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polar bear

(Encyclopedia)polar bear, large white bear, Ursus maritimus, formerly Thalarctos maritimus, of the coasts of arctic North America, Asia, and Europe. Polar bears usually live on drifting pack ice, but sometimes wand...

sea level

(Encyclopedia)sea level, the level of the sea, which serves as the datum used for measurement of land elevations and ocean depths. Theoretically, one would expect sea level to be a fixed and permanent horizontal su...

Nordenskjöld, Nils Adolf Erik, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Nordenskjöld, Nils Adolf Erik, Baron nĭls äˈdôlf āˈrĭk no͞orˈdənshöld [key], 1832–1901, Swedish geologist and arctic explorer, first to navigate the Northeast Passage, b. Finland. He ser...

Reindeer Lake

(Encyclopedia)Reindeer Lake, one of the largest lakes in Canada, 2,467 sq mi (6,390 sq km), NE Sask. and NW Man. The Reindeer River drains it S to the Churchill River. The lake has many islands and is noted for its...

croquet

(Encyclopedia)croquet krōkāˈ [key], lawn game in which the players hit wooden balls with wooden mallets through a series of 9 or 10 wire arches, or wickets. The first player to hit the posts placed at each end o...

Telemark

(Encyclopedia)Telemark tĕˈləmärk [key], county (1995 pop. 163,143), 5,915 sq mi (15,320 sq km), SE Norway, bordering on the Skagerrak in the east. Skien (the capital), Porsgrunn, Kragerø, and Notodden are the ...

Mars, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Mars, in astronomy, 4th planet from the sun, with an orbit next in order beyond that of the earth. Mars has two natural satellites, discovered by Asaph Hall in 1877. The innermost of these, Phobos...

fencing

(Encyclopedia)fencing, sport of dueling with foil, épée, and saber. Swords have been in use since the Bronze Age, and nearly all people of antiquity practiced swordsmanship. Fencing as a contest has existed at ...

basketball

(Encyclopedia)basketball, game played generally indoors by two opposing teams of five players each. Basketball was conceived in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith, a physical education instructor at the YMCA college in Spr...

Gordon, Jeff

(Encyclopedia)Gordon, Jeff (Jeffery Michael Gordon). 1971–, American auto racer, b. Vallejo, Calif. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing's (NASCAR) Rookie of the Year in 1993, “The Kid” became t...