Keith Urban: …albums Golden Road (2002) and Be Here (2004) generated more number-one country singles, earning fans and critical acclaim.

Paul Gauguin: Early maturity: …carved and painted wood relief Be in Love and You Will Be Happy (1889), in which a figure in the upper left, crouching to hide her body, was meant to represent Paris as, in his words, a “rotten Babylon.” As such works suggest, Gauguin began to long for a more…

Phil Spector: Wall of sound: …Me” and the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” and “Baby I Love You,” Spector blended conventional teen romance sentiments with orchestral arrangements of immense scale and power in what he described as “little symphonies for the kids.” Others called it the wall of sound, and the style reached a peak…

Sheryl Crow: Other albums and projects: …to her earlier work with Be Myself (2017). On Threads (2019), her 11th studio album, Crow performed with a number of other musicians, including Stevie Nicks, Willie Nelson, and Bonnie Raitt. Crow announced that Threads would be her last album, though she intended to keep touring and recording singles. However,…

rockabilly: …like Gene Vincent, whose “Be-Bop-A-Lula” soon hit the charts.

Haim Naḥman Bialik: In such poems as “Be-ʿĭr he-haregah” (“In the City of Slaughter”), Bialik lashes out at both the cruelty of the oppressors and the passivity of the Jewish populace.

Bilingual Education Act (BEA), U.S. legislation (January 2, 1968) that provided federal grants to school districts for the purpose of establishing educational programs for children with limited English-speaking ability. It was the first time that the U.S. government officially acknowledged that

British Airways PLC: In 1946 British European Airways (BEA), formerly a division of BOAC, was split off to become a government corporation in its own right, responsible primarily for British air services in the British Isles and continental Europe.

beach, sediments that accumulate along the sea or lake shores, the configuration and contours of which depend on the action of coastal processes, the kinds of sediment involved, and the rate of delivery of this sediment. There are three different kinds of beaches. The first occurs as a sediment

Elena Ferrante: Other work: …La spiaggia di notte (2007; The Beach at Night), about a doll that is forgotten on the shore.

Claude Monet: Early work: …the Seine, Bennecourt (1868) or The Beach at Sainte-Adresse (1867) give a clear accounting of Monet’s advance toward the Impressionist style. In the beach and sea pictures of 1865–67, Monet was plainly not trying to faithfully reproduce the scene before him as examined in detail but rather attempting to record…

Buster Keaton: Resurgence and legacy: …Mad, Mad World (1963) to Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) to A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), his last film. In 1960 he was honored with a special Academy Award. Four months before his death, he received a five-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival.…

the Beach Boys, American rock group whose dulcet melodies and distinctive vocal mesh defined the 1960s youthful idyll of sun-drenched southern California. Initially perceived as a potent pop act—celebrants of the surfing and hot rod culture of the Los Angeles Basin during the 1960s—the Beach Boys

Jonah Hill: …role in the Key West-set The Beach Bum (2019).

Kenneth Slessor: …known for his poems “Beach Burial,” a moving tribute to Australian troops who fought in World War II, and “Five Bells,” his most important poem, a meditation on art, time, and death.

Alexandrian laurel, (Calophyllum inophyllum), evergreen plant (family Calophyllaceae) cultivated as an ornamental throughout tropical areas. Alexandrian laurel ranges from East Africa to Australia and is often cultivated near the ocean; it is resistant to salt spray and has a leaning habit. Dilo, a

David Carson: …art director at the magazine Beach Culture. Although he produced only six issues before the journal folded, his work there earned him more than 150 design awards. By that time, Carson’s work had caught the eye of Marvin Scott Jarrett, publisher of the alternative-music magazine Ray Gun, and he hired…

coastal landforms: Beaches: …or shells may develop, forming beach cusps (more or less triangular deposits that point seaward) during some wave conditions.

coastal landforms: Coastal dunes: Immediately landward of the beach are commonly found large, linear accumulations of sand known as dunes. (For coverage of dunes in arid and semiarid regions, see sand dune.) They form as the wind carries sediment from the beach in a landward direction and…

sand flea, any of more than 60 terrestrial crustaceans of the family Talitridae (order Amphipoda) that are notable for their hopping ability. The European sand flea (Talitrus saltator), which is about 1.5 cm (0.6 inch) long, lives on sand beaches near the high-tide mark, remaining buried in the

beach grass, (genus Ammophila), genus of two species of sand-binding plants in the grass family (Poaceae). American beach grass (Ammophila breviligulata) grows along the Atlantic coast and in the Great Lakes region of North America. European beach grass (A. arenaria) is native to temperate coasts

tourism: A case study: the beach holiday: Much of the post-World War II expansion of international tourism was based on beach holidays, which have a long history. In their modern, commercial form, beach holidays are an English invention of the 18th century, based on the medical adaptation of popular sea-bathing…

sand flea, any of more than 60 terrestrial crustaceans of the family Talitridae (order Amphipoda) that are notable for their hopping ability. The European sand flea (Talitrus saltator), which is about 1.5 cm (0.6 inch) long, lives on sand beaches near the high-tide mark, remaining buried in the

The Beach of Falesá, long story by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published as “Uma” in 1892 in Illustrated London News and collected in Island Nights’ Entertainments (1893). An adventure romance fused with realism, it depicts a man’s struggle to maintain his decency in the face of uncivilized

beach pea, (Lathyrus japonicus), sprawling perennial plant in the pea family (Fabaceae). It occurs on gravelly and sandy coastal areas throughout the North Temperate Zone. The seeds of beach pea and other members of the genus Lathyrus can cause a paralysis known as lathyrism if eaten in large

placer deposit: Beach placers form on seashores where wave action and shore currents shift materials, the lighter more rapidly than the heavier, thus concentrating them. Among the examples of beach placers are the gold deposits of Nome, Alaska; the zircon sands of Brazil and Australia; the black…

glacial landform: Glaciolacustrine deposits: …is referred to as a beach ridge. The width of these shorelines varies from a few metres to several hundred metres. As the lake level is lowered due to the opening of another outlet or downcutting of the spillway, new, lower shorelines may be formed. Most former or existing glacial…

beach: …cemented strata become exposed; termed beach rock, they are widespread in the tropics and along the shores of the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian seas.

commercial fishing: Seine nets: …nets are often employed in beach seining, where fish shoals are near beaches. Large beach-seining operations for sardinelike fishes and other species are carried on in the Indian Ocean. The importance of this method has decreased as pollution has cut the available stocks of fish in this region and as…

Rosales: Fruit species: …century were wild strawberries (Fragaria chiloensis) from Chile. These proved to be barren in European gardens because the plants that were sent had only female flowers. Meanwhile, wild strawberry plants (F. virginiana) from the eastern United States were sent to France. In a botanical garden in Paris, it was…

meadow vole: …closest living relative is the beach vole (M. breweri) of Muskeget Island off the coast of Massachusetts, which evolved from mainland populations of the meadow vole only during the last 3,000 years. The genus Microtus contains about half of all vole species. Voles, lemmings, and the muskrat are all classified…

volleyball: History: Beach volleyball—usually played, as its name implies, on a sand court with two players per team—was introduced in California in 1930. The first official beach volleyball tournament was held in 1948 at Will Rogers State Beach, in Santa Monica, California, and the first FIVB-sanctioned world…

Alfred Ely Beach was an American publisher and inventor whose Scientific American helped stimulate 19th-century technological innovations and became one of the world’s most prestigious science magazines. Beach himself invented a tunneling shield and the pneumatic tube, among other devices. While

Amy Marcy Beach was an American pianist and composer known for her Piano Concerto (1900) and her Gaelic Symphony (1894), the first symphony by an American woman composer. Amy Cheney had already demonstrated precocious musical talent when the family moved to Boston in 1870. She began taking piano

Hall of Fame for Great Americans: Chester Beach (Walt Whitman), Richmond Barthé (Booker T. Washington) and Malvina Hoffman (Thomas Paine). There is no mortuary suggestion either in the architecture of the Hall or in its operation. It serves many who seek primarily to familiarize themselves with the great men and women…

Chicago Blackhawks: Controversies: …Blackhawks were sued by a former player who, in 2010, had accused the team’s video coach of sexual assault. An independent investigation subsequently concluded that team officials, including head coach Joel Quenneville, had mishandled the claims, and the general manager resigned before the start of the 2021–22 season.

Amy Marcy Beach was an American pianist and composer known for her Piano Concerto (1900) and her Gaelic Symphony (1894), the first symphony by an American woman composer. Amy Cheney had already demonstrated precocious musical talent when the family moved to Boston in 1870. She began taking piano

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,

Sylvia Beach was a bookshop operator who became important in the literary life of Paris, particularly in the 1920s, when her shop, Shakespeare and Company, was a gathering place for expatriate writers and a center where French authors could pursue their newfound interest in American literature.

Sylvia Beach was a bookshop operator who became important in the literary life of Paris, particularly in the 1920s, when her shop, Shakespeare and Company, was a gathering place for expatriate writers and a center where French authors could pursue their newfound interest in American literature.

Danny Boyle: 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire: …his first big-budget Hollywood film, The Beach (2000), which featured a screenplay by Hodge based on Alex Garland’s popular novel about a seemingly utopian community on a remote Thai island. Despite starring Leonardo DiCaprio, it earned mixed reviews and failed to find an audience. In 2002 Boyle had a sleeper…

bêche-de-mer: The term Bêche-de-Mer has also come to designate the pidgin English language spoken in these regions.

Mayim Bialik: Early life as a child actor: …version of Midler’s character in Beaches in the same year. Bialik returned to television with a recurring role (1988–89) on the series Webster. She made additional appearances on other popular American television shows, including Murphy Brown, MacGyver, and Doogie Howser, M.D..

Agnès Varda: …life; Les Plages d’Agnès (2008; The Beaches of Agnès), an account of her life; and the Academy Award-nominated Visages villages (2017; Faces Places), in which Varda and artist JR travel throughout France, photographing various people they encounter.

stunt flying: …famous early stunt flyer was Lincoln Beachey (died 1915), who joined the Curtiss exhibition team in 1911 after having stunted with balloons and dirigibles. Beachey probably flew more shows in 1911–12 than any other pilot in the United States, and he perfected the art of flying “hands-off”—i.e., with both arms…

cetacean: Stranding: Stranding is a phenomenon that has long fascinated people, and there is fossil evidence of mass strandings from before humans evolved. Many stranded cetaceans are found already dead, and it is not known if they were alive and conscious when they stranded themselves. When…

surfing: The rise of women in surfing: …dominance in the 1990s, Australians Layne Beachley and Stephanie Gilmore each won multiple world titles, and fellow Aussie Sally Fitzgibbons was a consistent presence in the top ranks. Carissa Moore, from Hawaii, also won multiple world titles, starting in 2011. Bethany Hamilton, a promising young surfer from Hawaii, gained

surfing: The rise of women in surfing: …dominance in the 1990s, Australians Layne Beachley and Stephanie Gilmore each won multiple world titles, and fellow Aussie Sally Fitzgibbons was a consistent presence in the top ranks. Carissa Moore, from Hawaii, also won multiple world titles, starting in 2011. Bethany Hamilton, a promising young surfer from Hawaii, gained

Australian literature: Literature from 1970 to 2000: In Beachmasters (1985), one of her most accomplished novels, she re-creates the cultural tensions in a South Pacific island with aspirations to independence from joint English and French control. Randolph Stow had similarly written a sensitive and sympathetic novel of intercultural relations in the Trobriand Islands…

perciform: Annotated classification: Family Leptobramidae (beachsalmon) A slender carangid-like species with large mouth, rather long-based anal fin, and a single dorsal fin placed behind the beginning of the anal fin; resembles Pempheridae but apparently is not related to it; a single species reaching 43 cm (17 inches) and about 2…

Beachy Head, prominent headland on the English Channel coast in the administrative county of East Sussex, historic county of Sussex, England, in the borough of Eastbourne. Its chalk cliffs, more than 500 ft (150 m) high, represent the seaward extension of the South Downs. The cliffs face southward

After besting the English at Bantry Bay, Ireland, in the first major naval engagement of the Nine Years War, the French navy, supporting the deposed King James II, defeated an allied Anglo-Dutch fleet supporting William III off Beachy Head, in southern England, on July 10 (June 30 OS), 1690. The

beacon, signalling object or device that indicates geographical location or direction to ships or aircraft by transmitting special radio signals, or a conspicuous object, either natural or artificial. It is a visible mark from a distance by day and, if lighted, at night. The term is also applied to

Beacon, city, Dutchess county, southeastern New York, U.S. It lies at the foot of Mount Beacon, on the east bank of the Hudson River (there bridged to Newburgh), 58 miles (93 km) north of New York City. It became a city when the 17th-century villages of Matteawan and Fishkill Landing were united in

Ross Sea: …of continental rocks, including the Beacon Group, or it may be a downwarped basin filled with sedimentary rocks.

Boston: Postcolonial expansion: …(1795–98), above Boston Common on Beacon Hill. The construction of the State House on that site led to the conversion of the upland pastures of Beacon Hill into a handsome residential district that has survived with relatively little change. Between the State House and Charles Street are several streets, including…

Antarctica: Structural framework: Known as the Beacon Sandstone, this formation of platform sediments contains a rich record of extinct Antarctic life-forms, including freshwater fish fossils in Devonian rocks; ancient temperate forests, of Glossopteris trees in coal deposits of Permian age (about 299 million to 252

Beaconsfield, town, northern Tasmania, Australia. It lies on the west bank of the Tamar River, 29 miles (46 km) northwest of Launceston. The site of the present town was originally known as Cabbage Tree Hill. It was renamed Brandy Creek when gold was found nearby in 1870. In 1879 F.A. Weld,

Beaconsfield, town (parish), South Bucks district, administrative and historic county of Buckinghamshire, southeastern England. It is situated in the Chiltern Hills, just northwest of the Greater London conurbation. The wide main street of the old town of Beaconsfield, bordered by 18th-century

Benjamin Disraeli was a British statesman and novelist who was twice prime minister (1868, 1874–80) and who provided the Conservative Party with a twofold policy of Tory democracy and imperialism. Disraeli was of Italian-Jewish descent, the eldest son and second child of Isaac D’Israeli and Maria

bead, small, usually round object made of glass, wood, metal, nut, shell, bone, seed, or the like, pierced for stringing. Among primitive peoples, beads were worn as much for magical as for decorative purposes; hence, little variation was allowed in their shapes and materials. In Arab countries in

molding: Single curved: (7) An astragal is a small torus. (8) An apophyge molding is a small, exaggerated cavetto.

bead lightning, form of lightning of longer duration than more typical lightning that appears as a string of luminous segments instead of a continuous channel. It occurs infrequently but has been observed many times. Its causes are unknown, but among the theories proposed are the following:

Meliaceae: The chinaberry (Melia azedarach), also called bead tree and Persian lilac, is an ornamental Asian tree with round yellow fruits, often cultivated in many tropical and warm temperate areas.

permafrost: Polygonal ground: …type of stream form called beaded drainage. Such drainage indicates the presence of perennially frozen fine-grained sediments cut by ice wedges.

George Wells Beadle was an American geneticist who helped found biochemical genetics when he showed that genes affect heredity by determining enzyme structure. He shared the 1958 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Edward Tatum and Joshua Lederberg. After earning his doctorate in genetics

Tattycoram, fictional character, the Meagles family’s maid in the novel Little Dorrit (1855–57) by Charles

beadwork, use of beads in fabric decoration; beads may be individually stitched, applied in threaded lengths, or actually woven into the material, in which the weft is threaded with beads before being woven in. Glass beads were used decoratively in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome and by the druids

Beagle, small hound dog breed popular as both a pet and a hunter. It looks like a small foxhound and has large brown eyes, hanging ears, and a short coat, usually a combination of black, tan, and white. The Beagle is a solidly built dog, heavy for its height. It generally excels at hunting (called

Beagle, British naval vessel aboard which Charles Darwin served as naturalist on a voyage to South America and around the world (1831–36). The specimens and observations accumulated on this voyage gave Darwin the essential materials for his theory of evolution by natural selection. HMS Beagle (the

Mars: Spacecraft exploration: …25; however, its British lander, Beagle 2, which was to examine the rocks and soil for signs of past or present life, failed to establish radio contact after having landed on the Martian surface the same day. Within weeks of its arrival, the Mars Express orbiter detected vast fields of…

history of flight: General aviation: In Great Britain, Beagle Aircraft Ltd. enjoyed some success in the 1960s. The distinctive name represented an acronym derived from British Executive and General Aviation Limited. Although several dozen airplanes entered service, they could not compete with their well-equipped counterparts from American manufacturers, whose products were backed by…

Beagle: …Border Protection employs a “Beagle Brigade” to sniff out prohibited foods and other agricultural products in international airports. The agency uses Beagles because of their acute sense of smell as well as their ability to work effectively in crowds of people. The cartoon character Snoopy, arguably the world’s most…

Beagle Channel, strait in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago at the southern tip of South America. The channel, trending east-west, is about 150 miles (240 km) long and 3 to 8 miles wide; it separates the archipelago’s main island to the north from Navarino, Hoste, and other smaller islands to the

beak, stiff, projecting oral structure of certain animals. Beaks are present in a few invertebrates (e.g., cephalopods and some insects), some fishes and mammals, and all birds and turtles. Many dinosaurs were beaked. The term bill is preferred for the beak of a bird, platypus, or dinosaur. Many

Cyperaceae: Evolution and classification: Spikelets characteristic of Rhynchospora and its allies and Cladium and its allies are derived by a reduction in the number of flowers per spikelet and a sterilization of lowermost or uppermost flowers, as well as by the conversion of some bisexual flowers to staminate only; in Rhynchospora, for…

beak style, distinctive use of birdlike forms in human figures carved in wood in the lower Sepik and Ramu regions of Papua New Guinea. The head of the figure is generally placed on a short neck that connects it to a thick body, over which a long, beaklike nose often projects. Facial features have a

hazelnut: americana) and the beaked hazelnut (C. cornuta). The large cobnut is a variety of the European filbert, and Lambert’s filbert is a variety of the giant filbert. Nuts produced by the Turkish hazelnut (C. colurna) are sold commercially as Constantinople nuts. The former common name for the genus…

hazelnut: americana) and the beaked hazelnut (C. cornuta). The large cobnut is a variety of the European filbert, and Lambert’s filbert is a variety of the giant filbert. Nuts produced by the Turkish hazelnut (C. colurna) are sold commercially as Constantinople nuts. The former common name for the genus…

sandfish: Sandfishes, or beaked salmon, of the species Gonorhynchus gonorhynchus (family Gonorhynchidae) live in shallow to deep Indo-Pacific waters and can burrow rapidly in sand. They are slender fishes up to 37.5 cm (15 inches) long and have pointed snouts; the mouth, preceded by a whiskerlike barbel, is…

beaked whale, (family Ziphiidae), any of more than 20 species of medium-sized toothed whales that have an extended snout, including the bottlenose whales. Little is known about this family of cetaceans; one species was first described in 1995, two others are known only from skeletal remains, and

Beaker folk, Late Neolithic–Early Bronze Age people living about 4,500 years ago in the temperate zones of Europe; they received their name from their distinctive bell-shaped beakers, decorated in horizontal zones by finely toothed stamps. (Their culture is often called the Bell-Beaker culture.)

figurehead: …formed the forecastle; when the beakhead was added in the 16th century, it became the natural place for a figurehead. Gradually the beakhead was reduced in size and moved back under the bowsprit until just the figurehead remained. During this period, the fashions in figureheads varied from carvings of saints…

Ballina, town, County Mayo, Ireland, on the River Moy. The town, the largest in Mayo, has a modern Roman Catholic cathedral and the remains of an Augustinian friary founded about 1375. Salmon and trout fishing nearby are notable. Hand tools, drills, and medical products are manufactured there. Pop.

Ballinasloe, town, County Galway, Ireland, on the River Suck and a northerly extension of the Grand Canal. Originally a small settlement beside the medieval castle guarding the important Suck crossing, the town was developed mainly in the 18th century. It is the main market town of east County

Celtic literature: The Gaelic Revival: …inspired the brilliant satirical novel An Béal Bocht (1941; The Poor Mouth) by Flann O’Brien (pseudonym of Brian Ó Nualláin).

Belfast, city, district, and capital of Northern Ireland, on the River Lagan, at its entrance to Belfast Lough (inlet of the sea). It became a city by royal charter in 1888. After the passing of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, it became the seat of the government of Northern Ireland. The

Beal’s conjecture, in number theory, a generalization of Fermat’s last theorem. Fermat’s last theorem, which was proposed in 1637 by the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat and proved in 1995 by the English mathematician Andrew Wiles, states that for positive integers x, y, z, and n, xn + yn = zn

Beal’s conjecture: …mathematician and Texas banker named Andrew Beal offered a prize of $5,000, which was subsequently increased four times and reached $1,000,000 in 2013, for a proof or counterexample of the following: If xm + yn = zr, where m, n, and r are all greater than 2, then x, y,…

paddle tennis: Frank P. Beal, a New York City official, introduced paddle tennis on New York playgrounds in the early 1920s. He had invented it as a child in Albion, Mich. It became popular, and national championship tournaments are still held in the United States. Platform tennis,…

origins of agriculture: Maize, or corn: …by a young American botanist, William James Beal, who probably made the first controlled crosses between varieties of maize for the sole purpose of increasing yields through hybrid vigour. Beal worked successfully without knowledge of the genetic principle involved. In 1908 George Harrison Shull concluded that self-fertilization tended to separate…

Memphis: The contemporary city: Handy, who immortalized the city’s Beale Street in one of his songs. Handy’s home is preserved as a museum, and modern Beale Street is a popular entertainment district, with nightclubs, restaurants, shops, live music, and other attractions. B.B. King also occupies a central place in the history of the blues…

Frances Buss: …that post by her associate Dorothea Beale (1831–1906), another pioneer in women’s education. Their widespread reputations for single-minded dedication to the cause of female education gave rise to the verse

conflict of laws: Historical development: …of the American legal scholar Joseph Beale (1861–1943), whose thoughts shaped much of American conflict-of-laws theory in the first half of the 20th century, that is where the rights and obligations of the parties “vested.” This vested-rights doctrine maintained that, once a right was created in one locale, its existence…

neo-noir: …a femme fatale character (Jennifer Beals), who may be passing as white in 1940s Los Angeles. Meanwhile, in Bound (1996), Lana and Lilly Wachowski offer a woman-centered noir thriller with a queer romantic triangle, while The Matrix (1999) launched a series of spectacular science-fiction films that contain not only…

Jessie Tarbox Beals was an American photographer who was one of the first women in the United States to have a career as a photojournalist. Jessie Tarbox moved to Williamsburg, Massachusetts, at age 18 to make her living as a schoolteacher. After nearly 10 years of teaching, she quit and devoted

beam, in engineering, originally a solid piece of timber, as a beam of a house, a plow, a loom, or a balance. In building construction, a beam is a horizontal member spanning an opening and carrying a load that may be a brick or stone wall above the opening, in which case the beam is often called a

navigation: Radio-beam systems: …were the preferred courses, called beams. Only a slight deviation of the receiver from a beam disrupted the steady tone, and the direction in which the craft was off the beam was indicated by the predominance of one Morse character or the other. The pilot flew in one of the…

particle accelerator: Classical cyclotrons: The beam current in a classical cyclotron operated at high voltages can be as high as five milliamperes; intensities of this magnitude are very useful in the synthesis of radioisotopes.

construction: Concrete: The oldest is the beam and girder system, whose form was derived from wood and steel construction: slabs rest on beams, beams rest on girders, and girders rest on columns in a regular pattern. This system needs much handmade timber formwork, and in economies where labor is expensive other…