Barry Diller: The following year USAI became IAC/InterActiveCorp, which operated such Web sites as Ask.com and the online dating service Match.com. In 2010 Diller stepped down as CEO, though he continued as chairman.

USA PATRIOT Act, U.S. legislation, passed by Congress in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and signed into law by Pres. George W. Bush in October 2001, that significantly expanded the search and surveillance powers of federal law-enforcement and intelligence agencies. The USA

USA Today, National U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. Initially considered gimmicky and insubstantial,

volleyball: History: …1928 the USVBA—now known as USA Volleyball (USAV)—has conducted annual national men’s and senior men’s (age 35 and older) volleyball championships, except during 1944 and 1945. Its women’s division was started in 1949, and a senior women’s division (age 30 and older) was added in 1977. Other national events in…

waterskiing: USA Water Ski, founded in 1939, with headquarters at Winter Haven, Fla., sponsors and promotes both recreational and competitive waterskiing and is the governing body for competitive waterskiing standards in the United States. The association certifies performance records and levels of achievement, grants awards, and…

boxing: Amateur boxing: The United States of America Amateur Boxing Federation (now USA Boxing), which governs American amateur boxing, was formed after the 1978 passage of a law forbidding the AAU to govern more than one Olympic sport.

Eileen Collins: …joined the board of the United Services Automobile Association.

United States Army: Administrative structure: The United States Army Acquisition Support Center (USAASC) is a DRU that oversees the conceptualization, development, and acquisition of military systems. The United States Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM) maintains services and facilities for army personnel and their families.

Indianapolis 500: …under the aegis of the United States Auto Club (USAC). A rival open-wheel racing series known as Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) was formed in 1979. By the mid-1990s CART had successfully replaced USAC as the leading power in IndyCar racing. In 1996 speedway owner Tony George formed the Indy…

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, combatant arm and a technical service of the United States Army. Alone among the armed services it engages in extensive civil as well as military activities. The army’s first engineer officers were appointed by George Washington in 1775, and in 1802 the Corps of

United States Army: Administrative structure: The United States Army Criminal Investigation Command (USACIDC) is responsible for all criminal investigations that are conducted by the army, including those overseas. It operates a criminal intelligence element. The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is a DRU responsible for both military engineering projects…

Lance Armstrong: Doping investigations and ban: …June of that year the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) alleged that Armstrong and five of his associates—three doctors, a manager, and a trainer—had been part of a decadelong doping conspiracy beginning in the late 1990s. According to USADA, Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs—including erythropoietin (EPO) and human growth hormone—and distributed drugs…

United States Air Force (USAF), one of the major components of the United States armed forces, with primary responsibility for air warfare, air defense, and the development of military space research. The Air Force also provides air services in coordination with the other military branches. U.S.

dictionary: Usage labels: Part of the information that a dictionary should give concerns the restrictions and constraints on the use of words, commonly called usage labelling. There is great variation in language use in many dimensions—temporal, geographical, and cultural. The people who make a two-part division…

Spain: The medieval empire, 1035–1157: …law later known as the Usatges de Barcelona (“Usages of Barcelona”).

Barry Diller: The following year USAI became IAC/InterActiveCorp, which operated such Web sites as Ask.com and the online dating service Match.com. In 2010 Diller stepped down as CEO, though he continued as chairman.

Laura Chinchilla: …for such organizations as the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the United Nations Development Programme. She also became affiliated with a number of international committees and foundations that promoted public safety and human rights, and she lectured and wrote widely on those topics.

US Airways, former American airline that was incorporated on March 5, 1937, as All American Aviation, Inc. It underwent numerous name changes before becoming US Airways in 1997. In 2015, two years after announcing plans to merge with American Airlines, the carrier flew its last flight. The company

Uşak, city in the interior of western Turkey. It lies at an elevation of 2,976 feet (907 metres) above sea level. Situated in a region that was once part of the Hittite empire, Uşak lies near the ruins of ancient Flaviopolis. In more recent times it was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of

Ushak carpet, floor covering handwoven in the city of Uşak (Ushak), Turkey. By the 16th century the principal manufacture of large commercial carpets in Ottoman Turkey had been established at Uşak, which produced rugs for palace and mosque use and for export. In the 18th and early 19th centuries,

Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil was a writer who is considered the first true exponent in Turkey of the novel in its contemporary European form. He was educated at a French school in İzmir, where he became devoted to the works of the 19th-century French novelists. A journey to France also contributed to his

Usumacinta River, river in southeastern Mexico and northwestern Guatemala, formed by the junction of the Pasión River, which arises in the Sierra de Santa Cruz (in Guatemala), and the Chixoy River, which descends from the Sierra Madre de Guatemala. The Usumacinta River flows northwestward,

Islamic arts: Decentralization of Islamic literatures: …a lively Arabic autobiography by Usāmah ibn Munqidh (died 1188), which sheds much light upon the life and cultural background of a Syrian knight during the Crusades. A number of mystics, too, had written their spiritual autobiographies in a variety of languages, with varying degrees of artistic success. Bābur’s book,…

Spain: The medieval empire, 1035–1157: …law later known as the Usatges de Barcelona (“Usages of Barcelona”).

volleyball: History: …1928 the USVBA—now known as USA Volleyball (USAV)—has conducted annual national men’s and senior men’s (age 35 and older) volleyball championships, except during 1944 and 1945. Its women’s division was started in 1949, and a senior women’s division (age 30 and older) was added in 1977. Other national events in…

USB, technology used to connect computers with peripheral devices. First introduced in 1996, the USB standard was developed by a number of American companies, including IBM, Intel Corporation, and Microsoft Corporation, as a simpler way of connecting hardware to personal computers (PCs). Before USB

USB flash drive, small portable data storage device that uses flash memory and has an integrated universal serial bus (USB) interface. Most flash drives have between 2 and 64 gigabytes (GB) of memory, but some drives can store as much as 2 terabytes (TB). A flash drive consists of a small printed

Nancy Lieberman: …the Springfield Fame in the United States Basketball League (USBL). In 1988 Lieberman was chosen by the Washington Generals to play against the Harlem Globetrotters, making her the first woman to participate in a Globetrotters world tour. Approaching the age of 40 but still a talented player, she joined the…

Guatemala: Guatemala in the 21st century: …percent) of detentions by the Border Patrol on the U.S.-Mexico border than any other nationality.

University of Southern California, private coeducational institution of higher education in Los Angeles, California, U.S. It comprises the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, the Graduate School, and 19 professional schools. The university offers undergraduate degrees in about 75 fields and

United States Coast Guard (USCG), branch of the U.S. armed forces that is charged with the enforcement of maritime laws. It is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security. In time of war, it functions as part of the U.S. Navy and is under the direction of the president. The USCG

Ignazio Silone: In Uscita di sicurezza (1965; Emergency Exit, 1968), Silone describes his shifts from Socialism to Communism to Christianity. A play, L’avventura d’un povero cristiano (published 1968; The Story of a Humble Christian, 1970), depicts the life of the 13th-century pope Celestine V, focussing on the conflict between the demands of…

U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century (USCNS/21), U.S. congressional committee established in 1998 to examine how best to ensure U.S. national security in the first quarter of the 21st century. The U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century (USCNS/21) became widely known as the

2021 Myanmar coup d’état: Background: …the newly formed and military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) to contest the legislative elections that were held in 2010. The party performed well, and he was elected president of the new government in 2011. The relationship between the military and civilian government largely held during Thein Sein’s term…

U.S. Department of Agriculture, executive division of the U.S. federal government in charge of programs and policies relating to the farming industry and the use of national forests and grasslands. Formed in 1862, the USDA works to stabilize or improve domestic farm income, develop foreign markets,

Sodom and Gomorrah: Historicity: …Sedom (Arabic: Jabal Usdum), or Mount Sodom, at the southwestern end of the sea, reflects Sodom’s name. The present-day industrial site of Sedom, Israel, on the Dead Sea shore, is located near the presumed site of Sodom and Gomorrah.

use, in medieval English property law, the right of one person to take the profits of land belonging to another. It involved at least two and usually three persons. One man (A) would convey or enfeoff land to another (B) on the condition that the latter would use it not for his own benefit but for

genetics: Preformation and natural selection: He enunciated the law of use and disuse, which states that when certain organs become specially developed as a result of some environmental need, then that state of development is hereditary and can be passed on to progeny. He believed that in this way, over many generations, giraffes…

immunity: …of criminal immunity—transactional immunity and use immunity. A person granted transactional immunity may not be prosecuted for any crime about which that person testifies as a result of the immunity grant. The testimony of a person granted use immunity may not be used against that person, but that person may…

criminal law: Mitigating circumstances and other defenses: …in which the use of force, even deadly force, is excused or justified. The most important body of law in this area is that which relates to self-defense. In general, in Anglo-American law, one may kill an assailant when the killer reasonably believes that he is in imminent peril of…

Friedrich Bergius: He described his research in The Use of High Pressure in Chemical Actions (1913). These studies led to his work on converting coal into liquid hydrocarbons.

church year: Advent: …medieval service books, notably the Use of Sarum (Salisbury), extensively followed in England, with its Sunday before Advent. The coming of Christ in his Nativity was overlaid with a second theme, also stemming from Gallican churches, namely, his Second Coming at the end of time. This interweaving of the themes…

use tax, levy on the use or possession of a commodity. Under the principle that the taxpayer should pay according to the benefits received from public services, a use tax is often levied on the user of a service, so that costs of the service are not borne by the general taxpayer. Common examples

Guns N’ Roses: …The band’s two 1991 albums, Use Your Illusion I and II, sold well but were generally regarded as less compelling than their previous work. The 1993 album The Spaghetti Incident? generated further controversy by including a song written by mass murderer Charles Manson.

Guns N’ Roses: …Use Your Illusion I and II, sold well but were generally regarded as less compelling than their previous work. The 1993 album The Spaghetti Incident? generated further controversy by including a song written by mass murderer Charles Manson.

Robert Zemeckis: …directed, including his next effort, Used Cars (1980).

Lewis Carroll: Early life: …those that survive, beginning with Useful and Instructive Poetry (1845; published 1954) and following with The Rectory Magazine (c. 1850, mostly unpublished), The Rectory Umbrella (1850–53), and Mischmasch (1853–62; published with The Rectory Umbrella in 1932).

jewelry: Egyptian: …the whole period, was the usekh, which, like the vulture-shaped necklace from the tomb of Tutankhamun, also has many rows and a semicircular form.

classical scholarship: Developments in the study of ancient history and philosophy: …to Epicureanism were edited by Hermann Usener (1834–1905), who employed the new methodology of comparative religion to throw much light on the religion of Greece, not disdaining the study of popular culture and of folklore as well; his work was continued by a line of pupils, and he had an…

USENET, an Internet-based network of discussion groups. USENET began in 1979 when two graduate students at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis, came up with a way to exchange messages and files between computers using UNIX-to-UNIX copy protocol (UUCP). Steve

marketing: Business marketing: …be divided into three groups: user customers, original-equipment manufacturers, and resellers. User customers make use of the goods they purchase in their own businesses. An automobile manufacturer, for example, might purchase a metal-stamping press to produce parts for its vehicles. Original-equipment manufacturers incorporate the purchased goods into their final products,…

human-machine interface, means by which humans and computers communicate with each other. The human-machine interface includes the hardware and software that is used to translate user (i.e., human) input into commands and to present results to the user. Usability of the human-machine interface is

systems engineering: User orientation: The stress on systems objectives has one further consequence worth mentioning; i.e., that systems engineering is likely to be strongly user-oriented. This results naturally enough from the fact that systems objectives usually relate to overall performance, which is what the final user is…

USENET, an Internet-based network of discussion groups. USENET began in 1979 when two graduate students at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis, came up with a way to exchange messages and files between computers using UNIX-to-UNIX copy protocol (UUCP). Steve

media convergence: Social media: …media is the rise of user-created content, with users changing from audiences to participants. Australian media scholar Axel Bruns referred to the rise of the “produser,” or the Internet user who is both a user and a creator of online content, while British author Charles Leadbeater discussed the “pro-am revolution”…

media convergence: Social media: …media is the rise of user-created content, with users changing from audiences to participants. Australian media scholar Axel Bruns referred to the rise of the “produser,” or the Internet user who is both a user and a creator of online content, while British author Charles Leadbeater discussed the “pro-am revolution”…

Userkaf was the first king of the 5th dynasty of ancient Egypt (c. 2435–c. 2306 bce), under whose reign the cult of Re, god of the sun, began to gain unprecedented importance. Probably descended from Redjedef (third king of the 4th dynasty [c. 2543–c. 2436 bce]), Userkaf strengthened his legitimacy

fairy tale: In his Uses of Enchantment (1976), Bettelheim asserted that the apparently cruel and arbitrary nature of many folk fairy stories is actually an instructive reflection of the child’s natural and necessary “killing off” of successive phases of development and initiation.

inheritance: Historical development: …was abolished by Henry VIII’s Statute of Uses in 1535. The King wished to restore to the crown its prospects of escheat and of certain feudal duties, which could be evaded by the alienation to uses. Public indignation was so strong, however, that five years later the King found it…

American football: Showmanship on the field: …Football League (1974–75) and the United States Football League (1983–85)—and invested in the Arena Football League (an indoor version of the sport that was played on a shortened field during the NFL’s off-season from 1987 to 2008 and again from 2010 in a new incarnation) and expanded into Europe in…

figure skating: Regional and national: …competitions are sanctioned by the USFSA, and the participants and their coaches must be members of that organization. The Ice Skating Institute (ISI) also holds amateur competitions, but, unlike the USFSA, which is the organization for those with interest in Olympic-level or world-level competition, the ISI focuses on the recreational…

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: It is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with headquarters in Fairbanks. One of the great pristine and largely undisturbed wilderness areas of North America, the refuge has been the subject of much controversy because of the potential hydrocarbon reserves within it.

golf: The United States and Canada: …by these promotions that the United States Golf Association (USGA) was instituted in 1894. Its aims were to organize the U.S. Amateur and Open championships and to formulate a set of rules for the game. The founding fathers, two from each club, were from St. Andrew’s, Shinnecock Hills, Chicago, the…

LEED® standards: …devised in 1994 by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC; founded 1993) to encourage sustainable practices design and development by means of tools and criteria for performance measurement. It is “a voluntary, consensus-based, market-driven building rating system based on existing proven technology.” The USGBC has established standards for new construction…

history of publishing: University and government presses: In the United States, the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C., was established by Congress in 1860 for similar purposes, and it steadily widened its field of operations. China developed a similar organization to issue its publications.

Rocky Mountains: Study and exploration: …surveys were organized by the U.S. government following the American Civil War: the survey of the 40th parallel led by Clarence King (1867–78), the geologic survey of Nebraska and Wyoming led by Ferdinand Hayden (1867–78), the 100th-meridian survey led by George Wheeler (1872–79), and the expeditions to the Green and…

Jordan Kush Ngubane: …published his only English-language novel, Ushaba: The Hurtle to Blood River; he referred to the book as a “Zulu Umlando,” which he defined as “a story of ideas in action.” “The narrator or umlandi is a witness of history,” he wrote, and “as a rule, his authority rests on the…

ushabti figure, any of the small statuettes made of wood, stone, or faience that are often found in large numbers in ancient Egyptian tombs. The figures range in height from approximately 4 to 20 inches (10 to 50 cm) and often hold hoes in their arms. Their purpose was to act as a magical

Uşak, city in the interior of western Turkey. It lies at an elevation of 2,976 feet (907 metres) above sea level. Situated in a region that was once part of the Hittite empire, Uşak lies near the ruins of ancient Flaviopolis. In more recent times it was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of

Ushak carpet, floor covering handwoven in the city of Uşak (Ushak), Turkey. By the 16th century the principal manufacture of large commercial carpets in Ottoman Turkey had been established at Uşak, which produced rugs for palace and mosque use and for export. In the 18th and early 19th centuries,

iceberg: Iceberg distribution and drift trajectories: 3 percent comes from Ushakov Island. Many icebergs from these sources move directly into the shallow Barents or Kara seas, where they run aground. Looping trails of broken pack ice are left as the bergs move past the obstacles. Other bergs pass through Fram Strait and into the East…

Simon Ushakov was an iconographer, portrait painter, builder of monuments, designer, cartographer, book illustrator, theoretician, and teacher who was the most distinguished Russian artist of the 17th century. He was for many years the head of the Imperial Icon Painting Workshop in the Kremlin

Conrad Aiken: …of this in his autobiography Ushant (1952).

Ouessant Island, a rocky island, Finistère département, off the western tip of Bretagne, western France. The island, about 5 miles (8 km) long and 2 miles (3 km) wide, has an area of 6 square miles (15 square km). Its lighthouse, the Phare de Créac’h, marks the southern entrance to the English

Battle of the First of June, the first great naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought on June 1, 1794, between the French and the British in the Atlantic Ocean about 430 miles (690 km) west of the Breton island of Ouessant (Ushant). The battle arose out of an attempt by the British

Prajapati: …female partner is given as Ushas, the dawn, who is also regarded as his daughter.

Georgia: Relief, drainage, and soils: and Mounts Rustaveli, Tetnuld, and Ushba, all of which are above 15,000 feet. The cone of the extinct Mkinvari (Kazbek) volcano dominates the northernmost Bokovoy range from a height of 16,512 feet. A number of important spurs extend in a southward direction from the central range, including those of the…

chess: Women in chess: …2012 tournament was won by Anna Ushenina of Ukraine. Hou regained the title in 2013.

Usher is an American musician whose smooth vocals and sensual ballads helped establish him as a rhythm-and-blues superstar in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His hit singles include “You Make Me Wanna,” “Nice & Slow,” “U Remind Me,” and the rap collaboration “Yeah!” He is also known for his acting

deaf-blindness: Causes of deaf-blindness: A genetic syndrome known as Usher syndrome is the most frequent genetic cause of deaf-blindness. However, other genetic syndromes, such as CHARGE syndrome and Goldenhar syndrome, can also cause the condition. Other causes include illnesses or diseases of the pregnant mother or her child (e.g., rubella, meningitis, cytomegalovirus, and tumours)…

Battle of Okinawa: Planning and preliminary operations: Ushijima Mitsuru. Acknowledging that the battle for Okinawa would very likely replicate the brutal losses of Iwo Jima on a much greater scale, American planners hoped to overwhelm the Japanese with a massive preliminary bombardment and the largest amphibious landing conducted by the U.S. during…

renga: …came to be drawn between ushin renga (serious renga), which followed the conventions of court poetry, and mushin renga, or haikai (comic renga), which deliberately broke the conventions in vocabulary and diction. Gradually, the composition of renga spread to the court poets, who saw the artistic possibilities of this diversion…

ushpizin, (Aramaic: “visitors”), according to the Jewish Kabbalistic book the Sefer ha-zohar (“Book of Splendour”), seven ancient worthies who take turns visiting the homes of all pious Jews to share their dinner on the festival of Sukkoth. A custom developed of reciting a fixed formula of

iqṭāʿ: …expected to pay the smaller ʿushr, or tithe, on income, but was allowed to keep the balance as his salary. However, it proved difficult for the government to extract any payments from the officers, and the Būyids, an Iranian dynasty (reigned 932–1062), made the iqṭāʿ a grant of usufruct by…

Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), ethnic Albanian Kosovar militant group active during the 1990s that sought Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, a republic in the federation of Yugoslavia. Kosovo, which borders Albania, was a province of Serbia, which itself was a part of Yugoslavia (1929–2003). Kosovo

Ushuaia, city, capital and port of Tierra del Fuego provincia (province), Argentina, on the Beagle Channel. It lies on the main island of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago at the southern tip of South America. The site was first settled by Wasti H. Stirling, an English missionary, in 1870. In 1884

Edward R. Murrow: …was appointed director of the U.S. Information Agency in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy.

India: Location: The Kekayas, Madras, and Ushinaras, who had settled in the region between Gandhara and the Beas River, were described as descendants of the Anu tribe. The Matsyas occupied an area to the southwest of present-day Delhi. The Kuru-Pancala, still dominant in the Ganges–Yamuna Doab area, were extending their control…

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.“Expect the unexpected,” so the old saying goes. But when it comes to financial emergencies, that’s easier said than done. When trouble strikes, it’s usually twofold. There’s the actual emergency—a car repair, medical issue, job loss—that needs

Smooth out price volatility.How might you gauge the direction of an asset’s price trend? If you want to determine whether price is rising, falling, or moving sideways, you’ll find that it never moves in a straight line. Prices rise and fall, taking small steps or making big jumps. Perhaps the best

Decode the strategy behind the shares.When we think of stock analysis, we typically think of common measures like the price-to-earnings ratio, return on equity, earnings-to-growth ratio, and others. In most cases, they’re all you need to determine a company’s growth potential. But what if you need

It’s a great starting point.The 50-30-20 rule is a common way to allocate the spending categories in your personal or household budget. The rule targets 50% of your after-tax income toward necessities, 30% toward things you don’t need—but make life a little nicer—and the final 20% toward paying

Looking for a price reversal?If only there were a market indicator that told us when to buy or sell a stock with precise timing and price accuracy. No such indicator exists, of course. There are too many unique variables in the market for any system to calculate the smallest nuances that can

Osiris, one of the most important gods of ancient Egypt. The origin of Osiris is obscure; he was a local god of Busiris, in Lower Egypt, and may have been a personification of chthonic (underworld) fertility. By about 2400 bce, however, Osiris clearly played a double role: he was both a god of

Oleksandriya, city, south-central Ukraine, on the Inhulets River. Founded as Usivka in the early 18th century, it was renamed Becheyu (also Becha, or Bechka) in the 1750s, Oleksandriysk in 1784, and Oleksandriya shortly thereafter. The nearby lignite (brown coal) field was used beginning in the

Usk, town, present and historic county of Monmouthshire, southeastern Wales. It lies along the River Usk, 20 miles (32 km) from its Bristol Channel mouth. The town was settled first by Celts and then by Romans, who called it Burrium. A Norman castle was built in the 12th century but was partially

Monmouthshire: …town of Usk, on the River Usk, is noted for its fishing. The Severn rail tunnel, the cable-stayed Second Severn Crossing (completed 1996; renamed the Prince of Wales Bridge in 2018), and the Severn suspension bridge connect Monmouthshire and the rest of Wales to southern England. Including viaducts, the cable-stayed…

Spain: Spain and Europe: …shore of the Adriatic), the Uskoks, to prey on the trade of Venice, and they even seem to have plotted the complete overthrow of that republic.

Skopje, principal city and capital of North Macedonia. Standing on the banks of the Vardar River amid mountainous country, Skopje began as ancient Scupi, an Illyrian tribal centre. It became the capital of the district of Dardania (part of the Roman province of Moesia Superior) under the emperor

Edirne, city, extreme western Turkey. It lies at the junction of the Tunca and Maritsa (Turkish: Meriç) rivers, near the borders of Greece and Bulgaria. The largest and oldest part of the town occupies a meander of the Tunca around the ruins of an ancient citadel. Edirne’s site and turbulent