John Hill (game designer)

John Evans Hill (February 21, 1945 – January 12, 2015) was an American designer of military wargames, as well as rules for miniature wargaming such as "Johnny Reb 3". He was a member of the Wargaming Hall of Fame. Hill is most well known as the designer of the extremely popular Avalon Hill board game "Squad Leader" in 1977.
Early life.
John Evans Hill was born on February 21, 1945, in Chicago and grew up in Elmhurst, Illinois. His mother was Marian Jean Whitley. His biological father was John T. Hill, who was killed in action during World War II before John Evans Hill was born. When Hill was three years old, Marian remarried Edward F. Whitley who was the man Hill knew to be his father. He also had a half-brother, Richard Whitley, a notable film and television writer. Hill grew up Catholic, attending and graduating from Immaculate Conception High School. After high school, Hill graduated from Purdue University with a four-year degree in Military History.
Early career.
John Hill founded the Conflict Games Company in the late 1960s and owned a hobby shop, the Scale Model Shop, in Lafayette, Indiana, for several years. It has been reported the Scale Model Shop was lost in a flood. Conflict Games was sold in its entirety to Game Designers' Workshop. He later worked as an advertising executive for Boynton & Associates, which published trade magazines for the hobby industry.
Wargame designs.
John Hill's first published wargames were released in 1972 and included "Kasserine Pass" (Conflict Games), "Verdun, The Game of Attrition" (Conflict Games) and "The Brotherhood" (Conflict Games). The next year he published "Hue" (Conflict Games), based upon the fighting near the City of Hue in the Vietnam War and "Overlord" (Conflict Games) based on the Normandy campaign. In 1974 and 1975 he published two games on the Arab-Israeli conflicts (Bar-Lev & Jerusalem) and in 1977 a game on the fighting in Korea. It was that same year that he sold "Squad Leader" to Avalon Hill. He also worked on the first module for "Squad Leader", "Cross of Iron" (Avalon Hill, 1979). His standing in the commercial board wargaming industry was sufficiently high that when Simulations Publications, Inc. published his "Battle for Stalingrad" in 1980, his name appeared on the box top copy. Few games at the time were marketed on the strength of name recognition of the designer. Once again, when "Eastern Front Tank Leader" was published by West End Games in 1986 his name featured prominently on the cover.
Hill cited Richard Berg as one of his influences.
Hill developed a well known miniatures rules set for regimental level American Civil War miniature gaming, the "Johnny Reb" series (published by Game Designers' Workshop). He was noted for his elaborate 10mm miniature wargaming layouts for Civil War battles at Historical Miniatures Gaming Society conventions such as Historicon, Cold Wars and Fall In!. He founded and owned the Johnny Reb Gaming Company, which published the third version of the "Johnny Reb" rules. He developed "Across A Deadly Field: The War in the East" and "Across A Deadly Field: The War in the West" both focusing on the American Civil War tabletop gaming.
Hill was a frequent contributor to the Johnny Reb Gaming Society's popular "CHARGE! magazine", offering rules interpretations and strategy advice for "Johnny Reb" players.
Awards and legacy.
In 1977, Hill received a Charles S. Roberts Award for designing Squad Leader.
In 1978, Hill was named to the Charles Roberts Awards Hall of Fame at the Origins gaming convention in Chester, Pennsylvania, on June 23, 1979.
J P. Hunerwadel commented in 2001 that "John Hill's "Squad Leader" ... helped fuel the great board-war-game boom of the late seventies."
Game designer Dana Lombardy commented on "Johnny Reb" in 2007: "John Hill's Civil War miniatures rules remain innovative, challenging, and lots of fun, a claim supported by the game's loyal fan support. Clubs still stage "Johnny Reb" sessions at conventions around the world, more than 20 years after the rules were introduced."
Personal life.
He is survived by his wife, Luella Burton, of 46 years, daughter, Stephanie Hill and two grandchildren, Danielle and Carl Anthony Nardei.
Later life.
John Hill lived in New Mexico in retirement after spending many years in Northern Virginia. He also served as a military analyst for the U.S. Government. Hill died on January 12, 2015, at Christus St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe, New Mexico.


Hum Award for Best Supporting Actor

The Hum Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the Hum Television Network and Entertainment Channel (HTNEC). It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role while working within the television industry. The 1st Hum Awards (for 2012) was held in 2013, Mohib Mirza was the first winner of the award for his role in "Shehr-e-Zaat". The award has commonly been referred to as the hum for Best Supporting Actor. Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote, within the actors and jury branch of HTNEC; winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Hum. Multiple nominations for an actor in same category but for different work is eligible.
Since its inception, the award has been awarded to three actors, While Rehan Sheikh has received the most nominations than any other actor with two. As of 2015 ceremony, Rehan Sheikh is the most recent winner in this category for his role as Amin in "Sadqay Tumhare".
Winners and nominees.
In the list below, winners are listed first in the colored row, followed by the other nominees. Following the hum's practice, the dramas below are listed by year of their Pakistan qualifying run, which is usually (but not always) the drama's year of release.
For the first ceremony, the eligibility period spanned full calendar years. For example, the 1st Hum Awards presented on April 28, 2013, to recognized supporting actors of dramas that were released between January, 2012, and December, 2012, the period of eligibility is the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31. However, this rule was subjected to change when at third year ceremony two ("Sadqay Tumhare" and "Digest Writer") of seven nominated drama serials were running on TV at the time when nominations were announced. Date and the award ceremony shows that the 2010 is the period from 2010-2020 (10 years-decade), while the year above winners and nominees shows that the dramas year in which they were telecast, and the figure in bracket shows the ceremony number, for example; an award ceremony is held for the dramas of its previous year.


Costume Designers Guild Awards 2009

12th Costume Designers Guild Awards
February 25, 2010
Contemporary: Crazy Heart
Period: The Young Victoria
Fantasy: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
The 12th Costume Designers Guild Awards, honoring the best costume designs in film and television for 2009, were given on February 25, 2010. The nominees were announced on January 26, 2010.
Nominees.
Film.
 Contemporary Film:
 Period Film:
 Fantasy Film:
Television.
 Made for Television Movie or Miniseries:
 Contemporary Television Series:
 Period/Fantasy Television Series:
Commercial.
 Commercial Costume Design:


Endpoint interface

In the Web service context the term endpoint received a formal definition with the W3C recommendation "WSDL 2.0" of 2007,
The term "endpoint interface" is more specific about "how to implement the endpoint", for example by an OpenAPI specification or by WSDL specification. Typical endpoints can be expressed by URI Templates.
In Open API terms the endpoints are resources that the API exposes. The old (2004) term "end point" received also a glossary definition:
SOAP and Java context.
A SOAP-based web service can be implemented as a single java class. An endpoint interface, also known as a service endpoint interface (SEI), is a term used in Java Platform, Enterprise Edition when exposing Enterprise JavaBeans as a Web service (see also Service Implementation Bean (SIB)). It is annotated with codice_1 and is a component interface, which declares all the abstract methods that are exposed to the client. As it extends the codice_2 interface, all methods must throw the codice_3. A Web service client accesses a stateless session bean through the bean's Web service endpoint interface. Like a remote interface, a Web service endpoint interface defines the business methods of the bean.
In contrast to a remote interface, a Web service endpoint interface is not accompanied by a home interface, which defines the bean's life-cycle methods. The only methods of the bean that may be invoked by a Web service client are the business methods that are defined in the Web service endpoint interface.
The methods of an endpoint interface for a Web service are implemented in a session bean class that is stateless.


TAKT

TAKT is a group of writers and composers of new songs for use in Christian churches, initiated in 1947. The genre which the members promoted was later called Neues Geistliches Lied. The name is short for "TextAutor/innen- und Komponist/innen-Tagung" (Convention of text authors and composers), a name that the group adopted in 1997.
History.
A monthly publication, first issued in 1946 was "Unser Monatslied" (Our song of the month), initiated by , a Protestant church musician from Stuttgart, as an ecumenical approach to more new music for church use. In 1947 a group of the Catholic Church was founded, "Werkgemeinschaft Lied und Musik" (Workshop song and music), which held annual conventions. In 1950, a Protestant group was founded, "Arbeitsgemeinschaft für evangelische Jugendmusik" (AGM, Association for Protestant youth music).
From 1971, ecumenical annual meetings of members of both groups were held, initiated by the two presidents, Joachim Schwarz (AGM) and Johannes Aengenvoort. From 1979 to 1989, the annual meetings were at Knivsberg in Denmark, which enabled people from East Germany to attend. After the unification of Germany, the meetings were held in Germany, organized by the group.
Many songs by members of the group have been included in hymnals, including the Catholic "Gotteslob" and the Protestant "Evangelisches Gesangbuch". Many songs were tried first at events such as Kirchentag and Katholikentag. The group published a collection of songs for the Kirchentag in Cologne 2007, "Singen, um gehört zu werden" (Sing, to be heard), with 119 songs from three decades.
Songs.
Well-known songs in the genre NGL by members of TAKT include:
Members.
Members have included:


Janet Perr

Janet Perr is an art director, graphic designer, author and illustrator.
She has designed record covers, advertisements, posters, CD packages and book covers and is now the creator of the books "Yiddish For Dogs" (Hyperion, Sept. 2007) and "Yiddish For Babies" (Simon & Schuster 2009).
Perr won a Grammy Award for the art direction and design of Cyndi Lauper's debut album "She's So Unusual". She has worked with artists such as The Rolling Stones, Run-DMC and Devo. She has also been acknowledged with numerous art directors awards and her work has been featured in the books "Designing For Music" and "1001 Covers".
She attended the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and subsequently moved to New York City, where she was a designer at CBS Records and then associate art director at Rolling Stone magazine. Since her stint at Rolling Stone magazine, she has been freelancing and working on her books.


Pinks and greens

"Pinks and greens" and "Army greens" are colloquial terms for the United States Army's officer winter service uniform of the early 20th century and the similarly patterned service uniform introduced in the early 21st century.
"Pinks and greens".
The "pinks and greens" uniform was introduced in the 1920s and consisted of a brownish green blouse (the "greens") with lighter colored trousers of a slight pinkish hue (the "pinks"). Accessories – which, until 1942, included a Sam Browne belt – were patterned in brown leather. In 1944, an optional field jacket, sometimes called the Ike jacket due its association with Dwight Eisenhower, was introduced.
Beginning in 1948, wear of the uniform by officers was restricted to off-duty hours and informal evening social functions. The uniform was altogether deauthorized for officers of the United States Army effective February 1, 1958, and for officers of the United States Army Reserve and the Army National Guard of the United States effective October 1, 1959.
The "pinks and greens" have been called "one of the flashiest and most striking uniforms ever authorized by the Army".
Army Green Service Uniform.
After a 60-year hiatus, on November 11, 2018, the U.S. Army announced it would adopt a new uniform patterned on the "pinks and greens" effective 2020, with phase-in to be complete by 2028. The decision to adopt the new uniform was done to fill the gap between the formal blue Army Service Uniform and the Army Combat Uniform created by the deauthorization of the old Army Green uniform used between 1954 and 2015. With the change, the blue Army Service Uniform will again be restricted to ceremonial wear.
According to former Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel A. Dailey, the Army designation for the new uniform is "Army Green Service Uniform" rather than "pinks and greens".


Fernando Carrere

Fernando Carrere (31 December 1910 – 2 September 1998) was a Mexican art director. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film "The Children's Hour".


Video game graphics

A variety of computer graphic techniques have been used to display video game content throughout the history of video games. The predominance of individual techniques have evolved over time, primarily due to hardware advances and restrictions such as the processing power of central or graphics processing units.
Text-based.
Some of the earliest video games were text games or text-based games that used text characters instead of bitmapped or vector graphics. Examples include MUDs ("multi-user dungeons"), where players could read or view depictions of rooms, objects, other players, and actions performed in the virtual world; and roguelikes, a subgenre of role-playing video games featuring many monsters, items, and environmental effects, as well as an emphasis on randomization, replayability and permanent death. Some of the earliest text games were developed for computer systems which had no video display at all.
Text games are typically easier to write and require less processing power than graphical games, and thus were more common from 1970 to 1990. However, terminal emulators are still in use today, and people continue to play MUDs and explore interactive fiction. Many beginning programmers still create these types of games to familiarize themselves with a programming language, and contests are still held even today on who can finish programming a roguelike within a short time period, such as seven days.
Vector graphics.
Vector graphics refer to the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, and curves (i.e., shapes based on mathematical equations) instead of resolution-dependent bitmap graphics to represent images in computer graphics. In video games this type of projection is somewhat rare, but has become more common in recent years in browser-based gaming with the advent of Flash and HTML5 Canvas, as these support vector graphics natively. An earlier example for the personal computer is "Starglider" (1986).
Vector game can also refer to a video game that uses a vector graphics display capable of projecting images using an electron beam to draw images instead of with pixels, much like a laser show. Many early arcade games used such displays, as they were capable of displaying more detailed images than raster displays on the hardware available at that time. Many vector-based arcade games used full-color overlays to complement the otherwise monochrome vector images. Other uses of these overlays were very detailed drawings of the static gaming environment, while the moving objects were drawn by the vector beam. Games of this type were produced mainly by Atari, Cinematronics, and Sega. Examples of vector games include "Asteroids", "Armor Attack", "Aztarac", "Eliminator", "Lunar Lander", "Space Fury", "Space Wars", "Star Trek", "Tac/Scan", "Tempest" and "Zektor". The Vectrex home console also used a vector display. After 1985, the use of vector graphics declined substantially due to improvements in sprite technology; rasterized 3D Filled Polygon Graphics returned to the arcades and were so popular that vector graphics could no longer compete.
Full motion video.
Full motion video (FMV) games are video games that rely upon pre-recorded television- or movie-quality recordings and animations rather than sprites, vectors or 3D models to display action in the game. FMV-based games were popular during the early 1990s as CD-ROMs and Laserdiscs made their way into the living rooms, providing an alternative to the low-capacity ROM cartridges of most consoles at the time. Although FMV-based games did manage to look better than many contemporary sprite-based games, they occupied a niche market; and a vast majority of FMV games were panned at the time of their release, with many gamers citing their dislike for the lack of interaction inherent in these games. As a result, the format became a well-known failure in video gaming, and the popularity of FMV games declined substantially after 1995 as more advanced consoles started to become widely available.
A number of different types of games utilized this format. Some resembled modern music/dance games, where the player timely presses buttons according to a screen instruction. Others included early rail shooters such as "Tomcat Alley", "Surgical Strike" and "Sewer Shark". Full motion video was also used in several interactive movie adventure games, such as "" and "Phantasmagoria".
2D.
Games utilizing parallel projection typically make use of two-dimensional bitmap graphics as opposed to 3D-rendered triangle-based geometry, allowing developers to create large, complex gameworlds efficiently and with relatively few art assets by dividing the art into sprites or tiles and reusing them repeatedly (though some games use a mix of different techniques).
Top-down perspective.
Top-down perspective, also sometimes referred to in a while as bird's-eye view, Overworld, Godview, overhead view or helicopter view, when used in the context of video games, refers to a camera angle that shows players and the areas around them from above. While not exclusive to video games utilizing parallel projection, it was at one time common among 2D role playing video games, wargames and construction and management simulation games, such as "SimCity", "Pokémon", and "Railroad Tycoon"; as well as among action and action-adventure games, such as the early "The Legend of Zelda" and "Grand Theft Auto" games.
Side-scrolling game.
A side-scrolling game or side-scroller is a video game in which the viewpoint is taken from the side, and the onscreen characters generally can only move, to the left or right. Games of this type make use of scrolling computer display technology, and sometimes parallax scrolling to suggest added depth.
In many games the screen follows the player character such that the player character is always positioned near the center of the screen. In other games the position of the screen will change according to the player character's movement, such that the player character is off-center and more space is shown in front of the character than behind. Sometimes, the screen will scroll not only forward in the speed and direction of the player character's movement, but also backwards to previously visited parts of a stage. In other games or stages, the screen will only scroll forwards, not backwards, so that once a stage has been passed it can no longer be visited. In games such as shoot 'em ups like "R-type", the screen scrolls forward by itself at a steady rate, and the player must keep up with the screen, attempting to avoid obstacles and collect things before they pass off screen.
Examples of side-scrolling games include platform games such as "Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Ori and the Blind Forest", beat 'em ups such as the popular "Double Dragon" and "Battletoads", and shooters such as "R-Type" and (more recently) "Jets'n'Guns". The "Super Mario Bros." series has used all three types of side-scrolling at some time in its history.
2.5D, 3/4 perspective, and pseudo-3D.
2.5D ("two-and-a-half-dimensional"), 3/4 perspective and pseudo-3D are informal terms used to describe graphical projections and techniques that try to "fake" three-dimensionality, typically by using some form of parallel projection, wherein the point of view is from a fixed perspective, but also reveals multiple facets of an object. Examples of pseudo-3D techniques include isometric/axonometric projection, oblique projection, orthographic projection, billboarding, parallax scrolling, scaling, skyboxes, and skydomes. In addition, 3D graphical techniques such as bump mapping and parallax mapping are often used to extend the illusion of three-dimensionality without substantially increasing the resulting computational overhead introduced by larger numbers of polygons (a.k.a. the "polygon count").
These terms sometimes possess a second meaning, wherein the gameplay in an otherwise 3D game is forcibly restricted to a two-dimensional plane.
Examples of games that make use of pseudo-3D techniques include "Zaxxon", "The Sims" and "Diablo" (isometric/axonometric projection); "Ultima VII" and "Paperboy" (oblique projection); "Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Street Fighter II" (parallax scrolling); "Fonz" and "Space Harrier" (scaling); and "Half-Life 2" (skyboxes). In addition to axonometric projection, games such as "The Sims" and "Final Fantasy Tactics" also make use of a combination of pre-drawn 2D sprites and real-time polygonal graphics instead of relying entirely on 2D sprites as is the norm.
3D.
With the advent of 3D accelerated graphics, video games could expand beyond the typically sprite-based 2D graphics of older graphics technologies to describe a view frequently more true to reality and lifelike than their predecessors. Perspective projection has also been used in some earlier titles to present a 3D view from a fixed (and thus somewhat less hardware-intensive) perspective with a limited ability to move.
Voxel engines.
Contrary to using triangle meshes, this uses "Voxels".
Fixed 3D.
Fixed 3D refers to a three-dimensional representation of the game world where foreground objects (i.e. game characters) are typically rendered in real time against a static background. The principal advantage of this technique is its ability to display a high level of detail on minimal hardware. The main disadvantage is that the player's frame of reference remains fixed at all times, preventing players from examining or moving about the environment from multiple viewpoints.
Backgrounds in fixed 3D games tend to be pre-rendered two-dimensional images, but are sometimes rendered in real time (e.g. "Blade Runner"). The developers of "SimCity 4" took advantage of fixed perspective by not texturing the reverse sides of objects (and thereby speeding up rendering) which players could not see anyway. Fixed 3D is also sometimes used to "fake" areas which are inaccessible to players. ', for instance, is nearly completely 3D, but uses fixed 3D to represent many of the building interiors as well as one entire town (this technique was later dropped in favor of full-3D in the game's successor, '). A similar technique, the skybox, is used in many 3D games to represent distant background objects that are not worth rendering in real time.
Used heavily in the survival horror genre, fixed 3D was first seen in Infogrames' "Alone in the Dark" series in the early 1990s and imitated by titles such as "Ecstatica". It was later brought back by Capcom in the "Resident Evil" series. Gameplay-wise there is little difference between fixed 3D games and their 2D precursors. Players' ability to navigate within a scene still tends to be limited, and interaction with the gameworld remains mostly "point-and-click".
Further examples include the PlayStation-era titles in the "Final Fantasy" series (Square); the role-playing games "Parasite Eve" and "Parasite Eve II" (Square); the action-adventure games "Ecstatica" and "Ecstatica 2" (Andrew Spencer/Psygnosis), as well as "Little Big Adventure" (Adeline Software International); the graphic adventure "Grim Fandango" (LucasArts); and "3D Movie Maker" (Microsoft Kids).
Pre-rendered backgrounds are also found in some isometric video games, such as the role-playing game "The Temple of Elemental Evil" (Troika Games) and the "Baldur's Gate" series (BioWare); though in these cases the form of graphical projection used is not different.
First-person perspective.
First person refers to a graphical perspective rendered from the viewpoint of the player character. In many cases, this may be the viewpoint from the cockpit of a vehicle. Many different genres have made use of first-person perspectives, including adventure games, flight simulators, and the highly popular first-person shooter genre.
Games with a first-person perspective are usually avatar-based, wherein the game displays what the player's avatar would see with the avatar's own eyes. In many games, players cannot see the avatar's body, though they may be able to see the avatar's weapons or hands. This viewpoint is also frequently used to represent the perspective of a driver within a vehicle, as in flight and racing simulators; and it is common to make use of positional audio, where the volume of ambient sounds varies depending on their position with respect to the player's avatar.
Games with a first-person perspective do not require sophisticated animations for the player's avatar, and do not need to implement a manual or automated camera-control scheme as in third-person perspective. A first person perspective allows for easier aiming, since there is no representation of the avatar to block the player's view. However, the absence of an avatar can make it difficult to master the timing and distances required to jump between platforms, and may cause motion sickness in some players.
Players have come to expect first-person games to accurately scale objects to appropriate sizes. However, key objects such as dropped items or levers may be exaggerated in order to improve their visibility.
Third-person perspective.
Third person refers to a graphical perspective rendered from a view that is some distance away (usually behind and slightly above) from the player's character. This viewpoint allows players to see a more strongly characterized avatar, and is most common in action and action-adventure games. This viewpoint poses some difficulties, however, in that when the player turns or stands with his back to a wall, the camera may jerk or end up in awkward positions. Developers have tried to alleviate this issue by implementing intelligent camera systems, or by giving the player control over the camera. There are three primary types of third-person camera systems: "fixed camera systems" in which the camera positions are set during the game creation; "tracking camera systems" in which the camera simply follows the player's character; and "interactive camera systems" that are under the player's control.
Examples of games utilizing third-person perspective include "Super Mario 64", the "Tomb Raider" series, the 3D installments of the "Legend of Zelda" series, and "Crash Bandicoot".
Other topics.
Stereo graphics.
Stereoscopic video games use stereoscopic technologies to create depth perception for the player by any form of stereo display. Such games should not to be confused with video games that use 3D computer graphics, which although they feature graphics on screen, do not give the illusion of depth beyond the screen.
Virtual reality headset.
The graphics for virtual reality gaming consist of a special kind of stereo 3D graphics to fit the up-close display. The requirements for latency are also higher to reduce the potential for virtual reality sickness.
Multi-monitor setup.
Many games can run multi-monitor setups to achieve very high display resolutions. Running games in this way can create a greater sense of immersion, e.g. when playing a video racing game or flight simulator or give a tactical advantage due to the higher field of view.
Augmented/Mixed reality graphics.
Augmented or mixed reality game graphics use images that partial overlay the image of reality seen through partial transparent glasses or captured with a camera and seen with a head-mounted display or other displays such as smartphone or tablet displays.
See also.
Technical aspects
Game genres and gameplay


Asma Hussain

Sahibzadi Asma Hussain (, , born Lucknow, India) is an Indian fashion designer.
She belongs to the Royal family of Awadh and is a descendant of Shuja-ud-Daula.
Asma Hussain displayed her first collection in 1994, and founded the Asma Hussain Institute of Fashion Technology (AIFT) in Uttar Pradesh in the same year. The institute is recognised by the Government of India's National Council for Vocational Training.
Hussain is the Chairperson and Managing Director of the Youth Upliftment and Welfare Association (YUWA), an NGO. She also has a designer outlet in Lucknow, the Asma Hussain Fashion House (AHFH).
She is part of FDCI, Wills India fashion Week, a council of designers in India.
Personal life.
Asma Hussain studied at Aligarh Muslim University. She is married to Anis Ansari and has two daughters, Amira Husain & Naila Ansari.
Career.
Asma Hussain Institute of Fashion Technology (AIFT).
The Asma Hussain Institute of Fashion Technology was established in 1995 and inaugurated by Motilal Vora, the governor of Uttar Pradesh. It is an autonomous non-governmental organisation registered under the Societies Registration Act.
Asma Hussain has organised a number of fashion shows in the name of her institute, including "Nazakat" for IAS week 1998, "Costumes of Avadh" for the Lucknow club and the Uttar Pradesh Khadi & Village industry board. A two-day fashion festival in 1997 was also organized by her at Jahangirabad Palace.
Asma Hussain Fashion House.
The Fashion House is a retail design outlet for handicrafts and ensembles of Uttar Pradesh and other regions. It has a manufacturing unit for Zari Zardozi, Chikan work, Mukaish, Appliqué and Tailored garments.
Students at the AIFT showcase their work in the studio as a part of the practical learning process.


Christian Moore

Christian Moore is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Career.
Christian Moore and Owen Seyler were recent college graduates when they were rooming together in 1994. Moore was working on the design of what was at first a set of miniature rules, and formed the game company Last Unicorn Games with Seyler, Greg Ormand, and Bernie Cahill to publish the game. Instead of a miniatures game, Moore's game eventually became a new roleplaying game, ' (1994), and was the initial fantasy game produced by Last Unicorn. Moore, Seyler, and new employee Ross Isaacs did the initial work on the "Icon" system for the ' (1998). Moore was an old friend of Peter Adkison, and when Last Unicorn was having financial troubles, Wizards of the Coast purchased the company in July 2000. Last Unicorn was still led by Moore when Decipher, Inc. purchased Last Unicorn in 2001. Moore aided George Vasilakos and M. Alexander Jurkat with the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game" (2002). Moore and Seyler later worked for Upper Deck.


Wigwam Mills

Wigwam Mills is a hosiery company based in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, United States.
History.
Wigwam Mills was founded in 1905 by Herbert Chesebro, Robert Ehany, and Lawerance Bentz in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, a year after the Sheboygan Knitting Company burned to the ground. All three founders were employees of the company and purchased equipment and recruited employees from their former company. The new company was founded under the name "Hand Knit Hosiery Company." It made socks and headwear, primarily from wool, for the residents and lumbermen of the area. At the time the company was supplied by numerous nearby wool mills.
By 1922, Herbert Chesebro gained partial control of the company after purchasing Bentz's share. The company flourished under Chesebro.
When the stock market crashed, the hosiery industry struggled in the difficult economy of the Great Depression. After Herbert's death, the company had bank loans totaling $100,000. With the help of J.W. Hansen of the Citizens Bank, the company stayed in business.
In 1936, Robert Chesebro, Sr. gained complete control of the company after working at the company for 12 years.
The company devoted up to 75% of its capacity to knitting for the troops overseas. By 1945 the company had expanded its line to include baseball hosiery, anklets, hockey caps, mittens, and socks for all types of activities.
The company prospered for the next 65 years knitting socks, headwear, and other knit products. On January 1, 1957, the company changed its name from Hand-Knit Hosiery to Wigwam Mills, based on the popularity of the brand.
The company continued under the leadership of Robert Chesebro, Sr., and eventually the third generation of ownership, Robert Chesebro, Jr.
The 1980s saw growth in many areas for Wigwam. A new logo and more technical synthetic fibers were becoming more specialized. Wigwam developed the Poly-Wool line of performance socks as well as the overnight success—Moraine.
From the mid-1980s through the late 1990s the Wigwam 622 slouch socks became very popular. They were worn by kids, tweens, teens, college students and adults. Not only as athletic wear but everyday fashions too. Rolling one's jeans and khakis to show off the slouch socks, wearing the socks over skinny jeans, ankle length skirts and dresses, and ankle length cotton pants, both styles since they stopped at the ankle showed off the socks, were popular styles. Also two other very popular styles were one wearing the socks over leggings with Keds or boat shoes with oversized tees, oversized sweaters, an oversized sweater or oversized sweatshirt over a turtleneck. And two wearing the white color of the socks over opaque tights with a babydoll or skater dress and white Keds or in warmer weather with bike shorts showing from under the babydoll or skater dress with the white Keds.
In the 1990s, the company developed the Ultimax and INgenious brands. Each featured a patented sock technology. In 2007, both brands were brought under the Wigwam brand umbrella. Ultimax became Wigwam Pro and INgenious became Wigwam Fusion.
In May 2020, the company announced it would lay off 85% of its employees, due to the coronavirus pandemic, effectively ending production.


Diabotical

Diabotical is a 2020 multiplayer-only first-person shooter developed by Swedish team GD Studio. It is in the Arena FPS genre and features gameplay similar to Quake III Arena and its successors, with a variety of game modes, weapons, and complex movement mechanics. "Diabotical" uses an engine written from scratch, the "Glitch Engine".
The game entered closed beta on February 28, 2020, with a full release on September 3, 2020. The game is free to play, and $250,000 has been set aside for esport competitions in the game's first year.


G. Mike Reed

Professor George Michael ("Mike") Reed is an American computer scientist. He has contributed to theoretical computer science in general and CSP in particular.
Mike Reed has a doctorate in pure mathematics from Auburn University, United States, and a doctorate in computation from Oxford University, England. He has an interest in mathematical topology.
Reed was a Senior Research Associate at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. From 1986 to 2005, he was at the Oxford University Computing Laboratory (now the Oxford University Department of Computer Science) in England where he was also a Fellow in Computation of St Edmund Hall, Oxford (1986–2005). In 2005, he became Director of UNU/IIST, Macau, part of the United Nations University.


Monah Li

Monah Li is a Viennese-born, Los Angeles-based fashion designer, best known for her feminine, deconstructed clothes. She is credited by numerous fashion writers with popularizing the post-modern Bohemian chic look and with starting the trend of up-cycling and re-purposing vintage dresses, sweaters and slips.
Her dresses, cashmere sweaters and skirts have been featured in "People Magazine", "The Los Angeles Times", and "Los Angeles Magazine", and "worn by celebrities such Christina Ricci, Salma Hayek, Nicole Kidman and Ione Skye." Other stars who have worn her clothes include Courtney Love, Cameron Diaz, Stevie Nicks, Salma Hayek, Barbra Streisand, Gina Gershon, Liv Tyler, Goldie Hawn, Jada Pinkett Smith and Madonna. She also designed Alyssa Milano's wedding dress.
Monah Li's clothes appeared on "Friends" and the original "Beverly Hills, 90210" where they were referred to by the designer's name; and in the films "Practical Magic", "Sugar Town" and "Never Been Kissed". She has designed for bebe stores as both as the head designer in the Los Angeles office, and as a freelance designer. Her own labels include Monah Li, Monah Li Couture and Monahmour.
Monah Li recently opened her own eponymous boutique in Elysian Park, an area of Los Angeles between Hollywood and Downtown undergoing gentrification, a follow-up of the successful boutique she opened in the buddingly hip Los Feliz area in 1998.
Monah Li's romantic, eclectic silhouettes are designed to be worn by women of all sizes. She increasingly favors "normal" and larger-sized models, as well as real women, over traditionally thin, professional fashion models in her shows. Her use of over-dyed silk, velvet and satin with lace insets, called the "rich Bohemian look" have made her one of the most knocked-off designers in her genre. In December 1999 she received a settlement from Italian designer Patty Shelabarger, who had offered to represent Li's line in Europe,"removed the labels from Li's clothing and sewed in her own."
In addition to designing clothes, Monah Li is a published author and has written a screenplay that is in pre-production. Her essay, "The Making of a Designer" appeared in the "LA Weekly" on April 10, 2003, and she is a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post, writing about fashion, and more recently her recovery from nineteen years of bulimia. She contributed a story to "Love Addict: Sex, Romance, and Other Dangerous Drugs"; her screenplay, "Fashion Slaves", begins production in fall, 2011 with independent film house BlancBiehn Productions.
Career.
Monah Li began her career as a teenager making her own clothes in Vienna. Her dresses attracted attention and were bought by boutiques in her hometown and in Düsseldorf, Germany. One of the only female students to have attended the prestigious Higher Teaching Institute Industries in Austria, she graduated from textile engineering school with honors at age nineteen.
Though accepted into Karl Lagerfeld's class at the Academy for Applied Art in Vienna, Li chose to pursue her career after her hand painted silk garments received a write up in German Vogue, before moving to Los Angeles where her psychiatrist mother was living to attend the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. After a brief stint in Los Angeles where her growing drug use distracted her from school, Monah Li returned to Vienna, where she was hospitalized for addiction. As part of her rehab program, she went to work in a garment shop owned by the rehab's head of psychiatry, learning "couture' from the seamstresses who also worked there. After leaving the rehab program, she opened her own boutique in Vienna, winning the Best Designer of 1988 Award from the Austrian Wool Secretary.
Monah Li then returned to Los Angeles, and after her first successful dress design was knocked off, founded her own company and began to create unique, one of-a-kind hand sewn garments, up-cycling vintage slips, dress and sweaters with lace insets, lingerie fastening and straps, which she then over-dyed. Finding success through sales to trend-setting retailers like Fred Segal, she opened a boutique on Vermont Avenues, which stocked her signature X-dress and other styles. The shop was described as one of "the best new stores in the city," and was credited with turning Vermont Avenue, the main street in the Los Feliz district of Los Angeles, into a hip shopping destination. She rallied a group of other local designers and founded the Coalition of Los Angeles Designers in 1998; the group is now defunct, but while active, staged fashion shows and worked to bring awareness about innovative Los Angeles clothing to a wider audience.
In 1998 Monah Li was nominated as California Mart Rising Star. In 2000, Monah Li added perfume she designed and created to her boutique, and branched out into large scale manufacturing of her designs for department stores. Unfortunately, a production contractor "did such shoddy work that stores nationwide returned the merchandise," costing her business $800,000 in two months. Despite the setback, she put together a fashion show for New York in Spring 2000, where reps from Bebe saw her designs and immediately hired her as head designer for their newly created Los Angeles office.
Bebe CEO and founder Manny Mashouf told the Los Angeles Times, "Her dresses are highly designed in terms of seams and details. They're sexy and feminine and have a fluid motion." Fashion writer Lauri Pike said of Monah Li's hiring, "It's a great matchup in a lot of ways. I think of those [Bebe] clothes as being a little too young and slutty. But if Monah Li designs for them, I'm going to watch it. If they want to pull ahead of their competition or appeal to slightly older women, Monah Li could be very helpful."
Monah Li eventually left bebe to restart her own label. She showed at Los Angeles Fashion Week in 2003, and returned in 2004 with a "dramatically reinvented look" featuring richly colored solids and fur stoles which was called "one of the most visually stimulating and breathtaking shows of the week."
Monah Li then started a partnership with a manufacturing company, but there were disagreements. The business ended in 2007. Monah Li shifted her career goals from fashion, taking writing classes at UCLA and completing a certificate program in alcohol and drug counseling, while assisting her longtime boyfriend who was working on his third novel. During her hiatus from designing, she recovered from nineteen years of bulimia, with the support of friends and her newly discovered interest in belly dancing. In 2008, she and her author/screenwriter boyfriend were married. After their divorce in 2010 and the completion of her counseling internships, Monah Li returned to designing, with a fashion show featuring her classic looks in March 2011. She also spent a brief time designing once again for bebe, then began selling her own designs at a Los Feliz boutique owned by designer Tiziana. In August 2011, she opened her new boutique in the Elysian Park area of Los Angeles.
Personal life.
Monah Li has been married three times. She has a grown daughter by her second husband.


Henning von Gierke

Henning von Gierke, born December 22, 1947 in Karlsruhe, is a German painter, set designer, production designer and art director. He has collaborated with director Werner Herzog on a number of projects. Among his many collaborations with other film, theatre and opera directors, Gierke is most notable as a painter.
Significant collaborations.
With Werner Herzog.
Gierke collaborated with Herzog on seven films and several operas. He was Production Designer during "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser", "Nosferatu the Vampyre" and "Fitzcarraldo". As a Set Decorator he worked on "Heart of Glass" and "Woyzeck", as Stage Designer on operas: "Lohengrin" and "Giovanna d'Arco" and as Costume Designer on film "The Transformation of the World Into Music". Gierke shot additional still photographs on "Stroszek"'s set. He appeared twice in Herzog's film "The Transformation of the World Into Music" as himself and in Herzog's TV realisation of opera "Giovanna d'Arco".
Awards.
Von Gierke won Film Award in Gold for "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" during German Film Awards and Silver Bear for an outstanding single achievement for "Nosferatu", at the 29th Berlin International Film Festival.


Gareth Hanrahan

Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan is an Irish game designer and novelist who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Career.
Hanrahan was one of the game designers included in the experimental community connected to the Gaming Outpost. When Mongoose Publishing brought their "Paranoia" writing in-house, it was overseen by Hanrahan. Hanrahan wrote Mongoose's fifth "RuneQuest" setting, "" (2007). Hanrahan authored the "Traveller Core Rulebook" (2008), which managed to outsell "RuneQuest" and become Mongoose's new #1 game. Hanrahan's 12th-century setting "Deus Vult" (2010) received new support in "RuneQuest II". When Mongoose separated from Rebellion in March 2010, Hanrahan was one of those let go during the resulting layoffs.
Hanrahan helped Pelgrane Press support their GUMSHOE System by producing monthly supplements, starting in late 2010. In 2011, Cubicle 7 expanded its staff with industry insiders like Hanrahan, Walt Ciechanowski, Charles Ryan, and Neil Ford. He is currently employed as a full-time writer for Pelgrane Press. He also holds the position of Line Developer for "The Laundry Files" roleplaying game published by Cubicle 7.
Fiction.
Hanrahan is the author of the Paranoia novel "Reality Optional". He has also contributed short stories to the Stone Skin Press anthologies "The Lion and the Aardvark" and "Schemers".
He released his debut novel in 2019, and its sequels in the "Black Iron Legacy" series in 2020 and 2021:
The series is a gothic/steampunk adventure, set in the city of Guerdon, which has been described as being inspired by Hanrahan's native city of Cork.
Awards and nominations.
Hanrahan has received the following ENnie awards:
Hanrahan has received the following ENnie nominations:
Hanrahan has received the following Origins nominations:
Games.
Games designed / written by Hanrahan include:


Ed Healy

Edward P. Healy is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Career.
On July 4, 1997, George Vasilakos, Alex Jurkat, and Ed Healy announced that they had formed the new gaming company, Eden Studios; they also acquired the rights to "Conspiracy X" to continue the line. Healy had suggested the name "Eden" because the group was trying to create their paradise job. Healy was forced to divest himself of his Eden ownership in 1997 when he joined Deloitte & Touche as a staff accountant, although he was allowed to continue with game design.
When Healy was working on a "Risk"-like dice mechanic, he found that "Sorcerer"'s dice system was almost identical to what he had been working on; he struck up a friendship with the game's designer Ron Edwards, which led him to the Gaming Outpost and an experimental community of designers. The owners of Gaming Outpost soon asked Healy for help with business development, and he came up with the idea of creating a network of cobranded RPG sites, which would all feed into the Outpost. Bill Walton's RPG advocacy site The Escapist soon came aboard, and Healy created a site with Edwards in December 1999 called Hephaestus's Forge, the "Internet Home of Indie Roleplaying Games".
In June 2007, Healy founded Gamerati, a game marketing and promotions company, which he runs.


The Gingerbread Girl

"The Gingerbread Girl" is a novella by American writer Stephen King, originally published in the July 2007 issue of "Esquire". It was later included in King's "Just After Sunset" collection in 2008. "The Gingerbread Girl" was also released as an audiobook, read by Mare Winningham, by Simon & Schuster Audio on May 6, 2008. The title is an allusion to the fairy tale "The Gingerbread Boy" (also known as "The Gingerbread Man").
Plot summary.
After her only daughter, Amy, suffers a crib death, Emily takes up running as a way to deal with her pain. She believes that "only fast running will do"—she pushes her body to its limits, often vomiting and sweating profusely. Her husband, Henry, finds out about this habit, and treats it as a psychological reaction to grief. Emily is hurt and runs out of the house, down to a local Holiday Inn. She contacts her father and explains her situation. After their conversation, Emily decides to stay in her father's summer home, near Naples, Florida. She also speaks with Henry, and the two agree that a trial separation is a good idea.
Emily's life becomes quite simple. She eats plain meals and runs for miles every day. As her body shrinks, she gets to know the few people that hover around the island (Vermillion Key is mostly devoid of tourists). The only person Emily visits is Deke Hollis, an old friend of her father who runs the drawbridge on the island. During a chance meeting, Hollis tells Emily that Jim Pickering, a man who own an estate on the island, is back. He has brought along a "niece"—Hollis's polite name for the young women who Pickering lures to his home. Emily prepares to continue, but Hollis warns her that Pickering is "not a very nice man."
As Emily continues her daily run, she notices a shiny red car outside a house along the beach that she deduces belongs to Pickering. When Emily approaches the car and discovers a woman whose throat has been slashed, she is knocked unconscious. She wakes up to find herself inside Pickering's house and bound to a kitchen chair with duct tape. Emily realizes that Pickering is insane, and hints that she let someone know where she was going. When Pickering presses her for details, Emily blurts out Hollis's name; Pickering leaves, presumably to murder the old man.
Emily knows that she does not have much time, and hears her father's voice in her head, giving her advice. She uses her strong legs to splinter the duct tape and free her lower body. She looks for a knife to release her arms, but settles on the corner of the island in the middle of the kitchen. Now freed, Emily attacks Pickering when he returns. After temporarily knocking him out, Emily escapes from his house and makes it to the beach. She hears Pickering behind her and realizes, in a rather odd coincidence, that she has been "training" for this moment.
Though exhausted from her imprisonment, Emily's months of running serve her well. She keeps well ahead of Pickering, who's armed himself with a pair of scissors. Emily encounters a young Latino man on the beach and begs for help, but he doesn't understand her cries. Pickering appears and tries to use Spanish to convince the man that Emily is with him, but Emily's fearful expression convinces the young man otherwise. Enraged, Pickering brutally slaughters the man with his scissors.
Emily, tiring quickly, runs into the ocean. Pickering follows her, but begins to flounder. Emily gasps as she figures out what is happening—Pickering cannot swim. Emily manages to escape him, and sits on the shoreline to watch as Pickering drowns. When he finally goes under, Emily tells herself that a shark or some other creature attacked him. She wonders why, and guesses that it is a part of the human condition. Her long ordeal over, Emily stands and shouts at the birds flying about, and prepares to go home.
Critical reception.
A review in The Observer says the story is "reminiscent of "Misery"". A review in the San Francisco Chronicle calls it "a harrowing almost-novella, [which] anchors the book and bridges the inner-psyche thrillers of King's 1990s work with his more recent stories. A story of abuse, psychosis and loneliness, it is physically exhausting to read — an astounding thing to say for a short work of fiction." A reviewer in the Toronto Star calls it "a flat-out suspense novella that could have been penned by Richard Bachman, King's literary alter ego ...[in which] bloody chaos ensues."
Connection to King's other works.
A man named Charlie Pickering, a relative of Jim Pickering, appears as a minor antagonist in King's 1994 novel "Insomnia".
A brief reference is made to the Gingerbread Girl in "Gerald's Game", where Jessie shows signs of physical abuse from her brother's friend and talks about sexual abuse from her brother.
Film adaptation.
In May 2018, it was announced that Brainstorm Media would produce a film adaptation. Craig R. Baxley is set to direct, with the screenplay being written by Baxley and Stephen King.


Carlo Simi

Carlo Simi (7 November 1924 – 26 November 2000) was an Italian architect, production designer and costume designer, who worked frequently with Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci, giving their Spaghetti Westerns a unique look. Most famous for his costume and set designs for "Once Upon a Time in the West" Simi also built the town of 'El Paso' in the Almería desert for Leone's second Western, "For a Few Dollars More". Built around a massive bank, with vistas of the Tabernas Desert visible between buildings, the set still exists, as a tourist attraction called "Mini Hollywood". Simi played the bank manager in that film: it was his only acting role. He also designed the Sad Hill Cemetery for the last scene of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly".
Simi died in Rome in 2000. Some of his costumes and set designs were exhibited at the Autry National Center's Museum of the American West in Los Angeles in 2005. In 2018 he posthumously received the 'Leone in Memoriam' award by the Almería Western Film Festival for the 50 anniversary of "Once Upon a Time in the West".


Warlords III

Warlords III: Reign of Heroes is a computer wargame released in 1997, and the third release in the "Warlords" video game series. In 1998 it was followed by expansion "Warlords III: Darklords Rising".
"Warlords III" was a critical success but failed commercially, a performance that some commentators attributed to the rise of the real-time strategy genre.
Gameplay.
After a four-year hiatus, SSG developed "Warlords III: Reign of Heroes".
The game was released for Microsoft Windows and used new system capabilities to dramatically improve graphics:
The heroes acquired the ability to cast spells to receive the temporary benefit. Each spell has its price expressed in mana points, which became the second (after gold) resource in game.
The campaign system also became more advanced: the heroes from the previous game of the campaign followed the user to the new game, keeping their experience and items.
Another new feature of the "Reign of Heroes" is the flexible races concept: every player had a number of pre-defined units he was able to produce, and an additional number of units that could join him. This allowed for more consistent storyline in the campaigns and made players' advancement more challenging, as the natural production of the further cities normally wasn't matching the player's race.
Unlike the previous versions "Reign of Heroes" provided several hero classes. Each class has its own upgrade paths and costs of upgrade options. The upgrade options themselves became user-selectable, giving the player more control over the heroes' development.
The city levels in "Reign of Heroes" became more important, as in battles it equaled to city bonus. The players received ability to promote cities to next level for a fixed amount of gold.
The units received hit points, making more powerful units the harder targets for the weaker, and bringing more diversity to the army sets. The increased number of army bonuses led to more complicated battle outcome calculation. Furthermore, several army bonuses allowed respected armies to kill the more powerful enemies from the first attack, which made the battle outcome yet less predictable.
The concept of diplomacy was further refined by adding new state of diplomatic relations: "Treaty". This state allowed players trespassing each other's cities and winning the "Allied victory" exterminating all other parties. Another diplomacy-related feature introduced in "Reign of Heroes" was the ability to bribe enemies, thus influencing their diplomatic decisions. The amount of bribe was fine-tunable; the more substantial bribe was, the greater chances of needed decision were.
In addition to the previously available multiplayer modes (hotseat and play by email) the "Reign of Heroes" introduced the ability to play over network.
The game CD included the soundtrack in CD-DA format.
Development.
"Warlords III" was announced in August 1996.
By the time of Warlords III games' releases the real-time strategy game genre was in full-swing, so there was less of a market for turn-based games. The oncoming rush of first person shooters and first generation MMORPGs also didn't help the popularity of the series. The turn-based strategy genre in general would take a hit during this period.
Reception.
In the United States, "Warlords III" debuted in 15th place on PC Data's computer game sales rankings for September 1997. It was absent from the following month's chart. The game was commercially unsuccessful, with sales in the United States of 27,387 units by April 1999, according to PC Data. The Learning Company's K.C Conroe reported that the publisher was "baffled" by its performance. CNET Gamecenter's Marc Saltzman attributed the failure of "Warlords III" to "the real-time strategy explosion" at the time of its release.
"Next Generation" rated it four stars out of five, and stated that ""Warlords III" takes many of the best aspects of tabletop wargaming and adapts them nicely to a PC environment, even offering an extended campaign mode for the first time in the series."
"Reign of Heroes" was a finalist for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' 1997 "Strategy Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to "StarCraft" and "Age of Empires" (tie). The editors of "Computer Games Strategy Plus" named "Warlords III" the best turn-based strategy game of 1997. "Warlords III" was a runner-up for "Computer Gaming World"s 1997 "Strategy Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to "".
Legacy.
Expansion.
Shortly after releasing "Reign of Heroes", SSG followed with "Warlords III: Dark Lords Rising" — a stand-alone expansion pack on 31 August 1998. It featured the new maps and units and contained the sample graphics to facilitate development of alternative tile, army and city sets. The plot of the main campaign continued where the previous game had left off.
"Warlords III" like "Warlords II" had a campaign editor and realistic terrain model.
"Next Generation" reviewed "Warlords III: Darklords Rising", rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "Whether playing the game as designed or creating your own worlds, you'll find "Darklords" quite mesmerizing. Old-timers should feel right at home with this version, and newcomers will quickly become enchanted." "Darklords Rising" was a finalist for "Computer Games Strategy Plus"s 1998 "Strategy Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to "Railroad Tycoon II". The editors wrote that "Darklords Rising" "continued the Australian company's well-deserved reputation for quality games."
Card game.
"Warlords" is an out-of-print collectible card game published in 1997 by Iron Crown Enterprises based on "Warlords III". "Warlords" is a simple multi-player fantasy game. The objective is to become the first player to become the supreme Warlord. This is achieved by exploring, finding treasure, or waging war by assembling followers, gathering armies, and building citadels.
Follow-up games.
"Warlords III" was followed by the "Warlords Battlecry" series of real-time strategy games.


Ewa Braun

Ewa Braun (born 2 August 1944) is a Polish Oscar winning set decorator, costume designer and production designer.
She has been working in production design since the 1960s. Her most famous productions are "Europa, Europa" (1990) by Agnieszka Holland, "Schindler's List" (1993) by Steven Spielberg (won Oscar shared with Allan Starski for Best Art Direction/Set Decoration) and "Wielki tydzień" (1995) by Andrzej Wajda.


Torolab

Torolab is an artist collective, workshop and laboratory of contextual studies that identifies situations or phenomena of interest for research, basing the studies in the realm of life styles to better grasp the idea of quality of life. Founded in Tijuana in 1995 by Raúl Cárdenas Osuna.
Their work has been shown nationally and internationally at various venues including: The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art of Louisiana, Denmark; Museum of Contemporary Art of San Diego; LA(X)ART, Los Angeles; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art of Sydney; the Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York; Havana Biennial; Liverpool Biennial; Beijing 2004 Biennial of Architecture; Mercosur Biennale, Brazil; and Lyon Biennale, France. Their work is in private and public collections such as the Museum of Contemporary Art of San Diego and the Jumex collection in Mexico. The collective has received twice The American Center foundation award and a Rockefeller Foundation grant. Their work and articles have been published at "New York Times", "TIME magazine", Harvard’s "Political Review", Boston Globe, Surface, Wallpaper, I.D., among others.
Biography.
Raúl Cárdenas Osuna (Mazatlán, Sinaloa, 1969) holds a degree in architecture from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Tijuana as well as a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California in San Diego.
He has taught at CENTRO (Mexico City) and the Universidad Iberoamericana’s School of Architecture (Tijuana) in Mexico; at the San Francisco Art Institute and the California College of the Arts in the US; and University of Rennes 2 in France.
On October 2011, Raúl Cárdenas was awarded for best arts-intervention project with social impact by Harvard’s Cultural Agents Initiative and on December has been named Person of the year by Tijuana’s newspaper ‘Frontera’. Right now, he also directs the non-profit organization ‘Sociedad de Agentes de Cambio’ and is the director of the Digital table for the Metropolitan Strategic Plan of Tecate-Rosarito-Tijuana, where he currently lives and works.


Resin (software)

Resin is a web server and Java application server from Caucho Technology. In addition to Resin (GPL), Resin Pro is available for enterprise and production environments with a license. Resin supports the Java EE standard as well as a mod_php/PHP like engine called Quercus.
While Resin (GPL) is free for use in production, Resin Pro includes optimizations such as:
Although a Java-based server, key pieces of Resin's core networking are written in highly optimized C. Caucho states Java is the layer that allows Resin to be "full featured" while C provides the speed. Resin, which was released in 1999, predates Apache Tomcat, and is one of the most mature application servers and web servers.
Product features.
Resin Pro has been engineered to include:
Scalability
Development
Production Ready
"App Server"'
Web Server
Usage.
Resin's market share is small in the grand scheme of Java Application Servers, but some high traffic sites use it, such as Toronto Stock Exchange, Salesforce.com, Condé Nast (parent company of Wired, Vogue, GQ), CNET. NetCraft's February 2012 Survey stated Resin grew to 4,700,000 sites; Resin was the only Java-based web server mentioned.
A 2012-page on a Caucho wiki site describes a test procedure with results showing that tested 0k (empty HTML page), 1K, 8K and 64K byte files. At every level Resin matched or exceeded nginx web server performance.
Quercus.
Quercus is a Java-based implementation of the PHP language that is included with Resin. According to a slideshow presented by Emil Ong (from Caucho), to a San Francisco Java Meetup Group in April 2008 pertaining to Resin 3.1, an essential difference in the operation of Quercus between the Resin Open Source and the Resin Professional editions is that in Resin Professional the PHP is compiled to Java bytecode whereas in the open source version PHP is executed by an interpreter.
Caucho stated in 2007 that Quercus was faster than standard PHP 5 (PHP 8 with JIT is much faster than older PHP versions; PHP 5 is no longer supported) although this is only true for the JIT-compiled version in Resin Professional. Quercus ships with Resin.
Licensing.
One license covers all components of the Resin architecture.
Resin is provided in both an open source GPL license and a Pro version with enhancements for enterprises.


Risto Hieta

Risto J. Hieta (born 1956), also known by the pseudonym Nordic or Nordic the Incurable, is a Finn connected with the role playing and computer game culture.
Early life and career.
Hieta was born in 1956 in Mänttä in Finland.
Hieta has designed several role-playing games himself, and he is also known by columns written in game-related magazines. Hieta published his first Finnish-language role playing game, "Miekka ja magia", in 1987. Other games by Hieta include "Elhendi" and "Astra". He has made the largest number of games produced by Arctic ranger productions. Hieta has said that he originally found role playing games via a computer game set in the "Dungeons & Dragons" world. According to Nordic, his designation "the incurable" refers to his feelings about dragons. Hieta works in a Fantasiapelit shop in Tampere.
Hieta became famous by the name "Nordic" as the writer of the "Peliluola" ("The Gaming Den") column in "MikroBitti". Hieta had originally contacted the magazine claiming to write better reviews than the magazine had at the time. The contact led to him becoming an assistant in the magazine. Nordic had a very personal touch in his column, and he often wrote very freely about his own and his friends' activities with computer and role playing games. "Peliluola" published gameplay hints, viewers' high scores and short reviews. Letters sent by readers played an important part in the column. The column usually started with a story about Nordic's current adventures in his role playing games. The best known figure in the stories was Petrell, a games character created by Pete, a friend of Nordic. Nordic's long-time favourite computer game in the 1980s was "Boulder Dash". The first "Peliluola" column was published in "MikroBitti" issue 3/1985 and the last in 1998. Especially at the early times of the column, when very little was written about gaming in Finnish magazines, "Peliluola" was an important resource to Finnish computer and role playing games culture. Afterwards, Nordic has written columns in the "Pelit" magazine.


Shattered Planet

Shattered Planet is a roguelike RPG video game developed by Kitfox Games. The player assumes the role of a clone who is tasked with researching and cataloging alien wildlife. The iOS version was released on March 27, 2014. The Android version was released on April 10, 2014. "Shattered Planet" was released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS on July 3, 2014.
Gameplay.
The game is set on a broken planet which is constantly changing and creating randomly generated maps for each level. The player must navigate and explore as much of the world as possible through a turn-based system which controls movement and combat on a tile-based map. The objective is to explore as many levels as possible while cataloging all of the alien wildlife in order to find a cure for a dark plague which is spreading across the galaxy. The plague spawns along the player in each level, spreading and spawning additional monsters as the player moves throughout the map.
The player advances through levels by navigating through the map and locating and activating a teleportation tile, while collecting scrap metal and crystals from slain enemies along the way. Bottles assigned with random effects which change each game are generated throughout each level, providing the player with a potential buff or debuff effect. Upon death, the player will lose all equipment and bottles equipped and found in the game, with a new clone being created and retaining any scrap metal and crystals.
There are various different clones that the player may choose, each with their own special ability and stats. Scrap metal may be used before starting a new game in order to purchase permanent stat upgrades for the selected clone. Crystals are used in order to produce various weapons and armour, with the developer stating that there are “over two hundred differently powerful items to find” within the game.
Reception.
"Shattered Planet" received positive reviews from critics, with a score of 77/100 on Metacritic.
Richard Cobbett from "PC Gamer" gave the game 64/100, noting that it is "a clever, charming game", yet "it lacks the spark that makes return visits feel like a fresh adventure rather than a completionist chore".


David G. Watts

David G. Watts is a Welsh games designer and publisher. Originally a school geography teacher at Milford Haven Grammar School, he designed "Railway Rivals", his most popular game, to teach the geography of Wales and upon retirement published it under the imprint Rostherne Games. His games have been published worldwide with his greatest successes in Germany. Most use transportation as a theme but he has also designed abstract games, chess variants and a variety of race games.


Dakota Kai

Cheree Georgina Crowley (born 6 May 1988) is a New Zealand professional wrestler of Samoan and Irish descent. She is currently signed to WWE and performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Dakota Kai.
Prior to her signing with WWE, she wrestled under the ring name Evie, and appeared for Impact Pro Wrestling (IPW), Shimmer Women Athletes, Shine Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Women's Alliance (PWA Australia). In 2021, Kai and Raquel González won the inaugural Women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic , and became the inaugural where she was one-half of the inaugural NXT Women's Tag Team Champions.
Professional wrestling career.
New Zealand and Australian independent promotions (2007–2016).
Evie made her professional wrestling debut on 15 December 2007 for the Auckland based company, Impact Pro Wrestling. Her ring name is a reference to her favourite Pokémon, Eevee.
In September 2011, she debuted in Sydney, Australia-based Pro Wrestling Alliance Australia (PWA Australia) for their annual PWWA show, where she defeated Kellie Skater. In August 2012, Evie became the first Impact Pro Wrestling NZ Women's Champion, defeating Britenay and Megan Fox in a triple threat match. A week later, she won the Interim PWWA Championship by defeating Jessie McKay in the finals. She retained the title during her first defense against Kellie Skater on 6 October.
After Impact Pro Wrestling returned after a few months from folding in mid-2013, all the previous title holders were stripped of their championships. Evie won the IPW Women's Championship back in December 2013 and aligned herself with a new heel faction called 'The Investment'.
Evie began 2014 in Japan working on a three-month contract awarded to her through Pro Wrestling Zero1. She was the first female to receive such a contract. She competed with the promotion Diana. During her stay, Evie also teamed with Madison Eagles in a losing effort against Global Green Gangsters (Kellie Skater and Tomoka Nakagawa) for the Shimmer Tag Team Championship as part of the Joshi4Hope show.
American independent promotions (2013–2016).
Evie made her debut for the all-female American promotion Shimmer Women Athletes at "Volume 53" on 6 April 2013, participating in a five-way match which she lost to Christina Von Eerie and also included Yuu Yamagata, Kalamity, and Rhia O'Reilly. At "Volume 54", Evie defeated Kimber Lee to pick up her first win for the promotion, but she was defeated by Mia Yim the next day at "Volume 56". She competed in a losing effort against Hikaru Shida at Shimmer "Volume 62" in April 2014. At Volumes 63 and 64, Evie defeated Rhia O'Reilly and Nicole Matthews, respectively.
On 19 April 2013, Evie made her debut for Shine Wrestling at "Shine 9", in a losing effort against Mercedes Martinez. At the Shine 18 iPPV on 20 April 2014, Evie and Skater lost to defending champions the Lucha Sisters (Leva Bates and Mia Yim) for the Shine Tag Team Championship.
World Wonder Ring Stardom (2015–2016).
On 6 December 2015, Evie made her debut for the Japanese World Wonder Ring Stardom promotion. In her first match she won the vacant Artist of Stardom Championship alongside Hiroyo Matsumoto and Kellie Skater. They lost the title to Io Shirai, Kairi Hojo, and Mayu Iwatani in their third defense on 28 February 2016.
WWE.
Early appearances (2015–2017).
Crowley appeared on 14 October 2015 episode of "NXT" under the ring name Evie, and losing to the debuting Nia Jax. On 15 December 2016, Crowley signed a contract with WWE, and few months later she was announced as a participant in the upcoming Mae Young Classic under the ring name Dakota Kai. According to Crowley, she wanted her new ring name to be something that sounded tomboyish but still reflected her Samoan heritage. The word Kai means sea in the Polynesian language, indicating her journey to get to WWE, and contrary to popular belief, is not a reference to Leilani Kai. Kai entered the tournament on 13 July, defeating Kavita Devi in the first round and Rhea Ripley in the second round, before being eliminated in the quarterfinals by Kairi Sane.
NXT debut (2017–2019).
On 25 October 2017 episode of "NXT", Kai made her television return competing in a women's battle royal, where she was eliminated by Sage Beckett. On 10 January episode of "NXT", Kai lost to the debuting Shayna Baszler by referee stoppage after Baszler stomped and injured her arm. After the match, Baszler attacked and locked her in the Kirifuda Clutch until NXT Women's Champion Ember Moon saves her. On 14 March 2018 episode of "NXT", Kai scored her first televised victory when she defeated Lacey Evans. A month later, Kai made her WrestleMania debut at WrestleMania 34, competing along with several other NXT women in the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal, becoming the first female New Zealander to compete at WrestleMania. Kai also participated in a WrestleMania Axxess tournament which she would go onto win, earning herself a match for the NXT Women's Championship but she was eventually defeated by newly crowned champion Shayna Baszler. In May, Kai earned herself another shot at the championship but was once again unsuccessful in capturing it. Throughout the rest of the year, Kai would continue to compete in singles competition, racking up various victories and losses against competitors like Santana Garrett, Bianca Belair, Lacey Evans and Aliyah.
In parallel to her activities in NXT, Kai also appeared in the newly created "NXT UK" brand. In October, Kai took part of the first ever all women's pay-per-view, Evolution, where she unsuccessfully challenged Rhea Ripley (in a dark match) for the NXT UK Women's Championship. Before the title match, Kai took part of a tournament (that was taped back in the summer but aired in November) for the vacant championship, where she defeated Nina Samuels in the first round, but was eliminated in the semi finals by the eventual winner Ripley. After spending a few months away, Kai returned at on 17 November, where she and Io Shirai helped Kairi Sane during her match with Shayna Baszler by attacking Baszler's allies Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir who would interfere earlier on. Shortly after the event, the trio would continue to feud with Baszler, Duke and Shafir in the following weeks. On 17 January 2019, Kai announced on her Twitter page that she sustained a torn ACL, during an NXT live event in December, which would sideline her from in-ring competition for the next few months.
After over nine months of inactivity and a couple of vignettes, Kai defeated Taynara Conti on 25 September episode of "NXT" in her in-ring return match. Shortly after, Kai's long-time tag team partner Tegan Nox also returned to NXT and the two quickly reunited their tag team dubbed "Team Kick". On 30 October episode of "NXT", Team Kick unsuccessfully challenged The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.
Alliance with Raquel González (2019–present).
In November, Kai made her main roster debut as part of the NXT talent that were placed in an invasion angle with Raw and SmackDown as part of the Survivor Series pay-per-view. Mia Yim was chosen over Kai as part of Rhea Ripley's team for the first-ever women's WarGames match against Shayna Baszler's team. On 23 November at , just before the match took place, Kai replaced Yim, who was attacked backstage. However, before she entered the ring, Kai attacked her tag team partner, Tegan Nox, turning heel for the first time in her WWE career. Upon her return in December, Mia Yim revealed that Kai attacked Yim backstage and this led to a grudge match between the two, which Kai won. On 26 January 2020, at the Royal Rumble, Kai entered her first Royal Rumble match, entering at number 15, but was unsuccessful after being eliminated by Chelsea Green. On 29 January episode of "NXT", Kai lost to Nox after she used a knee brace following a distraction from Candice LeRae.
On 16 February at , Kai defeated Nox in a street fight after interference from the debuting Raquel González. On 4 March episode of "NXT", Kai defeated Nox in a steel cage match after interference from González. On 7 June at , Kai teamed up with González and Candice LeRae in a losing effort against Nox, Mia Yim and Shotzi Blackheart in a six-woman tag team match. On 1 July episode of "NXT The Great American Bash", Kai, LeRae and Yim lost to Nox in a number one contender's fatal four-way elimination match for the NXT Women's Championship. Two weeks later on 15 July episode of "NXT", Kai attacked Io Shirai, after Shirai had successfully defended her title match against Nox. On 5 August episode of "NXT", Kai defeated Ripley to become number one contender for Shirai's title at NXT TakeOver XXX. On 22 August at the aforementioned event, Kai was defeated by Shirai. In November, Kai began a feuding with the returning Ember Moon, and resulting in a match on 4 November episode of "NXT", which Kai won after interference from González. Afterwards, Kai and González aligned with LeRae and Toni Storm, resulting in a WarGames match against Blackheart, Moon, Shirai, and Ripley at on 6 December, where Kai's team won after González pinned Shirai. Kai and González were recently announced as competitors in the first ever Women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. They would go on to win the tournament by defeating Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon in the final at . Kai and González defeated Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon in a Women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic finals match. With this win, Kai and González earned a shot at WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, a match that would end in controversy on 3 March 2021 episode of NXT, after Kai was submitted by Baszler despite not being the legal competitor in the match. The following week, Kai and Gonzalez were awarded the newly created NXT Women's Tag Team Championships by General Manager William Regal, marking Kai's first championship in the WWE. They would however lose the Championship on the same night to Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon.
Other media.
In September 2009, Evie starred in the music video for "Sweet December" by Auckland band These Four Walls. In April 2013, "20/20" aired a story which followed Evie on her lead up to her first tour in the United States. Also that summer, she was similarly profiled on the Māori Television sports show "Code".
She made her video game debut as a downloadable character in "WWE 2K19" and also appears in "WWE 2K20".
She currently streams on Twitch under the name “Charliegirl”.
Personal life.
Crowley's mother is originally from the village of Lepea on the island of Upolu in Samoa. She has two younger siblings, her sister Nyrene is a mixed martial artist. Her grandfather Pat Crowley represented New Zealand as a member of the All Blacks in 1949 and 1950.


True Pinball

True Pinball is a video game developed by Digital Illusions and published by Ocean for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1996. It is an enhanced version of "Pinball Illusions".
Gameplay.
"True Pinball" is a pinball game with four pinball tables. They are the same ones featured in the later versions of "Illusions", but with improved visuals and audio. Each table has been recreated in 3D and can be played either at an angle or from a top-down view.
Reception.
"Next Generation" reviewed the Saturn version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that ""True Pinball" is a good video pinball game, just not a great game of pinball."
"Mean Machines Sega" gave the Saturn version of "True Pinball" an overall score of 85%, expressing that it "requires skill" and is a better pinball game than "", further stating that it emulates the 'look and feel' of a real pinball machine. "Electronic Gaming Monthly's" four-person review crew gave the Saturn version of the game an overall score of seven out of ten, praising its "hi-res" graphics, and like "Mean Machines Sega", "EGM" expressed that it emulates the 'look and feel' of a real pinball machine, with one reviewer stating that "True Pinball" is "as close to true pinball as can be".


Graciela Rodo Boulanger

Graciela Rodo (born 1935 in La Paz) is a Bolivian painter. She is noted for her artworks featuring stylized renderings of children.
Early life.
Her love of art was influenced by her mother, a concert pianist, and her father, a businessman and art connoisseur. She studied music and art throughout childhood, giving her first piano recital at age 15, and her first art exhibitions in Vienna and Salzburg at age 18.
Artistic career.
Pursuing her dream to be both a great artist and musician, Rodo soon found that time would not permit the necessary devotion to both her passions. At 22, she turned all of her energy to painting. She studied etching and printmaking along with René Carcan under Johnny Friedlaender in Paris. She married a Frenchman, Boulanger, so that her public name became Graciela Rodo de Boulanger (Spanish) and Graciela Rodo Boulanger (French). In 1966, her artistic ambition began to be realized when she published her first editions of engravings and first exhibited in the United States. In 1979, UNICEF designated her official artist for the International Year of the Child poster, and two of her tapestries were presented in the hall of the UN General Assembly. The Museum of Modern Art of Latin America, in Washington, DC, gave a retrospective of her oeuvre in 1983. In 1986, the Metropolitan Opera of New York commissioned her poster for Mozart’s "The Magic Flute", and her paintings were shown by the Art Gallery of Lincoln Center. In 1993, the World Federation of the UN Associations chose one of her paintings to illustrate both a stamp and a limited-edition print on endangered species. A Fifty year retrospective entitled "Five Decades" took place at Gallery 444, San Francisco in 2006. More than 200 exhibitions of works by the artist Graciela Rodo Boulanger have been held on five continents of the globe.


List of Impact Wrestling personnel

Impact Wrestling is a professional wrestling promotion based in Nashville, Tennessee. Impact Wrestling personnel consists of professional wrestlers, managers, play-by-play and color commentators, ring announcers, interviewers, referees, trainers, producers, script writers, and various other positions. Executives and the board of directors are listed as well.
Active wrestlers and on-screen talent appear on "Impact", pay-per-views and at untelevised live events. Personnel are organized below by their role in Impact Wrestling. Their ring name is on the left, and their real name is on the right. Impact Wrestling refers to its female performers as "Knockouts".
Impact Wrestling has partnerships with various national and international promotions, such as All Elite Wrestling (AEW), Major League Wrestling, House of Hardcore, Canada's Border City Wrestling, Japan's Pro Wrestling Noah (NOAH) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and Mexico's Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA). As such, wrestlers from these companies may also make periodic appearances on Impact programming.
Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) serves as the developmental territory for Impact Wrestling, therefore OVW talent may also periodically appear on "Impact" as well.
Roster.
(*) - indicates wrestler not contracted to Impact and appears via partnership with other promotion(s).


Doorika

Doorika was a performance arts collective based in Chicago and New York City from 1990-1999. It was a collaborative group with a mix bag of visual artists, performers, non-actors and musicians who worked on developing multi-media theater projects. It was co-founded by John Dooley and Erika Yeomans in 1990. Some of the artists that contributed and worked on the shows were: Eric Koziol, Jon Langford, The Aluminum Group, Casey Spooner, Lisa Perry, Doug Huston, Amy Galper, Ford Wright, Marianne Potje, Deborah Shirley, William F. Wright, Tamara Wasserman, Jim Skish, Celia Bucci, Mot Filipowski, Magica Bottari, Ken Weaver, Amy Kerwin, Matthew Kopp, Kelly Kuvo, LIzzy Yoder, Scott Leuthold (Beggar Weeds), Scott Fulmer, Ken Kobland, Jeremiah Clancy, Peter Redgrave, Carla Bruce-Lee among others.
Doorika made a benefit CD entitled "DIG THIS" in 1996 by Sweet Pea Records.
They performed at PS 122, Ontological-Hysteric Theater, Chopin Theater, CBGB's Gallery, Chicago Filmmakers, Ohio Theater's Ice Factory Series, Vineyard Theater, Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, Downtown Theater Festival among other venues in New York and Chicago.


John Myhre

John Myhre (born 1959) is an American production designer who has been working in Hollywood since the late 1980s.
He received his first Academy Award nomination, for Best Art Direction, in 1998, for Shekhar Kapur's "Elizabeth", bringing him to the forefront of Hollywood production designers. Recent credits have included "X-Men", "Ali" and "The Haunted Mansion." He is also a frequent collaborator of director Rob Marshall, working on the films "Chicago," "Memoirs of a Geisha", "Nine, " and "Mary Poppins Returns" with the former two winning him the Academy Award for Best Art Direction.
Myhre's production design was also seen in 2006 on Bill Condon's "Dreamgirls", which was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction.
Academy Awards nominations & wins.
1998: Nominated for "Elizabeth"
2002: Won for "Chicago".
2005: Won for "Memoirs of a Geisha"
2006: Nominated for "Dreamgirls"
2009: Nominated for "Nine"
2018: Nominated for "Mary Poppins Returns"


Hobart Smith

Hobart Smith (May 10, 1897—January 11, 1965) was an American old-time musician. He was most notable for his appearance with his sister Texas Gladden on a series of Library of Congress recordings in the 1940s and his later appearances at various festivals during the folk music revival of the 1960s. Smith is often remembered for his virtuosic performances on the banjo, and had also mastered various other instruments, including the fiddle, guitar, piano, harmonica, accordion and organ.
Biography.
Early life.
Hobart Smith was born near Saltville, Virginia in 1897, the oldest son of eight children born to Louvine and Alexander King Smith. Hobart believed the ballad-singing tradition in his family dated back at least seven generations to when the Smiths immigrated from England. Both of Hobart's grandfathers were fiddle players, and his parents were banjo players. When Alan Lomax traveled to Saltville to record Hobart in 1942, he also recorded Hobart's father playing a version of "Old Joe Clark". Hobart recalled his family staying up late at night singing hymns and ballads around the fireplace in their home just outside Saltville. Hobart's parents bought him his first banjo when was seven, and he learned piano by playing at church revivals in the area.
In 1911, an African-American fiddle player named Jim Spencer began lodging at the Smith house, and taught Hobart how to play the fiddle. Impressed with the African-American style, Hobart and his cousin, John Galliher, began sneaking over to the segregated side of Saltville to hear black musicians. In later interviews, both claimed to have heard an itinerant guitarist named "Blind Lemon Jefferson" (modern researchers doubt this was the legendary Texas bluesman, however), who inspired Smith to purchase a guitar and learn to play that instrument as well. Around the same time, a neighbor of Smith's named John Greer taught Smith a "double-noting" banjo style he had learned from African-American musicians, which Smith later used to complement the frailing style taught to him by his father.
Recording career.
Around 1915, Smith formed a string band and began performing at minstrel shows and medicine shows, and over subsequent years performed at venues around western Virginia, especially in the Abingdon area and at Emory & Henry College. In 1936, Smith and his sister, Texas Gladden, delivered a memorable performance at the White Top Folk Festival in southwestern Virginia. The performance impressed Eleanor Roosevelt, who was in attendance, and two years later she invited Smith and Gladden to perform at the White House. These early appearances brought them to the attention of various folklorists and musicologists, including Alan Lomax, who at the time was working for the U.S. Library of Congress.
In 1942, Smith recorded 40 tracks for Lomax at Saltville, among them "Banging Breakdown", Cuckoo Bird, "Wayfaring Stranger", and "Sourwood Mountain". Lomax introduced Smith to Moses Asch, and in 1946 Smith traveled to New York to record for Asch's Disc label. Both Lomax and Asch continued to record Smith over the years, sometimes as a soloist, and sometimes performing duets with his sister or other singers such as Almeda Riddle and Bessie Jones.
Smith experienced a resurgence during the folk music revival of the 1960s. He made numerous appearances at folk festivals around the United States, most notably at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964. He played in several different bands with other noted musicians, including Clarence Ashley, whom he had met at a medicine show in the 1930s. In October 1963, Smith participated in two notable recording sessions, both in Chicago. The first was conducted by Chicago radio station WFMT program director, Norm Pellegrini, which consisted of material subsequently released on the Folk-Legacy label. A second, less formal session was conducted by folk music teacher Fleming Brown at Brown's home, parts of which were released in 2005 by Smithsonian Folkways. At both recordings, Smith was already feeling the painful effects of a heart embolism that would take his life on January 11, 1965.
Repertoire.
Hobart Smith was a banjo virtuoso who had mastered both the "frailing" or "clawhammer" style taught to him by his father and the "double-noting" style, which was taught to him by John Greer and was heavily rooted in the instrument's African-American tradition. His notable banjo recordings include Cuckoo Bird and "Banging Breakdown" (the latter being a favorite at festivals), both of which he learned from neighbor and bandmate John Greer, and "Old Joe Clark" and "John Henry", both of which he learned from his father. While Smith was a Baptist, most of his religious recordings are from the Holiness tradition, since Baptists at the time frowned upon instrumental music. Smith learned "Heaven's Airplane"— recorded in 1963— from a Holiness preacher.


Rudolf Heinrich

Rudolf Heinrich (10 February 1926 – 1 December 1975) was a German stage designer.
Life and career.
Born in Halle (Saale), Heinrich attended the painting class of the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle from 1946 to 1948 with Charles Crodel, Max Elten and others. Afterwards, he was assistant stage designer in Leipzig in 1948.
From 1950 to 1959, he worked at the Landestheater Halle as the head of the equipment department. He created stage sets for 33 plays in opera, ballet and drama. In 1957, he received the Handel Prize in Halle for sets for Handel's operas ("Ezio", "Radamisto", "Poro" and others). In 1959, he won the 1st prize of the Théatre National de l'Odéon in Paris for "The Tales of Hoffmann".
For the opening of the new Leipzig Opera, he created the décor for "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" in 1960. In the same year, he worked with Walter Felsenstein at the Komische Oper Berlin, where he set Verdi's opera "Otello", and was awarded the National Prize of the GDR.
In 1961, he was appointed to the Academy of Arts, Berlin, but moved to West Germany. From 1962, he worked in Munich with Fritz Kortner, Günther Rennert, Joachim Herz, Otto Schenk among others others.
Heinrich became head of the stage design class at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich in 1964. From that year, he was professor of the stage design class at the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. He worked mainly for the opera houses in Munich, Hamburg, Schwetzingen, Mannheim, Zurich, Vienna, Frankfurt, Santa Fee, Paris, Moscow, Leipzig, Berlin, the Salzburg Festival, the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Zurich and London, as well as the Austrian Theatre Museum in (Vienna).
From 1973 to 1975, he created the set for "The Ring of the Nibelung" in Leipzig with Joachim Herz. He was appointed to the Academy of Arts in West Berlin in 1973.
Heinrich died in London on 1 December 1975 at the age of 49, while working on the set design for "Salomé". His burial place is on the Ramersdorf-Perlach in Munich. He was married to the US-American soprano Joan Carroll and had a son. His brother was the costume and stage designer Reinhard Heinrich.
The Akademie der Künste Berlin has a Rudolf Heinrich collection with about 3000 works by hm.


List of Robotics;Notes episodes

"Robotics;Notes" is an anime television series adapted from the visual novel by 5pb. and Nitroplus. Produced by Production I.G and directed by Kazuya Nomura, the story follows Kaito Yashio and his friend Akiho Senomiya who work with their school's Robotics Club to build a giant working robot based on a popular fictional anime called Gunvarrel. At the same time a mysterious group known as The Committee of 300 plots a global conspiracy involving a series of solar storms, which they ultimately plan to use to annihilate the world's population down to one billion and establish a single world government under their control.
The series aired on Fuji TV's Noitamina slot between October 12, 2012 and March 22, 2013. For episodes 1-11, the opening theme is by Zwei and the ending theme is by Fumika. For episodes 12-22, the opening theme is by Haruki and the ending theme is by Kanako Itō. Funimation Entertainment has licensed the anime for streaming on their website starting October 12, 2012. The series was released in two BD/DVD volumes in North America: part one on February 18, 2014 containing episodes 1–11, and part two on March 25, 2014 containing episodes 12–22.


Renu Desai

Renu Desai is an Indian former model and actress.
Personal life.
Renu Desai's mother tongue is Marathi, but she is also fluent in Telugu. She has a son, born in 2004 with Telugu actor Pawan Kalyan, whom she married in 28 January 2009. The couple also has a daughter born in 2010. They filed for divorce 2011, which was finalised in 2012. In 2018, Desai was engaged to another man.
Career.
Before her entry into Telugu films, Desai was a model and appeared in the music video of Shankar Mahadevan's song "Breathless".
She starred with her future husband in the films "Badri" and "Johnny". Renu returned to her hometown and is active in Marathi films now. In 2013, she turned producer with "Mangalashtak Once More" and turned director with "Ishq Wala Love" in 2014.


Huo Jianqi

Huo Jianqi (; born January 20, 1958) is a Chinese film director. Like the cinematographer turned director Gu Changwei, Huo Jianqi began his cinematic career in the art department. Nearly all of Huo's films have been written by his wife and collaborator, Qiu Shi, who works under the name "Si Wu." Unlike many of his contemporaries (and predecessors), Huo rarely has had issues with the Chinese government regarding his films, leading some western critics to label him the "darling director of China's film bureaucracy."
Career.
Huo attended the Beijing Film Academy in the early 1980s as part of the "Fifth Generation" (which also included directors like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige). After graduation, he worked as an art director, including on films such as Tian Zhuangzhuang's "The Horse Thief" (1986). Huo's own career as a director did not begin, however, until 1995 with "The Winner" and would not achieve true international success until his 1999 film, "Postmen in the Mountains". The simple tale of a father and son traveling through the mountains of Hunan delivering mail proved a success in both China, where it eventually won the Golden Rooster for best film, best director, and best actor Teng Rujun, and abroad in foreign festivals. Upon its release in the United States, the film was praised by critics for its sincerity, critic Roger Ebert noted that the film was "so simple and straightforward that its buried emotions catch us a little by surprise." Huo repeated that film's success with his subsequent project, including 2000's "A Love of Blueness" and 2002's "Life Show" (which won the Golden Goblet for best film at the Shanghai International Film Festival).
Huo scored another success with his adaptation of author Mo Yan's "The White Dog and the Swing", entitled "Nuan". The film, starring Guo Xiaodong and Li Jia in the titular role, won the Grand Prix at the Tokyo International Film Festival, as well as another best picture Golden Rooster.


Natasha Law

Andrea Natasha Heyworth Law (born 1 January 1970) is an English painter and graphic designer.
Early life.
Law was born in Lewisham, London, England, on . Law was the first child of Margaret Anne (née Heyworth) a comprehensive school teacher, and Peter Robert Law (professionally known as Sir Taggalot) a British actor. Law is the elder sister of Jude Law, an English actor, film producer and director.
She gained experience acting at the Bob Hope Theatre (then called the Eltham Little Theatre) in Eltham, where she performed in "Teenage Follies" in 1982. She first went to University of Warwick to study history, but soon switched to studying art at Camberwell College of Arts in South London.
Career.
After graduation, Law embarked on a career that encompassed graphic illustration, photography and styling. She has worked with Vogue, Max Mara, Teen Vogue, Globe-Trotter, Harrods, Samsung, Tiffany & Co and Mulberry.
Personal life.
She lives in Peckham, London with her husband and three children.


Richard Borg

Richard Borg is a game designer who has designed many wargames. In Last », he was elected to the Charles Roberts Awards Hall of Fame.
Games that Richard Borg has designed or co-designed include the following:
Games that he designed with award-winning game designer Alan R. Moon include Warriors, Gracias, and Wongar.