# started 2012-07-22T21:06:20Z "Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. The diagnostic criteria require that symptoms become apparent before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their synapses connect and organize; how this occurs is not well understood."@en . "Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority and hierarchical organization in the conduct of human relations. Proponents of anarchism, known as \"anarchists\", advocate stateless societies based on non-hierarchical voluntary associations. There are many types and traditions of anarchism, not all of which are mutually exclusive."@en . "In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad. Plato named Achilles the most handsome of the heroes assembled against Troy. Later legends (beginning with a poem by Statius in the 1st century AD) state that Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel. As he died because of a small wound on his heel, the term Achilles' heel has come to mean a person's principal weakness."@en . "A is the first letter and a vowel in the ISO basic Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter Alpha, from which it derives."@en . "Albedo, or reflection coefficient, derived from Latin albedo \"whiteness\" (or reflected sunlight), in turn from albus \"white\", is the diffuse reflectivity or reflecting power of a surface. It is defined as the ratio of reflected radiation from the surface to incident radiation upon it. Being a dimensionless fraction, it may also be expressed as a percentage, and is measured on a scale from zero for no reflecting power of a perfectly black surface, to 1 for perfect reflection of a white surface."@en . "Aristotle (384 BC\u00A0\u2013 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato's teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy."@en . "An American in Paris is a symphonic tone poem by the American composer George Gershwin, written in 1928. Inspired by the time Gershwin had spent in Paris, it evokes the sights and energy of the French capital in the 1920s. It is one of Gershwin's best-known compositions. Gershwin composed the piece on commission from the New York Philharmonic. He also did the orchestration (he did not orchestrate his musicals)."@en . "Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama is the 30th-most extensive and the 23rd-most populous of the 50 United States. Alabama ranks second in the area of its inland waterways."@en . "The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999. In the lists below, the winner of the award for each year is shown first, followed by the other nominees."@en . "Actrius is a 1996 film directed by Ventura Pons. In the film, there are no male actors and the four leading actresses dubbed themselves in the Castilian version."@en . "An Academy Award is an award bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors and writers. The Oscar statuette is officially named the Academy Award of Merit and is one of nine types of Academy Awards."@en . "International Atomic Time (TAI, from the French name Temps Atomique International) is a high-precision atomic coordinate time standard based on the notional passage of proper time on Earth's geoid. It is the basis for Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is used for civil timekeeping all over the Earth's surface, and for Terrestrial Time, which is used for astronomical calculations. Since 31 December 2008 when the last leap second was added, TAI has been exactly 34 seconds ahead of UTC."@en . "Animalia is an illustrated children's book by Graeme Base. It was published in 1986. Animalia is an alliterative alphabet book and contains twenty-six illustrations, one for each letter of the alphabet. Each illustration features an animal from the animal kingdom (A is for alligator, B is for butterfly, etc. ) along with a short poem utilizing the letter of the page for many of the words."@en . "Alain Connes (born 1 April 1947) is a French mathematician, currently Professor at the Coll\u00E8ge de France, IH\u00C9S, The Ohio State University and Vanderbilt University."@en . "Allan Dwan (April 3, 1885 \u2013 December 28, 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer and screenwriter."@en . "Abraham Lincoln Listen/\u02C8e\u026Abr\u0259h\u00E6m \u02C8l\u026A\u014Bk\u0259n/ (February 12, 1809 \u2013 April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through its greatest constitutional, military and moral crisis \u2013 the American Civil War \u2013 preserving the Union while ending slavery, and promoting economic and financial modernization. Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was mostly self-educated."@en . "This is a list of characters in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged."@en . "Altruism \u00A0/\u02C8\u00E6ltru\u02D0\u026Az\u0259m/ is a concern for the welfare of others. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures, and a core aspect of various religious traditions, though the concept of 'others' toward whom concern should be directed can vary among cultures and religions. Altruism is the opposite of selfishness. Altruism can be distinguished from feelings of duty and loyalty."@en . "Ag