The Actinopterygii (the plural form of Actinopterygius) comprise the class of the ray-finned fishes. The ray-finned fishes are so called because they possess lepidotrichia or "fin rays", their fins being webs of skin supported by bony or ho...

country in southern Europe, located in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula on the Strait of Otranto, the southern entrance to the Adriatic Sea. The capital city is Tirana (Tiranë). Albanians refer to themselves as shqiptarë,...

A Markov chain is a process, invented by the Russian mathematician Andrei Markov (1856-1922), used for predicting future outcomes or "states" of a system based upon the current state of the system. More formally, a Markov chain is a probab...

country of eastern Transcaucasia. Occupying an area that fringes the southern flanks of the Caucasus Mountains, it is bounded on the north by Russia, on the east by the Caspian Sea, on the south by Iran, on the west by Armenia, and on the ...

(Japanese: “way of spiritual harmony”), self-defense system that resembles the fighting methods jujitsu and judo in its use of twisting and throwing techniques and in its aim of turning an attacker's strength and momentum again...

the expulsion of a fetus from the uterus before it has reached the stage of viability (in human beings, usually about the 20th week of gestation). An abortion may occur spontaneously, in which case it is also called a miscarriage, or it ma...

Although his prolific and extremely successful career evolved from acting on stage to writing, directing, and acting in his own films, Alan Alda will forever be best remembered for his inimitable portrayal of Captain Benjamin Franklin �...

The following terms are used in American football and Canadian football, but see also the glossary of Canadian football....

Any plant that completes its life cycle in a single growing season. The dormant seed is the only part of an annual that survives from one growing season to the next. Annuals include many weeds, wildflowers, garden flowers, and vegetables. ...

Mouthwash is an oral care product primarily designed to freshen breath and remove food debris. Certain brands are also formulated to aid in the prevention of cavities, decrease buildup of plaque and reduce gum disease. The first references...

SOURCE: "The Science of Social Engineering," in The Yale Review, Vol. XI, No. 2, January, 1922, pp. 431-33. In the following essay, Petrunkevitch praises Korzybski's theory of "time-binding" as discussed in The Manhood of Humanity. Unlike p...

Asparagales is an order of flowering plants. The order must include the family Asparagaceae, but other families included in the order have varied markedly between different classifications. if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "sho...

The Apiales are an order of flowering plants. The families given at right are typical of newer classifications, though there is some slight variation, and in particular the Torriceliaceae may be divided. These families are placed within the...

any of a host of rocky small bodies, about 1,000 km (600 miles) or less in diameter, that orbit the Sun primarily between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in a nearly flat ring called the asteroid belt. It is because of their small size and ...

Written statement made voluntarily, confirmed by the oath or affirmation of the party making it, and signed before an officer empowered to administer such oaths. It usually names the place of execution and certifies that the person making ...

Asterism may refer to: Asterism (astronomy), a pattern of stars Asterism (gemmology), an optical phenomenon Asterism (typography), a rarely used symbol...

Ancient Semitic language whose dialects are spoken throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Though Arabic words and proper names are found in Aramaic inscriptions, abundant documentation of the language begins only with the rise of Isl...

Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980), was a film director famous for skillfully wrought suspense thrillers. He was essentially concerned with depicting the tenuous relations between people and objects and rendering the terror inherent in commonpla...

Group of more than 50 languages, comprising the Turkic, Mongolian, and Manchu-Tungus subfamilies. Altaic languages are spoken across Eurasia by more than 140 million people (the overwhelming majority of whom speak Turkic languages). Most s...

In mathematics, the axiom of choice, or AC, is an axiom of set theory. Intuitively speaking, the axiom of choice says that given any collection of bins, each containing at least one object, exactly one object can be selected from each bin, ...

Arm of the Mediterranean Sea, lying between Greece and Turkey. About 380 mi (610 km) long and 186 mi (300 km) wide, it has a total area of some 83,000 sq mi (214,000 sq km) and a maximum depth of 11,627 ft (3,543 m). The straits of the Dar...

The Museum of Work, or Arbetets museum, is a museum located in Norrköping, Sweden. The museum can be found in the 19th century building The Iron in the Motala ström river in central Norrköping. See also: List of museums in Sweden, Cultur...

The human fascination with flight is older than recorded history. An ancient Chinese legend tells of a prince who builds a wind-powered flying chariot, and in the famed Greek myth, Daedalus devises wings of feathers and wax so he and his s...

The Swedish chemist Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833-1896) invented dynamite and other explosives, but he is best remembered for the Nobel Prizes, which he endowed with the bulk of his personal fortune. Alfred Nobel was born Oct. 21, 1833, in S...

Peninsula forming the western extremity of Asia. It is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Aegean Sea to the west. Its eastern boundary is generally marked by the southeastern Taurus Mountains...