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  • Rashka (Serbia)
    town, southern Serbia. It lies in the Raška River valley, in rough and hilly country near the site of Ras, which was the capital city of the medieval Serbian state in the 12th–14th century. In the vicinity are Roman baths, and the Church of St. Peter, one of the oldest in Yugoslavia (7th or 8th century), is an interesting example of early Slav architecture. A few miles west is the Mo...
  • Rashnu (Zoroastrian deity)
    in Zoroastrianism, the deity of justice, who with Mithra, the god of truth, and Sraosha, the god of religious obedience, determines the fates of the souls of the dead. Rashnu is praised in a yasht, or hymn, of the Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroastrianism; the 18th day of the month is sacred to Rashnu....
  • Rashomon (film by Kurosawa [1951])
    ...at the Cannes and Venice film festivals played an important part in the rebirth of the Italian industry and the spread of the postwar Neorealist movement. In 1951 Kurosawa Akira’s Rashomon won the Golden Lion at Venice, focusing attention on Japanese films. That same year the first American Art Film Festival at Woodstock, New York, stimulated the art-film movemen...
  • Rashomon (work by Akutagawa)
    The publication in 1915 of his short story Rashōmon led to his introduction to Natsume Sōseki, the outstanding Japanese novelist of the day. With Sōseki’s encouragement he began to write a series of stories derived largely from 12th- and 13th-century collections of Japanese tales but retold in the light of modern psychology and in a highly indi...
  • Rasht (Iran)
    city, north-central Iran. It lies about 15 miles (24 km) south of the Caspian Sea on a branch of the Safīd River, where the higher ground merges into the marshlands fringing the Mordāb, or Pahlavī, lagoon. Rasht’s importance as the main city of the Gīlān region dates from Russia’s southward expansion in the 17th...
  • Rāshtrapati Bhavan (palace, New Delhi, India)
    ...Fire, but the total result was quite different: a garden-city pattern, based on a series of hexagons separated by broad avenues with double lines of trees. In his single most important building, the Viceroy’s House (1913–30), he combined aspects of classical architecture with features of Indian decoration. Lutyens was knighted in 1918....
  • Rashtriya Swayamesevak Sangh (Hindu paramilitary group)
    The BJP traces its roots to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS; Indian People’s Association), which was established in 1951 as the political wing of the Hindu paramilitary group Rashtriya Swayamesevak Sangh (RSS; National Volunteers Corps) by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. The BJS advocated the rebuilding of India in accordance with Hindu culture and called for the formation of a strong unified state....
  • Rašín, Alois (Czech statesman)
    Czech statesman, one of the founders and first finance minister of the Republic of Czechoslovakia....
  • Rask, Rasmus Kristian (Danish language scholar)
    Danish language scholar and a principal founder of the science of comparative linguistics. In 1818 he first showed that, in their consonant sounds, words in the Germanic languages vary with a certain regularity from their equivalents in the other Indo-European languages, e.g., the English father, acre, and the Latin pater, ager. What Rask observed pro...
  • Raška (Serbia)
    town, southern Serbia. It lies in the Raška River valley, in rough and hilly country near the site of Ras, which was the capital city of the medieval Serbian state in the 12th–14th century. In the vicinity are Roman baths, and the Church of St. Peter, one of the oldest in Yugoslavia (7th or 8th century), is an interesting example of early Slav architecture. A few miles west is the Mo...
  • Raska (historical principality, Serbia)
    ruling Serbian family that from the late 12th to the mid-14th century developed the principality of Raška into a large empire....
  • Raška school (Serbian art)
    ...(1252), Sopoćani (c. 1260), Dečani (1327), and Gračanica (1321). These have subsequently come to constitute important symbolic monuments for Serbs. The frescoes of the Raška school, in particular, are known for their capacity to blend secular authority with a deep sense of devotion. Literary work extended beyond copying manuscripts to include pieces of......
  • Raskin, Jef (American computer scientist)
    American computer scientist (b. March 9, 1943, New York, N.Y.—d. Feb. 26, 2005, Pacifica, Calif.), revolutionized the personal computer industry by pioneering Apple Computer Inc.’s Macintosh, which featured a user-friendly graphics interface rather than the standard text-based commands that were common in the late 1970s. The “father of the Macintosh” led a team of devel...
  • Raskob, John Jakob (American financier)
    American financier who played a major role in the early 20th-century expansion of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. and of General Motors Corporation....
  • Raskol (Russian Orthodoxy)
    (Russian: “Schism”), division in the Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th century over reforms in liturgy and forms of worship. Over the centuries, many features of Russian religious practice had been inadvertently altered by unlettered priests and laity, removing Russian Orthodoxy ever further from its Greek Orthodox parent faith. Reforms intended to remove these idiosyncrasies were...
  • Raskolniki (Russian religious group)
    member of a group of Russian religious dissenters who refused to accept the liturgical reforms imposed upon the Russian Orthodox Church by the patriarch of Moscow Nikon (1652–58). Numbering millions of faithful in the 17th century, the Old Believers split into a number of different sects, of which several survived into modern times....
  • rāslīlā (dance)
    folk dance drama of northern India, mainly Uttar Pradesh, based on scenes from the life of Krishna. Solo and group dancing are combined with singing, chanted recitation, and instrumental accompaniment....
  • Rasminsky, Louis (Canadian economist)
    Canadian economist who helped form the post-World War II international finance and trade system; his half century of public service included the executive directorship of the International Monetary Fund, the deputy governorship and then the governorship of the Bank of Canada, and the chairmanship of the board of governors of the International Development Research Institute (b. Feb. 1, 1908, Montre...
  • Rasmussen, Anders (prime minister of Denmark)
    Danish politician who served as prime minister of Denmark (2001– ) and leader of the country’s Liberal Party....
  • Rasmussen, Anders Fogh (prime minister of Denmark)
    Danish politician who served as prime minister of Denmark (2001– ) and leader of the country’s Liberal Party....
  • Rasmussen, Halfdan (Danish poet)
    Danish poet of social protest, as well as an excellent writer of nonsense verse....
  • Rasmussen, Knud (Greenlander polar explorer)
    Danish-Eskimo explorer and ethnologist who, in the course of completing the longest dog-sledge journey to that time, across the American Arctic, made a scientific study of virtually every Eskimo tribe in that vast region....
  • Rasmussen, Knud Johan Victor (Greenlander polar explorer)
    Danish-Eskimo explorer and ethnologist who, in the course of completing the longest dog-sledge journey to that time, across the American Arctic, made a scientific study of virtually every Eskimo tribe in that vast region....
  • Rasmussen, Poul Nyrup (prime minister of Denmark)
    When Prime Minister Poul Schlüter was forced from office by Denmark’s ongoing "Tamilgate" affair on Jan. 14, 1993, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, the leader of the Social Democrats, was faced not only with the challenge of forming a new government but also with the task of overseeing Denmark’s key second referendum on the Maastricht Treaty. Furthermore, the country had just taken over...
  • Rasmussen, William (American entrepreneur)
    New England sports announcer William Rasmussen founded ESPN to broadcast New England Whalers hockey games and University of Connecticut sports events. It was purchased by the Getty Oil Company before it began broadcasting in 1979, the year it began signing large advertising contracts. In 1984 it was sold to ABC, Inc., and three years later began broadcasting National Football League games on......
  • Raso Island (island, Cape Verde)
    ...(Barlavento) and Leeward (Sotavento) groups. The Windward Islands consist of Santo Antão, São Vicente, Santa Luzia, São Nicolau, Boa Vista, and Sal, together with the islets of Raso and Branco. The Leeward Islands include Maio, São Tiago (Santiago), Fogo, and Brava and the three islets called the Rombos—Grande, Luís Carneiro, and......
  • Rasofsky, Barnet David (American boxer)
    American professional boxer, world lightweight (135 pounds), junior welterweight (140 pounds), and welterweight (147 pounds) champion during the 1930s....
  • Rasofsky, Beryl David (American boxer)
    American professional boxer, world lightweight (135 pounds), junior welterweight (140 pounds), and welterweight (147 pounds) champion during the 1930s....
  • Rasofsky, Dov-Ber (American boxer)
    American professional boxer, world lightweight (135 pounds), junior welterweight (140 pounds), and welterweight (147 pounds) champion during the 1930s....
  • rasorite (mineral)
    borate mineral, hydrated sodium borate (Na2B4O7·4H2O), that was formerly the chief source of borax. It forms very large crystals, often 60 to 90 centimetres (2 to 3 feet) thick; the largest observed measured 240 by 90 cm. The crystals are colourless and transparent but are usually covered by a surface film of opaque white tincal...
  • rasp (tool)
    ...of tooth form: single-cut, double-cut, and rasp. The single-cut file has rows of parallel teeth cut diagonally across the working surfaces. The double-cut file has rows of teeth crossing each other. Rasp teeth are disconnected and round on top; they are formed by raising small pieces of material from the surface of the file with a punch. Rasp files, or rasps, are usually very coarse and are use...
  • Rasp, Charles (Australian entrepreneur)
    ...Mount Bischoff in Tasmania being the world’s largest lode at its discovery in 1871. The 1880s were predominantly the decade of silver; western New South Wales proved richest, and in 1883 Charles Rasp, a German migrant, first glimpsed the varied riches of Broken Hill. The silver, lead, and zinc ores found there were to make that city almost fabulous and to prompt the establishment of......
  • rasp-cut file (tool)
    ...of tooth form: single-cut, double-cut, and rasp. The single-cut file has rows of parallel teeth cut diagonally across the working surfaces. The double-cut file has rows of teeth crossing each other. Rasp teeth are disconnected and round on top; they are formed by raising small pieces of material from the surface of the file with a punch. Rasp files, or rasps, are usually very coarse and are use...
  • raspberry (plant)
    fruit-bearing bush of the genus Rubus (family Rosaceae), mentioned by Pliny the Elder as a wild fruit. John Parkinson (Paradisus [1629]) speaks of red, white, and thornless varieties of raspberries; their culture began about this time. Raspberry bushes bear juicy red, purple, or black (rarely orange, amber, or pale-yellow) berries that separate from the core that remains on the plant...
  • raspberry crown borer (insect)
    The raspberry crown borer (Pennisetia) bores into the roots and canes of raspberry and blackberry plants. The larvae hibernate beneath the plant bark near ground level and tunnel upward in spring. The plant wilts, breaks, and dies, leaving a stump in which the borers pupate. The adults of the day-flying North American P. marginata and the night-flying European P.......
  • raspberry fruitworm (insect)
    any of a few genera of insects in the family Byfuridae (order Coleoptera) whose larvae feed on fruit. A common example of this family of small, hairy, oval beetles is the raspberry fruitworm (Byturus rubi). The small, pale larva, which is covered with short fine hairs, attacks the raspberry fruit. The adult, which ranges in colour from reddish yellow to black, is about 4 mm (0.16 inch)......
  • Raspe, Henry (antiking of Germany)
    landgrave of Thuringia (1227–47) and German anti-king (1246–47) who was used by Pope Innocent IV in an attempt to oust the Hohenstaufen dynasty from Germany....
  • Raspe, Rudolf Erich (German scholar and adventurer)
    German scholar and adventurer best remembered as the author of the popular tall tales The Adventures of Baron Munchausen....
  • Rasputin and the Empress (film by Boleslawski [1932])
    During the 1920s and ’30s she made only one film, Rasputin and the Empress (1933), which was the sole work in which she appeared with her brothers. In 1944 Clifford Odets convinced her to play an impoverished cockney mother opposite Cary Grant in the film None but the Lonely Heart. For that performance, she effectively toned down her performing style and received an Academy Aw...
  • Rasputin, Grigory Yefimovich (Russian mystic)
    Siberian peasant and mystic whose ability to improve the condition of Aleksey Nikolayevich, the hemophiliac heir to the Russian throne, made him an influential favourite at the court of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra....
  • Rasputin, Valentin (Soviet author)
    ...1980s came from the “village prose” writers, who treated the clash of rural traditions with modern life in a realistic idiom; the most notable members of this group are the novelist Valentin Rasputin and the short-story writer Vasily Shukshin. The morally complex fiction of Yury Trifonov, staged in the urban setting (e.g., The House on the Embankment [1976]), stands.....
  • Rassam, Hormuzd (Turkish Assyriologist)
    Assyriologist who excavated some of the finest Assyrian and Babylonian antiquities that are now in the possession of the British Museum and found vast numbers of cuneiform tablets at Nineveh (Nīnawā, Iraq) and Sippar (Abū Ḥabbah, Iraq), including the earliest known record of archaeological activity....
  • rasse (mammal)
    small Asiatic mammal, a species of civet....
  • Rasselas (work by Johnson)
    Johnson’s essays included numerous short fictions, but his only long fiction is Rasselas (originally published as The Prince of Abissinia: A Tale), which he wrote in 1759, during the evenings of a single week, in order to be able to pay for the funeral of his mother. This “Oriental tale,” a popular form at the time, explores an...
  • Rassemblement Constitutionnel Démocratique (political party, Tunisia)
    Tunisian political party that led the movement for independence from France (1956) and ruled Tunisia thereafter....
  • Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (political party, Africa)
    ...following the establishment of an autonomous republic in that former French colony. Like many neighbouring countries, it chose the pan-African colours (red-yellow-green) that had been used by the African Democratic Rally—i.e., the legislators in the French National Assembly who represented French West Africa following World War II. The colours were also associated with Ethiopia, the......
  • Rassemblement du Peuple Français (political party, France)
    The antecedents of the party trace to 1947, when de Gaulle organized the Rally of the French People (Rassemblement du Peuple Français; RPF), originally conceived as a means by which de Gaulle might regain office without having to participate in party politics. It was thus at first organized as an extraparliamentary body in the hope that it might attract the support of sections of other......
  • Rassemblement National et Démocratique (political party, Algeria)
    ...was approved by a majority of the voters, although claims of manipulation were made by the opposition parties. The main change, however, took place in early 1997 when a new government party, the National Democratic Rally (Rassemblement National et Démocratique; RND), was formed. Benefiting from unlimited government support, including the use of official buildings and funds, the RND......
  • Rassemblement pour la République (political party, France)
    former French political party formed by Jacques Chirac in 1976 that presumed to be heir to the traditions of Charles de Gaulle. It was the direct successor to the Gaullist coalitions, operating under various names over the years, that had dominated the political life of the Fifth Republic under presidents de Gaulle (1958–69) and Georges Pompido...
  • Rasskazy Nazara Ilicha, gospodina Sinebryukhova (work by Zoshchenko)
    ...and worked at a variety of odd jobs and trades. In 1921 in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) he joined the Serapion Brothers literary group. His first works to become famous were the stories in Rasskazy Nazara Ilicha, gospodina Sinebryukhova (1922; “The Tales of Nazar Ilyich, Mr. Bluebelly”). Zoshchenko used skaz, a first-person......
  • Rassmann, Frederich (German scholar)
    In Germany, anthologies of triolets were published at Halberstadt in 1795 and at Brunswick in 1796. Frederich Rassmann made collections in 1815 and 1817 in which he distinguished three species of triolet: the legitimate form; the loose triolet, which only approximately abides by the rules as to number of rhymes and lines; and the single-strophe poem, which more or less accidentally approaches......
  • Rastafari (political and religious movement)
    religious and political movement, begun in Jamaica in the 1930s and adopted by many groups around the globe, that combines Protestant Christianity, mysticism, and a pan-African political consciousness....
  • Rastatt and Baden, treaties of (European history)
    (March 6 and Sept. 7, 1714), peace treaties between the Holy Roman emperor Charles VI and France that ended the emperor’s attempt to continue the War of the Spanish Succession (1700–14) after the other states had made peace in the Treaties of Utrecht (beginning in 1713)....
  • Rastatt, Congress of (European history)
    ...gave him the link with the high nobility of Austria and the access to high office he had long desired. After having represented the Roman Catholic Westphalian counts of the empire at the end of the Congress of Rastatt (1797–99), which ratified compensation for the German princes ousted by the French from their possessions on the left bank of the Rhine, he was in 1801 appointed Austrian.....
  • Rastell, John (English printer and lawyer)
    ...dealing with special areas of vocabulary are so overwhelming in number that they can merely be alluded to here. In English, the earliest was a glossary of law terms published in 1527 by John Rastell. His purpose, he said, was “to expown certeyn obscure & derke termys concernynge the lawes of thys realme.” The dictionaries of technical terms in many fields often have......
  • Rastell, William (English printer and lawyer)
    English printer, lawyer, and man of letters. He edited and published the works of his uncle, Thomas More. He also printed the only surviving plays of John Heywood, who married Rastell’s sister, Eliza....
  • raster graphics (computer science)
    In the late 1970s and ’80s raster graphics, derived from television technology, became more common, though still limited to expensive graphics workstation computers. Raster graphics represents images by “bit maps” stored in computer memory and displayed on a screen composed of tiny pixels. Each pixel is represented by one or more memory bits. One bit per pixel suffices for......
  • raster line (electronics)
    The scanning pattern...
  • Rāṣṭrakūṭa dynasty (Indian dynasty)
    Hindu dynasty that ruled the Deccan and neighbouring areas of India from c. 755 to 975....
  • rastrarang (musical instrument)
    Musical cups, the forerunners of musical glasses, are depicted on the Borobuḍur stupa. The South Asian rastrarang can be played either with small sticks by percussion or by rubbing wetted fingers along the rims—the cups do not contain water. But the jaltarang, also South Asian, makes use of water for......
  • “Rastratchiki” (work by Katayev)
    Katayev’s novella Rastratchiki (1926; The Embezzlers) is a picaresque tale of two adventurers in the tradition of Gogol. His comic play Kvadratura kruga (1928; Squaring the Circle) portrays the effect of the housing shortage on two married couples who share a room. Beleyet parus odinoky (1936; Lonely White Sail, or A White Sail Gleams), anoth...
  • Rastrelli, Bartolomeo Carlo, the Younger (Italian architect)
    Close by is the Baroque church of St. Andrew, designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli and built in the mid-18th century; its site on the crest of the steep slope to the river makes it a striking landmark. Other historical relics in the central area include the ruins of the Golden Gate, also built in the 11th century in the reign of Yaroslav; the Zaborovskyy Gate, built in 1746–48; and the......
  • Rastrelli, Bartolomeo F. (Italian architect)
    Close by is the Baroque church of St. Andrew, designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli and built in the mid-18th century; its site on the crest of the steep slope to the river makes it a striking landmark. Other historical relics in the central area include the ruins of the Golden Gate, also built in the 11th century in the reign of Yaroslav; the Zaborovskyy Gate, built in 1746–48; and the......
  • Rastrelliger (fish genus)
    Other fishes known as mackerel and belonging to the family Scombridae include the Indian mackerels (Rastrelliger), which are rather stout, commercially valuable Indo-Australian fishes up to 38 cm long, and the frigate mackerels (Auxis), which are small, elongated fishes found worldwide and distinguished by a corselet of enlarged scales around the shoulder region that extend along......
  • Rastyapino (Russia)
    city, Nizhegorod oblast (province), western Russia. Dzerzhinsk lies along the Oka River upstream from its confluence with the Volga River at Nizhny Novgorod. Part of the Nizhny Novgorod metropolitan area, Dzerzhinsk and its satellite towns stretch for 15 miles (24 km) along the Oka. The city is 32 miles (51 km) west of Nizhny Novgorod and 240 miles (390...
  • rasūl (Islam)
    Muḥammad considered himself to be more than a mere prophet (nābi); he thought of himself as the messenger (rasūl) of Allāh, the final messenger in a long chain that had begun with Noah and run through Jesus. As Allāh’s rasūl, Muḥammad saw his first mission to be that of warning the Arab peoples of the impending doomsday. ...
  • Rasūlid dynasty (Muslim dynasty)
    Muslim dynasty that ruled Yemen and Ḥaḍramawt (1229–1454) after the Ayyūbids of Egypt abandoned the southern provinces of the Arabian Peninsula....
  • Rasy, Elisabetta (Italian author)
    ...I cristalli di Vienna (1978; Bloodstains), in the time of the German occupation of Vienna, and in La prima estasi (1985; “The First Ecstasy”) Elisabetta Rasy, moving on from criticism to fiction, endeavoured to re-create the mystic and ascetic consciousness of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. The spirit of Edgar Allan Poe lives on in......
  • rat (rodent grouping)
    ...members of several rodent families having bodies longer than about 12 cm, or 5 inches. (Smaller thin-tailed rodents are just as often indiscriminately referred to as mice.) In scientific usage, rat applies to any of 56 thin-tailed, medium-sized rodent species in the genus Rattus native to continental Asia and the adjacent islands of Southeast Asia eastward......
  • rat (rodent genus)
    the term generally and indiscriminately applied to numerous members of several rodent families having bodies longer than about 12 cm, or 5 inches. (Smaller thin-tailed rodents are just as often indiscriminately referred to as mice.) In scientific usage, rat applies to any of 56 thin-tailed, medium-sized rodent species in the genus Rattus nativ...
  • Rat Buri (Thailand)
    town, western Thailand, west of Bangkok. Prehistoric relics, cave drawings, and old Buddhist temples indicate that the site of Ratchaburi town, on the Mae Klong River, has been inhabited from early times. The town is now a river port, a station of the Bangkok-Singapore railway, and a commercial and service centre for the surrounding region. The region is noted for the production of handmade glazed...
  • rat flea (insect)
    ...and birds. With about 2,000 species and subspecies known, the order is still a small one compared with many other groups of insects. However, it is widely distributed with some—such as the rat flea and the mouse flea—having been carried all over the world by man. Native species of fleas are found in polar, temperate, and tropical regions....
  • Rat Islands (islands, Alaska, United States)
    uninhabited group of the Aleutian Islands, southwestern Alaska, U.S. They extend about 110 miles (175 km) southeast of the Near Islands and west of the Andreanof Islands. The largest of the islands are Amchitka, Kiska, and Semisopochnoi. Separated from the Andreanof Islands by Amchitka Pass, one of the m...
  • rat kangaroo (marsupial)
    any of the nine species of Australian and Tasmanian marsupials constituting a subfamily Potoroinae, of the kangaroo family, Macropodidae (see kangaroo). Some authorities recognize a separate family, Potoroidae. They differ from other kangaroos in skull and urogenital anatomy and in having large canine teeth. All are rabbit-sized or smaller. Rat kangaroos live in undergro...
  • rat mite (arachnid)
    Mites of the suborder Mesostigmata (order Parasitiformes) include the chicken mite, the northern fowl mite, and the rat mite, all of which attack humans. In addition, there are nasal mites of dogs and birds, lung mites of monkeys, and predatory mites, which are sometimes of benefit in controlling plant-feeding mites....
  • rat opossum (marsupial)
    any of several South American marsupial mammals of the family Caenolestidae. The seven species, together with opossums (Didelphidae), form the New World section of the superorder Marsupialia. Rat opossums, named for their general appearance and size, have 46 to 48 teeth and long epipubic bones associated with the pelvis. The marsupial pouch is lacking in adults. The thick, soft fur is gray-brown. ...
  • rat snake (reptile)
    any of between 40 and 55 species of the genus Elaphe, of the family Colubridae and similar forms. They occur in North America, Europe, and Asia east to the Philippines. Most are found in woodlands and around farm buildings. They hunt rats and mice and kill them by constriction. They also eat eggs, and some species raid poultry yards and are sometimes called chicken snakes. Some hunt birds ...
  • Rat, The (novel by Grass)
    ...a young couple’s agonizing over whether to have a child in the face of a population explosion and the threat of nuclear war; Die Rättin (1986; The Rat), a vision of the end of the human race that expressed Grass’s fear of nuclear holocaust and environmental disaster; and Unkenrufe (1992; ...
  • rat-bite fever (pathology)
    relapsing type of infection caused by the bacterium Spirillum minus (also called Spirillum minor) and transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected rat. It is characterized by infection at the site of inoculation, inflammation of the regional lymph nodes, relapsing fever, chills, and skin rash. The rat-bite wound usu...
  • rat-tail (fish)
    any of about 300 species of abundant deep-sea fishes of the family Macrouridae found along the ocean bottom in warm and temperate regions. The typical grenadier is a large-headed fish with a tapered body ending in a long, ratlike tail bordered above and below by the anal and second dorsal fins. The eyes are large, and the mouth is on the underside of the head. The often extended snout presumably a...
  • rat-tailed maggot (insect)
    ...tunnel in flower bulbs, onions, and flower corms. Microdon larvae live in ant and termite nests, Volucella larvae, in bumblebee nests, and others, in decomposing vegetation. The rat-tailed maggots (larvae) of the drone fly (Eristalis tenax), which live in drains and polluted waters, have a telescopic breathing tube at the rear that gives them their common name....
  • rat-tailed opossum (mammal)
    ...species of Glironia, of the northern Andes, andDromiciops australis, of Chile. The gray four-eyed opossum (Philander opossum) and the brown four-eyed, or rat-tailed, opossum (Metachirus nudicaudatus) have a pair of large whitish spots over the eyes. Both are found in Central and South America; they have large heads and long tails, and the latter species is pouchless....
  • rata (tree)
    ...of these species is a tropical fruit, the mangosteen (G. mangostana). Imbe (G. livingstonei) has stiff leaves and small, thick-skinned, orange fruits with a juicy, acid, fragrant pulp. Rata (G. tinctorea) produces a peach-sized, yellow fruit with a pointed end and acid-flavoured, buttery yellow flesh. G. spicata is planted as an ornamental in tropical salt-spray......
  • Rata, Matiu (New Zealander politician)
    New Zealand Maori politician who spent 33 years in Parliament fighting to resolve historic Maori grievances; he set up the Waitangi Tribunal, which dealt with Maori land claims (b. March 26, 1934--d. July 25, 1997)....
  • Ratak (island chain, Marshall Islands)
    ...central Pacific Ocean. It consists of some of the easternmost islands of Micronesia. The Marshalls are composed of more than 1,200 islands and islets in two parallel chains of coral atolls—the Ratak, or Sunrise, to the east, and the Ralik, or Sunset, to the west. The chains lie about 125 miles (200 kilometres) apart and extend some 800 miles northwest to southeast. Dalap-Uliga-Darrit, on...
  • RATAN-600 telescope (telescope, Zelenchukskaya, Russia)
    The Russian RATAN-600 telescope (RATAN stands for Radio Astronomical Telescope of the Academy of Sciences), located near Zelenchukskaya in the Caucasus Mountains, has 895 reflecting panels, each 7.4 metres (24.3 feet) high, arranged in a ring 576 metres (1,890 feet) in diameter. Using long parabolic cylinders, standing reflectors, or dipole elements, researchers in Australia, France, India,......
  • Ratana church (Maori religion)
    20th-century religious awakening among the New Zealand Maoris and a national political influence, especially during the period 1943–63, when its members held all four Maori parliamentary seats in the national capital....
  • Ratana, Tahupotiki Wiremu (New Zealander religious leader)
    The Ratana church was founded by Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana, a Methodist Maori farmer who acquired a reputation as a visionary and faith healer. News of his extraordinary gifts drew Maoris (and some whites) from all parts of New Zealand, who came to hear him preach his doctrine of moral reform under the one God of the Bible. In 1920 he established an interdenominational church at the village of......
  • Ratanpur (ancient city, India)
    ...India, lying just west of the Arpa River. Bilāspur was the capital of a Goṇḍ kingdom until captured by the Marāṭhās in the 18th century. Just north lies Ratanpur, an ancient Hindu capital of the Haihaya dynasty of Chhattīsgaṛḥ; its ruins date from the 8th century ad. A major rail junction with extensive workshops,......
  • Ratanpur (Indian family)
    The Ratanpur Kalacuris, who first ruled from Tummāna and later from Ratanpur (16 miles [26 km] north of Bilāspur), were distantly related to, and feudatories of, the Tripurī Kalacuris. Beginning to rule in the early 11th century, they gained prominence under Jājalladeva I in the early 12th century. Early historical documents of their rule continue to Pratāpamalla...
  • “ratas, Las” (work by Bianco)
    ...vestir (1941) and Las ratas (1943), published in English as Shadow Play, The Rats: Two Novellas by José Bianco. The Rats is a psychological novel, with a complicated but flawlessly constructed plot that leads to the poisoning of the protagonist. Bianco’s narrator has a complicated psychological...
  • “ratas, Las” (work by Delibes)
    ...as La hoja roja (1959; “The Red Leaf”), which examines poverty and loneliness among the elderly, and Las ratas (1962; “Rats”; Eng. trans. Smoke on the Ground), which depicts the miserable existence of uneducated cave dwellers, Miguel Delibes conveyed critical concern for a society whose natural values are under constant threat.....
  • ratatouia (food)
    ...heavily on garlic and olive oil. Mayonnaise is made with olive oil and seasoned with garlic. Pissaladiera comes from Nice; this is an onion flan spiced with anchovies and black olives. Ratatouia (ratatouille), a vegetable stew of tomatoes, eggplant, and green peppers, also comes from Nice....
  • Ratatouille (Pixar animated film by Bird and Pinkava [2007])
    ...Song: Falling Slowly from Once; music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Marketa IrglovaAnimated Feature Film: Ratatouille, directed by Brad BirdHonorary Award: Robert Boyle...
  • ratatouille (food)
    ...heavily on garlic and olive oil. Mayonnaise is made with olive oil and seasoned with garlic. Pissaladiera comes from Nice; this is an onion flan spiced with anchovies and black olives. Ratatouia (ratatouille), a vegetable stew of tomatoes, eggplant, and green peppers, also comes from Nice....
  • Ratburi (Thailand)
    town, western Thailand, west of Bangkok. Prehistoric relics, cave drawings, and old Buddhist temples indicate that the site of Ratchaburi town, on the Mae Klong River, has been inhabited from early times. The town is now a river port, a station of the Bangkok-Singapore railway, and a commercial and service centre for the surrounding region. The region is noted for the production of handmade glazed...
  • Ratcatcher’s House (building, Hameln, Germany)
    ...Children’s Crusade. There is a ratcatcher collection in the local history museum, and there are ratcatcher inscriptions on two of the town’s many notable half-timbered Renaissance houses, the Rattenfängerhaus (“Ratcatcher’s House”) and the Hochzeitshaus (“Wedding House”). Pop. (2003 est.) 58,902....
  • Ratcha Anachak Thai
    country located in the centre of mainland Southeast Asia. Located wholly within the tropics, Thailand encompasses diverse ecosystems, including the hilly forested areas of the northern frontier, the fertile rice fields of the central plains, the broad plateau of the northeast, and the rugged coasts along the narrow southern peninsula....
  • Ratchaburi (Thailand)
    town, western Thailand, west of Bangkok. Prehistoric relics, cave drawings, and old Buddhist temples indicate that the site of Ratchaburi town, on the Mae Klong River, has been inhabited from early times. The town is now a river port, a station of the Bangkok-Singapore railway, and a commercial and service centre for the surrounding region. The region is noted for the production of handmade glazed...
  • ratchet (mechanical device)
    mechanical device that transmits intermittent rotary motion or permits a shaft to rotate in one direction but not in the opposite one. In the the arm A and the ratchet wheel B are both pivoted at O. The stem of the pawl P can slide in the arm and is kept in its lowest position by the spring S. If the arm oscillates through the angle α (alpha), the pawl rotates the wheel intermitten...
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