Hansen disease See leprosy
Hanson, Howard (Harold) (b. Oct. 28, 1896, Wahoo, Neb., U.S.—d. Feb. 26, 1981, New York, N.Y.) U.S. composer, conductor, and
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hantavirus ► Hardee I 837
educator. He was awarded the Rome Prize in 1921 and studied in Italy with Ottorino Respighi. Returning to the U.S., he became director of the Eastman School of Music (1924), and remained there 40 years, building the school into a world-renowned institution. Despite his keen scholarly interest in modern developments, his own music is neo-Romantic; he is best known for his seven symphonies—including the second ( Romantic ) and fourth ( Requiem , Pulitzer Prize)—and his opera Merry Mount ( 1934).
hantavirus Genus of viruses of the family Bunyaviridae that cause pneumonia and hemorrhagic fevers. Carried by rodents, they spread to humans directly or by inhalation but apparently are not transmitted from one person to another. An outbreak in the 1990s in the southwestern U.S. caused a mysterious, often fatal, flulike illness with rapid respiratory fail¬ ure in previously healthy adults. The culprit was a hantavirus type car¬ ried by mice and not previously associated with human illness in the U.S.
Hanukkah Vha-no-ko, 'ka-no-k3\ In Judaism, a holiday celebrating the rededication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 164 bc, after its des¬ ecration three years earlier by order of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The Mac¬ cabees recaptured Jerusalem and reconsecrated the Temple after leading a successful revolt against Syrian rule. The lighting of the menorah recalls the story that a one-day supply of oil burned miraculously in the Temple for eight days until new oil could be obtained. Sometimes called the Feast of Dedication or Feast of Lights, it is celebrated for eight days in Decem¬ ber, during which the ceremonial candles are lit and children play games and receive gifts. Originally a minor holiday, it has become more lavishly celebrated as a result of its proximity to Christmas.
Hanuman Vho-nu-.man, .ho-nu-'maM Monkey god of Hindu mythol¬ ogy, a central figure in the Ramayana. He was a guardian spirit, the off¬ spring of a nymph and the wind god. His great heroic exploit was recovering Rama’s wife, Sita, from captivity by the demon Ravana. Hanu¬ man also flew to the Himalayas and carried back a mountain of medici¬ nal herbs to cure Rama’s grievously wounded brother Laksmana. Worshiped in the form of a monkey, he is an important deity because of his strength and his faithfulness to Rama.
haplite See aplite haploidy See ploidy
Hapsburg dynasty See Habsburg dynasty
Hara Kei \'ha-ra-'ka\ or Hara Takashi \'ta-ka-she\ (b. March 15, 1856, Morioka, Japan—d. Nov. 4, 1921, Tokyo) Prime minister of Japan (1918-21) and cofounder of one of Japan’s first political parties, the Rikken SeiyOkai. Hara lowered the property qualifications for voting, thus enlarg¬ ing the electorate to include small landholders, who supported the Seiyu- kai. He attempted to reduce the power of the military, which led to his assassination by a right-wing fanatic.
hara-kiri See seppuku
harai \ha-'ri\ Purification ceremonies in the Shinto religion, used to cleanse an individual before he may approach a deity. Salt, water, and fire are the chief agents of purification, and the rites range from bathing in the cold sea to washing the hands before entering a temple. Priests undergo more rigorous harai rites intended to regulate the body, heart, environ¬ ment, and soul. Great purification ceremonies are held twice a year in Japan, on June 30 and December 31.
Harakat al-Muqawimah al-lslamiyyah See Hamas Harakat al-Tahrlr a I-Watarn al-FilastTni See Fatah
Harald III Sigurdsson known as Harald Hardraade Vh6r-,r6-d3\ or Harald the Ruthless (b. 1015, Norway—d. Sept. 25, 1066, Stam¬ ford Bridge, Yorkshire, Eng.) King of Norway (1045-66). The son of a Norwegian chieftain, he fought against the Danes in 1030, then fled the country, taking service in the Russian and Byzantine armies. He returned in 1045 to take the throne. He struggled unsuccessfully to wrest the Dan¬ ish throne from Sweyn II (1045-62). He expanded Norway’s possessions in the Orkney, Shetland, and Hebrides islands, and he attempted to con¬ quer England in 1066 but was defeated and killed at Stamford Bridge.
Harare \ha-'ra-ra \ formerly Salisbury \'solz-b3-re\ City (pop., 1999 est.: 1,686,000), capital of Zimbabwe. Located in northeastern Zimbabwe, it was founded as Salisbury by the British in 1890. It was the capital of, successively, the colony of Southern Rhodesia, the Federation of Rhode¬ sia and Nyasaland (1953-63), and Rhodesia (1965-79). Under the new
government of independent Zimbabwe (1980), it was renamed Harare. It is a cultural and educational centre and the site of the University of Zim¬ babwe (1957). The centre of Zimbabwe’s industry and commerce, it is the distribution point for the area’s agricultural produce. There are impor¬ tant gold mines nearby.
Harbin Vhar-bon, har-'bin\ Chinese Ha'erbin or Ha-erh-pin Vha- , 9r- l bin\ City (pop., 1999 est.: 2,586,978), capital and largest city of Heilongjiang province, northeastern China. Located on the Songhua River in the centre of Manchuria, it grew with the arrival of the Chinese East¬ ern Railway, built by the Russians in the late 19th century. A Russian military base during the Russo-Japanese War, it was a haven for Russian refugees after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and had the largest Russian population of any city outside the Soviet Union. Chinese communist forces took the city in 1946 and from it directed their conquest of Man¬ churia. Since 1949 it has become the chief industrial base of northeast¬ ern China, and it is a shipping centre for agricultural products.
harbour seal Nonmigratory, earless seal ( Phoca vitulina ) found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Harbour seals are whitish or gray¬ ish at birth, generally gray with black spots as adults. The adult male may reach a length of about 6 ft (1.8 m) and a weight of almost 300 lb (130 kg); the female is somewhat smaller. Found along coastlines and in a few freshwater lakes in Canada and Alaska, the harbour seal is a gregarious animal that feeds on fish, squid, and crustaceans. It is of little economic value and in some areas is considered a nuisance by fishermen.
Harburg, E(dgar) Y(ipsel) orig. Isidore Hochberg (b. April 8, 1896/98, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. March 5, 1981, Hollywood, Calif.) U.S. lyricist, producer, and director. “Yip” Harburg attended The City College of New York with his friend Ira Gershwin. When his electrical- appliance business went bankrupt in 1929, he devoted himself to song¬ writing for Broadway, composing songs such as the Depression anthem “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (with Jay Gorney). From 1935 Har¬ burg and Harold Arlen wrote songs for many films, notably The Wizard of Oz (1939). Blacklisted from films for his political views, Harburg returned to Broadway to write musicals, notably Finian’s Rainbow (1947; with Burton Lane). Among his best-known songs are “April in Paris,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” and “Over the Rainbow.”
hard coal See anthracite
hard disk Magnetic storage medium for a microcomputer. Hard disks are flat, circular’ plates made of aluminum or glass and coated with a mag¬ netic material. Hard disks for personal computers can store up to several gigabytes (billions of bytes) of information. Data are stored on their sur¬ faces in concentric tracks. A small electromagnet, called a magnetic head, writes a binary digit (1 or 0) by magnetizing tiny spots on the spinning disk in different directions and reads digits by detecting the magnetiza¬ tion direction of the spots. A computer’s hard drive is a device consisting of several hard disks, read/write heads, a drive motor to spin the disks, and a small amount of circuitry, all sealed in a metal case to protect the disks from dust. In addition to referring to the disks themselves, the term hard disk is also used to refer to the whole hard drive.