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Ob

(Encyclopedia)Ob ôp [key], river, c.2,300 mi (3,700 km) long, W Siberian Russia. With the Irtysh River, its chief tributary, it is c.3,460 mi (5,600 km) long and is the world's fourth longest river. Formed by the ...

Lloyd's

(Encyclopedia)Lloyd's, London insurance underwriting corporation of many separate syndicates; often called Lloyd's of London. Founded in the late 17th cent. by a group of merchants, shipowners, and insurance broker...

Saint Mark's Church

(Encyclopedia)Saint Mark's Church, Venice, named after the tutelary saint of Venice. The original Romanesque basilical church, built in the 9th cent. as a shrine for the saint's bones, was destroyed by fire in 967....

organic farming

(Encyclopedia)organic farming, the practice of growing plants—especially for fruits and vegetables, but for ornamentals as well—without the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, or of raisin...

Smith, W. Eugene

(Encyclopedia)Smith, W. Eugene (William Eugene Smith), 1918–78, American photojournalist, b. Wichita, Kan. Smith is considered one of the principal masters of modern photojournalism. The distorted newspaper cover...

World Health Organization

(Encyclopedia)World Health Organization (WHO), specialized agency of the United Nations, established in 1948, with its headquarters at Geneva. WHO admits all sovereign states (including those not belonging to the U...

Adirondack Mountains

(Encyclopedia)Adirondack Mountains ădˌərŏnˈdăk [key], mountain mass, NE N.Y., between the St. Lawrence valley in the north and the Mohawk valley in the south; rising to 5,344 ft (1,629 m) at Mt. Marcy, the hi...

biological diversity

(Encyclopedia)biological diversity or biodiversity, the number of species in a given habitat. Scientists have variously estimated that there are from 3 to 30 million extant species, of which 2.5 million have been c...

asperges

(Encyclopedia)asperges əspûrˈjəs [key], ceremonial sprinkling of the people with holy water by the priest before the Sunday High Mass in the Roman Catholic Church. The accompanying antiphon begins, Asperges me,...

root crop

(Encyclopedia)root crop, vegetable cultivated chiefly for its edible roots, e.g., the beet, turnip, mangel-wurzel, carrot, and parsnip. All root crops have a large water content and grow best in deeply cultivated s...