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gunpowder

(Encyclopedia)gunpowder, explosive mixture; its most common formula, called “black powder,” is a combination of saltpeter, sulfur, and carbon in the form of charcoal. Historically, the relative amounts of the c...

Ha Jin

(Encyclopedia)Ha Jin, pseud. of Jin Xuefei, 1956–, Chinese-American writer, grad. Heilongjiang Univ. (B.A. 1981), Shandong Univ. (M.A., 1984), Brandeis (M.A., Ph.D., 1993). In the early 1980s he came to the Unite...

Kachin State

(Encyclopedia)Kachin State kəchĭnˈ [key], state (1983 pop. 903,982), 33,903 sq mi (87,809 sq km), extreme N Myanmar. It is a mountainous region bounded on the NW by India and on the N and E by China and traverse...

White Huns

(Encyclopedia)White Huns or Hephthalites hĕfˈthəlītsˌ [key], people of obscure origins, possibly of Tibetan or Turkish stock. They were called Ephthalites by the Greeks, and Hunas by the Indians. There is no d...

boat people

(Encyclopedia)boat people, term used to describe the Indochinese refugees who fled Communist rule after the Vietnam War (1975) in small boats and the many ethnic Chinese who left Vietnam similarly after China's inv...

opium

(Encyclopedia)opium, substance derived by collecting and drying the milky juice in the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. Opium varies in color from yellow to dark brown and has a characterist...

writing

(Encyclopedia)writing, the visible recording of language peculiar to the human species. Writing enables the transmission of ideas over vast distances of time and space and is a prerequisite of complex civilization....

Negeri Sembilan

(Encyclopedia)Negeri Sembilan sĕmbēˈlən [key], state (1991 pop. 691,150), 2,564 sq mi (6,641 sq km), Malaysia, S Malay Peninsula, on the Strait of Malacca. The capital is Seremban. Its principal rivers are the...

Lombok

(Encyclopedia)Lombok lŏmbŏkˈ [key], island (1990 pop. 2,403,025), c.1,825 sq mi (4,725 sq km), E Indonesia, one of the Lesser Sundas, separated from Bali by the Strait of Lombok. Mataram, with the port of Ampena...

cruise missile

(Encyclopedia)cruise missile, low-flying, continuously powered offensive missile designed to evade defense systems. A cruise missile typically uses an aircraft engine rather than a rocket engine to fly at subsonic ...