Flemish art, art of the 15th, 16th, and early 17th centuries in Flanders and in the surrounding regions including Brabant, Hainaut, Picardy, and Artois, known for its vibrant materialism and unsurpassed technical skill. From Hubert and Jan van Eyck through Pieter Bruegel the Elder to Peter Paul

Franco-Netherlandish school, designation for several generations of major northern composers, who from about 1440 to 1550 dominated the European musical scene by virtue of their craftsmanship and scope. Because of the difficulty of balancing matters of ethnicity, cultural heritage, places of

Peter Benoit: …School of Music (later the Royal Flemish Conservatory), which he directed until his death.

Western architecture: England: …corner towers are decorated with Flemish strapwork (i.e., bands raised in relief assuming curvilinear forms suggestive of leather straps). Other examples of this style are Hardwick Hall (1590–97) in Derbyshire, probably by Smythson; Kirby Hall (about 1570–78) in Northamptonshire, perhaps by the mason Thomas Thorpe; and Montacute House (1588–1601) in…

Dutch language, a West Germanic language that is the national language of the Netherlands and, with French and German, one of the three official languages of Belgium. Although speakers of English usually call the language of the Netherlands “Dutch” and the language of Belgium “Flemish,” they are

Whitey Bulger: A fellow FBI informant, Stephen Flemmi, became his top lieutenant. Establishing a racket by which he extorted money from bookmakers, loan sharks, drug dealers, and other local criminals, Bulger soon acquired a fearsome reputation both within and beyond the illicit underworld.

Walther Flemming was a German anatomist and a founder of the science of cytogenetics (the study of the cell’s hereditary material, the chromosomes). He was the first to observe and describe systematically the behaviour of chromosomes in the cell nucleus during normal cell division (mitosis). After

Flensburg, city, Schleswig-Holstein Land (state), Germany. A port at the head of Flensburg Fjord, it is Germany’s most northerly large city. First mentioned in 1240, it was chartered in 1284 and was frequently pillaged by the Swedes after 1643. It became the capital of Schleswig under Danish rule

Flensburg, city, Schleswig-Holstein Land (state), Germany. A port at the head of Flensburg Fjord, it is Germany’s most northerly large city. First mentioned in 1240, it was chartered in 1284 and was frequently pillaged by the Swedes after 1643. It became the capital of Schleswig under Danish rule

nuclear weapon: Atomic weapons: In early 1942 Soviet physicist Georgy N. Flerov noticed that articles on nuclear fission were no longer appearing in Western journals—an indication that research on the subject had become classified. In response, Flerov wrote to, among others, Premier Joseph Stalin, insisting that “we must build the uranium bomb without delay.”…

flerovium (Fl), artificially produced transuranium element of atomic number 114. In 1999 scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, produced atoms of flerovium from colliding atoms of calcium-48

Károly Flesch was a Hungarian violinist and teacher who was largely responsible for raising international awareness of Hungarian music. From 1886 to 1889 Flesch was the student of Jakob Grün at the conservatory in Vienna, and then from 1890 to 1894 he was taught by Martin Marsick and Eugene Sauzay

Károly Flesch was a Hungarian violinist and teacher who was largely responsible for raising international awareness of Hungarian music. From 1886 to 1889 Flesch was the student of Jakob Grün at the conservatory in Vienna, and then from 1890 to 1894 he was taught by Martin Marsick and Eugene Sauzay

Francis La Flesche was a U.S. ethnologist and champion of the rights of American Indians who wrote a book of general literary interest about his experiences as a student in a mission school in the 1860s. This memoir, The Middle Five (1900, new edition 1963), is rare in providing an account from an

Susette La Flesche was a Native American writer, lecturer, and activist in the cause of Native peoples’ rights. La Flesche’s father was an Omaha chief who was the son of a French trader and an Omaha woman. He sent his children to a Presbyterian mission school to provide them with an

C.K. Williams: Later works include Tar (1983), Flesh and Blood (1987), A Dream of Mind (1992), and The Vigil (1997). Following a series of brief interludes at various universities, Williams began teaching creative writing at Princeton University in 1996.

Dennis Quaid: Comeback: The Parent Trap, The Rookie, and Reagan: …such movies as the mystery Flesh and Bone (1993), with Ryan; Wyatt Earp (1994), in which he played Doc Holliday; and the romantic comedy Something to Talk About (1995), about a husband who cheats on his wife (played by Julia Roberts). He closed out the decade with the popular The…

Clarence Brown: Early life and work: …picture for the studio was Flesh and the Devil (1927), a melodrama starring a recent Swedish import named Greta Garbo (in her third American movie) alongside matinee idol John Gilbert. The film helped establish her as a top-ranking star, and it was the first of the seven pictures she would…

flesh fly, (family Sarcophagidae), any member of a family of insects in the fly order, Diptera, that are similar in appearance to the house fly but are characterized by blackish stripes on the gray thorax (region behind the head) and a checkered pattern of light and dark gray on the abdomen. Most

necrotizing fasciitis, rapidly spreading infection of the underlying skin and adipose (fat) layers caused by a variety of pathogenic bacteria, principally Streptococcus pyogenes, also known as the group A streptococcus. Popularly known as the flesh-eating disease, necrotizing fasciitis is an

grease: Fleshing grease is the fatty material trimmed from hides and pelts. Bone grease, hide grease, and garbage grease are named according to their origin. In some factories, food offal is used along with animal carcasses, butcher-shop scraps, and garbage from restaurants for recovery of fats.

vegetarianism, the theory or practice of living solely upon vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, and nuts—with or without the addition of milk products and eggs—generally for ethical, ascetic, environmental, or nutritional reasons. All forms of flesh (meat, fowl, and seafood) are excluded from all

fleshly school of poetry, a group of late 19th-century English poets associated with Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The term was invented by the Scottish author Robert Williams Buchanan (1841–1901) and appeared as the title of a pseudonymous article in the Contemporary Review (October 1871) in which he

fruit: Types of fruits: …two broad categories of fruits: fleshy fruits, in which the pericarp and accessory parts develop into succulent tissues, as in eggplants, oranges, and strawberries; and dry fruits, in which the entire pericarp becomes dry at maturity. Fleshy fruits include (1) the berries, such as tomatoes, blueberries, and

vertebrate: Annotated classification: Subclass Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fishes) Usually possess a choana; paired fins with a fleshy base over a bony skeleton; persisting notochord; 2 dorsal fins; nares are internal. Class Amphibia Cold-blooded; respire by lungs, gills, skin, or mouth lining; larval stage in water or in egg; skin is…

Michael Ritchie: The 1980s: …Ritchie found box-office success with Fletch (1985). Adapted from a humorous mystery novel by Gregory Mcdonald, it became a vehicle for comedian Chevy Chase, who starred as an investigative journalist. Less popular was Wildcats (1986), a formulaic but efficient comedy that had Goldie Hawn as a teacher who quits her…

Michael Ritchie: The 1980s: Adapted from a humorous mystery novel by Gregory Mcdonald, it became a vehicle for comedian Chevy Chase, who starred as an investigative journalist. Less popular was Wildcats (1986), a formulaic but efficient comedy that had Goldie Hawn as a teacher who quits her job in the suburbs to coach football…

Michael Ritchie: The 1980s: …Ritchie reteamed with Chase on Fletch Lives (1989), but it failed to match the success of the 1985 original.

Aurora, city, Adams, Arapahoe, and Douglas counties, north-central Colorado, U.S. An eastern suburb of Denver, Aurora was the third most populous city in Colorado at the start of the 21st century. It was founded during the silver boom of 1891 and named Fletcher after its Canadian-born founder,

judicial restraint: …Court decisions as early as Fletcher v. Peck (1810) state that judges should strike down laws only if they “feel a clear and strong conviction” of unconstitutionality. Early scholars also endorsed the idea; one notable example is Harvard law professor James Bradley Thayer (1831–1902), who observed that a legislator might…

Arctic Ocean: Oceanography: Fletcher’s Ice Island (T-3) made two orbits in this gyre over a 20-year period, which is some indication of the current speed. The northern extremity of the gyre bifurcates and jets out of the Greenland-Spitsbergen passage as the East Greenland Current, attaining speeds of 6 to 16 inches…

Alice Cunningham Fletcher was an American anthropologist whose stature as a social scientist, notably for her pioneer studies of Native American music, has overshadowed her influence on federal government Indian policies that later were considered to be unfortunate. Fletcher taught school for a

Red Rum: In 1973, ridden by Brian Fletcher, Red Rum won his first Grand National by spurting ahead in the last 100 yards of the course to pass Crisp, who had held the lead during most of the race, and beating him by 3 4 of a length in the record…

Battle of the Coral Sea: Frank J. Fletcher struck the landing group, sinking one destroyer and some minesweepers and landing barges. Most of the naval units covering the main Japanese invasion force that left Rabaul, New Britain, for Port Moresby on May 4 took a circuitous route to the east,…

Giles Fletcher the Elder was an English poet and author, and father of the poets Phineas Fletcher and Giles Fletcher the Younger; his writings include an account of his visit to Russia. Educated at Eton and at King’s College, Cambridge, Fletcher was employed on diplomatic service in Scotland,

Giles Fletcher the Younger was an English poet principally known for his great Baroque devotional poem Christs Victorie. He was the younger son of Giles Fletcher the Elder. He was educated at Westminster School and at Trinity College, Cambridge. After his ordination, he held a college position, and

Harvey Fletcher was a U.S. physicist, a leading authority in the fields of psychoacoustics and acoustical engineering. Fletcher graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, in 1907 and received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago in 1911. In 1916 he joined the staff of Bell

John Fletcher was an English Jacobean dramatist who collaborated with Francis Beaumont and other dramatists on comedies and tragedies between about 1606 and 1625. His father, Richard Fletcher, was minister of the parish in which John was born and became afterward queen’s chaplain, dean of

situation ethics: …developed by American Anglican theologian Joseph F. Fletcher, whose book Situation Ethics: The New Morality (1966) arose from his objections to both moral absolutism (the view that there are fixed universal moral principles that have binding authority in all circumstances) and moral relativism (the view that there are no fixed…

Louise Fletcher was an American actress who was perhaps best known for her skillfully underplayed portrayal of the rigidly authoritarian Nurse Ratched in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), which earned her the Academy Award for best actress. Fletcher’s father was an Episcopal priest, and both

Sorry, Wrong Number: …1948, that was based on Lucille Fletcher’s hit 1943 radio play of the same name.

Penelope Mortimer was a British journalist and novelist whose writing, depicting a nightmarish world of neuroses and broken marriages, influenced feminist fiction of the 1960s. After her graduation from the University of London, she began to write poetry, book reviews, and short stories. She was

Phineas Fletcher was an English poet best known for his religious and scientific poem The Purple Island; or, The Isle of Man (1633). The elder son of Giles Fletcher the Elder and brother of Giles Fletcher the Younger, he was educated at Eton and at King’s College, Cambridge. His pastoral drama

Susannah York was a British actor who was initially cast as a blue-eyed blonde ingenue, but whose gamine beauty belied acting skills that came to the fore in such roles as the feisty Sophie Western, the object of the eponymous hero’s affections in Tom Jones (1963), and as Sir Thomas More’s

sound: Dynamic range of the ear: …of equal-loudness curves, sometimes called Fletcher-Munson curves after the investigators, the Americans Harvey Fletcher and W.A. Munson, who first measured them. The curves show the varying absolute intensities of a pure tone that has the same loudness to the ear at various frequencies. The determination of each curve, labeled by…

military aircraft: Helicopters: …used a handful of Flettner Fl 282s, powered by two noncoaxial, contrarotating lifting rotors, for ship-based artillery spotting and visual reconnaissance.

Anton Flettner was a German inventor of the rotor ship, a vessel propelled by revolving cylinders mounted vertically on the deck. He also invented the Flettner trim-tab control for aircraft and the Flettner marine rudder. Flettner directed an aeronautical and hydrodynamic research institute in

fleur-de-lis, stylized emblem or device much used in ornamentation and, particularly, in heraldry, long associated with the French crown. One legend identifies it as the lily given at his baptism to Clovis, king of the Franks (466–511), by the Virgin Mary. The lily was said to have sprung from the

fleur-de-lis, stylized emblem or device much used in ornamentation and, particularly, in heraldry, long associated with the French crown. One legend identifies it as the lily given at his baptism to Clovis, king of the Franks (466–511), by the Virgin Mary. The lily was said to have sprung from the

fleur-de-lis, stylized emblem or device much used in ornamentation and, particularly, in heraldry, long associated with the French crown. One legend identifies it as the lily given at his baptism to Clovis, king of the Franks (466–511), by the Virgin Mary. The lily was said to have sprung from the

Canadian provincial flag consisting of a blue field (background) divided into quarters by a central white cross; within each quarter is a white fleur-de-lis.The origin of the provincial flag can be traced to France, which controlled vast areas of North America during colonial times. Since at least

typography: Mechanical composition: …joined Oliver Simon in publishing The Fleuron, a journal of printing history and design in which he published a number of important articles on calligraphy and typography.

Louis-Honoré Fréchette: Fréchette made literary history when Les Fleurs boréales (1879; “The Northern Flowers”) and Les Oiseaux de neige (1879; “The Snow Birds”) were awarded the Prix Montyon in 1880, the first time the work of a Canadian had been honoured by the French Academy. A controversial representative of liberal nationalism, Fréchette…

Les Fleurs du mal, collection of poems published in 1857 by Charles Baudelaire. A second edition, published in 1861, was greatly enlarged and enhanced but omitted six poems that had been banned. (These were first republished in 1866 in Belgium in the collection Les Épaves, but they remained banned

Fleurus, municipality, Wallonia Region, south-central Belgium, located between the industrial region of Charleroi and the hills sloping toward Waterloo. Built on the site of a Gallo-Roman agricultural settlement and first mentioned in 868, it was chartered in 1115 and was the scene of several

Battle of Fleurus, (June 26, 1794), the most significant battle in the First Coalition phase of the French Revolutionary Wars. Jean-Baptiste Jourdan and Jean-Baptiste Kléber led 73,000 French troops against 52,000 Austrians and Dutch, under Friedrich Josias, prince of Saxe-Coburg, and William V,

Fleury was a French actor of the Comédie-Française, one of the greatest comedians of his time. Fleury began his stage apprenticeship at Nancy, Fr., where his father was an actor at the court of Stanisław I, duke of Lorraine and Bar. After encouragement from Voltaire, he acted at the

André-Hercule de Fleury was a French cardinal and chief minister who controlled the government of King Louis XV from 1726 to 1743. The son of a collector of ecclesiastical revenue, Fleury became a priest and eventually almoner to the King in 1683 and bishop of Fréjus in 1698. Shortly before his

Claude Fleury was a French ecclesiastical historian and Cistercian abbot, who steered cleverly through contemporary doctrinal controversies. As a young man Fleury practiced law in Paris for nine years and became a protégé of Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet. He then turned to the priesthood, becoming

Jean Ango: One of his captains, Jean Fleury, seized three ships carrying Aztec treasures from Mexico to Spain in 1523. Francis I, who generally upheld Ango, borrowed his ships for use against Spain and England. In 1530 Francis authorized Ango to raid Portuguese shipping to compensate for losses sustained at Portuguese…

Vegas Golden Knights: …and three-time Stanley Cup winner Marc-André Fleury). But the team shocked even the most optimistic observers by posting the fifth best record in the NHL and capturing a division title during the regular season. Vegas then dominated the Western Conference playoffs, losing just three games en route to capturing a…

Calgary Flames: …strong play of right wingers Theo Fleury (until 1999) and Jarome Iginla. In 2003–04 the team returned to the playoffs and proceeded to defeat three higher-seeded teams to make an unlikely appearance in the Stanley Cup finals. There the Flames played a thrilling series with the Tampa Bay Lightning in…

Flevoland, provincie (province), central Netherlands. It consists of three polders reclaimed from the eastern side of Lake IJssel (IJsselmeer), part of the former Zuiderzee. Flevoland province was established in 1986 and includes the municipalities of Almere and Zeewolde on South (Zuidelijk)

Antony Flew was an English philosopher who became a prominent defender of atheism but later declared himself a deist. Flew was the son of a Methodist minister and was educated at a Christian boarding school. As a teenager, he decided that the traditional Christian concept of a good God was

Antony Flew was an English philosopher who became a prominent defender of atheism but later declared himself a deist. Flew was the son of a Methodist minister and was educated at a Christian boarding school. As a teenager, he decided that the traditional Christian concept of a good God was

Ralph Tyler Flewelling was an American Idealist philosopher whose writings and teaching established the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, as one of the strongholds of Personalism. Flewelling studied at Boston University (Ph.D., 1909) with Bordon Parker Bowne, founder of Personalism in

number game: Flexagons: A flexagon is a polygon constructed from a strip of paper or thin metal foil in such a way that the figure possesses the property of changing its faces when it is flexed. First discussed in 1939, flexagons have become a fascinating mathematical recreation.…

automobile: Ethanol and fuel cells: …the country had to be FlexFuel vehicles (FFVs)—vehicles certified to run on gasoline containing up to 85 percent ethanol (ethyl alcohol), marketed as E85. This initiative led numerous American, European, and Japanese manufacturers to certify some of their models as E85-compliant, which is indicated by the eighth character in the…

mineral: Tenacity: …and copper exhibit this property); flexible, bending easily and staying bent after the pressure is removed (talc is flexible); brittle, showing little or no resistance to breakage, and as such separating into fragments under the blow of a hammer or when cut by a knife (most silicate minerals are brittle);…

automation: Manufacturing applications of automation and robotics: Flexible automation is an extension of programmable automation. The disadvantage with programmable automation is the time required to reprogram and change over the production equipment for each batch of new product. This is lost production time, which is expensive. In flexible automation, the variety of…

accounting: Budgetary planning: …budgets is known as the flexible budget. The practice of flexible budgeting has been adopted widely by factory management to facilitate the evaluation of cost performance at different volume levels and has also been extended to other elements of the profit plan.

telecommunications media: Applications of wire: Standard flexible coaxial cable is manufactured with characteristic impedance ranging from 50 to 92 ohms. The high attenuation of flexible cable restricts its utility to short distances—e.g., spans of less than one kilometre, or approximately a half-mile—unless signal repeaters are used. For high-capacity long-distance transmission, a…

Flexible Response, U.S. defense strategy in which a wide range of diplomatic, political, economic, and military options are used to deter an enemy attack. The term flexible response first appeared in U.S. General Maxwell D. Taylor’s book The Uncertain Trumpet (1960), which sharply criticized U.S.

automation: Flexible manufacturing systems: A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is a form of flexible automation in which several machine tools are linked together by a material-handling system, and all aspects of the system are controlled by a central computer. An FMS is distinguished from an automated…

sculpture: Casting and molding: …as gelatin, vinyl, and rubber, flexible molds are used for producing more than one cast; they offer a much simpler alternative to piece molding when the original model is a rigid one with complex forms and undercuts. The material is melted and poured around the original positive in sections, if…

road: Pavement: Pavements are called either flexible or rigid, according to their relative flexural stiffness. Flexible pavements (see figure, left) have base courses of broken stone pieces either compacted into place in the style of McAdam or glued together with bitumen to form asphalt. In order to maintain workability, the stones…

Flexible Response, U.S. defense strategy in which a wide range of diplomatic, political, economic, and military options are used to deter an enemy attack. The term flexible response first appeared in U.S. General Maxwell D. Taylor’s book The Uncertain Trumpet (1960), which sharply criticized U.S.

flexible shaft, in practical mechanics, a number of superimposed, tightly wound, helical coil springs wrapped around a centre wire, or mandrel. Because of its construction, the shaft can be bent, without fracture, to a much smaller radius than a solid shaft of the same outside diameter. The shaft

automobile: Ethanol and fuel cells: …the country had to be FlexFuel vehicles (FFVs)—vehicles certified to run on gasoline containing up to 85 percent ethanol (ethyl alcohol), marketed as E85. This initiative led numerous American, European, and Japanese manufacturers to certify some of their models as E85-compliant, which is indicated by the eighth character in the…

Calymene: Calymene and its close relative Flexicalymene are frequently preserved as tightly rolled fossils. The rolling may be either a death position or a defensive one that the animal assumed to protect its soft, vulnerable underside.

birth: Fetal presentation and passage through the birth canal: …lie against the breastbone (see flexion in the figure). As a consequence of this flexion mechanism, the top of the head becomes the leading pole and the ovoid head circumference that entered the birth canal is succeeded by a smaller, almost circular circumference, the long diameter of which is about…

Abraham Flexner was an educator who played a major role in the introduction of modern medical and science education to American colleges and universities. Founder and director of a progressive college-preparatory school in Louisville (1890–1904), Flexner issued an appraisal of American educational

Simon Flexner was an American pathologist and bacteriologist who isolated (1899) a common strain (Shigella dysenteriae) of dysentery bacillus and developed a curative serum for cerebrospinal meningitis (1907). Simon Flexner was the brother of the educator Abraham Flexner. After teaching at Johns

flexography, form of rotary printing in which ink is applied to various surfaces by means of flexible rubber (or other elastomeric) printing plates. The inks used in flexography dry quickly by evaporation and are safe for use on wrappers that come directly in contact with foods. In flexography, the

flexor muscle, any of the muscles that decrease the angle between bones on two sides of a joint, as in bending the elbow or knee. Several of the muscles of the hands and feet are named for this function. The flexor carpi radialis and flexor carpi ulnaris stretch from the humerus (upper-arm bone)

human evolution: Refinements in hand structure: …unique, fully independent muscle (the flexor pollicis longus) gives this digit remarkable strength in pinch and power grips. The fingertips are broad and equipped with highly sensitive pads of skin. The proportional lengths of the thumb and other fingers give us an opposable thumb with precise, firm contact between its…

human nervous system: Reflex actions: The flexor reflex, which removes a limb from a noxious stimulus, has a minimum of two interneurons and three synapses.

psoriasis: psoriasis, including guttate, pustular, inverse (or flexular), and erythrodermic.

Vladimir Mayakovsky: …Cloud in Trousers”) and “Fleyta pozvonochnik” (written 1915, published 1916; “The Backbone Flute”). Both record a tragedy of unrequited love and express the author’s discontent with the world in which he lived. Mayakovsky sought to “depoetize” poetry, adopting the language of the streets and using daring technical innovations. Above…

Kosovo: Daily life and social customs: …popular traditional Albanian dishes are fli, a dish of pancakelike pastry layered with cream and yogurt, and pite, a phyllo pastry with cheese, meat, or vegetable filling. A distinctive dish is llokuma (sometimes translated as “wedding doughnuts”), deep-fried dough puffs eaten with yogurt and garlic or with honey. Baklava is…

Flick Group, former diversified industrial and manufacturing company founded in Germany in the early 1920s by Friedrich Flick, who rapidly gained control of a massive empire in both steel and coal. The end of World War II, however, found three-fourths of the Flick operations inside the Soviet zone

Flick Group, former diversified industrial and manufacturing company founded in Germany in the early 1920s by Friedrich Flick, who rapidly gained control of a massive empire in both steel and coal. The end of World War II, however, found three-fourths of the Flick operations inside the Soviet zone

Friedrich Flick was an industrialist who amassed two fortunes in his life, one before and one after World War II, and was thought to be Germany’s wealthiest man at his death. Flick’s first job after studying in Cologne was as clerk in a coal-mining business. Within eight years he had become a

Annie Baker: The Flick: …Baker won international acclaim for The Flick, which premiered at Playwrights Horizons. The play revealed the lives and desires of three workers at the last film-projection theater in Massachusetts. Somewhat controversial for its duration (3 hours 15 minutes), The Flick nevertheless received largely positive reviews, though some reviewers found the…

Stieg Larsson: …som lekte med elden (2006; The Girl Who Played with Fire), which delved into the seedy world of sex trafficking, and Luftslottet som sprängdes (2007; “The Air Castle That Blew Up”; Eng. trans. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest), an adrenaline-fueled exploration of institutional corruption—earned similar acclaim. Though some…

television: Flicker: The first requirement to be met in image analysis is that the reproduced picture shall not flicker, since flicker induces severe visual fatigue. Flicker becomes more evident as the brightness of the picture increases. If flicker is to be unobjectionable at brightness suitable for…

human eye: Flicker: Another visual phenomenon that brings out the importance of inhibition is the sensation evoked when a visual stimulus is repeated rapidly. For example, one may view a screen that is illuminated by a source of light the rays from which may be intercepted at…

flicker, any of several New World woodpeckers of the genus Colaptes, family Picidae (q.v.), that are noted for spending much time on the ground eating ants. The flicker’s sticky saliva is alkaline, perhaps to counteract the formic acid that ants secrete. Its bill is slenderer than in most

movement perception: Apparent movement: …occurs is called the perceiver’s flicker-fusion frequency (or critical flicker frequency) and represents the temporal resolving power of his visual system at the time. Another process on which apparent movement depends is a tendency (called visual closure or phi) to fill in the spaces between adjacent visual objects. This means…

human eye: Spectral sensitivity curve: …a special instrument called the flicker-photometer. There is a characteristic shift in the maximum sensitivity from 5000 angstroms for scotopic (night) vision to 5550 angstroms for photopic (day) vision, the so-called Purkinje shift. It has been suggested that the cones have a pigment that shows a maximum of absorption at…