- Industry: Library & information science
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Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks. It was founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books. The ...
A name given to a species of goldsmith's ornamental work fashioned out of fine metallic (usually gold or silver) wire into lace-like patterns; the art is of ancient date, and was skilfully practised by the Etruscans and Egyptians, as well as in Central Asia and India.
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A name given to buccaneers who infested the Spanish-American coasts or those of the West Indies, but more specially used to designate the followers of Lopez in his Cuban expedition in 1851, and those of Walker in his Nicaraguan in 1855; a name now given to any lawless adventurers who attempt to take forcible possession of a foreign country.
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A name given to contagious diseases which, arising suddenly in a community, rapidly spread through its members, often travelling from district to district, until often a whole country is affected; the theory of the transmission of disease by microbes has largely explained the spread of such scourges, but the part which atmospheric and other physical, and perhaps psychic, causes play in these disorders is still matter of debate, especially as regards epidemic mental diseases. See Endemic.
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A name given to the excess of the solar month over the lunar, amounting to 1 day 11 hours 11 minutes and 57 seconds, and of the solar year over the lunar amounting to 11 days.
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A name given to the vault of the sky conceived as a solid substance studded with stars, so applied in the Vulgate.
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A name in the United States for a supporter of the Union and its integrity as such; a party which was formed in 1788, but dissolved in 1820; has been since applied to a supporter of the integrity of the Union against the South in the late Civil War.
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A name of the Red Sea, an arm of the Arabian Sea, and stretching in a NW. direction between the desolate sandy shores of Turkey in Asia and Africa; is connected with the Gulf of Aden in the SE. by the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, and in the NW. divides into the Gulfs of Suez and Akaba, between which lies the Sinai Peninsula; the Suez Canal joins it to the Mediterranean; is 1200 m. long, and averages 180 in breadth; has a mean depth of 375 fathoms (greatest 1200); receives no rivers, and owing to the great evaporation its water is very saline; long coral reefs skirt its shores, and of many islands Jebel Zugur, in the Farisan Archipelago, and Dahlak are the largest; the dangerous Daedalus Reef is marked by a lighthouse; as a seaway between Europe and the East its importance was greatly diminished by the discovery of the Cape route, but since the opening of the Suez Canal it has much more than regained its old position; owes its name probably to the deep red tint of the water often seen among the reefs, due to the presence of microscopic organisms.
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A native State traversed by the Niger in Western Soudan, lying upon the NW. border of Sokoto, of which it is a dependency; like Sokoto it has been brought within the sphere of influence of the British Royal Niger Company; the inhabitants belong to the Fulah race, and profess the Mohammedan religion; Gando is also the name of the capital, an active centre of the cotton trade.
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A natural son of Pope Paul III., who figures in Benvenuto Cellini's Life; received in fief from the Papal See various estates, including the dukedom of Parma; he ill requited his father's trust and affection by a life of debauchery and finally suffered assassination in 1549.
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A naval officer, born in Lincolnshire; explored the coast of Australia, experiencing not a few adventures, and adding materially to our geographical knowledge (1760-1814).
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