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personal digital assistant

(Encyclopedia)personal digital assistant (PDA), lightweight, hand-held computer designed for use as a personal organizer with communications capabilities; also called a handheld. A typical PDA has no keyboard, rely...

Culpeper, Thomas Culpeper, 2d Baron

(Encyclopedia)Culpeper, Thomas Culpeper, 2d Baron kŭlˈpĕpˌər [key], 1635–89, English colonial governor of Virginia. In 1673, with the earl of Arlington, he was granted all lands in Virginia not previously pa...

Energy, United States Department of

(Encyclopedia)Energy, United States Department of, executive department of the federal government responsible for coordinating national activities relating to the production, regulation, marketing, and conservation...

Hébert, Jacques René

(Encyclopedia)Hébert, Jacques René zhäk rənāˈ ābĕrˈ [key], 1757–94, French journalist and revolutionary. An ardent supporter of the French Revolution, he gained the support of the working classes through...

foreign exchange

(Encyclopedia)foreign exchange, methods and instruments used to adjust the payment of debts between two nations that employ different currency systems. A nation's balance of payments has an important effect on the ...

Garrick, David

(Encyclopedia)Garrick, David, 1717–79, English actor, manager, and dramatist. He was indisputably the greatest English actor of the 18th cent., and his friendships with Diderot, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, ...

Mason, Bobbie Ann

(Encyclopedia)Mason, Bobbie Ann, 1940–, American regional author, b. Mayfield, Ky., grad. Univ. of Kentucky (B.A., 1962), State Univ. of New York, Binghamton (M.A., 1966), Univ. of Connecticut (Ph.D., 1972). Her ...

Bunau-Varilla, Philippe Jean

(Encyclopedia)Bunau-Varilla, Philippe Jean fēlēpˈ zhäN bünōˈ-värēyäˈ [key], 1859–1940, French engineer, prominent in the Panama Canal controversy. An engineer after 1884 in the original French company ...

Schiele, Egon

(Encyclopedia)Schiele, Egon āˈgôn shēˈlə [key], 1890–1918, Austrian expressionist painter and draftsman, studied Vietta Academy of Fine Arts. Influenced by the French impressionists, then by Gustav Klimt, S...

international monetary system

(Encyclopedia)international monetary system, rules and procedures by which different national currencies are exchanged for each other in world trade. Such a system is necessary to define a common standard of value ...