• Stilicho, Flavius (Roman general)

    Flavius Stilicho was the regent (394–408) for the Roman emperor Honorius and one of the last great Roman military commanders in the West. He fought in several campaigns against the barbarians, opposing the invading Visigoths under Alaric in the Balkans and Italy and repelling an Ostrogothic

  • still (apparatus)

    moonshine: The making of moonshine: …for the pot (called a still) as well as for all piping. The still was then heated to 172 °F (78 °C), at which point the alcohol evaporated and distilled through a pipe at the top of the still. As the mixture cooked, the sugar sometimes gave off a sweet…

  • Still Alice (film by Glatzer and Westmoreland [2014])

    Alec Baldwin: 30 Rock, SNL, and later films: In Still Alice (2014) he portrayed the husband of a woman (Julianne Moore) who is succumbing to early-onset Alzheimer disease.

  • Still Crazy After All These Years (album by Simon)

    Paul Simon: Solo career and world music: …success came in 1975 with Still Crazy After All These Years, a collection of wistful ruminations on approaching middle age.

  • Still Dead (work by Knox)

    Ronald Knox: …inventive and complex detective novels; Still Dead (1934) is generally considered the best among them. His version of the New Testament appeared in 1945. His Old Testament and On Englishing the Bible, a penetrating examination of the problems of a translator, were published in 1949. These were followed by his…

  • Still Feels Good (album by Rascal Flatts)

    Rascal Flatts: …Me and My Gang (2006), Still Feels Good (2007), and Unstoppable (2009)—each of which reached the top of Billboard’s all-genre album chart. The hit singles “What Hurts the Most” (2006), a rueful ballad, and “Life Is a Highway” (2006), a rollicking tune featured on the soundtrack to the animated film…

  • still fishing (sport)

    fishing: Methods: Bait fishing, also called still fishing or bottom fishing, is certainly the oldest and most universally used method. In British freshwater fishing it is used to catch what are called coarse (or rough) fish. These include bream, barb, tench, dace, and other nongame species. A…

  • Still Life (play by Coward)

    Still Life, one-act play by Noël Coward, produced and published in 1936, about a pair of middle-aged lovers doomed to part. Still Life was one of a group of one-act plays by Coward that were performed in various combinations, making up three shows titled Tonight at 8:30 (1936). Laura and Alec

  • Still Life (novel by Byatt)

    A.S. Byatt: …second volume of the series, Still Life (1985), concentrates on the art of painting, and it was followed by Babel Tower (1995) and A Whistling Woman (2002).

  • Still Life (novel by Penny)

    Louise Penny: Three Pines and Armand Gamache: Still Life was published in 2005. The book centres on the death of a beloved former teacher in Three Pines, a quaint village outside of Montreal. Gamache and his team—including his second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir—soon realize that what appears to be an accidental death is murder.…

  • Still Life (painting by Le Corbusier)

    Purism: Le Corbusier’s Still Life (1920) is a typical Purist painting. He purified the colour scheme to include only the neutrals—gray, black, and white—and monochromes of green. He applied the paint smoothly to enhance the sense of impersonal objectivity. He also repeated the rhythmic, curving contours of a…

  • Still Life of Salmon (work by Takahashi Yuichi)

    Japanese art: Western-style painting: His Still Life of Salmon (1877), one of seven known attempts by Takahashi at the subject, elevates this ordinary subject to a splendid study of form and colour.

  • Still Life with a Burning Candle (painting by Claesz)

    Pieter Claesz: His Still Life with a Burning Candle (1627) and the Breakfast Still Life (1647) show a subtle variation of closely related monochrome colors, which in his later, more Baroque work became stronger. Claesz’s increasingly decorative work after 1640 includes lavish still-life displays. His son, Nicolaes Berchem,…

  • Still Life with Chair Caning (work by Picasso)

    assemblage: …the earliest examples is Picasso’s “Still Life with Chair Caning” (1911–12), in which a piece of oilcloth with an imitation chair caning design was pasted onto the painting, and a rope was used to frame the picture. Subsequent art movements such as Dada and Surrealism explored the possibilities of assemblage.…

  • Still Life with Fish (painting by Peeters)

    Clara Peeters: …a series of paintings, including Still Life with Fish, a Candle, Artichokes, Crab, and Prawns (1611). The well-known painting—which depicts recently caught fish, shrimp, and crabs, among other items on a banquet table—showcases the artist’s meticulous and painstaking technique. Every scale on the fish is rendered in a highly detailed…

  • Still Life with Meadow Flowers and Roses (painting)

    Kröller-Müller State Museum: The painting, Still Life with Meadow Flowers and Roses (1886), had been executed on top of a rendering of two wrestlers, visible in high-definition X-rays taken of the work. Though the wrestlers had been detected by X-ray before, a new technique called macro scanning X-ray fluorescence spectrometry…

  • Still Life with Woodpecker (novel by Robbins)

    Tom Robbins: Robbins’s later novels include Still Life with Woodpecker (1980); Jitterbug Perfume (1984), which centers on a medieval king who lives for 1,000 years before becoming a janitor in Albert Einstein’s laboratory; Skinny Legs and All (1990), a fantastical novel that follows five inanimate objects on a journey to Jerusalem…

  • Still of the Night (film by Benton [1982])

    Robert Benton: The 1980s: …to release his next project, Still of the Night (1982). A derivative thriller (written by Benton and Newman), the film miscast Streep as a woman suspected of murder, and Roy Scheider was less than compelling as the Manhattan psychologist who tries to determine whether she is the actual killer or…

  • still rings (gymnastics)

    rings, gymnastics apparatus consisting of two small circles that are suspended by straps from an overhead support and grasped by the gymnast while performing various exercises. They were invented in the early 19th century by the German Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, known as the “father of gymnastics.”

  • Still to Mow (work by Kumin)

    Maxine Kumin: …and Other New Poems (2005), Still to Mow (2007), and Where I Live (2010) continue to mine Kumin’s abiding interests in country life and family while expanding to encompass seemingly disparate topics, from the Iraq War to the deaths of beloved pets.

  • Still Water (The River Thames, for Example) (photo-lithographs by Horn)

    Roni Horn: Notable examples include Still Water (The River Thames, for Example) (1999), in which images of the River Thames include numbers related to footnotes that provide a context and the artist’s insight, and the Key and Cue series (1990s), which features aluminum columns printed with lines of poetry by…

  • Still’s disease (pathology)

    Still’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis in children. The major difference between this illness and rheumatoid arthritis in adults is its effect on the rate of bone growth. Deformities of the spine are typical in Still’s disease. Medication and physical therapy coupled with rest and orthopedic

  • Still, Alexander William (newspaper editor)

    The Straits Times: Under Alexander William Still, editor in the early 1900s, The Straits Times promoted local causes, including higher education for Singapore’s large Chinese, Indian, and Malay population.

  • Still, Andrew Taylor (American osteopath)

    Andrew Taylor Still was an American founder of osteopathy, who believed that remedies for disease are available in the correctly adjusted body, obtained through manipulative techniques and concomitant medical and surgical therapy. Still acquired some medical training from his father and a college

  • Still, Clyfford (American artist)

    Clyfford Still was an American artist, associated with the New York school, whose large-scale abstract paintings belong to the tradition of the romantic sublime. Still painted large abstract canvases meant to evoke the mystery of human existence through pure colour and form. Like many other

  • Still, William Grant (American composer and conductor)

    William Grant Still was an American composer and conductor and the first African American to conduct a professional symphony orchestra in the United States. Though a prolific composer of operas, ballets, symphonies, and other works, he was best known for his Afro-American Symphony (1931). Still was

  • still-frame videophone

    videophone: Digital videophone systems: …began to develop and sell still-frame videophones that could operate directly over the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The still-frame videophone employs a video camera and a frame-capture system to capture a single video frame for transmission. Since still-frames exhibit no time dependency, they do not have to be transmitted…

  • still-hunting (sport)

    hunting: Hunting methods: …alert, in what is called still-hunting, although deer hunters using this method speak of “jumping” a deer.

  • still-life painting

    still-life painting, depiction of inanimate objects for the sake of their qualities of form, colour, texture, and composition. Although decorative fresco murals and mosaics with still-life subjects occasionally appeared in antiquity, it was not until the Renaissance that still life emerged as an

  • Still-life with Fruit, Flowers, and Insects (painting by Ruysch)

    Rachel Ruysch: …grand duke of Tuscany, Ruysch’s Still-life with Fruit, Flowers, and Insects (1711), which has hung in the Uffizi Gallery, in Florence, since 1753. The painting shows her great skill, which is evident not only in her superb, precise, and accurate technique but also in her brilliant combination of objects in…

  • still-water bending moment (physics)

    ship: Structural integrity: …become one of finding a still-water (i.e., level sea surface) bending moment, then adding to it a wave-bending moment found by an empirical formula and based only on the size and proportions of the ship. Coefficients in the formula are based on data obtained from at-sea measurements and from tests…

  • Stillbay industry (archaeology)

    Stillbay industry, assemblage of Late Paleolithic stone tools, found first in Cape Province, S.Af., and dating from about 30,000 to 50,000 years ago. The stone flake culture reached from Ethiopia in the north to South Africa along the eastern coast and produced a variety of stone tools that are

  • stillbirth (pathology)

    fetus: …fetus thereafter is considered a stillbirth and of a living fetus a premature birth. Postmature birth is one occurring more than three weeks beyond the expected date of delivery.

  • Stillding (ancient German law)

    fehmic court: …and ordinary misdemeanours; and the Stillding, or secret assembly, attended only by the judge, the Schöffen (aldermen), and parties to the case. The Stillding had entirely superseded the offenes Ding by 1500. After 1422 royal authority in Westphalia was supposedly delegated to the archbishop of Cologne, but the fehmic courts…

  • Stille existenser (short stories by Bang)

    Herman Bang: …a collection of short stories, Stille existenser (1886; “Quiet Existences”), and the novels Stuk (1887; “Stucco”) and Tine (1889)—is considered to be his best. Bang died while on a lecture tour of the United States.

  • stille pige, Den (novel by Høeg)

    Peter Høeg: …published Den stille pige (2006; The Quiet Girl), a complex thriller about a circus clown who uses his heightened sense of hearing to search for a young girl gone missing. The novel’s poor reviews compelled Høeg to retreat further from the literary spotlight. Despite the positive reception for his 2010…

  • Stille Zeile Sechs (novel by Maron)

    German literature: After reunification: …novel Stille Zeile Sechs (1991; Silent Close No. Six), set in the 1980s and ostensibly a story about the discovery of guilt incurred by an important East German party functionary during the Third Reich. By exploring the rift between actions and desires, the novel becomes an inquiry into the responsibility…

  • Stiller (novel by Frisch)

    Max Frisch: Frisch’s early novels Stiller (1954; I’m Not Stiller), Homo Faber (1957), and Mein Name sei Gantenbein (1964; A Wilderness of Mirrors) portray aspects of modern intellectual life and examine the theme of identity. His autobiographical works included two noteworthy diaries, Tagebuch 1946–1949 (1950; Sketchbook 1946–1949) and Tagebuch 1966–1971

  • Stiller, Ben (American actor, writer, and director)

    Ben Stiller is an American actor, writer, and director, one of the leading movie stars of the early 21st century, known for his comic portrayal of neurotic or aggrieved characters. Stiller was the son of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, who for many years were a celebrated comedy team. While growing

  • Stiller, Benjamin Edward Meara (American actor, writer, and director)

    Ben Stiller is an American actor, writer, and director, one of the leading movie stars of the early 21st century, known for his comic portrayal of neurotic or aggrieved characters. Stiller was the son of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, who for many years were a celebrated comedy team. While growing

  • Stiller, Gerald Isaac (American actor and comedian)

    Jerry Stiller was an American actor and comedian best known for his role as Frank Costanza on the popular television sitcom Seinfeld. He and his wife, Anne Meara, were a successful comedy duo in the 1960s. In later years, he also acted in projects produced and directed by their son, Ben Stiller.

  • Stiller, Jerry (American actor and comedian)

    Jerry Stiller was an American actor and comedian best known for his role as Frank Costanza on the popular television sitcom Seinfeld. He and his wife, Anne Meara, were a successful comedy duo in the 1960s. In later years, he also acted in projects produced and directed by their son, Ben Stiller.

  • Stiller, Mauritz (Swedish director)

    Mauritz Stiller was a motion-picture director who during the early 1920s was a leader in the internationally preeminent Swedish cinema. He was influenced by D.W. Griffith’s epic style and Thomas Harper Ince’s integral use of landscape but most of all by the typically Swedish mysticism and

  • Stilling, Heinrich (German author)

    Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling was a German writer best known for his autobiography, Heinrich Stillings Leben, 5 vol. (1806), the first two volumes of which give a vividly realistic picture of village life in an 18th-century pietistic family. Jung-Stilling worked as a schoolteacher at age 15 and

  • Stillman’s Run, Battle of (American history)

    Black Hawk War: The war begins: …warriors—were killed in the so-called Battle of Stillman’s Run. This first encounter of the Black Hawk War destroyed any hope of peace. Governor Reynolds responded by calling out another 2,000 militiamen. Despite his amazement at how easily a few of his warriors had driven off nearly 10 times as many…

  • Stillman, James (American financier and banker)

    James Stillman was an American financier and banker whose presidency of New York’s National City Bank (now Citibank) made it one of the most powerful financial institutions in the United States. Beginning his career in a New York City mercantile house, Stillman became a protégé of Moses Taylor,

  • Stillmatic (album by Nas)

    Nas: The schism inspired Stillmatic (2001), which many fans considered a return to form, and was referred to on the more personal God’s Son (2002), which was also a response to the death of Nas’s mother. The two rappers publicly settled their differences in 2005, and shortly thereafter Nas…

  • Stillness at Appomattox, A (work by Catton)

    Bruce Catton: … (1951), Glory Road (1952), and A Stillness at Appomattox (1953). The latter earned him both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award in 1954.

  • Stills, Stephen (American musician)

    Neil Young: Early career: Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: Fuzztone guitar duels with Stephen Stills offset Young’s high-pitched, nasal vocals; his lyrics veered from skewed romanticism to metaphoric social commentary, but his voice’s naked, quavering vulnerability remained the constant in Young’s turbulent, shape-shifting explorations.

  • stillson wrench (tool)

    wrench: The adjustable pipe, or Stillson, wrench is used to hold or turn pipes or circular bars. This wrench has serrated jaws, one of which is pivoted on the handle to create a strong gripping action on the work.

  • Stillwater (film by McCarthy [2021])

    Matt Damon: Later credits: In the crime thriller Stillwater (2021), Damon played an American father who travels to France to uncover the truth after his daughter is accused of murdering her girlfriend, a charge she denies. Also in 2021 he costarred in Scott’s The Last Duel, portraying a medieval knight whose wife (Jodie…

  • Stillwater (Oklahoma, United States)

    Stillwater, city, seat (1907) of Payne county, north-central Oklahoma, U.S. It was first recorded in 1884 as a colony of “boomers” (illegal homesteaders from Kansas) on Stillwater Creek, near its confluence with the Cimarron River; the colony was led by Civil War veteran Captain David L. Payne, to

  • Stillwater (Minnesota, United States)

    Stillwater, city, seat (1851) of Washington county, eastern Minnesota, U.S. It lies on the St. Croix River (bridged to Wisconsin), at the head of Lake St. Croix, about 20 miles (30 km) northeast of St. Paul. Sioux and Ojibwa Indians were early inhabitants of the area, which was originally part of

  • Stillwater Complex (geological feature, Montana, United States)

    Precambrian: Sedimentary basins, basic dikes, and layered complexes: The Stillwater Complex is a famous, 2.7-billion-year-old, layered ultrabasic-basic intrusion in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana in the United States. It is 48 km (30 miles) long and has a stratigraphic thickness of 6 km (3.7 miles). It was intruded as a subhorizontal body of magma…

  • Stillwater Plantation (Maine, United States)

    Orono, town, Penobscot county, east-central Maine, U.S. It lies along the Penobscot River 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Bangor. Settled about 1775, it was known as Deadwater and Stillwater Plantation before it was incorporated under its present name honouring Joseph Orono, a Penobscot Indian chief

  • Stillwater River (river, Ohio, United States)

    Stillwater River, river in western Ohio, U.S., that rises near the Indiana border and flows southeast to join Greenville Creek, then south to enter the Great Miami River at Dayton, after a course of 65 miles (105 km). A flood-control dam (1922) is on the Stillwater at

  • stilnovisti (Italian literature)

    dolce stil nuovo, the style of a group of 13th–14th-century Italian poets, mostly Florentines, whose vernacular sonnets, canzones, and ballate celebrate a spiritual and idealized view of love and womanhood in a way that is sincere, delicate, and musical. The Bolognese poet Guido Guinizelli is

  • Stilo Praeconinus, Lucius Aelius (Roman scholar)

    Lucius Aelius Stilo Praeconinus was the first systematic student, critic, and teacher of Latin philology and literature and of the antiquities of Rome and Italy. A member of a distinguished family of the equestrian order, Stilo taught Varro and Cicero, who later thought poorly of his skill as an

  • Stilpo (Greek philosopher)

    Stilpōn was a Greek philosopher of the Megarian school founded by Euclid (fl. about 300 bc) of Megara, Greece. Most of the Megarian philosophers are better known for the high value they placed on dialectical skill and for their influence on Stoic logic than for positive ethical assertions of their

  • Stilpōn (Greek philosopher)

    Stilpōn was a Greek philosopher of the Megarian school founded by Euclid (fl. about 300 bc) of Megara, Greece. Most of the Megarian philosophers are better known for the high value they placed on dialectical skill and for their influence on Stoic logic than for positive ethical assertions of their

  • stilt (toy)

    stilt, one of a pair of poles with footrests, used for walking. Stilts were originally designed for use in crossing rivers and marshes. As a means of amusement, they have been used by all peoples of all ages, as well as by the inhabitants of marshy or flooded districts. The city of Namur, in

  • stilt (bird)

    stilt, any of certain species of shorebirds belonging to the family Recurvirostridae (order Charadriiformes), characterized by long thin legs and a long slender bill. Stilts are about 35 to 45 centimetres (14 to 18 inches) in length. They live in warm regions, around ponds, where they probe in mud

  • stilt bug (insect)

    stilt bug, (family Berytidae), any of about 100 species of delicate, slender-bodied, slow moving, long-legged insects in the true bug order, Heteroptera. Stilt bugs are 5 to 9 mm (0.2 to 0.4 inch) long and are brown to blend in with the dense vegetation on which they are found. All of the stilt bug

  • Stilton (cheese)

    Stilton, classic English blue cheese made from cow’s milk, named for the village in Huntingdonshire where, according to tradition, it was first sold in the late 18th century at a stagecoach stop called the Bell Inn. Stilton cheese has apparently never been produced in its namesake village; in

  • stilus (writing implement)

    stylus, pointed instrument for writing and marking. The stylus was used in ancient times as a tool for writing on parchment or papyrus. The early Greeks incised letters on wax-covered boxwood tablets using a stylus made of a pointed shaft of metal, bone, or ivory. In the Middle Ages, schoolboys in

  • Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45 (work by Tuchman)

    Barbara Tuchman: …a second Pulitzer Prize for Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45 (1970). This was a study of the relationship between the United States and 20th-century China as epitomized in the wartime experiences of Joseph Stilwell, the general who headed U.S. forces in the China-Burma-India theatre during much of…

  • Stilwell Road (highway, Asia)

    Stilwell Road, highway 478 mi (769 km) long that links northeastern India with the Burma Road (q.v.), which runs from Burma to China. During World War II the Stilwell Road was a strategic military route. U.S. Army engineers began construction of the highway in December 1942 to link the railheads of

  • Stilwell, Arthur E. (American leader)

    Port Arthur: In 1895 Arthur E. Stilwell organized a town (which was named for him) as a port and terminus for the Kansas City, Pittsburg, and Gulf Railroad (now Kansas City Southern Railway). In 1899 a canal was dredged for oceangoing vessels. Two years later the gusher Spindletop blew…

  • Stilwell, Joseph W. (United States general)

    Joseph W. Stilwell was a World War II army officer, who headed both U.S. and Chinese Nationalist resistance to the Japanese advance on the Far Eastern mainland. A 1904 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, Stilwell rose to the rank of general in 1944, having served in the

  • Stilwell, Joseph Warren (United States general)

    Joseph W. Stilwell was a World War II army officer, who headed both U.S. and Chinese Nationalist resistance to the Japanese advance on the Far Eastern mainland. A 1904 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, Stilwell rose to the rank of general in 1944, having served in the

  • Stimmung (work by Stockhausen)

    Karlheinz Stockhausen: Stockhausen’s Stimmung (1968; “Tuning”), composed for six vocalists with microphones, contains text consisting of names, words, days of the week in German and English, and excerpts from German and Japanese poetry. Hymnen (1969; “Hymns”) was written for electronic sounds and is a recomposition of several national…

  • Stimson Doctrine (United States history)

    20th-century international relations: Failures of the League: …contented itself with propounding the Stimson Doctrine, by which Washington merely refused to recognize changes born of aggression. Unperturbed, the Japanese prompted local collaborationists to proclaim, on February 18, 1932, an independent state of Manchukuo, in effect a Japanese protectorate. The Lytton Commission reported in October, scolding the Chinese for…

  • Stimson, Henry L. (United States statesman)

    Henry L. Stimson was a statesman who exercised a strong influence on U.S. foreign policy in the 1930s and ’40s. He served in the administrations of five presidents between 1911 and 1945. Stimson was admitted to the New York bar in 1891, and he served as U.S. attorney for the southern district of

  • Stimson, Henry Lewis (United States statesman)

    Henry L. Stimson was a statesman who exercised a strong influence on U.S. foreign policy in the 1930s and ’40s. He served in the administrations of five presidents between 1911 and 1945. Stimson was admitted to the New York bar in 1891, and he served as U.S. attorney for the southern district of

  • stimulant (drug)

    stimulant, any drug that excites any bodily function, but more specifically those that stimulate the brain and central nervous system. Stimulants induce alertness, elevated mood, wakefulness, increased speech and motor activity and decrease appetite. Their therapeutic use is limited, but their

  • stimulated emission (physics)

    stimulated emission, in laser action, the release of energy from an excited atom by artificial means. According to Albert Einstein, when more atoms occupy a higher energy state than a lower one under normal temperature equilibrium (see population inversion), it is possible to force atoms to return

  • stimulated emission depletion microscopy (physics)

    Stefan Hell: In Hell’s technique—called stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy—one laser beam excites the fluorescent molecules, but another turns off the fluorescence except from a small area. The laser beams are moved over the specimen, and an image is gradually built up. When he returned to Germany, he and his…

  • stimulation, electrical (physiology)

    pain: Alleviation of pain: …pain may be treated by transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), in which electrodes are placed on the skin above the painful area. The stimulation of additional peripheral nerve endings has an inhibitory effect on the nerve fibres generating the pain. Acupuncture, compresses, and heat treatment may operate by the same…

  • stimulus (physiology)

    aggressive behaviour: Physiological causes of aggression: …inevitably triggered by a particular stimulus or by collections of stimuli. Depending on the internal state of the potential attacker, the same opponent may be attacked on one occasion but ignored on another. In particular, an individual’s tendency to attack a rival is influenced by the activity of key structures…

  • stimulus magnitude (psychology)

    Gustav Fechner: …in relation to the physical magnitude of stimuli. Most important, he devised an equation to express the theory of the just-noticeable difference, advanced earlier by Ernst Heinrich Weber. This theory concerns the sensory ability to discriminate when two stimuli (e.g., two weights) are just noticeably different from each other. Later…

  • stimulus predifferentiation (psychology)

    transfer of training: Stimulus predifferentiation: Educational films can be considered as everyday examples of stimulus predifferentiation, in which the individual gets preliminary information to be used in subsequent learning. The student who sees a film describing the various parts of a microscope is likely to be better prepared…

  • Stimulus, the (United States [2009])

    American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), legislation, enacted by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by Pres. Barack Obama in 2009, that was designed to stimulate the U.S. economy by saving jobs jeopardized by the Great Recession of 2008–09 and creating new jobs. In December 2007 the U.S.

  • stimulus-distortion illusion (optics)

    illusion: Stimulus-distortion illusions: This type of illusory sense perception arises when the environment changes or warps the stimulus energy on the way to the person, who perceives it in its distorted pattern (as in the case of the “bent” pencil referred to above).

  • stimulus-response behaviour (psychology)

    animal behaviour: Instinctive learning: …to associate a novel (conditioned) stimulus with a familiar (unconditioned) one. For example, in his study of classical conditioning, Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov demonstrated that by consistently exposing a dog to a particular sound (novel stimulus) and simultaneously placing meat powder (familiar stimulus) in its mouth the dog could…

  • stimulus-response theory (psychology)

    stimulus-response theory, idea that learning and behaviour can be explained by interactions between stimuli and the responses they evoke. Stimulus-response theory developed from early conceptions of conditioning, a behavioral process whereby a response becomes more frequent or more predictable in a

  • stimulus-response view (psychology)

    stimulus-response theory, idea that learning and behaviour can be explained by interactions between stimuli and the responses they evoke. Stimulus-response theory developed from early conceptions of conditioning, a behavioral process whereby a response becomes more frequent or more predictable in a

  • stimulus-sampling (psychology)

    learning theory: Repetition: …Guthrie has led to so-called stimulus-sampling theory. The theory assumes that associations indeed are made in just one trial. However, learning seems slow, it is said, because the environment (context) in which it occurs is complex and constantly changing. Given a changing environment, the sample of stimuli will differ from…

  • stimulus-specific theory of pain

    human nervous system: Theories of pain: The stimulus-specific theory of pain proposes that pain results from interactions between various impulses arriving at the spinal cord and brain, that these impulses travel to the spinal cord in certain nonmyelinated and small myelinated fibers, and that the specific stimuli that excite these nerve fibers…

  • Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge (American refuge)

    Bethany: Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge, on the lake’s north shore, provides habitat for many songbirds and waterfowl and is used as a U.S. Department of the Interior banding station. Inc. 1910. Pop. (2000) 20,307; (2010) 19,051.

  • Stinchcombe, Arthur L. (American sociologist)

    organizational analysis: Other influences in organizational development: …Organizations (1965), the American sociologist Arthur L. Stinchcombe compared the American textile industry (one of the oldest industries in the country) with the newer automotive industry to argue that the key features of organizations in any industry are related to the era in which the industry emerges. Stinchcombe called this…

  • Stine, R.L. (American author)

    R.L. Stine is an American novelist who was best known for his horror books for children, including the Goosebumps and Fear Street series. Stine graduated from the Ohio State University in 1965, having served three years as editor of the campus humour magazine, the Sundial. After teaching junior

  • Stine, Robert Lawrence (American author)

    R.L. Stine is an American novelist who was best known for his horror books for children, including the Goosebumps and Fear Street series. Stine graduated from the Ohio State University in 1965, having served three years as editor of the campus humour magazine, the Sundial. After teaching junior

  • sting (musical cue)

    radio: Radio music: “Stings” were musical cues that came in sharply and dramatically, often played just after an actor had delivered a line indicating a new turn in the story line. Many radio shows also had distinctive theme songs; some of them became indelibly associated with particular performers.

  • Sting (British musician)

    Sting is a British singer and songwriter known both for being the front man of the band the Police and for his successful solo career that followed. His musical style was distinguished by its intermingling of pop, jazz, world music, and other genres. Gordon Sumner grew up in a Roman Catholic family

  • sting ray (fish)

    stingray, any of a number of flat-bodied rays noted for the long, sharp spines on their tails. They are sometimes placed in a single family, Dasyatidae, but often separated into two families, Dasyatidae and Urolophidae. Stingrays are disk-shaped and have flexible, tapering tails armed, in most

  • Sting, The (film by Hill [1973])

    The Sting, American caper movie, released in 1973, that was one of the most popular films of the 1970s and the second on-screen pairing of Paul Newman and Robert Redford. It won seven Academy Awards, including that for best picture. (Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)

  • stingaree (fish)

    whip-tailed ray, any of certain stingrays of the family Dasyatidae. See

  • Stinger (missile)

    rocket and missile system: Passive: Stinger and British Blowpipe proved effective against Soviet aircraft and helicopters in Afghanistan, as did the U.S. Redeye in Central America.

  • stinging coral (cnidarian)

    millepore, (Millepora), any of a genus of invertebrate marine animals comprising the order Milleporina (phylum Cnidaria). Millepores are common in shallow tropical seas to depths of 30 metres (about 100 feet). Unlike the true corals, which belong to the class Anthozoa, millepores are closely

  • stinging hair (plant anatomy)

    angiosperm: Dermal tissue: …plants produce secretory (glandular) or stinging hairs (e.g., stinging nettle, Urtica dioica; Urticaceae) for chemical defense against herbivores. In insectivorous plants, trichomes have a part in trapping and digesting insects. Prickles, such as those found in roses, are an outgrowth of the epidermis and are an effective deterrent against herbivores.