aesthetic are based on the K-pop concept of “girl crush”—female admiration for confident,

Blackpink, South Korean K-pop (Korean pop music) vocal quartet whose brand of feminine ferocity made them one of the world’s most-popular girl groups of the 21st century. Blackpink’s lyrics and visual aesthetic are based on the K-pop concept of “girl crush”—female admiration for confident,

blackpoll warbler, species of woodwarbler

Blackpool, town and unitary authority, geographic and historic county of Lancashire, England, on the Irish Sea coast. It is one of the largest and most popular resorts in the country. Blackpool’s growth has been fairly rapid since the late 18th century, when it was transformed from a small hamlet

Sir Stanley Matthews: …Matthews was transferred (traded) to Blackpool in 1946. With that team he competed in the 1953 Football Association Cup Final, considered to be his most famous game. Matthews set up Blackpool’s last three goals to help defeat the Bolton Wanderers in what became known as “the Matthews final.” In 1961…

Blackpool: …is also home to the Blackpool Opera House, one of the largest theaters in the United Kingdom. In addition, Blackpool has developed as a major British conference and convention center. Area 14 square miles (35 square km). Pop. (2011) 142,065; (2021) 149,046.

Blackpool Tower, tourist attraction and regional landmark in the seaside resort town of Blackpool, Lancashire, England, U.K. Blackpool Tower, rising to a height of 518 feet (158 m), was built in the late 19th century in steel and cast iron on the model of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. A company to

Blackrock, southeastern suburb of Dublin, Ireland, and an administrative part of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown county, on Dublin Bay. Blackrock grew substantially in the 18th century as a fashionable bathing resort; it developed further with the opening of a rail line between Dublin and Kingstown in 1834.

Gwendolyn Brooks: Later work and legacy: …Boy, and Other Poems (1986), Blacks (1987), Winnie (1988), and Children Coming Home (1991).

Florence: The early period: …policy was embraced by the Blacks (Neri; the rich merchants), the latter by the Whites (Bianchi; the lesser citizens).

Thomas Mapfumo: …personnel) into the 21st century, the Blacks Unlimited. When Zimbabwe won independence in 1980, Mapfumo was considered to have played no small part in the achievement. During the 1980s he added a real mbira to the band and continued to nurture and promote the traditional music of Zimbabwe.

Jean Genet: …The Balcony), Les Nègres (1958; The Blacks), and Les Paravents (1961; The Screens), are large-scale, stylized dramas in the Expressionist manner, designed to shock and implicate an audience by revealing its hypocrisy and complicity. This “Theatre of Hatred” attempts to wrest the maximum dramatic power from a social or political…

Blackshirt, member of any of the armed squads of Italian Fascists under Benito Mussolini, who wore black shirts as part of their uniform. The first squads—each of which was called Squadre d’Azione (“Action Squad”)—were organized in March 1919 to destroy the political and economic organizations of

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

blacksmith, craftsman who fabricates objects out of iron by hot and cold forging on an anvil. Blacksmiths who specialized in the forging of shoes for horses were called farriers. The term blacksmith derives from iron, formerly called “black metal,” and farrier from the Latin ferrum, “iron.” Iron

frog and toad: Breeding behaviour: The South American nest-building hylid, Hyla faber, has a long, sharp spine on the thumb with which males wound each other when wrestling. The small Central American Dendrobates pumilio calls from the leaves of herbaceous plants. Intrusion into a territory of one calling male by another results in a wrestling…

black spot, common disease of a variety of plants caused by species of Pseudomonas bacteria or by any number of fungus species in the genera Asterina, Asterinella, Diplotheca, Glomerella, Gnomonia, Schizothyrium, Placosphaeria, and Stigmea. Infections occur during damp periods and appear as round

Wexford: The Blackstairs Mountains—which have two main peaks, Blackstairs Mountain (2,402 feet [732 metres]) and Mount Leinster (2,602 feet [793 metres])—form a striking range rising from lowlands on all sides. Between the two main summits is the deep Scullogue Gap. Most of the county consists of a…

David Bowie: The searching, jazz-infused Blackstar (2016) was released two days before his death from cancer. In Bowie’s final years he also cowrote the musical Lazarus (premiered 2015), which was inspired by The Man Who Fell to Earth, and he was the subject of a blockbuster art exhibition, David Bowie…

vegetable farming: Planting: …for 1,000 seeds; those of Blackstone variety average 4.4 ounces (125 grams). If the two are grown on two separate plots of the same area and 4.4 ounces of seeds of each cultivar are planted, the result would be three times as many of the Sugar Baby plants as the…

Blackstone River, river rising in south-central Worcester county, Massachusetts, U.S., and flowing generally southeast past Worcester city and Northbridge, Massachusetts; it continues across the northeast corner of Rhode Island, past Woonsocket, Central Falls, and Pawtucket, where it becomes the

Second Amendment: …1803 in his great work Blackstone’s Commentaries: With Notes of Reference to the Constitution and Laws of the Federal Government of the United States and of the Commonwealth of Virginia, as the “true palladium of liberty.” In addition to checking federal power, the Second Amendment also provided state governments with…

Harry Blackstone, Sr.: His son, Harry Blackstone, Jr. (1934–97), was also a famous magician.

Harry Blackstone, Sr. was an American magician who entertained audiences at the turn of the 20th century and into the 1950s. Nicknamed the Great Blackstone, he was noted for performing the dancing handkerchief, the vanishing birdcage, and the floating light bulb (see magic). (Read Harry Houdini’s

Sir William Blackstone was an English jurist, whose Commentaries on the Laws of England, 4 vol. (1765–69), is the best-known description of the doctrines of English law. The work became the basis of university legal education in England and North America. He was knighted in 1770. Blackstone was the

Gentianaceae: Major genera and species: …that close in the afternoon; yellow-wort (Blackstonia) has bright yellow flowers and broad leaves. Both genera contain species used in herbal remedies and in the making of dyes.

rum: …mixed with molasses and called blackstrap or mixed with cider to produce a beverage called stonewall.

molasses: …third and final extraction yields blackstrap molasses, a heavy, viscous, dark-coloured product that has had all the sugar removed from it that can be separated practically by ordinary crystallization.

blackthorn, (Prunus spinosa), spiny shrub of the rose family, native to Europe but cultivated in other regions. The plant’s dense growth makes it suitable for hedges, and the tart fruit is used to flavor sloe gin. Blackthorn usually grows less than 3.6 meters (12 feet) tall and has numerous small

carcharhinid: One small species, C. melanopterus, is found in shallow Indo-Pacific waters. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) lists each of these as vulnerable species.

blacktip shark, any of several shark species in the family Carcharhinidae. See

J. Stuart Blackton was a British-born U.S. film director and producer who introduced animation and other important film techniques that helped shape and stimulate the development of cinematic art. While interviewing Thomas A. Edison in 1895, Blackton’s interest in films was so aroused that in the

J. Stuart Blackton was a British-born U.S. film director and producer who introduced animation and other important film techniques that helped shape and stimulate the development of cinematic art. While interviewing Thomas A. Edison in 1895, Blackton’s interest in films was so aroused that in the

knot: A Blackwall hitch is used to fasten a rope to a hook. It is made by doubling a rope near its end to form a loop and putting the shank of the hook through the loop so that the loop may be jammed between the rope’s…

Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray: His firm built the Blackwall Tunnel under the Thames River, London, and several railroad tunnels under the East River, New York City; enlarged the Dover (England) harbour; and in 1926 completed a large dam on the Blue Nile in Sudan.

Blackwater, town, central Queensland, Australia. A coal-mining town, it lies along the Capricorn Highway, 100 miles (160 km) west of Rockhampton. The German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt noted the presence of coal in the area in 1844–45; the town was laid out in 1886 and given its name because of the

blackwater fever, rare, yet dangerous, complication of malaria. It occurs almost exclusively with infection from the parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Symptoms of blackwater fever include a rapid pulse, high fever and chills, extreme prostration, a rapidly developing anemia, and the passage of urine