Badlands Barren region covering some 2,000 sq mi (5,200 sq km) of southwestern South Dakota, U.S. It has an extremely rugged landscape almost devoid of vegetation. It was created by cloudbursts that cut deep gullies in poorly cemented bedrock; its extensive fossil deposits have yielded the remains of such animals as the three-toed horse, camel, saber- toothed tiger, and rhinoceros. Badlands National Park (379 sq mi [982 sq
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148 I badminton ► Baffin Island
km]), lying mostly between the Cheyenne and White rivers, was estab¬ lished as a national monument in 1939 and a national park in 1978.
badminton Court or lawn game played with light long-handled rack¬ ets and a shuttlecock volleyed over a net. The game is named after the residence of Britain’s duke of Beaufort, where it supposedly originated c. 1873. Officially sanctioned badminton matches are played indoors to protect the shuttlecock from winds. Play consists entirely of hitting the shuttlecock back and forth without letting it touch the floor or ground. The best-known match is the All-England Championships. Badminton became a full-medal sport at the 1992 Olympics. The world governing body is the International Federation of Badminton in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Eng.
Badoglio \b3-'dol-yo\, Pietro (b. Sept. 28, 1871, Grazzano Monfer- rato, Italy—d. Nov. 1, 1956, Grazzano Badoglio) Italian general and poli¬ tician. An army officer, he served as chief of the general staff in 1919-21 and again in 1925-28 and was made a field marshal in 1926. He governed Libya (1928-34) and commanded the Italian forces in Ethiopia (1935— 36). In 1940 he resigned as chief of staff in disagreement with Benito Mussolini, and in 1943 he helped organize Mussolini’s downfall. As prime minister (1943^44), Badoglio extricated Italy from World War II by arranging for an armistice with the Allies.
BAE Systems British manufacturer of aircraft, missiles, avionics, naval vessels, and other aerospace and defense products. BAE Systems was formed (1999) from the merger of British Aerospace (BAe) with Marconi Electronic Systems. BAe, in turn, dates to the merger (1977, with two other firms) of British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and Hawker Siddeley Aviation, both having been nationalized a year earlier owing to unprof¬ itable financial situations. Through its BAe antecedents, BAE Systems carries the legacy of some 20 British aircraft firms (e.g., Bristol, Avro, Gloster, De Havilland, Supermarine), several dating to the first decades of flight. In the 1960s and early ’70s, BAC and Hawker Siddeley each produced significant aircraft. BAC built the Vickers-Armstrongs VC 10 and BAC One-Eleven jetliners and, in partnership with Aerospatiale of France, the Concorde supersonic transport. Hawker Siddeley developed the HS 121 Trident jetliner, Vulcan bomber, and Harrier vertical/short- takeoff-and-landing (V/STOL) fighter. In 1979 British Aerospace joined the Airbus Industrie jetliner-manufacturing consortium, and during the early 1980s it became privatized. In the 1990s it became a partner with firms in Germany, Italy, and Spain in the Eurofighter Typhoon program. It also joined a venture led by Lockheed Martin to develop the Joint Strike Fighter.
Baeck VbekV Leo (b. May 23, 1873, Lissa, Posen, Prussia—d. Nov. 2, 1956, London, Eng.) Prussian-Polish rabbi, spiritual leader of German Jewry during the Nazi period. After earning his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Berlin, he served as a rabbi in Silesia, Diisseldorf, and Ber¬ lin, becoming the leading liberal Jewish religious thinker of his time. He synthesized Neo-Kantianism and rabbinic ethics in The Essence of Juda¬ ism (1905) and considered the Christian gospels as rabbinic literature in The Gospel as a Document of Jewish Religious History (1938). He nego¬ tiated with the Nazis to buy time for the German Jews; finally arrested, he was sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he wrote and lectured on Plato and Immanuel Kant. Liberated in 1945 on the day before he was to be executed, he settled in England.
Baedeker Vbed-o-korV, Karl (b.
Nov. 3, 1801, Essen, Duchy of Oldenburg—d. Oct. 4, 1859,
Koblenz, Prussia) German publisher.
The son of a printer and bookseller,
Baedeker started a firm at Koblenz in 1827 that became known for its guidebooks. His aim was to give travelers the practical information necessary to enable them to dispense with paid guides. A notable feature of the books was the use of “stars” to indicate objects and views of spe¬ cial interest and to designate reliable Karl Baedeker, oil painting by an hotels. By the time of his death much unknown artist of Europe had been covered by his popperfoto _
guidebooks. Under the ownership of his sons the firm expanded to include French and English editions.
Baekeland Vba-k3-,lant,\ English Vbak-bnd\, Leo (Hendrik) (b. Nov. 14, 1863, Ghent, Belg.—d. Feb. 23, 1944, Beacon, N.Y., U.S.) Belgian-born U.S. industrial chemist. A teacher of chemistry in Belgium, he immigrated to the U.S. in 1889. He invented Velox, the first commer¬ cially successful photographic paper, which could be developed under artificial light, and sold the rights to George Eastman for $1 million in 1899. His search for a substitute for shellac led to the discovery in 1909 of a method of forming a hard thermosetting plastic, which he named Bakelite, produced from formaldehyde and phenol. His discovery helped found the modern plastics industry.
Baer \'ber\, Karl Ernst, knight von (b. Feb. 29, 1792, Piep, Est., Russian Empire—d. Nov. 28, 1876, Dorpat, Est.) Prussian-bom Estonian embryologist. Studying chick development with Christian Pander (1794- 1865), Baer expanded Pander’s concept of germ layer formation to all vertebrates, thereby laying the foundation for comparative embryology. He emphasized that embryos of one species could resemble embryos (but not adults) of another and that the younger the embryo, the greater the resemblance, a concept in line with his belief that development proceeds from simple to complex, from like to different. He also discovered the mammalian ovum. His On the Development of Animals (2 vol., 1828-37) surveyed all existing knowledge on vertebrate development and estab¬ lished embryology as a distinct subject of research.
baetylus or baetulus Vbe-to-bs, 'be-tyo-bsV In Greek reugion, a sacred stone or pillar. In antiquity there were numerous holy stones, most associated with a deity. The most famous example is the holy stone known as the Omphalos in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Sometimes the stones were formed into pillars or into groups of three pillars.
Baeyer \'ba-9r\, (Johann Friedrich Wilhelm) Adolf von (b. Oct. 31, 1835, Berlin, Prussia—d. Aug.
20, 1917, Stamberg, near Munich,
Ger.) German research chemist. He synthesized indigo and formulated its structure, discovered the phthalein dyes, and investigated such chemical families as the polyacetylenes, oxo- nium salts, and uric-acid derivatives (discovering barbituric acid, parent compound of the barbiturates). He also made contributions to theoreti¬ cal chemistry. He received the Nobel Prize in 1905.
Baez Vbl-ez\, Joan (Chandos)
(b. Jan. 9, 1941, Staten Island, New York, N.Y., U.S.)U.S. folksinger and activist. She moved often as a child, receiving little musical training, but she became influential in the 1960s folk-song revival. Singing in a soprano voice, usually accompanied by her own guitar arrangements, she popularized traditional songs through her performances and best-selling record albums. An active participant in the protest movements of the 1960s and ’70s, Baez made free concert appearances at civil-rights and anti-Vietnam War rallies. Her recordings include Diamonds and Rust (1975) and Gone from Danger (1997).
Baffin Bay Large inlet, Atlantic Ocean, between western Greenland and eastern Baffin Island. With an area of 266,000 sq mi (689,000 sq km), it extends 900 mi (1,450 km) southward from the Arctic and is connected to the Atlantic by Davis Strait. It was visited by the English captain Rob¬ ert Bylot in 1615 and named for his lieutenant, William Baffin. Its climate is severe, and icebergs are dense even in August.