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Prairie Pothole Region

(Encyclopedia)Prairie Pothole Region, large geographic area of central North America consisting of grass-covered wetlands. Stretching northwest from N Iowa through SW Minnesota, E South Dakota, E and N North Dakota...

Ouro Prêto

(Encyclopedia)Ouro Prêto ōˈro͝o prāˈto͝o [key] [Port.,=black gold], city (1996 pop. 61,606), Minas Gerais state, E Brazil. Founded as Vila Rica in the gold rush near the end of the 17th cent., it became a pr...

Dampier, William

(Encyclopedia)Dampier, William dămˈpēr [key], 1651–1715, English explorer, buccaneer, hydrographer, and naturalist. He fought (1673) in the Dutch War, managed a plantation in Jamaica (1674), and then worked wi...

Mackenzie

(Encyclopedia)Mackenzie, river, c.1,120 mi (1,800 km) long, issuing from Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada, and flowing generally NW to the Arctic Ocean through a great delta. Between Great Slave Lake...

blindness

(Encyclopedia)blindness, partial or complete loss of sight. Blindness may be caused by injury, by lesions of the brain or optic nerve, by disease of the cornea or retina, by pathological changes originating in syst...

figwort

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Figwort, Scrophularia lanceolata figwort, common name for some members of the Scrophulariaceae, a family comprising chiefly herbs and small shrubs and distributed widely over all continents. T...

trypanosomiasis

(Encyclopedia)trypanosomiasis trəpănˌəsōmīˈəsis [key], infectious disease caused by a protozoan organism, the trypanosome, which exists as a parasite in the blood of a number of vertebrate hosts. The three ...

cannibalism

(Encyclopedia)cannibalism kănˈĭbəlĭzəm [key] [Span. caníbal, referring to the Carib], eating of human flesh by other humans. The charge of cannibalism is a common insult, and it is likely that some alleged c...

International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen, and Helpers of America

(Encyclopedia)International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen, and Helpers of America: see Teamsters Union. ...

Halberstam, David

(Encyclopedia)Halberstam, David, 1934–2007, American journalist and author, b. New York City, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1955). A reporter (1956–60) for newspapers in Mississippi and Tennessee, he chronicled the nasc...