Rybinsk Reservoir Vri-bonskX Lake, on the upper Volga River, north¬ western Russia. It was created by two dams on the Volga and its tribu¬ tary, the Sheksna. When the project was completed in 1947, a lake of 1,768 sq mi (4,580 sq km) in area was formed; it was the world’s largest artificial body of water. It regulates the flow of the Volga, provides power for Moscow and other cities, and is part of the Volga-Baltic Waterway.
Ryder, Albert Pinkham (b. March 19, 1847, New Bedford, Mass., U.S.—d. March 28, 1917, Elmhurst,
N.Y.) U.S. painter. Born in a fishing port, he never lost his obsession with the sea. He settled in New York City c. 1870 and briefly studied painting.
His highly personal seascapes, including Toilers of the Sea, reflect his feeling of human helplessness against the forces of nature. Thick yellow light (usually moonlight) heightens the mood of mystery in such paintings as The Race Track and Death on a Pale Horse. He was a strikingly imaginative painter, and though he was a solitary one, his works became well known in his life¬ time.
Ryder Cup Biennial team golf event first held in 1927. It was origi- W nally played between teams of golfers from the U.S. and Britain; since
1979 players opposing the U.S. have been chosen from all of Europe. The trophy was donated by the British seed merchant Samuel Ryder.
rye Cereal grass ( Secale cereale) and its edible grain, used to make rye tm bread and rye whiskey, as livestock feed, and as a pasture plant. Native
to South Asia, today it is grown extensively in Europe, Asia, and North America. It is planted mainly where climate and soil are relatively unfavourable for other cereals and as a winter crop where temperatures are too cold for winter wheat. Rye thrives at high altitudes and is the most winter-hardy of all small grains. It is high in carbohydrates and provides small quantities of protein, potassium, and B vitamins. Only rye and wheat have the necessary qualities to make a loaf of bread, but rye lacks the elasticity of wheat and thus is frequently blended with wheat flour. The tough fibrous straw of rye is used for animal bedding, thatching, mat¬ tresses, hats, and paper. Rye may be grown as a green manure crop.
Rye House Plot (1683) In English history, an alleged Whig conspiracy to assassinate Charles II because of his pro-Catholic policies. The plot drew its name from Rye House at Hoddeston, Hertfordshire, near the road where Charles was supposed to be killed as he traveled from a horse meet. The king’s unexpected early departure supposedly foiled the plot, which was later revealed by an informer. The facts remained cloudy, but the main plotters included the duke of Monmouth, William, Lord Russell, Algernon Sidney (1622-1683), and Sir Thomas Armstrong. The last three were tried, convicted of treason, and beheaded.
Ryerson Polytechnic University Privately endowed institution of higher learning in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1948 and named after the educator Egerton Ryerson (1803-82). It has faculties of engineering and applied science, arts (including the humanities and social sciences), applied arts, business, community services, and continuing edu¬ cation. It is primarily a four-year baccalaureate institution.
Rykov Vrik-ofX, Aleksey (Ivanovich) (b. Feb. 25, 1881, Saratov, Russia—d. March 14, 1938, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) Soviet official. Active in Bolshevik revolutionary activities from age 18, he became a party leader and, after Vladimir Lenin’s death, chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars (1924-29). A strong supporter of the New Economic Policy, he was joined by Joseph Stalin to defeat the economic radicals (and Stalin’s rivals) Leon Trotsky, Grigory Zinovyev, and Lev Kamenev. When Stalin then adopted his rivals’ radical ideas, Rykov was stripped of his posts and forced to recant his “Right Opposition” views (1929). In 1936 he was implicated in fabricated conspiracies, tried in Stalin’s purge trials, and executed for treason.
Ryle, Gilbert (b. Aug. 19, 1900, Brighton, Sussex, Eng.—d. Oct. 6, 1976, Whitby, North Yorkshire) British philosopher, leading figure in the “ordinary language,” or “Oxford” school of analytic philosophy. He became a lecturer in philosophy at Christ Church College in 1924. He was Wayn- flete professor of metaphysical philosophy at Oxford from 1945 to 1968 and editor of Mind from 1948 to 1971. His major work, The Concept of Mind (1949), rejects Cartesian dualism as the logically incoherent doctrine of the “ghost in the machine” and argues for a “logical behaviourism” according to which attributions of mental states need refer only to the behaviour of bodies and not to any mysterious entity hidden inside them. His other works include Philosophical Arguments (1945), Dilemmas (1954), A Rational Animal (1962), Plato’s Progress (1966), and The Thinking of Thoughts (1968).
Ryle, Sir Martin (b. Sept. 27, 1918, Brighton, Sussex, Eng.—d. Oct. 14, 1984, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire) British radio astronomer. After receiving a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Oxford, he helped design radar equipment during World War II. He was an early investiga¬ tor of extraterrestrial radio signals. Ryle guided the Cambridge radio astronomy group in the production of radio source catalogs. The Third Cambridge Catalogue (1959) helped lead to the discovery of the first quasar. To map distant radio sources, he developed a technique called aperture synthesis, which provided tremendously increased resolving power for radio telescopes and was used to locate the first pulsar. In 1974 he and Antony Hewish shared a Nobel Prize.
Rymer Vri-morV, Thomas (b. 1643?, near Northallerton, Yorkshire, Eng.—d. Dec. 14, 1713, London) English critic. Though called to the bar in 1673, Rymer almost immediately turned to literary criticism. He is known for introducing into England the principles of French formalist Neoclas¬ sical criticism. Among his works are The Tragedies of the Last Age (1678) and A Short View of Tragedy (1693), both highly critical of modern drama and favouring classical tragedy. His views were very influential until the 19th century. Appointed historiographer royal in 1692, he compiled most of the Foedera, a collection of treaties entered into by England that is of considerable value to the medievalist.
Rydan \,re-o-'an\ Temple Japanese Ryoan-ji \re-o-'an-je\ Japanese Buddhist temple in Kyoto, famous for its abstract meditation garden (c. 1500). An area approximately 30 by 70 ft (10 by 20 m) is covered with raked gravel and set with 15 stones divided into five unequal groups. The pattern of the design may be interpreted as rocky islets in a sea, but the garden’s appeal lies essentially in the charm of its relationships and the arrangement of rocks such that all 15 are not visible from any single van¬ tage point.
Ryukyu \re-'yu-,kyu\ Islands Island chain, extreme southern Japan. It extends in an arc 700 mi (1,100 km) long from the southern Japanese island of Kyushu to the northern tip of Taiwan island. The 55 islands and islets have a total land area of 1,193 sq mi (3,090 sq km). In ancient times it was an independent kingdom, but Chinese and Japanese sovereignty were successively imposed on the archipelago from the 14th to the 19th century. In 1879 the Ryukyus became an integral part of Japan. After Japan’s defeat in World War II, the U.S. took control of the islands; it returned them all by 1972. The U.S. maintains military bases on Okinawa. The islands are primarily rural, and agriculture is the dominant occupa¬ tion; tourism has grown in importance.