chatbot: The first chatbots: …in 1966 by computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum. The program, named Eliza, was capable of simulating conversation with a computer user. By using an electric typewriter connected to a mainframe, a user could type in a conversational phrase, which Eliza would then review using a pattern-recognition algorithm. The algorithm compared the…

Weifang, city, east-central Shandong sheng (province), eastern China. It is situated on the main route along the northern slopes of the Shandong Hills at the northern end of the central plain. The locality is watered by the Wei and Jiaolai rivers, which divide the Mount Tai complex to the west from

Ezer Weizman was an Israeli soldier and politician who was the seventh president of Israel (1993–2000). Weizman was the nephew of Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, and during World War II he served as a pilot in Britain’s Royal Air Force. Afterward he became one of the founding officers of

Israel: Education: …in Haifa (1924), and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot (1934), several institutions of higher learning have been founded since 1948, including the universities of Tel Aviv and Haifa, Bar-Ilan University (religious, located near Tel Aviv), and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba. The Open University of Israel…

Chaim Weizmann was the first president of the new nation of Israel (1949–52), who was for decades the guiding spirit behind the World Zionist Organization. Chaim Azriel Weizmann was born of humble parents in November 1874, in Motol, a backwater hamlet in the western Russian empire, the third of 15

Chaim Weizmann was the first president of the new nation of Israel (1949–52), who was for decades the guiding spirit behind the World Zionist Organization. Chaim Azriel Weizmann was born of humble parents in November 1874, in Motol, a backwater hamlet in the western Russian empire, the third of 15

New Zealand: Plant and animal life: Wekas and takahes (barely rescued from extinction) probably became flightless after their ancestors’ arrival on the islands millions of years ago. The pukeko, a swamp hen related to the weka, moves primarily by walking and swimming; though it can fly, it does so only with…

Wayland the Smith, in Scandinavian, German, and Anglo-Saxon legend, a smith of outstanding skill. He was, according to some legends, a lord of the elves. His story is told in the Völundarkvida, one of the poems in the 13th-century Icelandic Elder, or Poetic, Edda, and, with variations, in the

Treaty of Wehlau, (Sept. 19, 1657), agreement in which John Casimir, king of Poland from 1648 to 1668, renounced the suzerainty of the Polish crown over ducal Prussia and made Frederick William, who was the duke of Prussia as well as the elector of Brandenburg (1640–88), the duchy’s sovereign

Justin Welby is the 105th archbishop of Canterbury since 2013. He is the leader of the Anglican Communion, the worldwide body of Anglican Christian churches in communion with the see of Canterbury. (Read Archbishop Justin Welby’s essay for Britannica on the importance of reconciliation.) Welby’s

Justin Welby is the 105th archbishop of Canterbury since 2013. He is the leader of the Anglican Communion, the worldwide body of Anglican Christian churches in communion with the see of Canterbury. (Read Archbishop Justin Welby’s essay for Britannica on the importance of reconciliation.) Welby’s

Welch, city, seat of McDowell county, southern West Virginia, U.S., at the confluence of Elkhorn Creek and Tug Fork. Settled in 1885, it was named for I.A. Welch, an early settler. The county seat was moved there from Perryville in 1891. There were no bridges or wagons in this extremely mountainous

Adam Cleghorn Welch was one of the greatest Scottish biblical scholars. The son of a United Presbyterian missionary, he attended Edinburgh University (1879–83) and the United Presbyterian Hall (1883–85), spending the summer term of 1885 at Erlangen, Ger. As minister of Waterbeck (1887–92),

Fleetwood Mac: November 30, 2022), Bob Welch (b. August 31, 1945, Los Angeles, California, U.S.—d. June 7, 2012, Nashville, Tennessee), Stevie Nicks (b. May 26, 1948, Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.), and Lindsey Buckingham (b. October 3, 1947, Palo Alto, California).

Denton Welch was an English painter and novelist chiefly remembered for two imaginative novels of adolescence, Maiden Voyage (1943) and In Youth Is Pleasure (1944). Welch was educated at Repton School in Derbyshire. After a visit to China he studied painting at the Goldsmith School of Art. In 1935,

Florence Welch is a British singer-songwriter who, as the lead singer of Florence + the Machine, won popular success and critical acclaim beginning in 2009 with soaring vocals and a captivating theatrical stage presence. Welch was the oldest of three children in an upper-middle-class family in

Florence Welch is a British singer-songwriter who, as the lead singer of Florence + the Machine, won popular success and critical acclaim beginning in 2009 with soaring vocals and a captivating theatrical stage presence. Welch was the oldest of three children in an upper-middle-class family in

American literature: Multicultural writing: …the Pulitzer Prize in 1969, James Welch’s Winter in the Blood (1974) and Fools Crow (1986), Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony (1977), and Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine (1984), The Beet Queen (1986), and The Antelope Wife (1998) were powerful and ambiguous explorations of Native American history and identity. Mexican Americans were

Joseph McCarthy: …truculent interrogative tactics—which famously prompted Joseph Nye Welch, special counsel for the army, to ask McCarthy, “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”—discredited him and helped to turn the tide of public opinion against him.

Laura Welch Bush is an American first lady (2001–09), the wife of George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States. Laura Welch was the only child of Harold Welch, a home builder, and Jenna Hawkins Welch. Her parents placed a high priority on Laura’s education and fostered her interest in

Fantastic Voyage: As the scientist Cora, Raquel Welch appeared in one of her first leading roles.

John Birch Society: 9, 1958, by Robert H.W. Welch, Jr. (1899–1985), a retired Boston candy manufacturer, for the purpose of combating communism and promoting various ultraconservative causes. The name derives from John Birch, an American Baptist missionary and U.S. Army intelligence officer who was killed by Chinese communists on Aug. 25,…

GIF: …Jacob Ziv of Israel and Terry Welch of the United States. LZW was the source of a controversy started by the American Unisys Corporation in 1994, when it was revealed that they owned a patent for LZW and were belatedly seeking royalties from several users. Although the relevant patents expired…

Vera Lynn was an English singer whose sentimental material and wholesome stage persona endeared her to the public during World War II. Broadcasts of her songs of love and longing were particularly resonant with members of the military fighting abroad, which led to her nickname, “the Forces’

William Henry Welch was an American pathologist who played a major role in the introduction of modern medical practice and education to the United States while directing the rise of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, to a leading position among the nation’s medical centres. Undertaking graduate

classical scholarship: The new German humanism: …study of antiquity, as was F.G. Welcker (1784–1868), who applied deep knowledge of Greek art and religion to the interpretation of literature and did much to shape the wider conception of the study of antiquity that was now coming to maturity.

metalwork: 16th century to modern: …of vessel was called the Welcome, a drinking vessel that was handed around as a form of greeting or when a toast was being drunk. The body of these vessels was generally cylindrical or potbellied, with a lid and a short shaft set on a circular base.

the Lovin’ Spoonful: … and the chart-topping single “Welcome Back” (1976), the theme song of the television series Welcome Back, Kotter. The Lovin’ Spoonful, minus Yanovsky and Sebastian, reunited in the 1990s to play live and in 1999 released Live at the Hotel Seville. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll…

the Lovin’ Spoonful: …song of the television series Welcome Back, Kotter. The Lovin’ Spoonful, minus Yanovsky and Sebastian, reunited in the 1990s to play live and in 1999 released Live at the Hotel Seville. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

Franklin J. Schaffner: …release, and moviegoers largely ignored Welcome Home (1989), a drama about a soldier (Kris Kristofferson) who is mistakenly thought to have been killed during the Vietnam War. Schaffner died of lung cancer shortly before the latter film’s release.

Henry Purcell: Songs and independent instrumental compositions: …of the earliest of Purcell’s Welcome Songs for Charles II—a series of ceremonial odes that began to appear in 1680. Possibly he lacked experience in writing for voices, at any rate on the scale required for works of this kind; or else he had not yet achieved the art of…

Henry Purcell: Posthumous publications: …of III Parts (1683); “Welcome to all the pleasures,” an ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, written in 1683 (published in 1684); and Dioclesian, composed in 1690 (1691). After his death his widow published a collection of his harpsichord pieces (1696), instrumental music for the theatre (1697), and the Te…

R.L. Stine: …to 11 was launched with Welcome to Dead House (1992); the latter series inspired the television program Goosebumps (1995–98). The unpredictability, plot twists, and cliff-hanger endings of his horror writing relied on surprise, avoided the seriously threatening topics of modern urban life, and delivered to kids what Stine termed “a…

E.L. Doctorow: His first novel, Welcome to Hard Times (1960; film 1967), is a philosophical turn on the western genre. In his next book, Big As Life (1966), he used science fiction to explore the human response to crisis. Doctorow’s proclivity for harvesting characters from history first became apparent in…

Amadou and Mariam: Subsequent albums Welcome to Mali (2008) and Folila (2012) featured lavish production and a host of international collaborators, including Somali-born rapper K’Naan and members of the American rock band TV on the Radio. The uplifting La Confusion (2017) recalled the Afro-pop sounds of the late 1980s.

Robert Zemeckis: Zemeckis then wrote and directed Welcome to Marwen (2018), a drama based on the true story of an artist (Steve Carell) who, after a brutal attack, finds a therapeutic outlet in building a miniature town populated by dolls that represent the individuals in his life. His next film, The Witches…

Gene Hackman: … (2001), Runaway Jury (2003), and Welcome to Mooseport (2004).

Alice Cooper: …released his first solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare, in 1975. It turned out to be popular, as did its follow-up, Alice Cooper Goes to Hell (1976). His next several albums were disappointments, however, as his addiction to alcohol and cocaine took an increasing toll. After a 1983 hospitalization, Cooper…

Kenny Chesney: Following the release of Welcome to the Fishbowl (2012), he toured with friend and fellow country musician Tim McGraw, selling out stadiums across the continental United States.

Kurt Vonnegut: …stories, chief among which was Welcome to the Monkey House (1968). In 2005 he published A Man Without a Country: A Memoir of Life in George W. Bush’s America, a collection of essays and speeches inspired in part by contemporary politics. Vonnegut’s posthumously published works include Armageddon in Retrospect (2008),…

James Gandolfini: In the film drama Welcome to the Rileys (2010), Gandolfini starred as a grieving father who finds a connection with a wayward teenage girl. He portrayed the real-life producer of a 1970s television documentary series in the HBO movie Cinema Verite (2011) before returning to the big screen with…

Jay Macpherson: Welcoming Disaster (1974) is a collection of her poems from 1970 to 1974. Poems Twice Told (1981) collected that volume along with The Boatman. Her study of the pastoral romance, The Spirit of Solitude: Conventions and Continuities in Late Romance, was published in 1982. Biblical…

mignonette: Major species: Weld (R. luteola) yields a yellow dye that has been used for more than 3,000 years.

Sir Frederick Aloysius Weld was a politician, statesman, and prime minister of New Zealand (1864–65), whose “self-reliant” policy was that the colony have full responsibility for the conduct of all Maori affairs, including the settlement of difficulties without help from the crown. Born into a

Theodore Dwight Weld was an American antislavery crusader in the pre-Civil War period. While a ministerial student at Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, Weld participated in antislavery debates and led a group of students who withdrew from Lane to enroll at Oberlin (Ohio) College. Weld left his

John Frankenheimer: The 1970s and ’80s: …love with the daughter (Tuesday Weld) of a moonshiner (Ralph Meeker), causing a conflict of interest. Although notable for fine performances and a sound track featuring Johnny Cash songs, the film was unable to find an audience.

Gary Johnson: …and his running mate was William Weld, a former Republican who had served as governor of Massachusetts (1991–97).

Gary Johnson: …and his running mate was William Weld, a former Republican who had served as governor of Massachusetts (1991–97).

railroad: Rail: This continuous welded rail results in a smoother track that requires less maintenance. The rail is usually welded into lengths of between 290 and 400 metres (320 yards and one-quarter mile). Once laid in track, these quarter-mile lengths are often welded together in turn to form rails…

welded tuff, rock composed of compacted volcanic ejecta (see

welding, technique used for joining metallic parts usually through the application of heat. This technique was discovered during efforts to manipulate iron into useful shapes. Welded blades were developed in the 1st millennium ce, the most famous being those produced by Arab armourers at Damascus,

Fay Weldon was a British novelist, playwright, and television and radio scriptwriter known for her thoughtful and witty stories of contemporary women. Weldon grew up in New Zealand, attended St. Andrew’s University in Scotland (M.A., 1952?), and became an advertising copywriter in London. In the

Karl Pearson: …to him by his colleague Walter F.R. Weldon, that captivated Pearson and turned statistics into his personal scientific mission. Their work owed much to Francis Galton, who especially sought to apply statistical reasoning to the study of biological evolution and eugenics. Pearson, likewise, was intensely devoted to the development of…

Sir Roy Welensky was a Northern Rhodesian trade unionist and statesman who helped found the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and served as its deputy minister (1953–56) and prime minister (1956–63). Welensky, of eastern European Jewish descent on his father’s side and South African Dutch on his

Sir Roy Welensky was a Northern Rhodesian trade unionist and statesman who helped found the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and served as its deputy minister (1953–56) and prime minister (1956–63). Welensky, of eastern European Jewish descent on his father’s side and South African Dutch on his

Welf Dynasty, dynasty of German nobles and rulers who were the chief rivals of the Hohenstaufens in Italy and central Europe in the Middle Ages and who later included the Hanoverian Welfs, who, with the accession of George I to the British throne, became rulers of Great Britain. The origin of the

Henry IV: Early years: … IV, the new duke (as Welf I) of Bavaria, and with Rudolf, the duke of Swabia, Henry was forced to grant immunity to the rebels in 1073 and had to agree to the razing of the royal Harz Castle in the final peace treaty in February 1074. When the peasants,…

Henry IV: Early years: … IV, the new duke (as Welf I) of Bavaria, and with Rudolf, the duke of Swabia, Henry was forced to grant immunity to the rebels in 1073 and had to agree to the razing of the royal Harz Castle in the final peace treaty in February 1074. When the peasants,…

Henry IV: Later crises in Italy and Germany of Henry IV: It was not until Welf V separated from Matilda, in 1095, and his father, the deposed Welf IV, was once more granted Bavaria as a fief, in 1096, that Henry was able to return to Germany (1097).

history of the Low Countries: French and English influence: …found the two powerful factions—the Ghibellines and Guelfs—on opposite sides; in the Low Countries, a game of political chance developed, in which the duke of Brabant (Henry I) played an important role, alternately supporting both parties. The French king, Philip Augustus, and his opponent, King John of England, both interfered…

social welfare program, any of a variety of governmental programs designed to protect citizens from the economic risks and insecurities of life. The most common types of programs provide benefits to the elderly or retired, the sick or invalid, dependent survivors, mothers, the unemployed, the

Frederick Wiseman: …a city welfare office (Welfare [1975]), an exclusive department store (The Store [1983]), an intensive-care hospital ward (Near Death [1989]), and a public park (Central Park [1990]). In his films Wiseman eschewed polemics in favour of a complex and sympathetic presentation of such institutions’ effects on individual people.

welfare economics, branch of economics that seeks to evaluate economic policies in terms of their effects on the well-being of the community. It became established as a well-defined branch of economic theory during the 20th century. Earlier writers conceived of welfare as simply the sum of the

Roosevelt Island, island in the East River, between the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens, New York City. Administratively part of Manhattan, it is 1.5 miles (about 2.5 km) long and 1 8 mile wide, with an area of 139 acres (56 hectares). In 1637 the Dutch governor Wouter van Twiller bought the

Welfare Party, Turkish political party noted for its Islamic orientation. It was founded in 1983 by Necmettin Erbakan. After doing well in local elections in the early 1990s, it won nearly one-third of the seats (the largest single bloc) in the 1995 national legislative elections, becoming the

social welfare program, any of a variety of governmental programs designed to protect citizens from the economic risks and insecurities of life. The most common types of programs provide benefits to the elderly or retired, the sick or invalid, dependent survivors, mothers, the unemployed, the

social service, any of numerous publicly or privately provided services intended to aid disadvantaged, distressed, or vulnerable persons or groups. The term social service also denotes the profession engaged in rendering such services. The social services have flourished in the 20th century as

welfare state, concept of government in which the state or a well-established network of social institutions plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of

environmental theatre: …radical artistic groups such as Welfare State International, based in England, and the Bread and Puppet Theater, based in the United States. Both took art to the streets, often working in derelict urban neighbourhoods in the latter half of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st. Numerous…

Nikolay Ivanovich Turgenev: He belonged to the Union of Welfare, a reformist society, many of whose members eventually came to advocate the overthrow of the autocracy. In 1821 the group formally disbanded but covertly reorganized itself into several secret branches, including the Northern Society in St. Petersburg.

Johan Sebastian Cammermeyer Welhaven was a Norwegian poet and critic who attacked the crudity and extreme nationalism of many of his contemporaries, particularly the nationalist poet Henrik Wergeland, who advocated complete cultural independence for Norway; their feud is the most famous in

Lawrence Welk was an American bandleader and accordion player, whose effervescent brand of “champagne music” was featured for more than 30 years on his successful show, one of the longest-running programs on television. Welk, who was raised in a German-speaking hamlet in North Dakota, did not learn

Welkom, city, Free State province, South Africa, southwest of Johannesburg. It was founded in 1947 amid goldfields, the development of which brought rapid growth, quickly making it the province’s second largest town. It attained municipal status in 1961 and was declared a city in 1968. Unlike many

well logging, field technique used in mineral exploration to analyze the geologic formations penetrated by a drill hole. If the hole has been drilled by using coring techniques, the core provides a visual record of the formations and rock types encountered. The description (log) of the core

Radclyffe Hall: …an English writer whose novel The Well of Loneliness (1928) created a scandal and was banned for a time in Britain for its treatment of lesbianism.

Claus Sluter: The six-sided “Well of Moses,” now lacking its crowning Calvary group, which made the whole a symbol of the “fountain of life,” presents six life-sized prophets holding books, scrolls, or both. The figures, beginning with Moses, proceed counterclockwise to David, Jeremiah, Zechariah, Daniel, and Isaiah. Moses was…

Irish literature: John Millington Synge: …Sea (1904) and the three-act The Well of the Saints (1905), the language, character, and humor of the Irish peasant, not least the female peasant, were rendered in a manner that broke with earlier comic depictions by Charles Macklin, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and others. But it was with his darkly…

amphipod, any member of the invertebrate order Amphipoda (class Crustacea) inhabiting all parts of the sea, lakes, rivers, sand beaches, caves, and moist (warm) habitats on many tropical islands. Marine amphipods have been found at depths of more than 9,100 m (30,000 feet). Freshwater and marine

aesthetics: Relationship between form and content: literary critic Cleanth Brooks (The Well Wrought Urn, 1949). The heresy is that of assuming that the meaning of a work of art (particularly of poetry) can be paraphrased. According to Brooks, who here followed an argument of Benedetto Croce, the meaning of a poem consists precisely in what…

Australian literature: Literature from 1970 to 2000: …Miss Peabody’s Inheritance (1983) and The Well (1986). Among male writers, Brian Castro, Robert Drewe, David Foster, and Tim Winton similarly emerged as significant writers. Of these Winton and Foster are particularly notable for their volumes Cloudstreet (1991) and The Glade Within the Grove (1996), respectively.

The WELL, long-standing Internet community that features message-board-style discussions on a wide variety of topics. Founded by Americans Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant, The WELL’s origins trace back to 1985, when it began as a dial-up bulletin board system (BBS) located in San Francisco. Since

aquifer: Wells can be drilled into many aquifers, and they are one of the most important sources of fresh water on Earth.

Thomas Hardy: Middle period: Hardy’s short novel The Well-Beloved (serialized 1892, revised for volume publication 1897) displays a hostility to marriage that was related to increasing frictions within his own marriage.

well-field system, the communal land organization supposedly in effect throughout China early in the Zhou dynasty (c. 1046–256 bce). The well-field system was first mentioned in the literature of the late Zhou dynasty (c. 4th century bce), especially in the writings of the famous Confucian

set theory: Schemas for generating well-formed formulas: The ZFC “axiom of extension” conveys the idea that, as in naive set theory, a set is determined solely by its members. It should be noted that this is not merely a logically necessary property of equality but an assumption about the membership…

well-made play, a type of play, constructed according to certain strict technical principles, that dominated the stages of Europe and the United States for most of the 19th century and continued to exert influence into the 20th. The technical formula of the well-made play, developed around 1825 by

axiom of choice: …order to prove the “well-ordering theorem” (every set can be given an order relationship, such as less than, under which it is well ordered; i.e., every subset has a first element [see set theory: Axioms for infinite and ordered sets]). Subsequently, it was shown that making any one of…

the Kinks: …social comment songs like “A Well-Respected Man,” “Dedicated Follower of Fashion,” and “Sunny Afternoon,” the last of which reached number one on the U.K. charts in 1966 and on which Ray Davies imitated 1930s British crooner Al Bowlly.

Elizabeth George: Her third novel, Well-Schooled in Murder (1990), won Germany’s MIMI award for international mystery fiction. Later novels in the Lynley series included For the Sake of Elena (1993), Playing for the Ashes (1995), With No One as Witness (2005), Careless in Red (2008), Just One Evil Act

The Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 846–893, collection of 48 preludes and fugues by Johann Sebastian Bach, published in two books (1722 and 1742). It explores the intricacies of each of the 12 major and 12 minor keys and constitutes the largest-scale and most-influential undertaking for solo keyboard

equal temperament, in music, a tuning system in which the octave is divided into 12 semitones of equal size. Because it enables keyboard instruments to play in all keys with minimal flaws in intonation, equal temperament replaced earlier tuning systems that were based on acoustically pure

Welland, city, regional municipality of Niagara, southeastern Ontario, Canada. It lies along the Welland River and Welland Canal. During the War of 1812 the area was the scene of several battles between British-Canadian and American forces. Founded as The Aqueduct by loyalists around the first

Welland Canal, waterway in southern Ontario, Canada, that provides navigation for large vessels between Lake Erie to the south and Lake Ontario to the north and forms an important link in the St. Lawrence Seaway. The canal was necessary because the Niagara River, the natural connection between

Welland Canal, waterway in southern Ontario, Canada, that provides navigation for large vessels between Lake Erie to the south and Lake Ontario to the north and forms an important link in the St. Lawrence Seaway. The canal was necessary because the Niagara River, the natural connection between

River Welland, river in the eastern Midlands, England. The Welland River rises in the county of Leicestershire and flows eastward past Market Harborough and Stamford for about 70 miles (110 km) into Lincolnshire to enter the southwestern corner of the shallow North Sea inlet called The Wash. From

bupropion, drug that is used to treat depression, to prevent depression in persons with seasonal affective disorder, or sometimes to aid in smoking cessation. Bupropion typically is taken orally in the form of bupropion hydrochloride. Bupropion was developed in 1966 and patented in 1974 by

London Zoo: …sponsored by the society, the Wellcome Institute of Comparative Physiology and the Nuffield Institute of Comparative Medicine.

John Gurdon: …Research Campaign Institute (later the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute), a Cambridge-based institution that he cofounded in 1989 and that in 2004 was named for him. He directed the institute until 2001, after which he focused on research full-time.

John Gurdon: …Research Campaign Institute (later the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute), a Cambridge-based institution that he cofounded in 1989 and that in 2004 was named for him. He directed the institute until 2001, after which he focused on research full-time.

Georg August Schweinfurth: …al Ghazāl and discovered the Uele River, a tributary of the Congo.