Columbia Encyclopedia

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drug addiction and drug abuse

(Encyclopedia)drug addiction and drug abuse, chronic or habitual use of any chemical substance to alter states of body or mind for other than medically warranted purposes. Traditional definitions of addiction, with...

Katmai National Park and Preserve

(Encyclopedia)Katmai National Park and Preserve kătˈmī [key], at the northern end of the Alaska Peninsula on Shelikof Strait, S Alaska, comprising Katmai National Park (3,674,530 acres/1,487,664 hectares) and an...

Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

(Encyclopedia)Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, period of Chinese history between the fall of the T'ang dynasty (a.d. 907) and the establishment of the Sung dynasty (a.d. 960). It is named for the five successive sh...

Southeast Asian art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)Southeast Asian art and architecture includes works from the geographical area including the modern countries of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Malaysia, Singapore and In...

Lunt, Alfred, and Lynn Fontanne

(Encyclopedia)Lunt, Alfred, 1893–1977, b. Milwaukee, and Lynn Fontanne fŏntănˈ [key], 1887?–1983, b. Essex, England, American acting couple. Lunt made his debut in Boston (1913), toured in vaudeville, and wo...

raisin, in botany and cooking

(Encyclopedia)raisin, dried fruit of certain varieties of grapevines bearing grapes with a high content of sugar and solid flesh. Although the fruit is sometimes artificially dehydrated, it is usually sun-dried. Th...

Rhône, river, Switzerland and France

(Encyclopedia)Rhône, Lat. Rhodanus, river, 505 mi (813 km) long, rising in the Rhône glacier, NE Valais, Switzerland. It flows west through a narrow, flat valley that separates the Bernese Alps from the Pennine A...

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University

(Encyclopedia)Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, at Tallahassee; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered and opened 1887; predominantly African American. It has divisions of arts and s...

Camp Fire Boys and Girls

(Encyclopedia)Camp Fire Boys and Girls, American organization for boys and girls from birth to age 21, originally the Camp Fire Girls, for girls 6 to 18 years old. It was founded (1910) by Luther Halsey Gulick (186...

Vienna, city and province, Austria

(Encyclopedia)Vienna vēĕnˈə [key], Ger. Wien, city and province (1991 pop. 1,539,848), 160 sq mi (414 sq km), capital and largest city of Austria and administrative seat of Lower Austria, NE Austria, on the Dan...