Cipriano de Rore

Cipriano de Rore (occasionally Cypriano) (1515 or 1516 – between 11 and 20 September 1565) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active in Italy. Not only was he a central representative of the generation of Franco-Flemish composers after Josquin des Prez who went to live and work in Italy, but he was one of the most prominent composers of madrigals in the middle of the 16th century. His experimental, chromatic, and highly expressive style had a decisive influence on the subsequent development of that secular music form.
Life.
Early years.
Little is known of Rore's early life. His probable birth years (1515/1516) are known from his age at death (49, recorded on his tombstone in the cathedral in Parma), and his probable birthplace was a small town in Flanders, Ronse (Renaix), right on the boundary between the French- and Dutch-speaking areas. Recent research has established that his parents were Celestinus Rore (died before 1564) and Barbara Van Coppenolle, and he had at least two siblings, Franciscus and Celestinus. The family was active in Ronse at least since 1400, and their coat of arms appeared both on his personal seal and his tombstone in Parma Cathedral.
Where he got his musical training is unknown. Based on a suggestive phrase in a 1559 madrigal dedicated to Margaret of Parma, the illegitimate daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, which implied a long association with her, he may have accompanied her when she went to Naples in 1533, prior to marrying into the Medici family. Margaret was born in a town within walking distance of Rore's birthplace. Prior to that speculative trip Rore may have had some early music instruction in Antwerp. Many gifted singers from the Netherlands went to Italy as children or adolescents, often when discovered by visiting nobility; both Orlande de Lassus and Giaches de Wert traveled to southern Italy in similar circumstances. When Margaret married Alessandro de' Medici in 1536, Rore may have gone his own way; however, he is believed to have received some of his music education in Italy during his period of service with Margaret.
Venice and Ferrara.
While it has long been claimed that Rore studied in Venice with Adrian Willaert, and that he was a singer at San Marco, no specific documentation of either of these events has been found; some dedicatory material in his Venetian publications mentions him as a "disciple" or "follower", but not specifically as a student. Yet he was closely connected with Willaert and his associates for much of his career, and visited Venice at least once before 1542. Beginning in this year, documentation on Rore's whereabouts becomes more clear. A letter written on 3 November 1542 indicates he was at Brescia, where he was known to have remained until 16 April 1545. It was during this period that he began to acquire fame as a composer, publishing, with the assistance of the Venetian printer Scotto, his first book of madrigals in 1542, as well as two books of motets in 1544 and 1545. The reprints of these works two years later by both Scotto and Gardane indicated their high regard. Their technical mastery, and stylistic indebtedness to Willaert and his circle, make an early connection with Venice a reasonable supposition.
Rore then went to Ferrara, where payment records show he was "maestro di cappella" (choirmaster) beginning on 6 May 1546. This was the beginning of an extraordinarily productive portion of his life; while in the service of Duke Ercole II d'Este he wrote masses, motets, chansons, and of course madrigals, many of which were topical, some involving matters concerning the court itself. In 1556 Duke Ercole awarded Rore a benefice for his exceptional service. Also during the Ferrara years, Rore began cultivating his relations with the court of Albrecht V of Bavaria in Munich, sending them music, and having 26 motets produced in an elaborately illustrated manuscript with miniatures by Hans Müelich. In 1558 he requested a leave of absence from his employer in Ferrara in order to return to his homeland to care for his ailing parents. He stopped in Munich on the way, reaching the city on 1 May, where he assisted in preparation of the motet manuscript, and posed for the Müelich portrait. A document of September 1558 places him in Flanders, where he was helping his sister-in-law with estate matters on the death of Celistinus, his brother. By December he had returned to Ferrara.
Departure from Ferrara; last years.
In July 1559 Rore left his post in Ferrara again, possibly because the new Duke Alfonso II d'Este preferred Francesco dalla Viola, a member of an old Ferrara family, to the foreigner. Once again he went north to his homeland; this time he was not to return to Este service.
The situation in his homeland had deteriorated due to the ravages of the Wars of Independence, and when Rore reached it in autumn 1559, he found that his home town, Ronse, had been destroyed. Unable to regain his employment in Ferrara, he re-entered the service of the House of Farnese, and after a stay in Antwerp, returned to Italy again, this time to Parma, in 1560. Unhappy there – Parma was not an intellectual and cultural center on the level of Ferrara or Venice – he left in 1563, briefly taking the prestigious position of "maestro di cappella" at St. Mark's on the death of his mentor Adrian Willaert. However he only kept this post into 1564, at which time he returned to Parma; he gave as his reason for departing Venice the disorder in the chapel and an insufficient salary.
He died at Parma the next year of unknown causes at age 49 and was buried in the cathedral in that city. Lodovico Rore, his nephew, erected his tombstone, indicating in the epitaph that his name would not be forgotten, even in the distant future.
Music and influence.
Rore was one of the most influential composers in the middle of the sixteenth century, mainly through the dissemination of his madrigals. His 1542 book was an extraordinary event, and recognized as such at the time: it established five voices as the norm, rather than four, and it married the polyphonic texture of the Netherlandish motet with the Italian secular form, bringing a seriousness of tone which was to become one of the predominant trends in madrigal composition all the way into the seventeenth century. All of the lines of development in the madrigal in the late century can be traced to ideas first seen in Rore; according to Alfred Einstein, his only true spiritual successor was Claudio Monteverdi, another revolutionary. In his sacred music, however, Rore was more backward-looking, showing his connection to his Netherlandish roots: his masses, for example, are reminiscent of the work of Josquin des Prez.
Rore wrote 107 madrigals that are securely attributed to him; 16 secular Latin compositions, similar in form to madrigals; at least seven chansons; 53 motets, of which 51 survive; a Passion according to Saint John; five settings of the mass; some Magnificats; and a handful of other works.
Sacred music.
While Rore is best known for his Italian madrigals, he was also a prolific composer of sacred music, both masses and motets. Josquin was his point of departure, and he developed many of his techniques from the older composer's style. Rore's first three masses are a response to the challenge of his heritage and to the music of his predecessor, Josquin. In addition to five masses, he wrote about 80 motets, many psalms, secular motets, and a setting of the St. John Passion.
Secular music.
It was as a composer of madrigals, however, that Rore achieved enduring fame. With his madrigals published primarily between 1542 and 1565, he was one of the most influential madrigalists at mid-century. His early madrigals reflect the styles of Willaert with the use of clear diction, thick and continuous counterpoint, and pervasive imitation. These works are mostly for four or five voices, with one for six and another for eight. The tone of his writing tends toward the serious, especially as contrasted with the light character of the work of his predecessors, such as Arcadelt and Verdelot. Rore chose not to write madrigals of frivolous nature, preferring to focus on serious subject matter, including the works of Petrarch, and tragedies presented at Ferrara. Rore carefully brought out the varying moods of the texts he set, developing musical devices for this purpose; additionally he often ignored the structure of the line, line division, and rhyme, deeming it unnecessary that the musical and poetic lines correspond.
In addition, Rore experimented with chromaticism, following some of the ideas of his contemporary Nicola Vicentino. He used all the resources of polyphony as they had developed by the middle 16th century in his work, including imitation and canonic techniques, all in the service of careful text setting.
He proved to be the model whom many of the great madrigalists of the late sixteenth century followed, including Claudio Monteverdi. According to Alfred Einstein, writing in "The Italian Madrigal" (1949), Rore's true spiritual successor was Monteverdi. Einstein also said, "Rore holds the key to the whole development of the Italian madrigal after 1550."
Rore also composed secular Latin motets, a relatively unusual "cross-over" form in the mid-16th century. These motets, being a secular variation of a normally sacred form, paralleled the sacred madrigal, the "madrigale spirituale", which was a sacred variation on a popular secular form. Stylistically these motets are similar to his madrigals, and he published them throughout his career; occasionally they appeared in collections of madrigals, such as in his posthumous Fifth Book for five voices (1566), and he also included some in a collection of motets for five voices published in 1545.
External links.


The Corporation (record production team)

The Corporation was a group of songwriters and record producers assembled in 1969 by Motown label head Berry Gordy to create hit records for the label's new act, The Jackson 5.
History.
The four members of The Corporation - Berry Gordy, Alphonso Mizell, Freddie Perren and Deke Richards - were responsible for the writing, production and arranging of The Jackson 5 number-one hit singles "I Want You Back" (1969), "ABC", "The Love You Save" (both in 1970); as well as for other Jackson 5 singles such as "Mama's Pearl" and "Maybe Tomorrow" (both in 1971). They were also responsible for writing and producing "Bless You", the last hit by the trio Martha and the Vandellas before that group disbanded in 1972.
Like Motown's previous production team, The Clan, which was pulled together to create the singles "Love Child" and "I'm Livin' in Shame" for Diana Ross and the Supremes, The Corporation was intended as a replacement of sorts for Holland–Dozier–Holland, who had left the label in late 1967 to start Invictus Records and Hot Wax Records. Occasionally, they were joined by Perren's wife Christine Yarian.
Gordy created The Corporation because he did not want any more "back room superstars", which the H-D-H team had become. The group members were never billed individually on the original Jackson 5 releases they worked on; even the songwriters' credit was listed as "The Corporation™".
The Corporation disbanded in 1972, after Hal Davis had assumed creative control of the Jackson 5's output. After its disbanding, Motown would credit Gordy, Mizell, Richards, and Perren individually on compilation releases containing Corporation-created Jackson 5 material.


Maxim (India)

Maxim was the Indian edition of the United Kingdom-based international monthly men's magazine called "Maxim". It was known for its revealing pictorials featuring popular actresses, singers, and female models, none of which are nudes. The first issue of the Indian edition of "Maxim" was the January 2006 issue featuring Priyanka Chopra on the cover. The first issue was released on 28 December 2005. The magazine was the first international men's magazine to enter the Indian market and the 30th international version of Maxim. The magazine is no longer published in India.
Largely covering everything related to men's lifestyle, "Maxim" was the industry leader for men's magazines in India until 2018. Maxim stopped circulating its Indian edition publishing its last issue on 1 December 2018.
Maxim Hot 100.
Each year since 2008, the Indian edition of Maxim releases the Maxim Hot 100. The winners and their corresponding ages and the year in which the magazine was released are listed below.
Controversy.
The magazine's inaugural issue in January 2006 featured a page called "Women you will never see in Maxim - 100% fake". Among the photos was a full-page morphed photograph showing Khusbhu "posing" in black underwear, along with the caption "Of course, I am a virgin if you don't count from the behind." The caption was in reference to remarks made by Kushboo in 2005 whether or not modern men should expect their brides to be virgins. The actress described the photo, which showed only her head, as "immodest". Kushboo filed a petition with Chennai police commissioner R. Nataraj on 30 January 2006, citing two complaints: defamation and the indecent representation of women. The Supreme Court dismissed the case on 22 May 2006.
Editors-in-Chief.
The following have served as Editor-in-Chief of "Maxim":


Tabio (company)

Tabio is a Japanese manufacturer and retailer of socks, stockings and tights.
Tabio has 270 stores in Japan, US, France, UK, China and Taiwan.


Laurie Rosenwald

Laurie Rosenwald (born 1955) is an American author, artist and designer.
Biography.
A New York City native, she graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in Painting in 1977. She has taught graphic design and illustration at School of Visual Arts, Parsons School of Design, NYU, and Pratt Institute. She currently divides her time between New York City and Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2013, she was a speaker at the TED-X Conference in Gothenburg.
Her work has appeared in "The New Yorker", "The New York Times", "New York Magazine", and many other publications. She has authored and illustrated three books: "All the Wrong People Have Self-Esteem", "And to name but just a few: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue", and "New York Notebook". She is also a painter, and has had solo exhibitions in France at "Galerie Pixi", and in Sweden at "Galleri Konstepidemin". A large mural in encaustic has been installed at Target Corporation's New York City headquarters.
In recent years she has branched out into the field of animation. Bloomingdale's has featured her work in this area, and in 2010, she was nominated for an Emmy award for an animated "Parent Directed Spot" for Nick Jr. Her collaboration with the writer David Sedaris, "David's Diary", is an animated app for iPad and iPhone. For her illustration and design work, she has also received awards from the Type Directors Club, Art Directors Club, American Illustration, Print Magazine, Communication Arts and AIGA.
Her typeface, "Loupot", designed in collaboration with Cyrus Highsmith, is published by Font Bureau.
As a writer, Rosenwald's humor pieces can be found in the books 101 Damnations and Mirth of a Nation. She also writes for Communication Arts where her articles include "Illustration: Graphic Design’s Poor Relation" and "Mutant Bastard Yucky Colors of the Apocalypse".
Rosenwald runs a workshop, "How to Make Mistakes on Purpose", which has been hosted by schools and corporations in both North America and Europe, including Starbucks, Google, The Art Director's Club, AIGA New York, Eden Spiekermann in Berlin and schools such as RISD, MICA, Camberwell and Art Center College of Design. The details of this workshop remain a mystery, as participants are sworn to secrecy.
Rosenwald has a second career as emcee and comedian. She appeared as “Woman” in Season Five, Episode 1 of "The Sopranos": "Two Tonys". She was interviewed in 2013 for Your Dreams My Nightmares, as well as Creative Review.


Flag of Rio de Janeiro

The flag of the City of Rio de Janeiro or flag of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro () consists of a white rectangle with a blue saltire behind the coat of arms of the city of Rio de Janeiro, which is displayed red in the center. Its basic design has changed little since it was adopted on July 8, 1908, except during period from 1960 to 1975 when the municipality of Rio de Janeiro was known as Guanabara State. It resembles the flags of Galicia (before it changed) and the Russian Navy (with some changes).
Composition.
The flag of the City of Rio de Janeiro is a white field with two blue stripes, placed diagonally, forming a band and a bar (that is, in the shape of a saltire, or a St. Andrew's cross). On the crossing of the band and the bar, the city's coat of arms—a sixth in proportion to the total field—appears in red. The city's coat of arms has the following heraldic composition: on a red field, there are three silver arrows surmounted by a silver armillary sphere, and over all a silver Phrygian cap. Supporting the shield are two red dolphins, holding at their right a laurel branch and at their left an oak branch. The crest of the shield is a mural crown of five towers, also red.
The tinctures, or heraldic colors, of the coat of arms on this shield are altered from the traditional coat of arms, which has a blue field, golden arrows and sphere, and a red Phrygian cap. The dolphins are normally silver, the leaves they hold green, and the mural crown gold.
The blue and white of the flag symbolize the Portuguese origin of the city, as they are the traditional colors of the Portuguese monarchy, adopted since the creation of the County of Portugal in 1097. (It was only after the proclamation of the Portuguese Republic on October 5, 1910 that Portugal began to use the colors dark green and red on their flag.) The color red on the flag of Rio de Janeiro symbolizes the blood shed by Saint Sebastian, the saintly patron of the city, as well as the blood shed by the city's founder, Estácio de Sá, and the early settlers of Rio de Janeiro.


Guldbagge Award for Best Art Direction

The Guldbagge for Best Art Direction is a Swedish film award presented annually by the Swedish Film Institute (SFI) as part of the Guldbagge Awards (Swedish: "Guldbaggen") to art directors working in the Swedish motion picture industry.
Winners and nominees.
Each Guldbagge Awards ceremony is listed chronologically below along with the winner of the Guldbagge Award for Best Art Direction and the film associated with the award. In the columns under the winner of each award are the other nominees for best art direction.


Zero Critical

Zero Critical (also known as Satin Rift) is an adventure science fiction PC game developed independently by Istvan Pely and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is a 2D third-person game with an emphasis on story and characters. The game was intended as a direct sequel to "Majestic (Part I: Alien Encounter)" (1995) as it concludes the events of that game. Zero Critical is notable for its scientific realism.
Development.
The game is a traditional 2D game created in Director. Istvan Pely began developing the game circa 1997 with his team, Sherban Young (screenplay writer) and Seth W. Jones (musician and sound editor). It was initially titled "Satin Rift" but it was subsequently published by Bethesda Softworks in 1999 under the name "Zero Critical". The game was set to take place a year after the events of Symbiocom to which there are very few references. Zero-Critical was rather intended as a direct sequel to "Majestic (Part I: Alien Encounter)" (1995) as it concludes the events of that game. The plot revolves around the disappearance of "S.S. Majestic", Earth's finest pleasure cruiser and a crowning achievement in space travel, which on her maiden voyage set sail from earth's harbor and never returned. In an interview in 1998, about this concept Istvan Pely said that:
Pely relates that his aim was to create a third-person graphic adventure with a heavy emphasis on story and characters. He also relates that he tried to create interesting and detailed environments for both Zero-Critical and Symbiocom as these were explorative games and there wasn't much else to do besides walk around and click on things. The promotional material promised to deliver a story that encompasses three integrated plot elements: sci-fi, mystery and a love story:
Plot.
Two decades after the Majestic disaster, Zero Critical takes place on "Rheom 1", a small extrasolar terrestrial planet of eternal daylight. Rheom has plenty of oxygen and it is believed that there would have to be some areas that had water. The setting on Rheom is rendered by extensive use of shades of gray and muted colors. It is revealed that due to its proximity to the Pleiades cluster, a group of astronomers had built an observation outpost on Rheom 1 to study the nebula nearby ("Pleiades Observation Outpost", otherwise known as the "Thundercloud Project"). This project was halted due to financial difficulties and the outpost fell into disuse until it was renovated ten years later for the "SATIN Project", a highly-classified project funded by Interstellar Transportation Commission (ITC). The goal of the project is to develop a new form of long-distance space travel that would eliminate the drawbacks of the extant technology that harnesses traversable wormholes and is unstable, expensive and not terribly efficient. Doctor Victoria Fayn, a Nobel Prize laureate and expert on trans-reality physics, was hired to head the project, leading a small team of the finest scientific and technical minds alive.
The protagonist, Chatt Rhuller is an ITC field agent assigned to undertake his first case: a homicide in the SATIN facility on Rheom 1. Dr. Fayn has killed a fellow scientist, Dr. Dor Geopp, allegedly in self-defense. Subsequently, Chatt is sent to investigate the incident and to deliver an encrypted message to Dr. Fayn. Chatt's supposed quick investigation runs into a snag however, when his shuttle is delayed and he has to stay on base for a few more days.
During his stay, Chatt interviews station staff Dr. Fayn, Dr. Thomas Vilken, Roger Olken, Myna Symmine, Magus Canter, and Eugene Garr. The investigation is for the most part inconclusive but it is gradually revealed that, apart from Geop, three other staff members are equipped with "SynCore Symbiotes" or "syms" (microcomputers implanted into the brain to augment its calculation powers). Magus, the station's maintenance worker, and a former member of Thundercloud Project staff, reveals that not far from the SATIN research site lies the resting place of S.S. Majestic, the infamous space ship that was lost and its wreck was supposedly never discovered. Upon investigating the wreckage, Chatt finds a furious Dr. Fayn who seems to have lost someone on board but is adamant to speak about it.
Incidents however, do not leave the SATIN project alone. Strange anonymous messages that warn about the SATIN project appear on utility room's computer (where Chatt sleeps). Dr. Vilken, the project's second in command, is caught attempting to infect SATIN computers with a virus that would have ruined the research to which he was so dedicated. After the incident, he seems cooperative and harmless but largely confused. The good-natured and humorous Roger is the next to go mad; just as he once jokingly has fantasized, he knocks Chatt unconscious and attempts to shoot Dr. Fayn, but kills Magus instead and commits suicide.
Resolved to end the tragedy, Chatt breaks into Dr. Fayn's private quarter and learns of her obsession with S.S. Majestic, space-time continuum and her late love interest Roland Carson, Baron of Sombury, an art collector and one of the missing passengers aboard the Majestic. Chatt also learns that the shuttle's delay is due to Fayn's having dismissed it to prevent Chatt from alerting ITC; the SATIN project is on the verge of fruition and Dr. Fayn is unwilling to risk its being shut down. Chatt also breaks into the main lab and enters a sample SATIN rift which takes him to a room in an intact instance of S.S. Majestic. There, Dr. Vilken invites him to look out of a window overlooking the starry void. Chatt looks out of same window in S.S. Majestic's wreck and discovers a SATIN project's secret operation site.
Towards the end of the game, Chatt learns that Pleiades nebula, the site of the accident, has a unique property that every 2048 years it acts as a gateway into a type of parallel universe and every object that passes through it duplicates. There is an instance of S.S. Majestic that never crashed containing Roland's doppelgänger. Dr. Fayn's aim is to "tractor-beam" this instance of the Majestic back into the universe, but as Chatt learns from the aliens, the removal of Majestic would cause that parallel world to collapse. Chatt also learns that the aliens were trying to warn the scientists by transmitting thoughts and images through their syms, and that is what drove many of them to psychological dysfunction and mental breakdown. The player's final task is to stop the project.
Gameplay.
The gameplay takes place over a four-day period and the player is required to complete specific tasks and puzzles before proceeding to the next day. Zero Critical uses the point-and-click approach to move around, find and use inventory objects, examine items and communicate with other characters. Conversations take place through a dialog box with pre-programmed questions and responses to progress in the game when talking to other characters. There is no voice acting in the game, however there are lots of conversations but they are all done in plain text. Conversations are initiated by clicking on a character or showing them an object. It is possible to choose various paths for the conversations. Asking questions normally generates new ones that are added to your list of possible queries. The player's PDA automatically stores dialog transcripts, this allows the player to go back and check on a comment he may have missed.


Cork Caucus

Cork Caucus was a major interdisciplinary, international meeting of 60-80 artists, thinkers, writers, philosophers and other creative individuals during the summer of 2005, that investigated cultural, political and artistic issues. It was devised by the National Sculpture Factory as part of Cork's tenure as European Capital of Culture in 2005, and was curated by Charles Esche, Art / not art (David Dobz O'Brien and Fergal Gaynor) and Annie Fletcher.
The stated intention of Cork Caucus was to stimulate the discursive environment of the city of Cork and to provide ways for contemporary art to intervene in social life and political thinking. This coincided with the Capital of Culture status afforded to Cork, which provided a platform for culture to reach beyond its traditional interest groups. It was hoped that this model would impact on future activities and the ongoing cultural and intellectual life of the city.
Institutional Funders & Supporters.
Cork Caucus was an official Cork 2005 European Capital of Culture project and was also supported by the Arts Council's Projects Award, The European Cultural Foundation, The Mondriaan foundation, the Prins Claus Fund, The British Council, The Kingdom of the Netherlands, The I.F.A.(Institut fuer Auslandsbeziehungen e.V.) and The Danish Arts Council's Committee for International Visual Art.
Project partners included Fáilte Ireland, the Evening Echo, The Triskel Arts Centre, Cork Institute of Technology and the South Presentation Convent, Cork.
Participants.
Participants included:
Vito Acconci,
Can Altay,
Ibon Aranberri,
Art / not art,
Bik Van der Pol,
Cemeti Art Foundation,
Phil Collins,
Members of the Cork Artists' Collective,
David Crawforth,
Shane Cullen,
D.A.E. (Donostiako Arte Ekinbideak),
Catherine David,
Jeremiah Day,
Maria Eichhorn,
James Elkins (art critic),
Charles Esche,
finger,
Annie Fletcher,
International Necronautical Society,
Invisible Pilots,
Keri Jones,
Kunci,
Agung Kurniawan,
Surasi Kusolwong,
Smaϊn Laacher,
Sarat Maharaj,
Eoghan McTigue,
Chantal Mouffe,
Paul O'Neill,
Sarah Pierce,
Simon Sheikh,
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak,
Static,
Shep Steiner,
Jan Verwoert,
Villa K,
WHW,
Haegue Yang.
Legacy.
In November and December 2007, two of the Cork Caucus curators Charles Esche and Annie Fletcher adapted the Caucus model as part of a larger event "Becoming Dutch", at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. On 21 June 2008, the National Sculpture Factory hosted "Regathering on the Grounds of Art: Revisiting Cork Caucus", where this and other issues were investigated. A special focus was the question of future uses for the Caucus model, seeing as it had two fully realised versions. Unofficially, a number of channels that fed into the Cork Caucus - e.g. SoundEye Festival of the Arts of the Word, the work of the Cork Artists' Collective, those projects of local and national artists and cultural practitioners who chose not to emigrate afterwards - have internalised the lessons of 2005 and proceeded with the ongoing task of galvanising the city and country's cultural ground. A confluence of these channels led to 'The Avant: Ten Days of the Progressive Arts' in 200.


Bloody Good Time

Bloody Good Time is a first-person shooter developed by Outerlight and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360. It was released on 28 October 2010.
The game is a spiritual sequel to "The Ship", Outerlight's debut title, with similar but improved gameplay and graphics. It features four various game modes (hunt, elimination, revenge and deathmatch). Up to eight players can play in online matches. There is also an arcade mode which allows the player to play against the AI bots. The title uses Valve's Source engine.
The game takes place on a Hollywood movie set and it features three different maps: beach, casino and horror house. Players can choose one of the eight available B-movie characters (The Surfer, The Beach babe, The Goth, The Bunny girl, The Showgirl, The Clown, The Gambler and The Stoner) and then kill other players with 21 different weapons, including usual guns and other items, such as frying pan or remote-controlled rats. The reception has been lukewarm, with very weak sales, which was attributed to Outerlight's demise.
Reception.
"Bloody Good Time" received mixed reviews upon release, with the Xbox 360 version receiving more mixed reviews than the PC version. On Metacritic, the game holds scores of 73/100 for the PC version based on 5 reviews, and 55/100 for the Xbox 360 version based on 18 reviews.


Bill Malley

Bill Malley is an American production designer and art director. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film "The Exorcist".


Dead Secret

Dead Secret is a first-person horror mystery game. It was created by Robot Invader and was released on 29 October 2015. The game is set in 1965 and the main story line revolves around the murder of Harris Bullard.
Gameplay.
Dead Secret is set in a secluded farmhouse in Kansas, which is a two-story home with two bedrooms, one bathroom and a basement. This makes for a dense and cramped environment, where initially many rooms are locked. A recursive unlocking map design is used where the player starts in one room and unlocks more rooms and routes between different areas of the map. The player takes the role of a reporter looking for the next big news article. A man, Harris Bullard, dies in suspicious circumstances so the reporter decides to investigate. The player goes to the secluded farmhouse with the suspicion that Harris was murdered. Harris was a scholar of Japanese Mythology who had many secrets which he took to the grave. The player must unravel Harris's secrets and the mystery of his death, and all this must be done before the killer decides to kill again.
The game is a story driven murder mystery focused on investigation and exploration. Because of this there are many clues placed around the farmhouse which the player must find and many of them are puzzles which need deciphering. The plot is very complicated so it is important to track down all the notes and clues to get to the correct ending. There are five endings to the story many of which end with the player themselves being murdered. The game is first-person, with the player navigating via a point and click system. Throughout the story the player is stalked by a mysterious figure wearing robes and a mask, however there is no combat within the game so when someone attacks you the only thing to do is run and hide. But in general the game is more about slow realisation than jump scares. The total gameplay time is six to eight hours.
Development.
The game is developed by Robot Invader which is a video game studio in Silicon Valley. It is built upon the Unity 5 game engine. Dead Secret started off as a tablet and mobile game and then was developed into a Virtual Reality game. There were a lot of different design decisions to be made around this particularly around movement. Movement in VR can often cause motion and simulation sickness. To prevent this Robot Invader came up with some rules for movement within their game which include: linear movement only, no acceleration during movement, no rotating the camera, only move in straight lines, motion should be short, frame rate should be kept constant.
The first VR version of the game was released on 29 October 2015 for the Samsung Gear VR. Oculus Rift and Steam versions were released on 28 March 2016. An update was released on the 18 August 2016 which added support for the HTC Vive. The game was released for the PS3, PS4 and PS VR on Apr 24, 2018.
Reception.
Jayisgames gave the game 3.9/5. XGN gave the game 8/10. VR focus gave the game a 5 star rating. VR Giant gave it a score of 8.5/10. Gear VR news gave the game a score of 8.5/10. Trusted Reviews gave the game 22/25.
Sequel.
A followup called Dead Secret Circle was released on May 1, 2018 on Steam, Oculus Rift, Oculus Go and Gear VR.


Cold Iron (video game)

Cold Iron is a 2018 virtual reality first-person shooter video game developed and published by Catch & Release, LLC for HTC Vive, PlayStation VR, and Oculus Rift. The game is presented in a first-person perspective, with a primary focus on fast draw and puzzle solving gameplay. "Cold Iron" was released on January 30, 2018.
Plot.
After mysterious outlaws ride into town and gun down your father, you are tasked with seeking revenge with the help of your father's signature weapon, the titular "Cold Iron". Along the journey it is revealed that Cold Iron is a unique weapon with magical properties. The player is subsequently entrusted with destroying the weapon and ridding the world of its evil power while overcoming opponents from different time periods and dimensions who seek to stop you in your quest.
Gameplay.
"Cold Iron" is marketed under the term "puzzle-shooter", combining elements of first-person shooter and puzzle games. After obtaining "Cold Iron", players progress through a series of increasingly complex duels. These interactions range from basic western-style duels that emphasize speed, to more puzzle focused battles, such as finding differences between multiple enemies and identifying the correct one.
Reception.
According to Metacritic, "Cold Iron" has received generally favorable reviews. Both GameCritics and PlayStation LifeStyle praised the game's rewarding puzzle elements and split-second shooting. Some reviewers found that the game was overly punishing in its difficulty, though GamingNexus noted that while "some might consider it too difficult, the game never feels unfair."


Dirk Meyer

Derrick R. "Dirk" Meyer (born November 24, 1961) was a former Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Micro Devices, serving in the position from July 18, 2008 to January 10, 2011.
Education.
He received a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a master's degree in business administration from Boston University Graduate School of Management.
Career.
He was a co-architect of the Alpha 21064 and Alpha 21264 microprocessors during his employment at DEC and also worked at Intel in its microprocessor design group.
Meyer joined AMD in 1996, where he personally led the team that designed and developed the Athlon processor.
Dirk Meyer was formerly president and chief executive officer of AMD. At one time, he was the chief operating officer. In this role, he shared leadership and management of AMD with former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of AMD Hector Ruiz. Prior to this role, Meyer served as president and chief operating officer of AMD’s Microprocessor Solutions Sector where he had overall responsibility for AMD’s microprocessor business, including product development, manufacturing, operations and product marketing.
On July 18, 2008, Dirk Meyer replaced Hector Ruiz as the CEO of AMD. Meyer focused the company onto the PC and data center server market. AMD announced 2010 that more than ever notebooks are hitting the market in 2010. Meyer justifies the focus by stating that an increasing mobile and consumer electronics market does not shrink the traditional market. He wanted to address this markets later, when AMD is prepared to dedicate sufficient resources to address them well. This strategy lead to Bulldozer-architecture for the traditional PC-market, and Bobcat addressing the netbook and tablet market nearly exclusively dominated by Intel, both hitting the market in 2011 and 2012.
In the beginning of 2011, Meyer was removed as CEO after discussions with the AMD Board. His departure is widely believed to have been due to conflicting views about the future strategic direction for the company. Meyer was replaced by Rory Read later in the year.
On October 10, 2012, Meyer joined the Board of Directors for startup company Ocoos.


Guns of Boom

Guns of Boom, known as "Gods of Boom" from 19 November 2019 until 4 May 2021, is an online multiplayer first-person shooter video game for mobile devices. It was developed by Game Insight and released on 16 May 2017, for iOS and Android. "Guns of Boom" has reached a total of 55 million downloads by the end of 2018 and is available in 14 different languages.
Gameplay.
"Guns of Boom" is an online team-based multiplayer first-person shooter. In "Guns of Boom", players are ranked by their level. The highest level is 50 with players leveling up by gaining more experience points through participating in battles. Trophies are won but lost only when the battle is left in between the battle time. The players are divided into 2 teams, each containing 4 players. The gameplay consists of 5 minutes per game, with the team finishing with the highest points adjudged the winners. They can also have other player's weapons once they are killed by the player. Every two weeks, the ratings in all the Platinum league are reset to 30,000 rating points. The players receive the rewards appropriate to their position in the ratings, Top-500 goes to the Hall of Fame.
Reception.
In three weeks starting in May 2017, the game was downloaded 5 million times and earned US$1 million in revenue. Campbell Bird of 148apps gave "Guns of Boom" 4/5, describing it as a multiplayer shooter that falls just short of being amazing, thanks to some weird f2p design. He also criticizes how the game deals with grenades and health kits that are disposable resources, and can conceivably run out and tip the scales of the fight in favor of whoever is fine with expending their resources to survive more. Harry Slater of AppSpy describes the game as ‘a shooter that works on touchscreen’, ‘a team-based FPS in the vein of Team Fortress 2’ and ‘not the freshest idea, but it's wonderfully put together’. In another "Guns of Boom" review by Slater, for Pocket Gamer this time, it is stated that "Guns of Boom" has one of the worst names he has ever had the misfortune to read during his time writing about mobile games. He also says that "Guns of Boom" is ‘an essential mobile multiplayer experience’, ‘with gorgeous cartoon graphics that fizzes and pops in some of the best ways possible’. John Hoff of Android Community describes "Guns of Boom" as a multiplayer online FPS that is actually fun and engaging but has an awful name.


Mac Gerdts

Walther M. Gerdts, known as Mac Gerdts, is the designer of German-style board games such as "Imperial", "Imperial 2030", "Antike" and "Hamburgum". His games introduced the concept of a rondel rather than dice as a mechanism for play. This is designed to prevent players from repeatedly taking the same action in quick succession without paying a cost.
Like many German board games, all of Gerdts' games include a mechanism designed to keep game length roughly within the specified time constraint. In Imperial, the game ends when a nation reaches the 25 point on the counting chart. In Hamburgum, the game ends when six churches are constructed.


Hiroyuki Tajima

 was a Japanese printmaker of the sōsaku-hanga school. He was born in Tokyo and graduated from Nihon University in 1932. In 1943, he graduated from the Western-style painting division of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. He created his first print in 1946, and joined the Bijutsu Bunka Kyokai (a group of abstract and surrealist artists) the same year. He also studied Nagase Yoshi (1891–1978), an artist of the Sōsaku-hanga school. In 1963, he became a member of the Nihon Hanga Kyokai (Japanese Print Association).
He is best known for his totally abstract prints with broad areas of rich dense color.


Julia Martin

Julia Martin is a game designer and editor who has worked on a number of products for the "Dungeons & Dragons" fantasy roleplaying game.
Career.
Julia Martin worked for Game Designers' Workshop until she left in 1991 to work for TSR. Martin worked as an editor for the Forgotten Realms setting, editing works such as the "Volo's Guide" series and the "Powers and Pantheons" and "Demihuman Deities" supplements; with Eric L. Boyd she wrote "Faiths & Avatars". Martin took over as lead editor of the "Dungeons & Dragons" 3rd Edition design project from Kim Mohan when he was promoted to managing editor during the second half of the design stage. While overseeing the entire editing process, she contributed different parts to each of the three core books: the "Player's Handbook", the "Dungeon Master's Guide", and the "Monster Manual".
She later became a senior editor at Wizards of the Coast.
Works.
Julia Martin worked for Game Designers Workshop from 1988-1990 before coming to work for TSR on numerous "Dungeons & Dragons" game products since 1992. She has worked on products such as "Faiths & Avatars" (1996) and "Faiths and Pantheons" (2002) for the Forgotten Realms product line.
Trenton Webb of British RPG magazine "Arcane", declared that "Julia Martin and Eric L. Boyd deserve medals for what they've achieved with "Faiths & Avatars". They probably also deserve professional psychiatric help for even attempting to codify and clarify the twisted theology of Abeir-Toril. The resultant work is exhaustive. It's also exhausting."


Mortal Online

Mortal Online is a First Person, Open World, PvP/PvE Sandbox MMORPG developed and published by the Swedish independent video game company Star Vault. Mortal Online was released on June 9, 2010. The game is inspired by the desire to return to Ultima Online's player-controlled, sandbox-style game design; it uses Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 and features a skill-based, real-time combat system.
"Mortal Online" does not have a traditional level/class system, but rather a skill and attribute system similar to the Elder Scrolls series. There are ten different races for the player to choose from, including an orc-human hybrid, five human races, two elf-like races, and two dwarf-like races. In order to experience multiple possible playstyles, players can have up to four characters per account (increased from three in December 2012).
Development.
In October 2010, approximately four months after its official release, Mortal Online's game engine was rebuilt, making it possible for its developers to implement better graphics, increase performance and introduce advanced features which were previously not possible on the older engine.
In June 2011, the game's first expansion titled "Dawn" was released. It introduced graphical and performance improvements; new features like the need to eat, drink and sleep; health, stamina and mana "reserves", a gene system for mounts, changes to the riding and related mechanics, a task system which allows players to create quests for others to do, a new housing system, character skills, world interactive objects, new pick-able resources including a wide selection of plants, an in-town mail system with cash-on-delivery to ease player trading and an updated game launcher.
The deployment of Dawn suffered many technical issues, leading to extended server downtime and certain game features being disabled directly after the release. Additions such as the gene system and cooking were initially poorly received by some players, especially when raw food was better than cooked food for in-game purposes. This, combined with early balancing issues, lead to extensive weight loss among player avatars which in turn caused attribute penalties.
In September 2011, Star Vault formed a "Focus Group" - essentially a test and early feedback group for upcoming releases and patches. Members of the group are active players that have signed a non-disclosure agreement with Star Vault. The purpose of the Focus Group is to augment Star Vault's limited internal resource and act as an additional quality assurance level before new releases and patches reach the general playing audience.
In late August 2012, the game's second expansion titled "The Awakening" was released which promised notable new features like trade brokers, player-written books, revamped GUI, the unveiling of Tindrem, roaming guards of varying ranks, advanced AI for NPCs, illegal items, additional skills and a host of other improvements and fixes. Star Vault advised the community ahead of time that the expansion deployment would suffer from problems, and have released a number of patches post-launch. The expansion introduced a multitude of bugs that affect the game's mechanics, performance and stability.
In late November 2012, Star Vault began to offer a "Free to Play" option. Restrictions to free-account players include a limitation of 60 (of 100) in all skills, restricted looting and trading of rare objects, and the inability to make use of thieving skills. In addition, new accounts must pay to unlock additional characters slots while legacy accounts retain all characters and character slots they made use of prior to the Free-to-Play change.
In mid-May 2015 the game’s third expansion titled "Sarducaa" was released and introduced the new continent of Sarducca which more than doubled the land mass, added a variety of new items and armors as well introducing a new "heat system" that caused players stamina and health to be affected by the temperature on the new continent. Up to this point there had been no transitional loading screens between areas within the Myrland continent; however, with the introduction of Sarducca, players would now encounter a bridge ‘connecting’ the two continents together.
Gameplay.
Mortal Online has both PvP and PvE content, with the design focus on PvP.
PvE, Crafting, and Exploration.
Other than robbing from, dueling with, and killing other players' avatars, players can craft weapons, shields, armor; build houses, keeps, and palisades; hunt and butcher animals for use in crafting and cooking; tame animals; mine, and ultimately refine rocks into precious metals; train their skills; or explore. Player-built structures can be attacked and destroyed by players, and certain wild animals that have been tamed can also be mounted, including horses and rhino-like creatures called Molva Beasts.
Flagging System.
Regarding the PvP content, Mortal Online has an FFA (Free-For-All) PvP system with consequences for killing other players in the form of "flags" which range from yellow (fledgling), to blue (innocent), to grey (criminal), to red (murderer). Being a criminal in Mortal Online (also known as being locally or globally "allowed") means that other players can either attack you without being flagged themselves, or can call the NPC guards on you in certain towns. Doing certain offensive or aggressive actions in the game will also flag the offending player "allowed", for example getting caught pick pocketing or simply pushing another player too many times within a short period of time. When a player dies, all of the items in their inventory drop to the ground in a loot bag, which is lootable by all other players and disappears over a period of time. Starting with the Dawn expansion, the loot bag also includes the corpse and the head of the player.
Nudity, gore and brutality.
Avatars that do not wear armor or clothes are completely naked. Naked players are a relatively common sight, either because they choose so or because they were killed and have not had a chance to restock. When the avatar is killed, the player loot bag includes a corpse and a named head. Corpses can be consumed, butchered or cooked. The heads can be collected as trophies or eaten. Occasionally, heads of well-known players are offered for sale on the game's official forums or the in-game trade brokers. Butchering a corpse yields materials including skin which can be used to craft clothes.
Player-made Content.
Guilds can maintain their own keeps and palisades, and can contest control of certain cities. In addition to activity caused by player interaction, in-game events are triggered by developers and gamemasters, with examples such as a sudden, unexpected infestation of a town or area by giant spiders, zombies and undead creatures or wildlife such as springboks.


Janet Reger

Janet Reger (née Chabinsky (Phillips); 30 September 1935 – 14 March 2005) was British lingerie designer and business woman, best known for her eponymous lingerie brand which became famous in the 1960s and 1970s.
Early life and education.
Born Janet Chabinsky into a Jewish family in the East End of London in 1935., she was the granddaughter of Jewish-Russian immigrants who came to England to seek a better life and escape persecution. Reger's family had a background in the clothing industry, her grandfather ran a textile business and her parents manufactured bras during the Second World War. Chabinsky was hard to pronounce, so people would call Reger's grandfather, Philip, his first name. Eventually, the family adopted Phillips as a surname. by When The Blitz started during World War Two, the family fled to Reading where they were much safer, and where Reger was further raised.
An excerpt from Janet's autobiography ("Janet Reger: Her Story") reads, "At the beginning we lived in Jubilee Street, in the East End of London. I was nearly four when World War II's blitz began, and my little sister, Barbara, had just been born. All that first week of bombing we slept in the air-raid shelter in the garden. One afternoon as I played hopscotch in the street, the sirens sounded and my father snatched me from my game and ran with me in his arms to the shelter. We scrambled down the steps as the first bomb fell, a screaming sound that made me put my fingers in my ears. And then, the explosion, worse than anything we had heard before. My father had closed the curtain across the entrance, so we lay in the dark, listening to the planes, the bombs, the guns. It was hours before the all clear and we emerged to see gaping holes in our house, the entire street a sign of devastation."
Battle Council Primary School
Reger studied "Contour Fashion", underwear and swimwear design at Leicester College of Art and Design in the 1950s.
Life on the kibbutz.
In May of 1958, Reger moved to a kibbutz, Ma'agan Michael, in Israel. There, she met her husband, Peter Reger.
Family Life.
On January 1st, 1961, Janet married Peter Reger. They had a daughter, Aliza Reger, on December 27th, 1963.
In 1985, Peter committed suicide.
Janet Reger died on 14 March 2005 after a long battle with cancer, and her daughter Aliza Reger became chief executive and took over the business. The business has now been around for more than 40 years.
Career.
After Leicester, Reger found a job in Margaret Street, "heart of the rag trade" as she said in her autobiography. She worked there as the sole designer and pattern cutter. Reger later started working as a designer at Marks & Spencer in Somerset, Slix swimwear in London, and Daintyfit.
In 1966, Reger decided to set up her own lingerie business with her husband, Peter Reger. It began as a small backstreet store and quickly turned into a recognised international company. With a lot of scepticism that she received for her bold designs for undergarments, in the 1970s Reger took part in the revolution for lingerie becoming a fashion statement rather than just an undergarment.
In 1974 Janet opened a factory in Wirksworth, Derbyshire, where she made underwear and had a factory shop in London's West End at 12 New Bond Street, Mayfair W.1 until the 1980s.
Reger wrote an autobiography titled "Janet Reger: Her Story"


Stewart Coffin

Stewart Coffin is an American puzzle maker. According to Ars Technica, he is considered to be one of the "best designers of polyhedral interlocking puzzles in the world."
Biography.
Coffin majored in electrical engineering in college at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where he graduated in 1953. He worked at the Lincoln Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) building computers from 1953 through 1958. In 1964, he left electronics to start building canoes and other boats. He and his family moved to a farm in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
Coffin currently lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, where he moved to in 2011. He has three daughters, all of whom are very good at solving his puzzles.
Work.
Coffin began creating puzzles in 1968, after quitting the design and manufacture of canoes and kayaks. One of the puzzles he created, made of 12 hexagonal sticks and cast in epoxy, was brought to school by one of his three daughters. This event led to Coffin meeting Thomas Atwater who was a business agent for inventors of games and puzzles. When 3M showed an interest in his work, he decided to quit making boats and concentrate on puzzles. Hectix, one of his designs, was patented in the United States in 1973 and then manufactured by 3M. When they were manufactured, the design was so complex that factory workers were unable to assemble them. The parts were shipped to his house where he, his daughters and neighborhood children all put them together, making 20,000 puzzles in two weeks.
Later, Coffin stopped patenting his puzzles because he did not feel he could make a living by designing products for mass production. Instead he turned to woodworking and selling his puzzles as an art or a craft.
Coffin has designed more than 500 original puzzles, most of which are polyhedral. Some have been commercially produced, such as the Hectix. Most of his designs are crafted in wood, some of which use exotic woods such as cocobolo, bubinga and rosewood. In creating his wooden puzzles, Coffin selects beautiful types of wood, cuts and glues the work and then adds his own finish to the piece. Coffin has had no formal training in puzzle making and designs his works intuitively.
Coffin's puzzles have several rules, including that each piece be dissimilar, have different axes of symmetry and only one solution. He has freely shared his designs for reproduction, making his puzzles widely produced and sold internationally.
Coffin has called his work "AP-ART," "the sculptural art that comes apart" and he feels that the "ultimate object in puzzle design is amusement." Curator, Amy Slocum, has highlighted the artistic effort that Coffin puts into his work when she exhibited several pieces at the Katonah Museum of Art. Jerry Slocum, the founder of the International Puzzle Party, has called Coffin's puzzles "beautiful three-dimensional sculptures."
In 2000, Coffin was the winner of the Sam Loyd Award. In 2006, he won the Nob Yoshigahara Award for his lifetime contribution to creating mechanical puzzles.
In 2007, Coffin spoke at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston, where he discussed his puzzle making and demonstrated his puzzles.
Books.
He is the author of several books and articles about puzzles, puzzle design and memoirs of his life:
Excerpts.
The Universal Book of Mathematics provides the following information about him:
"A leading designer of mechanical puzzles. He is also the author of The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections, one of the most significant works produced on this subject."


Sean Patrick Fannon

Sean Patrick Fannon is an American role-playing game designer and writer. He has been working in the gaming industry since 1988, and is best known for his work with the Savage Worlds game system, including his epic fantasy setting, "Shaintar", and his conversion of the classic game "Rifts". He has also worked as a designer in the video game industry and a consultant in the film industry.
Personal life.
Fannon was born on January 4, 1966, in Tennessee. He began playing role-playing games in 1977. Before becoming a successful game designer, he worked as a deputy sheriff, airline agent, and armored car driver. He attended West Point from 1984 to 1986. He currently lives in Littleton, Colorado.
Career in role-playing games.
Early works.
Fannon's career in the gaming industry began in 1988, writing freelance articles and reviews for small-press magazines. He then wrote multiple books for Hero Games' "Champions" RPG, which led to a job as the Continuity Director of the "Champions Universe" line. He also wrote books for the "Shatterzone" RPG and the original "" RPG from West End Games and articles for "Shadis Magazine", "Adventurer's Club Magazine", and TSR's "Dragon Magazine".
In 1995, Fannon wrote "The Fantasy Roleplaying Gamer's Bible", an introduction to the role-playing hobby, for Prima Entertainment. A second edition of the book was published by Obsidian Studios in 1999. This book has been cited as a good introductory guide to roleplaying games for people that are not roleplayers.
Multimedia company IEI's games division 8th Wonder Games hired Fannon in 1996 to target the role-playing games niche.
Fannon was one of the staff to join the company as FASA Games came together in 2012, with his role in marketing and promotion.
DriveThruRPG.
From October 2008 until 2012 Fannon worked as a Marketing and Communications Manager for DrvieThruRPG where he managed communications, promotions, marketing, and business development for RPG sites. This included helping to advertise projects like their "Gamers Help Haiti" program, which raised money to donate to Doctors without borders during their effort to provide medical support to the people of Haiti following the 2010 Haiti earthquake. This effort raised over $175,000. He also helped DriveThruRPG begin more active support of other charities, leading to them establishing permanent accounts with Hero Initiative, Feeding America, Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders.
Shaintar.
In 2005, "Shaintar: Immortal Legends" the first book set in Fannon's epic fantasy setting for Pinnacle Entertainment Group's Savage Worlds RPG, was published by Talisman Studios. In 2013, Savage Mojo began publishing the "Shaintar" line, starting with a successful Kickstarter campaign for "Shaintar: Legends Unleashed". Two "Shaintar" books, "Shaintar: Legends Arise" and "Shaintar: Legends Unleashed", were nominated for Ennie awards in 2014.
Evil Beagle Games.
In 2012, Fannon started his own game company, Evil Beagle Games, with Carinn Seabolt, in Huntsville, Alabama. From 2014 to 2017, Ross Watson joined the company as Managing Director. In 2017, Evil Beagle Games became an LLC, with Sean, Bill Keyes, Leonard Pimental, and Michael Surbrook forming the company. In 2020 Evil Beagle LLC was restructured and expanded, and Jennifer Shinefeld was appointed CEO.
Savage Rifts.
In 2016, Fannon's Evil Beagle Games partnered with Pinnacle Entertainment to produce "Savage Rifts", which translated Palladium Books' classic Rifts setting to the Savage Worlds rules.
His involvement in Savage Rifts was featured in WIRED Magazine and in a WIRED interview.
Video games.
Fannon worked as a designer for Interplay Productions (on a "Star Trek" adventure game), Vortex Media Arts (multiple titles, including a "Tonka" activity game), Infogrames Multimedia, 8th Wonder Games ("Drachen Zor"), and Telepathy Entertainment ("Out There").
Honors.
Fannon was the Game Designer Guest of Honor at MomoCon 2013, Gaming Guest of Honor for "ConGlomeration" in 2014, a featured guest at Cleveland ConCoction, the Gaming Guest of Honor for "Con on the Cob" in 2016, and 2017, a Celebrity Guest for Tacticon in 2017, a guest at Magic City Con, and a special guest at GenghisCon 2018, and at ChupacabraCon 2017.
Fannon was also part of an academic panel discussion at the 2018 Denver Comic Con with Professor James Fielder, Ph.D. of United States Air Force Academy about "Social Sciences in Worlds that Never Were: Using Fantasy and Science Fiction Literature in the Classroom".


Service Implementation Bean

A Service Implementation Bean (SIB), is a term used in Java Platform, Enterprise Edition, for a Java object implementing a web service. It can be either a POJO or a Stateless Session EJB. The Java interface of an SIB is called a Service Endpoint Interface (SEI).


Guan De

Guan De (; 12 July 1932 – 9 January 2018) was a Chinese aeroelasticity engineer and aircraft designer. He participated in the design and development of the Shenyang JJ-1 jet trainer and the Shenyang J-8 and J8-II interceptors. He served as Chief Engineer and Vice President of Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, Deputy Director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, and professor of Beihang University. He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Biography.
Guan was born 12 July 1932 in Beiping (now Beijing), Republic of China. His father, Yin Fengming (尹凤鸣), was educated in Japan, taught at the Baoding Military Academy, and held the rank of major general. Because of Japanese invasion of China, Guan did not go to school and was educated at home until the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945. After the war, he entered Beijing No. 5 High School and then the Department of Aeronautics of Tsinghua University.
After graduating from Tsinghua in 1952, he was assigned to work at the Bureau of Aviation Industry under the Second Ministry of Machine Building. In August 1956, Guan was transferred to the newly established Aircraft Design Office of Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (then known as the 112 Factory), where he worked under director Xu Shunshou and deputy directors Ye Zhengda and Huang Zhiqian. He was one of the key engineers who designed the Shenyang JJ-1 jet trainer.
Guan De was the first person in China to study aeroelasticity. When the 601 Institute of the Ministry of National Defense was established in 1961, Guan was named the head of its aeroelasticity group. Beginning in 1964, he participated in the design of the Shenyang J-8 interceptor fighter aircraft. He was later promoted to Vice President of the 601 Institute.
In September 1982, Guan was appointed Chief Engineer and Vice President of Shenyang Aircraft Corporation. He was the on-site director of the Shenyang J-8II interceptor, working with chief designer Gu Songfen.
In 1985, Guan was appointed Deputy Director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China. He also taught as an adjunct professor and Ph.D. advisor at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (now Beihang University).
Guan was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 1991. He survived the disease after undergoing nephrectomy, but was limited to working no more than six hours a week afterwards. He died on 9 January 2018 in Beijing, at the age of 85.
Awards.
In 1978, Guan's research on aeroelasticity won the National Science Congress Award and the State Science and Technology Progress Award (Second Class). He was also awarded a Special Prize of the State Science and Technology Progress Award for his contributions to the development of the Shenyang J-8 and J-8II aircraft. He was elected a founding academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1994.


Wedge (footwear)

Wedge boots, wedgies, or lifties are shoes and boots with a sole in the form of a wedge, such that one piece of material, normally rubber, serves as both the sole and the heel.
This design dates back to ancient Greece. Greek Actors used to wear these shoes to signify status. These were curial so the audience can be able to identify who is of importance in stage plays. According to the Kennedy Center, "tragic actors would don shoes called 'buskins', or raised platform shoes, to symbolize their superiority over comic actors, who would wear plain socks."
Women.
Wedges for women are more common and often have a sole that is much thicker at the back than at the front, making them high-heeled boots or shoes. Wedgies for women were popularized by Salvatore Ferragamo, who introduced the design to the Italian market in the late 1930s. The evolution of wedge heels became more and more colorful and outrageous through the 1970s-1990s.
Men.
Men's wedge boots, usually called "wedgies", typically have low heels. Men's boots of this kind became popular during the 1970s.
Some forms of wedge boots, called platform boots, have thick soles throughout.
There are many styles available under the wedges footwear category; the most common styles are low wedge, t-straps wedge, ankle straps wedge, platform wedge, and closed-toe wedge.
High fashion.
In the high fashion world, Ferragamo invented the cork wedge shoe in the 1940s due to the economic sanctions against Italy. Ferragamo could no longer afford to purchase steel for traditional heels. He experimented with pieces of Sardinian cork. It was glued and trimmed until the entire space between the sole and heel was solid.


Edge of Twilight (video game)

Edge of Twilight is an action-adventure video game developed by JDJC and Fuzzyeyes Limited for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. It started development in 2006 and has since been delayed, cancelled, and resurfaced several times. The company has announced the complete development of the game and is seeking funds via crowdfunding to pay off licensing fees so that the game can be released.
"Edge of Twilight" was initially intended as the first entry in a series of video games of the same name. An iOS prequel, "Edge of Twilight: Horizon" was released. It was followed by "Edge of Twilight: Athyr Above" on March 28, 2013 for iOS.
Plot.
The world of Hellayem has been ripped in two, the day and night are their own realms. There has been an ancient struggle caused by the greed for an isolated source of energy, between the industrial Atherns and the spiritually inclined Litherns. This struggle was caused by the imprisonment of the Litherns and the ensuing genocide of the Atherns, an apocalyptic event called The Rift. Lex is the only hope of Hellayem, he is the only half breed of these two oppositions and the only one who can exists in both the realms simultaneously. Rejected by society, he is caught in the midst of both civilizations and must travel through both realms to save them from destruction.
Story.
The game will focus around Lex, a half-breed who can bridge the gap between the realms of darkness and light.
Development.
"Edge of Twilight" was revealed in 2007 as a third-person action adventure title that blended a post-apocalyptic setting with a steampunk fantasy realm. During 2009, Edge Games sued Fuzzyeyes Studios for the infringement of "EDGE" used in the title. After negotiations between the two parties, an agreement was made between the two parties, resolving the issue. On September 30, 2009, Fuzzyeyes Studios laid off several of its employees and ceased development of all projects. During December 2012, "Edge of Twilight" was revealed to be not cancelled with a tentative release date of Q2/Q3 2013 and a mobile title called "Edge of Twilight: Athyr Above" on March 28, 2013 that would serve as a prelude. "Edge of Twilight" has not been given a release date as of August 2013. "Edge of Twilight" is being built using the Unreal Engine 3.
In October 2014, a post was made on the game's Facebook page that stated "Eight years ago, we first announced "Edge of Twilight"... When we first generated the idea for "Edge of Twilight", the video game industry was in a time of transition from the existing generation (PlayStation 2 and Xbox) consoles to the so-called next-gen consoles that occupy the market today (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360). And now, the video game world is moving from current the next-gen consoles to Xbox One and PlayStation 4." And went on to state that the "Australian team had to disband due to legal issues in 2009, heaving the title over an Asian company." It was a huge disappointment to the team since many of them "had to sacrifice their time, breaking up with their lovers, getting committed to mental hospitals, taking drugs, placed under arrest by the police, falling from balcony, getting deported and even getting divorced - all resulting from the stress from the game’s development." Toward the end of 2010, they were able to partner with an outstanding investment company. The team wanted to start working on the title right away, but the board wanted something small first which led to the creation of "Edge of Twilight - Athyr Above". Fuzzyeyes stated "We have started building technologies for clients and government parties. However, "Edge of Twilight" is, and always will be, our biggest goal... and we are still doing everything we can to bring this title out. Every day, we are hoping to share the progress of development to everyone. However we are not allowed to talk about it until publishers give us permission. All we can say for now is we are at the final count down."
Fuzzyeyes has stated that the game was scheduled for release on PC via Steam in June 2016, later changed to September. A version for consoles will be released if their funding goals are reached. Consoles include PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, NVIDIA Shield, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.


James J. Murakami

James J. Murakami is a Japanese-American art director and production designer.
Murakami won an Emmy Award in 2006 for his work on the television series "Deadwood".
In 2008, Murakami was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction for his work on the film "Changeling" (2008).
Murakami was recognized by the Art Directors Guild in 2018 as the recipient of the year's ADG Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Murakami has worked on a number of Clint Eastwood films, including "Invictus" (2009), "Hereafter" (2010), and "J. Edgar" (2011).


David H. DePatie

David Hudson DePatie (born December 24, 1929) is an American film and television producer. He was the last executive in charge of the original Warner Bros. Cartoons cartoon studio. He also formed DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, with Friz Freleng, and was an executive producer at Marvel Productions.
Early life.
DePatie was born on December 24, 1929 in Los Angeles at The Good Samaritan Hospital. His father, Edmond L. DePatie, was the head of the counter department at Warner Bros, and he would spend his entire career at Warner, and later became executive vice president and general manager of the studio, reporting only to Jack Warner. Because of this, David, in his own words, became a "Warner Brat".
Warner Bros. Cartoons.
Leon Schlesinger was the production executive of Leon Schlesinger Productions until his retirement in 1944 when Warner Bros. bought the animation department and renamed it to Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. Eddie Selzer then became the production executive until 1958. John W. Burton then became producer for a few years until Burton accepted a position of another company that Leon Schlesinger founded called Pacific Title and Art. DePatie became production executive in 1961, taking over for Burton. The first thing he produced for the studio was a 1963 pilot named Philbert and it was directed by Friz Freleng, but was never picked up, and was the last cartoon produced by the company.
In 1962, with the decline in moviegoing, DePatie was informed that the cartoon studio was going to be shut down. Shortly afterwards when Warner Bros. Cartoons closed down in 1963, significant production changes occurred for new Warner Bros. cartoons produced by the newly formed DePatie–Freleng Enterprises. DePatie received on-screen production credit and cartoon director Friz Freleng was promoted to producer. Chuck Jones left for Tom and Jerry theatricals and television adaptations. Character appearances were limited to Daffy Duck, Sylvester, Speedy Gonzales, and Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, with one time appearances of Granny, Porky Pig, The Goofy Gophers, and Witch Hazel. Production was subcontracted to Format Films.
DePatie–Freleng Enterprises.
While he held his production position at Warner Bros., DePatie originally received no on-screen credit, similar to his two predecessors after Leon Schlesinger retired in 1944. In 1963, he began to receive on-screen credit with new producer (and former director) Friz Freleng. Around this time, they formed DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, also known as DePatie–Freleng Entertainment, and known on-screen as "DFE Films".
The Pink Panther.
DePatie and Freleng animated opening segments for some of Pink Panther feature films. In these, a Pink Panther appeared in the opening credits as the villain. Music was scored by Henry Mancini. The character would appear in many animated shorts of his own, also produced by DePatie–Freleng. When these shorts aired on television, they were paired with backup segments. Music was composed by William Lava, Walter Greene, Doug Goodwin and David DePatie's son Steve DePatie. These cartoons were directed by many people including Arthur Davis, Robert McKimson, Hawley Pratt, and Gerry Chiniquy.
Dr. Seuss television specials.
Chuck Jones was producing Dr. Seuss specials for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, until MGM shut down its animation studio. DePatie–Freleng picked up production of "The Cat in the Hat". Music was composed by Dean Elliott for four Dr. Seuss specials, Hawley Pratt directed three specials, and Maurice Noble was production designer for three specials. Chuck Jones co-produced with Ted Geisel while DePatie and Freleng were executive producers for "The Cat in the Hat" only. Since Jones was working for ABC, he stopped working on Dr. Seuss specials. Freleng and Ted Geisel became producer but were credited separately. DePatie was the only one credited as executive producer. Music was scored by Joe Raposo for three later specials. DePatie–Freleng's last Dr. Seuss special was "The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat", which was around the time that DFE became part of Cadence Industries, and rebranded as Marvel Productions.
Marvel Productions.
DePatie and some of his production staff worked for Marvel Productions. He was an executive producer. He left the company in 1984, and then briefly worked for Hanna-Barbera, producing "Pink Panther and Sons", before retiring.


Fujimoto Photo Industries Co. Ltd.

Fujimoto is a Japanese company that produces photographic equipment; particularly lab systems, enlargers and slide projectors. It was initially founded in 1913 to make equipment, became established as Fujimoto Mfg Co (Fujimoto Seisakusho, 藤本製作所) in 1933, and began the production of cameras in 1934 and the production of enlargers in 1935. Some cameras were distributed by the Fukada Shōkai (深田商会) company. All activity stopped in 1945. In 1950 it was revived as Fujimoto Camera Mfg Co (Fujimoto Shashinki Seisakusho, 藤本写真機製作所). It very soon dropped the production of cameras, and it became Fujimoto Photo Industries Co Ltd (Fujimoto Shashin Kōgyō Kabushiki Kaisha, 藤本写真工業株式会社) in 1966.
4.5×6 folders.
The name Lucky is still used by Fujimoto for enlargers.
Other.
Other cameras named Prince are often attributed to Fujimoto:


List of role-playing game artists

This is a list of notable role-playing game artists, past and present. The people in this list created artwork for one or more notable, published role-playing game book, miniature, or other product.


Guy Doumeingts

Guy Doumeingts (born 1938) is a French engineer, Emeritus professor at the University of Bordeaux 1 and former Director of "Laboratoire d’Automatique, Productique Signal et Image" control theory, known for the development of the GRAI method and his contributions to the field of Enterprise modelling.
Biography.
Doumeingts received his MS at the University of Bordeaux 1, where in 1984 he also received his PhD in Control Theory with the thesis, entitled "La Méthode GRAI".
Doumeingts spend his academic career at the University Bordeaux I, where he was appointed professor and initiated and directed the GRAI/LAP (Laboratory of Automation and Productics). He chaired the Technical Committee on Computer Application in Technology at the IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing), and was member of the Editorial Board of several journals.
In 2012 Doumeingts was elected General Manager of INTEROP-VLab (International Virtual Laboratory for Enterprise Interoperability), a network of scientists and organizations to further develop and promote Enterprise interoperability.
Work.
"Enterprise Interoperability," 2007.
In the preface of "Enterprise Interoperability," Doumeingts et al. explained the importance of Interoperability for the Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs):
Over the past 20 years, the business world has been changing significantly, and concepts of cross-enterprise collaboration have been promoted to the center of enterprise strategy. For some organizations, doing business globally has become critical to their survival; others discover new opportunities by focusing their business on a local setting. Not only large organizations set up cooperation agreements with other enterprises, but also SMEs are combining forces to compete jointly in the market. Nowadays, the competitiveness of an enterprise is largely determined by its ability to seamlessly interoperate with others.
And furthermore specifically about Interoperability in the context of enterprises:
Interoperability in the context of enterprises and enterprise applications can be defined as the ability of a system or a product to work seamlessly with other systems or products without requiring special effort from the customer or user. The possibility to interact and exchange information internally and with external organisations is a key issue in the enterprise sector. It is fundamental in order to produce goods and services quickly, at lower cost, while maintaining higher levels of quality and customisation. Interoperability is considered to be achieved if the interaction can, at least, take place at the three levels: data, applications and business enterprise through the architecture of the enterprise model and taking into account the semantics issues. It is not only a problem of software and IT technologies. It implies support of communication and transactions between different organisations that must be based on shared process models and business references.
Selected publications.
Doumeingts published several books and over 200 articles in the field of enterprise modelling. Books:
Articles, a selection:


Plaubel

Plaubel is a German camera maker, founded in November, 1902, by Hugo Schrader, who learned the technology of cameras and lenses as an apprentice at Voigtländer in Braunschweig in the late 1800s before being employed by a Frankfurt camera and lens manufacturer and distributor, Dr. R. Krügener, whose daughter he married. Hugo Schrader and his wife elected to open their own business, Plaubel & Co., as distributors and makers of cameras and lenses, naming it after his brother-in-law because he thought Plaubel was easier to remember than Schrader.
Its first product catalog was published for Christmas of 1902 and included cameras of all sizes and makes plus many accessories. In 1912 Hugo Schrader introduced the first Plaubel Makina, a compact bellows camera with a unique scissors-struts design. It evolved into a legendary press camera before production was stopped 48 years later. In 1908 the Schraders had a son, Goetz, who was to become the future mainstay of the firm. He entered Plaubel in 1925 as an apprentice and became head of the technical department and in charge of camera development in 1930. A year later he became co-owner with his father. After the death of Hugo Schrader in 1940, Goetz Schrader took over the management of the company.
During World War II Plaubel was converted to manufacture precision military gear but was bombed and seriously damaged in 1944. After World War II ended in 1945, Schrader designed and produced a number of large-format Peco monorail studio view cameras. In 1961 Plaubel introduced the advanced Makiflex and Pecoflex, 9x9cm/6x9cm/6x6cm SLR cameras, with focal-plane shutters and revolving backs, and (together with the American firm Burleigh Brooks) the remarkable Veriwide 100, a 6x10cm roll-film viewfinder camera with a fixed ultra-wide lens. In 1975, Schrader sold the company to the Japanese Kimio Doi Group. Plaubel is especially known for their 6x7 Plaubel Makina roll film cameras. In the middle of 1970's, the unique Makina scissors-strut camera was succeeded by a Japanese-built Makina 6x7 with Nikkor lens, first shown in exhibition in 1977 and released in 1978. The wide-angle "sister", Makina W67 came in 1982. Later the type changed to 670, adding modifications like the 220 film capability and a hot shoe. The company still services and repairs these cameras today but stopped production of the Makina 6x7 in 1986. Goetz Schrader died in 1997 but Plaubel continued to produce large format monorail cameras like the Peco Profia until 2017. They also made a 6×9 cm/2-14x3-1/4 inch medium-format Peco monorail view camera for digital and roll film photography (PL69D).
Cameras.
Film plates or cut film.
6.5×9 strut folding.
With adaptors for 120 film.


Eight Ball Deluxe

Eight Ball Deluxe is a pinball machine designed by George Christian and released by Bally in 1981. The game features a cue sports theme and was so
popular that it was produced again in 1984.
Description.
The game is the successor of the popular "Eight Ball" pinball machine from 1977. In "Eight Ball Deluxe", Bally added more rules, complicated shot combinations, and speech synthesis. The pinball machine is still very popular today and was followed by the pinball machine "Eight Ball Champ" in 1985.
"Eight Ball Deluxe" has two sets of drop targets, one set for the billiard balls 1-7 and 9-15, and four in line drop targets for bonus multiplier. Behind the 1-7 drop targets are stand up targets that spells out 'Deluxe'. Completing these will light one letter in a different 'Deluxe' spelled out on the backglass. If the player spells the last letter of 'Deluxe' on the backglass, the game gives three free games. This feature stays in memory even when the machine is turned off.
Digital versions.
"Eight Ball Deluxe" was released as digital version in 1993 for MS-DOS and Macintosh, co-developed by Amtex and LittleWing () and published by the former. The game was a best seller in Macintosh gaming world and was a 1993 Best Simulation Game Finalist of the Software Publishers Association (USA) awards. "Computer Gaming World" in 1993 stated that "Eight Ball Deluxe" "accurately recreates the art, sounds and digitized speech of the original ... gorgeous, playable and realistic", and was the "connoisseur's choice" among four reviewed games.
"Eight Ball Deluxe" was also available as a licensed table of "The Pinball Arcade" for PC, iOS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Android from August 2016 to June 30, 2018. After this date, this table for any platform was removed due to WMS license expiration.


Anna Bjorn

Anna Bjorn (born Anna Björnsdóttir; 4 July 1954) is an Icelandic graphic designer, yoga instructor, documentary filmmaker, model and actress. In 1974 she represented Iceland in Miss Universe in Manila and was voted Miss Congenial by her fellow contestants.
Career.
In the 1970s and 1980s Bjorn had a successful modeling career, being represented by the Ford Modeling Agency in New York and Nina Blanchard in Los Angeles. She was featured in a great number of television commercials both in Europe and the United States and held exclusive contracts with Noxema and Vidal Sassoon. During that time Bjorn studied acting in Los Angeles and appeared in several films and television shows in the United States, such as "More American Graffiti" and "The Sword and the Sorcerer" and "Get Crazy".
In 1982 Bjorn co-produced, filmed and edited the documentary "From Iceland to Brazil", about Icelandic immigrants to Brazil in the 1870s, and in 1987 she produced and directed the documentary "Love & War", about the "war brides" of Iceland.
Bjorn became a certified yoga instructor in 1994, having practiced yoga since the late 1970s. She opened her own yoga studio, Yogastöð Vesturbæjar/Yoga West, in Reykjavík, Iceland in 1994 and sold the company in 2007.
In 2003 Bjorn graduated from the Iceland Academy of the Arts with a BA degree in graphic design. Since then she has worked as a freelance graphic designer, focusing on logo and book design.
Personal life.
She was married to musician Jakob Magnusson.
Bjorn divides her time between Europe and the United States. Her partner since 1994 is advertising CEO Halldor Gudmundsson.
In 2011 "The Boston Globe " claimed that Bjorn gave the FBI information that led to notorious gangster and fugitive Whitey Bulger's capture.


Mangesh Ghogre

Mangesh Ghogre is an international crossword constructor with puzzles published in "The New York Times", "The Wall Street Journal" and the "Los Angeles Times". He is credited as being the first Indian to have constructed crosswords for many top newspapers in the USA. His crosswords have also been featured in publications like "Games" and "World of Puzzles" and syndicated by over 200 newspapers around the world.
Ghogre was recognized as the first India-based crossword constructor for the "Los Angeles Times" in 2010. He became the first Indian to judge "The New York Times" crossword puzzle tournament in the year 2012, and he designed a crossword themed "Fourth of July" for the paper's Independence Day edition in 2017, which was aimed at bringing the people of India and the US closer together.
An investment banker by profession, since 2016 he has been an executive director at the global investment bank Nomura Securities.
 A resident of Mumbai, Ghogre is an alumnus of Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI), from which he graduated as a mechanical engineer, and NMIMS, where he secured an MBA degree with specialisation in finance.<br>
He also contributes to the "Speaking Tree" column of the "Times of India".
Ghogre showcased his published crosswords in an art gallery at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in 2014. In an interview with "Hindustan Times", he described making crosswords as a work of art.
In December 2017, Ghogre organised a workshop on crosswords at the US Consulate General in Mumbai. He is the only person who was born and raised outside North America, and who has never lived there, to create a crossword puzzle for "The New York Times".
Deb Amlen, head writer and editor of "The New York Times"'s "Wordplay" column, said, "Mangesh's crosswords show that he has an admirable grasp not only of American English colloquialisms, but the art of setting the crossword as well".
Will Shortz, crossword editor at "The New York Times" and director of the annual crossword tournament, wrote in an email "I would say he is very rare". Shortz confirmed that, with the exception of American-born expatriates, and puzzlers who were born elsewhere but raised in the U.S. or Canada, no other non-North American has ever had a puzzle published in the "Times".
In June 2019, Ghogre was featured by "Fortune" magazine in its annual list of the 40 under-40 sharpest minds in business. The magazine recognised his strategic contribution in establishing Nomura as a top-ranked franchise for Equity Capital Markets in India.
In 2019, Mangesh Ghogre created a Mahatma Gandhi-themed crossword to celebrate his 150th birth anniversary, which the NYT published on October 2. On this occasion, The Forbes magazine profiled Mangesh’s crossword journey. The magazine wrote “Considering the paper gets about 150 crosswords every week, this (Gandhi-themed crossword) is prestigious, and no mean feat. Nor is his journey to getting there. ”
Career.
His interest in crosswords began in the year 1997, when, in order to develop a good vocabulary for the GMAT, he started solving crosswords originally published in the "Los Angeles Times".
After several rejections, his first crossword was published in the "Los Angeles Times". As a tribute to the city of Mumbai, he published another crossword in the LA Times with the byline "Mangesh Mumbaikar Ghogre". Ghogre also continues to participate as a judge in the world's largest crossword tournament, the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
As an investment banker, Ghogre has over 12 years of experience and has been credited with raising over $20 billion in equity.


Ralph W. Brinton

Ralph W. Brinton (1895–1975) was a British art director. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film "Tom Jones".


The Man Who Knew Too Much (article)


Police Force (pinball)

Police Force is a 1989 Williams pinball machine. The pinball machine was initially supposed to be released as Batman pinball, the police car was to be the Batmobile and the Jail was to be the Bat Cave. The machine features anthropomorphic jungle animals in the roles of police and robbers.
The game features scoring by hitting each of the targets of the animals. As the targets of each animal are struck, a light of each lights up showing them in jail. The game also features scoring on a center ramp with unlimited shots of one million each after a series of shots, and a multi-ball. On the third ball of the game, players can shoot the right ramp twice, and add the highest current score to their own.
Rules.
The game features anthropomorphic jungle animals in the roles of cops and robbers, and stars a lion and leopard as the two main police officers the player assumes the role of when playing the game. The object of the game is to arrest the four main criminals and then score the progressive jackpot.
Firing Range (Skill Shot).
When starting the game, use the plunger to shoot the ball and score a randomly selected value between 10,000 and 100,000 points, determined by hitting a special target spinner. If the ball doesn't reach the spinner, it will drop back into the handcuff bonus trap, and the player scores 10,000 multiplied by the number of the ball in play (i.e. 10,000 x Ball 2, which is 20,000).
GUN Rollovers.
At the top of the playfield are three rollovers that spell out G-U-N. Spelling the word GUN advances the bonus multiplier (which caps off at 6X), and allows the jackpot to increase for 10 seconds; when the ball hits any bumpers or target, the jackpot increases.
Bonus is multiplied by lighting all three G-U-N lanes (lit lanes change with flippers). When the multiplier increases, the jackpot is increased by all targets for a period of time. The end of ball bonus is then multiplied by whatever the multiplier is up to. On most games, the multiplier is carried over to subsequent balls if it is 2X or 3X. If the multiplier is above 3X, then it is reset to 1X on the next ball. Special is lit when the multiplier is maxed out (6X), and the player spells GUN again.
Criminal Targets.
There are four specific criminals to arrest: the loan shark, the machine gun crocodile, the diamond weasel, and the drug rat. The shark, rat, and weasel can all be arrested by hitting all three proper targets with each animal. The shark's targets are on the left, while the weasel's are on the right, and the rat's targets are close to the center of the table next to the right ramp. To arrest the crocodile, shoot the ball into the Hot Sheet ball trap. Lights within the characters' bodies flash until they are arrested.
Once all four criminals are in jail, the player is eligible to score the jackpot, and the process resets.
Handcuff Bonus.
Shoot the Handcuff target on the right side of the playfield (indicated by a flashing green arrow placed just under the weasel's targets) to score a handcuff bonus. The bonus can either be an incremental score, or 10,000 points times the number of the ball in play if the ball hits the trap from the plunger.
Hot Sheet Value.
Scores one of five values when lit at the Croc kickout: Hot Score (mystery), Hot Extra Ball, 5 Free Games, Spot P-O-L-I-C-E, and Hot Multi-Ball. Hot Multi-Ball is only awarded if one ball is already locked. Shooting this trap also puts the crocodile in jail if he hasn't been arrested already.
Jackpot.
Contrary to other pinball machines, Jackpot can be collected without the need of Multi-Ball. To light the Jackpot on the right ramp, all four criminals must be put in jail (Croc, Shark, Rat, and Weasel). Criminals in jail are indicated in the upper left part of the playfield above the Croc Kickout. When all four are incarcerated, Jackpot is lit and is collected by one shot up the right ramp. Value ranges from a minimum of 1,000,000 to a maximum of 4,000,000 and is increased for a period of time (10 seconds) after G-U-N is spelled.
The player has only 15 seconds after arresting the last criminal to win the jackpot. When it is won, it resets to 1 million points.
Multi-Ball.
Contrary to other pinball machines, Multi-Ball has no special features attached to it, because it is not necessary to have Multi-Ball active in order to win the Jackpot. To activate multi-ball, shoot the ball up the right ramp when lock is lit. At the start of the game, the lock is lit to begin with; on subsequent multi-ball attempts, the player needs to first arrest a criminal before activating the lock. When the lock is not lit, shooting the ball up the right ramp instead spots a letter in the word "POLICE." Shooting the ball up the ramp a second time (or hitting the Croc kickout after one ball is locked) starts Multi-Ball.
P-O-L-I-C-E Letters.
Letters are spotted by shooting the right ramp when lock is not lit, with a 75K Skill Shot, or from the Hot Sheet. Spotting all 6 letters lights the TOP COP BONUS (collected at the top of the playfield in a half-orbit shot that leads to the GUN rollovers) for 3,000,000 points. TOP COP stays lit until collected or the end of the current ball, whichever comes first.
Letters can also be lit during multi-ball when shooting one of the two balls up the right ramp.
Unlimited Millions.
The middle ramp offers large bonuses if consecutive shots are made. The first shot is worth 50,000 points; to score successive shots, the player must make the ramp shot again within a short time and without hitting any targets, bumpers, or rollovers. The successive shots if done successfully score 75,000 points, 100,000, 150,000, and then 1 million points each time in succession (the unlimited millions). After an unlimited million is scored, the TOP COP bonus is lit once the ramp shot is missed or the time expires. Players can also win an extra ball at the TOP COP target when the unlimited millions is lit.
Take Highest Score.
On the last ball only, shooting the ball up the right ramp twice adds the highest score achieved up to that point in the game (and only that game) to the player's own score; the player is only allowed one opportunity at this once the first shot has been made, however; hitting any other targets or going up the wrong section counts as a miss. If an extra ball is earned, the player gets another chance at taking the highest score if it wasn't achieved.
If only one player is playing, this essentially doubles the player's score if done correctly.
Digital versions.
This pinball machine was included in the Atari Lynx game "Pinball Jam" alongside "Elvira and the Party Monsters".


Ulrich Blennemann

Ulrich Blennemann is a game designer who has worked primarily on board games.
Career.
Uli Blennemann is brand manager for Phalanx Games b.v., a leading Dutch publisher of board- and card games since 2001. A historian by profession, he founded Moments in History in 1993, selling it in early 1999. Besides testing and some design work, he has developed more than 40 different games.
Blennemann lives in Duelmen, Germany.