fin stabilizer, fin or small wing mounted on a ship or aircraft in such a way as to oppose unwanted rolling motions of the vehicle and thus contribute to its stability. The term also refers to the tail protuberances on bombs, artillery shells, and rockets to maintain the stability of these devices

fin whale, (Balaenoptera physalus), a slender baleen whale, second in size to the blue whale and distinguishable by its asymmetrical coloration. The fin whale is generally gray with a white underside, but the right side of the head has a light gray area, a white lower jaw, and white baleen at the

skeleton: General features: According to the widely accepted fin-fold theory, the paired limbs are derived from the local persistence of parts of a continuous fold that in ancestral vertebrates passed along each side of the trunk and fused behind the anus into a single fin. The primitive paired fins were attached to the…

diving: …a table published by the Fédération Internationale de Natation Amateur (International Amateur Swimming Federation; founded 1908 and from 2023 called World Aquatics), the world governing body of amateur aquatic sports. Contestants are required to do certain of the listed dives, as well as several of their own choice. At least…

church mode: …furnishes the first step, or finalis, for each of the four modal pairs, authentic and plagal. Whereas authentic modes begin and end with the finalis, their plagal partners range from the fourth below to the fifth above the finalis. Each mode, however, is characterized not only by its finalis but…

Congress of Vienna: Decisions of the congress: The Final Act of the Congress of Vienna comprised all the agreements in one great instrument. It was signed on June 9, 1815, by the “eight” (except Spain, which refused as a protest against the Italian settlement). All the other powers subsequently acceded to it. As…

anthropic principle: Forms of the anthropic principle: …Frank Tipler have proposed a final anthropic principle: the universe is structured so that an infinite number of bits of information can be processed by computers to the future of any time. That is, complexity at a level required to constitute life can continue to exist forever.

aerospace industry: Final assembly: The final assembly of complete aircraft usually requires a facility furnished with a network of overhead rails on which ride heavy-lift cranes capable of moving large portions of vehicles. Facility size is governed by vehicle dimensions; for example, Boeing’s plant in Everett, Washington,…

ancient Italic people: Origins: …Bronze,” and, most frequently, “Proto-Villanovan,” the social and economic changes are clear. There was an increase in population and in overall wealth, a tendency to have larger, permanent settlements, an expansion of metallurgical knowledge, and a strengthening of agricultural technology. Diagnostic archaeological criteria include the use of cremation (with…

Nation of Islam: …Muhammad’s books, started a periodical, The Final Call, and eventually purchased Elijah Muhammad’s former mosque in Chicago and refurbished it as the new headquarters of the Nation of Islam. He also expanded the movement internationally, opening centers in England and Ghana. He gained notice outside the African American community in…

philosophy of biology: Teleology from Aristotle to Kant: …identification of the notion of final causality, or causality with reference to some purpose, function, or goal (see teleology). Although it is not clear whether Aristotle thought of final causality as pertaining only to the domain of the living, it is certainly true that he considered it essential for understanding…

Mira Sorvino: … (2001), Between Strangers (2002), and The Final Cut (2004). She starred with Donald Sutherland in the TV miniseries Human Trafficking (2005) and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance. Her later movies included Union Square (2011), Space Warriors (2013), Quitters (2015), and The Red Maple Leaf

Roger Waters: Pink Floyd years: The Final Cut is considered by many to be a solo album by Waters, since he wrote all the songs and lyrics. A lawsuit followed, in which Gilmour and Mason won the rights to the name Pink Floyd; Waters, however, retained rights to the album…

Geneva Accords: …6 unilateral declarations, and a Final Declaration of the Geneva Conference (July 21, 1954).

Julio Cortázar: Another collection of short stories, Final del juego (1956; “End of the Game”), was followed by Las armas secretas (1958; “The Secret Weapons”). Some of those stories were translated into English as End of the Game, and Other Stories (1967). The main character of “El perseguidor” (“The Pursuer”), one of…

Final Fantasy, video game created in January 1987 by Japanese game manufacturer SquareSoft (now Square Enix, Inc.). The first installment of the long-running role-playing game (RPG) series was playable on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game spawned numerous sequels on a variety of

electronic strategy game: Turn-based games: …for tactical play is SquareSoft’s Final Fantasy Tactics (1997), for the PlayStation, which combined elements from Final Fantasy (1987– ), an electronic role playing game series, with turn-based unit tactics.

role-playing video game: Multiplayer RPGs: …game server for Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XI (2002– ), also known as Final Fantasy XI Online, for the PlayStation 2, Windows OS, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360; its large user base is concentrated in Japan, where it is highly popular.

role-playing video game: Multiplayer RPGs: …game server for Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XI (2002– ), also known as Final Fantasy XI Online, for the PlayStation 2, Windows OS, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360; its large user base is concentrated in Japan, where it is highly popular.

Edward Hoagland: Novels and short stories: …short-story collections City Tales (1986), The Final Fate of the Alligators (1992), and The Devil’s Tub (2014).

government economic policy: Incidence of taxation and expenditure: … of a tax and its effective, or final, incidence. The legal incidence is on the person or company who is legally obliged to pay the tax. Effective, or final, incidence refers to who actually ends up paying the tax; if, for example, the whole of a sales tax can be…

Japanese art: Jōmon period: Evidence from the Final Jōmon (c. 1000–3rd century bce) suggests that inhospitable forces, whether contagious disease or climate, were at work. There was a considerable decrease in population and a regional fragmentation of cultural expression. Particularly noteworthy was the formation of quite distinct cultures in the north and…

procedural law: Drafting the judgment: …render what is called a final judgment. Judgments deciding some procedural matter or intermediate substantive issue but not terminating the proceedings are termed interlocutory judgments. The forms of such judgments differ substantially between and within the world’s legal systems.

Mary Gordon: Her first novel, Final Payments (1978), was a critical and popular success. The protagonist, Isabel, is 30 before she leaves home, having cared for her domineering father for 11 years until his death. Soon she has friends, a career as a social worker, and several married lovers. Feeling…

Geoffrey Rush: …Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti in Final Portrait (2017), which focused on a brief period in 1964 when the artist worked on a portrait of his friend and art critic James Lord.

Sherlock Holmes: …Doyle famously in 1893 (“The Final Problem”) attempted to kill him off; during a violent struggle on Switzerland’s Reichenbach Falls, both Holmes and his nemesis, Professor Moriarty, are plunged over the edge of the precipice. Popular outcry against the demise of Holmes was great; men wore black mourning bands,…

Germany: End of the Holy Roman Empire: The result was that the Final Recess (Hauptschluss) of the Reichsdeputation of February 1803 marked the end of the old order in Germany. In their attempt to establish a chain of satellite states east of the Rhine, the French diplomats brought about the elimination of the smallest and least viable…

cephalopod: Reproduction and life cycles: The final sac (Needham’s organ) is used for storage of spermatophores. The spermatophores are complicated, containing sperm reservoir, cement body, cap, and a delicate triggering mechanism for releasing the tube and cementing it to the female’s body, where the sperm are released when the eggs are…

Pearl Harbor attack: Investigations, accusations, and interpretations: In The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor (1954), Theobald asserted that Roosevelt “by unrelenting diplomatic pressure” “enticed” Japan “to initiate hostilities with a surprise attack by holding the Pacific fleet in Hawaiian waters as an invitation to that attack.” This position found little support among mainstream…

final solution, Nazi plan to eliminate Europe’s Jewish population. The “final solution” was implemented from 1941 to 1945 and resulted in the systematic murder of 6 million Jews across 21 countries. The “final solution” was the culmination of a state-sponsored campaign against Jewish citizens in

urine: …solution of waste material called final, or bladder, urine. It consists of water, urea (from amino acid metabolism), inorganic salts, creatinine, ammonia, and pigmented products of blood breakdown, one of which (urochrome) gives urine its typically yellowish colour. In addition, any unusual substances for which there is no mechanism of…

Wong Kar-Wai: …gangster drama Chuihau singlee (1987; Final Victory). In addition, Tam introduced the work of Argentine novelist Manuel Puig to Wong, who was particularly influenced by the fragmentary narrative of Heartbreak Tango (1969).

Sou Fujimoto: …future,” was evident in his Final Wooden House (2008) in Kumamoto, Japan. The structure was composed of large cedar beams stacked like blocks that allowed occupants to interpret the space according to their own needs and encouraged flexible use of surfaces as, variously, walls, floors, or sitting areas. Fujimoto expounded…

finale, in music, the last and, as a rule, lively movement of a multimovement instrumental work, or the culminating section of an operatic act or scene, usually involving a vocal ensemble rather than a single singer. During the musical era dominated by Viennese Classicism (c. 1770–1820), solo

church mode: …furnishes the first step, or finalis, for each of the four modal pairs, authentic and plagal. Whereas authentic modes begin and end with the finalis, their plagal partners range from the fourth below to the fifth above the finalis. Each mode, however, is characterized not only by its finalis but…

What Is the Finalissima?: The Finalissima is a football (soccer) match played between the winner of the European Championship and the winner of the Copa América. It brings together the football champions from Europe and South America and is organized jointly by the Union of

finance, the process of raising funds or capital for any kind of expenditure. Consumers, business firms, and governments often do not have the funds available to make expenditures, pay their debts, or complete other transactions and must borrow or sell equity to obtain the money they need to

Regardless of the extent of your financial and estate planning, the emotional impact of a spouse’s death is something few people are prepared for. Even so, during this difficult time, choices—including decisions about money—need to be made. It’s not easy, but there are things you can do to reduce

Rudolf Hilferding: …the way Marx expected, Hilferding’s Finance Capital (1910) pointed to the role of banking and finance, arguing that the banks’ increasing influence over industry led to monopoly and cartels and through them to economic imperialism and war. This work foreshadowed his role as the party’s chief theorist and financial expert.…

finance company, specialized financial institution that supplies credit for the purchase of consumer goods and services by purchasing the time-sales contracts of merchants or by granting small loans directly to consumers. Specialized consumer finance agencies now operate throughout western Europe,

Nicaragua: Finance: …been dominated by the government-owned Finance Corporation of Nicaragua, an amalgamation of the country’s banks established in 1980, but by the early 21st century, several private banks and microfinance institutions had been established.

accounting: Company financial statements: …branch of accounting known as financial accounting.

accounting: Measurement standards: …partly the work of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), a private body. Within the United States, however, the principles or standards issued by the FASB or any other accounting board can be overridden by the SEC.

Grenada: Independence of Grenada: …the crosshairs of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which described Grenada’s system for dealing with money laundering as having “serious deficiencies.” On one day in March 2001, 17 Grenadian banks were closed down, all of them linked to the First International Bank of Grenada, which had collapsed in…

At different stages of your investing life, you may wonder if you could benefit from professional help. Although many investors feel confident going it alone, others seek the help of a financial advisor. Why hire a financial advisor? Maybe you don’t want to devote so much time and attention to your

marketing: Annual-plan control: In contrast, financial analysis estimates such expenses (along with others) from a corporate perspective. This includes a comparison of profits to sales (profit margin), sales to assets (asset turnover), profits to assets (return on assets), assets to worth (financial leverage), and, finally, profits to worth (return on…

France: The development of central government: …of secondary importance, while the Financial Arbitration Court (Grande Direction des Finances) was an administrative tribunal that settled disputes between the state and individuals or corporations. Each of these subdivisions of the king’s council contained more members than the exclusive High Council, made up of the secretaries of state and…

Suppose you want to gauge how well your investment portfolio is doing. You’ll need some kind of a yardstick to measure its performance. This is where financial benchmarks come into play. Much like a fund manager, you can compare your portfolio’s performance against a set of assets that’s

financial crisis of 2007–08, severe contraction of liquidity in global financial markets that originated in the United States as a result of the collapse of the U.S. housing market. It threatened to destroy the international financial system; caused the failure (or near-failure) of several major

financial crisis of 2007–08, severe contraction of liquidity in global financial markets that originated in the United States as a result of the collapse of the U.S. housing market. It threatened to destroy the international financial system; caused the failure (or near-failure) of several major

economics: Financial economics: Although news about the stock market has come to dominate financial journalism, only since the late 20th century was the stock market recognized as an institution suitable for economic analysis. This recognition turned on a changed understanding of the “efficient market hypothesis,” which…

The term financial engineering almost sounds made up. After all, what does money have to do with mechanical or scientific protocols? Not much, at a glance. But engineering at its core is focused on problem-solving, and there’s no shortage of problems when it comes to money. Financial engineering

business finance: Financial forecasting: The financial manager must also make overall forecasts of future capital requirements to ensure that funds will be available to finance new investment programs. The first step in making such a forecast is to obtain an estimate of sales during each year of…

futures, commercial contract calling for the purchase or sale of specified quantities of a commodity at specified future dates. The origin of futures contracts was in trade in agricultural commodities, and the term commodity is used to define the underlying asset even though the contract is

Financial markets move fast and often involve complicated financial products, which makes oversight and investor protection an important part of the financial system. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) plays a central role in regulating brokerage firms and the brokers who work for

security: The marketing of new issues: …foreign lending by United States financial institutions and on direct foreign investment by United States corporations. As a result, a number of multinational corporations headquartered in the United States were forced to seek financing in overseas securities markets for the expanding business of their foreign subsidiaries. United States and foreign…

finance: …savers to users are called financial intermediaries. They include commercial banks, savings banks, savings and loan associations, and such nonbank institutions as credit unions, insurance companies, pension funds, investment companies, and finance companies.

capital structure: This is known as “leverage” or “trading on the equity.” In a capital structure of $100,000, for example, of which $50,000 represents bondholders’ investment at an interest rate of 5 percent and $50,000 represents equity, total earnings of $10,000 would represent a return of 10 percent on the total…

If you have a brokerage account, a 401(k) at a big financial firm, or follow any “finfluencers,” you already know that April is Financial Literacy Month—and you’ve probably been served the usual mix of well-meaning reminders: get smarter about money, make better decisions, stick to a budget, maybe

The term financial literacy is often thought of as simply being good with money. But it’s more than ending the week with a little cash left over. On the other hand, it doesn’t mean mastering the stock market or economic theory. It’s about understanding the everyday money decisions that shape your

corporate finance: …the job of a corporation’s financial manager or managers to conduct both of the aforementioned functions in a manner that maximizes shareholder wealth, or stock price. Financial managers must balance the interests of owners, or shareholders; creditors, including banks and bondholders; and other parties, such as employees, suppliers, and customers.…

financial market, arena in which prices form to enable the exchange of financial assets to be executed. Given the advent of electronic trading systems, financial markets can now be structured in many ways. Historically, they were physical meeting places in which traders came into face-to-face

Consider these market interactions: Each of these transactions feels seamless, immediate, and carries no (or very little) cost. How does it all work? It’s a lot to unpack. First off, to make a market, at least two parties are needed to complete a trade. But to make markets competitive, three or

business finance: Financial planning and control: Short-term financial operations are closely involved with the financial planning and control activities of a firm. These include financial ratio analysis, profit planning, financial forecasting, and budgeting.

International Monetary Fund: Financing balance-of-payments deficits: …an analytic framework known as financial programming, which was first fully formulated by IMF staff economist Jacques Polak in 1957, to determine the amount of the loan and the macroeconomic adjustments and structural reforms needed to reestablish the country’s balance-of-payments equilibrium. The IMF has several financing programs, or facilities, for…

business finance: Financial ratio analysis: A firm’s balance sheet contains many items that, taken by themselves, have no clear meaning. Financial ratio analysis is a way of appraising their relative importance. The ratio of current assets to current liabilities, for example, gives the analyst an idea of…

Financial regulators provide oversight to make sure markets run fairly, smoothly, and efficiently. They can also act as police to enforce rules and regulations, potentially keeping damage to a minimum when it does occur and punishing those who break the rules. Without these regulators, markets

United Kingdom: Finance: …1997 the government established the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to regulate the financial services industry; it replaced a series of separate supervisory organizations, some of them based on self-regulation. Among other tasks, the FSA took over the supervision of the United Kingdom’s commercial banks from the Bank of England. The…

Sanford I. Weill: In 1999 the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was signed into law; it repealed the barriers of the Glass-Steagall Act. Thus, the merger was able to be completed, and in 1999 Weill became cochairman and co-CEO of Citigroup, then the largest financial services company in the world.

Think of the stock market’s financial services sector as a massive skyscraper in which all monetary transactions take place. It originates with the simplest purchases, like the morning coffee you buy on your way to work, all the way up to billion-dollar deals made by corporate giants. Cumulatively,

financial statement, any report of the financial condition or of the financial results of the operations of a business, a government, or other organization. The term is most often used in a more limited sense in trade and financial circles to refer to the balance sheet, statement of income, and

government budget: Components of the budget: …in a separate volume entitled Financial Statement and Budget Report. This gives a general outline of budgetary strategy, details of proposed tax changes, and estimates of likely revenues, as well as details of such items as capital receipts from asset sales and the size of the contingency reserve of unallocated…

economic system: From industrial to state capitalism: …the unprecedented growth of international finance to the point that, by the beginning of the 21st century, the total value of transactions in foreign exchange was estimated to be at least 20 times that of all foreign movements of goods and services. This boundary-blind internationalization of finance, combined with the…

Financial Times, newspaper edited in London that traditionally had strong influence on the financial policies of the British government. Its paper version is printed Monday through Saturday throughout the world, and it is known as one of England’s superior newspapers. The Financial Times was

Marjorie Scardino: …first woman to head an FTSE 100 company. (FTSE, which became an independent company, got its name from its origins as a joint venture between the Financial Times [FT] newspaper and the London Stock Exchange.) She swiftly charted new directions by selling peripheral businesses such as Mindscape, a money-losing technology…

The Financier, novel by Theodore Dreiser, published in 1912, the first book of an epic series called the Trilogy of Desire, based on the life of Charles T. Yerkes, an American transportation magnate. The other two volumes are The Titan (1914) and The Stoic, which was completed by Dreiser’s wife

Rudolf Hilferding: …the way Marx expected, Hilferding’s Finance Capital (1910) pointed to the role of banking and finance, arguing that the banks’ increasing influence over industry led to monopoly and cartels and through them to economic imperialism and war. This work foreshadowed his role as the party’s chief theorist and financial expert.…

antiandrogen: An inhibitor of this enzyme, finasteride, was designed as a treatment for benign prostatic hypertrophy. When it is administered to men with moderately severe symptoms, urine flow increases and prostatic volume decreases. Impotence is an infrequent side effect of the use of finasteride, which is also approved for the topical…

fin whale, (Balaenoptera physalus), a slender baleen whale, second in size to the blue whale and distinguishable by its asymmetrical coloration. The fin whale is generally gray with a white underside, but the right side of the head has a light gray area, a white lower jaw, and white baleen at the

Venezuela: Agriculture, fishing, and forestry: First are fincas comercializados (commercial crop farms), which usually cover more than 50 acres (20 hectares), employ wage labourers, have some farm machinery, and use fertilizers and pesticides. These modernized farms have benefited from government provisions of credit. In addition, they have had easy access to both…

Venezuela: Agriculture, fishing, and forestry: The third type are the fincas granderas (large pastoral farms), which often encompass more than 6,000 acres (2,400 hectares). These are commonly found in the Llanos, where unenclosed land is used for grazing cattle on the low-quality grasses. The cattle are herded and traded in yearly meetings called rodeos (roundups).

FINCA International, nongovernmental organization (NGO) that provides financial services for the world’s poorest populations. FINCA International offers banking services, insurance, and small loans to poor individuals at relatively modest interest rates and fees (microcredit). FINCA was founded in

finch, any of several hundred species of small conical-billed seed-eating songbirds (order Passeriformes). Well-known or interesting birds called finches include the bunting, canary, cardinal, chaffinch, crossbill, Galapagos finch, goldfinch, grass finch, grosbeak, sparrow, euphonia, and weaver.

Tom Hanks: In 2021 Hanks starred in Finch, a postapocalyptic drama about an ailing man who builds a robot to look after his dog. The following year he played Colonel Tom Parker in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, a biopic about the legendary performer. His other credits from 2022 include A Man Called Otto,…

Aaron Sorkin: Move into directing: …Jeff Daniels portraying the lead, Atticus Finch. In 2020 Sorkin returned to the big screen with The Trial of the Chicago 7, which he wrote and directed. Based on true events, the drama centers on a group of political activists who were tried for their antiwar activities during the 1968…

Peter Finch was an English actor who was noted for his ability to portray complex characters with subtlety and warmth. While Finch was a toddler, his parents divorced owing to his mother’s extramarital affair, and it was not until decades later that Peter discovered that George Ingle Finch, a

Peter Finch was an English actor who was noted for his ability to portray complex characters with subtlety and warmth. While Finch was a toddler, his parents divorced owing to his mother’s extramarital affair, and it was not until decades later that Peter discovered that George Ingle Finch, a

Robert Finch was an American-born Canadian poet whose gift for satire found an outlet in lyrics characterized by irony, metaphysical wit, complex imagery, and a strong sense of form. Finch was educated at the University of Toronto, to which he returned as a professor of French after three years in

Robert Finch was an American-born Canadian poet whose gift for satire found an outlet in lyrics characterized by irony, metaphysical wit, complex imagery, and a strong sense of form. Finch was educated at the University of Toronto, to which he returned as a professor of French after three years in

September 11 attacks: One World Trade Center and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum: …blue watercolour with which artist Spencer Finch attempted to capture the colour of the sky on the day of the September 11 attacks. At the centre of the tiles is a quote from Virgil’s Aeneid:

David Fincher is an American music video and film director known for his stylish movies, which usually trend towards the dark and atmospheric. Fincher was raised in San Anselmo, California, where he became interested in movies at a young age, in part because he was a neighbour of filmmaker George

David Fincher is an American music video and film director known for his stylish movies, which usually trend towards the dark and atmospheric. Fincher was raised in San Anselmo, California, where he became interested in movies at a young age, in part because he was a neighbour of filmmaker George

Flora Finching, fictional character in the novel Little Dorrit (1855–57) by Charles Dickens. Flora, the daughter of mean-spirited Christopher Casby, is a widow who was once a sweetheart of Arthur Clennam and still cherishes a passion for him. Now middle-aged, Flora retains a fluttery girlishness;

Earth sciences: Cloud physics: …theory of Tor Bergson and Walter Findeisen, vapour freezing on ice crystals in the clouds enlarges the crystals until they fall. What finally hits the ground depends on the temperature of air below the cloud—if below freezing, snow; if above, rain.

Stephen King: Serial novels: Mercedes (2014), Finders Keepers (2015), and End of Watch (2016) form a trilogy of hard-boiled crime novels centering on retired detective Bill Hodges. The trilogy was adapted into a TV series in 2017–19, starring Brendan Gleeson as Hodges. King also wrote a serial novel, The Dark Tower,…

New Age movement: Origins: For example, Scotland’s Findhorn Foundation believed that its purported contact with a variety of nature spirits produced spectacular agricultural feats, despite the poor soil and climate of the group’s settlement.

Albert Brooks: …the role in the sequel Finding Dory (2016).

Deepika Padukone: Model, actress, and producer: The slightly offbeat Finding Fanny (2014) showed her in the role of a young widow who sets off on a road trip to help a friend. She played a dancer in Happy New Year (2014), her third film with Khan. In Piku (2015) she starred opposite popular Bollywood…

Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies: That’s a Basketball Movie?: In Finding Forrester (2000), Sean Connery plays a reclusive J.D. Salinger-like writer who becomes a literary mentor to an African American teenager whose basketball skills have earned him a spot in a swanky prep school, where his integrity is questioned when he demonstrates his virtuoso abilities…

John Lasseter: …monster and human worlds, and Finding Nemo (2003), about a clownfish’s oceanic search for his son.