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National Democratic Alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA), alliance of right-leaning political parties in India, led by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) held power first from 1999 until 2004 under the leadership of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and again from 2014...
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Astrud Gilberto Astrud Gilberto, Brazilian singer who became a star overnight with the international hit “The Girl from Ipanema.” The single propelled the bossa nova movement—a musical style that combines Brazilian samba rhythms and jazz—to the international stage. Gilberto was born Astrud Evangelina Weinert, in...
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fast fashion Fast fashion, a term describing the rapid production of inexpensive, low-quality clothing that often mimics popular styles of fashion labels, big-name brands, and independent designers. By endlessly offering new trends at cheap prices, fast fashion brands such as Shein, Zara, and H&M; encourage...
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Jon Fosse Jon Fosse, Norwegian author of novels, plays, poems, children’s books, and essays, who has also worked as an instructor and a translator. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2023 “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.” The prolific wordsmith has written...
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Jack Black Jack Black, American actor and musician known for his many film roles, including those in School of Rock (2003), High Fidelity (2000), and Kung Fu Panda (2008). He is the lead vocalist for the Grammy Award-winning comedy rock duo Tenacious D. Black was born in Santa Monica, California, to Judith...
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Indigenous Peoples’ Day Indigenous Peoples’ Day, holiday in the United States that takes place on the second Monday of October. The day honors the Indigenous peoples of the United States—American Indians, Native Alaskans, and Native Hawaiians, most of whom were violently uprooted and exploited beginning with the arrival...
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mathematical Platonism Mathematical Platonism, in metaphysics and the philosophy of mathematics, the doctrine that there exist abstract objects—objects that are wholly nonspatiotemporal, nonphysical, and nonmental—and that there are true mathematical sentences that express true descriptions of such objects. The...
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Nosferatu Nosferatu, German silent horror film released in 1922, notable for being the earliest surviving film adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and for its technically novel and effective cinematography. Nosferatu was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic vampire tale. Despite a few...
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Adhara Adhara, the 22nd brightest star in the sky and one of the 57 stars of celestial navigation. The Bayer designation of Adhara is Epsilon Canis Majoris. (Epsilon is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, but Adhara is actually the second brightest star in the constellation, after Sirius. German...
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Rodney Dangerfield Rodney Dangerfield, popular American comedian known for his wide-eyed, fidgety delivery style and his hapless, self-deprecating demeanor, expressed by his famous lamentation, “I don’t get no respect.” Jacob Cohen’s parents, Dorothy (née Teitelbaum) and Phillip Cohen, were both of European Jewish...
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Kiss Kiss, American rock band, one of the most influential and best-selling rock groups from the 1970s through the early 2000s, known in particular for its theatrical live performances, involving pyrotechnics and other shocking visual effects and including extravagant outfits and makeup. Kiss formed in...
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tirzepatide Tirzepatide, synthetic antidiabetic drug used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Tirzepatide is the first drug in a class of agents known as dual glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP) receptor agonists. Because both GLP-1 and GIP are so-called incretin...
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Yevgeny Prigozhin Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian oligarch, best known as the leader of the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary outfit. Prigozhin grew up in difficult neighborhoods of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). In 1981 a Soviet court found the 20-year-old Prigozhin guilty of having been involved in drunkenness, fraud,...
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Moms for Liberty Moms for Liberty (MFL), conservative political organization that seeks to influence school policies and curricula throughout the United States. It was created to oppose mask mandates and other efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in Florida public schools, and within 10 months it had expanded...
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history of Senegal History of Senegal, a survey of notable events and people in the history of Senegal. Located at the westernmost point of Africa along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, the country is served by multiple air and maritime travel routes and is known as the “Gateway to Africa.” Senegal also functioned as...
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Louis Brus Louis Brus, American physical chemist who was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in discovering and producing quantum dots, which are very small particles whose unusual quantum properties depend on their size. He shared the prize with Russian-born American physicist Alexei...
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Bodhisattva Padmapani Bodhisattva Padmapani, mural painting by an unknown artist that is believed to date from the late 5th century. The mural is in Cave 1 of the Ajanta Caves, located in Maharashtra state, western India, and it reflects the beauty and classical sophistication of the arts of India’s Gupta dynasty. The...
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Alexei Ekimov Alexei Ekimov, Soviet-born American physicist who was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in producing quantum dots, which are very small particles whose unusual quantum properties depend on their size. He shared the prize with American chemist Louis Brus and French-born American...
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Poem Scroll with Deer Poem Scroll with Deer, a work of ink and gold on paper that was a collaboration created in the early 17th century between Japanese calligrapher Hon’ami Kōetsu and Japanese painter Sōtatsu .Originally some 66 feet (20 m) long, this fragment is the longest continuous portion of the scroll, which was...
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Woman at Her Toilette Woman at Her Toilette, oil painting created about 1875–80 by French artist Berthe Morisot. This Impressionist work has been likened to a visual poem and is one of the artist’s best-known works. It was first exhibited in 1880 at the fifth of the eight shows put on by the Impressionists. Morisot is...
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Mandela effect Mandela effect, popularized phenomenon in which a group of people collectively misremember facts, events, or other details in a consistent manner. Paranormal researcher and author Fiona Broome conceptualized the effect after discovering that she and others possessed strong, yet false, memories...
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history of Paraguay History of Paraguay, a survey of important events and people in the history of Paraguay from the time of European settlement. A landlocked country in south-central South America, Paraguay has a more-homogeneous population than most other countries in South America; most Paraguayans are of European...
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history of the United Arab Emirates History of the United Arab Emirates, a survey of notable events and people in the history of the United Arab Emirates beginning with the rise of the emirates’ ruling families in the 18th and 19th centuries. For much of the history of the largely desert area, fishing and pearling along the coast...
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Moungi Bawendi Moungi Bawendi, French-born American chemist who was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work in producing quantum dots, which are very small particles whose unusual quantum properties depend on their size. He shared the prize with Russian-born American physicist Alexei Ekimov and...
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omakase Omakase, Japanese word meaning to “leave to someone else,” which diners at Japanese sushi restaurants use to indicate that they are leaving their meal to the chef’s discretion. The term omakase can also refer to such a meal, which usually consists of a series of small servings or courses of sushi...
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Hoba meteorite Hoba meteorite, the largest intact meteorite, weighing about 60 tons, that has been found on Earth. It was discovered in 1920 on a farm called Hoba West, located 19 km (12 miles) west of Grootfontein in northern Namibia. The Hoba meteorite dropped from the sky less than 80,000 years ago and has...
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neuroethics Neuroethics, the study of the ethical, legal, and social implications of neuroscience and neurotechnology, as well as the neurobiological basis of human ethical norms and individual moral values. Neuroethics is an independent and highly interdisciplinary field, overlapping with subject areas such...
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cookiecutter shark Cookiecutter shark, either of two species of living sharks classified as part of the genus Isistius, in the family Dalatiidae, named for their tendency to excise cookie cutter-shaped plugs of flesh from the larger marine animals they feed upon. Whereas the biology and distribution of the smalltooth...
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habitat loss Habitat loss, in ecology, the reduction or elimination of the space in which a species or community of organisms lives and reproduces. Habitat loss, which may be caused by natural disturbances (such as volcanic eruptions, floods, and landslides), is largely the product of human development of...
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Anne L’Huillier Anne L’Huillier, French physicist who was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for her theoretical and experimental work with attosecond pulses of light. She shared the prize with French physicist Pierre Agostini and Hungarian-born Austrian physicist Ferenc Krausz. She was the fifth woman to...
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Ferenc Krausz Ferenc Krausz, Hungarian-born Austrian physicist who was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for his experiments with attosecond pulses of light. He shared the prize with French physicists Pierre Agostini and Anne L’Huillier. An attosecond is 10−18 second, or one billionth of a billionth of a...
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Pierre Agostini Pierre Agostini, French physicist who was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for his experiments with attosecond pulses of light. He shared the prize with French physicist Anne L’Huillier and Hungarian physicist Ferenc Krausz. An attosecond is 10−18 second, or a billionth of a billionth of a...
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Simon and Garfunkel Simon and Garfunkel, American musical duo, consisting of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, who achieved iconic status in the 1960s by wedding Everly Brothers-styled harmonies to themes of urban alienation and self-examination, which both matched and mirrored contemporary society’s changes. With album...
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Barkley L. Hendricks Barkley L. Hendricks, American portrait artist who depicted the lives of ordinary Black men and women in paintings in the style and on the scale of those of the Old Masters, whose work he encountered in Europe as a young man. His bold, experimental works were inspired by popular music, sports, and...
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the Kremlin The Kremlin, group of buildings in the center of Moscow that serves as the official seat of the government of Russia. A centuries-old fortress with striking red brick architecture, it is one of the most recognizable government complexes in the world. Though kremlin means “citadel,” and though about...
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muhajir Muhajir, Muslim person, usually Urdu-speaking, who either migrated during the partition of India in 1947 to territory that would become Pakistan or is descended from such migrants. Those who migrated were predominantly from Uttar Pradesh, the Delhi area, and Bihar and primarily settled in urban...
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HVAC HVAC, mechanical system used to control the temperature, humidity, and movement of air throughout a building or other indoor space. HVAC systems are used extensively in homes and businesses for comfort as well as safety from extreme weather or the effects of poor air circulation. They are also...
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Alia Shawkat Alia Shawkat, American actress best known for portraying Maeby Fünke on the cult-classic television sitcom Arrested Development (2003–06, 2013, and 2018–19) and Dory Sief on the dark comedy series Search Party (2016–22). Shawkat is the second child of Dina Burke, who works as a film producer, and...
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Kirstie Alley Kirstie Alley, American actress best known for her portrayal (1987–93) of Rebecca Howe on the hit TV sitcom Cheers. She later starred in Veronica’s Closet (1997–2000). Alley was raised in a Roman Catholic family in Wichita, Kansas. Her father, Robert Alley, owned a lumber company, and her mother,...
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Elijah McCoy Elijah McCoy, Canadian-American inventor of a device to lubricate steam engines. McCoy’s inventions were considered so outstanding that customers reportedly asked for the “real McCoy” when requesting his designs. Today calling something the real McCoy indicates that it is the original and best...
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Drew Weissman Drew Weissman, American immunologist whose groundbreaking research into RNA (ribonucleic acid) opened the path to the development of RNA therapeutics, most notably the generation of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. In the late 1990s and early 2000s Weissman and his colleague the Hungarian-born...
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Tesla coil Tesla coil, an electrical transformer that uses high-frequency alternating current (AC) to increase voltage. Because of its extremely high voltage, the electricity in a Tesla coil can travel through the air, powering—or damaging—nearby electronic devices, often with arcs of lightninglike...
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diplomatic recognition Diplomatic recognition, term that may refer either to the procedure by which a new state is formally accepted by other states as a member of the international community or to the procedure by which a new government of an existing state is accepted as the legal representative of that state. The two...
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nation building Nation building, a concerted project to construct or rebuild a nation-state and its underlying institutions and sense of community. The objective of nation building can be to create a cohesive nation-state that never existed or that never properly functioned or to rebuild one that has collapsed or...
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percentile Percentile, a number denoting the position of a data point within a numeric dataset by indicating the percentage of the dataset with a lesser value. For example, a data point that falls at the 80th percentile has a value greater than 80 percent of the data points within the dataset. Percentiles are...
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lust Lust, in Roman Catholic theology, one of the seven deadly sins. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, issued by the Vatican in 1992, lust is the “disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure.” It goes on to state that “sexual pleasure is morally disordered when...
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gluttony Gluttony, in Roman Catholic theology, one of the seven deadly sins. Gluttony is defined as excess in eating and drinking. Although eating and drinking for pleasure is not seen as sinful, eating or drinking to excess beyond reason is a sin. Drunkenness, which is caused by excessive consumption of...
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Texas hold’em Texas hold’em, a community-card variant of poker in which players attempt to make the best five-card hand of the seven cards that are dealt to them. The card game has similarities to seven-card stud. However, instead of using an exclusive set of seven playing cards to make the best hand, each...
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mercury barometer Mercury barometer, device used to measure atmospheric pressure with a column of mercury. The mercury barometer is the oldest type of barometer, having been invented in 1643–44 by the Italian physicist and mathematician Evangelista Torricelli. In its simplest form, it comprises a narrow glass tube...
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OSIRIS-REx OSIRIS-REx, American spacecraft that orbited the asteroid Bennu and returned a sample of it to Earth. The roughly 250-gram (9-ounce) sample was the largest extraterrestrial sample returned to Earth since the Apollo missions to the Moon and the first asteroid sample collected by an American...
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Claudette Colvin Claudette Colvin, American teenager who was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person. Her protest was one of several by Black women challenging segregation on buses in the months before Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat. Parks’s action, however,...
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hiragana Hiragana, one of two sets of syllabic Japanese script. It is the set used to write Japanese grammatical particles as well as native Japanese words whose kanji (ideogram) is either obscure or nonextant. The other set, katakana, is largely reserved for scientific terms, official documents, and words...
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major Supreme Court cases from the 2023–24 term The United States Supreme Court will have reached decisions in a number of significant cases by the end of its current term, which began on October 2, 2023, and effectively ends in late June or early July 2024, when the Court typically goes into recess. Important issues to be addressed by the Court...
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bloodletting Bloodletting is the removal of blood from a person with the intent, by means of that process, to manage diseases and health conditions. Bloodletting was believed to help rid the body of impure fluids, and it was practiced from antiquity until the 19th century, when modern medicine emerged, as a way...
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Academy Award for best cinematography Award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly Hills, California. It honors outstanding achievement by a cinematographer in a movie from a given year, as determined by the academy’s voting members. At the inaugural Academy Awards ceremony, in 1929,...
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Rhea Perlman Rhea Perlman, American actress best known for her role as the wisecracking barmaid Carla Tortelli on the award-winning American television sitcom Cheers (1982–93). Perlman is the eldest of two daughters born to Philip Perlman, a Polish immigrant who worked in the toy business, and Adele Perlman, a...
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dementia with Lewy bodies Dementia with Lewy bodies, chronic, progressive disease characterized by the deterioration of intellectual capacity, particularly attention and visual and spatial processing, associated with the widespread loss of neurons in certain regions of the brain. It is the second most common form of...
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naan Naan, teardrop-shaped, leavened flatbread traditionally baked in a tandoor oven (a beehive-shaped clay oven) or on wood charcoal. Although still a staple of South Asian and Middle Eastern cuisines—and especially associated with Indian cuisine—the versatility and flavor of naan have led to its...
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history of Trinidad and Tobago History of Trinidad and Tobago, a survey of notable events and people in the history of Trinidad and Tobago. Located in the southeastern West Indies, the country consists of two main islands—Trinidad and Tobago—and several smaller islands. Trinidad and Tobago lie close to the continent of South...
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moonshine Moonshine is a term typically used to refer to illicitly distilled liquor. The word is derived from the notion of the liquor being made and distributed at night, under cover of darkness. Makers of moonshine are called moonshiners. Moonshine most commonly denotes clear, unaged whiskey that was made...
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Timeline of the 2000s Do you remember what happened in the aughts?...
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Rebecca Lee Crumpler Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first Black woman to become a medical doctor in the United States and one of the first African Americans to write a medical book. She published A Book of Medical Discourses in 1883. At a time when most medical schools did not admit African Americans, and fewer than 300...
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Allison Janney Allison Janney, American actress who won acclaim on stage, film, and television but was perhaps best known for her portrayal of C.J. Cregg, the White House press secretary on the hit TV show The West Wing (1999–2006). She later won an Academy Award for her performance in the movie I, Tonya (2017)....
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George Takei George Takei, American actor, writer, and activist best known for playing the part of Lieutenant Sulu in the television and film series Star Trek. Takei is also a dedicated activist in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) and Asian American communities. Takei’s father,...
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Colfax massacre Colfax massacre, murder of some 150 African American militia members who were attempting to surrender to a white militia on April 13, 1873 in Colfax, Louisiana. Like the Rosewood massacre of 1923, the Colfax massacre was largely forgotten for decades until renewed scholarly interest brought greater...
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The Tribute Money The Tribute Money, fresco created about 1426 in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine basilica in Florence, Italy, by Florentine artist Masaccio. The Tribute Money is part of a group of early Renaissance frescoes in that chapel that revolutionized Florentine painting and were highly...
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Watson and the Shark Watson and the Shark, oil painting first created in 1778 by American artist John Singleton Copley. It was exhibited in 1778 at London’s Royal Academy of Arts and was instrumental in Copley’s being appointed to the academy. Copley painted a second version of the work later in 1778, and he created...
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history of Mozambique History of Mozambique, a survey of notable events and people in the history of Mozambique. The country, located in southeastern Africa, has a tropical climate, is rich in natural resources, and is biologically and culturally diverse. The country’s extensive coastline, fronting the Mozambique...
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Winter Landscape Winter Landscape, ink painting on paper scroll (part of a work called Autumn and Winter Landscapes) created about 1470 by Japanese artist and Zen Buddhist priest Sesshū. Sesshū is regarded as the greatest master of Japanese monochrome ink painting. Sesshū devoted his life to art. As a young man, he...
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Nancy Grace Roman Nancy Grace Roman, American astronomer who was instrumental in the planning and development of the Hubble Space Telescope. For her work she was dubbed the “Mother of Hubble.” When Roman was young, her mother used to take her outside at night so she could learn about the constellations, and she was...
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Hector Pieterson Hector Pieterson was 12 years old when police killed him during a protest by Black students that marked the beginning of the Soweto Uprising in South Africa. His death, on June 16, 1976, was captured in a photograph by Sam Nzima that generated international outrage and intensified condemnation of...
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alt-right Alt-right, far-right white supremacist political and social movement active in the United States in the 2010s. The alt-right was a loose association of relatively young white nationalists, extreme libertarians, and neo-Nazis. Mostly active online, members employed websites and social media to...
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Tom Wilson Tom Wilson, American record producer best known for producing the early groundbreaking albums of Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, the Velvet Underground, and Frank Zappa. Wilson was born to Fannie Odessa Brown Wilson, a librarian, and Thomas Blanchard Wilson, an insurance...
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the Doobie Brothers The Doobie Brothers, American rock band whose shift from Southern rock and blues-inspired compositions toward a commercially appealing soft rock sound resulted in its relevance and popularity throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. The band was formed in San Jose, California, in 1970 by...
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Lamar Jackson Lamar Jackson, American professional gridiron football player who is among the best dual-threat (rushing and passing) quarterbacks in National Football League (NFL) history. As a sophomore at the University of Louisville, he won the Heisman Trophy as college football’s top player, and in his second...
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Rumble in the Jungle Rumble in the Jungle, heavyweight boxing match held on October 30, 1974, between then heavyweight champion George Foreman and Muhammad Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The fight was attended by 60,000 people and watched on television by as many as one billion...
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history of Mali History of Mali, a survey of the notable events and people in the history of Mali, a landlocked country of western Africa. Mali, which lies mostly in the Saharan and Sahelian regions, is largely flat and arid. The Niger River flows through its interior, functioning as the main trading and transport...
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adverb Adverb, a word or phrase that modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a clause, or a sentence. It is one of eight parts of speech in English grammar. Adverbs supply information to a sentence or a context by describing where, when, how, or to what degree something happens. Some adverbs are...
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Libya flooding of 2023 Libya flooding of 2023, catastrophic flooding that struck eastern Libya on September 10 and 11, 2023. More than 4,000 people were killed and some 10,000 were missing after heavy rains generated by Storm Daniel (a strong Mediterranean cyclone) drenched the area and brought flooding to the region....
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Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., American environmental lawyer, member of the prominent Kennedy political family, and activist who became a leading figure among vaccine skeptics. In 2023 he launched a campaign seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for the United States presidential election of 2024....
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Which team has won the most World Series? When it comes to the World Series, one team stands out from all the others: the New York Yankees. The Bronx Bombers have won a record-setting 27 MLB championships. The St. Louis Cardinals, with 11 World Series titles, are a distant second. Next are the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics, each of...
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Who’s won the most Super Bowls? The biggest game in the NFL is the Super Bowl, and the biggest prize is the Vince Lombardi Trophy, which is given to the winners. Two teams have hoisted the trophy a record-setting six times: the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers. Close behind are the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco...
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Douglas Nicholls Douglas Nicholls, Yorta Yorta activist, athlete, minister, and politician who sought to establish the rights of Australian Aboriginal peoples. After early success as an athlete, Nicholls used his fame to advance the well-being of Indigenous communities, advocating for their citizenship and voting...
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Yoko Ono: A Life in Pictures Yoko Ono was a skilled, boundary-breaking artist, musician, and filmmaker long before she married musician John Lennon. Classically trained in piano and voice as a child, Ono became the first woman admitted to the philosophy program at Gakushūin University in Tokyo, and she later studied writing...
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Carolingian Renaissance Carolingian Renaissance, the revival of classical learning and the refinement of contemporary clerical and scholarly practices pursued under the Carolingian rulers of western Europe from the mid-8th to the 9th century. The exact end date of the Carolingian Renaissance is disputed, though there is...
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geographic range Geographic range, in ecology, the collective area in which all members of a particular species are found during their lifetime. The term geographic range has often referred to the natural extent of a species’ distribution; however, it also includes areas where a species was introduced by human...
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craft beer Craft beer, carbonated fermented malted alcoholic beverage created by small, independent breweries that produce a limited annual volume. Production runs are often modest, usually fewer than 1,000 barrels each year per brewery. With this narrow focus comes the freedom to experiment with styles and...
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Ed Sheeran Ed Sheeran, British singer-songwriter known for his genre-crossing style infused with elements of folk, rock, rhythm and blues (R&B;), pop, and hip-hop. As a child, Sheeran was surrounded by art and music, with parents who worked in the arts and a brother who would go on to become a music composer....
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Black Thursday Black Thursday, Thursday, October 24, 1929, the first day of the stock market crash of 1929, a catastrophic decline in the stock market of the United States that immediately preceded the worldwide Great Depression. That stock market crash (also called the Great Crash) is still considered the worst...
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head of government Head of government, the holder of the highest office in the government of a sovereign state, who also exercises practical political power. Some heads of government are technically holders of the second highest office in a country, the highest office being occupied by a ceremonial head of state who...
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parasocial interaction Parasocial interaction (PSI), semblance of interpersonal exchange whereby members of an audience come to feel that they personally know a performer they have encountered in mass media. Parasocial interactions (PSIs) are thought to have a psychological effect similar to that of face-to-face...
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Black Panther Ten-Point Program Black Panther Ten-Point Program, document first published on May 15, 1967, in the second issue of The Black Panther, the newspaper of the militant Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Composed in October 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, the cofounders of the Black Panther Party, the...
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The Exorcist The Exorcist, American horror film released in 1973, directed by William Friedkin and written by William Peter Blatty, who adapted the screenplay from his 1971 novel of the same name. The movie stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair, Jason Miller, and Lee J. Cobb. The story chronicles a...
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history of Qatar History of Qatar, a survey of notable events and people in the history of Qatar in the modern era. Qatar’s modern history begins conventionally in 1766 with the migration to the peninsula of families from Kuwait, notably the Khalifah family. Their settlement at the new town of Al-Zubārah grew into...
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Adderall Adderall, drug with stimulatory effects on the central nervous system that is prescribed for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy. Adderall is the trade name for a drug known as mixed amphetamine salts, which is a combination of two forms of amphetamine...
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chapati Chapati, fried flatbread of Indian origin, often served with vegetables and stew, commonly considered a variation of roti. The word chapati is derived from the Sanskrit word carpatī, meaning “thin cake,” which is in turn derived from the word carpata or “flat.” This refers to the traditional method...
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Grease Grease, American musical film released in 1978 starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta that follows the adventures of a group of high-school students in the late 1950s. Grease is the highest-grossing musical film of the 20th century and is based on, but differs significantly from, the...
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Andrew Garfield Andrew Garfield, American-born English screen and stage actor, known for giving his roles a unique vulnerability and emotional depth. Garfield began his acting career onstage and gained international celebrity with roles in such films as The Social Network (2010) and The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)....
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history of Vanuatu History of Vanuatu, a survey of notable events and people in the history of Vanuatu, from prehistory to the present day. Vanuatu lies in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, consisting of a chain of 13 principal and many smaller islands located about 500 miles (800 km) west of Fiji and 1,100 miles...
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Kelly Marie Tran Kelly Marie Tran, American actress best known for her performances in the Star Wars movie franchise and the Disney movie Raya and the Last Dragon (2021). However, Tran’s rise to fame came with online harassment. After costarring in Star Wars: Episode VIII—The Last Jedi (2017), Tran was bullied...
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Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), a title referring to one who has completed a course of study and earned a degree in the field of medicine. Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degrees vary by country in terms of requirements and their status as graduate or undergraduate degrees. However, in all countries that...
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F-score F-score, a metric for evaluating the accuracy of a binary classification model. It combines the precision and recall of an algorithm into one metric. A binary classification model classifies items as one of two values—for example, “yes” or “no.” Precision is the fraction of a model’s returned “yes”...
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Guillain-Barré syndrome Guillain-Barré syndrome, rare autoimmune condition of the peripheral nervous system. Guillain-Barré syndrome can range from mild to severe. Severe cases typically involve muscle paralysis and potentially life-threatening difficulties in breathing and swallowing. The condition affects individuals of...
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Selena Selena, American singer who was a vivacious entertainer and whose fluid voice celebrated the sound of Tejano, a fast-paced, accordion-based Latin dance music that combines elements of jazz, country, and German polka. It is sung in Spanish and is rooted in the Hispanic community in South Texas. Fans...
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Eddie Van Halen Eddie Van Halen, Dutch-born American guitarist and cofounder of the heavy metal band Van Halen, for which he served as the primary songwriter. He is known for his virtuosic electric guitar playing technique characterized by speed and the fusion of blues-based rock with classical music influences....
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Amazon basin Amazon basin, the drainage basin of the Amazon River that covers about 34 percent of the land of South America (about 6,100,000 square km [roughly 2,300,000 square miles]) and is located in the center and eastern portions of the continent. The Amazon basin is the largest drainage basin in the...
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Catherine Helen Spence Catherine Helen Spence was a writer and activist who sought to improve educational and welfare programs in Australia and to reform the country’s voting system. An immigrant from Scotland, she was a major progressive force for women’s voting rights in Australia during the late 19th and early 20th...
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Phil Knight Phil Knight, American businessman who cofounded (1964) the multinational sportswear and sports equipment corporation Nike, Inc. (originally called Blue Ribbon Sports). During his tenure as CEO (1964–2004), Nike became one of the most successful companies in the world. Knight was the eldest of three...
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Stevie Nicks Stevie Nicks, American singer-songwriter known for her work with pop-rock band Fleetwood Mac as well as for her solo efforts. Nicks’s ethereal stage presence, powerful songwriting, and low, rich vocals established her as a leading musical artist. Nicks was born to Barbara and Jess Nicks and has a...
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Presidential Debate Bingo Learn about the people and topics likely to come up in upcoming presidential debates, with fact-checked articles from Britannica...
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Jason Sudeikis Jason Sudeikis, American comedian, actor, and writer who first garnered attention for his work (2003–13) on the TV show Saturday Night Live (SNL) and later starred in the hugely popular series Ted Lasso (2020–23). Sudeikis is the eldest of three children born to Kathryn (née Wendt) Sudeikis, who...
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George Brett George Brett, American baseball player for the Kansas City Royals known for hitting .390 in 1980, at the time the highest batting average since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. The youngest of four boys born to Jack Brett, an accountant, and Ethel (née Hansen) Brett, a bookkeeper, George Brett grew...
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history of Fiji History of Fiji, a survey of notable events and people in the history of Fiji, a country and archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean. It surrounds the Koro Sea and is about 1,300 miles (2,100 km) north of Auckland, New Zealand. The archipelago consists of some 300 islands and 540 islets scattered...
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history of Germany History of Germany, a survey of important events and people in the history of Germany from ancient times to the present. Germanic peoples occupied much of the present-day territory of Germany in ancient times. The Germanic peoples are those who spoke one of the Germanic languages, and they thus...
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history of Denmark History of Denmark, a survey of important events and people in the history of Denmark from prehistoric times to the present. Occupying the peninsula of Jutland (Jylland), which extends northward from the center of continental western Europe, and an archipelago of more than 400 islands to the east...
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tea tree oil Tea tree oil, essential oil derived from the tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia), a species of tall shrub or tree in the myrtle family (Myrtaceae) originally native to the Bungawalbin Valley in New South Wales, eastern Australia. Tea tree oil historically was used by Australian Aboriginal peoples in...
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Mychal Judge Mychal Judge, American Roman Catholic priest, Franciscan friar, and New York City Fire Department chaplain who was the first identified casualty of the September 11 attacks. Several groups have called for his canonization in the Roman Catholic Church. Judge was the son of Irish immigrants, Michael...
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history of Tonga History of Tonga, a survey of notable events and people in the history of Tonga. Located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, Tonga consists of some 170 islands divided into three main island groups: Tongatapu in the south, Ha‘apai in the center, and Vava‘u in the north. Isolated islands include...
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e E, mathematical constant that is the base of the natural logarithm function f(x) = ln x and of its related inverse, the exponential function y = ex. To five decimal places, the value used for the constant is 2.71828. The number e is an irrational number; that is, it cannot be expressed as the ratio...
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history of the Czech Republic History of the Czech Republic, a survey of important events and people in the history of the Czech Republic (Czechia) from 1993 to the present. For earlier history of the area, including Bohemia and Moravia as well as Czechoslovakia, see Czechoslovak history. The Czech Republic came into being on...
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Suni Lee Suni Lee, American gymnast who won three medals at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo (delayed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic). Lee captured the individual all-around gold medal, becoming the fifth consecutive American woman to claim the sport’s most coveted prize. She also earned the...
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Steve Winwood Steve Winwood, British singer and songwriter, considered one of Britain’s foremost rhythm and blues vocalists. Beginning in the mid-1960s, Winwood wrote and performed a wide array of hits that combined blues, folk, rock, pop, and jazz. He was a member of the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, and Blind...
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economic sanctions Economic sanctions, restrictions, including those on trade, travel, and access to financial assets, imposed by a national government upon another government, an organization, or an individual for the purpose of compelling or preventing certain actions or policies on the part of the targeted entity...
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Priscilla Presley: A Life in Pictures Priscilla Presley is widely known for her marriage to the “King of Rock and Roll,” Elvis Presley. In the years after Elvis’s death, she became an executor of Graceland, his estate in Memphis, Tennessee, which she helped grow into a hugely successful tourist attraction. She also pursued an acting...
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Chris Pine Chris Pine, American actor who is especially adept at portraying intelligent and world-weary characters. He is perhaps best known for the role of Capt. James T. Kirk in the Star Trek movie series. Pine was born into a family of actors. His father, Robert Pine, has appeared in films and television...
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Padma Lakshmi Padma Lakshmi, Indian-American fashion model, television personality, and author best known for her role as the host of the cooking competition show Top Chef (2006– ) and of the food and travel series Taste the Nation (2020– ). Born in Chennai, India, Lakshmi moved to New York City in 1974, at the...
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Paris Street; Rainy Day Paris Street; Rainy Day, oil-on-canvas painting (1877) by French artist Gustave Caillebotte depicting contemporary Parisians holding umbrellas as they crisscross the city just as a rain shower seems to have subsided. Considered the artist’s masterpiece, Paris Street; Rainy Day merges the modern...
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Spencer Haywood Spencer Haywood, American professional basketball player whose lawsuit forced the National Basketball Association (NBA) to end its requirement that a player be out of high school for four years to be eligible to compete in the league. Haywood won an NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers in...
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Arrested Development Arrested Development, American television sitcom created by Mitchell Hurwitz and executive produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. Arrested Development aired from 2003 to 2006 on the Fox network, followed by a two-season reboot on Netflix in 2013 and 2018–19. The series follows the dysfunctional...
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biosphere reserve Biosphere reserve, in general, a discrete parcel of terrestrial, marine, or coastal ecosystems that is managed according to special regulations for the purpose of conserving habitats and biological communities within the context of highlighting how people live in balance with their environment....
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Encyclopædia Britannica First Edition: Dogs The following is taken from the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1768–71), where it forms part of the first section of the article “Canis” in volume 2. Editor William Smellie adapted this material from the account in French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon’s Histoire...
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history of Tuvalu History of Tuvalu, a survey of notable events and people in the history of Tuvalu, from ancient times to the present day. Tuvalu, located in the west-central Pacific Ocean, is composed of nine small coral islands scattered in a chain lying approximately northwest to southeast over a distance of...
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organic chemistry Organic chemistry, field of science concerned with the composition, properties, and structure of chemical elements and compounds that contain carbon atoms. Carbon is unique in the variety and extent of structures that can result from the three-dimensional connections of its atoms. Organic chemistry...
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history of Solomon Islands History of Solomon Islands, a survey of notable events and people in the history of Solomon Islands, a country lying in the southwestern Pacific Ocean and part of the island group known as Melanesia. Solomon Islands consists of a double chain of volcanic islands and coral atolls in Melanesia. The...
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Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas, oil painting created in 1963 by American artist Ed Ruscha. The image is an icon of the Pop art movement. Ruscha was born in Nebraska but grew up in Oklahoma City, and in 1956 he moved to Los Angeles, California. There, he enrolled at the Chouinard Art Institute...
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Mike Davis Mike Davis, American historian, urban theorist, and political activist whose works reflected his commitment to Marxist ideology. He lived most of his life in southern California, and much of his work sought to explain the region’s geography and political economy. His 1990 book City of Quartz:...
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Richard Nixon’s “last” press conference Richard Nixon’s “last” press conference, (1962) press conference at which Republican politician Richard Nixon, the former U.S. vice president (1953–61), having lost a close race for the presidency to John F. Kennedy (1960) and a run for the governorship of California to incumbent Edmund G. (“Pat”)...
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Lydia Villa-Komaroff Lydia Villa-Komaroff, American molecular biologist whose research led to the discovery that bacteria could be engineered to produce insulin, a hormone that plays a critical role in regulating glucose levels in the blood. Villa-Komaroff’s breakthrough ultimately improved the production and...
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Elizabeth Debicki Elizabeth Debicki, Australian screen and stage actress best known for playing Diana, princess of Wales, in the fifth season (2022) of the Netflix series The Crown and Jordan Baker in Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (2013). Debicki was born in Paris to an...
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calcium carbonate Calcium carbonate (CaCO3), chemical compound consisting of one atom of calcium, one of carbon, and three of oxygen that is the major constituent of limestone, marble, chalk, eggshells, bivalve shells, and corals. Calcium carbonate is either a white powder or a colorless crystal. When heated, it...
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Jeanne Baret Jeanne Baret, French botanist and explorer, the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. Disguised as a man aboard a French naval vessel, she collected samples of more than 6,000 plant specimens from around the world. Baret was born in a rural village in France to a family of laborers who likely...
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Keith Richards Keith Richards, British musician and guitar innovator best known as the guitarist and songwriter for the British rock band the Rolling Stones. The hard-edged, energetic rock act, one of the most successful in music history, owes much of its success to Richards’s chord-heavy playing style, which is...
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The Painter’s Studio The Painter’s Studio, oil painting created in 1854–55 by French artist Gustave Courbet. The most mysterious of his paintings, this relatively early work initially garnered the praise of Eugène Delacroix alone. When this painting was rejected for the Universal Exposition, Courbet opened his own...
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Snow Storm—Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth Snow Storm—Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth, oil painting created about 1842 by English seascape artist J.M.W. Turner. Turner’s increasingly experimental work drew heavy criticism during the 1840s, and this painting was damned by some critics as “soapsuds and whitewash.” Influential contemporary...
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Snap the Whip Snap the Whip, oil painting created in 1872 by American artist Winslow Homer. When Snap the Whip appeared, Homer was already a somewhat well-known and admired painter. However, this painting can be said to have ushered in a new period in Homer’s career, a transition from his earliest years through...
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The Sleeping Gypsy The Sleeping Gypsy, oil painting created in 1897 by French naïve artist Henri Rousseau. This work is perhaps the most important of the period when Rousseau began to receive recognition as an artist and is one of the most famous images of the modern era. Rousseau was entirely self-taught and did not...
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William Kamkwamba William Kamkwamba, Malawian inventor and author who worked on projects to improve the lives of his family and the residents of Masitala, the rural village in Malawi where he grew up. As a teenager, he made a windmill out of scrap materials that provided electricity to his family’s house. He wrote a...
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interjection Interjection, an exclamatory word or phrase used to express an emotional reaction or to emphasize a thought. It is one of eight parts of speech in English grammar. Interjections are grammatically independent from the words around them, and they can often be removed from a sentence or context...
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Israeli-Saudi peace deal Israeli-Saudi peace deal, anticipated agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia to normalize ties. Serious discussions toward normalized ties between the countries began after the Abraham Accords were announced in 2020. Saudi Arabia first raised the prospect of normal relations with Israel in 2002...
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Davy Jones Davy Jones, British pop singer and actor best known as the front man for the American music group the Monkees, which had a brief run in the 1960s as a wildly successful made-for-TV foursome, followed by decades of nostalgic reunions. Jones grew up in poverty, sleeping with his three siblings in a...
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Narayana Guru Narayana Guru, Indian social reformer, poet, and Hindu sage who led a movement against the Hindu caste system. Guru believed that all people are equal and thus belong to just one caste, the caste of humankind. He expressed this idea in his famous saying, “One caste, one religion, one god for...
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timeline of the Holocaust Even before the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, they had made no secret of their anti-Semitism. As early as 1919 Adolf Hitler had written, “Rational anti-Semitism, however, must lead to systematic legal opposition.…Its final objective must unswervingly be the removal of the Jews...
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Jonny Kim Jonny Kim, Korean American Navy SEAL, doctor, aviator, and astronaut who is a member of NASA’s Artemis team, which aims to land humans on the Moon for the first time since 1972. Kim is a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy. Kim was born to South Korean immigrants in Los Angeles on February 5,...
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Mandy Patinkin Mandy Patinkin, American actor and singer known for his award-winning performances on stage, film, and television. His notable credits include the movies Yentl (1983) and The Princess Bride (1987), the stage musical Sunday in the Park with George (1984–85), and the TV series Homeland (2011–20)....
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Lynda Barry Lynda Barry, American cartoonist and author known for her syndicated weekly comic strip Ernie Pook’s Comeek (1979–2008) and the graphic novels The Good Times Are Killing Me (1988) and What It Is (2008). Barry was born to a father of Irish and Norwegian descent who worked as a butcher and a mother...
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Text of the Constitution of the United States On September 17, 1787, the United States Constitution—the oldest written constitution still in effect today—was approved and signed in Philadelphia by thirty-nine delegates to the federal convention. The document has been hailed as the most successful work of its kind in modern history. The...
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index case Index case, in public health, the first case of a disease or other condition that is noticed by health authorities. Index cases may be reported in relation to infectious disease outbreaks or to occurrences of noninfectious diseases or health conditions. They may also be reported within a region or...
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history of the Netherlands History of the Netherlands, a survey of notable events and people in the history of the Netherlands, from its founding in 1579 to the present. For information concerning the period prior to that date, see history of the Low Countries. “Netherlands” means low-lying country; the name Holland (from...
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radio-frequency identification Radio-frequency identification (RFID), method of wireless communication that uses electromagnetic waves to identify and track tags attached to objects, people, or animals. The attached tags, called RFID tags, store digitally encoded data that can be read by an RFID reader. The reader does not need...
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Tracy Chapman Tracy Chapman, American singer-songwriter who quickly rose to fame in the late 1980s as result of the phenomenal overnight success of her eponymous debut album, which sold some one million copies within two weeks of its release in 1988, partly as a result of the broad appeal of its lead single,...
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Morocco earthquake of 2023 Morocco earthquake of 2023, severe earthquake that struck near the town of Oukaïmedene in western Morocco on September 8, 2023. More than 2,900 people were killed and 5,500 people injured in the shallow magnitude-6.8 temblor and its aftershocks. The earthquake heavily damaged parts of the ancient...
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global food security Global food security, the availability of and access to resources in sufficient quantities to achieve adequate nutrition for the world population. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, in 2022 some 2.4 billion people—about 29.6 percent of the world...
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Connie Chung Connie Chung, American broadcast journalist who helped break down gender barriers in the late 20th century to become one of the first woman reporters on national television in the United States. She was also the first Asian American anchor of a major network newscast. Among the many exclusive...
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Hunter Biden Hunter Biden, American attorney and businessman and the sole surviving son of Joe Biden, 46th president of the United States. The Yale-educated lawyer has held an array of positions at law firms, financial institutions, and lobbying firms that have raised questions about whether he has profited...
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Jerusalem in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Whose capital is it? For decades Jerusalem’s status has been among the most contentious issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The city is home to hundreds of thousands of people who belong to either nationality, Israeli or Palestinian, and both Israelis and Palestinians want the historic city to serve as their...
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Marc Brown Marc Brown, American children’s book author and illustrator, best known as the creator of the Arthur series, of which he wrote dozens of books. He also helped to create the Arthur television series, which aired in more than 80 countries. Brown grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania. His father, LeRoy Brown,...
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cross-validation Cross-validation, data resampling technique used in machine learning to evaluate the performance of predictive models. Cross-validation is used to assess a model’s predictive capability by testing its generalizability with different portions of a dataset. Cross-validation is one of the most common...
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Ian Hacking Ian Hacking, Canadian philosopher whose historical analyses of the natural and social sciences as well as mathematics greatly influenced 20th- and 21st-century philosophical discourse. Hacking was the only child of Harold and Margaret (née MacDougall) Hacking. He grew up in Vancouver and attended...
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Alexander Soros Alexander Soros, American philanthropist and a son of financier and philanthropist George Soros. Alexander Soros was born in New York City in 1985 to George Soros and Susan Weber, then a decorative arts specialist. He was George’s fourth child but the first from his marriage to Weber. Soros grew up...
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Joan Benoit Samuelson Joan Benoit Samuelson, American long-distance runner who won the first Olympic gold medal awarded for the women’s marathon, which debuted at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. During her career, she also held U.S. records for the 10 km, the half-marathon, and the marathon as well as a world...
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Tim Lincecum Tim Lincecum, American baseball player who was a star pitcher for the San Francisco Giants in the early 21st century. He earned the nickname “The Freak” for his unconventional pitching delivery that involved a high-kicking windup, an extraordinarily long stride down the mound, and a whiplike...
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sustainable development Sustainable development, approach to social, economic, and environmental planning that attempts to balance the social and economic needs of present and future human generations with the imperative of preserving, or preventing undue damage to, the natural environment. Sustainable development lacks a...
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list of country calling codes This is an alphabetically ordered list of the countries of the world with their calling codes. To dial a telephone number in another country, one dials the international prefix (011, when dialing from a landline in the U.S.; cell phones use the plus sign [+]), the country code, the area code, and...
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list of brightest stars These are the 26 brightest stars as seen from Earth, listed in descending order of brightness. The list includes each star’s apparent magnitude and constellation (except for the Sun). Astronomical magnitude is on a scale in which smaller magnitudes are brighter than larger...
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Democratic National Convention Democratic National Convention (DNC), quadrennial meeting of the U.S. Democratic Party, at which delegates select the party’s presidential and vice presidential nominees. The Democratic Party held its first national convention in May 1832 in Baltimore, Maryland. The party, which had been known...
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gum arabic Gum arabic, dried water-soluble exudate that comes primarily from two species of acacia in sub-Saharan Africa, Acacia senegal and A. seyal, and that has numerous applications, particularly in the food industry and in areas such as ceramics, painting, photography, and printmaking. Humans have in...
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Grace Slick Grace Slick, American musician and artist best known as the colead vocalist of the classic rock band Jefferson Airplane and its spinoff bands, Jefferson Starship and Starship. Slick’s striking beauty, stage presence, and dynamic contralto voice enabled Jefferson Airplane to become one of the most...
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history of Cameroon History of Cameroon, a survey of the notable events and people in the history of Cameroon, from the 5th century ce to the present day. Cameroon is located at the junction of western and central Africa. The country’s name is derived from Rio dos Camarões (“River of Prawns”)—the name given to the...
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reaction formation Reaction formation, in the field of psychoanalysis, a defense mechanism wherein an anxiety-producing impulse is replaced by an opposite idea or behaviour. Reaction formation was first conceptualized by Austrian-born British psychoanalyst Anna Freud; it was one of 10 types of defense mechanisms...
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National Lampoon National Lampoon, American adult-oriented humour magazine published between 1970 and 1998, notable for its spot-on parodies as well as its influence on popular culture. National Lampoon was established by Harvard University graduates Henry Beard, Robert Hoffman, and Doug Kenney, all of whom had...
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Thomas Hudner Thomas Hudner, American naval officer and the first Medal of Honor recipient of the Korean War. He was a subject of the 2022 film Devotion. Hudner grew up in a manufacturing town in Massachusetts. After attending Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, he was accepted into the United States...
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member states of the Commonwealth The 56 member states of the Commonwealth, which is also called Commonwealth of Nations, encompass the United Kingdom and 55 of its former dependencies. After becoming independent, these 55 states have chosen to work with one another and with the United Kingdom in cooperation while also recognizing...
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paranormal Paranormal, term commonly applied to experiences or events that seem unusual or unnatural. Those who experience paranormal events often attribute them to magical, supernatural, or folkloric origins while disregarding the steps normally taken to attain rational scientific explanations. Because of...
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Jodie Comer Jodie Comer, English actress best known for playing psychopathic assassin Villanelle on the award-winning BBC America spy thriller Killing Eve (2018–22). Comer is the eldest of two children born to Donna Comer, a Merseyrail employee, and James Comer, a physiotherapist for Everton Football Club. The...
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Freaks and Geeks Freaks and Geeks, cult-classic teen coming-of-age television series focusing on two groups of high-school students in suburban Michigan in 1980. Freaks and Geeks aired on the NBC network for one season from 1999 to 2000 before its cancellation. Created by Paul Feig with Judd Apatow serving as its...
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Fermi paradox Fermi paradox, contradiction between the seemingly high likelihood for the emergence of extraterrestrial intelligence and the lack of evidence for its existence. The paradox has two broad forms: (1) Why has Earth not already been visited? and (2) Why is there no evidence for extraterrestrial...
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Awkwafina Awkwafina, American comedian, actress, and rapper known for her low raspy voice, explicit comedy raps, and quick delivery of comedic one-liners. After she posted her rap song “My Vag” on YouTube in 2012, her fame steadily rose, and she soon landed parts in such movies as Ocean’s Eight (2018), Crazy...
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Diane Nash Diane Nash, American civil rights activist who was a leading figure in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s, especially known for her involvement in sit-ins and the Freedom Rides. Nash’s efforts contributed to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965....
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Edmund Pettus Bridge Edmund Pettus Bridge, bridge crossing the Alabama River in Selma, Alabama, that was the site of what became known as “Bloody Sunday,” a landmark event in the history of the American civil rights movement. On that day, March 7, 1965, white law-enforcement officers violently dispersed protesters, the...
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Herb Alpert Herb Alpert, American trumpeter and music industry executive known for leading the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass and for cofounding A&M; Records. Hit albums by Herb Alpert, one of the best-selling instrumentalists of all time, helped A&M; Records become an industry powerhouse. Alpert was the...
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Oslo Accords Oslo Accords, set of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that established a peace process for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a mutually negotiated two-state solution. The agreements resulted in limited self-governance for Palestinians in the West Bank...
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Ghost Forests Are Becoming the New Haunts of Climate Change What are ghost forests? How do ghost forests emerge, and how do they affect the global environment?...
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womanism Womanism, feminist intellectual framework that focuses on the conditions and concerns of women of colour, especially Black women. Womanists work to address injustices that have not been generally recognized within mainstream feminism. The term womanist was coined by the American author Alice Walker...
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The Old Testament Trinity The Old Testament Trinity, tempera icon created about 1410 by Andrey Rublyov, who is regarded as one of the greatest medieval Russian painters of icons and frescoes. The Old Testament Trinity is perhaps the most revered and valued icon in Russia. Rublyov is thought to have received his training...
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Prismes Électriques Prismes Électriques, Orphist oil painting created in 1914 by Russian-born artist Sonia Delaunay. This painting is an icon of the full and mature expression of Orphism. Delaunay was born in Gradizhsk, Ukraine (then in the Russian Empire) and grew up in St. Petersburg before moving to Paris in 1905,...
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Portrait of Mademoiselle Charlotte du Val d’Ognes Portrait of Mademoiselle Charlotte du Val d’Ognes, unsigned oil painting believed to have been created about 1801 that is attributed to French artist Marie Denise Villers. The painting, which was likely exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1801, has had different attributions and interpretations, mostly...
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Ginger Baker Ginger Baker, English drummer and percussionist known for his flamboyant playing style that incorporated intricate polyrhythms influenced by jazz, rock, and West African music. Baker was widely considered rock’s first superstar drummer, serving as the drummer for the seminal British rock outfits...
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St. Joseph the Carpenter St. Joseph the Carpenter, oil painting created about 1642–44 by French artist Georges de la Tour. One of the candle-lit paintings for which Tour is best known, this intimate religious scene is also touchingly human. The story of the artist’s life and works is patchy. Although he enjoyed success and...
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The Red Studio The Red Studio, oil painting created in 1911 by French artist Henri Matisse. It is a challenging painting that has confounded critics and viewers and is regarded as a foundational piece of modern art. Matisse is known as the great colourist of the 20th century, and The Red Studio is one of the best...
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Malcolm-Jamal Warner Malcolm-Jamal Warner, American actor, director, and musician who is perhaps best known for his work on The Cosby Show (1984–92), one of the most popular sitcoms in television history. He also is a noted spoken-word artist. Warner was born in New Jersey. His parents—Pamela Warner, who later became...
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Jean Berko Gleason Jean Berko Gleason, American psycholinguist best known as the creator of the Wug Test, a tool used to study children’s language acquisition. A pioneer in the field of children’s language, Gleason has been called the founder of experimental developmental psycholinguistics. She created the Wug Test...
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Stanley Cup champions Stanley Cup champions, winners of the annual best-of-seven series of ice hockey games that determines that season’s titlist in the National Hockey League (NHL). The Stanley Cup is named for its donor, Frederick Arthur, Lord Stanley of Preston, a former governor-general of Canada. He originally...
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McGurk effect McGurk effect, an audiovisual speech illusion that demonstrates the impact of visual cues on speech perception, particularly the identification of spoken syllables. The effect was named after cognitive psychologist Harry McGurk, who, along with cognitive psychologist John MacDonald, discovered the...
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Bertha Pappenheim Bertha Pappenheim, Austrian Jewish activist who was a founder of the League of Jewish Women and who is widely considered to have been the first patient of psychoanalysis. Pappenheim was a well-documented patient of Austrian physician Josef Breuer in the early 1880s; she became known by the...
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Roxane Gay Roxane Gay, American writer and cultural critic who gained acclaim in 2014 for her book Bad Feminist, a collection of essays that reflects on her personal experiences, pop culture, and hot-button social issues. A prolific writer, she also published works of fiction and memoir, served as an editor...
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history of the Dominican Republic History of the Dominican Republic, a survey of important events and people in the history of the Dominican Republic from the time of European settlement. The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola, the second largest island of the Greater Antilles chain in the Caribbean...
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Heavy Metal Heavy Metal, Canadian animated science-fiction anthology film directed by Gerald Potterton and released in 1981. The film features stories that originally appeared in Heavy Metal magazine, as well as tales conceived specifically for the film. Aimed at an adult audience, Heavy Metal was hailed as an...
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How deep is the ocean? The prospect of comprehending just how vast and deep Earth’s oceans are is a challenging one. Earth’s surface is dominated by the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Southern oceans, which together cover some 71 percent of the planet and whose average collective depth is 12,100 feet (3,688...
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Alexander Litvinenko Alexander Litvinenko, Russian security agent who investigated domestic organized crime in his role as a member of the KGB and its successor (from 1994) the Federal Security Service (FSB). He died after being intentionally poisoned with polonium-210; numerous investigatory bodies ruled that the...
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Sarah, Duchess of York Sarah, Duchess of York, former wife (1986–96) of Prince Andrew, Duke of York. After they divorced in 1996, Sarah became a prolific author, television personality, entrepreneur, and public figure. A descendant of British royalty, Ferguson was the second daughter of parents who divorced when she was...