A class declaration is a blueprint for what a class will look like, the data members it will contain, and the functions it will have. In C++ a class declaration is typically made in a "header file" or "include file." A class declaration is...

We English are good at forgiving our enemies; it releases us from the obligation of liking our friends. I believe that a worthwhile life is defined by a kind of spiritual journey and a sense of obligation. Life is made up, not of great sac...

Charlotte Grace O'Brien was an energetic and strong-willed Irish political reformer and writer who recorded many of her experiences, both political and personal, in her poetry. O'Brien's poems span the middle ground between traditional, se...

The poem "Fame", by Vladimir Nabokov, seems to begin with the description or rather a search for the description of a character to be placed in one form of literary sat, whether poem or prose. The character's physical description is alread...

Reason, Observation, and Experience -- the Holy Trinity of Science. You can observe a lot just by watching. The observation of nature is part of an artist's life, it enlarges his form knowledge, keeps him fresh and from working only by for...

The most sensitive, sophisticated, and flexible instrument of observation available today is the human being. All the recent advances in technology have not changed this central fact; we can monitor communications, transcribe conversations...

Psychological theories have traditionally emphasized learning from direct experience. If knowledge and skills could be acquired only by trial and error, human development would be greatly retarded, not to mention exceedingly tedious and ha...

Astronomers study the universe by measuring electromagnetic radiation—gamma rays, X rays, optical and infrared radiation, and radio waves—emitted by planets, stars, galaxies, and other distant objects. Because Earth's ...

Brian De Palma's "Obsession" is an hommage to Hitchcock's "Vertigo."… But it is intellectually muddleheaded in a way that Hitchcock's films never are. It is not up to the Master's insteps. There is a point at which hommage has an enfeebli...

"Obsession is a commitment; you have to believe in it, because it soon takes you over." A chilling statement made by Pilar Vilades in a New York Times Magazine article regarding how time consuming an obsession can be. This is exceptionall...

Obstetrics, the medical specialty of caring for women and their babies during childbirth, arose in the mid-eighteenth century. Ordinarily, women in childbirth were attended by other women—mostly relatives, friends, or neighbors who...

To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question. Never assume the obvious is true. No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious. In saying what is obvious, never choose cunning. Yelling works better...

OCCASIONALISM. [This entry deals specifically with Islamic occasionalism.] The adjective occasional, as applied to causes or events, is used by medieval European theologians such as Thomas Aquinas to mean an "indirect cause which de...

Marita Bonner is perhaps the most unorthodox playwright of the early part of the century to turn her attention toward the concerns of the African American community. Yet, despite an unusual, nonrealistic approach to her subject, Bonner won...

Germany 1889 During May 1889 nearly 100,000 German miners went on strike in the Ruhr Valley. They demanded wage increases and an eight-hour workday and raised other grievances. Faced with employer intransigence, some miners petitioned Kai...

Occupational and career mobility in adulthood is often referred to as intragenerational social mobility. It involves change in an individual's position in the labor market over the adult life course. Change is studied with respect t...

Individuals have repeatedly demonstrated an ability to rank occupations according to their prestige, a relative social standing in a society. Occupational prestige is one of the most empirically studied aspects of stratification structure ...

The market is not always right. Unless the marketplace is policed, criminals reap the rewards, not society. Before the Savings and Loan crisis began, Rep Henry Gonzalez pleaded over and over for Congress to appropriate funds for bank exam...