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finch

(Encyclopedia)finch, common name for members of the Fringillidae, the largest family of birds (including over half the known species), found in most parts of the world except Australia. The true finches are charact...

sabotage

(Encyclopedia)sabotage [Fr., sabot=wooden shoe; hence, to work clumsily], form of direct action by workers against employers through obstruction of work and/or lowering of plant efficiency. Methods range from peace...

bald cypress

(Encyclopedia)bald cypress, common name for members of the Taxodiaceae, a small family of deciduous or evergreen conifers with needlelike or scalelike leaves and woody cones. Most species of the family are trees of...

windsurfing

(Encyclopedia)windsurfing, also called boardsailing or sailboarding, water sport that employs a board-and-sail device and combines elements of sailing and surfing. The sailboard was first developed in 1964 by boate...

walking stick

(Encyclopedia)walking stick or stick insect, names applied to extremely longbodied, slow-moving, herbivorous insects, forming a single family in the order Phasmatodea. Walking sticks have green, gray, or brown bodi...

Kootenai, indigenous group of North America

(Encyclopedia)Kootenai ko͞otˈənāˌ [key], group of Native North Americans who in the 18th cent. occupied the so-called Kootenai country (i.e., N Montana, N Idaho, and SE British Columbia). Their language is tho...

Zumthor, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Zumthor, Peter, 1943–, Swiss architect. He apprenticed with his cabinetmaker father as a teenager, and wood is a recurring material in his work, e.g., his small, shingled St. Benedict Chapel, Sumvit...

brigandage

(Encyclopedia)brigandage brĭgˈəndĭj [key] [Ital. brigare=to fight], robbery and plundering committed by armed bands, often associated with forests or mountain regions. Social and political demoralization, econo...

Triassic period

(Encyclopedia)Triassic period trīăsˈĭk [key], first period of the Mesozoic era of geologic time (see Geologic Timescale, tablegeologic timescale, table) from 205 to 250 million years ago. Throughout the Triassi...

Yunnan

(Encyclopedia)Yunnan or Yun-nan both: yünˈnän [key] [south of the clouds], province (2010 pop. 45,966,239), c.162,000 sq mi (419,600 sq km), SW China. It borders Myanmar on the west and Laos and Vietnam on the s...
 

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