All articles starting with B
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Block Island
Block Island (Manisses) is a 10-square-mile glacial moraine island and Rhode Island town about 10-12 miles offshore, settled in 1661, home to New Shoreham, the first US offshore wind farm (2016), and heavily conserved land.
Block Island Wind Farm
The Block Island Wind Farm is a 30-megawatt offshore wind farm of five turbines off Block Island, Rhode Island, and the first offshore wind farm in the United States, operating since December 2016.
Block matrix
A block matrix, also called a partitioned matrix, is a matrix divided into smaller rectangular submatrices called blocks, allowing sums, products, and inverses to be computed block by block.
Block Parent Program
Block Parent Program: Canadian volunteer child-safety network whose approved members display a window sign offering their home as an emergency refuge. Founded in London, Ontario, in 1968, nationalized in 1983-1986, RCMP-affiliated, and in decline since the 2000s.
Block randomization
Block randomization is a clinical trial randomization method that assigns participants in small blocks, each containing equal allocations to every treatment group in random order, keeping group sizes balanced throughout enrollment.
Block signalling
Block signaling is a railway safety method dividing the track into blocks, so a train enters only after the preceding one has left, preventing collisions between trains.
Block wargame
Block wargame: a board wargame using upright wooden blocks that hide unit type and strength, creating fog of war and step reduction. Began with Quebec 1759 (Gamma Two/Columbia Games, 1972) by Tom Dalgliesh and Lance Gutteridge.
Block-matching algorithm
A block-matching algorithm is a motion estimation method for video that divides frames into blocks, searches a reference frame for the best match, and records motion vectors.
Block-on-ring tester
A block-on-ring tester is a tribometer in which a stationary block is pressed against a rotating ring, a line-contact test standardized in ASTM G77 for ranking sliding wear.
Block, Inc.
Block, Inc., formerly Square, Inc., is an American financial technology company founded by Jack Dorsey in 2009, best known for its Square seller services and Cash App.
Blockade
A blockade, also known as a naval quarantine, is a belligerent operation barring vessels and aircraft of all nations from enemy ports, airports, or coasts; ships attempting passage may be seized.
Blockade Diary
A blockade diary (блокадный дневник) is a journal kept by a resident of Leningrad during the 1941 to 1944 siege, recording daily life under bombardment and starvation.
Blockade of Biafra
Blockade of Biafra: Nigeria's Federal Military Government encirclement of the secessionist Eastern Region from 31 May 1967 to January 1970, combining naval, land, currency, and supply restrictions that caused famine, killed up to two million, and prompted the Biafran airlift.
Blockade of the Gaza Strip
Blockade of the Gaza Strip: land, sea, and air closure imposed by Israel in June 2007 after Hamas's takeover, intensifying 1990s-era restrictions; contested legality, severe humanitarian impact, tightened during the 2023-2025 war.
Blockbuster (Bend, Oregon)
Blockbuster (Bend, Oregon), the Last Blockbuster, is the world's final Blockbuster video rental store, a Tisher-family franchise at 211 NE Revere Ave that outlasted the chain's 2010 bankruptcy and 9,000-store collapse.
Blockbuster (entertainment)
Blockbuster (entertainment): the Hollywood term for an exceptionally successful, big-budget, heavily marketed film, from WWII bomb slang; defined by Jaws (1975), saturation releases, and the franchise era.
Blockbuster (retailer)
Blockbuster was an American video rental chain that grew from a single Dallas store in 1985 into the world's largest home-video retailer, peaking at about 9,100 stores.
Blockbuster (TV series)
Blockbuster is a 2022 Netflix workplace sitcom created by Vanessa Ramos, starring Randall Park and Melissa Fumero as staff of the last Blockbuster Video store; 10 episodes, cancelled after one season.
Blockbuster bomb
The blockbuster bomb was a Royal Air Force High Capacity blast bomb of the Second World War, from 2,000 to 12,000 lb, used in area bombing of Germany.
Blockbusting
Blockbusting was the discriminatory practice of panicking white homeowners into selling cheaply, then reselling to Black buyers at inflated prices, from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Blockcap, Inc.
Blockcap, Inc., also known as Block Capital Inc., was an Austin, Texas-based bitcoin mining company founded in 2020 and acquired by Core Scientific in July 2021 for about $1.139 billion.
Blockchain
Blockchain, or blockchain technology, is a tamper-resistant distributed digital ledger, usually without a central authority, in which cryptographically linked blocks of transactions cannot be changed once published.
Blockchain.com
Blockchain.com, formerly Blockchain.info, is a London-headquartered cryptocurrency financial services company founded in 2011 as a Bitcoin block explorer, now offering a consumer wallet, exchange, and institutional prime brokerage, custody, and over-the-counter trading.
Blockers (film)
Blockers is a 2018 American teen sex comedy, Kay Cannon's directorial debut, written by Brian and Jim Kehoe. Three parents (Leslie Mann, John Cena, Ike Barinholtz) try to stop their daughters' prom-night virginity pact; Universal released it April 6, 2018, grossing $59.8M in the US.
Blockers!
Blockers! is an abstract tile-laying board game for two to five players by American designer Kory Heath, first released in 2007, where the winner ends with the fewest points.
Blockhouse
A blockhouse is a small, roofed fortification loopholed for firing in any direction, serving as a defended post for a small garrison; in modern usage it stands above ground.
Blocking (statistics)
Blocking is an experimental design technique in statistics that groups experimental units into homogeneous blocks, randomizing treatments within each block to reduce error from nuisance factors.
Blocking (textile arts)
Blocking (textile arts), also called wet, steam, or spray blocking, is the finishing step that wets or steams finished knitting or crochet and pins it to shape while drying, evening stitches, opening lace, and setting final measurements by fiber type.
Blocking flow
A blocking flow is a flow in a network that saturates at least one arc on every source-to-sink path, so no admissible path remains usable.
Blocking high
A blocking high is a large, persistent anticyclone that interrupts the normal west-to-east flow of the midlatitude atmosphere, stalling weather systems for a week or more and causing prolonged heatwaves, drought, or flooding.