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...

any structure containing telescopes and auxiliary instruments with which to observe celestial objects. Observatories can be classified on the basis of the part of the electromagnetic spectrum in which they are designed to observe. The larg...

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...

Mental disorder in which an individual experiences obsessions or compulsions, either singly or together. An obsession is a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an unreasonable idea or feeling (such as of being contaminated through shak...

Medical and surgical specialty concerned with the management of pregnancy and childbirth and with the health of the female reproductive system. Obstetrics, first practiced by midwives, developed as a medical discipline in the 17th–19...

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...

Type of mind-body dualism that maintains that apparent interactions between mental and physical events are in reality the result of God's constant causal action. Starting from Descartes's mind-body dualism, the occasionalists, whose most p...

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...

(1923–25) Occupation of the industrial Ruhr River valley region in Germany by French and Belgian troops. The action was provoked by German deficiencies in the coal and coke deliveries to France required by the reparations agreement a...

Have you ever wondered why you don't have strong vocabulary? The answer might be as simple as "I don't read a lot." You must read what ever you can. It is always a good idea to read interesting things. Begin each morning with a brand new wo...

Illness associated with a particular occupation. The Industrial Revolution's long working hours, dim light, lack of fresh air, and dangerous machinery fostered illness and injury in general, but certain occupations (e.g., mining) carry par...

A relatively new concern that dates roughly to the post-Industrial Revolution era, occupation health and safety is a field that involves measures to prevent or minimize dangers to people in their places of work, i.e., the office, farm, bui...