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martial arts

(Encyclopedia)martial arts, various forms of self-defense, usually weaponless, based on techniques developed in ancient China, India, and Tibet. In modern times they have come into wide use for self-protection, as ...

Kearney, Denis

(Encyclopedia)Kearney, Denis kärˈnē [key], 1847–1907, American political agitator, b. Co. Cork, Ireland. He was a sailor and then a San Francisco drayman. When California suffered a depression in 1877, Kearney...

Kim, Jim Yong

(Encyclopedia)Kim, Jim Yong, 1959–, Korean-American physician, university administrator, and global health specialist, b. Seoul, grad. Brown (A.B., 1982), Harvard (M.D., 1991, Ph.D., 1993). He moved to Iowa with ...

byliny

(Encyclopedia)byliny bĭlēˈnē [key] [Rus.,=what has happened], Russian scholarly term first applied in the 1840s to a great body of narrative and heroic poems. They are called by the folk stariny [Rus.,=what is ...

Taymyr Peninsula

(Encyclopedia)Taymyr Peninsula or Taimyr Peninsula both: tīmĭrˈ [key], northernmost projection of Siberia, N Krasnoyarsk Territory, N central Siberian Russia, between the estuaries of the Yenisei and Khatanga ri...

Béjart, Maurice

(Encyclopedia)Béjart, Maurice môrēsˈ bāzhärˈ [key], 1927–2007, French ballet dancer and opera director, b. Marseilles as Maurice Jean Berger. After studying in Marseilles, Paris, and London, he danced and ...

yew

(Encyclopedia)yew, name for evergreen trees or shrubs of the genus Taxus, somewhat similar to hemlock but bearing red berrylike fruits instead of true cones. Of somber appearance, with dark green leaves, the yew si...

Spratly Islands

(Encyclopedia)Spratly Islands, group of about 100 low islands and coral reefs in the central South China Sea, intersecting busy shipping lanes. The whole group is claimed by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam, and parts ar...

Ssu-ma Ch'ien

(Encyclopedia)Ssu-ma Ch'ien so͝oˈmä chyĕn [key], 145?–90? b.c., Chinese historian; sometimes called the Father of Chinese History. He succeeded his father, Ssu-ma T'an, as grand historian (an office then deal...

rhythm

(Encyclopedia)rhythm, the basic temporal element of music, concerned with duration and with stresses or accents whether irregular or organized into regular patternings. The formulation in the late 12th cent. of the...