cuckoopint: Pollination: …the floral trap of the spathe through a zone of bristles and then fall into a smooth-walled floral chamber from which escape is impossible. Gorging themselves on a nutritious stigmatic secretion produced by the female flowers at the base of the spadix, the trapped flies effect cross-pollination if they have…

flatworm: Annotated classification: Order Spathebothriidea Scolex without true bothria or suckers; strobila with internal segmentation but no external segmentation; parasites of marine teleosts; 10 species. Class Trematoda (flukes) Ectoparasites or endoparasites; no ciliated epidermis; body undivided; adhesive organs well-developed; life

houseplant: Foliage plants: The peace lilies (not a true lily), of the genus Spathiphylla, are easy-growing, vigorous tropical herbs forming clumps; they have green foliage and a succession of flowerlike leaves (spathes), usually white. Species of Anthurium, many of which, such as the flamingo flower, have colourful spathes, do…

Bignoniaceae: …and useful members are the African tulip tree (Spathodea campanulata), calabash tree (Crescentia cujete), sausage tree (Kigelia africana), trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), cross vine (Bignonia capreolata), cat’s claw (Dolichandra unguis-cati), trumpet tree (Tabebuia), jacaranda (Jacaranda), flowering willow (Chilopsis linearis), and Cape

geography: Human geography as locational analysis: In human geography, the new approach became known as “locational” or “spatial analysis” or, to some, “spatial science.” It focused on spatial organization, and its key concepts were embedded into the functional region—the tributary area of a major node, whether a port, a…

information processing: Machine indexing: In indexing spatial data such as maps and astronomical images, the textual index specifies the search areas, each of which is further described by a set of coordinates defining a rectangle or irregular polygon. These digital spatial document attributes are then used to retrieve and display a…

climate: Snow and sleet: columns, needles, spatial dendrites, capped columns, and irregular crystals. The size and shape of the snow crystals depend mainly on the temperature of their formation and on the amount of water vapour that is available for deposition. The two principal influences are not independent; the possible water…

spatial disorientation, the inability of a person to determine his true body position, motion, and altitude relative to the earth or his surroundings. Both airplane pilots and underwater divers encounter the phenomenon. Most clues with respect to orientation are derived from sensations received

Charles Stark Draper: …for aircraft, Projects FEBE and SPIRE, were tested in 1949 and 1953. Production systems were installed in aircraft and submarines beginning in 1956 and in the Polaris missile in 1960. The “black boxes” of spinning gyroscopes and integrating circuits developed by Draper and his students were eventually deployed in the…

animal learning: Spatial learning: One of the major problems many animals must confront is how to find their way around their world—for example, to know where a particular resource is and how to get to it from their present location, or what is a safe route home…

illusion: Auditory phenomena: …who tested the process of sound localization (the direction from which sound seems to come). He constructed a pseudophone, an instrument made of two ear trumpets, one leading from the right side of the head to the left ear and the other vice versa. This created the illusory impression of…

Edvard I. Moser: …of their function in generating spatial coordinates used by animals to navigate their environment. Moser’s research had important implications for scientists’ understanding of spatial representation in the mammalian brain and offered insight into spatial deficits in neurological disease and the neural processes involved in memory and thinking. For his contributions…

spatial memory, storage and retrieval of information within the brain that is needed both to plan a route to a desired location and to remember where an object is located or where an event occurred. Finding one’s way around an environment and remembering where things are within it are crucial

central-place theory: …Christaller’s work in his book The Spatial Organization of the Economy (1940). Unlike Christaller, whose system of central places began with the highest-order, Lösch began with a system of lowest-order (self-sufficient) farms, which were regularly distributed in a triangular-hexagonal pattern. From this smallest scale of economic activity, Lösch mathematically derived…

space perception, process through which humans and other organisms become aware of the relative positions of their own bodies and objects around them. Space perception provides cues, such as depth and distance, that are important for movement and orientation to the environment. Human beings have

geography: Human geography as locational analysis: In human geography, the new approach became known as “locational” or “spatial analysis” or, to some, “spatial science.” It focused on spatial organization, and its key concepts were embedded into the functional region—the tributary area of a major node, whether a port, a…

human eye: Spatial summation: In spatial summation, two stimuli falling on nearby areas of the retina add their effects; though either alone may be inadequate to evoke the sensation of light, they may do so when presented simultaneously. Thus, the threshold luminance of a test patch required…

volcano: Fissure vents: …produce low ramparts of basaltic spatter on both sides of the fissure. More isolated lava fountains along the fissure produce crater rows of small spatter and cinder cones. The fragments that form a spatter cone are hot and plastic enough to weld together, while the fragments that form a cinder…

water lily: Major genera and species: …Northern Hemisphere, includes the common yellow water lily, also called cow lily or spatterdock (Nuphar advena), of eastern North America. The yellow water lily has submerged leaves that are thin and translucent and leathery floating leaves.

spatterware, in the United States, American and English pottery of about 1800–50 with patterns either spattered or sponged on. The technique has a wider incidence in pottery history, however, occurring, for instance, in Staffordshire, England, about 1750. About 1800–20 spatterware was made at the

shoveler: The northern shoveler (A. clypeata) nests in North America, Europe, and northern Asia, migrating to South America, North Africa, and southern Asia in winter. The male has a green head, a white breast, a chestnut belly and chestnut sides, and a blue patch on the forewing.…

shoveler: Other species are the red shoveler (A. platalea) of South America; the Cape, or Smith’s, shoveler (A. smithii) of South Africa; and the Australasian, or blue-winged, shoveler (A. rhynchotis) of New Zealand and Australia.

shoveler: …Australasian, or blue-winged, shoveler (A. rhynchotis) of New Zealand and Australia.

Charles Clinton Spaulding was an American business leader who built the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company into the nation’s largest black-owned business by the time of his death, when it was worth about $40 million. At the age of 20, Spaulding left his father’s farm and moved to Durham,

Gilbert R. Spaulding was a circus impresario, creator of the “Floating Palace,” an elaborate two-story steamboat that contained a regulation circus ring and a stage and toured the Mississippi and Ohio rivers during the 1850s. Spalding introduced the quarter poles (for supporting the tent roof),

Todd McFarlane: …Kate, and introduced the first Spawn action figures from Todd Toys (later renamed McFarlane Toys). Having rejected licensing offers from larger toy companies so as to keep creative control, McFarlane made and sold 10 million action toys by 1997. Through Todd McFarlane Entertainment, McFarlane collaborated with New Line Cinema to…

Todd McFarlane: …Cinema to produce the film Spawn, which opened across the United States in the summer of 1997. The adult-only animated Todd McFarlane’s Spawn series, produced for cable television by Todd McFarlane Entertainment, aired on HBO from 1997 to 1999.

Henry Hathaway: Early work: …he worked with Fonda on Spawn of the North (1938), a lively tale about Canadian fishermen that featured Dorothy Lamour in one of her best early roles. With Cooper, Hathaway next made The Real Glory (1939), an action film set in the Philippines during the Moro Wars (1901–13). Johnny Apollo…

cephalopod: Reproduction and life cycles: …the result of the communal spawning of perhaps hundreds of individuals. Spawning of oceanic squids is very poorly known. The number of eggs laid during a spawning period varies greatly; it may range from only a few dozen in octopuses with large eggs to more than 100,000 in the common…

Joseph Viktor Widmann: His travel books, notably Spaziergänge in den Alpen (1885; “Strolls in the Alps”), belong to the best of their kind; and his plays include Maikäferkomödie (1897; “May-bug’s Comedy”), a pleasant and humorous allegory, and Der Heilige und die Tiere (1905; “The Saint and the Animals”), his profoundest work.

Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), organization founded in 1947 by the governments of Australia, France, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and the United States to advise them on economic, social, and health matters affecting the South Pacific island territories they

infant stimulation program: Forms of stimulation and administration: …“infant-centred” and to incorporate a social-psychological component (SPC). Infant-centred programs focus on the infant’s communication to the caregiver about the types and amounts of sensory stimulation that the infant can tolerate—e.g., an infant’s eye-to-eye contact with a caregiver indicates tolerance of the stimulation, whereas the infant’s looking away from the…

Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Germany’s oldest political party and one of the country’s two main parties (the other being the Christian Democratic Union). It advocates the modernization of the economy to meet the demands of globalization, and it stresses the importance of addressing the

Myanmar: Administrative framework: …1997 and 2011, as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

Enron scandal: Downfall and bankruptcy: …company were transferred to so-called special purpose entities (SPEs), which are essentially limited partnerships created with outside parties. Although many companies distributed assets to SPEs, Enron abused the practice by using SPEs as dump sites for its troubled assets. Transferring those assets to SPEs meant that they were kept off…

Taylor Swift: Kanye West incident at the VMAs, Red, and 1989: Her third album, Speak Now (2010), was littered with allusions to romantic relationships with John Mayer, Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, and Twilight series actor Taylor Lautner. Swift reclaimed the CMA entertainer of the year award in 2011, and the following year she won Grammys for best…

Taylor Swift: Reputation, Lover, Folklore, Evermore, and controversies: In July 2023 Swift released Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), followed by 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in October that same year.

Vladimir Nabokov: Later works and influence of Vladimir Nabokov: …began work on a sequel, Speak On, Memory, concerning the American years.

Canadian literature: The cosmopolitan culture of French Canada and Quebec: …with his own poem “Speak What” (first published in 1989), calling for a more inclusive Quebec society and suggesting that immigrants have replaced the Québécois as the new exploited class. Other immigrant authors who have made their mark include: from Iraq, novelist and essayist Naïm Kattan (Adieu, Babylone [1975;…

Canadian literature: The Quiet Revolution: Michèle Lalonde’s ironic “Speak White” condemned the Anglo-American economic exploitation embedded in the racist jeer “Speak white,” often hurled at Québécois who chose not to speak English; the poem was first recited at a 1968 show and again at the Montreal cultural event Nuit de la Poésie ("Night…

Speak, Memory, autobiographical memoir of his early life and European years by Vladimir Nabokov. Fifteen chapters were published individually (1948–50), mainly in The New Yorker. The book was originally published as Conclusive Evidence: A Memoir (1951); it was also published the same year as Speak,

Speak, Memory, autobiographical memoir of his early life and European years by Vladimir Nabokov. Fifteen chapters were published individually (1948–50), mainly in The New Yorker. The book was originally published as Conclusive Evidence: A Memoir (1951); it was also published the same year as Speak,

speakeasy, place where alcoholic beverages are illegally sold, especially such establishments in the United States during Prohibition (1920–33). In more recent years the term has also applied to legal bars that are modeled on historical speakeasies. According to some accounts, the word speakeasy

House of Commons: Functions and operation: …elects from its members the speaker, who presides over and regulates debates and rules on points of order and members’ conduct. The speaker does not participate in debates and votes only in order to break a tie, a case that compels the speaker to vote in favour of the status…

loudspeaker, in sound reproduction, device for converting electrical energy into acoustical signal energy that is radiated into a room or open air. The term signal energy indicates that the electrical energy has a specific form, corresponding, for example, to speech, music, or any other signal in

sound: Constructive and destructive: …diffraction of sound, called the “speaker and baffle” experiment, involves a small loudspeaker and a large, square wooden sheet with a circular hole in it the size of the speaker. When music is played on the loudspeaker, sound waves from the front and back of the speaker, which are out…

semantics: Gricean semantics: …on the notion of “speaker meaning,” which he defines as follows: a speaker S means something by an utterance U just in case S intends U to produce a certain effect in a hearer H by means of H’s recognition of that intention. The speaker meaning of U in…

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, who is elected by the majority party to lead the House. The speaker presides over debate, appoints members of select and conference committees, establishes the legislative agenda, maintains order within the

Tris Speaker was an American professional baseball player and manager who spent his 22-year career (1907–28) primarily with the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians. Speaker and Ty Cobb are generally considered the two greatest players of this period. Speaker was perhaps the best centre fielder

Tris Speaker was an American professional baseball player and manager who spent his 22-year career (1907–28) primarily with the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians. Speaker and Ty Cobb are generally considered the two greatest players of this period. Speaker was perhaps the best centre fielder

Tris Speaker was an American professional baseball player and manager who spent his 22-year career (1907–28) primarily with the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians. Speaker and Ty Cobb are generally considered the two greatest players of this period. Speaker was perhaps the best centre fielder

Outkast: …duo released the double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, which highlighted the solo abilities of both artists as they each took the lead on one disc. In the process Outkast both renewed their mastery of “old school” rap, largely on the Big Boi-dominated Speakerboxxx, and continued their assault on the boundaries…

oratory, the rationale and practice of persuasive public speaking. It is immediate in its audience relationships and reactions, but it may also have broad historical repercussions. The orator may become the voice of political or social history. A vivid instance of the way a speech can focus the

Frank Sargeson: The short-fiction anthology Speaking for Ourselves (1945), which Sargeson edited, collected some of those efforts.

glossolalia, (from Greek glōssa, “tongue,” and lalia, “talking”), utterances approximating words and speech, usually produced during states of intense religious experience. The vocal organs of the speaker are affected; the tongue moves, in many cases without the conscious control of the speaker;

Talking Heads: …Heads, 1982), the group released Speaking in Tongues (1983), yielding the top ten single “Burning Down the House.” Stop Making Sense (1984), the soundtrack to Jonathan Demme’s acclaimed Talking Heads concert film, followed. Little Creatures (1985) returned the group to a simpler sound and became its first million-seller. Talking Heads’…

Atom Egoyan: In Speaking Parts (1989) a hotel employee is given the chance to play the lead in a film. The premise for The Adjuster (1991) took shape as Egoyan studied the insurance agent who came to assess the damage to his family’s business when it was destroyed…

SLAC: …with the completion of the Stanford Positron-Electron Asymmetric Rings (SPEAR), a collider designed to produce and study electron-positron collisions at energies of 2.5 GeV per beam (later upgraded to 4 GeV). In 1974 physicists working with SPEAR reported the discovery of a new, heavier flavour of quark, which became known…

spear, a pole weapon with a sharp point, either thrown or thrust at an enemy or prey. It appears in an infinite variety of forms in societies around the world. One of the earliest weapons devised by man, the spear was originally simply a sharpened stick. Primitive peoples used spears primarily as

cirripede: Reproduction and life cycles: …is completed, a hollow, ventral stylet is, depending upon the species, forced either directly into the host or into the host after passing through one of the cyprid’s first antennae. Once in the host’s body, the cells and organ rudiments migrate into a central position beneath the gut, where they…

art fraud: The bronze Spear Bearer (c. 450–440 bce) by Greek sculptor Polyclitus, for example, achieved great renown for its perfect proportions and beauty. As a result, it was often copied in marble for Roman collectors in subsequent centuries. The copies, which are all that survived into the 21st…

African literature: Shona: Pfumo reropa (1961; “The Spear of Blood”) depicts the dangers of the misuse of power in traditional times: a chief, Ndyire, manipulates the traditional system to his own selfish advantage. This novel resembles the Nyanga epic Mwindo: a son of the chief, Tanganeropa, escapes his father’s murderous wrath…

Holy Lance, legendary relic that pierced the side of Christ at the Crucifixion. There are at least three reputed relics of the Holy Lance, though the Vatican does not claim authenticity of any of them. One is located below the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and was given to Pope Innocent VIII

Holy Lance, legendary relic that pierced the side of Christ at the Crucifixion. There are at least three reputed relics of the Holy Lance, though the Vatican does not claim authenticity of any of them. One is located below the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and was given to Pope Innocent VIII

advanced persistent threat: Methods of attack include “spear phishing” and the distribution of “zero-day malware.” Spear phishing uses e-mails sent to selected employees within an organization. The e-mails appear to come from trusted or known sources. Either by clicking on links within the e-mail or by being persuaded by the e-mail’s seeming…

marcasite, an iron sulfide mineral that forms pale bronze-yellow orthorhombic crystals, usually twinned to characteristic cockscomb or sheaflike shapes; the names spear pyrites and cockscomb pyrites refer to the shape and colour of these crystals. Radially arranged fibres are also common. Marcasite

spear-thrower, a device for throwing a spear (or dart) usually consisting of a rod or board with a groove on the upper surface and a hook, thong, or projection at the rear end to hold the weapon in place until its release. Its purpose is to give greater velocity and force to the spear. In use from

spearfish, any of certain marine fishes of the genus Tetrapterus, family Istiophoridae (order Perciformes). Spearfishes are characterized by a relatively short snout in comparison with other billfish. Several species may be recognized; two, T. audax and T. albidus, are commonly called marlin

Spearfish, city, Lawrence county, western South Dakota, U.S. It lies about 45 miles (70 km) northwest of Rapid City near the Wyoming border, in the northern Black Hills, at the mouth of Spearfish Canyon. Sioux Indians lived in the area when it was established in 1876 as a gold-mining camp. It was

spearfishing, sport of underwater hunting that became popular in the early 1930s and after World War II spread rapidly throughout the world. Targets of underwater hunters may include sharks and barracuda in salt water and such nongame species as carp in freshwater. Underwater weapons range from

statistics: Nonparametric methods: The Spearman rank correlation coefficient is a measure of the relationship between two variables when data in the form of rank orders are available. For instance, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient could be used to determine the degree of agreement between men and women concerning their…

Charles E. Spearman was a British psychologist who theorized that a general factor of intelligence, g, is present in varying degrees in different human abilities. While serving as an officer in the British army (1883–97), Spearman came to believe that any significant advance in philosophy would

Charles E. Spearman was a British psychologist who theorized that a general factor of intelligence, g, is present in varying degrees in different human abilities. While serving as an officer in the British army (1883–97), Spearman came to believe that any significant advance in philosophy would

psychological testing: Primary characteristics of methods or instruments: …by the use of the Spearman-Brown prophecy formula (for estimating the increased reliability expected to result from increase in test length). More commonly used is a generalization of this stepped-up, split-half reliability estimate, one of the Kuder-Richardson formulas. This formula provides an average of estimates that would result from all…

spearmint, (Mentha spicata), aromatic herb of the mint family (Lamiaceae), widely used for culinary purposes. Spearmint is native to Europe and Asia and has been naturalized in North America and parts of Africa. The leaves are used fresh or dried to flavour many foods, particularly sweets,

spear: …toward their opponents bristling with spear points, which they then thrust into the enemy’s line. Alexander the Great used sarissa-equipped infantry to conquer his huge empire.

Britney Spears is an American singer who helped spark the teen-pop phenomenon in the late 1990s and later endured intense public scrutiny for her tumultuous personal life. Spears, who grew up in Kentwood, Louisiana, began singing and dancing at age two and was soon competing in talent shows. At age

Britney Spears is an American singer who helped spark the teen-pop phenomenon in the late 1990s and later endured intense public scrutiny for her tumultuous personal life. Spears, who grew up in Kentwood, Louisiana, began singing and dancing at age two and was soon competing in talent shows. At age

Charlotta Spears Bass was an American editor, the first Black woman to run for vice president of the United States, and a civil rights activist whose long career was devoted to aggressively publicizing and combating racial inequality. Believed to have been born in Sumter, South Carolina, about 1880

barbershop quartet singing: In any event, the modern Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA, Inc.), also called (since 2004) the Barbershop Harmony Society, was founded by Owen Clifton Cash, Rupert I. Hall, and 24 other men who attended a first meeting and songfest at the…

Pacific Islands Forum: The resulting group, the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation, was established in April 1973 and worked to facilitate member cooperation on trade, tourism, transportation, and economic development. In 2000 Forum leaders adopted the Biketawa Declaration, which was a response to regional political instability and which put forward a…

Italian literature: Religious and historical literature: …literature was Jacopo Passavanti, whose Specchio di vera penitenza (“The Mirror of True Penitence”) is a collection of sermons preached in 1354. Less polished but of greater literary value are the translations of Latin legends concerning St. Francis and his followers collected in the anonymous Fioretti di San Francesco (The…

Lizzo: Music career and solo success: Lizzo’s success continued with Special (2022), which became her first recording to reach number one on Billboard’s album sales chart. Its hit singles included “About Damn Time,” which also went to number one and won two Grammys, including record of the year.

Special Air Service (SAS), elite British military force organized and trained for special operations, surveillance, and counterterrorism. The SAS is part of the United Kingdom Special Forces (UKSF), which also includes the Special Boat Service, the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, the Special

Special Air Service Regiment (SASR), Australian special forces unit that exists within Australia’s Special Operations Command. The unit was formed in July 1957 as the 1st Special Air Service Company, Royal Australian Infantry, and it was modeled on the British Special Air Service. Its first

Special Air Service Regiment (SASR), Australian special forces unit that exists within Australia’s Special Operations Command. The unit was formed in July 1957 as the 1st Special Air Service Company, Royal Australian Infantry, and it was modeled on the British Special Air Service. Its first

tactical nuclear weapons: …tactical nuclear device called the Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM). The project called for a two-man crew to parachute from an aircraft carrying a portable warhead similar to the W-54. The crew would place the weapon in a harbour or another target reachable by sea. They would then swim to…

Special Boat Service (SBS), elite British special operations warfare unit. With the Special Air Service (SAS), the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, the Special Forces Support Group, an integral signals regiment, and an aviation wing, it is a core part of the United Kingdom Special Forces (UKSF)

special education: Grouping patterns: Special classes for children who have above-average intelligence, who have intellectual disabilities, who have visual or hearing impairments, or who have been diagnosed with other disabilities are found in many school systems throughout the world. This type of organization allows children to attend neighbourhood schools…

Holocaust: Jewish resistance to the Nazis: …true at Auschwitz, where the Sonderkommando (“Special Commando”), the prisoner unit that worked in the vicinity of the gas chambers, destroyed a crematorium just as the killing was coming to an end in 1944.

Harry S. Truman: Early life and career: …the nation for war, the Truman Committee (officially the Special Committee Investigating National Defense) exposed graft and deficiencies in production. The committee made it a practice to issue draft reports of its findings to corporations, unions, and government agencies under investigation, allowing for the correction of abuses before formal action…

Antarctica: Post-IGY research: …in September 1957 organized the Special Committee on Antarctic Research, or SCAR. (In 1961 the word Scientific was substituted for Special.) The foundations for the committee were laid at its first meeting, in The Hague in 1958. SCAR, a politically independent body, coordinates not only research activities in Antarctica itself…

personal identity: Fission and special concern: …also raise questions about the special concern that people have for their own future well-being. It seems plausible that a person anticipating fission would have a special concern for the welfare of both of the fission products, even though—strictly speaking—he would be identical to neither of them.

United States: The Mueller report: …the long-anticipated report on his investigation to the Department of Justice in March, Attorney General Barr issued a four-page summary in which he reported that Mueller had found no evidence that Trump or his associates had colluded with the Russian government. Barr also indicated that Mueller had chosen not to…

court-martial: A special court-martial can be convened by a regiment-grade or brigade-grade officer. Whereas a general court-martial can try any offense and impose any penalty, the special court-martial is limited in its penalty to short-term confinement and dishonourable discharge. The convening officer chooses officers from his command…

creationism, the belief that the universe and the various forms of life were created by God out of nothing (ex nihilo). Although the idea of God as creator is as old as religion itself, modern creationism is largely a response to evolutionary theory, which can explain the diversity of life without

special delivery, service provided by the U.S. Postal Service for handling urgent mail. For the payment of an extra fee, such mail was delivered to its destination by a special messenger as soon as it arrived at the receiving post office rather than by means of the regular delivery system. This

Neil Young: Later work and causes: …Heavy Peace; a second memoir, Special Deluxe, appeared in 2014. He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2009.

special district, in U.S. politics, service providers created by local authorities to operate within specifically defined areas and in response to public demand. Special districts mostly provide a single service such as education, cemeteries, transportation, or fire protection, and they usually are

James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan: …agreement to a system called Special Drawing Rights, which in effect created a new kind of international money. He resigned from the Exchequer in 1967, when he was forced to devalue the pound sterling. He then served as home secretary until 1970. In Wilson’s second government in 1974, Callaghan was…