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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 British island colony in the South Pacific, lying wholly within the temperate zone, 1200 m. E. of Australia; comprises North Island (45,000 sq. m.), South or Middle Island (58,000 sq. m.), Stewart Island (much smaller), and a number of islets; total area considerably more than that of Great Britain. The two main islands, separated by Cook Strait, are in no part broader than 150 m., and are traversed from end to end by a great and partly volcanic mountain chain, the range in South Island being known as the Southern Alps (highest peak Mount Cook, 12,350 ft), and that in North Island as the Ruahine Range and the Tararua Mountains; everywhere rivers abound, Waikato (North Island) and Clutha (South Island) being the largest; numerous lakes (Lake Taupo, six times the size of Loch Lomond), fertile valleys, and well-grassed plains, together with the mountains, make up a beautiful and diversified surface, which much resembles that of Scotland, while the climate, temperate and healthy, is warmer and more equable than in Great Britain; almost all the animals have been imported, as well as the grains and fruits; great forests of indigenous kauri pines, however, exist; sheep-farming, agriculture, and mining (gold and coal) are the chief industries, wool being the chief export; Auckland, the largest, and Wellington, the capital, in North Island, and Dunedin and Christchurch in South Island, are the chief towns; Government is vested in a Crown-appointed Governor, an Executive Ministry, and a Parliament of two Chambers; education is free, secular, and compulsory, but no State aid is given to any form of religion; discovered in 1642 by Tasman, the islands were first surveyed by Cook in 1769; their formal cession to the British crown took place in 1840.
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A busy manufacturing town in Worcestershire, 3 m. E. of Dudley, has chemical, iron, and steel works, and factories of various kinds.
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A carved bracket on the under side of the stall seats in mediaeval churches, which, when the seat was turned up during the standing portion of the service, afforded support to the older clergy. Miserere, the Catholic name for the 51st Psalm.
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A cathedral and university town in N. Italy, on the Parma, a tributary of the Po, 70 m. NE. of Genoa; is rich in art treasures, has a school of music, picture-gallery, and museum of antiquities; it manufactures pianofortes, silks, and woollens, and has a cattle and grain market; Parma was formerly the capital of the duchy of that name; it was the residence of Correggio as well as the birthplace of Parmigiano.
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A cavalry officer in the service of Hanover famed for the extravagant stories he used to relate of his adventures and exploits which, with exaggerations, were collected by one Raspe, and published in 1785 under Munchhausen's name (1720-1797).
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A celebrated astrologer, the assumed name of Michel de Notredame, born at St. Remi, Provence; was a medical man by profession, but gave himself to divination, uttered in rhymes in a series of published predictions called "Centuries" (1503-1566).
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A celebrated athlete, born at Crotona, of extraordinary strength, said to have one day carried a live bullock 120 paces along the Olympic course, killed it with his fist, and eaten it up entire at one repast; in old age he attempted to split a tree, but it closed upon his arm, and the wolves devoured him.
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A celebrated Castilian noble, who headed a rebellion against Charles V., which he heroically maintained till his defeat at Villalos in 1521, and which his wife, Donna Maria, no less heroically maintained against a strong besieging force after his capture and execution.
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A celebrated heresiarch, born in Syria; was made patriarch of Constantinople in 428, deposed for heresy by the Council of Ephesus 431, and banished to the Lybian Desert, where he died; the heresy he taught, called after him Nestorianism, was that the two natures, the divine and the human, coexist in Christ, but are not united, and he would not allow to the Virgin Mary the title that had been given to her as the "Mother of God"; the orthodoxy of the Church as against the doctrine was championed by Cyril of Alexandria.
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A celebrated Italian violinist, born at Genoa of humble origin; widely famous for his astonishing feats on a single-stringed instrument; was a composer of musical pieces for both violin and guitar; died rich (1784-1840).
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