Current GDP per capita grew 40% in the Sixties reaching a peak growth of 538% in the Seventies. But this proved unsustainable and growth collapsed to a paltry 9.7% in the turbulent Eighties. Failure of timely reforms by successive governmen...

Characters in Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged. if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } Balph Eubank Called "the literary leader of the age", despite the fact that he is incapable o...

a form of speculative thought that, among other aims, tried to transform base metals such as lead or copper into silver or gold and to discover a cure for disease and a way of extending life. Alchemy was the name given in Latin Europe in t...

largely mountainous, landlocked country of south-central Europe. Together with Switzerland, it forms what has been characterized as the neutral core of Europe, notwithstanding Austria's full membership since 1995 in the supranational Europ...

Alien may refer to: if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } Science and engineering Alien (biology) Extraterrestrial life, in scientific context. Extraterrestrial life in popular cu...

Amoeboids are cells that move or feed by means of temporary projections, called pseudopods (false feet). They have appeared in a number of different groups. Some cells in multicellular animals may be amoeboid, for instance human white blood...

Asylum of the oppressed of every nation. O, Columbia, the gem of the ocean, The home of the brave and the free, The shrine of each patriot's devotion, A world offers homage to them. We the People of the United States, in Order to form a mo...

Austin may refer to: Geographical locations In the United States: Austin, Texas, the state capital of Texas Austin, Arkansas Austin, Colorado Austin, Chicago, in Illinois Austin, Indiana Austin, Minnesota Austin, Nevada Austin, Oregon In Ca...

in Greek religion, a deity of manifold function and meaning, after Zeus perhaps the most widely revered and influential of all the Greek gods. Though his original nature is obscure, from the time of Homer onward he was the god of divine di...

Superfamily of about 150 languages spoken by close to 90 million physically and culturally very diverse people in South and Southeast Asia. Today most scholars believe that it is subdivided into two families, Munda and Mon-Khmer. The prese...

small independent European coprincipality situated among the south slopes of the Pyrenees Mountains and bounded by Spain (south and west) and by France (north and east). It is one of the smallest states in Europe. The capital is Andorra la...

The American Football Conference (AFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL). The AFC was created after the NFL merged with the American Football League (AFL) in early 1970. The NFL's Cleveland Browns, Pittsbur...

Architecture is the art and science of design and structure. Architecture may also refer to:...

ADA is a three-letter acronym that may refer to: Aerolineas de Antioquia - A Colombian Airline Aeronautical Development Agency of India's Ministry of Defence Adangme language as its ISO 639 code Adenosine deaminase Ada (programming language...

Members of a group of mostly aquatic, photosynthetic organisms (&see; photosynthesis) that defy precise definition. They range in size from the microscopic flagellate Micromonas to giant kelp that reach 200 ft (60 m) in length. Algae provi...

Any of a class of hydrocarbons whose molecules consist only of carbon and hydrogen atoms joined by single covalent bonds (general formula C&math.n;H(2&math.n; + 2)). The simplest is methane (CH4). Alkanes with more than three carbon atoms ...

A contextually specified type of statement: namely, the desired type of response to a question. A distinction is drawn between syntactically independent (What time is it?—It’s four o’clock) and dependent answers, and synt...

"America the Beautiful" is an American patriotic song....

Assistive Computer Technology for Persons with Disabilities The personal computer (PC) can be the backbone of independence for millions of individuals with sensory, physical, and learning disabilities. Computers and information technology ...

Any substance that in water solution tastes sour, changes the colour of acid-base indicators (e.g., litmus), reacts with some metals (e.g., iron) to yield hydrogen gas, reacts with bases to form salts, and promotes certain chemical reactio...

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private, non-profit organization that serves as the United States administrator and coordinator for the voluntary private-sector standards system. Its statement of purpose is the "enhan...

The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of the Apollo program and the third human voyage to the moon. Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, C...

designation, derived from the Greek words for “star” and “sailor,” commonly applied to an individual who has flown in outer space. More specifically, astronauts are those persons who went to space aboard a U.S. spac...

Any of the six chemical elements in the leftmost group of the periodic table (lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, cesium, and francium). They form alkalies when they combine with other elements. Because their atoms have only one electron...

Number of a chemical element in the systematic, ordered sequence shown in the periodic table. The elements are arranged in order of increasing number of protons in the nucleus of the atom (the same as the number of electrons in the neutral...