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kuṟiñci (literary genre)
...and glory of kings, and the poverty of poets. Both the akam and the puṟam had well-defined tiṇais (genres) that paralleled one another: e.g., the kuṟiñci genre, in love poetry, which dealt with the lovers’ clandestine union on a hillside by night; and the veṭci genre, in ......
Kurisches Haff (gulf, Baltic Sea)
gulf of the Baltic Sea at the mouth of the Neman River, in Lithuania and Russia. The lagoon, with an area of 625 square miles (1,619 square km), is separated from the Baltic Sea by a narrow, dune-covered sandspit, the Curonian Spit (Lithuanian: Kuršiu Nerija; Russian: Kurskaya Kosa), 60 miles (100 km) long and 1...
Kurit Dam (ancient dam, Persia)
In Persia (modern-day Iran) the Kebar Dam and the Kurit Dam represented the world’s first large-scale thin-arch dams. The Kebar and Kurit dams were built early in the 14th century by Il-Khanid Mongols; the Kebar Dam reached a height of 26 metres (85 feet), and the Kurit Dam extended 64 metres (210 feet) above its foundation. Remarkably, the Kurit Dam stood as the world’s tallest dam ...
Kurita Takeo (Japanese military officer)
...from Singapore was to sail to Brunei Bay and there split itself into two groups that would converge on Leyte Gulf from the north and from the southwest: the stronger group, under Vice Admiral Kurita Takeo, would enter the Pacific through the San Bernardino Strait between the Philippine islands of Samar and Luzon; the other, under Vice......
Kurja (Indian folk song)
Rajasthan has a rich tradition of both oral narrative and written literature. The most famous song is Kurja, which tells the story of a woman who wishes to send a message to her absent husband by a kurja (a type of bird), who is promised a priceless reward for his service. In the literary tradition Chand Bardai’s epic poem......
Kurland (historical region, Europe)
region on the Baltic seacoast, located south of the Western Dvina River and named after its inhabitants, the Latvian tribe of Curonians (Kurs, Cori, Cours; Latvian: Kursi). The duchy of Courland, formed in 1561, included this area as well as Semigallia (Zemgale), a region located east of Courland proper....
Kurland, Bob (American athlete)
Nevertheless, with each passing decade, the teams with the tallest players tended to dominate. Bob Kurland (7 feet [2.13 metres]) led Oklahoma A&M to two NCAA championships in the 1940s and led the nation in scoring in 1945–46. In the same era George Mikan (6 feet 10 inches [2.08 metres]) scored more than 550 points in each of his final two seasons at DePaul University before......
Kūrma (Hindu mythology)
(Sanskrit: “Tortoise”), second of the 10 avatars (incarnations) of the Hindu god Vishnu. In this incarnation Vishnu is associated with the myth of the churning of the cosmic ocean. The gods and the asuras cooperated in the churning to obtain the amṛta, the elixir of immortality. The great serpent Vāsuki offered himself as a rope, and Mount Mandara was torn...
Kurnai (people)
Indigenous hunter-gatherer society as it was at the time of European settlement emerged about 5,000 years ago. On contact there were three main Aboriginal groups in Victoria: the Kurnai of Gippsland, the Yorta Yorta of the eastern Murray, and the Kulin of the Central Divide. These groups were subdivided into about 34 distinct subgroups, each with its own territory, customs, laws, language, and......
Kürnberger, Ferdinand (Austrian writer)
Austrian writer known for his participation in the Austrian revolution of 1848 and the Dresden rebellion of 1849....
Kurnell (historical site, New South Wales, Australia)
historic site on the southern side of the entrance to Botany Bay, New South Wales, Australia. Kurnell was the first landing place in Australia of Captain ...
Kurnool (India)
city, west-central Andhra Pradesh state, southern India. It lies at the confluence of the Tungabhadra and Hindri rivers, about 240 miles (385 km) northwest of the city of Chennai (Madras). Kurnool was made a municipality in 1866 and was the capital of Andhra Pradesh from 1953 until 1956, when the capital was moved to Hyderabad...
Kuro Current (ocean current)
...the Philippines, the current divides, with the lesser part turning south and then east to start the Pacific Equatorial Countercurrent, and the greater part flowing north. This flow, known as the Kuro Current, moves north as far as Japan, then east as the North Pacific Current (West Wind Drift), part of which then turns south as the California Current, which joins the ......
kuroboku (soil type)
Kuroboku soils (black soils rich in humus content) are found on terraces, hills, and gentle slopes throughout Japan, while gley (sticky, blue-gray compact) soils are found in the poorly drained lowlands. Peat soils occupy the moors in Hokkaido and Tōhoku. Muck (dark soil, containing a high......
“Kurobune” (Japanese opera)
...symphony orchestras, as well as in the teaching of Western music. His opera, Kurobune (1940; The Black Ships), deals with the opening of Japan to the West and reflects his knowledge of Wagnerian style. Attempts at nationalistic operas can be represented better by the work ......
Kuroda Kiyotaka, Count (prime minister of Japan)
Japanese statesman who played a leading role in the Meiji Restoration, the 1868 overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate and reestablishment of imperial rule in Japan. He served as prime minister from April 1888 to October 1889. Kuroda was one of the origin...
Kuroda Kiyotaka, Hakushaku (prime minister of Japan)
Japanese statesman who played a leading role in the Meiji Restoration, the 1868 overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate and reestablishment of imperial rule in Japan. He served as prime minister from April 1888 to October 1889. Kuroda was one of the origin...
Kuroda Nagamasa (Japanese warrior)
noted Japanese warrior who rendered important service to two leaders, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, in their campaigns to dominate Japan....
Kuroda Seiki (Japanese painter)
...school, established an intensely loyal following among his Japanese students. His influence is seen in the works of Asai Chū, who later studied in Europe. Asai’s contemporary Kuroda Seiki studied in France under Raphael Collin and was among the most prominent exponents of a style that was strongly influenced by Impressionism in its informality and its use of l...
Kurōdo-dokoro (Japanese government)
Japanese bureau of archivists originally established for the transmission and receipt of documents for the emperor. Initiated by the emperor Saga in 810, the Kurōdo-dokoro soon became the major organ for conveying memorials to the emperor and issuing imperial decrees. During the Heian period (794–1185), the Kurōdo-dokoro was the de facto government council o...
“Kuroi ame” (work by Ibuse Masuji)
...Far-Worshiping Commander), an antimilitary satire, were especially well received. Ibuse received the Order of Culture for the novel Kuroi ame (1966; Black Rain), which deals with the terrible effects of the bombing of Hiroshima during World War II....
Kurokawa, Kishō (Japanese architect)
Japanese architect, who was one of the leading members of the Metabolist movement in the 1960s and ’70s. In his later work he achieved increasingly poetic qualities....
Kurokawa, Noriaki (Japanese architect)
Japanese architect, who was one of the leading members of the Metabolist movement in the 1960s and ’70s. In his later work he achieved increasingly poetic qualities....
kuroko deposit (mineralogy)
VMS deposits constitute some of the richest deposits of copper, lead, and zinc known. Some of the most famous, found in Japan and called kuroko deposits, yield ores that contain as much as 20 percent combined copper, lead, and zinc by weight, plus important amounts of gold and silver. Other famous VMS deposits are the historic copper......
Kuron, Jacek (Polish leader)
Polish dissident (b. March 3, 1934, Lvov, Pol. [now Lviv, Ukraine]—d. June 17, 2004, Warsaw, Pol.), was the intellectual leader of the Solidarity labour union movement in Poland in the 1980s; he negotiated the end of the communist regime there and served as a crucial adviser to Lech Walesa, Solidarity’s chairman and president of Poland (1990–95). Beginning in the 1960s, Kuron ...
Kuronian (people)
region on the Baltic seacoast, located south of the Western Dvina River and named after its inhabitants, the Latvian tribe of Curonians (Kurs, Cori, Cours; Latvian: Kursi). The duchy of Courland, formed in 1561, included this area as well as Semigallia (Zemgale), a region located east of Courland proper....
Kuropatkin, Aleksey (Russian general)
Russian general. He was chief of staff during the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), commander in chief in Caucasia in 1897, and minister of war (1898–1904). In the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) he commanded the Russian troops in Manchuria; he resigned after the Russian defeat at the Battle of Mukden (1905)....
Kuropatkin, Aleksey Nikolayevich (Russian general)
Russian general. He was chief of staff during the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), commander in chief in Caucasia in 1897, and minister of war (1898–1904). In the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) he commanded the Russian troops in Manchuria; he resigned after the Russian defeat at the Battle of Mukden (1905)....
Kurosawa Akira (Japanese film director)
first Japanese film director to win international acclaim, with such films as Rashomon (1950), Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957), Kagemusha (1980), and Ran (1985)....
Kuroshio (oceanic current, Pacific Ocean)
strong surface oceanic current of the Pacific Ocean, the northeasterly flowing continuation of the Pacific North Equatorial Current between Luzon of the Philippines and the east coast of Japan. The temperature and salinity of Kuroshio water are relatively high for the region, about 68° F (20° C) and 34.5 parts ...
Kuroshio Extension (oceanic current, Pacific Ocean)
...of the Philippines to form the warm Kuroshio (also called the Japan Current). To the east of Japan the Kuroshio swings eastward to form the Kuroshio Extension. The branching of this current in the region of 160° E results in the movement known as the North Pacific Current. The surface waters of the Bering Sea circulate in a......
Kuroshio-North Pacific Current (oceanic current, Pacific Ocean)
strong surface oceanic current of the Pacific Ocean, the northeasterly flowing continuation of the Pacific North Equatorial Current between Luzon of the Philippines and the east coast of Japan. The temperature and salinity of Kuroshio water are relatively high for the region, about 68° F (20° C) and 34.5 parts ...
Kurozumi Munetada (Japanese priest)
prototype of the contemporary “new religions” of Japan, named for its founder, Kurozumi Munetada (1780–1850), a Shintō priest of the area that is now Okayama prefecture. The believers venerate the Shintō sun goddess Amaterasu as the supreme god and creator of the universe and consider the other traditional.....
Kurozumi-kyō (Japanese religion)
prototype of the contemporary “new religions” of Japan, named for its founder, Kurozumi Munetada (1780–1850), a Shintō priest of the area that is now Okayama prefecture. The believers venerate the Shintō sun goddess Amaterasu as the supreme god and cre...
kurra (dance)
...palace by skilled women. The aristocracy was quick to imitate this patronage by providing similar performances, its members vying with one another on festive occasions. One of these dances, the kurrağ (some times called kurra), developed into a song and dance festival held at the caliph’s court. Since the latter part of the 19th century, the dancing profession has lo...
Kurrachee (Pakistan)
City (pop., 2007 est.: 12,130,000), Pakistan....
kurrağ (dance)
...palace by skilled women. The aristocracy was quick to imitate this patronage by providing similar performances, its members vying with one another on festive occasions. One of these dances, the kurrağ (some times called kurra), developed into a song and dance festival held at the caliph’s court. Since the latter part of the 19th century, the dancing profession has lo...
Kurri Kurri (New South Wales, Australia)
town, now part of Greater Cessnock, eastern New South Wales, Australia. It was laid out in 1902 as a centre for the surrounding coalfields, its name coming from an Aboriginal term meaning either “man” or “the first.” Nearby is the town of Weston, another coal-mining town, established in 1903. The principal industry in Kurri Kurri is an aluminum smelte...
Kursi (people)
region on the Baltic seacoast, located south of the Western Dvina River and named after its inhabitants, the Latvian tribe of Curonians (Kurs, Cori, Cours; Latvian: Kursi). The duchy of Courland, formed in 1561, included this area as well as Semigallia (Zemgale), a region located east of Courland proper....
Kuršiu Marios (gulf, Baltic Sea)
gulf of the Baltic Sea at the mouth of the Neman River, in Lithuania and Russia. The lagoon, with an area of 625 square miles (1,619 square km), is separated from the Baltic Sea by a narrow, dune-covered sandspit, the Curonian Spit (Lithuanian: Kuršiu Nerija; Russian: Kurskaya Kosa), 60 miles (100 km) long and 1...
Kuršiu Nerija (spit, Baltic Sea)
...Sea at the mouth of the Neman River, in Lithuania and Russia. The lagoon, with an area of 625 square miles (1,619 square km), is separated from the Baltic Sea by a narrow, dune-covered sandspit, the Curonian Spit (Lithuanian: Kuršiu Nerija; Russian: Kurskaya Kosa), 60 miles (100 km) long and 1–2 miles (1.5–3 km) wide. A road along the spit connects resort and fishing villag...
Kursk (Russia)
city and administrative centre of Kursk oblast (region), western Russia. It lies along the upper Seym River, about 280 miles (450 km) south of Moscow. Kursk is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It was first mentioned in documents from 1032. Completely destroyed by the Tatars in 1240, it was not rebuilt until 1586, when it became a military outpost to ...
Kursk (oblast, Russia)
oblast (region), western Russia. The oblast is centred on Kursk city. It extends across the southern end of the Central Russian Upland. The surface is a rolling plateau, broken by broad, shallow valleys. Almost everywhere the natural forest-steppe vegetation has been replaced by farming, whic...
Kursk, Battle of (World War II)
(July 5–August 23, 1943), unsuccessful German assault on the Soviet salient around the city of Kursk, in western Russia, during World War II. The salient was a bulge in the Soviet lines that stretched 150 miles (240 km) from north to south and protruded 100 miles (160 km) westward into the German li...
Kursk Magnetic Anomaly (region, Russia)
Large iron reserves were historically found at Kryvyy Rih in Ukraine and at Magnitogorsk and in the Kursk region in Russia. High-quality ores (of 60 percent iron), however, have been exhausted or have become expensive to mine. The Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, located in southwestern Russia, has iron-rich quartzites. Sweden is another producer of iron ore, notably in the Kiruna region. Deposits in......
Kurskaya Kosa (spit, Baltic Sea)
...Sea at the mouth of the Neman River, in Lithuania and Russia. The lagoon, with an area of 625 square miles (1,619 square km), is separated from the Baltic Sea by a narrow, dune-covered sandspit, the Curonian Spit (Lithuanian: Kuršiu Nerija; Russian: Kurskaya Kosa), 60 miles (100 km) long and 1–2 miles (1.5–3 km) wide. A road along the spit connects resort and fishing villag...
Kursky Zaliv (gulf, Baltic Sea)
gulf of the Baltic Sea at the mouth of the Neman River, in Lithuania and Russia. The lagoon, with an area of 625 square miles (1,619 square km), is separated from the Baltic Sea by a narrow, dune-covered sandspit, the Curonian Spit (Lithuanian: Kuršiu Nerija; Russian: Kurskaya Kosa), 60 miles (100 km) long and 1...
Kurşunlu Mosque (mosque, Kayseri, Turkey)
...known is the Döner Kümbet, a mausoleum noted for its delicate decorative work. Chief among the city’s numerous mosques and medreses (religious schools) are the Great Mosque, the Kurşunlu Mosque (16th century; attributed to the noted architect Sinan), and the Sahibiye Medrese, which serves as a bazaar. The 13th-century Huand Medrese now houses an ethnographic m...
Kurszán (Magyar leader)
Kurszán, the Magyar tribal chieftain, probably took up residence in the palace of the former Roman governor at the end of the 9th century. The settlement shifted south to Castle Hill some time after Stephen I of Hungary had established a Christian kingdom in the early 11th century. Buda, for whom the settlement was named, was probably the first constable of the new fortress built on......
Kurt (Bulgar khan)
The Bulgars were subdued by the Avars in the 6th century, but in 635 Khan Kubrat led a successful revolt and organized an independent tribal confederation known as Great Bulgaria. After Kubrat’s death in 642, the Bulgars were attacked by the Khazars and dispersed. According to Byzantine sources, the Bulgars split into five groups, each under one of Kubrat’s sons. One of these sons, A...
Kürten, Peter (German serial killer)
German serial killer whose widely analyzed career influenced European society’s understanding of serial murder, sexual violence, and sadism in the first half of the 20th century....
Kurtidae (fish)
...are considered pests. About 29 species.Suborder Kurtoidei Family Kurtidae (nurseryfishes)Peculiar, small, percoidlike; males carry eggs, stuck under an anteriorly pointing hornlike process on top of back of head. 2 species; ...
kurtosis (geology)
...in grain size, (5) skewness, the degree of symmetry or asymmetry of the grain-size distribution, which is in turn a function of the coincidence or noncoincidence of mean, median, and mode, and (6) kurtosis (peakedness) of a grain-size distribution, which compares sorting in the central portion of the population with that in the tails....
Kurtz, Thomas (American engineer)
Computer programming language developed by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz (b. 1928) at Dartmouth College in the mid 1960s. One of the simplest high-level languages, with commands similar to English, it can be learned with relative ease......
Kurtzberg, Jacob (American comic-book artist)
(JACOB KURTZBERG), U.S. comic-book artist (b. Aug. 28, 1917, New York, N.Y.--d. Feb. 6, 1994, Thousand Oaks, Calif.), as the undisputed king of the comics, helped create some 400 characters, including such unforgettable superheroes as Captain America, Spiderman, the Incredible Hulk, and the Fantastic Four; during the 1950s a...
Kurtzman, Harvey (American cartoonist)
U.S. cartoonist and editor (b. Oct. 3, 1924, New York, N.Y.--d. Feb. 21, 1993, Mount Vernon, N.Y.), cleverly lampooned the sacred institutions of American life as the comic genius who conceived of Mad magazine and its gap-toothed, freckle-faced mascot, Alfred E. Neuman. Kurtzman, who published his first cartoon at the age of 14, attended the High School of Music and Art in ...
kuru (pathology)
infectious, fatal degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that occurs primarily among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea....
Kuru-Pancala (people)
The literature is replete with the names of clans. The most powerful among them, commanding the greatest respect, was the Kuru-Pancala, which incorporated the two families of Kuru and Puru (and the earlier Bharatas) and of which the Pancala was a confederation of lesser-known tribes. They occupied the upper Ganges–Yamuna Doab and the Kurukshetra region. In the north the Kamboja, Gandhara,.....
Kuruba (people)
...groups, which are commonly isolated from each other, are governed by a headman with two assistants, who handle disputes. Partially Hinduized, they have abandoned many traditional customs. The Kuruba, an ethnologically similar people who live on the plains as small landowners and herders of sheep, are now considered distinct from the hill Kurumba....
Kuruc rising (Hungarian history)
...and imprisoned, escaping death with his wife’s help by leaving his cell in disguise. After two years in Poland, he returned in 1703 to put himself at the head of the peasant revolt known as the Kuruc (or Kurucok) rising. He had considerable initial success, but the Anglo-Austrian victory at Blenheim in 1704 destroyed hopes of help from France and of eventual success, though fighting in.....
Kuruçay River (river, Asia)
river in Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. The Kura is the largest river in Transcaucasia. It rises on the slopes of Mount Kısırındağı in extreme eastern Turkey and cuts northward through the Lesser Caucasus range in a series of gorges with many rapids. Some distance after entering Georgia, ...
Kurucok rising (Hungarian history)
...and imprisoned, escaping death with his wife’s help by leaving his cell in disguise. After two years in Poland, he returned in 1703 to put himself at the head of the peasant revolt known as the Kuruc (or Kurucok) rising. He had considerable initial success, but the Anglo-Austrian victory at Blenheim in 1704 destroyed hopes of help from France and of eventual success, though fighting in.....
Kurukh (people)
aboriginal people of the Choṭa Nāgpur region in the state of Bihār, India. They call themselves Kurukh and speak a Dravidian language akin to Gondi and other tribal languages of central India. They once lived farther to the southwest on the Rohtās Plateau, but they were dislodged by other populations and migrated to Choṭa Nāgpur, where they settled in the ...
Kurukh language
member of the North Dravidian subfamily of Dravidian languages. In the early 21st century, Kurukh was spoken by some 1.75 million people, predominantly in the Oraon tribes of the Chota Nagpur plateau of east-central India. Kurukh is also spoken in parts of Bangladesh. Lacking a written tradition, Kurukh is documented only ...
Kuruksetra (India)
city, northeastern Haryana state, northwestern India. It is connected by road and rail with Delhi (south) and Amritsar (north). Kurukshetra’s urban area merges with Thanesar, an important Hindu pilgrimage centre. The city’s large reservoir is said to have...
Kurukshetra (India)
city, northeastern Haryana state, northwestern India. It is connected by road and rail with Delhi (south) and Amritsar (north). Kurukshetra’s urban area merges with Thanesar, an important Hindu pilgrimage centre. The city’s large reservoir is said to have...
Kuruman (South Africa)
town, Northern Cape province, South Africa. It is located in the northeastern corner of the province and is distantly southwest of Johannesburg. Originally a missionary station (1821), it later became an area of white settlement (town founded, 1885; incorporated, 1916). The town is chiefly known for a loca...
Kurumba (people)
a people living in the Cardamom and Nīlgiri hills, west-central Tamil Nadu state, southern India. Originally pastoralists, the Kurumba were probably identical with or closely related to the Pallavas. With the decline of the Pallava dynasty in the 8th century, Kurumba forefathers dispersed over a wid...
Kurumba language
...of Karnataka, which borders on Kerala. Kodagu speakers use Kannada as their official language and as the language of education. The remaining South Dravidian languages—Toda, Kota, Irula, and Kurumba—are spoken by Scheduled Tribes (officially recognized indigenous peoples) in the Nilgiri Hills of southwestern Tamil Nadu, near Karnataka. Badaga, a dialect of Kannada, is also spoken....
Kurume (Japan)
city, Fukuoka ken (prefecture), Kyushu, Japan. It lies at the centre of the Tsukushi Plain, on the Chikugo River. It was a castle town during the 17th century and a military centre from the late 19th century until World War II. Kurume is known f...
Kurunda (ancient religion)
...a bird and a hare, as on the Kültepe seals, and he stands on a stag, his sacred animal. From descriptions of the statues it appears that this is the deity denoted in the texts by the logogram KAL, to be read Kurunda or Tuwata, later Ruwata, Runda. The war god also appears, though his Hittite name is concealed behind the logogram ZABABA, the name of the Mesopotamian war god. His Hattian.....
Kurunegala (Sri Lanka)
town, west-central Sri Lanka. It is situated 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Kandy amid steep hills that were used as citadels during its early history....
Kurunta (Hittite ruler)
...appears to have been plotting with Kadashman-Enlil II, Kassite king of Babylonia (c. 1264–55 bc), and this was probably responsible for deteriorating relations between the two kings. Kurunta, another son of Muwatallis, was installed as Great King of a state centred on the city of Tarhuntassa, probably southwest of Konya, with equal status to the ruler of Carchemish; ...
Kurvava Pesen (poem by Slaveykov)
It was while Slaveykov was studying in Germany that he began the work for which he is best known, his unfinished epic poem Kurvava Pesen (written 1911–12, published 1913; “Song of Blood”), which describes the sacrifices of the Bulgarian people in their struggle for independence. He continued to work on this poem for the rest of his career.......
Kurwa na Doto (work by Farsy)
...wide circulation in the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s and are held in high esteem in East Africa today. Two other important writers from this period were the Zanzibaris Muhammed Saleh Farsy, whose novel Kurwa na Doto (1960; “Kurwa and Doto”) is a minor classic, and Muhammed Said Abdulla, whose first story of a series of detective adventures, Mzimu wa Watu wa Kale ...
Kürwille (sociology)
The Gesellschaft, in contrast, is the creation of Kürwille (rational will) and is typified by modern, cosmopolitan societies with their government bureaucracies and large industrial organizations. In the Gesellschaft, rational self-interest and calculating conduct act to weaken the traditional bonds of family, kinship, and religion that.....
Kuryłowicz, Jerzy (Polish linguist)
Polish historical linguist who was one of the greatest 20th-century students of Indo-European languages. His identification of the source of the Hittite consonant ḫ in 1927 substantiated the existence of the laryngeals, Indo-European speech sounds postulated by the Swiss linguist ...
Kurz, Hermann (German writer)
German writer chiefly known for two powerful historical novels, Schillers Heimatjahre (1843; “Schiller’s Homeland Years”) and Der Sonnenwirt (1855; “The Proprietor of the Sun Inn”), both critical of the existing social order...
Kurz, Karl (physicist)
In 1920 Barkhausen developed, with Karl Kurz, the Barkhausen-Kurz oscillator for ultrahigh frequencies (a forerunner of the microwave tube), which led to the understanding of the principle of velocity modulation. He is also known for experiments on shortwave radio transmissions....
Kurzeme (historical region, Europe)
region on the Baltic seacoast, located south of the Western Dvina River and named after its inhabitants, the Latvian tribe of Curonians (Kurs, Cori, Cours; Latvian: Kursi). The duchy of Courland, formed in 1561, included this area as well as Semigallia (Zemgale), a region located east of Courland proper....
Kurzeme (geographical region, Latvia)
moraine region of western Latvia, roughly corresponding to the historic state of Courland. Kurzeme is elevated slightly above the coastal plains of the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga...
Kurzweil 250 (musical instrument)
...containing digitized percussion sounds that could be played in patterns determined by the musician. In 1984 Raymond Kurzweil introduced the Kurzweil 250, a keyboard-controlled instrument containing digitally encoded representations of grand piano, strings, and many other orchestral......
Kurzweil, Raymond (American computer scientist and futurist)
American computer scientist and futurist who pioneered pattern-recognition technology and proselytized the inevitability of humanity’s merger with the technology it created....
kus (measurement)
unit of linear measure used by many ancient and medieval peoples. It may have originated in Egypt about 3000 bc; it thereafter became ubiquitous in the ancient world. The cubit, generally taken as equal to 18 inches (457 mm), was based on the length of the arm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger and was considered the equivalent of 6 palms or 2 spans. In some ancient cultu...
Kuśa (Hindu mythology)
...by fire. Rāma, however, banished her to the forest in deference to public opinion. There she gave birth to their two children, Kuśa and Lava. After they reached maturity and were acknowledged by Rāma to be his sons, she called upon her mother, Earth, to swallow her up....
kusa (grass)
...a cup into which the juice drips and a filter or strainer for decanting it, and cups for consuming the beverage obtained. In many sacrifices, branches or leaves of sacred plants, such as the kuśa plant (a sacred grass used as fodder) of the Vedic sacrifice and the Brahmanic pūjā (ritual), are used in......
Kusadikika, a Country in the Sky (novel by Robert)
...Diamonds”) is one of his famous books of poetry. Of his prose, his utopian novel trilogy is among his best-known works: Kusadikika, nchi iliyo angani (1951; Kusadikika, a Country in the Sky), Adili na nduguze (1952; “Adili and His Brothers”), and Kufikirika (written in 1946, published......
“Kusadikika, nchi iliyo angani” (novel by Robert)
...Diamonds”) is one of his famous books of poetry. Of his prose, his utopian novel trilogy is among his best-known works: Kusadikika, nchi iliyo angani (1951; Kusadikika, a Country in the Sky), Adili na nduguze (1952; “Adili and His Brothers”), and Kufikirika (written in 1946, published......
Kusaie (island, Micronesia)
easternmost of the Caroline Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, western Pacific Ocean. Kosrae is volcanic in origin and hilly, rising to 2,064 feet (629 metres) at Mount Finkol (Crozier). Fertile and well-watered, Kosrae produces taros, oranges, breadfruit, and bananas and has valuable stands of timber. There are deposits of bauxite and...
Kusajātaka (work by Alagiyavanna Mahoṭṭāla)
...1410 to 1468). Again reminiscent of the mainland and the religious tradition are the plentiful eulogies of the Buddha. Popular, too, was didactic verse, among the most notable of which is the Kusajātaka, 687 stanzas of epigrams and exempla by the 17th-century poet Alagiyavanna Mohoṭṭāla....
Kusakabe Kimbei (Japanese photographer)
While most of the initial photographic work in these places was by Westerners, by the 1860s local practitioners had begun to open studios and commercial establishments. Marc Ferrez in Brazil, Kusakabe Kimbei in Japan, the (French-born) Bonfils family in Lebanon, and Kassian Céphas in Indonesia were among the international photographers who set up studios to supply portraits and views......
kusamaki (tree)
...black pine, or matai (P. spicatus), the kahikatea, or white pine (P. dacrydioides), the miro (P. ferrugineus), and the totara (P. totara), all native to New Zealand; kusamaki, or broad-leaved podocarpus (P. macrophyllus), of China and Japan; real yellowwood (P. latifolius), South African yellowwood (P. elongatus), and common, or bastard,.....
Kuṣāṇa art (India)
art produced during the Kushān dynasty from about the late 1st to the 3rd century ad in an area that now includes parts of Central Asia, northern India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan....
Kusana dynasty (Asian dynasty)
ruling line descended from the Yuezhi, a people that ruled over most of the northern Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan, and parts of Central Asia during the first three centuries of the Common Era. The Yuezhi conquered Bactria in the 2nd century bce and divided the country into five chiefdoms,...
Kusanagi (Japanese mythology)
(Japanese: “Grass-Mower”), in Japanese mythology, the miraculous sword that the sun goddess Amaterasu gave to her grandson Ninigi when he descended to earth to become ruler of Japan, thus establishi...
Kusapura (Uttar Pradesh, India)
city, central Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. It is located on the Gomati River, southeast of Lucknow. Sultanpur has existed since ancient times; it was destroyed and rebuilt repeatedly before passing under the rule of Muslim sultans. The Muslim town was destroyed during the Indian Mutiny (1857...
Kusaylah (Awrāba Berber chief)
...that had developed some tradition of centralized political authority. In the course of his campaign, Abū al-Muhājir Dīnār prevailed on the Berber “king” Kusaylah to become Muslim. From his base in Tlemcen, Kusaylah dominated a confederation of the Awrāba tribes living between the western Aurès Mountains and the area of present-day......
Kusch, Polykarp (American physicist)
German-American physicist who, with Willis E. Lamb, Jr., was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1955 for his accurate determination that the magnetic moment of the electron is greater than its theoretical value, thus leading to reconsideration of and innovations in quantum e...
kuse-mai (Japanese dance)
Two performers and adherents of Zen Buddhism in the late 14th century, Kan’ami and his son Zeami Motokiyo, combined the sarugaku elements with kuse-mai, a story dance that uses both movements and words. Soon dengaku elements were added, and the distinctive Nō style slowly emerged. Like the Zen ways of tea......
Kusevitsky, Sergey Aleksandrovich (American conductor)
Russian-born American conductor and publisher, a champion of modern music who commissioned and performed many important new works....

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