Pointinini

The pointinini (pointed shoe) is a type of shoe popular in Côte d'Ivoire.
Description.
They are shoes whose characteristic is that the front part pointed and is slightly bent, available in all the colors and various materials (leather, deer, synthetic fibre).
Tendency.
This fashion strongly developed in Côte d'Ivoire and was quickly exported with Coupé-Décalé and the concept of the "farot" incarnated by JetSet. Ivorian singer Abou Nidal sings about it in "La chaussure qui parle" (The shoe which speaks).
The pointinini is a key component of the "Afrodesign" or modern "Afrostyle". The pointinini is a true phenomenon of style in Africa.
The pointinini was not invented by Abou Nidal but finds its origins in the centre of Africa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, via the science of "sapeology" (which originates from the word "sape" i.e. Societe Admirer des Persons Elegant).


Crowd control (video games)

Crowd control (also called CC) is a term used in MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) and MOBAs (Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas) to refer to the ability to partially or completely disable one or more players or mobs, hence limiting the number of opponents actively fighting during an encounter. It can also refer to abilities that influence or prevent the abilities or actions of other characters. Crowd control can be extremely powerful, controlling the possible outcomes of an encounter, as it forces opponents to use a smaller set of abilities/actions. Players use crowd control to create offense/defense ratio imbalances between themselves and their opponents; used properly, CC often renders an opponent nearly useless, allowing the CCer to use abilities/actions against an opponent without fear of retaliation or response. In a group setting, crowd control often makes combat safer, easier, or viable.
Types of crowd control.
All crowd control abilities fall into one or more of three broad categories.
Movement modifiers.
The ability to move faster than an opponent provides a form of crowd control, often through kiting. Any modifier that decreases an opponent's speed will allow more efficient kiting.
Many forms of crowd control use this type of modifier. Traditionally, "root" and "snare" effects that directly modify opponents' movement rates by lowering them or simply preventing movement have been the staple of this type of crowd control.
The abilities include, but are not limited to:
Action/ability rate modifiers.
Abilities that can decrease the number of times one can perform an action in a given time (usually by increasing cast time and/or cooldown time) or stop a player from performing actions all together.
Abilities in this group may include, but are not limited to:
These abilities can also affect the amount of "energy" to perform an action, be it mana or otherwise.
Others can decrease damage given from actions, or increase healing from allies.
Forced action modifiers.
This is the most unusual category of crowd control spells, but abilities that fall under it are often considered the most powerful. These abilities force an opponent to use certain abilities without their consent.
Examples include, but are not limited to:
EverQuest.
Crowd control is generally considered critical in EverQuest, because most monsters in the modern version of the game are a match for an entire group of player characters.
In "EverQuest", crowd control is usually handled by the Enchanter and Bard classes, who can mesmerize ("mez") opponents through spells or songs. These stop a monster from being able to attack players; however, if the monster is affected in such a way that its hit points are reduced, the mesmerization is broken and the monster will immediately begin to attack. The duration of these effects varies by class and level. Bards can generally only mesmerize for 18 seconds at a time, but higher level Enchanters can mesmerize monsters for upwards of 72 seconds. Several types of monsters are entirely immune to this effect, and all mesmerization spells will only mesmerize monsters up to a certain level.
Stuns can be used for crowd control in "EQ" as well. Enchanters are the primary class for this method, with a full range of point-blank AOE (PBAOE) stuns. With three or more loaded PBAOE stuns, they can "stun lock" opponents by casting the next stun before their previous stun expires. Some other classes, such as the Cleric and Necromancer, also have a limited ability to perform crowd control in this fashion, generally by using short-duration targeted stuns.
Another method of "Everquest" crowd control is to keep the monster occupied, such as by assigning a player to "tank" it. This is made much more effective by the use of abilities that Taunt targets, forcing them to attack the user. Only certain classes can Taunt. Monsters can also be charmed and sent against other mobs. Only creatures up to a certain level can be charmed, and charms are usually of random duration. With additional skills, charms can be made fixed duration or even permanent. Charms generate a lot of hate, so the character doing the charming runs the risk of becoming the target of attacks from the mob.
World of Warcraft.
In "World of Warcraft" different classes have different crowd control abilities. As of version 1.12, every class has at least one spell that can render an enemy target (player or non-player) unable to move and/or attack for a short period of time. Some of these spells have a cooldown, while others can be chain cast and used to incapacitate a non-player target for as long as required.
In general, longer and more powerful crowd control effects render the victims immune to damage or will break after they take damage, and in PvP combat these effects have so-called diminishing returns, which means applying the same effect repeatedly will decrease the length of the effect for the next application. Generally, the third application of the same effect in a short period of time renders the target immune to that effect for 15 seconds, which is also the time for the diminishing returns' timers for an effect to reset.
Death knights can silence enemies and interrupt their spell-casting, stop them and make them gradually regain their full movement speed, and if specialized for it, fully incapacitate all targets around them for a short period of time by encasing them in blocks of ice. In addition, death knights have a unique spell called Death Grip, which can also be considered a crowd control effect as the ability instantly pulls an enemy target to them.
Druids can put beast and dragonkin type monsters to sleep, root enemies in place with a vine spell, and incapacitate any enemy (player or non-player) for a short duration with Cyclone, which causes the victim to be immune to any damage or healing.
Hunters are able to set up freeze traps that can encase an opponent in a solid block of ice as they walk over it, frost traps to slow movement considerably in a small radius, and snake traps which slow movement and cause damage. They can also scare beasts making them run
around in fear for a while. If specialized for it, hunters can also cast a scatter shot which disorients the target or a wyvern sting which puts the target to sleep.
Mages can use a spell called Polymorph to turn humanoid and beast type enemies into harmless sheep or other critters for 50 seconds (10 seconds in PvP), although the victim will regenerate health very quickly in this state. Any damage done to the target will remove the effect and will be in vain if the victim is polymorphed again, as the victim will regenerate to full health in just a few seconds. Mages can cripple their opponents' spell casting ability as well by using Counterspell, which will force the target to interrupt their spellcasting and block similar spells for a few seconds. The Frost Nova spell roots multiple targets in place around the mage for several seconds and can also be used for crowd control, while Blast Wave allows mages specialized in it to snare enemies in a radius.
Priests can perform an AoE fear every 30 seconds and they have the ability to Mind Control enemies. They also can shackle undead type enemies, rendering them unable to move or attack for 50 seconds.
Paladins can stun enemies for six seconds with the Hammer of Justice spell every minute and fear undead and demon monsters, preventing attacks and forcing them to run away.
Rogues, while in stealth and out of combat, are able to Sap a humanoid opponent that is not in combat, incapacitating it for up to one minute. Most methods of crowd control in WoW, will initiate combat with the target, so the victim will attack the player when the incapacitating effect wears off. However, Sap is a notable exception; neither the Sapped victim nor the surrounding enemies will engage in combat. Like most crowd control spells, the Sap effect will also be removed by any damage, but it cannot be applied repeatedly in combat. Rogues have other types of crowd control effects mostly for PvP combat, such as stuns, poisons.
Shamans have the ability to reduce a single opponent's movement speed (Frost Shock) and a group of opponents' movement speed (Earthbind Totem). They can also interrupt a target's spellcasting with Wind Shear, similarly to the way mages can with Counterspell, however Wind Shear's cooldown and duration of the spell block effect is lower. Hex, introduced in the "Wrath of the Lich King" expansion, allows shamans to turn enemies into a frog for a short period of time, rendering them unable to attack but free to move around.
Warlocks can banish elementals and demons, making them immune to everything, but unable to move or attack. Using a Succubus (a summoned demon), warlocks can seduce humanoids, causing them to stand love struck and unable to act. Warlocks can also cast Fear on their opponents, making them run around in panic. There is no cooldown on this ability and it can affect any creature type.
Warriors have various stun and spell casting interrupt abilities. Protection warriors (tanks) can stun a whole pack of enemies in front of them with their Shockwave ability. Warriors can also intimidate enemies around them with a fierce shout, making them run around or freeze in fear for a short time.
City of Heroes and City of Villains.
In "City of Heroes" and its expansion, "City of Villains", the Controller archetype is the primary provider of crowd control effects. Controllers, depending on their primary power set, have a variety of options for crowd control—essentially all of the effects in the above list—but the most commonly used effect is the Hold, which prevents an opponent from attacking or moving at all for a time. Dominators, a "City of Villains" archetype, share the Controllers' crowd control abilities, but with substantially reduced duration under most circumstances. To balance this limitation, a Dominator has access to an inherent power called "Domination." After a Dominator has inflicted enough damage with his or her attacks, this power can be activated, which doubles the duration and "magnitude" of his crowd control effects for a short time. Domination allows the Dominator, when it is most needed, to provide considerable crowd control and damage.
However, while Controllers and Dominators are designed to provide crowd control, all other archetypes have access to some crowd control effects; for instance, all Blasters have access to Immobilization effects in their secondary power sets. Crowd control in "City of Heroes" is generally very short in duration and not particularly effective on large groups of opponents or powerful opponents (such as Bosses, Archvillains, and Giant Monsters), in keeping with the game's design principles. This limitation is a function of "magnitude," which can be circumvented to a degree by using multiple crowd control effects or by augmenting magnitude using Domination. Because of these problems, crowd control is not considered an essential function in "City of Heroes", and many groups operate effectively without a Controller or any appreciable use of crowd control effects by simply overwhelming their opponents with massive force. In Issue 5, all crowd control was substantially weakened by reducing the duration and increasing the recharge of powers that offer it, especially if those powers could affect multiple targets. This has further deemphasized its role in gameplay.
As in "EverQuest", crowd control can also be provided by having a sufficiently resistant character, such as a Tanker, Scrapper, or Brute archetype character, keep the opponents occupied by "tanking" them. Tankers and Brutes are intended to be much more effective in this role, and it is not unheard of for a Tanker to "tank" upwards of 10 opponents at once and survive. Tankers, Scrappers, and Brutes all have powers that Taunt, which makes this task easier, but changes to the game in Issue 5 limit the number of targets that can be effectively controlled in this fashion, and the overall reduction in character defense makes tanking more dangerous. As of Issue 7, the Mastermind archetype has an inherent power called "Bodyguard" that, under specific circumstances, allows him to redistribute damage taken to his pets. Despite his limited hit points, a Mastermind can act as a "tank" using this power if carefully played.
In "City of Heroes" PvP combat, Controllers and Dominators who successfully Hold an opponent inflict triple normal damage with their powers. In Issue 5, Controllers gained a similar version of this advantage in the rest of the game through a new inherent power called "Containment." This power allows a Controller to inflict double damage against any target that is suffering from a Hold, Immobilize, Sleep, or Disorient effect. A similar version of Containment is part of the inherent power of Stalkers, Assassination. These characters have a chance to land a critical hit for double damage against any target under a Hold or Sleep effect in both PvP and PvE combat.
Ultima Online.
In "Ultima Online", the most common CC spells are Paralyze and Poison (although Poison is meant to be a debuff or damage over time, it also prevents a character from healing himself with certain methods). There are other CC abilities that also prevent healing as well as a spell known as Force Field, meant to block passages. Two skilled players can create a "cross" by casting Force Field along the X and Y axes of the map, locking the target in place for a time much longer than Paralyze. This allows them to subsequently cast spells for a longer time without fear of retaliation from the target (unless the target can attack from afar, like archers and magical users).
MOBAs.
In MOBAs, crowd control refers to anything which prevents or limits a player or mob’s ability to fight, as well as impair their ability to move. There are a wide variety of types of crowd control, and most player-controlled characters have some means of crowd control. The most common forms of CC are slows, which decrease the player’s movement, cripples which reduce attack speed, and stuns, which stop the player from moving or performing any actions. The support (tank) role will usually have more forms of CC than other roles due to their play-style being more about defense and area control.
There are also other forms of CC in MOBAs, including silences, which remove the player’s ability to cast spells or abilities; taunts, which force the player to run to a certain point or character (usually the caster of the taunt); hex, which transforms the player into a harmless creature and unable to perform any actions other than moving; fears, which force the player to run away from a certain point or character (usually the caster of the fear), and many other forms of CC that take place in their respective game.


Society of Scottish Artists

The Society of Scottish Artists is a Scottish artist-run organization which seeks to "promote and encourage experimentation and the "adventurous spirit" in Scottish art."
It was founded in 1891 and its main space for annual exhibitions has been the Royal Scottish Academy Building on Princes Street in Edinburgh. The first President was Robert Noble.
The Society's exhibition policy has long been outward-looking. In 1931 it provided a first UK exhibition for works by Edvard Munch, who became a member of the Society.
In recent years the Society has organized exchange visits and exhibitions with artists in Japan and the United States.
The Society is one of the constituent organizations of ESSA.


Black and White Club (art association)

The Black and White Club was an art association in New York. It held monthly exhibits by 1895.
Members included E. Irving Couse, Margaret Fernie Eaton, Hugh M. Eaton, Robert Bruce Horsfall, Walter Russell.


Albert Nofi

Albert A. Nofi (born January 6, 1944), is an American military historian, defense analyst, and designer of board and computer wargaming systems.
Early life.
A native of Brooklyn, he attended New York City public schools, graduating from the Boys' High School (now Boys and Girls High School) in 1961. Nofi attended Fordham University, earning a bachelor's (1965) and a master's (1967), and then received a Ph.D. in Military History from the City University of New York (1991).
Career.
From 1965 through 1995, Nofi was a teacher and later administrator in the New York City public schools. Working primarily in alternative programs, such as the Harlem Preparatory School, Park East High School, and Unity High School at the Door, he retired as an assistant principal in 1995.
During this period he also built a parallel career as an independent historian, defense analyst, and wargame designer, working primarily with James F. Dunnigan, Redmond A. Simonsen, and David C. Isby at Simulations Publications (SPI). As research director for SPI and associate editor of the military historical simulations journal "Strategy and Tactics" for over a decade (1969–1982), he produced numerous articles and a number of wargames. Nofi also designed the strategic-level Roman Empire wargame "Imperium Romanum" (1979) for West End Games.
In addition to work for SPI, Nofi has authored, co-authored, or edited over 30 books on a wide variety of topics. Among his collaborators are Dunnigan, Bela Kiraly, R. L. DiNardo, Kathleen Broome Williams, and others.
In 1999 Nofi became a research analyst with the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), in Alexandria, Virginia, where he worked with game theorist Peter P. Perla. Nofi was the CNA field representative to the Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group, in Newport, Rhode Island, from 2001 until mid-2005, before returning to CNA. While at CNA he wrote "Recent Trends in Thinking About Warfare" and several other analytical papers. He retired from CNA at the end of 2006.
Nofi has lectured at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library and Archives Canada, the Admiral Nimitz State Historic Site (home of the National Museum of the Pacific War), the Air War College, the Command and Staff College of the Marine Corps University, a number of other colleges and universities, and numerous Civil War Round Tables and local historical societies.
For many years an Associate Fellow of the U.S. Civil War Center, a Director of the New York Military Affairs Symposium since its formation, a member of the Society for Military History and a number of other military and historical societies, Nofi is also a founding member of the Italian American Italian Studies Association, of which he was corresponding secretary for several years.
Since 1997, Nofi has contributed a regular column to "North & South" magazine. In 1998, he became a contributing editor to "StrategyPage", for which he writes a regular column.
In 2011 Nofi's book "To Train the Fleet for War: The U.S. Navy's Fleet Problems, 1923-1940" (see review) was awarded the John Lyman Book Award in Navy History by the North American Society for Oceanic History and given "Honorable Mention" by The New York Chapter of the Navy League of the United States for its Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Prize in Naval History.
Select bibliography.
In Collaboration with Jim Dunnigan:
Other collaborations


Ross Isaacs

Ross A. Isaacs is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
He had done a scattering of freelance work for Alderac Entertainment Group and Chaosium before doing more extensive work for Holistic Designs. Isaacs contributed to Chaosium's "Nephilim" line, and ended up at Last Unicorn Games (LUG) shortly thereafter. As a new employee at LUG, he did the initial work on the "Icon" system for their "Star Trek" games, and after the design of "Icon" was done, he was made line developer for the "" (1998). Isaacs remained with Last Unicorn when the company was bought first by Wizards of the Coast and then by Decipher, Inc. and in February 2001 Decipher offered the remaining Last Unicorn staff jobs in their new roleplaying department. Isaacs eventually returned to New York.


Les Girls

Les Girls, also known as Cole Porter's Les Girls, is a 1957 musical CinemaScope comedy film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by George Cukor and produced by Sol C. Siegel, with Saul Chaplin as associate producer. The screenplay was by John Patrick, based on a story by Vera Caspary. The music and lyrics were by Cole Porter.
It stars Gene Kelly, Kay Kendall, Mitzi Gaynor and Taina Elg, and the cast also includes Jacques Bergerac, Leslie Phillips, Henry Daniell and Patrick Macnee.
Storyline.
After writing a tell-all book about her days in the dance troupe "Barry Nichols and Les Girls", Sybil Wren (Kay Kendall) is sued for libeling her fellow dancer Angele (Taina Elg). A "Rashomon"-style narrative presents the story from three points of view. Sybil accuses Angele of having an affair with Barry (Gene Kelly). Angele insists that it was actually Sybil who was having the affair. Finally, Barry gives his side of the story.
Sequel.
Immediately after the film was released tentative plans were announced for a sequel called "Les Boys".
Box office.
According to MGM records the film made $2,415,000 in the US and Canada and $1,450,000 elsewhere, but because of its high production cost lost $1,635,000.
Choreography.
"Les Girls" was a major vehicle for choreographer Jack Cole, and one of the first films to feature the role of choreographer in the opening credits.


Genie Award for Best Achievement in Art Direction/Production Design


Narya


Mark Crowe

Mark Crowe is an American video game designer, artist, and writer who developed several adventure games, mostly for Sierra On-Line and its subsidiary Dynamix. He later worked at Pipeworks Software as Studio Design Director. Crowe is best known for creating the "Space Quest" series, mostly with his fellow "Guy from Andromeda", Scott Murphy.
Biography.
Crowe started working at Sierra in its Art Department, creating designs for boxes and manuals. Crowe worked on several Sierra games, including "Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood" and "King's Quest II", before collaborating with Scott Murphy on "The Black Cauldron". Crowe was the Art Director for the game when Murphy was added as a programmer.
During the development of "The Black Cauldron", Murphy and Crowe discovered their mutual fondness for science fiction. Eventually, they created a four-room concept to propose to Sierra founder Ken Williams that would eventually become the beginning scenes of "Space Quest". First released in 1986, "Space Quest" was a quick hit among adventure game fans and Murphy worked with Crowe to develop another three games, ending with "Space Quest IV" in 1991. During this time, Crowe also worked on games from other series, including "King's Quest", "Leisure Suit Larry", and "Police Quest". After "Space Quest IV", Crowe moved to work at Eugene, Oregon, home of Sierra subsidiary Dynamix, where he developed "Space Quest V" without Murphy's input. During his time at Dynamix, Crowe worked on several other games, including the "Earthsiege" series.
Following major layoffs at Sierra and Dynamix in 1999, Crowe joined some of his former co-workers from Dynamix at Pipeworks Software, where he served as Studio Design Director. At Pipeworks, Crowe worked on a number of games including ' and '.
In 2012, Crowe left Pipeworks to join with Murphy and Chris Pope to start their own company called Guys from Andromeda. Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, they began work on a project called "SpaceVenture" as a spiritual successor to the "Space Quest" series.
In 2015, after Murphy needed some time away from the project for personal reasons, Crowe and Pope shifted focus on to a portion of "SpaceVenture" that didn't require as much writing. The game sequence features a character called Cluck Yegger and is built to play a key role in the game. To bring more funding into the project, Crowe and Pope decided to make the Cluck Yegger sequence into a game and release it to the public. The game was named "Cluck Yegger in Escape From The Planet of The Poultroid". It was released privately to backers of SpaceVenture on October 29. 2015, and then was greenlit on Steam and released publicly on November 9, 2015.


Dorsey Dixon

Dorsey Murdock Dixon (October 14, 1897, Darlington, South Carolina – April 18, 1968, Plant City, Florida) was an American old-time and country music songwriter and musician. He was also a millworker who spent much of his life working in textile mills in North and South Carolina. Dixon's best known songs were "Wreck on the Highway", which resulted in a copyright dispute with country musician Roy Acuff, and "Babies in the Mill", which was about the Southern textile industry's exploitation of child labor in the early 20th century.
Biography.
Dorsey Dixon was born on October 14, 1897 in Darlington, South Carolina. He was one of seven children, all of whom, together with their father, worked at the local textile mill, Darlington Cotton Manufacturing Company. Dixon left school at the age of twelve to start working at the mill; his younger brother Howard started at the age of ten, and their sister Nancy began working there as a spinner at the age of eight. Dixon's family and friends encouraged homemade music and he quickly picked up the traditional and sentimental songs they sang. A family friend and school teacher gave Dixon violin lessons and by the time he was 14 he could also play the guitar. During World War I, Dixon and his brother Howard were employed by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in Darlington as signalmen, but lost their jobs in 1919 along with thousands of mill workers. Dorsey found work for a while at a mill in Lancaster, South Carolina before moving to East Rockingham, North Carolina in 1927 to work at the Aleo Mill. Dixon's parents and Nancy and Howard also moved to East Rockingham to join him. There Dixon married fellow mill worker Beatrice Lucele Moody, later having four children with her.
In 1929 Dixon tried his hand at composition, writing a poem about a school house fire. When Howard and his mother noted that the words could be sung to a popular hymn at the time, "Life's Railway to Heaven", Dixon began devoting his spare time to composing. His writing often drew on first-hand experiences, particularly the working conditions in the mills. During this period he produced songs like "Weaver's Life", "Spinning Room Blues" and "Weave Room Blues", some of which were sung by mill strikers during labor unrest in the early 1930s. Dixon and his brother also started performing as a duo at local functions around Rockingham, with Dorsey playing guitar and Howard playing fiddle. In 1931 country musician Jimmie Tarlton passed through East Rockingham and so impressed the Dixon brothers that they changed their performances. Howard switched from fiddle to Hawaiian guitar and Dorsey played his guitar with a "unique finger-picking style". Interest in the duo grew in 1934 when they started performing regularly on J. W. Fincher's "Crazy Water Crystals Saturday Night Jamboree" on WBT, a radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In 1936 an RCA Victor field crew started recording the Dixon Brothers in Charlotte, and over the next few years a total of 61 songs were released. The Dixon Brothers' records sold well enough that they were able to record during five separate sessions for RCA Victor from 1936 – 1938. During two sessions in 1937 and 1938, Dorsey recorded as a duet with his wife Beatrice. One of his songs, "I Didn't Hear Anybody Pray", about a fatal car accident and recorded by the Dixon brothers in 1938, was recorded as "The Wreck on the Highway" by country musician Roy Acuff in 1942. Acuff could not remember where he knew the song from, but claimed it as his own. "Wreck on the Highway" became a national country music hit, but Dixon received no royalties. In the mid-1940s, and at his family's insistence, Dixon asked a lawyer to file a lawsuit against Acuff, and in 1946 an out-of-court settlement was reached. Dixon was granted ownership of "Wreck on the Highway", a third of the existing $5,000 royalties, and an "undisclosed percentage" of future royalties. Dixon later adopted Acuff's title, and "Wreck on the Highway" became his "best-known and arguably his greatest composition". Bruce Springsteen also wrote a song called "Wreck on the Highway" in 1980, and although a different song, it borrowed "its title and its melodrama" from Acuff's hit.
Expecting further settlements the Dixon family moved to New York City in 1947 where Dixon worked in a Union City, New Jersey rayon factory, but none were forthcoming and they moved back to East Rockingham. With Dixon's musical career all but over, he continued working at the Aleo Mill until 1951 when he was forced to retire due to his deteriorating eyesight. Dixon and his wife then moved to Baltimore, but they separated in 1953 and he returned to East Rockingham without her. Dixon's brother, Howard continued working in the mills until he died on the job following a heart attack in 1961.
Interest in Dixon's music was revived in the late 1950s by students of hillbilly and work song. In the early 1960s folkloristics Archie Green and Eugene Earle visited Dixon and helped him record a 19-track album, "Babies in the Mill". The title track was a new composion by Dixon that was about the Southern textile industry's "shameful abuse and exploitation" of child labor in the early 20th century. They also persuaded him to start performing again and invited him to play at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival, where folk singer Pete Seeger introduced Dixon to the audience. Later Dixon was also asked to have his music recorded for the Archive of American Folk Song at the US Library of Congress. Dixon's brief musical comeback came to an end in 1964 when he had several heart attacks. He relocated to Plant City, Florida to live with his son, the Reverend Dorsey Dixon, Jr., where he remained until his death of heart failure at the age 70 on April 18, 1968. In 2000 the Center for the Study of Southern Culture published autobiographical writings of Dixon entitled "I Don't Want Nothin' 'Bout my Life Wrote Out, Because I Had it Too Rough in Life".


Volatile Works

Volatile Works is a five-member film and new media art collective in Montreal, Quebec established in 2003.
Activities.
The Volatile Works collective has produced works in diverse mediums, genres, and styles, with an emphasis on do-it-yourself forms of production. Their works have appeared in over 140 film and new media art festivals in over 28 countries around the world. The collective organizes regular short film screenings, and has collaborated with other collectives and musicians on community-based screenings, workshops in activist video, 16 mm & Super-8 projections, and music videos. Their media include digital video, Super-8, 16mm, animation, web art, sound, installation art, and live performances. In 2007, they were named "Noisemakers" by the Montreal Mirror.
From "La Revue de la Cinémathèque Québécoise" (Sept-Dec. 2007), by Domique Dugas: "Volatile Works is composed of five very strong and distinct signatures, from Witcaky's experimental films that cross avant-garde accents with surrealism, to DeGiglio-Bellemare's B-movie and horror film explorations seasoned with agitprop perspectives, to Pomgrenade's anti-militarism and politically engaged cinema." (Translated from the French).


Suwa Kanenori

Suwa Kanenori (1897–1932) was a Japanese painter and woodblock print artist associated with the sōsaku hanga ("creative print") movement.
Born 1897, he spent his youth in Kobe, and started printing from the age of sixteen. In 1914 he moved to Tokyo to study at the Hongo Painting Institute.
From 1920 his prints appeared in "Yomigaeri" magazine, which brought him to the attention of Un'ichi Hiratsuka, one of the leaders of sōsaku hanga movement, and Fukazawa Sakuichi whom he tutored in the craft. In 1921 he exhibited with the Sosaku Hanga Kyokai and in 1923 released his set of prints "Suwa Kanenori surie awase" (roughly translated as "Grinding the rough edges").
He became a member of the Nippon Sosaku Hanga Kyokai in 1928 and participated in the "One Hundred Views of New Tokyo" series, to which he contributed twelve prints, "notable for their spiky, stark quality." Un'ichi Hiratsuka, a friend of Suwa's who worked with him on the series, remarked that his prints had "a feeling of poetry, perhaps because he was a great poet all his life."
He worked as a designer for Shiseido, the cosmetics company, from June 1921 until his death in 1932 of appendicitis.


Freeman, Hardy and Willis

Freeman, Hardy and Willis was a major chain of footwear retailers in the United Kingdom.
History.
The shoe retailer was established in 1875 and was named after three employees of the company, one of whom was Alfred Freeman, a Russian shoe maker who resided in St Pancras, London. For many years, there was a branch in nearly every town in the United Kingdom. In 1929 the company was acquired by Sears plc. Its subsidiary, the Leicester-based British Shoe Corporation, went on to own the Trueform, Curtess, Dolcis, Manfield, Saxone, and Lilley & Skinner brands. The name was also simplified to Freeman Hardy Willis in order to have bolder lettering on shopfronts. During the early 1960s the paper bags used to wrap the shoes were imprinted with the FHW letters and the legend "For Happy Walking".
Sale of company.
In the early 1990s the British Shoe Corporation converted approximately half of the 540 Freeman Hardy Willis branches into Hush Puppies shops and sold the remainder to Stephen Hinchliffe, an entrepreneur from Sheffield. After only a year, Hinchliffe's business empire collapsed. He was subsequently jailed after it was found that he bribed bank officials to obtain loans to buy the company. After providing "Shoes For All The Family" since 1875, Freeman Hardy Willis was no more by 1996. After closure, 44 former FHW branches were sold to Stead & Simpson.
British Shoe Corporation itself closed in 1998.


Jan Buckner Walker

Jan Buckner Walker (born 1960) is a nationally syndicated (in the United States) crossword puzzle creator, author and games creator.
Early life and education.
Buckner Walker was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland with her sister, Lori. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Howard University in 1985 and subsequently earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School where she also served as an editor for the school's Law Review. After two years of law firm practice, she moved to Chicago, Illinois where she continued practicing law. During this time, she began volunteer tutoring and seeking creative ways to engage her students. She then wrote several children's picture book manuscripts and worked with a marketing firm creating web strategies.
Career as a creator.
She is best known for her creation and distribution of the Kids Across Parents Down (KAPD) family crossword series. Dubbed "The Original Crossword Puzzle for Kids and Their Favorite Adults," the collaborative puzzles are distributed weekly through Tribune Media Services and feature across clues for children and down clues for parents.
All of the puzzles center on a lively and contemporary theme familiar to children and intriguing to parents with an eye toward fostering both family interaction and literacy. The series are primarily freeform style crosswords that focus on clever word play and quirky humor over the classic academic rigor of American-style (or newspaper–style crosswords), so a children's clue might be "What do you get when a cow dances?" (9 letters) (Answer: MILKSHAKE) while for adults a clue might be "What you find on the outside of every Will Smith compact disc" (7 letters) (Answer: RAPPER).
Since its first appearance in 2003 in "The Washington Post"s Kids Post, versions of the crosswords have been picked up by several publications, including the "Los Angeles Times", "Chicago Tribune", "Detroit Free Press", "Atlanta Journal-Constitution", Nickelodeon's "Nick Jr. Family Magazine" and "Jack and Jill Magazine".
In 2007, the puzzles spawned a book series, launching with two titles to date, "Crazy Critters" and "On the Go" and also provides puzzle content for kids menus and other programs offered by various family-friendly venues, such as Cracker Barrel and McDonald's restaurants. Buckner Walker has also created billboard-size puzzles for the annual Los Angeles Times Book Festival held at University of California, Los Angeles and at events sponsored by the Boston Celtics.
In 2009, Buckner Walker launched Kids Across Teachers Down, a classroom version which extended the collaborative learning formula into schools. First published online at www.chicagotribune.com, the crossword encourages competition and collaboration with class vs. classroom and school vs. school tournaments.
Buckner Walker has also produced a number of other family activity brands, including First Letter Fun (a picture-based crossword puzzle for new and pre-readers) and Blackout (a multi-level puzzle slated for a book series and smart phone applications).
Buckner Walker is also well known for her creation of ethnic-oriented general interest crosswords for magazines such as Essence, Ebony and Rise Up. Previously, none of these publications had offered crosswords and, as such, she is credited with generating a groundswell of interest in crossword puzzles among members of the African-American community.
In 2010 Buckner Walker created UnhappenIt, dubbed "The Apology App," which provides users a quick and easy way to apologize online or via the Android smart phone, offering proposed language, recommended downloadable songs and various gifts to express a message apology. With its integration with Facebook and Twitter, the application also allows members to see and rank the apologies of others and to suggest songs for inclusion in the music database. Since its launch, the term "unhappen" has gained a viral momentum in social media and elsewhere and has been used by various journalists, media personalities and others in reference to one's desire to go back in time before an unfortunate occurrence.
Awards.
Kids Across Parents Down was awarded the Mr. Dad Seal of Approval and has been recognized by Fast Company as a "Rising Star" in its Fast 50 Companies competition. Additionally, following the release of the KAPD books, New York Times editor Will Shortz applauded the collaborative family concept as "a clever, fun way to introduce kids to crosswords and get their favorite adults involved at the same time," calling the puzzles "simultaneously whimsical and educational."
Buckner Walker, who was the recipient of the Goldstein Award for Excellence in Labor Law, was published in the University of Pennsylvania Law School Review in 1988.


David J. Ritchie

David James Ritchie (October 6, 1950 - September 6, 2009) was a game designer and author.
Early life and education.
David Ritchie was a native of Canton, Ohio. He was a graduate of Lehman High School in Canton and attended Grove City College in Pennsylvania where he met his wife, Deborah.
Career.
David Ritchie worked for SPI until it was taken over by TSR in March 1982; as more former SPI employees left TSR or were fired, Ritchie was the final SPI holdover, and left for Coleco in late 1983. Ritchie, along with Jon Pickens, David "Zeb" Cook, Harold Johnson, Rick Swan, and Ed Carmien, co-wrote the adventure module OA2 "Night of the Seven Swords". Ritchie and Dave Arneson detailed Arneson's world of Blackmoor in a series of four adventure books from TSR, "DA1: Adventures in Blackmoor" (1986), "DA2: Temple of the Frog" (1986), "DA3: City of the Gods" (1987) and "DA4: The Duchy of Ten" (1987).
Ritchie wrote the 1991 book "Connecticut: Off the Beaten Path" with his wife, Deborah.
Ritchie died in his Connecticut home on September 6, 2009, at the age of 58.


Fighting Vipers 2

Fighting Vipers 2 is a 3D fighting video game developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for their Model 3 arcade board in 1998, and ported to the Dreamcast in 2001. It is the sequel to the 1995 game "Fighting Vipers".
Gameplay.
Along with the original cast of the first game, Fighting Vipers 2 introduced Emi, a computer geek who fights with a self-developed mecha armor, and Charlie, a BMX rider. New unlockable characters included Del Sol (a Mexican wrestler with a Sun mask), and Kuhn (a copycat character with various movesets from all the other original characters similar to "Virtua Fighter"s Dural).
Release.
The game was planned for a U.S. release but was later cancelled.
The game was praised for being a perfect Dreamcast port of the original Model 3 Arcade game (unlike "Virtua Fighter 3tb" which was a loose port), however the developers did not include any additional extras for this release, making it a straight port.
Reception.
In Japan, "Game Machine" listed "Fighting Vipers 2" on their June 15, 1998 issue as being the second most-successful arcade game of the year.
Jim Preston reviewed the Dreamcast version of the game for "Next Generation", rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Dreamcast software sales were always sluggish in Japan, and with mediocre titles like this it's not hard to see why."
On release, "Famitsu" magazine scored the Dreamcast version of the game a 30 out of 40.


Aerostar (video game)

 is a 1991 shoot'em-up video game developed and published by Vic Tokai in 1991 for the Nintendo Game Boy.
Plot.
After the end of the Sixth World War, the Earth has been rendered inhospitable and uninhabitable by humanity. The Intergalactic Council ruled that Earth could once again be used by humans and sent people there to restore civilization there. Meanwhile, mutants have prospered in the long-lost wastelands of Earth and were unwilling to allow the humans to have it again. The Intergalactic Council has sent in a lone fighter called "Aerostar" to defend the Earth from a second act of total destruction.
Gameplay.
The player controls a futuristic airplane that can only fly over certain roads. However, the aircraft can ascend and descend into other roads at the cost of being able to use firearms.
There are a variety of power-ups in the game; including missiles and lasers. Large bosses challenge the player in each level. There are three difficulty levels: easy, normal, and hard. Graphic details in the game include coastal streets, futuristic levels with instant-death spikes, jungles, and a fight in outer space.
Reception.
Allgame gave this video game a 2.5 out of 5 rating on their overview.


Klomp

A klomp (plural klompen) is a whole-foot clog from the Netherlands.
Usage.
Approximately 3 million pairs of klompen are made each year. They are sold throughout the Netherlands. A large part of the market is for tourist souvenirs, though some Dutch people, particularly farmers and market gardeners, still wear them for everyday use. Outside the tourist industry, klompen can be found in local tool shops, local tourist shops and garden centers.
The traditional all-wooden Dutch clogs have been officially accredited as safety shoes with the CE mark and can withstand almost any penetration including sharp objects and concentrated acids. They are actually safer than steel-capped protective shoes in some circumstances, as the wood cracks rather than dents in extreme accidents, allowing easy removal of the clog and not continued pressure on the toes by the (edge of the) steel nose.
Manufacture.
Klompen can be made from willow or poplar.


Komamura Corporation

 is a Japanese company that most notably manufactured medium- and large-format cameras. The company's first camera, the PC-101, was offered in 1948 as a police inspection camera; this was soon developed into a press camera, the Horseman 102, which was the first Horseman Professional branded camera.
History.
In 1933, Komamura Brothers was founded in Kyoto; the first camera produced was the PC-101, an inspection camera for the National Police Agency produced in 1948. This was developed into the Horseman 102, which was also designed for police inspection and offered in 1950.
Komamura relocated in Tokyo in 1982. In 1992, Komamura signed the first of several licensing agreements to be the exclusive distributor for foreign photographic and video products in Japan, including Rodenstock and Schneider Kreuznach lenses, Gossen light meters, and Anton Bauer batteries.
Komamura transferred the Horseman Professional photographic business assets to Kenko Professional Imaging in 2012; Kenko continues to market the cameras and photographic accessories developed by Komamura under the Horseman brand. Komamura's primary business is currently centered on sales of night vision scopes and cameras.
Products.
Current.
Komamura developed and launched the Falcon Eye KC-2000 high-sensitivity camera in 2014, providing full-color imaging.
Past.
Past cameras developed by Komamura and marketed under the Horseman Professional brand include:


Jakarta Enterprise Beans

Jakarta Enterprise Beans (EJB; formerly Enterprise JavaBeans) is one of several Java APIs for modular construction of enterprise software. EJB is a server-side software component that encapsulates business logic of an application. An EJB web container provides a runtime environment for web related software components, including computer security, Java servlet lifecycle management, transaction processing, and other web services. The EJB specification is a subset of the Java EE specification.
Specification.
The EJB specification was originally developed in 1997 by IBM and later adopted by Sun Microsystems (EJB 1.0 and 1.1) in 1999 and enhanced under the Java Community Process as JSR 19 (EJB 2.0), JSR 153 (EJB 2.1), JSR 220 (EJB 3.0), JSR 318 (EJB 3.1) and JSR 345 (EJB 3.2).
The EJB specification provides a standard way to implement the server-side (also called "back-end") 'business' software typically found in enterprise applications (as opposed to 'front-end' user interface software). Such software addresses the same types of problem, and solutions to these problems are often repeatedly re-implemented by programmers. Jakarta Enterprise Beans is intended to handle such common concerns as persistence, transactional integrity and security in a standard way, leaving programmers free to concentrate on the particular parts of the enterprise software at hand.
General responsibilities.
The EJB specification details how an application server provides the following responsibilities:
Additionally, the Jakarta Enterprise Beans specification defines the roles played by the EJB container and the EJBs as well as how to deploy the EJBs in a container. Note that the EJB specification does not detail how an application server provides persistence (a task delegated to the JPA specification), but instead details how business logic can easily integrate with the persistence services offered by the application server.
History.
Businesses found that using EJBs to encapsulate business logic brought a performance penalty. This is because the original specification allowed only for remote method invocation through CORBA (and optionally other protocols), even though the large majority of business applications actually do not require this distributed computing functionality. The EJB 2.0 specification addressed this concern by adding the concept of local interfaces which could be called directly without performance penalties by applications that were not distributed over multiple servers.
The EJB 3.0 specification (JSR 220) was a departure from its predecessors, following a new light-weight paradigm. EJB 3.0 shows an influence from Spring in its use of plain Java objects, and its support for dependency injection to simplify configuration and integration of heterogeneous systems. Gavin King, the creator of Hibernate, participated in the EJB 3.0 process and is an outspoken advocate of the technology. Many features originally in Hibernate were incorporated in the Java Persistence API, the replacement for entity beans in EJB 3.0. The EJB 3.0 specification relies heavily on the use of annotations (a feature added to the Java language with its 5.0 release) and convention over configuration to enable a much less verbose coding style. Accordingly, in practical terms EJB 3.0 is much more lightweight and nearly a completely new API, bearing little resemblance to the previous EJB specifications.
Example.
The following shows a basic example of what an EJB looks like in code:
@Stateless
public class CustomerService {
 private EntityManager entityManager;
 public void addCustomer(Customer customer) {
 entityManager.persist(customer);
The above defines a service class for persisting a Customer object (via O/R mapping). The EJB takes care of managing the persistence context and the addCustomer() method is transactional and thread-safe by default. As demonstrated, the EJB focuses only on business logic and persistence and knows nothing about any particular presentation.
Such an EJB can be used by a class in e.g. the web layer as follows:
@Named
@RequestScoped
public class CustomerBacking {
 @EJB
 private CustomerService customerService;
 public String addCustomer(Customer customer) {
 customerService.addCustomer(customer);
 context.addMessage(...); // abbreviated for brevity
 return "customer_overview";
The above defines a JavaServer Faces (JSF) backing bean in which the EJB is injected by means of the @EJB annotation. Its addCustomer method is typically bound to some UI component, such as a button. Contrary to the EJB, the backing bean does not contain any business logic or persistence code, but delegates such concerns to the EJB. The backing bean does know about a particular presentation, of which the EJB had no knowledge.
Types of Enterprise Beans.
An EJB container holds two major types of beans:
Session beans.
Stateful Session Beans.
Stateful Session Beans are business objects having state: that is, they keep track of which calling client they are dealing with throughout a session and thus access to the bean instance is strictly limited to only one client at a time. If concurrent access to a single bean is attempted anyway the container serializes those requests, but via the @AccessTimeout annotation the container can instead throw an exception. Stateful session beans' state may be persisted (passivated) automatically by the container to free up memory after the client hasn't accessed the bean for some time. The JPA extended persistence context is explicitly supported by Stateful Session Beans.
Stateless Session Beans.
Stateless Session Beans are business objects that do not have state associated with them. However, access to a single bean instance is still limited to only one client at a time, concurrent access to the bean is prohibited. If concurrent access to a single bean is attempted, the container simply routes each request to a different instance. This makes a stateless session bean automatically thread-safe. Instance variables can be used during a single method call from a client to the bean, but the contents of those instance variables are not guaranteed to be preserved across different client method calls. Instances of Stateless Session beans are typically pooled. If a second client accesses a specific bean right after a method call on it made by a first client has finished, it might get the same instance. The lack of overhead to maintain a conversation with the calling client makes them less resource-intensive than stateful beans.
Singleton Session Beans.
Singleton Session Beans are business objects having a global shared state within a JVM. Concurrent access to the one and only bean instance can be controlled by the container (Container-managed concurrency, CMC) or by the bean itself (Bean-managed concurrency, BMC). CMC can be tuned using the @Lock annotation, that designates whether a read lock or a write lock will be used for a method call. Additionally, Singleton Session Beans can explicitly request to be instantiated when the EJB container starts up, using the @Startup annotation.
Message driven beans.
Message Driven Beans are business objects whose execution is triggered by messages instead of by method calls. The Message Driven Bean is used among others to provide a high level ease-of-use abstraction for the lower level JMS (Java Message Service) specification. It may subscribe to JMS message queues or message topics, which typically happens via the activationConfig attribute of the @MessageDriven annotation. They were added in EJB to allow event-driven processing. Unlike session beans, an MDB does not have a client view (Local/Remote/No-interface), i. e. clients cannot look-up an MDB instance. An MDB just listens for any incoming message on, for example, a JMS queue or topic and processes them automatically. Only JMS support is required by the Java EE spec, but Message Driven Beans can support other messaging protocols. Such protocols may be asynchronous but can also be synchronous. Since session beans can also be synchronous or asynchronous, the prime difference between session- and message driven beans is not the synchronicity, but the difference between (object oriented) method calling and messaging.
Execution.
EJBs are deployed in an EJB container, typically within an application server. The specification describes how an EJB interacts with its container and how client code interacts with the container/EJB combination. The EJB classes used by applications are included in the package. (The package is a service provider interface used only by EJB container implementations.)
Clients of EJBs do not instantiate those beans directly via Java's new operator, but instead have to obtain a reference via the EJB container. This reference is usually not a reference to the implementation bean itself, but to a proxy, which either dynamically implements the local or remote business interface that the client requested or dynamically implements a sub-type of the actual bean. The proxy can then be directly cast to the interface or bean. A client is said to have a 'view' on the EJB, and the local interface, remote interface and bean type itself respectively correspond with the local view, remote view and no-interface view.
This proxy is needed in order to give the EJB container the opportunity to transparently provide cross-cutting (AOP-like) services to a bean like transactions, security, interceptions, injections, and remoting. As an example, a client invokes a method on a proxy, which will first start a transaction with the help of the EJB container and then call the actual bean method. When the bean method returns, the proxy ends the transaction (i.e. by committing it or doing a rollback) and transfers control back to the client.
The EJB Container is responsible for ensuring the client code has sufficient access rights to an EJB. Security aspects can be declaratively applied to an EJB via annotations.
Transactions.
EJB containers must support both container managed ACID transactions and bean managed transactions.
Container-managed transactions (CMT) are by default active for calls to session beans. That is, no explicit configuration is needed. This behavior may be declaratively tuned by the bean via annotations and if needed such configuration can later be overridden in the deployment descriptor. Tuning includes switching off transactions for the whole bean or specific methods, or requesting alternative strategies for transaction propagation and starting or joining a transaction. Such strategies mainly deal with what should happen if a transaction is or isn't already in progress at the time the bean is called. The following variations are supported:
Alternatively, the bean can also declare via an annotation that it wants to handle transactions programmatically via the JTA API. This mode of operation is called Bean Managed Transactions (BMT), since the bean itself handles the transaction instead of the container.
Events.
JMS (Java Message Service) is used to send messages from beans to clients, to let clients receive asynchronous messages from these beans.
MDBs can be used to receive messages from clients asynchronously using either a JMS
Queue or a Topic.
Naming and directory services.
As an alternative to injection, clients of an EJB can obtain a reference to the session bean's proxy object (the EJB stub) using Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI). This alternative can be used in cases where injection is not available, such as in non-managed code or standalone remote Java SE clients, or when it's necessary to programmatically determine which bean to obtain.
JNDI names for EJB session beans are assigned by the EJB container via the following scheme:
"(entries in square brackets denote optional parts)"
A single bean can be obtained by any name matching the above patterns, depending on the 'location' of the client. Clients in the same module as the required bean can use the module scope and larger scopes, clients in the same application as the required bean can use the app scope and higher, etc.
E.g. code running in the same module as the CustomerService bean "(as given by the example shown earlier in this article)" could use the following code to obtain a (local) reference to it:
CustomerServiceLocal customerService =
 (CustomerServiceLocal) new InitialContext().lookup("java:module/CustomerService");
Remoting/distributed execution.
For communication with a client that's written in the Java programming language a session bean can expose a remote-view via an @Remote annotated interface. This allows those beans to be called from clients in other JVMs which themselves may be located on other (remote) systems. From the point of view of the EJB container, any code in another JVM is remote.
Stateless- and Singleton session beans may also expose a "web service client view" for remote communication via WSDL and SOAP or plain XML. This follows the JAX-RPC and JAX-WS specifications. JAX-RPC support however is proposed for future removal. To support JAX-WS, the session bean is annotated with the @WebService annotation, and methods that are to be exposed remotely with the @WebMethod annotation..
Although the EJB specification does not mention exposure as RESTful web services in any way and has no explicit support for this form of communication, the JAX-RS specification does explicitly support EJB. Following the JAX-RS spec, Stateless- and Singleton session beans can be root resources via the @Path annotation and EJB business methods can be mapped to resource methods via the @GET, @PUT, @POST and @DELETE annotations. This however does not count as a "web service client view", which is used exclusively for JAX-WS and JAX-RPC.
Communication via web services is typical for clients not written in the Java programming language, but is also convenient for Java clients who have trouble reaching the EJB server via a firewall. Additionally, web service based communication can be used by Java clients to circumvent the arcane and ill-defined requirements for the so-called "client-libraries"; a set of jar files that a Java client must have on its class-path in order to communicate with the remote EJB server. These client-libraries potentially conflict with libraries the client may already have (for instance, if the client itself is also a full Java EE server) and such a conflict is deemed to be very hard or impossible to resolve.
Legacy.
Home interfaces and required business interface.
With EJB 2.1 and earlier, each EJB had to provide a Java implementation class and two Java interfaces. The EJB container created instances of the Java implementation class to provide the EJB implementation. The Java interfaces were used by client code of the EJB.
Required deployment descriptor.
With EJB 2.1 and earlier, the EJB specification required a deployment descriptor to be present. This was needed to implement a mechanism that allowed EJBs to be deployed in a consistent manner regardless of the specific EJB platform that was chosen. Information about how the bean should be deployed (such as the name of the home or remote interfaces, whether and how to store the bean in a database, etc.) had to be specified in the deployment descriptor.
The deployment descriptor is an XML document having an entry for each EJB to be deployed. This XML document specifies the following information for each EJB:
Old EJB containers from many vendors required more deployment information than that in the EJB specification. They would require the additional information as separate XML files, or some other configuration file format. An EJB platform vendor generally provided their own tools that would read this deployment descriptor, and possibly generated a set of classes that would implement the now deprecated Home and Remote interfaces.
Since EJB 3.0 (JSR 220), the XML descriptor is replaced by Java annotations set in the Enterprise Bean implementation (at source level), although it is still possible to use an XML descriptor instead of (or in addition to) the annotations. If an XML descriptor and annotations are both applied to the same attribute within an Enterprise Bean, the XML definition overrides the corresponding source-level annotation, although some XML elements can also be additive (e.g., an activation-config-property in XML with a different name than already defined via an @ActivationConfigProperty annotation will be added instead of replacing all existing properties).
Container variations.
Starting with EJB 3.1, the EJB specification defines two variants of the EJB container; a full version and a limited version. The limited version adheres to a proper subset of the specification called EJB 3.1 Lite and is part of Java EE 6's web profile (which is itself a subset of the full Java EE 6 specification).
EJB 3.1 Lite excludes support for the following features:
EJB 3.2 Lite excludes less features. Particularly it no longer excludes @Asynchronous and @Schedule/@Timeout, but for @Schedule it does not support the "persistent" attribute that full EJB 3.2 does support. The complete excluded list for EJB 3.2 Lite is:
Version history.
EJB 4.0, final release (2020-05-22)
Jakarta Enterprise Beans 4.0, as a part of Jakarta EE 9, was a tooling release that mainly moved API package names from the top level package to the top level package.
Other changes included removal of deprecated APIs that were pointless to move to the new top level package and the removal of features that depended on features that were removed from Java or elsewhere in Jakarta EE 9. The following APIs were removed:
Other minor changes include marking the Enterprise Beans 2.x API Group as "Optional" and making the annotation repeatable.
EJB 3.2.6, final release (2019-08-23)
Jakarta Enterprise Beans 3.2, as a part of Jakarta EE 8, and despite still using "EJB" abbreviation, this set of APIs has been officially renamed to "Jakarta Enterprise Beans" by the Eclipse Foundation so as not to tread on the Oracle "Java" trademark.
EJB 3.2, final release (2013-05-28)
JSR 345. Enterprise JavaBeans 3.2 was a relatively minor release that mainly contained specification clarifications and lifted some restrictions that were imposed by the spec but over time appeared to serve no real purpose. A few existing full EJB features were also demanded to be in EJB 3 lite and functionality that was proposed to be pruned in EJB 3.1 was indeed pruned (made optional).
The following features were added:
EJB 3.1, final release (2009-12-10)
JSR 318. The purpose of the Enterprise JavaBeans 3.1 specification is to further simplify the EJB architecture by reducing its complexity from the developer's point of view, while also adding new functionality in response to the needs of the community:
EJB 3.0, final release (2006-05-11)
JSR 220 - "Major changes":
This release made it much easier to write EJBs, using 'annotations' rather than the complex 'deployment descriptors' used in version 2.x. The use of home and remote interfaces and the ejb-jar.xml file were also no longer required in this release, having been replaced with a business interface and a bean that implements the interface.
EJB 2.1, final release (2003-11-24)
JSR 153 - "Major changes":
EJB 2.0, final release (2001-08-22)
JSR 19 - "Major changes":
"Overall goals":
EJB 1.1, final release (1999-12-17)
"Major changes":
"Goals" for Release 1.1:
EJB 1.0 (1998-03-24)
Announced at JavaOne 1998, Sun's third Java developers conference (March 24 through 27)
"Goals" for Release 1.0:


Brogan (shoes)

A brogan is a heavy, ankle-high shoe or boot.
History.
Brogan-like shoes, called "brogues" (from Old Irish "bróc" meaning "shoe"), were made and worn in Scotland and Ireland as early as the 16th century, and the shoe-type probably originated there. They were used by the Scots and the Irish as work boots for wear in the wet, boggy Scottish and Irish countryside. The word "brogue" is still used in Britain for a style of dress shoe, which may or may not have an ankle high top.
Brogans and brogan-like shoes and boots were adopted over time by various countries for wear by their military forces. English armies issued ankle high boots at least as early as the English Civil War, and brogans may have been worn by some soldiers among both American and British forces during the American Revolutionary War. Both sides in the American Civil War issued them to their soldiers, and the U.S. Army issued hob-nailed brogans known as "trench boots" to U.S. soldiers during the First World War. These replaced the 1904 Russet Service Shoe, a brogan of a construction unsuitable to trench warfare or field duty in general. An improved version of the trench boot, the 1918 trench boot, was nicknamed the "little tanks" because of their strong construction, and "Pershing boots" after American general John J. Pershing. The U.S. Army continued to issue brogans during WWII, and the U.S. Air Force issued them through the 1960s. Other armies, such as the German Army of the 1930s and World War II, and the British Army, have also issued brogan-type shoes, nicknamed "Ammunition Shoes".
Description.
The early brogans of the Scots and Irish were made of heavy untanned leather. The development of civilian brogans follows the general development of civilian footwear, with construction of brogan-style shoes benefiting from improvements in other styles of shoe, and with styles changing with the times. From the 1820s until before the American Civil War, American soldiers were issued brogans which were made on straight lasts; there was no "left" or "right" and they shaped themselves to the wearer's feet through use. These brogans were less expensive to manufacture than paired shoes, but they were very uncomfortable until broken in and often resulted in blisters. They were replaced in 1858 with an improved version used until the 1880s, generally known as Jeff Davis boots after Jefferson Davis, the Secretary of War who re-equipped the army in the 1850s. Military brogans were greatly improved during the First World War (see above), but at least in the United States, the lessons learned in that war were forgotten, and as World War II approached, the Army found itself reinventing the wheel, starting out once again with a garrison shoe that was ill-suited to field and combat duty. Modifications to brogans were unsuccessful, and eventually abandoned in favor of higher topped combat boots.


Crimilda Pontes

Crimilda Pontes (March 13, 1926 – January 25, 2000) was an American graphic designer and calligrapher. She designed many book covers and dust jackets, and was responsible for the Smithsonian Institution's "sunburst" logo.
Early life.
Pontes was born in Somerset, Massachusetts, the daughter of Albert Pontes and Irene Reis Cabral Pontes, of Bristol, Rhode Island. Her father was head custodian for Bristol schools. She was valedictorian of the Bristol Senior High School class of 1944. She recalled of her early education in 1968, "I would like it stressed that my interest in books and lettering was enkindled and encouraged in its development under the guidance of Miss Jessie Molaskey, librarian at Guiteras Junior High School."
Pontes studied with calligrapher John Howard Benson, and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1948. She completed her Master of Fine Arts degree in graphic design at Yale University in 1959.
Career.
Pontes was an apprentice to John Howard Benson in Rhode Island after she graduated from college. She held the title Illustrator General at the Naval War College from 1951 to 1954, and taught art at Rosary Hill College from 1954 to 1957. In 1959, she inscribed the dedication in the book that American president Dwight D. Eisenhower gave to French president Charles de Gaulle at a summit in Paris.
Pontes designed book covers and dust jackets, working at Yale University Press from 1959 to 1964. She was a designer at the Smithsonian Institution for 23 years, beginning in 1965, and was responsible for creating the Smithsonian's "sunburst" logo. She retired in 1988. She also did lettering for postage stamps, banners, and posters.
The 1971 redesign of the "American Historical Review" was "chiefly owing" to the work of Pontes, "who brought to her task an unusual combination of sensitivity, taste, experience, and a remarkable grasp of scholarly needs and constraints; moreover, she has been great fun to work with", according to the journal's managing editor, Robert K. Webb. In 1984, she helped design the medal for members of the Order of James Smithson.
Personal life.
Pontes died in 2000, aged 73 years. Her gravesite is with her parents', in Bristol. Her papers are in the Crimilda Pontes Graphic Arts Archive at Western Michigan University, and the Crimilda Pontes Papers at the Smithsonian.


Bob Lodge

Bob Lodge (October 6,1940 – December 21, 2008) lived in Washington state, US. He created many puzzles and contests for "Games" magazine. Lodge often placed many layers of red herrings within his creations for puzzlers to decipher. Over the years, he made several acrostic puzzles and other challenges, including elements from U.S. geography, presidential history, stamp collecting, and mathematical brain teasers. One of his most ambitious contests included the number-based scavenger hunt Ultimate Calculatrivia in late 2003. He died of cancer on December 21, 2008.


Out There (video game)

Out There is an Android and iOS game by French indie developer Mi-Clos Studio, released on February 27, 2014. It was later released on PC, Mac and Linux through Steam. An enhanced version titled "Out There: Ω The Alliance" was released on the Nintendo Switch on April 9, 2019. The story begins in the 22nd century. Earth is exhausted of resources and no longer a viable planet for its human civilization, whose unsustainable growth made it impossible for developing society any further. An astronaut is sent to Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter, in order to find viable resources to supply Earth. Onboard of his ship, the Nomad, the astronaut sleeps in cryonics until reaching his destiny. Unfortunately, he wakes up in an unknown location, far away from the Earth.
Through his adventure, the astronaut meets many alien creatures. There are 3 civilizations that the astronaut interacts with that have a major impact: The Judges/Architects, responsible for the destruction of solar systems, Star Iron, an advanced AI that runs the stations the player can resupply in, and People Death, the original creators of Star Iron and survivors of another species whose homeworld was destroyed by the Judges/Architects. The game ending depends on which civilization the player decides to speak to or help. If he speaks to the Judges/Architects, he is only informed of what happened to him and to Earth. If he confronts People Death and defeats them, they will see them as a sort of godly being, and allow him to use their army to ravage worlds. Only if the player helps Star Iron destroy the Judges/Architects enclave, can he use the wormhole of the system where the enclave was located to travel back to 22nd century Earth, and bring new technology and a new hope for Humanity. There is also a fourth ending, added in the "Omega Edition" of the game, in which the player uses one of the Arks left behind by humans who tried to flee Earth to colonize a new planet for Humanity and rebuild civilization anew.
Gameplay.
"Out There" centers around exploration and resource management. The player starts with a ship equipped with some devices, fuel, oxygen, and hull metal, and can mine planets for more resources; a steady supply of them is necessary to continue progressing through the game. Along the way, the player will also discover a variety of aliens in space and planetside, as well as artifacts and abandoned spaceships, which can be stripped of equipment and resources or taken over. The final goal of the game is to travel across a sector of space to a faraway solar system.
Critical reception.
The game has a Metacritic score of 85/100 based on 19 critic reviews.
"Slide to Play" wrote, ""Out There" is a wonderfully atmospheric resource management game that gets under your skin." "TouchArcade" said, "It works because "Out There" gets the threat of death right." "GamesRadar+" said, "Despite a few niggling issues, "Out There"'s melancholy atmosphere and challenging resource management will have you coming back for seconds. And thirds." "USgamer" described the game as "A sprawling, easy to play but surprisingly deep jaunt through the stars—and one with a beautifully crafted atmosphere sure to keep you coming back for more." "AppleNApps" said, ""Out There" offers an involved experience that you can truly get lost in, just like the main character is lost in space making it a must have title." "Pocket Gamer" said, "A vast, lonely game about space and time and death, "Out There" is by turns funny, exciting, and fresh."
"4Players" wrote "Poignant, mysterious and deadly: This is an impressive odyssey in to space." "Hyper Magazine" deemed it "Solidly built and continually compelling." "Eurogamer" said "Out There also reveals something of the human pioneering spirit and its twin: the urge to survive till the final lungful of oxygen is expended. And if and when you do manage to scrape through another day, it's a game that allows you to marvel at the unlikeliness of all this as well as the miracle and fragility of life." "Multiplayer.it" said "Out There brings a great and melancholic journey in deep space, but the extreme reliance on luck can be frustrating." "Digital Spy" said "Out There is a game about controlling what you can, and adapting to what you can't, as a new story unfolds with each jump across the stars." "Arcade Sushi" said "While Out There is indisputably a well-crafted game, it’s also a game designed to cater to a specific crowd. Its harsh, survival-oriented gameplay harkens back to PC games of old, and though there are a number of choices which hamper the title's replayability, it’s still a uniquely memorable experience which will provide countless hours of fun for gamers who don’t mind frequently failing at a slow pace." Gamezebo wrote "Out There is a solidly built game that I can happily recommend to anyone looking for a proper adventure game, and to players who don't mind testing their luck over their ability to plan. It's worth mentioning that the game is largely text-based, so it's suitable for players of all skill levels."
"148Apps" said "Out There is quite an interesting interstellar adventure, but the sheer level of randomness might turn off some players." "Game Informer" said "Many repeated playthroughs of Out There allow for a marginally higher survival rate, but the arbitrary chance for failure on an otherwise perfect run can be infuriating. If that indiscriminate failure is part of what you enjoy in roguelikes, Out There is a fascinating attempt to combine strategy with storytelling, and a worthy distraction for science-fiction enthusiasts." "MacLife" said "With atmosphere and story driving the slow-burning adventure, Out There is decidedly light on action and excitement. That said, it's the game's personality and surprises that will keep you pushing deeper into the stars." "Gameblog.fr" wrote "Out There is some kind of science fiction gamebook, where the difficulty changes depending the end you want to reach. This rogue-like doesn't feature combats, but it is still very interesting. And for this price, you should definitely try it."


Sparkster

 is a side-scrolling platform game developed and published by Konami for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game, the only one in the series to be released on a Nintendo console, was directed by Hideo Ueda and was released in Japan on September 1994, in North America in October 1994, in Europe in 1994.
"Sparkster" is a different game from the Sega Genesis version despite having the same title in North America and Europe, which bore the full title of "" (as well as much of the exact same music in the soundtrack), and has no plot continuity with the original "Rocket Knight Adventures".
Gameplay.
The eponymous main character is an opossum knight named Sparkster who fights an army of yellow wolves and robots. He is armed with a sword that can fire energy bolts and a rocket pack that allows him to fly short distances. The gameplay remains mostly the same as in Mega Drive/Genesis games, with the most notable change being the addition of a short-distance rolling dash. At the end of every level, Sparkster battles a boss, and the level is complete when it is defeated. The 3rd (2nd in Easy) stage consists of Sparkster riding a robot-ostrich in an auto-scrolling level, while the 7th (5th in Easy) consists of a top-down shooter level. One major difference is that the game's final level depends on the difficulty the player selected. On easy, the game culminates with battle against Axel Gear, but on normal, the story continues with Sparkster fighting the leader of the Wolves on the next level. On hard difficulty, the game continues beyond that, with the true final stage.
Plot.
The kingdom of Eginasem, a land inhabited by opossums, is under attack by the Lioness's army of yellow dog and wolf soldiers, which also kidnapped Princess Flora. Sparkster, the Rocket Knight, is out to battle this threat, rescue the princess and save his kingdom from certain destruction. His nemesis, the rival Rocket Knight Axel Gear, is aiding the invading forces, making Sparkster's task even more dangerous. The player's goal is to battle through all of the enemy warriors and robots, defeat Axel Gear and infiltrate the enemy's battleship, where the yellow dogs leader, Generalissimo Lioness, is planning to launch a warhead to destroy planet Eginasem.
Reception.
"GamePro" rated the game positively, but mentioned that it was not a strong enough improvement from the original "Rocket Knight Adventures", criticizing the lack of an improved control scheme and new weapons and powerups. However, they praised the impressive graphics, moody music, and the two secret hard modes. "Electronic Gaming Monthly" gave it an 8.2 out of 10, saying that it shows Konami "back to form" with "huge levels, gigantic bosses, outstanding graphics and excellent music."
"Sparkster" was awarded Best Sound Effects of 1994 by "Electronic Gaming Monthly". IGN placed the game 87th in their Top 100 SNES Games if All Time.


Urland (performance collective)

Urland, often styled URLAND, is a performance collective based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It was founded in 2010 at the theatre academy of Maastricht. It consists of Ludwig Bindervoet, Thomas Dudkiewicz, Marijn Alexander de Jong and Jimi Zoet.
URLAND is a performance-collective. URLAND works autonomously. URLAND knows no hierarchy, there is no director. URLAND designs the set. URLAND creates the sound. URLAND writes the text. URLAND is on stage. URLAND experiments. URLAND refers, quotes and samples. URLAND sees technology as a means, not an end. URLAND believes in live art in digital times.
Biography.
URLAND has created physical and visual performances including "De Gabber Opera" (2010), "De Oktobertragödie" (2011), and "Kwartet, een Powerballad" (2013). They have performed in the Netherlands and abroad, in theatres and clubs like Lowlands. The group, currently all in their twenties, bases its performances on techno music and death metal themes, as well as by epic stories and world literature.
Since 2013 the group is connected to Theater Rotterdam and receives structural funding from both the Dutch government and the city of Rotterdam. They are currently working on their first production for the ‘big stage’: "De Internet Trilogie", a series which questions the rise, expansion and limitless promise of the internet, with a comparison to the "Prometheia" of Aeschylus. It’s a new epic, or myth, about the creation of the internet.


Robert N. Charrette

Robert N. Charrette (born 1953) is an American graphic artist, game designer, sculptor and author. Charrette has authored more than a dozen novels. His gaming materials have received many Origins Awards. Charrette was inducted in the Origins Hall of Fame in 2003. His work is known for a clean, realistic style that invokes themes from Feudal Japan and Chanbara films and in particular, historical and fantastic representations of Samurai culture. His early work in game design and miniature sculpting set the tone for depictions of Japanese mythology in American fantasy and science fiction. His 1979 role-playing game "Bushido" was one of the first role-playing games with a non-Western theme and remained in print for more than three decades. Charrette produced gaming products for Fantasy Games Unlimited, Grenadier Models Inc. and Ral Partha Enterprises, FASA and currently operates Parroom Enterprises, LLC, a boutique miniatures game company.
Early life.
Charrette grew up in Rhode Island. He earned an interdisciplinary degree in biology and geology at Brown University. He is a lifelong fan of dinosaurs and participates in the "La Belle Compagnie", a non-profit dedicated to educating the public about daily life during the Hundred Years War.
Career.
Charrette began his career in 1976 as an illustrator for Little Soldier Games. He continued on at the company's successor, Tyr Games, which became Phoenix Games and then Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1980.
Charrette added game design and sculpting to his repertoire. With Paul R. Hume, he co-wrote and illustrated "Bushido" (1979), "Aftermath!" (1981) and "Daredevils" (1982). Charrette co-wrote "Spacefarers" with Ed Lipsett. By 1979, Charrette had created 25 mm miniatures to accompany "Bushido" and Fantasy Games Unlimited's "Gangster!" and "Space Opera" game worlds. Those initial Japanese-themed figures began a series that he would revise many times. He produced similar Samurai-themed lines for Grenadier Models Inc., Ral Partha Enterprises, Reaper Miniatures and others.
Charrette became a prolific sculptor. He joined Ral Partha in 1984 and contributed to Tom Meier's "The Hoplites", "1200 A.D." and "CS/02-xxx Collector Series" lines. In 1985, Charrette inaugurated figures for Chaosium's "RuneQuest" and a line of pulp era adventurers that were initially called "20th Century Plus", but were later renamed "20-xxx The Roaring Twenties". They were an update of the line of figures he sculpted in 1979 to accompany Fantasy Games Unlimited's "Gangster!". and included cinematic themes such as the intrepid archaeologist.
He was part of a team of sculptors that produced a line of miniature robot war machines for Ral Partha in 1985. The miniatures were for a game that was first called "Battledroids" and renamed "BattleTech" in 1986, for FASA's game of the same name. It was the beginning of a permanent relationship between the two companies that would eventually lead to Ral Partha's sale to FASA. Charrette began a long-term relationship with FASA as a sculptor, game designer and novelist.
In 1986, Charrette introduced Ral Partha's "53-9xx Bushido", an expansion of his earlier line. "Bushido" coincided with TSR, Inc.'s 1985 release of "Oriental Adventures" supplements, a gaming world that resembled the one crafted by Charrette and Hume in 1979.
At the time integrated campaign worlds such as Games Workshop's "Warhammer Fantasy Battle" were showing early success, Ral Partha introduced the "Chaos Wars" theme into their 1986 and 1987 product lines. It was the first step toward unifying a collection of disparate product lines into an integrated game world. Charrette added a fantasy component to Ral Partha's existing "Rules According to Ral" for medieval battles. It was released in 1987 as part of a boxed set "Rules According to Ral: Chaos Wars". "Chaos Wars" unified existing product lines and their packaging was marked with stickers. Among these sets were Charrette's popular "Fangs of Fury" Beastmen. Still Nascent, the Chaos Wars theme, was dropped in 1988 to promote a new contract for a line of official miniatures for TSR, Inc.'s "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" game.
As Ral Partha became engaged with TSR, Charrette solidified his relationship with FASA. In 1988, he joined his longtime partner Paul R. Hume and others to construct FASA's 1989 Shadowrun game world. Charrette provided design elements and artwork for "Shadowrun" and sculpted a line of figures produced by Grenadier Models Inc. While at Grenadier, Charrette also crafted a line of miniatures for "" (by West End Games), "Lost Lands" range of dinosaurs and 15 mm "Warlord" ranges. As the creative focus of Grenadier Models Inc. moved to the United Kingdom in 1991 and 1992, FASA moved its production of Shadowrun figures to Ral Partha.
Charrette had quickly become an integral member of FASA's creative team. In 1989, he expanded his design concepts for FASA games into supporting novelizations. Over the next six years, Charrette produced nine novels for FASA's Shadowrun, Battletech and Mechwarrior game worlds. As FASA's attention turned to video games, Charrette wrote "Strange World of John Reddy Trilogy" (1994-1995) for Warner Books, "Chronicle of Aelwyn Trilogy" (1996-1997) for Harper Collins and two "Interstellar Defense League" (1999, 2004) novels for Eos and under the pseudonym "Richard Fawkes."
In 2001, Charrette returned to game design and began Parroom Enterprises, LLC. and miniature and games company which offers miniatures, games and supplements with fantasy themes inspired by the Victorian and medieval Japanese periods.
Bibliography.
Roleplaying Games and Supplements.
Bushido
Aftermath!
Spacefarers
Daredevils
The Mines of Keridav
Rules According to Ral
Runequest
Shadowrun World
Earthdawn
Parroom Station
Novels.
BattleTech Series—FASA, ROC
MechWarrior Series—ROC
Shadowrun Series—ROC, Fanpro
Strange World of John Reddy Trilogy—Warner Books
Chronicle of Aelwyn Trilogy—Harper Collins
Interstellar Defense League (as Richard Fawkes) -- Eos
Non-Fiction
Awards.
Origins Awards / H.G. Wells Awards
Origins Hall of Fame


Puzzle Bobble

, also known as Bust-a-Move, is a 1994 tile-matching puzzle arcade game developed and published by Taito. It is based on the 1986 arcade game "Bubble Bobble", featuring characters and themes from that game. Its characteristically cute Japanese animation and music, along with its play mechanics and level designs, made it successful as an arcade title and spawned several sequels and ports to home gaming systems.
Gameplay.
At the start of each round, the rectangular playing arena contains a prearranged pattern of colored "bubbles". At the bottom of the screen, the player controls a device called a "pointer", which aims and fires bubbles up the screen. The color of bubbles fired is randomly generated and chosen from the colors of bubbles still left on the screen.
The objective of the game is to clear all the bubbles from the arena without any bubble crossing the bottom line. Bubbles will fire automatically if the player remains idle. After clearing the arena, the next round begins with a new pattern of bubbles to clear. The game consists of 32 levels. The fired bubbles travel in straight lines (possibly bouncing off the sidewalls of the arena), stopping when they touch other bubbles or reach the top of the arena. If a bubble touches identically-colored bubbles, forming a group of three or more, those bubbles—as well as any bubbles hanging from them—are removed from the field of play, and points are awarded.After every few shots, the "ceiling" of the playing arena drops downwards slightly, along with all the bubbles stuck to it. The number of shots between each drop of the ceiling is influenced by the number of bubble colors remaining. The closer the bubbles get to the bottom of the screen, the faster the music plays and if they cross the line at the bottom then the game is over.
Release.
Two different versions of the original game were released. "Puzzle Bobble" was originally released in Japan only in June 1994 by Taito Corporation, running on Taito's B System hardware (with the preliminary title "Bubble Buster"). Then, 6 months later in December, the international Neo Geo version of "Puzzle Bobble" was released. It was almost identical aside from being in stereo and having some different sound effects and translated text.
Reception.
In Japan, "Game Machine" listed the Neo Geo version of "Puzzle Bobble" on their February 15, 1995 issue as being the second most-popular arcade game at the time.
Reviewing the Super NES version, Mike Weigand of "Electronic Gaming Monthly" called it "a thoroughly enjoyable and incredibly addicting puzzle game". He considered the two player mode the highlight, but also said that the one player mode provides a solid challenge. "GamePro" gave it a generally negative review, saying it "starts out fun but ultimately lacks intricacy and longevity." They elaborated that in one player mode all the levels feel the same, and that two player matches are over too quickly to build up any excitement. They also criticized the lack of any 3D effects in the graphics. "Next Generation" reviewed the SNES version of the game, and stated that "It's very simple, using only the control pad and one button to fire, and it's addictive as hell."
A reviewer for "Next Generation", while questioning the continued viability of the action puzzle genre, admitted that the game is "very simple and "very" addictive". He remarked that though the 3DO version makes no significant additions, none are called for by a game with such simple enjoyment. "GamePro"s brief review of the 3DO version commented, "The move-and-shoot controls are very responsive and the simple visuals and music are well done. This is one puzzler that isn't a bust." Edge magazine ranked the game 73rd on their 100 Best Video Games in 2007.
Legacy.
The simplicity of the concept has led to many clones, both commercial and otherwise. 1996's "Snood" replaced the bubbles with small creatures and has been successful in its own right. "Worms Blast" was Team 17's take on the concept. Mobile clones include "Bubble Witch Saga" and "Bubble Shooter". "Frozen Bubble" is a free software clone.


Angus Lloyd

Angus Lloyd was a British businessman and fashion designer. In 1963, Lloyd and his business partner, Henri Strzelecki, founded the Henri Lloyd clothing line in Manchester. Under Lloyd and Strzelecki, the company became known for its pioneering use of new technologies and man-made materials in its apparel, including Velcro, Bri-Nylon, and Gore-Tex.


Dale Hennesy

Dale Hennesy (August 24, 1926 – July 20, 1981) was an American production designer and art director.
Hennesy was the son of designers and layout artists for Walt Disney. He began working in motion pictures as an illustrator at Twentieth Century Fox, including illustration work on "The King and I" and "South Pacific". He won the Academy Award for best art direction for "Fantastic Voyage" (1966), for which he created sets depicting the interior of the human body. He was also nominated for his art direction in creating the futuristic sets of "Logan's Run" (1976) and "Annie" (1982). He designed a $1-million tenement row street scene for "Annie" that was subsequently used in many motion pictures and was named Hennesy Street in his honor.
Hennesy died suddenly of a heart attack in 1981 during production of "Annie".


Galaxian 2

Galaxian 2 (also written as Galaxian II ) is a handheld electronic game that was released in 1981 in the US by Entex Industries. It was also released the same year in Japan under the name "Astro Galaxy" and in Europe under the name "Astro Invader". The game was also released under the Futuretronics brand in Australia.
The game is called "Galaxian 2" because it has a two-player mode. It is not a sequel; there is no Entex "Galaxian".
Description.
The gameplay is based on the "Galaxian" arcade game. The player shoots at waves of attacking aliens as they launch kamikaze attacks. There are two user-selectable skill levels.
In "Galaxian 2", the player's ship is known as the "Galaxy ship". In two-player mode, one player controls the Galaxy ship and the other player acts as the opponent, controlling the attacking aliens.
The maximum score that can be represented on the display is 9,999 points and will automatically wrap around to 0000.
Hardware.
"Galaxian 2" uses a fixed three-color VFD display, with the main play area having eight columns and twelve rows with dancing stars in the background.
The case of the game is designed to look like the exterior of a spaceship, reminiscent of Battlestar Galactica.
Holding down the "missile" button whilst turning the game on initiates a graphical test and the game also has simple sound effects which can be turned off.
"Galaxian 2" takes four C type batteries or an AC adapter
Reception.
Jaro Gielens, author of the book "Electronic Plastic", described the game as an "Excellent 2-player space shooter, with very special case design".
Legacy.
The Futuretronics version of the game was seen in the movie "Doom" (2005).