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John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

(Encyclopedia)John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, philanthropic institution founded 1978 by John D. MacArthur (1897–1978), owner of a prominent insurance company and other businesses, and his wife Cath...

Cerf, Vinton Gray

(Encyclopedia)Cerf, Vinton Gray, 1943–, American computer scientist, b. New Haven, Conn., B.S. Stanford, 1965, Ph.D. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, 1972. With Robert Kahn, he is responsible for the design and ...

Bowery, the

(Encyclopedia)Bowery, the bouˈərē, –ˈrē [key] [Dutch Bouwerie=farm], section of lower Manhattan, New York City. The Bowery, the street that gives the area its name, was once a road to the farm of New Amsterd...

United Nations Children's Fund

(Encyclopedia)United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), a specialized fund of the United Nations. It was established in 1946 as the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, and became a permanent part...

Pine Barrens

(Encyclopedia)Pine Barrens, coastal plain region, c.3,000 sq mi (7,770 sq km), S and SE N.J.; composed chiefly of sandy soils, swamp-edged streams, pine stands, and tracts of cranberries and blueberries. Originally...

Stern, Robert A. M.

(Encyclopedia)Stern, Robert A. M. (Robert Arthur Morton Stern), 1939–, American architect, b. New York City. He studied architecture at Yale Univ., became a practicing architect in the mid-1960s, and a professor ...

Roberts, Lawrence Gilman

(Encyclopedia)Roberts, Lawrence Gilman, 1937–2018, American computer scientist, b. Westport, Conn., Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1963. He worked at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, a government research ...

periscope

(Encyclopedia)periscope pĕrˈĭskōp [key] [Gr.,=view around], instrument to enable a person to see objects not in his direct line of vision or concealed by some intervening body. Its essential parts are a tube, p...

Burgess, John William

(Encyclopedia)Burgess, John William, 1844–1931, American educator and political scientist, b. Tennessee. He served in the Union army in the Civil War and after the war graduated from Amherst (1867). He was admitt...

Tannaim

(Encyclopedia)Tannaim tänäˈĭm [key] [plural of Aramaic tanna,=one who studies or teaches], Jewish sages of the period from Hillel to the compilation of the Mishna. They functioned as both scholars and teachers,...

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