Port city (pop., 2005 est.: 1,512,677), southwestern Taiwan. It is Taiwan's leading port and a major industrial centre. Settled late in the Ming dynasty, it became a treaty port in 1863 and a customs station in 1864. It grew in importance ...

The Kapirowitz Plateau, a wildlife refuge on the northern rim of the Grand Canyon, has come to symbolize wildlife management gone awry, a classic case of misguided human intervention intended to help wildlife that ended up damaging the a...

The term hydropower often suggests giant dams capable of transmitting tens of thousands of cubic feet of water per minute. Such dams are responsible for only about six percent of all the electricity produced in the United States today. H...

City (pop., 1998: 9,339,023; 2005 est.: urban agglom., 11,608,000), Pakistan. Located in southern Pakistan on the Arabian Sea northwest of the mouth of the Indus River, it was a small fishing village when traders arrived in the early 18th ...

The Karakalpaks (or Qaraqalpaq) are an ethnic group living mainly in the Republic of Karakalpakstan, which occupies the northwestern part of Uzbekistan, bordering Kazakhstan in the north and Turkmenistan in the southwest. There are approxi...

Mountain system, south-central Asia. Extending 300 mi (480 km) from eastern Afghanistan to the Kashmir region, it is one of the highest mountain systems in the world; its loftiest peak is K2, at 28,251 ft (8,611 m), the world's second high...

Ancient capital, Mongol empire. Its ruins lie on the upper Orhon River in north-central Mongolia. It was settled &circa; 750. Genghis Khan established his headquarters there in 1220. In 1235 his son and successor, Ögödei, enclose...

Desert area, Central Asia. Located in Turkmenistan, it is bounded to the east by the Amu Darya valley. It can be divided into three major regions: the elevated and wind-eroded Trans-Unguz in the north, the low-lying central plain, and the ...

unarmed martial-arts discipline employing kicking, striking, and defensive blocking with arms and legs. Emphasis is on concentrating as much of the body's power as possible at the point and instant of impact. Striking surfaces include the ...

Kareem Abdul Jabbar (born 1947), formerly Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr. was one of the greatest basketball players to play the game at the high school, college, and professional ranks. Kareem Abdul Jabbar was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor,...

Isak Dinesen was the pseudonym used by the Danish author Karen Dinesen Blixen-Finecke (1885-1962). Her stories place her among Denmark's greatest authors. Isak Dinesen was born on April 17, 1885, the daughter of a wealthy landowner, advent...

variety of tribal peoples of southern Myanmar (Burma), speaking languages of the Sino-Tibetan family. They are not a unitary group in any ethnic sense, differing linguistically, religiously, and economically. One classification divides the...

1942- American mathematician who has developed unique analytical methodologies. Uhlenbeck received a doctorate from Brandeis University and taught at several colleges before accepting a mathematics chair at the University of Texas. A parti...

German inventor Carl Benz (1844-1929) is one of the many individuals given credit for the creation of the first automobile. In 1885 he invented the motorized tricycle, which became the first "horseless carriage" to be driven by an internal...

1819-1892 German physician known for his work in gynecology. He developed a method of expelling the placenta by pressing the thumb downward in pressure on the uterus through the abdominal wall. This maneuver, applied in the direction of th...

The German physicist Ferdinand Braun (1850-1918) received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on wireless telegraphy. Karl Ferdinand Braun was born in Fulda, Germany, on June 6, 1850, the son of Konrad and Franziska (Gohring) Braun. Up...

1798-1867 German mathematician and astronomer who did important work in the branch of mathematics known as projective geometry. His Geometrie der Lage, published in 1847, helped to free projective geometry from any metrical basis, and furt...

The German philosopher Karl Jaspers (1883-1969) wrote important works on psychopathology, systematic philosophy, and historical interpretation. Karl Jaspers was born in Oldenburg, close to the North Sea coast, on Feb. 23, 1883. His father ...

Karl Landsteiner (1868-1943), the Austrian-born American immunologist and Nobel Prize winner, discovered blood groups and helped establish the science of immunochemistry. Karl Landsteiner was born in Vienna on June 14, 1868. In 1891 he was...

Reinhold, Karl Leonhard(1758–1823) Karl Leonhard Reinhold, the Austrian philosopher, was educated by Jesuits until the dissolution of their order in 1773, when he entered the Catholic college of the Barnabites, where he also taught,...

The German philosopher, radical economist, and revolutionary leader Karl Marx (1818-1883) founded modern "scientific" socialism. His basic ideas--known as Marxism--form the foundation of socialist and communist movements throughout the wor...

Hardly any eighteenth-century German writer was as confusingly prolific as Karl Philipp Moritz, the author of novels; poems-he was one of the few Germans to be praised by Frederick II for his poetry; a playlet; psychological and moral work...

The Austrian philosopher Sir Karl Raimund Popper (1902-1994) offered an original analysis of scientific research that he also applied to research in history and philosophy. Karl Popper was born in Vienna on July 28, 1902, the son of a barr...

1810-1884 German Egyptologist who made important studies of hieroglyphic writing and the Egyptian language. On his two expeditions, he excavated the Hawarah labyrinth in the Faiyum, discovered the Canopus Decree at Tanis, and collected ant...

1804-1885 German zoologist who studied invertebrates and contributed much to the field of parasitology. One of the first important texts in comparative anatomy involved a collaboration between Siebold, who contributed the work on invertebr...