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blister rust fungus (fungus)

ribes: Physical description: …alternative hosts of the destructive blister rust fungus, which also attacks white pines, there are local prohibitions to growing Ribes near any white pine plantations.

blister steel (metallurgy)

steel: Blister steel: In order to convert wrought iron into steel—that is, increase the carbon content—a carburization process was used. Iron billets were heated with charcoal in sealed clay pots that were placed in large bottle-shaped kilns holding about 10 to 14 tons of metal and…

blistering (painting)

art conservation and restoration: Paintings on canvas: …a condition variously called “cleavage,” “flaking,” “blistering,” or “scaling.” The traditional method to address these problems is to reinforce the back of the canvas by attaching a new canvas to the old in a process called “lining,” also referred to as “relining.” A number of techniques and adhesives have…

Blitar (Indonesia)

Blitar, city and kabupaten (regency), Jawa Timur propinsi (East Java province), Java, Indonesia. It is located 70 miles (113 km) southwest of Surabaya, the provincial capital. The city lies at an elevation of 528 feet (161 m) above sea level. Linked by road and railway with Malang to the east and

Blithe Spirit (play by Coward)

Blithe Spirit, farce by Noël Coward, produced and published in 1941 and often regarded as Coward’s best work. This play about a man whose domestic life is disturbed by the jealous ghost of his first wife shows Coward’s humour at its ripest. The combination of drawing-room comedy and ghost story

Blithe Spirit (film by Lean [1945])

David Lean: …was Coward’s classic supernatural comedy Blithe Spirit (1945), regarded as a good effort but little more than a stage play on celluloid. The last of the Coward vehicles, the romantic melodrama Brief Encounter (1945; based on Coward’s play Still Life), was a masterpiece and the first of many Lean films…

Blithe Spirit (television film by Coward [1956])

Claudette Colbert: …Bacall in the made-for-television movie Blithe Spirit (1956) and on the television miniseries and her last major project, The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987), for which she won a best supporting actress Golden Globe). In 1989 she was honoured with a Kennedy Center award for lifetime achievement.

Blithe Spirit (film by Hall [2020])

Judi Dench: …II drama, and the comedy Blithe Spirit (both 2020), which was based on a Noël Coward play. For her performance in Branagh’s Belfast (2021), a drama inspired by his childhood during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Dench earned her eighth Oscar nomination, for best supporting actress.

Blithedale Romance, The (work by Hawthorne)

The Blithedale Romance, minor novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1852. The novel, about a group of people living in an experimental community, was based in part on Hawthorne’s disillusionment with the Brook Farm utopian community near Boston in the

BLITS (Russian satellite)

space debris: …2013, the Russian laser-ranging satellite BLITS (Ball Lens in the Space) experienced a sudden change in its orbit and its spin, which caused scientists to abandon the mission. The culprit was believed to have been a collision with a piece of Fengyun-1C debris. Fragments from Fengyun-1C, Iridium 33, and Cosmos…

Blitz, the (World War II)

the Blitz, (September 7, 1940–May 11, 1941), intense bombing campaign undertaken by Nazi Germany against the United Kingdom during World War II. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities across Britain. The attacks were authorized by Germany’s chancellor,

Blitzer, Wolf (American journalist)

Wolf Blitzer is an American journalist and anchor for the Cable News Network (CNN). In 1990–91 he garnered national attention for his reporting on the Persian Gulf War. Upon graduating from Kenmore West Senior High School in Buffalo, Blitzer entered the University of Buffalo, where he received a

Blitzer, Wolf Isaac (American journalist)

Wolf Blitzer is an American journalist and anchor for the Cable News Network (CNN). In 1990–91 he garnered national attention for his reporting on the Persian Gulf War. Upon graduating from Kenmore West Senior High School in Buffalo, Blitzer entered the University of Buffalo, where he received a

blitzkrieg (military tactic)

blitzkrieg, military tactic calculated to create psychological shock and resultant disorganization in enemy forces through the employment of surprise, speed, and superiority in matériel or firepower. Blitzkrieg is most commonly associated with Nazi Germany during World War II even though numerous

Blitzkrieg Bop (song by the Ramones)

the Ramones: …Ramones songs such as “Blitzkrieg Bop,” “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker,” and “I Wanna Be Sedated” contrasted sharply with the complex, carefully orchestrated mainstream rock of the era. In ripped jeans and black leather jackets, the Ramones made their reputation with almost-nonstop touring and energetic live performances, notably at…

Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk (novel by Deighton)

Dunkirk evacuation: Blitzkrieg and the Allied collapse: On May 10 the German blitzkrieg attack on the Netherlands began with the capture by parachutists of key bridges deep within the country, with the aim of opening the way for mobile ground forces. The Dutch defenders fell back westward, and by noon on May 12 German tanks were on…

Blitzstein, Marc (American composer and author)

Marc Blitzstein was an American pianist, playwright, and composer known for his unorthodox operas and plays. As a child, Blitzstein was a musical prodigy, performing at age 5, composing at 7, and at 15 being introduced as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. In the 1920s he studied piano with

Blix, E. (Norwegian translator)

biblical literature: Scandinavian versions: …readers, but the version of E. Blix (New Testament, 1889; complete Bible, 1921) is in New Norwegian. A revised Bible in this standardized form of the language, executed by R. Indrebö, was published by the Norwegian Bible Society in 1938.

Blix, Hans (Swedish diplomat)

Hans Blix is a Swedish diplomat who was director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA; 1981–97) and served as the chief weapons inspector for the United Nations (UN; 2000–03) during the lead-up to the Iraq War (2003–11). Blix studied at Uppsala University in Sweden and Columbia

Blixen-Finecke, Karen Christence Dinesen, Baroness (Danish author)

Isak Dinesen was a Danish writer whose finely crafted stories, set in the past and pervaded with an aura of supernaturalism, incorporate the themes of eros and dreams. Educated privately and at the Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Dinesen married her cousin, Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke, in 1914 and

blizzard (meteorology)

blizzard, severe weather condition that is distinguished by low temperatures, strong winds, and large quantities of either falling or blowing snow. The National Weather Service of the United States defines a blizzard as a storm with winds of more than 56 km (35 miles) per hour for at least three

Blizzard Entertainment (company)

Activision Blizzard, Inc.: The history of Blizzard: Blizzard Entertainment was founded in 1991 as Silicon &amp; Synapse by Allen Adham, Michael Morhaime, and Frank Pearce, three UCLA graduates with an interest in electronic gaming. The company’s early projects were conversions of existing titles for a variety of home computer systems, but…

Blizzard of One (poetry by Strand)

American literature: Autobiographical approaches: …with Dark Harbor (1993) and Blizzard of One (1998). Other strongly autobiographical poets working with subtle technique and intelligence in a variety of forms included Philip Levine, Charles Simic, Robert Pinsky, Gerald Stern, Louise Glück, and

Blizzard of Ozz (album by Osbourne)

Ozzy Osbourne: Going solo: …of guitarist Randy Rhoads, was Blizzard of Ozz (1980). A multiplatinum success, thanks in part to the standout single “Crazy Train,” it was followed by the equally popular Diary of a Madman (1981), which sold more than five million copies. A defining moment in Osbourne’s career came on the tour…

Blizzard, The (novel by Sorokin)

Vladimir Sorokin: Metel (2010; The Blizzard) chronicles the travails of a doctor journeying to a zombie-afflicted village with a lifesaving vaccine.

BLM (United States government agency)

Bureau of Land Management, agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior. It was established in 1946 through the consolidation of the General Land Office (created in 1812) and the U.S. Grazing Service (1934). The BLM is responsible for managing hundreds of millions of acres of public land,

BLM (international activist movement)

Black Lives Matter (BLM), international social movement, formed in the United States in 2013, dedicated to fighting racism and anti-Black violence, especially in the form of police brutality. The name Black Lives Matter signals condemnation of the unjust killings of Black people by police (Black

Blo-bzang chos-kyi-rgyal-mtshan (Tibetan Buddhist)

Panchen Lama: …Lama declared that his tutor, Blo-bzang chos-kyi-rgyal-mtshan (1570–1662), who was the current Panchen Lama, would be reincarnated in a child. He thus became the first of the line of reincarnated lamas, reappearing as Blo-bzang-ye-shes (1663–1737), Blo-bzang-dpal-ldan-ye-shes (1737–80), Blo-bzang-bstan-pa’i-nyi-ma (1781–1854), Bstan-pa’i-dbang-phyug (1854–82), and Chos-kyi Nyi-ma (1883–1937). They were each regarded as…

bloat (animal disease)

bloat, disorder of ruminant animals involving distention of the rumen, the first of the four divisions of the stomach, with gas of fermentation. Bloated cattle are restless and noticeably uncomfortable and have distended left flanks. Bloat often occurs in cattle that have grazed young, lush legumes

Blob, The (film by Yeaworth [1958])

The Blob, American horror film, released in 1958, that is one of the genre’s most popular low-budget movies of the 1950s, especially well liked by teenagers and drive-in audiences. A meteorite containing a tiny gelatinous creature crashes near a small town. As the slow-moving blob eats every human

Blobel, Günter (German-American scientist)

Günter Blobel was a German-born American cellular and molecular biologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1999 for his discovery that proteins have signals that govern their movement and position in the cell. Blobel received a medical degree at Eberhard-Karl University

Bloc National (French history)

Bloc National, right-wing coalition elected to the French Chamber of Deputies (lower house of the legislature) on a wave of nationalist sentiment at the end of World War I; it controlled the French government until 1924. The Bloc gained about three-fourths of the seats in the elections of November

Bloc Québécois (political party, Canada)

Bloc Québécois, regional political party in Canada, supporting the independence of predominantly French-speaking Quebec. The Bloc Québécois has informal ties with the Parti Québécois, which has controlled Quebec’s provincial assembly for much of the period since the mid-1970s, and it represents the

Bloc Républicain (French history)

France: The prewar years: …and centre parties (the so-called Bloc Républicain) provided France with stable government. The cabinets headed by Waldeck-Rousseau in 1899–1902 and Émile Combes in 1902–05 managed to liquidate the Dreyfus Affair and to carry through the anticlerical reforms that culminated in the separation of church and state. The Entente Cordiale and…

Bloch Building (building, Kansas City, Missouri, United States)

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: …with the opening of the Bloch Building (165,000 square feet [15,329 square metres]). Largely underground, the innovative building is topped by glass cubes that channel light into the subterranean galleries.

Bloch, Bernard (American linguist)

language: Definitions of language: ” The American linguists Bernard Bloch and George L. Trager formulated the following definition: “A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates.” Any succinct definition of language makes a number of presuppositions and begs a number of questions. The first,…

Bloch, Ernest (American composer)

Ernest Bloch was a composer whose music reflects Jewish cultural and liturgical themes as well as European post-Romantic traditions. His students included Roger Sessions and Randall Thompson. Bloch studied with noted Swiss composer Émile Jaques-Dalcroze and in Belgium with violinist Eugène Ysaÿe.

Bloch, Ernst (German political scientist)

Ernst Bloch was a German Marxist philosopher whose Philosophie der Hoffnung (“Philosophy of Hope”) was intended to complete what he considered Marxism’s partial outlook on reality. Having begun his career at the University of Leipzig (1918), Bloch fled from Nazi Germany to Switzerland (1933), then

Bloch, Felix (American physicist)

Felix Bloch was a Swiss-born American physicist who shared (with E.M. Purcell) the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1952 for developing the nuclear magnetic resonance method of measuring the magnetic field of atomic nuclei. Bloch’s doctoral dissertation (University of Leipzig, 1928) promulgated a quantum

Bloch, Jean-Richard (French writer)

Jean-Richard Bloch was a French essayist, novelist, and playwright active in the cause of socialism. In 1910, while teaching in Poitiers, Bloch started L’Effort libre, a “review of revolutionary civilization.” His essay Naissance d’une culture (1936; “Birth of a Culture”) called for an art that

Bloch, Joseph Samuel (Austrian rabbi, politician, and journalist)

Joseph Samuel Bloch was an Austrian rabbi, politician, journalist, and crusader against anti-Semitism, particularly the so-called blood accusation, or blood libel—the allegation that Jews use the blood of Christians in the Passover ritual. After serving as a rabbi in several small communities,

Bloch, Konrad E. (American biochemist)

Konrad E. Bloch was a German-born American biochemist who shared the 1964 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Feodor Lynen for their discoveries concerning the natural synthesis of cholesterol and fatty acids. After receiving a chemical engineering degree in 1934 at the Technische

Bloch, Konrad Emil (American biochemist)

Konrad E. Bloch was a German-born American biochemist who shared the 1964 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Feodor Lynen for their discoveries concerning the natural synthesis of cholesterol and fatty acids. After receiving a chemical engineering degree in 1934 at the Technische

Bloch, Marc (French historian)

Marc Bloch was a French medieval historian, editor, and Resistance leader known for his innovative work in social and economic history. Bloch, the son of a professor of ancient history, grandson of a school principal, and great-grandson of a combatant in the French Revolution, descended from a

Bloch, Marc Léopold Benjamin (French historian)

Marc Bloch was a French medieval historian, editor, and Resistance leader known for his innovative work in social and economic history. Bloch, the son of a professor of ancient history, grandson of a school principal, and great-grandson of a combatant in the French Revolution, descended from a

Bloch, Marcel-Ferdinand (French industrialist)

Marcel Dassault was a French aircraft designer and industrialist whose companies built the most successful military aircraft in Europe in the decades after World War II. The son of a Jewish physician, Bloch obtained degrees in aeronautical design and electrical engineering and worked as an aircraft

Blocher, Christoph (Swiss justice minister)

Swiss People’s Party: …internecine strife when its leader, Christoph Blocher, was not reelected to the Federal Council and was replaced there by Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, from the party’s moderate wing. In protest, the party withdrew from the country’s governing coalition. By going into opposition, the party suspended Switzerland’s consensus style of government, which had…

block (geological region)

Precambrian: Occurrence and distribution of Precambrian rocks: shields, provinces, or blocks. Some examples include: the North Atlantic craton that incorporates northwestern Scotland, central Greenland, and Labrador; the Kaapvaal and Zimbabwean cratons in southern Africa; the Dharwar craton in India

block (building material)

construction: Stone construction in Egypt: …Egyptians were able to move blocks weighing up to 1,000,000 kilograms from quarries to distant building sites. This was an amazing accomplishment, as their only machinery was levers and crude wooden sledges worked by masses of men and draft animals. There were no wheeled vehicles before 1500 bce, and they…

block (engine)

gasoline engine: Cylinder block: The main structural member of all automotive engines is a cylinder block that usually extends upward from the centre line of the main support for the crankshaft to the junction with the cylinder head. The block serves as the structural framework of the engine…

block (volcanic ejecta)

agglomerate: …sort agglomerates into either bombs, blocks, or breccia. Bombs and blocks are generally larger than 32 mm (1.25 inches) in size; although bombs are ejected in a molten state (becoming rounded upon solidification), blocks are erupted as solid angular or subangular fragments. Upon accumulation, blocks form breccia, which are solid…

block (cryptocurrency)

Bitcoin: …put together in groups called blocks. The blocks are organized in a chronological sequence called the blockchain. Blocks are added to the chain using a mathematical process that makes it extremely difficult for an individual user to hijack the blockchain. The blockchain technology that underpins Bitcoin has attracted considerable attention,…

block and tackle (device)

block and tackle, combination of a flexible rope, or cable, and pulleys commonly used to augment pulling force; it can be used to lift heavy weights or to exert large forces in any direction. In the Figure there are four freely rotating pulleys, two on the upper block, which remains fixed, and two

block anesthesia (drug)

William Stewart Halsted: By self-experimentation he developed (1885) conduction, or block, anesthesia (the production of insensibility of a part by interrupting the conduction of a sensory nerve leading to that region of the body), brought about by injecting cocaine into nerve trunks. He fell into a drug addiction that required two years to…

block book (publishing)

block book, book printed from wooden blocks on which the text and illustration for each page had to be painstakingly cut by hand. Such books were distinct from printed books after the invention of movable type, in which words were made up of individual letters each of which could be reused as often

block caving

mining: Mining massive deposits: …for such deposits is called panel/block caving. It is used under the following conditions: (1) large ore bodies of steep dip, (2) massive ore bodies of large vertical extension, (3) rock that will cave and break into manageable fragments, and (4) surface that permits subsidence.

block chain

chain drive: …in conveyor belts are commonly block chains, and consist of solid or laminated blocks connected by side plates and pins. The blocks engage with teeth on sprocket wheels. Depending on the material being moved, buckets, hooks, or other devices are connected to the blocks.

block cipher

cryptology: Block and stream ciphers: In general, cipher systems transform fixed-size pieces of plaintext into ciphertext. In older manual systems these pieces were usually single letters or characters—or occasionally, as in the Playfair cipher, digraphs, since this was as large a unit as could feasibly be…

block code (communications)

telecommunication: Convolutional encoding: …Hamming code is called a block code because information is blocked into bit sequences of finite length to which a number of redundant bits are added. When k information bits are provided to a block encoder, n − k redundancy bits are appended to the information bits to form a…

block copolymer (chemistry)

rubber: The rise of synthetic rubber: For example, block copolymers, in which a long sequence of one chemical unit is followed in the same molecule by a long sequence of another, were made, using many different units and sequence lengths. New oil-resistant and heat-resistant elastomers were introduced, including the styrene-acrylonitrile copolymers, the polysulfides,…

block design (mathematics)

combinatorics: BIB (balanced incomplete block) designs: A design is a set of T = {1, 2, . . ., υ} objects called treatments and a family of subsets B1, B2, . . ., Bb of T, called blocks, such that the block Bi contains exactly ki treatments, all distinct.…

block faulting (geology)

fault: Normal dip-slip faults are produced by vertical compression as Earth’s crust lengthens. The hanging wall slides down relative to the footwall. Normal faults are common; they bound many of the mountain ranges of the world and many of the rift valleys found along spreading margins…

block field (geology)

felsenmeer, (German: “sea of rock”), exposed rock surfaces that have been quickly broken up by frost action so that much rock is buried under a cover of angular shattered boulders. These mantles principally occur in Arctic regions and high mountain areas. Their continuity and depth varies with

block flute (musical instrument)

fipple flute, any of several end-blown flutes having a plug (“block,” or “fipple”) inside the pipe below the mouth hole, forming a flue, duct, or windway that directs the player’s breath alternately above and below the sharp edge of a lateral hole. This arrangement causes the enclosed air column to

Block I (satellite)

GPS: The Navstar system: …first satellite was an experimental Block I model launched in 1978. Nine more of these developmental satellites followed over the next decade, and 23 heavier and more-capable Block II production models were sent into space from 1989 to 1993. The launch of the 24th Block II satellite in 1994 completed…

Block II (satellite)

GPS: The Navstar system: …and 23 heavier and more-capable Block II production models were sent into space from 1989 to 1993. The launch of the 24th Block II satellite in 1994 completed the GPS constellation, which now consists of two dozen Block II satellites (plus three spares orbiting in reserve) marching in single file…

Block Island (island, Rhode Island, United States)

Block Island, pear-shaped island coextensive with the town (township) of New Shoreham (inc. 1672), Washington county, southern Rhode Island, U.S., between Block Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. Lying about 9 miles (14 km) south of the mainland, it is about 6 miles (10 km) long and 3.5 miles

block lava flow (geology)

lava: …of flow, known as a block lava flow. These resemble aa in having tops consisting largely of loose rubble, but the fragments are more regular in shape, most of them polygons with fairly smooth sides. Flows of more siliceous lava tend to be even more fragmental than block flows.

block mill (factory)

block mill, Earliest mechanized factory for mass production. It was conceived by Samuel Bentham, with machinery designed by Marc Brunel and built by Henry Maudslay, and built at England’s Portsmouth naval dockyard. By 1805 it was producing 130,000 pulley blocks per year. It remained in production

block model

mining: Ore reserves: …the result is an economic block model. Some of the blocks in the model will eventually fall within the pit, but others will lie outside. Of the several techniques for determining which of the blocks should be included in the final pit, the most common is the floating cone technique.…

block printing

information processing: Dissemination of information: …of reproducing writing mechanically was block printing; it was developed in China during the T’ang dynasty (618–907). Ideographic text and illustrations were engraved in wooden blocks, inked, and copied on paper. Used to produce books as well as cards, charms, and calendars, block printing spread to Korea and Japan but…

block slide (geology)

landslide: Types of landslides: …mass, it is called a block slide. A translational slide is sometimes called a mud slide when it occurs along gently sloping, discrete shear planes in fine-grained rocks (such as fissured clays) and the displaced mass is fluidized by an increase in pore water pressure. In a rotational slide the…

block statue (Egyptian sculpture)

Egyptian art and architecture: Refinements of the Middle Kingdom: …to its ultimate in the block statue, a uniquely Egyptian type that represents the subject squatting on the ground with knees drawn up close to his body. The arms and legs may be wholly contained within the cubic form, hands and feet alone discretely protruding. The 12th-dynasty block statue of…

block structure (programming)

computer programming language: ALGOL: ALGOL introduced block structure, in which a program is composed of blocks that might contain both data and instructions and have the same structure as an entire program. Block structure became a powerful tool for building large programs out of small components.

block system (railroad signal)

railroad: Signaling: In these so-called block systems, a train is prevented from entering a specific section of track until the train already in that section has left it.

Block, Adolph (American sculptor)

Western sculpture: Conservative reaction (1920s): included William Zorach, Chaim Gross, Adolph Block, Paul Manship, and Wheeler Williams.

Block, Adriaen (Dutch explorer)

Block Island: …later named for Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, who visited there in 1614. Settlers from Massachusetts arrived in 1661, and Block Island was admitted to the colony of Rhode Island three years later.

Block, Herbert Lawrence (American cartoonist)

Herblock was an American editorial cartoonist who won Pulitzer Prizes in 1942, 1954, and 1979. Herblock’s first cartoons appeared in the Chicago Daily News in 1929. He worked for the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) from 1933 to 1943 and joined The Washington Post in 1946. A leading cartoon

Block, Jack (American psychologist)

delay of gratification: Delay as a motivational tendency: …distinct ability, the American psychologists Jack Block and David Funder and their colleagues identified it as an expression of ego control—a person’s more-general tendency to inhibit impulses. On the low end of that continuum are the undercontrolled individuals who spontaneously act on their wants, without concern about the future. On…

Block, Martin (American disc jockey)

disc jockey: …show’s potential was revealed when Martin Block broadcast his Make Believe Ballroom on station WNEW in New York City as filler between news coverage of the closely followed trial of the kidnapper of the Charles Lindbergh baby. Upon the request of thousands of listeners, the makeshift show was retained by…

block-fault mountain

continental landform: Orogenic geomorphic systems: …following set of special attributes:

Blockade (film by Dieterle [1938])

William Dieterle: Warner Brothers: Dieterle then directed Blockade (1938), which starred Henry Fonda and Madeleine Carroll as lovers torn apart by the Spanish Civil War. The film generated controversy for what some claimed were leftist sympathies, and it failed at the box office. Dieterle returned to biopics with Juarez (1939). Although positioned…

blockade (warfare)

blockade, an act of war whereby one party blocks entry to or departure from a defined part of an enemy’s territory, most often its coasts. Blockades are regulated by international law and custom and require advance warning to neutral states and impartial application. In a memorandum prepared for

Blockburger v. United States (law case)

criminal law: Protection against double jeopardy: Supreme Court in Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304 (1932), the test to be applied to determine whether there are two offenses or only one is whether each provision requires proof of a fact that the other does not. In continental European law, on the other…

Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation (American company)

Viacom: Viacom’s subsequent merger with Blockbuster added video rental and music retail operations to its considerable film, cable, television, and publishing holdings, making it one of the most diversified entertainment companies in the world.

Blockbuster Inc. (American company)

Viacom: Viacom’s subsequent merger with Blockbuster added video rental and music retail operations to its considerable film, cable, television, and publishing holdings, making it one of the most diversified entertainment companies in the world.

blockchain (database technology)

blockchain, database technology that relies on a ledger that is distributed throughout a computer network and whose records are known as blocks. Blockchain was devised by the anonymous programmer or group of programmers Satoshi Nakamoto as part of the architecture for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin in

Blocker, Dan (American actor)

Bonanza: …Adam (Pernell Roberts), Hoss (Dan Blocker), and Little Joe (Michael Landon). Adam, the eldest, was serious and responsible, while Hoss was gregarious and oafish, and Little Joe was rashly romantic. The plot in the early seasons often stemmed from personality conflicts between the brothers, but the show’s drama eventually…

blockfront (furniture)

Goddard Family: …credited with having originated the blockfront, or tub front (although the Townsends have an equally qualified claim to this style), a distinctive furniture front that is divided vertically through alternating convex (sides) and concave (centre) panels. His blockfront desks, secretaries, and cabinets usually have readily identifiable ogee bracket feet (also…

blocking (clothing manufacturing)

clothing and footwear industry: Blocking: Blocking consists of encompassing a form, block, or die with the garment with skintight precision. The item is blocked or pressed by superposing a complementary pressing form that sandwiches the shaped garment or section between the interlocked blocks. This process is used for such…

blocking (wood processing)

furniture: Wood: …axially, radially, or tangentially; by blocking the wood—i.e., glueing pieces of wood together in different directions—such differences are eliminated and equal strength is obtained both longitudinally and laterally. The characteristic feature of laminated board is that the veneer on both sides encloses a wooden board composed of narrow strips of…

blocking (sports)

basketball: Blocking: …in basketball include the following: Any illegal personal contact that impedes the progress of an opponent who does not have the ball.

blocking (performance)

stepping, a complex synchronized dancelike performance that blends African folk traditions with popular culture. Stepping involves clapping, body slapping, vocalizations, and dramatic movements. Stepping was developed by African American fraternities and sororities in the mid-20th century and also

blocking antibody (medicine)

allergy desensitization: …attributed to special antibodies, called blocking antibodies, that appear in the serum after treatment and combine preferentially with allergen. This prevents the reaction of allergen with allergic antibodies in the skin and precludes an allergic reaction. Desensitization can also be required when a penicillin-sensitive person, who may experience anaphylaxis after…

blocking anticyclone (meteorology)

Superstorm Sandy: Origin and development of the superstorm: …strong high-pressure cell, called a blocking high, that stagnates over Greenland, and any eastward movement of storms behind the blocking high slows substantially.

blocking high (meteorology)

Superstorm Sandy: Origin and development of the superstorm: …strong high-pressure cell, called a blocking high, that stagnates over Greenland, and any eastward movement of storms behind the blocking high slows substantially.

blocking temperature

dating: Multiple ages for a single rock: the thermal effect: …the mineral cools below the blocking temperature. (This is the temperature below which a mineral becomes a closed chemical system for a specific radioactive decay series. Accordingly, the parent-daughter isotope ratio indicates the time elapsed since that critical threshold was reached.) In this case, the host mineral could have an…

blockout-stencil method (art)

stenciling: In one method, called the blockout-, or glue-cutout-, stencil method, those parts of the screen that are to be stopped are filled with water-soluble glue. Lines could be reserved in these parts by drawing with lithographic tusche (a greasy ink) or crayon, which could later be washed out of the…