Urania
Greek for “heavenly,” Urania is the muse of astronomy, astrology and mathematics in Greek mythology. In some myths, she was the mother of Linus the musician (though in other versions, the muse Calliope was his mother); the father was either Hermes or Amphimarus, son of Poseidon. Urania was also occasionally used as another name for Aphrodite. It is said that Urania was able to foretell the future by the position of the stars. Urania was depicted crowned with stars, holding a globe in her left and a compass in her right hand.
Uranium
Discovered in 1789 by Martin Klaproth, the element was named after the planet Uranus, which was in turn named for the Greek god of the sky. It has an atomic symbol U, 92 protons and electrons (giving it the atomic number 92 on the Periodic Table of Elements), and is classified as a Rare Earth element. Uranium is used as fuel for nuclear reactors, and can be obtained from several rocks, large amounts of which can be found in pitchblende and carnotite. The element has a melting point of 2,069.6°F and a boiling point of 6,904.4°F. Uranium’s isotopes are U-230, U-231, U-232, U-233, U-234, U-235, U-236, U-237, U-238, U-239, U-240, the half-lives of which are 20.8 days, 4.2 days, 70 years, 159,000 years, 247,000 years, 7 years, 2.34 years, 6.75 days, 4.47 years, 23.5 minutes and 14.1 hours, respectively.
Uranus
1. In Greek mythology, Uranus (also known as Ouranos, or Caelus in Roman mythology) was the god of the sky. According to Hesiod’s Theogony, he was born by Gaea Other sources say that his parents were Gaea and Chaos, or Gaea and Aether. Depending on the source, Uranus was also said to be the first husband of Gaea, goddess of the Earth. With Gaea, he fathered the original twelve Titans and the three Cyclopes, as well as the three Hecatoncheires (“hundred-handed ones”). Hating his children, Uranus banished them to Tartarus. Infuriated, Gaea created a diamond sickle, which she gave to Cronus (counterpart to the Roman god Saturn), one of the Titans. Cronus found his father and castrated him in his sleep, and thus ended the reign of Uranus. Cronus became the new ruler of the universe, until Cronus was in turn defeated by his own son Zeus and sent, along with the other Titans, into Tartarus.
2. The first planet found with the aid of a telescope, the seventh planet in our solar system was discovered in 1781 by astronomer William Herschel, although he originally thought he was looking at a comet or star. Herschel tried unsuccessfully to name his discovery Georgian Sidus after King George III; but instead the planet was named for Uranus, the Greek god of the sky. Uranus is one of the two ice giants (with Neptune) of the outer solar system. The atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium, plus methane and trace amounts of water and ammonia. The methane gas in the atmosphere Uranus gets its blue-green color. For nearly a quarter of the Uranian year (equal to 84 Earth years), the sun shines directly over each pole, plunging the other half of the planet into a long, dark winter.
Like Venus, Uranus rotates east to west (as opposed to the Earth’s west-to-east orbit). Uranus’ rotation axis is tilted almost parallel to its orbital plane, so Uranus appears to be rotating on its side. This situation may be the result of a collision with a planet-sized body early in the planet’s history, which apparently radically changed Uranus’ rotation. Because of Uranus’ unusual orientation, the planet experiences extreme variations in sunlight during each 20-year-long season. By 2028, Uranus’ north pole will point directly at the sun, a reversal of the situation when Voyager 2 flew by in 1986. Uranus reached equinox, when it was fully illuminated as the sun passed over the planet’s equator, in December 2007.
Uranus has two sets of rings. The inner system of nine rings, discovered in 1977, consists mostly of narrow, dark rings. Voyager 2 found two additional inner rings. An outer system of two more distant rings was discovered in Hubble Space Telescope images in 2003. In 2006, Hubble and Keck observations showed that the outer rings are brightly colored. Uranus has 27 known moons, named for characters from the works of William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope. Miranda is the strangest-looking Uranian moon: its complex surface may indicate partial melting of the interior, with icy material drifting to the surface.
Urban legend
A story or anecdote, typically lurid or scary in nature, based on hearsay, though commonly related as fact. Also called an “urban myth.”
Urban myth
See Urban legend.
Urkel, Steve
Originally meant to be a one-shot secondary character, uber-nerd Steve Urkel accidentally became the fan-favorite central character of the 1989-1998 ABC sitcom Family Matters. As played by Jaleel White, Urkel was an awkward Brainiac child, lovestruck over but rejected by Laura Winslow and later fawned over by Myra Monkhouse. Introduced later on the show, Urkel’s alter-ego Stefan Urquelle had the opposite effect on the two young ladies.
Urko
Based on the character of General Ursus in the 1970 film Beneath the Planet of the Apes, the human-hating general of the gorilla army was portrayed by Mark Lenard in the 1974 live-action TV series Planet of the Apes, and voiced by Henry Corden in the 1975 Saturday morning animated TV series. Both series were based on the “Apes” film series, which was based on the novel (originally titled Le Planète de Singes) by Pierre Boulle.
Uroc the Unstoppable
As portrayed in Marvel Comics’ Thor comic books, Uroc was once a rock troll and weaponsmith in the service of Grundor the Greater, who was ordered to produce a powerful weapon or suffer dire consequences. Uroc discovered a vast amount of uru metal and forged a massive, monstrous figure, into which he transferred his consciousness. Uroc is a giant being composed of pure uru metal which makes him practically indestructible and impervious to most physical attacks. Uroc possesses superhuman strength, durability and resistance to injury. He can absorb various types of energy attacks, as well as repel them. Uroc can also magnetize his entire body to draw various metals to his massive form. When the Rock Trolls captured Thor and took him to King Grundor, Thor escaped from his bounds and attacked the trolls, until Grundor was left alone after the trolls fled from battle. Grundor told Thor that they were forced to the surface world by Uroc. Uroc confronted Thor and Grundor when they reached his domain. Thor struck Uroc with a lightning bolt, but the beast was able to absorb the attack and return the blast at the thunder god. Uroc also magnetized himself and Thor’s hammer would stick to the palm of his hand. Uroc followed Grundor and Thor as they started to cross a stone bridge above the Chasm of Eternal Sorrow. Thor stopped in his tracks and baited Uroc to strike, then dodged the powerful blow. Uroc caused the bridge to collapse, then fell into the bottomless chasm. Uroc was created by Tom DeFalco and Mike Mignola in 1989, and first appeared in Thor # 408.
Urquelle, Stefan
Uber-cool alter-ego of nerd Steve Urkel on the 1989-1998 ABC sitcom Family Matters. As played by Jaleel White, Stefan was as cool and suave as Steve was nerdy and awkward.
Ursus
Portrayed by James Gregory in the 1970 motion picture sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes (the second film in the original series of five), Ursus was the most vocal anti-human ape and the leader of the gorilla army. The character inspired General Urko in two TV series of the 1970s, including the Saturday morning cartoon series Return to the Planet of the Apes.
Uru
Substance in the Marvel Comics universe (originating in the Thor comic line) that is both stone and metal, which only the heat from a star or the very forges of Asgard can shape and mold. As a unique Asgardian element, Uru is extremely resilient and has an extraordinary ability to hold magic. As such it is primarily used to forge weapons for the Gods of Asgard. The most famous of these is Thor’s hammer Mjolnir. It was Tony Stark (aka Marvel’s Iron Man), who first discovered this metal’s natural affinity for magic. It has shown to be capable of storing vast amounts of energy, particularly magical energies. While not easily enchanted, Uru metal absorbs magic like a sponge, redirecting it and enhancing the natural attributes of its wielder. Applying a permanent enchantment to Uru is very dangerous and should only be attempted by those of immense power, well versed in both the enchanting and crafting of the metal. Despite its incredible ability to store and harness vast quantities of energy (especially those of a mystical nature), the casting of a permanent enchantment can cause the Uru to become dangerously volatile and unstable, often causing more harm than good. A symbiotic relationship between Uru and its wielder exists that allows for many astounding feats. The enchanting process also dramatically increases its durability. Uru metal is used as the primary component in several famous weapons, including Thor’s hammer Mjolnir; Odin’s spear Gungnir; Thor’s left arm; Heimdall’s sword; Tony Stark’s “Thorbuster” Armor and Mighty Destroyer Armor; Mokk’s hammer Faithbreaker; Nekkron’s hammer, Oceanbreaker; Angrir’s hammer, Soulbreaker; Skadi’s hammer; Kurroth’s hammer, Stonebreaker; Skirn’s hammer, Manbreaker; Greithoth’s hammer, Willbreaker; Nul’s hammer, Worldbreaker; The Serpent’s hammer.
Usagi Yojimbo
Written for over 30 years by award winner Stan Sakai, and published in over 14 countries, the manga series is set in a unique world. Based in 17th Century Japan, it features the many exciting adventures of skilled swordsrabbit Miyamoto Usagi, a former yojimbo, or bodyguard, for a Japanese warlord. Usagi is now a ronin, a wandering swordsrabbit. Honing his skills, saving villages, and oftentimes stumbling into delicate affairs of national/political significance! The character is loosely based on the legendary “Sword Saint” Miyamoto Musashi, who is famous for winning over 60 duels, the first of which was when he was only 13 years old. Usagi also appeared in a 1989 animated episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Usagi, Miyamoto
See Usagi Yojimbo.
USB 2.0 standard
A Universal serial bus (USB) standard often referred to as Hi-Speed USB, released in April 2000. Almost all devices with USB capabilities (such as universal serial bus (USB) drives and universal serial bus (USB) ports) and nearly all USB cables, support at least USB 2.0. Devices that adhere to the USB 2.0 standard have the ability to transmit data at a maximum speed of 480 Mbps, which is faster than the older USB 1.1 standard, but slower than the newer USB 3.0 standard.
Usenet
A worldwide “bulletin board” system that can be accessed through the internet or many other online services. The Usenet contains more than 14,000 forums, called “newsgroups,” each of which focuses on a unique common interest. Used daily by millions of people around the world, Usenet displays a collection of user-submitted notes or messages. There are thousands of newsgroups, and users may also create new ones. Most newsgroups are hosted on internet-connected servers, but they can also be hosted from servers that are not part of the Internet. Usenet’s original protocol was UNIX-to-UNIX Copy (UUCP), but today the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) is used. On the internet, Google and other sites provide a subject-oriented directory, as well as a search approach, to newsgroups. In addition, there are other newsgroup readers such as Knews that run as separate programs. Most browsers, such as those from Netscape and Microsoft, provide Usenet newsgroup support and access.
User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
An open systems interconnection (OSI) transport layer protocol formulated by David P. Reed for client-server network applications. User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is an alternative communications protocol to Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks. TCP has emerged as the dominant protocol used for the bulk of internet connectivity owing to services for breaking large data sets into individual packets, checking for and resending lost packets and reassembling packets into the correct sequence. But these additional services come at a cost in terms of additional data overhead, and delays called latency. In contrast, UDP just sends the packets, which means that it has much lower bandwidth overhead and latency. However, as a result, packets can be lost or received out of order, owing to the different paths individual packets traverse between sender and receiver.
Unlike TCP/IP, User Datagram Protocol/internet protocol (UDP/IP) provides very few error recovery services, offering instead a direct way to send and receive datagrams over an IP network. Widely used in video conferencing and real-time computer games, the protocol permits individual packets to be dropped and UDP packets to be received in a different order than the order in which they were sent, allowing for better performance. UDP uses a simple transmission model, but does not employ handshaking dialogs for reliability, ordering and data integrity. The protocol is used primarily for broadcasting messages over a network, and is part of the IP suite used by programs running on different computers on a network. UDP is used to send short messages called datagrams but overall, it is an unreliable, connectionless protocol.
User interface (UI)
The way a user interacts with a computer, tablet, smartphone or other electronic device, the user interface is comprised of the components a user utilizes in order to use the computer, such as the screen menus and icons, keyboard shortcuts, mouse, command language and online help, as well as physical buttons, dials and levers. A command-driven interface is one in which you enter commands. A menu-driven interface is one in which you select command choices from various menus displayed on the screen.
Uther, King
Utility belt
In general, a belt worn around the waist with compartments for tools, as a police officer, electrician or soldier would wear. One specific utility belt that is well-known in pop culture is the one worn by Batman, which includes such tools as Batarangs, cylinders containing various gases, grappling hook, night vision goggles, sonic grenades, first aid kit and handcuffs, among others.
Utility program
Software that is used to perform standard computer operations for users and developers, basic utility programs typically include file/folder management (copy, move, etc.), file search and compare, disk format, as well as diagnostic routines to check the performance and health of the hardware. Operating systems contain a number of utilities for managing disk drives, printers, and other devices. Custom utilities are those that can perform a myriad of tasks. Utilities are sometimes installed as memory-resident programs. On Disk Operating Systems (DOS), such utilities are called TSRs (for terminate and stay resident).
Utopia
- (Usually lowercase) An ideal place or state or any visionary system of political or social perfection. The opposite of dystopia.
- The title of, and an imaginary island described in, Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1516).
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