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 Talk Talk - Communication terms
Category: General technical and industrial
Date & country: 28/05/2010, UK
Words: 18630


Wakefield
Industrial city in West Yorkshire, northern England, on the River Calder, south of Leeds; population (2001) 76,950. Industries include chemicals, machine tools, wool textiles, coal mining, and the manufacture of clothing, wire-rope, and sheet metal. Lancastrian forces defeated and killed Richard of York here in 1460, during the Wars of the ...

Wajda, Andrzej
Polish film and theatre director. He was one of the most important figures in European cinema after World War II. His films have great intensity and are frequently concerned with the predicament and disillusion of individuals caught up in political events. They include Ashes and Diamonds (1958), Man of Marble (...

Wain, John
(Barrington) English poet and novelist. His first novel, Hurry on Down (1953), expresses the radical political views of the Angry Young Men of the 1950s. He published several volumes of witty and ironic verse, collected in Poems 1949–79 (1981), and wa...

Wahabi
Puritanical Saudi Islamic sect founded by Muhammad ibn-Abd-al-Wahab (1703–1792), which regards all other sects as heretical. By the early 20th century it had spread throughout the Arabian peninsula; it still remains the official ideology of the Saudi Arabian kingdom

Wagram, Battle of
During the Napoleonic Wars, decisive French victory 6 July 1809 over the Austrians led by the Archduke Charles near Wagram, an Austrian village 18 km/11 mi northeast of Vienna. Austria was forced to concede general defeat to Napoleon

Wagner,
(Wilhelm) German opera composer. He revolutionized the 19th-century idea of opera, seeing it as a wholly new art form in which musical, poetic, and scenic elements should come together through such devices as the leitmotif. His operas include Tannhäuser (1845)
water
Click images to enlargeChemical compound of hydrogen and oxygen elements – H2O. It can exist as a solid (ice), liquid (water), or gas (water vapour). Water is the most common compound on Earth and vital to all living organisms. It covers 70% of the Earth's surface, and provides a habita...

Walton, William Turner
English composer. Among his works are Facade (1923), a series of instrumental pieces designed to be played in conjunction with the recitation of surrealist poems by Edith Sitwell; the oratorio Belshazzar's Feast (1931); and Variations on a Theme by Hindemith (1963)

Wallace, William
Scottish nationalist who led a revolt against English rule in 1297, won a victory at Stirling, and assumed the title `governor of Scotland`. Edward I defeated him at Falkirk in 1298, and Wallace was captured and executed. He was styled Knight in a charter of 1298

waterfowl
Any water bird, but especially any member of the family Anatidae, which consists of ducks, geese, and swans

waxwing
Any of several fruit-eating birds of the family Bombycillidae, order Passeriformes. They are found in the northern hemisphere. The Bohemian waxwing Bombycilla garrulus of North America and Eurasia is about 18 cm/7 in long, and is greyish-brown above with a reddish-chestnut crest, black streak at the eye, and varie...

water flea
Any aquatic crustacean in the order Cladocera, of which there are over 400 species. The commonest species is Daphnia pulex, used in the pet trade to feed tropical fish

water boatman
Any water bug of the family Corixidae that feeds on plant debris and algae. It has a flattened body 1.5 cm/0.6 in long, with oarlike legs. The name is sometimes also used for the backswimmers, genus Notonecta, which are superficially similar, but which can fly and which belong to a different family (Notonectidae) of bugs

wart hog
African wild pig Phacochoerus aethiopicus, which has a large head with a bristly mane, fleshy pads beneath the eyes, and four large tusks. It has short legs and can grow to 80 cm/2.5 ft at the shoulder

wasp
Any of several families of winged stinging insects of the order Hymenoptera, characterized by a thin stalk between the thorax and the abdomen. Wasps can be social or solitary. Among social wasps, the queens devote themselves to egg laying, the fertilized eggs producing female workers; the males come from unfertilized eggs and have no sting. The...

warbler
Any of two families of songbirds, order Passeriformes. The Old World warblers are in the family Sylviidae, while the New World warblers are members of the Parulidae. American or wood warblers (family Parulidae) are small, insect-eating birds, often brightly coloured, such as the yellow warbler, prothonatory warbler, and dozens of others. This g...

wapiti
Species of deer Cervus canadensis, native to North America, Europe, and Asia, including New Zealand. It is reddish-brown in colour, about 1.5 m/5 ft at the shoulder, weighs up to 450 kg/1,000 lb, and has antlers up to 1.2 m/4 ft long. It is becoming increasingly rar...

walrus
Arctic marine carnivorous mammal Odobenus rosmarus of the same family (Otaridae) as the eared seals. It can reach 4 m/13 ft in length, and weigh up to 1,400 kg/3,000 lb. It has webbed flippers, a bristly moustache, and large tusks. It is gregarious except at breeding time and feeds mainly on molluscs. It has been hunted f...

wagtail
Slim, narrow-billed bird of the genus Motacilla, in the family Motacillidae, order Passeriformes, about 18 cm/7 in long, with a characteristic flicking movement of the tail. There are about 30 species, found mostly in Eurasia and Africa

Watson, James Dewey
US biologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for the discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA and determining the significance of this structure in the replication and transfer of genetic information. He shared the prize with his co-worker Francis Crick. Crick and Watson published their work on the p...

water cycle
Click images to enlargeNatural circulation of water through the upper part of the Earth. It is a complex system involving a number of physical and chemical processes (such as evaporation, precipitation, and infiltration) and stores (such as rivers, oceans, and soil). Water is lost from the Earth's surface to the atmos...

Wallace line
Imaginary line running down the Lombok Strait in Southeast Asia, between the island of Bali and the islands of Lombok and Sulawesi. It was identified by English naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace as separating the South Asian (Oriental) and Australian biogeographical regions, each of which has its own distinctive animals. Subsequently, others have pl...

Wallace, Alfred Russel
Welsh naturalist who collected animal and plant specimens in South America and Southeast Asia, and independently arrived at a theory of evolution by natural selection similar to that proposed by Charles Darwin. Wallace and Darwin In 1858 Wallace wrote an essay outlining his ideas on evolution and sent it to Darwin, who had not yet published his. To...

warning coloration
In biology, an alternative term for aposematic coloration

Waksman, Selman Abraham
Ukrainian-born US biochemist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1952 for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis. He coined the word `antibiotic` for bacteria-killing chemicals derived from micro-organisms

waxbill
Any of a group of small, mainly African, seed-eating birds in the family Estrildidae, order Passeriformes, which also includes the grass finches of Australia. Waxbills grow to 15 cm/6 in long, are brown and grey with yellow, red, or brown markings, and have waxy-looking red or pink beaks. They sometimes raise the young of whydahs, who l...

waterbuck
Any of several African antelopes of the genus Kobus which usually inhabit swampy tracts and reedbeds. They vary in size from about 1.8m/6 ft to 2.1 m/7.25 ft long, are up to 1.4 m/4.5 ft tall at the shoulder, and have long brown fur. The large curved horns, normally carried only by the males, have corrugated surfaces....

water skiing
Water sport in which a person is towed across water on a ski or skis (wider than those used for skiing on snow), or barefoot, by means of a rope attached to a speedboat. Competitions are held for overall performances, slalom, tricks, jumping, and racing. Wakeboarding, in which competitors ride on a board similar to a small surfboard, is a popular v...

water polo
Water sport developed in England in 1869, originally called `soccer-in-water`. The aim is to score goals, as in soccer, at each end of a swimming pool. It is played by teams of seven on each side (from squads of 13). An inflated ball is passed among the players, who must swim around the pool without touching the bottom. A goal is ...

wave power
Power obtained by harnessing the energy of water waves. Various schemes have been advanced since 1973 when oil prices rose dramatically and an energy shortage threatened. In 1974, the British engineer Stephen Salter developed the `duck` – a floating boom, the segments of which nod up and down with the waves. The nodding motion can be...

water mill
Machine that harnesses the energy in flowing water to produce mechanical power, typically for milling (grinding) grain. Water from a stream is directed against the paddles of a water wheel to make it turn. Simple gearing transfers this motion to the millstones. The modern equivalent of the water wheel is the water turbine, used in hydroelectric pow...

water closet
Alternative name for toilet

Walras,
(Marie Esprit) French economist and co-discoverer, with English economist William Jevons and Austrian economist Karl Menger, of marginal utility economics. Jevons's Theory of Political Economy (1871) was not well received when it appeared but it was read. Menger'...

wave
(physics) Click images to enlargeIn physics, oscillation that is propagated from a source. Mechanical waves require a medium through which to travel. Electromagnetic waves do not; they can travel through a vacuum. Waves carry energy but they do n...

Warsaw Pact
Military defensive alliance 1955–91 between the USSR and East European communist states, originally established as a response to the admission of West Germany into NATO. Its military structures and agreements were dismantled early in 1991; a political organization remained until the alliance was officially dissolved in July 1991. The Warsa...

Washington, DC
Click images to enlargeCapital of the USA, on the Potomac River; the world's first planned national capital. It was named Washington, DC, to distinguish it from Washington state, and because it is coextensive with the District of Columbia, hence DC; population (2000 est) 572,100; metropolitan area extendin...

Warwickshire
County of central England. Area 1,980 sq km/764 sq mi Towns and cities Warwick (administrative headquarters), Nuneaton, Royal Leamington Spa, Rugby, Stratford-upon-Avon (birthplace of the English dramatist Shakespeare) Physical rivers Avon, Stour, and Tame; remains of the `Forest...

Wales
Click images to enlargeConstituent part of the United Kingdom, in the west between the British Channel and the Irish Sea; area 20,780 sq km/8,020 sq mi; population (2001) 2,903,100. The capital is Cardiff, and other major towns and cities include Swansea, Wrexham, Newport, and Carmarthen. Geographical features...

Watt, James
Click images to enlargeScottish engineer who developed the steam engine in the 1760s, making Thomas Newcomen's engine vastly more efficient by cooling steam in a condenser separate from the main cylinder. He eventually made a double-acting machine that supplied power with both directions of the piston and develope...

wave
(earth science) In the oceans, a ridge or swell formed by wind or other causes. The power of a wave is determined by the strength of the wind and the distance of open water over which the wind blows (the fetch). Waves are the main age...

watt
SI unit of power (the rate of expenditure or transformation of energy from one form to another) defined as one joule per second. A light bulb, for example, may use 40, 60, 100, or 150 watts of power; an electric heater will use several kilowatts (thousands of watts). The watt is named after the Scottish engineer James Watt. The absolute watt is...

watch
Portable timepiece. In the early 20th century increasing miniaturization, mass production, and convenience led to the watch moving from the pocket to the wrist. Watches were also subsequently made waterproof, antimagnetic, self-winding, and shock-resistant. In 1957 the electric watch was deve...

water gas
Fuel gas consisting of a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, made by passing steam over red-hot coke. The gas was once the chief source of hydrogen for chemical syntheses such as the Haber process for making ammonia, but has been largely superseded in this and other reactions by hydrogen obtained from natural gas

wax
Solid fatty substance of animal, vegetable, or mineral origin. Waxes are composed variously of esters, fatty acids, free alcohols, and solid hydrocarbons. Mineral waxes are obtained from petroleum and vary in hardness from the soft petroleum jelly (or petrolatum) used in ointments to the hard paraffin wax employed for making candles and waxed paper...

water glass
Common name for sodium metasilicate (Na2SiO3). It is a colourless, jellylike substance that dissolves readily in water to give a solution used for preserving eggs and fireproofing porous materials such as cloth, paper, and wood. It is also used as an adhesive for paper and cardboard and in the manufactu...

Walsall
Industrial town in West Midlands, central England, 13 km/8 mi northwest of Birmingham; population (2001) 171,000. It has a leather industry and also produces castings. Until the 1930s coal was mined here. Walsall's art gallery contains the Garman–Ryan collection, over 350 paintings including works by Jacob Epstein. The writer Jerom...

Walther von der Vogelweide
German poet. The greatest of the Minnesingers, his songs dealt mainly with courtly love. Of noble birth, he lived in his youth at the Austrian ducal court in Vienna, adopting a wandering life after the death of his patron in 1198. His lyrics deal mostly with love, but also with religion and politics

wampum
Cylindrical beads ground from sea shells of white and purple, woven into articles of personal adornment and also used as money by American Indians of the northeastern woodlands. Wampum was also used for sealing treaties and as a means of recording important events. Broad belts or collars were formed of strings of wampum arranged in patterns, someti...

war
Act of force, usually on behalf of the state, intended to compel a declared enemy to obey the will of the other. The aim is to render the opponent incapable of further resistance by destroying its capability and will to bear arms in pursuit of its own aims. War can therefore be seen as a continuation of politics carried on with violent and destruct...

Walpole, Robert
British Whig politician, the first `prime minister`. As First Lord of the Treasury and chancellor of the Exchequer (1715–17 and 1721–42) he encouraged trade and tried to avoid foreign disputes (until forced into the War of Jenkins' Ear with Spain in 1739). Opponents thought his foreign policies worked to the advantage of Fra...

Walpurga, St
English abbess who preached Christianity in Germany. Walpurgis Night, the eve of 1 May (one of her feast days), became associated with witches' sabbaths and other superstitions. Her feast day is 25 February

Walsingham, Francis
English politician and principal secretary of state to Elizabeth I from 1573 until his death. A staunch Puritan, he advocated a strong anti-Spanish foreign policy and controlled an efficient government spy network to identify and forestall Roman Catholic conspiracies against the queen. Walsingham's spies uncovered planned assassinations by ...

Walter, Hubert
Archbishop of Canterbury 1193–1205. As justiciar (chief political and legal officer) 1193–98, he ruled England during Richard I's absence and introduced the offices of coroner and justice of the peace

Walvis Bay
Chief port serving Namibia, situated on the Atlantic Ocean, 275 km/171 mi southwest of Windhoek; population (2001) 42,000. It is the only deep-water harbour on the Namibian coast and has a fishing industry with allied trades. Because of its central coastal position, harbour, rail links, and airport, Walvis Bay now handles most of Namibi...

Wandering Jew
In medieval legend, a Jew named Ahasuerus, said to have insulted Jesus on his way to Calvary and to have been condemned to wander the world until the Second Coming

Warbeck, Perkin
Flemish pretender to the English throne. Claiming to be Richard, brother of Edward V, he led a rising against Henry VII in 1497, and was hanged after attempting to escape from the Tower of London

Warhol, Andy
US artist and film-maker. Known as the `Pope of Pop`, Warhol was a leader of the pop art movement. He achieved renown in 1962 when he exhibited works based on popular objects, images, and celebrities, for example his Campbell's soup cans, Green Coca-Cola Bottles (1962; Leo Castelli Gallery, New York City...

War Office
Former British government department controlling military affairs. The Board of Ordnance, which existed in the 14th century, was absorbed into the War Department after the Crimean War and the whole named the War Office. In 1964 its core became a subordinate branch of the newly established Ministry of Defence

Warrington
(town) Industrial town and, from April 1998, administrative headquarters of Warrington unitary authority in northwest England, on the River Mersey, 25 km/16 mi from both Liverpool and Manchester; population (2001) 80,700. It was part of the county of Cheshire to April 1998. Industries ...

warship
Fighting ship armed and crewed for war. The supremacy of the battleship at the beginning of the 20th century was rivalled during World War I by the development of submarine attack, and was rendered obsolescent in World War II with the advent of long-range air attack. Today the largest and most important surface warships are the aircraft carrier...

wart
Protuberance composed of a local overgrowth of skin. The common wart (Verruca vulgaris) is due to a virus infection. It usually disappears spontaneously within two years, but can be treated with peeling applications, burning away (cautery), freezing (cryosurgery), or laser treatment

Washington, George
Commander of the American forces during the American Revolution and 1st president of the USA 1789–97; known as `the father of his country`. An experienced soldier, he had fought in campaigns against the French during the French and Indian War. He was elected to the Virginia House o...

watercolour painting
Method of painting with pigments mixed with water, known in China as early as the 3rd century. Watercolour is usually diluted to the point where it is translucent and applied to paper in broad areas known as washes. White paper is often left exposed to create highlights, and washes are applied over one another to achieve gradations of tone. The use...

Waterford
(county) County of the Republic of Ireland, in the province of Munster; county town Waterford; area 1,840 sq km/710 sq mi; population (2002) County including city 101,550. Other towns include Dungarvon, Lismore, and Tramore. The chief rivers are the Suir and the Blackwater;...

Watergate
US political scandal, named after the building in Washington, DC, which housed the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the 1972 presidential election. Five men, hired by the Republican Committee for the Re-election of the President (popularly known as CREEP), were caught after br...

Waterloo, Battle of
Final battle of the Napoleonic Wars on 18 June 1815 in which a coalition force of British, Prussian, and Dutch troops under the Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon near the village of Waterloo, 13 km/8 mi south of Brussels, Belgium. Napoleon found Wellington's army isolated from his allies and began a direct offensive to smash them, but th...

Watteau,
(Jean-) French rococo painter. He developed a new category of genre painting known as the fête galante – fanciful scenes depicting elegantly dressed young people engaged in outdoor entertainment. One of the best-known examples is The Embarkation fo...

Watts, George Frederick
English painter and sculptor. Influenced by the Venetian masters, he painted biblical and classical subjects, but his fame was based largely on his moralizing allegories, such as Hope (1886; Tate Gallery, London). He was also a portrait painter, his works including Gladstone and Tennyson ...

Waugh, Evelyn
(Arthur St John) English novelist. His humorous social satires include Decline and Fall (1928), Vile Bodies (1930), Scoop (1938), and The Loved One (1948). He developed a serious concern with religious issues in
Warwick
(UK) Market town, administrative headquarters of Warwickshire, central England, 33 km/21 mi southeast of Birmingham, on the River Avon; population (2001) 25,400. Industries include agriculture and tourism. Founded in 914, it has many fine medieval buildings, including a 14th-centur...

Wash, the
Bay of the North Sea between Norfolk and Lincolnshire, eastern England; 24 km/15 mi long, 40 km/25 mi wide. The rivers Nene, Ouse, Welland, and Witham drain into the Wash. In 1992, 10,120 ha/25,000 acres of the mudflats, marshes, and sand banks on its shores were designated a national nature reserve

Washington, Booker T(aliaferro)
US educationist, pioneer in higher education for black people in the South. He was the founder and first principal of Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, in 1881, originally a training college for blacks, and now an academic institution. He maintained that economic independence was the way to achieve social equality. Washington argued that blacks should a...

Wazyk, Adam
Polish writer who made his name with Poem for Adults (1955), a protest against the regime that preceded the fall of the Stalinists in 1956. In 1957 he resigned with others from the Communist Party, disappointed by First Secretary Gomulka's illiberalism. He also wrote novels and plays

war crime
Offence (such as murder of a civilian or a prisoner of war) that contravenes the internationally accepted laws governing the conduct of wars, particularly the Hague Convention of 1907 and the Geneva Convention of 1949. A key principle of the law relating to such crimes is that obedience to the orders of a superior is no defence. In practice, prosec...

Waldheim, Kurt
Austrian politician and diplomat, president 1986–92. He was secretary general of the United Nations 1972–81, having been Austria's representative there 1964–68 and 1970–71. He was elected president in spite of revelations that during World War II he had been an intelligence of...

Wagner, Otto
Viennese architect. Initially working in the art nouveau style, for example the Vienna Stadtbahn 1894–97, he later rejected ornament for rationalism, as in the Post Office Savings Bank, Vienna, 1904–06. He influenced such Viennese architects as Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos, and Joseph Olbrich

Waterhouse, Alfred
English architect. He was a leading exponent of Victorian Neo-Gothic, typically using multicoloured tiles and bricks. His works include the Natural History Museum, London (1868)

Walesa, Lech
Polish trade union leader, president of Poland 1990–95. One of the founding members of the Solidarity free-trade-union movement, which emerged to challenge the communist government during strikes in the Gdansk shipyards in 1980. Walesa led the movement to become a national force. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1983 for his...

waltz
Ballroom dance in moderate triple time (3/4) that developed in Germany and Austria during the late 18th century from the Austrian Ländler (traditional peasants' country dance). Associated particularly with Vienna and the Strauss family, whose works include The Blue Danube and The Emperor W...

Waits, Tom
(Thomas Alan) US singer, songwriter, musician, and actor, with a characteristic gravelly voice. His songs typically deal with urban street life and have jazz-tinged arrangements, as on Rain Dogs (1985). He has written music for and acted in several films, including Jim J...

water lily
Any of a group of aquatic plants belonging to the water lily family. The fleshy roots are embedded in mud and the large round leaves float on the surface of the water. The cup-shaped flowers may be white, pink, yellow, or blue. (Genera Nymphaea and Nuphar, family Nymphaeaceae.)

warlord
In China, any of the provincial leaders who took advantage of central government weakness, after the death of the first president of republican China in 1912, to organize their own private armies and fiefdoms. They engaged in civil wars until the nationalist leader Jiang Jie Shi's (Chiang Kai-shek's) Northern Expedition against them in ...

Wallachia
Independent medieval principality, founded in 1290, with allegiance to Hungary until 1330 and under Turkish rule 1387–1861, when it was united with the neighbouring principality of Moldavia to form Romania

Wafd
The main Egyptian nationalist party between World Wars I and II. Under Nahas Pasha it formed a number of governments in the 1920s and 1930s. Dismissed by King Farouk in 1938, it was reinstated by the British in 1941. The party's pro-British stance weakened its claim to lead the nationalist movement, and the party was again dismissed by Faro...

water table
Upper level of groundwater (water collected underground in porous rocks). Water that is above the water table will drain downwards; a spring forms where the water table meets the surface of the ground. The water table rises and falls in response to rainfall and the rate at which water is extracte...

Walpole, Horace
English novelist, letter writer and politician, the son of Robert Walpole. He was a Whig member of Parliament 1741–67. He converted his house at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham (then a separate town southwest of London), into a Gothic castle; his The Castle of Otranto (1764) established the genre of the Gothic, or `roma...

Waldenses
Protestant religious sect, founded in about 1170 by Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons. They were allied to the Albigenses. They lived in voluntary poverty, refused to take oaths or take part in war, and later rejected the doctrines of transubstantiation, purgatory, and the invocation of saints. Although subjected to persecution until the 17th centur...

Wallace, Richard
English art collector. He inherited a valuable art collection from his father, the Marquess of Hertford, which was given in 1897 by his widow to the UK as the Wallace Collection, containing many 18th-century French paintings. He was made a baronet in 1871

Wallis and Futuna
Two island groups in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, an overseas territory of France; area 367 sq km/143 sq mi; population (1997 est) 14,800. The people live mostly by subsistence agriculture and farming of livestock, especially pigs and goats. Much food is imported, mainly rice, sugar and beef, as are virtually all manufactured goods. ...

Walloon
A French-speaking people of southeastern Belgium and adjacent areas of France. The name `Walloon` is etymologically linked to `Welsh`

Wall Street
The financial centre of the USA, a street on lower Manhattan Island, New York City, on which the New York Stock Exchange is situated; also a synonym for stock dealing in the USA. Office skyscrapers house many of the major banks, trust companies, insurance corporations, and financial institutions ...

Washington
(UK) Town in Tyne and Wear, northeast England, 8 km/5 mi southeast of Newcastle upon Tyne, on the River Wear, designated a new town in 1964; population (2001) 55,450. Industries include electronics, car assembly, and the manufacture of textiles, chemicals, and electrical goods. Beamish...

Wales, Prince of
Title conferred on the eldest son of the UK's sovereign. Prince Charles was invested as 21st prince of Wales at Caernarfon in 1969 by his mother, Elizabeth II

Wales, Church in
The Welsh Anglican Church, independent from the Church of England. The Welsh church became strongly Protestant in the 16th century, but in the 17th and 18th centuries declined from being led by a succession of English-appointed bishops. Disestablished by an act of Parliament in 1920, with its endowments appropriated, the Church in Wales today c...

War between the States
Another (usually Southern) name for the American Civil War

warfarin
Poison that induces fatal internal bleeding in rats; neutralized with sodium hydroxide, it is used in medicine as an anticoagulant in the treatment of thrombosis: it prevents blood clotting by inhibiting the action of vitamin K. It can be taken orally and begins to act several days after the initial dose. Warfarin is a crystalline powder, C...

Watling Street
Roman road running from London to Wroxeter (Viroconium) near Shrewsbury, in central England

wattle and daub
Method of constructing walls consisting of upright stakes bound together with withes (strong flexible shoots or twigs, usually of willow), and covered in mud or plaster. This was the usual way of building houses in medieval Europe; it was also the traditional method used in Australia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Far East

War of 1812
War between the USA and Britain caused by British interference with US shipping trade as part of Britain's economic warfare against Napoleonic France. A treaty signed in Ghent, Belgium, in December 1814 ended the conflict, with neither side victorious. The British policies of forcing neutral US ships to stop at British ports and pay duties and ...

waste
Materials that are no longer needed and are discarded. Examples are household waste, industrial waste (which often contains toxic chemicals), medical waste (which may contain organisms that cause disease), and nuclear waste (which is radioactive). By recycling, some materials in waste can be reclaimed for further use. In 1990 the industrialized nat...