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kaleidoscope
kaleidoscope , optical instrument that uses mirrors to produce changing symmetrical patterns. Invented by the Scottish physicist Sir David Brewster in 1816, the device is usually a hand-held tube, a few inches to as much as twelve feet in length, and looks like a small telescope. At one end of the...
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Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley , 1895-1975, American film director and choreographer, b. Los Angeles as William Berkeley Enos. He choreographed several Broadway revues before moving (1930) to Hollywood, where he achieved his greatest successes at Warner Bros. (1933-39). Berkeley became famous for staging elaborate ...
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John Roderigo Dos Passos
John Roderigo Dos Passos 1896-1970, American novelist, b. Chicago, grad. Harvard, 1916. He subsequently studied in Spain and served as a World War I ambulance driver in France and Italy. In his fiction, Dos Passos is said to have mingled the naturalism of Theodore Dreiser with the modernism of Ja...
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Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic , republic (2005 est. pop. 8,950,000), 18,700 sq mi (48,442 sq km), West Indies, on the eastern two thirds of the island of Hispaniola . The capital and largest city is Santo Domingo .
Land and People
The land ranges from mountainous to gently rolling, with fertile riv...
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Greenpeace
Greenpeace international organization that promotes environmental awareness and addresses environmental abuse through direct, nonviolent confrontations with governments and companies. Founded in 1971 to oppose U.S. nuclear testing in Alaska, the organization has fought to protect endangered species...
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Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty (Henry Warren Beatty) , 1937-, motion picture actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, b. Richmond, Va. An eminently bankable star, the handsome, charismatic, yet oddly elusive leading man made his film debut in Splendor in the Grass (1961). His reputation as a Hollywood Don Ju...
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benzodiazepine
benzodiazepine , any of a class of drugs prescribed for their tranquilizing, antianxiety, sedative, and muscle-relaxing effects. Benzodiazepines are also prescribed for epilepsy and alcohol withdrawal. Introduced in the early 1960s with chlordiazepoxide (Librium), benzodiazepines were heralded as a ...
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Katherine Dunham
Katherine Dunham , 1909?-2006, American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist, b. Chicago. She studied anthropology at the Univ. of Chicago, where she received a B.A. and Ph.D. and began her research into dances of the Caribbean. In addition to teaching anthropology, from the late 1930s until th...
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Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman , 1941-, American artist, b. Fort Wayne, Ind.; studied Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison (B.A., 1964), Univ. of California, Davis (M.F.A., 1966). One of the most innovative and influential contemporary American artists, he has worked in many media, including sculpture (fiberglass, neon, rubbe...
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John Cage
John Cage 1912-92, American composer, b. Los Angeles. A leading figure in the musical avant-garde from the late 1930s, he attended Pomona College and later studied with Arnold Schoenberg , Adolph Weiss, and Henry Cowell . In 1943 he moved to New York City, where his concerts featuring percussion ...
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