What is "missing link"

n. 1 (context colloquial English) A hypothetical primate once thought necessary to explain a perceived evolutionary gap between apes and humans. 2 (context figuratively English) Any sought-after or valuable intermediary figure or position.

n. hypothetical organism formerly thought to be intermediate between apes and human beings [syn: ape-man]

Missing link may refer to:

Missing Link is a mechanical puzzle invented in 1981 by Steven P. Hanson and Jeffrey D. Breslow.

The puzzle has four sides, each depicting a chain of a different color. Each side contains four tiles, except one which contains three tiles and a gap. The top and bottom rows can be rotated, and tiles can slide up or down into the gap. The objective is to scramble the tiles and then restore them to their original configuration.

The two middle rows cannot be rotated. To move tiles in these rows, you need to loop the tiles from one row to another, up and down.

There are 15 tiles and a gap, giving a maximum of 16! arrangements. However, the middle tiles of each four-tile chain are identical, and each position is equivalent to seven other positions obtained by rotating the entire puzzle (about its axis or upside-down), reducing the number of arrangements to 16! / 8 / 8 = 326,918,592,000. If the three long chains are also considered interchangeable, then the number of arrangements is further reduced to 16! / 8 / 8 / 6 = 54,486,432,000.

Missing Link was a retrospective sports program that aired on the American network ESPN Classic. It debuted on March 7, 2007 and aired every Wednesday night at 10 p.m. Eastern time and was hosted by the host of ESPN Radio's The Herd, Colin Cowherd.

Missing Link is best described as a version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon involving famous athletes, coaches, and other sports figures. Each end of the chain is seemingly the exact opposite of the other in some way, but are somehow connected. The length of each chain varies between five and seven names. In a television-worthy twist, one end is connected, then the other, with a middle link revealed only at the end, following a commercial break.

Missing Link was pre-empted on April 25 for a replay of the heavyweight boxing championship match between Lennox Lewis and Frank Bruno, but the show returned the following week, amidst a blog report that indicated that ESPN Classic would halt all original programs. It was then quietly dropped again two weeks later and did not return. ESPN Classic now fills the hour once taken up by Missing Link (it aired in a two-episode block) with various programs like Who's No. 1?.

Missing Link is the name of four fictional characters in Marvel Comics.

Missing Link is a 1988 film written and directed by Carol and David Hughes. The movie is set in Africa roughly one million years ago, at a time when one species of "man-apes" ( Australopithecus robustus) was being displaced by the ancestors of modern humans (possibly Homo erectus but they are never named. They are only addressed as man and from the few scenes where they show any visibility, they vaguely resemble modern humans). The film follows the last of the man-apes (Peter Elliott) as he wanders through the wilderness after his tribe is slaughtered by the aggressive humans who have invented the ax and have learned to make use of fire. He journeys through a savanna, an oasis, a desert, and eventually the shores of a beach. Along the way, he avoids the humans that killed his family and witnesses many fantastic sights of wildlife. After experiencing a hallucination brought on by ingesting a hallucinogenic plant (possibly a reference to the stoned ape theory), he realizes the stone ax that he has been carrying after finding it at the site where his tribe was killed is a weapon. When he comes across a human footprint at the ocean shore, he sniffs it and then starts hitting it, wanting revenge against the humans. But he then relents and tosses the ax into the ocean. The closing scene has him sitting mournfully on the beach as the sun sets. The closing text states that the "man-apes" were likely the first species humanity pushed into extinction.

Missing Link is an unusual film in that it blends elements of drama, documentary, and avant-garde cinema. There is no dialogue, though there is narration (by Michael Gambon). There is also very little action. Instead, the film is filled with extended, picturesque sequences reminiscent of the style often used in nature documentaries. Perhaps due to its unconventionality, the movie was not a commercial success.

"Missing Link" is the seventh episode of the first series of Space: 1999. The screenplay was written by Edward di Lorenzo; the director was Ray Austin. The final shooting script is dated 5 April 1974. Live-action filming took place Monday 22 April 1974 through Thursday 9 May 1974, with one day of second-unit filming on 22 July 1974.

Missing Link was a German pop group hailing from Mönchengladbach, that was active in the late 1980s and early 1990s.