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New England

(Encyclopedia)New England, name applied to the region comprising six states of the NE United States—Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The region is thought to have been ...

modem

(Encyclopedia)modem [modulator/demodulator], an external device or internal electronic circuitry used to transmit and receive digital data over a communications line normally used for analog signals. A modem attach...

Cheney, Dick

(Encyclopedia)Cheney, Dick (Richard Bruce Cheney) chēˈnē, chāˈ– [key], 1941–, Vice President of the United States (2001–9), b. Lincoln, Nebr. His family moved to Casper, Wyo., when he was 13, and he atte...

civil disobedience

(Encyclopedia)civil disobedience, refusal to obey a law or follow a policy believed to be unjust. Practitioners of civil disobedience usual base their actions on moral right and employ the nonviolent technique of p...

Gorky, Maxim

(Encyclopedia)Gorky, Maxim or Maksim both: məksyēm gôrˈkē [key] [Rus.,=Maxim the Bitter], pseud. of Aleksey Maximovich Pyeshkov, 1868–1936, Russian writer, b. Nizhny Novgorod (named Gorky, 1932–91). Gorky ...

Pound, Ezra Loomis

(Encyclopedia)Pound, Ezra Loomis, 1885–1972, American poet, critic, and translator, b. Hailey, Idaho, grad. Hamilton College, 1905, M.A. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1906. An extremely important influence in the shapin...

Precambrian

(Encyclopedia)Precambrian, name of a major division of geologic time (see Geologic Timescale, tablegeologic timescale, table), from c.5 billion to 570 million years ago. It is now usually divided into the Archean a...

prohibition

(Encyclopedia)prohibition, legal prevention of the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages, the extreme of the regulatory liquor laws. The modern movement for prohibition had its main growth in...

foundation

(Encyclopedia)foundation, institution through which private wealth is contributed and distributed for public purpose. Foundations have existed since Greek and Roman times, when they honored deities. During the Midd...

Hardy, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Hardy, Thomas, 1840–1928, English novelist and poet, b. near Dorchester, one of the great English writers of the 19th cent. The son of a stonemason, he derived a love of music from his father and a ...