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robotics

(Encyclopedia)robotics, science and technology of general purpose, programmable machine systems. Contrary to the popular fiction image of robots as ambulatory machines of human appearance capable of performing almo...

Branson, Sir Richard

(Encyclopedia)Branson, Sir Richard (Richard Charles Nicholas Branson), 1950–, British business mogul and adventurer. He left school at 16 to start his first business, the magazine Student. In 1970 he began a mail...

Deneuve, Catherine

(Encyclopedia)Deneuve, Catherine, 1943–, French film actress, b. Paris as Catherine Fabienne Dorléac. The daughter of actors and sister of actress Françoise Dorléac (1942–67), the cool and beautiful blonde h...

videotex

(Encyclopedia)videotex, communications service that is linked to an adapted television receiver or a personal computer by telephone lines, cable television facilities, or the like, and that allows a user to retriev...

peddler

(Encyclopedia)peddler or hawker, itinerant vendor of small goods. In rural America peddlers carried their packs or drove a horse and cart from door to door. While the importance of peddlers to the small American co...

Mesilla

(Encyclopedia)Mesilla māsēˈyä [key], town (1990 pop. 1,975), SW N.Mex., on the Rio Grande and near Las Cruces; settled c.1850. The whole Mesilla Valley became part of the United States under the Gadsden Purchas...

Hazard, Ebenezer

(Encyclopedia)Hazard, Ebenezer, 1744–1817, American public official and historian, b. Philadelphia. He became a publisher in New York City. He was appointed (1775) first postmaster of the city under the Continent...

Dún Laoghaire

(Encyclopedia)Dún Laoghaire do͞on lărˈē, dŭn lârˈə [key], city, Co. Dublin, E central Repu...

Rosenwald, Julius

(Encyclopedia)Rosenwald, Julius rōˈzənwôld [key], 1862–1932, American merchant and philanthropist, b. Springfield, Ill. He was president (1910–25), and later chairman of the board, of the mail-order house o...

Oldham

(Encyclopedia)Oldham, metropolitan borough (1991 pop. 107,095), NW England, located in the Manchester metropolitan area. The city's industries include papermaking, tanning, food processing, and mail-order distribut...