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  • feather (zoology)
    the component structure of the outer covering and flight surfaces of all modern birds. Unique to birds, feathers apparently evolved from the scales of birds’ reptilian ancestors. The many different types of feathers are variously specialized for insulation, flight, formation of body contours, display, and sensory reception....
  • feather duster (polychaete order)
    ...adheres; size, 1 to 40 cm; examples of genera: Amphicteis, Terebella, Pista, Thelepus.Order Sabellida (feather dusters)Sedentary; head concealed with featherlike filamentous branchiae; body divided into thorax and abdomen; tube mucoid...
  • feather geranium (plant)
    ...have leaves that resemble the foot of a goose. Good-King-Henry (C. bonus-henricus), sometimes called mercury, is a deep-rooted perennial with several stems and edible, spinach-like leaves. Feather geranium, or Jerusalem oak (C. botrys), has many clusters of small flowers and is occasionally cultivated in gardens. Pigweed, or lamb’s quarters (C. album [see phot...
  • Feather, Leonard Geoffrey (British jazz critic and composer)
    British jazz critic and songwriter (b. Sept. 13, 1914, London, England--d. Sept. 22, 1994, Los Angeles, Calif.), compiled the standard reference work The Encyclopedia of Jazz (1955), a several-times revised and expanded work offering histories, musical analyses, and thousands of biographies, and he served (from the 1960s until the 1990s) as the influential jazz critic for the Los Angele...
  • feather moss (plant species)
    (Ptilium, formerly Hypnum, crista-castrensis), the only species of the genus Ptilium, it is a widely distributed plant of the subclass Bryidae that forms dense light green mats on rocks, rotten wood, or peaty soil, especially in mountain forests of the Northern Hemisphere. The erect stem of a feather moss has a featherlike, or frondlike, appearance. The leaves, with their curv...
  • feather star (echinoderm)
    any of the 550 living species of crinoid marine invertebrates (class Crinoidea) of the phylum Echinodermata lacking a stalk. The arms, which have feathery fringes and can be used for swimming, usually number five. Feather stars use their grasping “legs” (called cirri) to perch on sponges, corals, or other substrata and feed on drifting microorganisms, trapping them in the sticky arm...
  • Feather, Victor Grayson Hardie, Baron Feather of the City of Bradford (British labour leader)
    British trade unionist who led the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in its confrontations with governments over industrial-relations legislation from 1969 to 1973....
  • feather-and-wedge method
    ...the use of special explosives to exert a high gas pressure against the hole walls and thereby produce a crack along the firing line. A mechanical technique for accomplishing this is the use of feathers and wedges. Feathers are two half-round pieces of steel that are inserted into all of the holes forming a side of the block. The quarry worker works down the row, inserting a wedge between......
  • feather-duster worm (polychaete)
    any large, segmented marine worm of the family Sabellidae (class Polychaeta, phylum Annelida). The name is also occasionally applied to members of the closely related polychaete family Serpulidae. Sabellids live in long tubes constructed of mud or sand cemented by mucus, whereas serpulids build tubes of calcareous materials. The epithet feather-duster refers to the multicoloured crown of finely d...
  • feather-fin bull fish (fish)
    ...with a white-ringed, black ocellus near its tail; the spotfin butterfly fish (C. ocellatus), a western Atlantic species with yellow fins and a dark spot at the base of its dorsal fin; and the pennant coralfish, or feather-fin bull fish (Heniochus acuminatus), a black-and-white striped Indo-Pacific species with a very long spine in its dorsal fin. ...
  • feather-picking machine (food processing)
    The carcasses then go through the feather-picking machines, which are equipped with rubber “fingers” specifically designed to beat off the feathers. The carcasses are moved through a sequence of machines, each optimized for removing different sets of feathers. At this point the carcasses are usually singed by passing through a flame that burns off any remaining feathers....
  • feather-tailed tree shrew (mammal)
    ...through buff tones to orange-red. A stripe down the back, shoulder stripes, and facial markings characterize some species. Most species have a furry tail evenly covered with hair, but that of the pen-tailed tree shrew (Ptilocercus lowii) is hairless and ends in a featherlike tuft....
  • feather-winged beetle (insect)
    any of more than 400 species of beetles (insect order Coleoptera) characterized by long fringes of hair on the long, narrow hindwings. The antennae also have whorls of long hairs. Most feather-winged beetles are oval and between 0.25 and 1 mm (0.01 to 0.04 inch) in length, although some members of the family range up to 2 mm....
  • featherback (fish)
    any of about eight species of air-breathing, freshwater fishes constituting the family Notopteridae, found in quiet waters from Africa to Southeast Asia. Notopterids are long-bodied, small-scaled fishes with a small dorsal fin (if present) and a long, narrow anal fin that runs along most of the undersurface and continues into the tail fin. Undulations along the anal fin enable the fishes to swim b...
  • featherbedding (labour union practices)
    labour union practices that require the employer to pay for the performance of what he considers to be unnecessary work or for work that is not in fact performed or to employ workers who are not needed. The existence of featherbedding in any specific instance is usually disputed and depends on what is considered reasonable. Work rules that require large work crews or that restrict the amount of w...
  • feathered finger grass (plant)
    genus of annual and perennial grasses of the family Poaceae, with about 70 species distributed throughout warm regions of the world. Many are known as finger grass, or windmill grass. Feathered finger grass (C. virgata) is a weedy North American annual with feathery spikelets. Windmill grass (C. truncata) of Australia and tumble windmill grass (C. verticillata) of North......
  • Feathered Serpent (Meso-American god)
    (from Nahuatl quetzalli, “tail feather of the quetzal bird [Pharomachrus mocinno],” and coatl, “snake”), the Feathered Serpent, one of the major deities of the ancient Mexican pantheon. Representations of a feathered snake occur as early as the Teotihuac...
  • Feathered Serpent, Pyramid of the (pyramid, Xochicalco, Mexico)
    Excavations, begun in 1909, have revealed a number of structures, including the so-called Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent (Quetzalcóatl), two ball courts, and a variety of houses and plazas. The Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent displays a number of reliefs—such as plumed serpents and men with elaborate headdresses—indicating strong Mayan influence. Xochicalco was declared a.....
  • feathering (sporting technique)
    ...blade out of the water (the recovery). Turning the blade horizontally by wrist motion as the oar handle is depressed to raise the blade clear of the water at the beginning of the recovery is called feathering. The extraction of the blade after driving the boat through the water is called the finish. Turning of the blade from horizontal to vertical in preparation for the catch is called......
  • “Featherless Buzzards” (work by Ribeyro)
    ...a rare mix of social criticism and fantasy, projecting a bleak view of Peruvian life. Ribeyro was the author of some eight volumes of short stories, the best-known of which is Los gallinazos sin plumas (1955; “Featherless Buzzards”). The title story of that collection, which is among the stories translated in Marginal Voices......
  • feathertail (marsupial)
    small marsupial mammal, a species of glider....
  • feathertop (plant)
    ...perennial plants, native to tropical and subtropical areas. Kikuyu grass (P. clandestinum), a perennial sod-forming species, is grown for pasturage in Central America. Several varieties of feathertop (P. villosum) and fountaintop, or fountain grass (P. setaceum, formerly P. ruppelii), both native to Ethiopia, are cultivated in North America as ornamentals for their.....
  • featherwork (decorative arts)
    decorative use of ornamental feathers, especially the feather mosaic needlework of Victorian England. Feathers have been used for adornment since prehistoric times. The Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) Indians constructed a turkey-feather and yucca-cord fabric before their introduction to the loom. Highly advanced featherwork in Hawaii, New Zealand, Tahiti, and New Guinea had its coun...
  • featural writing system (linguistics)
    Featural writing systems exploit the fact that even phonemes are not the most fundamental units of analysis of speech. Rather, phonemes may be analyzed into sets of distinctive features. The phonemes represented by the letters n and d share the feature of the tongue touching the alveolar ridge above the upper teeth. Featural writing systems analyze the sounds......
  • feature (speech)
    Each of the phonemes that appears in the lexicon of a language may be classified in terms of a set of phonetic properties, or features. Phoneticians and linguists have been trying to develop a set of features that is sufficient to classify the phonemes in each of the languages of the world. A set of features of this kind would constitute the phonetic capabilities of man. To be descriptively......
  • feature name (toponymy)
    ...is a word or words used to indicate, denote, or identify a geographic locality such as a town, river, or mountain. Toponymy divides place-names into two broad categories: habitation names and feature names. A habitation name denotes a locality that is peopled or inhabited, such as a homestead, village, or town, and usually dates from the locality’s inception. Feature names refer to......
  • feature syndicate (journalism)
    agency that sells to newspapers and other media special writing and artwork, often written by a noted journalist or eminent authority or drawn by a well-known cartoonist, that cannot be classified as spot coverage of the news. Its fundamental service is to spread the cost of expensive features among as many newspapers (subscribers) as possible. Press syndicates sell the exclusive rights to a featu...
  • Febrerista revolt (Paraguayan history)
    In February 1936, Ayala and Estigarribia were imprisoned following a military coup known as the Febrerista revolt, conducted by radical officers. The inept new government soon fell, however, and Estigarribia was elected president in 1939....
  • Febres Cordero, León (president of Ecuador)
    León Febres Cordero, a congressman from Guayaquil, was elected president in 1984. His free-market economics and pro-U.S. foreign policy drew Ecuador into closer alliance with the U.S. administration of Pres. Ronald Reagan, but Febres Cordero was never popular in Ecuador. Oil prices continued to fall, and his troubles with the National Congress and the military led to calls for his......
  • febrifuge (drug)
    ...the ability to relieve mild to moderate pain through actions that reduce inflammation at its source. Acetylsalicylic acid, or aspirin, is the most widely used mild analgesic, although more potent antipyretic (fever-reducing) analgesics, such as acetaminophen and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), are available. Like aspirin, many of the drugs of this class reduce fever, and those......
  • Febronianism (ecclesiastical doctrine)
    ...to regulate educational and marriage concerns as well as all administrative affairs of the church. A similar development also occurred in Roman Catholic areas. In the second half of the 18th century Febronianism demanded a replacement of papal centralism with a national church episcopal system; in Austria a state-church concept was established under Josephinism (after Joseph II [reigned......
  • Febronius, Justinus (German theologian)
    historian and theologian who founded Febronianism, the German form of Gallicanism, which advocated the restriction of papal power....
  • February (month)
    second month of the Gregorian calendar. It was named after Februalia, the Roman festival of purification. Originally, February was the last month of the Roman calendar....
  • February adverse current (Chinese movement)
    ...for a halt to the Cultural Revolution. During this attempt to beat back radicalism, more-conservative forces clamped down on Red Guard activism in numerous cities. The movement, dubbed the “February adverse current,” was quickly defeated and a new radical upsurge began. Indeed, by the summer of 1967, large armed clashes occurred throughout urban China, and even Chinese embassies.....
  • February Patent (Austrian history)
    ...the Hungarians, opposed it for not restoring fully the old rights and privileges of the crown lands. Faced with such opposition, Francis Joseph abandoned the Diploma and four months later issued the February Patent (1861), officially a revision of the Diploma. This document provided for a bicameral system: an empirewide house of representatives composed of delegates from the diets and a house o...
  • February Revolution (Russian history [1917])
    (March 8–12 [Feb. 24–28, old style], 1917), the first stage of the Russian Revolution of 1917, in which the monarchy was overthrown and replaced by the Provisional Government. This government, intended as an interim stage in the creation of a permanent democratic-parliamentary polity for Russia, was in turn overthrown by the Bolsheviks in October (November, new sty...
  • Febvre, Lucien Paul Victor (French historian)
    French historian of the early modern period and organizer of major national and international intellectual projects. In his books and editorial efforts, Febvre embraced a “global” history that rejected all forms of pedantry and determinism....
  • FEC (communications)
    There are two commonly employed methods for protecting electronically transmitted information from errors. One method is called forward error control (FEC). In this method information bits are protected against errors by the transmitting of extra redundant bits, so that if errors occur during transmission the redundant bits can be used by the decoder to determine where the errors have occurred......
  • FEC (United States)
    ...much of the early media coverage of a presidential campaign focuses on fund-raising, particularly at the end of each quarter, when the candidates are required to file financial reports with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Candidates who are unable to raise sufficient funds often drop out before the balloting has begun....
  • fecal incontinence (medical disorder)
    Defecation can be totally involuntary, or it may be under voluntary control. Incontinence—the loss of control over the evacuative process—can develop with age; it may also result from surgical, obstetric, spinal, or other bodily injuries or with neurological impairment resulting from diabetes, stroke, or multiple sclerosis. Defecation may also be influenced by pain, fear,......
  • fecal occult blood test (biochemistry)
    The tests most commonly performed on feces are the fecal occult blood test (FOBT), stool cultures, and the examination for parasites. The fecal occult blood test is a low-cost method for detecting bleeding, which may be the first sign of carcinoma of the colon or rectum. Although the false-positive rate for this test is low, the false-negative rate is high. It is more likely to detect lesions......
  • fecal softener (drug)
    ...a normal stimulus for contraction of the muscle, which leads to defecation. Saline purgatives include magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts), magnesium hydroxide (milk of magnesia), and magnesium citrate. Fecal softeners make the intestinal walls and stool moist and slippery, thus facilitating defecation. The principal fecal softener is liquid paraffin (mineral oil)....
  • fecal-oral route (pathology)
    ...a member of a group known as enteroviruses that inhabits the human digestive tract. (Human beings are the only known hosts of the poliovirus.) The virus enters the body most often by the so-called fecal–oral route—that is, from fecal matter taken into the mouth through contaminated food or fingers. It can also enter by ingestion of droplets expelled from the throat of an infected....
  • fecalith (pathology)
    ...into the structure. If anything blocks the opening of the appendix or prevents it from expelling its contents into the cecum, appendicitis may occur. The most common obstruction in the opening is a fecalith, a hardened piece of fecal matter. Swelling of the lining of the appendiceal walls themselves can also block the opening. When the appendix is prevented from emptying itself, a series of......
  • Fécamp (France)
    seaside resort and fishing port of northern France, Seine-Maritime département, Haute-Normandie région, northeast of Le Havre. It lies at the opening of the valley of the Valmont River, between high cliffs. In the 11th century Fécamp became famous for its Benedictine abbey, which, before the growth o...
  • feces (biology)
    solid bodily waste discharged from the large intestine through the anus during defecation. Feces are normally removed from the body one or two times a day. About 100 to 250 grams (3 to 8 ounces) of feces are excreted by a human adult daily....
  • Fechner, Gustav Theodor (German philosopher and physicist)
    German physicist and philosopher who was a key figure in the founding of psychophysics, the science concerned with quantitative relations between sensations and the stimuli producing them....
  • Fechter, Charles (British theatrical manager)
    ...from drama. In the period from 1860 to 1880, the theatre continued to expand, and the number of buildings alone increased 50 percent in the first 10 years. The first manager of significance was Charles Fechter, who revived interest in the box set. He also discontinued entrances from the wings, heretofore a standard practice of actors even when the wings represented solid walls. Fechter also......
  • Feckenham, John de (English priest)
    English priest and the last abbot of Westminster....
  • Fecr-i âti (Turkish literary society)
    ...but, after his study of the poetry of Charles Baudelaire and the Symbolist poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, and others, his poetic style changed. In 1909 he joined the Fecr-i âti (“Dawn of the Future”) literary circle but gradually drew apart from this group and developed his own style. Haşim, following the French masters, strove to develop....
  • fecundity
    ...with the appropriate animal and vegetative characteristics, is the principle of inexhaustible vitality. The god frequently has a human consort who participates in a sacred marriage in order to gain fecundity for man (this happens in ancient Mesopotamian religions, for instance)....
  • Fed (United States banking)
    Monetary policy is the domain of a nation’s central bank. The Federal Reserve System (commonly called the Fed) in the United States and the Bank of England of Great Britain are two of the largest such “banks” in the world. Although there are some differences between them, the fundamentals of their operations are almost identical and are useful for highlighting the various meas...
  • Fed Cup (tennis)
    trophy representing the women’s amateur team-tennis championship of the world, inaugurated in 1963 by the International Lawn Tennis Federation in observance of its 50th anniversary. The first competition, an elimination tournament involving teams of three players from 16 nations, was held at the Queen’s Club, in London. Each contest consisted of two singles and one doubles match, wit...
  • Fedala (Morocco)
    port city, northwestern Morocco. It lies along the Atlantic Ocean 15 miles (24 km) northeast of Casablanca. The harbour, at what is now Mohammedia, was frequented in the 14th and 15th centuries by merchant ships from Europe seeking cereals and dried fruits. In the 18th and 19th centuries it was intermittently an official grain-export entrep...
  • fedayee (Islamic culture)
    a term used in Islamic cultures to describe a devotee of a religious or national group willing to engage in self-immolation to attain a group goal. The term first appeared in the 11th–13th centuries in reference to the members of the Nizārī Ismāʿīlī sect of Assassins who would risk their lives to commit political murder, an assign...
  • Fedayeen Ṣaddām (militia organization, Iraq)
    ...effort to reestablish Arab hegemony in historic Palestine. In the mid-1990s the name was adopted by a militia organization attached to Iraq’s leader Ṣaddām Ḥussein; members of Fedayeen Ṣaddām (Fidāʾī Ṣaddām) engaged in guerrilla operations against U.S. and British forces during the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 20...
  • Fedčenko Glacier (glacier, Tajikistan)
    extensive valley glacier, situated in the Central Asian Pamirs range, central Tajikistan. The world’s largest glacier found outside the polar regions, it is about 45 miles (70 km) long and covers up to some 350 square miles (900 square km). It flows north from the ice field of Revolution Peak (22,880 feet [6,974 metres]), receiving ice from dozens of tributary glaciers. T...
  • Fedchenko, Alexei Pavlovich (Russian explorer)
    The glacier was discovered in 1878 and named for the 19th-century Russian explorer A.P. Fedchenko. Its middle and upper reaches were first explored in 1928 as part of a major Soviet expedition to the Pamirs region. Over the years the glacier has been the site of several meteorological stations....
  • Fedchenko Glacier (glacier, Tajikistan)
    extensive valley glacier, situated in the Central Asian Pamirs range, central Tajikistan. The world’s largest glacier found outside the polar regions, it is about 45 miles (70 km) long and covers up to some 350 square miles (900 square km). It flows north from the ice field of Revolution Peak (22,880 feet [6,974 metres]), receiving ice from dozens of tributary glaciers. T...
  • Fede, Lucrezia del (wife of Andrea del Sarto)
    In 1517 or 1518 Sarto married Lucrezia del Fede, a widow whom he had, according to her testimony, used as a model for several years; she brought him property and a useful dowry. In 1518 he was summoned by the king of France, Francis I, to Fontainebleau, where he was preceded by a reputation based upon pictures made for export. It is unlikely that he found the life of a court artist congenial,......
  • Fedeli, Compagnia dei (Italian theatrical company)
    one of several Italian companies performing commedia dell’arte (improvised popular comedy) at the beginning of the 17th century. The name means “company of the faithful.” The Fedeli was a successor to the pioneering Gelosi company and incorporated some of the Gelosi’s actors and performance material....
  • Feder, Abraham Hyman (American lighting engineer)
    American lighting designer who provided illumination for both buildings and theatrical productions for over 50 years; his trademark, Lighting by Feder, came to represent the highest standards in theatrical lighting (b. June 27, 1909--d. April 24, 1997)....
  • Feder, Gottfried (German economist)
    German political activist who was the principal economic theoretician of the initial phase of German Nazism....
  • Federación Anarquista Ibérica (political organization, Spain)
    ...Since new machinery for the settlement of labour disputes was dominated by the UGT, it was opposed by the CNT, now influenced by the extreme revolutionary apoliticism of an anarchist group, the Iberian Anarchist Federation (Federación Anarquista Ibérica; FAI). Violent strikes were frequent....
  • Federal Administrative Court (German judicial body)
    ...system of special administrative courts. In the states, or Länder, there are lower administrative courts and superior administrative courts, and for the federation there is the Federal Administrative Court, which acts mainly as a court of appeals from the superior administrative courts in the Länder and even from the lower administrative courts in certain......
  • Federal Advisory Council (United States banking)
    ...which Pres. Woodrow Wilson signed into law on Dec. 23, 1913. It consists of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the 12 Federal Reserve banks, the Federal Open Market Committee, the Federal Advisory Council, and, since 1976, a Consumer Advisory Council; there are several thousand member banks....
  • Federal Aid Highway Act (United States [1956])
    ...in the 1950s for a better road system. These pressures culminated in the establishment by President Dwight Eisenhower of the Clay Committee in 1954. Following this committee’s recommendations, the Federal Aid Highway Act and the Highway Revenue Act of 1956 provided funding for an accelerated program of construction. A federal gasoline tax was established, the funds from which, with other...
  • Federal Aid Highway Act (United States [1921])
    ...1892 a national Good Roads movement had lobbied for a system of national roads joining the major population centres and contributing to the national economy. This point of view was recognized by the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921, which required each state to designate a system of state highways not to exceed 7 percent of the total highway mileage in each state. Federal-aid funding was limited...
  • Federal Aid Road Act (United States [1916])
    ...and by 1920 all states had their own road organization. However, there was little coordination among the states. National funding began in 1912 with the Post Office Appropriation Act, and the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 established federal aid for highways as a national policy. The Bureau of Public Roads, established in the Department of Agriculture in 1893 to make “inquiries with......
  • Federal Armed Forces (German military)
    The German contribution to the Western defense system takes the form of its combined arm of defense known as the Federal Armed Forces (Bundeswehr). Constituting the largest contingent of NATO troops in Europe, the German military forces are divided into an army, navy, and air force. From its inception the Federal Armed Forces was envisioned as a citizens’ defense force, decisively under......
  • Federal Art Project, WPA (United States history)
    first major attempt at government patronage of the visual arts in the United States and the most extensive and influential of the visual arts projects conceived during the Depression of the 1930s by the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is often confused with the Department of the Treasury art programs (Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture, Public Works...
  • Federal Assembly (Russian government)
    Under the new constitution the Federal Assembly became the country’s legislature. It consists of the Federation Council (an upper house in which each of Russia’s administrative divisions has two representatives) and the State Duma (a 450-member lower house). The president’s nominee for chairman of the government is subject to approval by the State Duma; if it rejects a......
  • Federal Assembly (German government)
    one of the two legislative chambers of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Bundestag is the Lower House, representing the nation as a whole and elected by universal suffrage under a system of mixed direct and proportional representation. Members serve four-year terms. The Bundestag in turn elects the chancellor (prime minister), who is the head of government. It meets in the Reichstag...
  • Federal Aviation Administration (United States government agency)
    ...operating practices, and requirements for continuing training to retain certification to operate. Examples include federal aviation authorities that oversee pilot training (e.g., the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration); road agencies that administer driver’s licenses may exist at the provincial level (as in Canada) or at the national level (as is more common in Europe).......
  • Federal Bureau of Investigation (United States government agency)
    principal investigative agency of the federal government of the United States. The bureau is responsible for conducting investigations in cases where federal laws may have been violated, unless another agency of the federal government has been specifically delegated that duty by statute or executive fiat. As part of the Department of Justice, the FBI reports the results of its i...
  • Federal Circuit, United States Court of Appeals for the (United States court)
    The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, created by an act of Congress in 1982, hears appeals from U.S. district and territorial courts primarily in patent and trademark cases, though it also hears appeals in cases in which the United States or its agencies is a defendant, as in alleged breaches of contract or in tax disputes. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is located in......
  • Federal Communications Commission (United States government agency)
    CB radio originated in the United States during the 1940s, when the Federal Communications Commission created the Citizens Radio Service for regulating remote-control units and mobile radiotelephones. The commission made CB radio a special class of the service in 1958 and permitted its use as a hobby in 1975. Several other nations, including Canada, Jamaica, and Germany, also allow CB......
  • Federal Constitutional Court (German court)
    in Germany, special court for the review of judicial and administrative decisions and legislation to determine whether they are in accord with the Basic Law (constitution) of the country. Although all German courts are empowered to review the constitutionality of governmental action within their jurisdiction, the Federal Constitutional Court is the only court that may declare st...
  • Federal Council (German government)
    (German: “Federal Council”), one of the two legislative chambers of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is the Upper House and acts mainly in an advisory capacity, since political power resides in the popularly elected Bundestag, but its consent is required for a large number of laws and regulations as well as for constitutional amendments. It is formed from members of the Land...
  • Federal Council (Swiss government council)
    From 1959 to 2003 the party held two of the seven seats on the Federal Council, the executive branch of the Swiss government. Since the 1960s the party’s level of support has fluctuated; from 1975 to 1983 it was the largest party, but from the mid-1980s through the 1990s it suffered a drop in support to parties on its right, particularly to the Swiss People’s Party. At the beginning ...
  • Federal Council of Evangelical Churches (religious organization)
    ...communions in England that convened the first Free Church Congress in 1892 and combined in 1896 to form the National Council of the Evangelical Free Churches. In 1940 this group merged with the Federal Council of the Evangelical Churches to form the Free Church Federal Council....
  • Federal Counterintelligence Service (Russian government agency)
    Russian internal security and counterintelligence service created in 1994 as one of the successor agencies of the Soviet-era KGB. It is responsible for counterintelligence, antiterrorism, and surveillance of the military. The FSB occupies the former headquarters of the KGB on Lubyanka Square in downtown Moscow....
  • federal court system (law)
    ...North Carolina, helped devise the government of the territory south of the Ohio River, and drafted the first bill regulating the consular service. He was chairman of the committee to establish the federal court system and the chief author of the Federal Judiciary Act of 1789, the principal basis ever since of the U.S. court structure....
  • Federal Crime Agency (German government)
    ...the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsshutz; BfV), headquartered in Cologne, which compiles information regarding threats posed to security by domestic groups; and the Federal Criminal Investigation Office (Bundeskriminalamt), headquartered in Wiesbaden, which provides forensic and research assistance to federal and state agencies investigating crime. The BfV is......
  • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (United States banking)
    independent U.S. government corporation created under authority of the Banking Act of 1933 (also known as the Glass-Steagall Act), with the responsibility to insure bank deposits in eligible banks against loss in the event of a bank failure and to regulate certain banking practices. It was established after the collapse of many American banks during the initial years of the ...
  • Federal Diet (German government)
    one of the two legislative chambers of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Bundestag is the Lower House, representing the nation as a whole and elected by universal suffrage under a system of mixed direct and proportional representation. Members serve four-year terms. The Bundestag in turn elects the chancellor (prime minister), who is the head of government. It meets in the Reichstag...
  • Federal District (district, Mexico)
    administrative district, central Mexico, the seat of the national government. It is officially equivalent with Mexico City, although the Mexico City metropolitan area extends beyond the district’s boundaries. It is bounded by the states of México to the west, north, and east and Morelos to the south....
  • Federal Election Campaign Act (United States [1971])
    ...individuals and channel the resulting funds to candidates for elective offices in the federal government, primarily in the House of Representatives and the Senate. PACs rose to prominence after the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 set strict limits on the amount of money a particular corporation, union, or private individual could give to a candidate. By soliciting smaller contributions......
  • Federal Election Commission (United States)
    ...much of the early media coverage of a presidential campaign focuses on fund-raising, particularly at the end of each quarter, when the candidates are required to file financial reports with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Candidates who are unable to raise sufficient funds often drop out before the balloting has begun....
  • Federal Emergency Management Agency (United States government agency)
    ...much of the early media coverage of a presidential campaign focuses on fund-raising, particularly at the end of each quarter, when the candidates are required to file financial reports with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Candidates who are unable to raise sufficient funds often drop out before the balloting has begun.......
  • Federal Emergency Relief Administration (United States government agency)
    ...included relief and reform measures, the former referring to short-term payments to individuals to alleviate hardship, the latter to long-range programs aimed at eliminating economic abuses. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) granted funds to state relief agencies, and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) employed hundreds of thousands of young men in reforestation and......
  • Federal Employee Loyalty Program (United States history)
    ...communists, called “reds,” had infiltrated the government. These accusations were made despite Truman’s strongly anticommunist foreign policy and his creation, in 1947, of an elaborate Federal Employee Loyalty Program, which resulted in hundreds of federal workers being fired and in several thousand more being forced to resign....
  • Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act (United States [1972])
    ...transferred to the new agency. The EPA was initially charged with the administration of the Clean Air Act (1970), enacted to abate air pollution primarily from industries and motor vehicles; the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act (1972); and the Clean Water Act (1972), regulating municipal and industrial wastewater discharges and offering grants for building sewage-treatment......
  • Federal Express (American company)
    An area of very fast growth in the air-cargo business is specialized movement by integrated carriers such as the U.S.-based FedEx Corporation, which offer door-to-door delivery of small packages at premium rates. In its early years, this type of freight grew by more than 17 percent per annum. Cargo terminals for the small-package business are designed and constructed separately from......
  • Federal Food and Drugs Act (United States [1906])
    ...for its attention to social causes. It refused, for example, to advertise patent medicines, and its subsequent muckraking campaign against those products helped bring about the passage of the U.S. Federal Food and Drugs Act in 1906. Its features on residential architecture, fine arts, and domestic life won renown. The Journal was often imitated, and it was long......
  • Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (United States [1938])
    ...known as the Food, Drug, and Insecticide Administration when it was formed as a separate law enforcement agency in 1927, the FDA derives the greater part of its regulatory power from four laws: the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which established safety and purity standards and provided for factory inspection and for legal remedy; the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, which required......
  • Federal Home Loan Bank Act (United States [1931])
    ...At the same time, in January 1932, new capital was arranged for federal land banks. The Glass–Steagall Act provided gold to meet foreign withdrawals and liberalized Federal Reserve credit. The Federal Home Loan Bank Act sought to prop up threatened building and loan associations. But these measures failed to promote recovery or to arrest the rising tide of unemployment. Hoover, whose......
  • Federal Home Loan Bank Board (United States government agency)
    Under a ruling of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, which regulates federally chartered savings and loan associations, associations need not rely only on individual deposits for funds. They can borrow from other financial institutions and market mortgage-backed securities, money market certificates, and stock....
  • Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (American corporation)
    federally chartered private corporation created by the U.S. Congress in 1970 to provide continuous and affordable home financing. It is one of several government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) established since the early 20th century to help reduce the cost of credit to various borrowing sectors of the economy. Its headquarters are in the Washington, D.C., suburb of McLean, Va....
  • Federal Housing Administration (United States government agency)
    ...provided jobs on long-term construction projects, and the Civilian Conservation Corps put 2,500,000 young men to work planting or otherwise improving huge tracts of forestland. For homeowners, the Federal Housing Administration began insuring private home-improvement loans to middle-income families in 1934; in 1938 it became a home-building agency as well....
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