Jean Wells

Oeva Jean Wells Koebernick (July 25, 1955 – January 25, 2012) was an American writer, artist, and editor in the field of role-playing games. She was the first female game designer to be hired by TSR, Inc. Her career at TSR stalled after she wrote a controversial "Dungeons & Dragons" adventure module that was withdrawn on the eve of publication and subsequently rewritten.
Early life.
Jean Wells was born July 25, 1955 in Jacksonville, Florida to Walton and Ellen Loft Wells. During a college canoe camping trip, she participated in an impromptu session of "Dungeons & Dragons". She was fascinated by the game, and once back on campus, she quickly ordered her own set of the rules, and joined a local group called the "D&D Gang of Statesmen Complex". After several gaming sessions, she realized that she liked the role of dungeon master more than player. In her words, "It gave me an opportunity to use my creativity in an area I already liked, Medieval History and Fantasy."
Career at TSR.
Wells also ordered a subscription of "The Dragon" from TSR Hobbies, and in the July 1978 issue, she noticed an ad for "an alert and talented person [with] design and editorial talent and a good general knowledge of games" in TSR's design department. Although she was still at college studying to be an elementary school art teacher, and her only gaming experience was the "D&D" she had just started playing, she applied for the position. After some back-and-forth correspondence with Gary Gygax during the fall of 1978, she flew to TSR headquarters in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in January 1979 for a three-day visit. Despite her lack of experience, Gygax hired her as the first female in the design department. Wells later recalled that, "he knew I didn't know how to really write rules... He was hiring my imagination and would teach me the rest."
However, Wells had arrived just as TSR was, in her words, "exploding", and Gygax did not have time to introduce her to the world of game design. As a result, and especially because she was the only woman in the design department, Wells felt out of place. She later described herself as "the token female".
She moved into a nearby house nicknamed the "TSR Dorm", since all the renters were TSR staffers—she actually took over the bedroom of Larry Elmore, who had just left TSR—and she started to date Skip Williams.
Her first work was editing the adventure module S2 "White Plume Mountain" by Lawrence Schick. In addition, she also contributed interior art for the adventure module "Lost Tamaochan", as well as artwork to the fourth printing of the original "Monster Manual", including drawings of an eye of the deep, a giant Sumatran rat, and violet fungi.
She was the inaugural author of "Sage Advice", a "D&D" advice column that first appeared in "The Dragon" starting with issue #31 in November 1979. She tried to bring some humor to the column, believing that some of her young readers were taking "D&D" too seriously. One such example appeared in her first column, when she was asked how much damage a bow did in "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons". Her answer was, "None. Bows do not do damage, arrows do. However, if you hit someone with a bow, I’d say it would probably do 1-4 points of damage and thereafter render the bow completely useless for firing arrows." She continued to handle the "Sage Advice" column until issue #39 (July 1980).
In 1980, she did the design and layout of Brian Blume's "The Rogues Gallery" (which included her own "D&D" character Ceatitle). She was also the editor of Gary Gygax's module B2 "Keep on the Borderlands", her bestselling piece of design work, since it was included in later printings of the "Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set", which sold over one million copies.
"Palace of the Silver Princess".
After the success of B2 "Keep on the Borderlands", Wells was assigned to write an adventure for the "B" (Basic) series that would teach new players how to play "D&D". She consulted her editor, Ed Sollers, about every detail, and the result was B3 "Palace of the Silver Princess". In keeping with the design of the first "D&D" module of the "B" series, B1 "In Search of the Unknown" by Mike Carr, Wells left several rooms and areas of the module incomplete so that players could customize those areas themselves. As she related, "I was trying to show the players that there was more to a 'dungeon' than just the building. I didn't complete the palace, trying to show them this map could be a mini base map for their game. The players could discover the part of the dungeon that had been caved in wasn't any longer and the DM could expand it. I was assuming that they were trying to learn to set up their own world and I was trying to help."
During the editorial process, Wells wanted to replace artwork by Erol Otus that had transformed her "ubues"—new three-headed monsters—into hermaphrodites whose heads were caricatures of TSR staffers and management. However, she was told that the artwork couldn't be replaced without causing unreasonable printing delays.
On the day when the cartons of printed modules arrived at TSR headquarters ready for shipping and copies were distributed to staff, someone in TSR's upper management strongly objected to the module. Some sources state that the objectionable content was four pieces of artwork by Erol Otus and Laura Roslof that were too overtly sexual while Frank Mentzer later stated that it was specifically the Otus illustration with the caricatures of TSR executives.
Wells herself related that another member of the design department complained to Kevin Blume, and that subsequently she and her editor, Ed Sollers, were called into Kevin Blume's office and asked to explain why a module designed for a younger audience contained S&M.
The end result was that the entire print run of what became known as the "orange version"—because of its orange cover design—was destroyed, except for a few copies that were saved from the trash pile by TSR employees.
The entire module was subsequently rewritten by Tom Moldvay, who changed the plot, replaced all of Wells' new monsters with standard monsters from the "D&D Basic Set", and removed the empty areas. In addition, the four contentious pieces of artwork, as well as many others, were replaced. The new version was then released with a green cover.
Following the "Silver Princess" incident, Wells wanted to write another module, but in her words, "nobody would touch my game ideas with a ten-foot pole." When she realized her suggestions for new adventures and games were being ignored and she was only being given secretarial tasks instead of new design work, she left TSR.
Life after TSR.
Wells married another TSR employee, Corey Koebernick, in 1981. When he was laid off by TSR a few months later, they moved to Beloit, Wisconsin, where she would spend the rest of her life. She did not work again, staying at home to raise their two sons.
Wells struggled with several serious illnesses for the last thirty years of her life, including hepatitis C.
On January 24, 2012, Wells was admitted to hospital, and died early the next morning.
Legacy.
The piece of work Wells was best known for, the orange version of "Palace of the Silver Princess", is an extremely rare item, since most copies were destroyed before its release. One copy rated in VF/SW condition was sold at auction in March 2008 for $3050, making it the highest price paid for a single non-unique D&D module.


Claude Coats

Claude Coats (January 17, 1913 – January 9, 1992) was an American artist, background artist, animator and set designer, known for his work with the Walt Disney Animation Studios and Walt Disney Imagineering. His pioneering work with the company helped define the character of animated films, and later, immersive installations with his designs for Disneyland. Coats, known as "The Gentle Giant" was inducted a Disney Legend in 1991.
Personal life.
Claude Coats was raised in Los Angeles and graduated from Polytechnic High School. On an athletic scholarship, Coats attended University of Southern California as an architecture student, but later received his bachelor's degree in drawing in 1934. He later attended Chouinard Art Institute and studied watercolor painting with Paul Sample. Upon matriculation, Coats became an active member of the California Water Color Society, which garnered the interest of the film industry. Coats accepted an interview at Disney’s Hyperion Studio and began an apprenticeship in background painting in 1935. While working at the studio, Claude met his future wife, Evelyn Henry, an inker in the Ink and Paint Department. The couple were married in July 1937 and went on to have two sons, Alan and Lee.
Claude and Evelyn were avid world travelers. They visited remote locations at Petra, Jordan, and Machu Picchu, long before these became popular tourist destinations. They joined the first American tour groups to visit China when that country was opened to Western visitors. Claude would return with a sketchbook and film to create vivid paintings of his travels. When he decided it was time to discover Antarctica, Claude realized his long-time dream to visit all seven continents. Penguins would become a favorite subject to paint and sculpt.
Career as background painter.
Coats' earliest film work included the 1935 animated shorts "Mickey's Fire Brigade" and "Pluto's Judgement Day". He also painted backgrounds for the "Silly Symphony" musical shorts, earning him membership to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His distinctive, layered style is prominently featured in the Oscar winners "The Old Mill" and "Ferdinand the Bull". He was personally selected as one of the artists by Walt Disney to paint the backgrounds for the studio's first full-length film, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", also the first full-length animated film created in the United States. He would continue his contributions and color styling to over twenty other Disney animated films.
Career as Imagineer.
In 1955, Coats was again appointed by Disney to the staff of WED Enterprises (now known as Walt Disney Imagineering). This "second career" as one of Disneyland's art directors and show designers brought his dynamic film sets to an immersive, three-dimensional space. These designs, along with those of Mary Blair, themed the Carousel of Progress, Ford Magic Skyway and It's a Small World at the 1964 New York World's Fair as well as WDI's future installations. Coats would go on to serve as the designer for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Snow White's Scary Adventures, Pirates of the Caribbean, World of Motion and Horizons. Until his retirement in November 1989, Coats would go on to do major designs at every extant Disney theme park, including the Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris.
Awards.
In 1991, he was awarded the Disney Legends award.


Josef Friedrich Schmidt

Josef Friedrich Schmidt (24 November 1871 - 28 September 1948) was a German board game inventor.
Biography.
Josef copied the Indian board game called Pachisi and rebranded it Mensch ärgere dich nicht.


Rage (video game)

Rage is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software, released in November 2010 for iOS, in October 2011 for Microsoft Windows, the PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360, and in February 2012 for OS X. It was first shown as a tech demo at the 2007 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference and was announced at the QuakeCon. "Rage" uses id Software's id Tech 5 game engine and was the final game released by the company under the supervision of founder John Carmack.
"Rage" is set in a post-apocalyptic near future, following the impact of the asteroid 99942 Apophis on Earth. Players take control of Nicholas Raine, a soldier put into hibernation in an underground shelter who emerges into the wasteland a century later, and finds himself a wanted man by an oppressive organization known as The Authority. The game has been described as similar to the movie "Mad Max 2", and video games such as "Fallout" and "Borderlands".
"Rage" received mainly positive reviews, with reviewers praising the game's combat mechanics and graphics while criticizing the lack of story, characters, and direction. The iOS version, titled Rage: Mutant Bash TV, was released in 2010. A sequel, "Rage 2", was released on May 14, 2019.
Gameplay.
The game primarily consists of first-person shooter and driving segments, with the player using their vehicle to explore the world and travel between missions.
Combat is undertaken from a first-person perspective; the player is armed with a variety of upgradeable firearms, as well as a crossbow, and boomerang-like weapons called "wingsticks" which can be used for stealthy attacks. There are several types of ammunition available for each weapon, to allow the player to further customize their play style. As an example, the crossbow's primary ammunition is metal bolts, but it also can shoot electrified bolts, explosive bolts, and more. There are two standard varieties of enemies: enemies with firearms which will take cover and exchange fire with the player, and melee enemies that will charge the player and attack with melee weapons.
There are a variety of vehicular events for the player to take part in, including races and checkpoint rallies. Racing events may or may not have opponents, and some of them are armed races while others are not. Players can augment their cars with various items and upgrades they can gain by completing events. "Rage" features some role-playing elements, including an inventory system, looting system, and different types of ammo. Players have the option to customize their weapons and vehicles, as well as build a wide assortment of items using collected recipes. Vehicles be used for racing and for traveling from one location to the other with occasional attacks from enemy vehicles. There are side missions and several other minor exploratory elements.
Multiplayer.
"Rage" has two multiplayer modes: "Road Rage" and "Wasteland Legends". In Road Rage, up to four players compete in a free-for-all match that takes place in an arena designed to make use of the vehicles. The goal is to collect rally points that appear around the arena while killing one's opponents and stealing their points. Legends of the Wasteland is a series of two-player co-op missions based on stories that are heard throughout the single-player campaign. There are a total of nine objectives in this game type.
Plot.
On August 23, 2029, the asteroid 99942 Apophis collides with Earth, destroying human civilization and turning the world into a wasteland. Survivors come together to form settlements around oases and other practical or habitable locations, while the wastes are plagued by various bandits clans, and mutants, who attack all normal humans in a voracious horde.
In 2135, former U.S. Marine Lieutenant Nicholas Raine emerges from an underground shelter called an Ark, 106 years after being put into stasis. These underground shelters are the direct result of the Eden Project, a massive international undertaking in which hundreds of Arks, containing cryogenic pods, were sealed under the surface of the Earth to preserve enough of the human population to rebuild civilization after the asteroid collision. The Eden Project was far less successful than hoped, as Raine's Ark in particular was heavily damaged, with all of its other residents dead and equipment destroyed, and he wakes up alone with no specific goal in mind.
Raine enters the surface, where he is immediately attacked by bandits but is saved by Dan Hagar (voiced by actor John Goodman), a local wasteland settler who brings Raine to his settlement. Hagar informs him that a powerful technologically advanced organization known as the Authority, that considers itself the one true government of the wasteland, is hunting for Ark survivors for an unknown purpose. Raine briefly aids Hagar's settlement and others in the local area by completing a few small jobs, and during this time it is revealed that the nanotrites injected into Raine's blood before he was sent into hibernation have granted him superhuman abilities to help him survive the harsh environment, but have made him valuable to the Authority. Hagar believes Raine's continued presence is too dangerous for the settlement and sends him to the nearby town of Wellspring instead.
In Wellspring, Raine helps the town with various problems such as fighting off bandits, mutants, and ferrying supplies. Eventually, he comes into contact with Dr. Kvasir, an elderly scientist who previously worked for the Authority, who tells Raine about the inhumane experiments they were responsible for, such as the creation of the mutants. Kvasir puts him into contact with the Resistance, an armed anti-Authority group, where he is tasked with rescuing their leader, Captain Marshall, who has recently been imprisoned by the Authority. Raine again attracts attention from the Authority, forcing him to flee Wellspring and join the Resistance at their headquarters in Subway Town, where he earns the trust of the town and its tyrannical mayor, Redstone. He also learns what had happened in the past century from Captain Marshall, who is an Ark survivor himself. General Martin Cross, who was in charge of the Eden Project, sabotaged the operation shortly before 99942 Apophis struck the Earth by ensuring that only the Arks with people loyal to him were opened on schedule, with this first wave of Ark survivors eventually forming the Authority. The remaining Arks were supposed to stay underground forever in hibernation, including Raine's Ark, which surfaced only because its systems were damaged and it automatically rose to protect any surviving inhabitants.
With the Authority beginning to forcefully expand its influence on the wasteland settlements, the Resistance is forced to act with the help of Raine who can recover data that shows the location of every Ark on the planet. Captain Marshall plans to use this data to activate all the Arks and form an army that can defeat the Authority, but the only way to do this is to transmit the data from Capital Prime, the main headquarters for the Authority. Alone, Raine fights his way through Capital Prime to transmit the Ark activation code, and the game concludes with all the remaining Arks simultaneously becoming active and surfacing.
Development.
According to design director Matt Hooper, the game's origins were in the concept of muscle cars within a desert setting, which was expanded upon by the creation of a post-apocalyptic world. A team of around 60 core developers worked on the title, which was intended to be the first release of an ongoing franchise.
"Rage" was intended to have a 'Teen' rating but ended up receiving an 'M' instead. The Windows PC and Xbox 360 versions ship on three dual-layer DVDs, while the PlayStation 3 version ships on one Blu-ray Disc. John Carmack has revealed that an uncompressed software build of "Rage" is one terabyte in size. The PS3, Windows and OS X versions use OpenGL as the graphics API. While a Linux version was speculated, there has been no confirmation of an official build. Timothee Besset had stated that he would try to make Linux builds for "Rage" much as he had done in the past, and was expected sometime in 2012 but he resigned his position at id Software. John Carmack has since revealed on Twitter that there are "no plans for a native Linux client". However, the game is playable on Linux via the Wine compatibility layer.
Id announced its decision to partner with Electronic Arts for publication of "Rage". In March 2009, the company's CEO Todd Hollenshead said "No, it won't be out this year," when asked about a possible release date. A trailer and several screenshots were released on August 13, 2009, at QuakeCon where it showcased various locations, racing and first-person gameplay, and a brief insight into the storyline of the game. During Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, Electronic Arts released four new screenshots for "Rage".
In 2009, John Carmack stated id Software was not planning to support dedicated servers for the Windows version, and instead would use a matchmaking system like console games. ZeniMax Media, who had acquired developer id Software in June 2009, announced that it had picked up the publishing rights to "Rage" and that EA would not be involved in the sales or marketing of the title. The announcement also noted that the development of "Rage" had not been affected by the new deal. Creative director Tim Willits confirmed that the game would miss releasing in 2010, and would launch in 2011. Willits later accepted the award from IGN Media for "Best Game" and "Best First Person Shooter" at E3. Additionally, the game was awarded Best First-Person Shooter, Best New IP, Best Xbox 360, Windows, and PlayStation 3 game as well as the Game of the Show of E3 2010 by GameTrailers.
In his keynote speech at QuakeCon 2010 on August 12, 2010, Carmack announced that id was developing a "Rage"-related game for Apple's iOS. He later described the mobile "Rage" as a "little slice of "Rage" ... [about] 'Mutant Bash TV', a post-apocalyptic combat game show in the "Rage" wasteland", and separately hinted that he might try to port "Rage Mobile" to Android, although he later stated no id titles would be coming to Android due to lack of financial viability.
At QuakeCon 2011, Carmack offered many technical insights of the development and differences between the three main platforms (Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3), noting that it was not easy developing such an optimized engine to be able to smoothly run on consoles and still having the best artistically looking game on consoles. He also affirmed that the PC platform at the time was as much as 10 times faster than the current generation of gaming consoles, but this did not mean 10x the performance because of the extra layers of abstraction found in PC compatible operating systems. On September 16, 2011; Bethesda announced "Rage" had gone gold.
Marketing and release.
Bethesda vice president of public relations Pete Hines initially said that a demo of the game is not likely, although one was later released on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Those who pre-ordered the game would receive an automatic upgrade to the "Anarchy Edition" of the game, which included four exclusive in-game items. Tim Willits claimed modding tools will be available a couple of days after release, although this proved to not be true.
"Rage" appeared on fourth season episodes "Problem Dog" and "Hermanos" of "Breaking Bad", both broadcast in 2011, as a video game that Jesse Pinkman plays to try to shake off killing Gale Boetticher. The inclusion had come from marketing opportunity discussions between id and AMC, both being fans of each other's work. Looking for video game material to include, id suggested the use of "Rage". id took mostly pre-existing game areas (the Well area), but worked with the production of the show to include allusions and references to Gale's murder to tie into Jesse's narrative within the game, such as Gale's name written on walls. From there, they provided a good deal of pre-recorded game footage to AMC to work with. While the show has Jesse playing "Rage" via a light gun, this was not part of the end development. In return, id included several "Breaking Bad" references in "Rage" on release, such as a version of the acrylic cube containing Tuco's teeth grill that Hank Schrader receives as a reward for killing him, from the episode "Bit by a Dead Bee".
A viral campaign was released that features Los Angeles Clippers power forward Blake Griffin in which he performs stunts to get himself in the game such as dunking over a tiger to impress the developers.
On October 4, 2011, the game was released. On February 2, 2012 "Rage" was released for OS X through digital distribution, lacking multiplayer content.
Editions.
"Rage" was available for pre-order in three retail versions: the "Anarchy Edition" and two region-dependent Collector's Editions. Those who pre-ordered the standard edition of "Rage" automatically got their copy upgraded to Anarchy Edition. Two Collector's Editions of the game were also available; one through EB Games in Australia, the other through Game and Gamestation in the UK.
The version released for Mac OS X was called "Rage: Campaign Edition". This version contains all content of the "Anarchy Edition" and the Wasteland Sewer Missions DLC pack. Multiplayer is not present in this version. Only the single-player campaign is available hence the name of the edition.
Mods.
The modding tools for "Rage" were originally going to be released with the game itself but instead were released on February 8, 2013, on Steam. Titled RAGE Tool Kit or simply id Studio, the tools were used to create the game as well as the DLC.
Downloadable content.
Downloadable content (DLC) was mentioned to be planned for all platforms. The "Wasteland Sewer Missions" DLC pack, integral part of the "Campaign Edition", was released on October 4, 2011, providing access to the sewer systems. A code for the DLC was given away as a pre-order bonus with the Anarchy Edition that allowed early and free access to the DLC. The player character is given a task by people of various cities to rid their city's sewers of the mutant infestation.
"Anarchy Edition" add-on DLC was released on 15 February 2012 containing all the content of the Anarchy Edition excluding the free Wasteland Sewer Missions Pack DLC code. The package upgrades the standard edition of "Rage" to the "Anarchy Edition".
A new Rage DLC release called "The Scorchers" was released on December 18, 2012, for Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The plot focused on 'The Scorchers', a bandit clan cut from the final release of the main game and only encountered in vehicle combat missions. The Scorchers were hatching a plan to end all life by destroying the Wasteland and it was up to the main character to save humanity. The DLC added a, "Ultra Nightmare" difficulty level and the ability to keep playing the game even after the main questline was completed. The pack features new characters, six new areas, new minigames, new enemies and a new weapon called Nailgun which features three distinct ammunition types. The DLC also fixes some bugs in the game.
Related media.
In November 2010, id Software released "Rage: Mutant Bash TV" for iOS devices as a demo for showcasing its gameplay. The HD version of the game called "Rage HD" was released for all iOS devices. John Carmack hinted that he intends to release another iPhone app based on the "Rage" universe that focuses on the racing aspect of the game.
In March 2011, Bethesda and Dark Horse Comics announced a three-issue comic book series based on "Rage". The original miniseries was written by Arvid Nelson, and penciled by Andrea Mutti. The cover art was created by Glenn Fabry. The comic series, developed with the direct participation of "Rage"s creative director, Tim Willits, presents a new twist on the post-apocalyptic near future as one woman discovers that the survival of humankind does not necessarily mean the survival of humanity. The Earth has been devastated by a collision with an asteroid, with a tiny fraction of the population surviving in life-sustaining Arks buried deep below its surface. Those who survive emerge to find a wasteland controlled by a global military dictatorship called the Authority. But a rescued scientist learns that the Authority has lied to her and the other survivors about how this new world came to be.
That same month, Bethesda announced that they would team up with Del Rey Books to create a novel based on "Rage". The novel was written by Matthew J. Costello, also responsible for the video game. It was released on August 30, 2011.
Reception.
Pre-release.
The game received a great deal of recognition before its release. It won the Game Critics Awards of E3 2010 for "Best Console Game", and "Best Action Game", along with the "Special Commendation for Graphics". IGN awarded it their "Best Overall Game" and "Best Shooter" in their E3 2010 awards. It also won many of GameTrailers' E3 2010 awards, including "Best New IP", "Best First Person Shooter", "Best PS3 Game", "Best Xbox 360 Game", "Best PC Game", and "Game of the Show".
Post-release.
"Rage" received generally positive reviews on all platforms except the iOS version, which received average reviews, according to the aggregate review site Metacritic. The game received praise for its graphics and shooting mechanics, and criticism mostly aimed towards the game's story and poor out-of-the-box PC compatibility.
EGMNow praised the Xbox 360 version and stated it features impressive visuals, brutal and satisfying combat, fluid animations and advanced enemy AI, many entertaining side-missions, and an addictive multiplayer component. The one complaint they had with "Rage" was that the final boss fight was unsatisfying compared to the rest of the game's impressive combat scenarios. GameZone gave the same console version 8.5 out of 10 and called it "a great experience that's coupled with some intensely fun gunplay and some incredibly impressive graphics. It's not quite the "Borderlands" meets "Fallout" experience that gamers were expecting. It isn't very long, and it does skimp out on character development, but it focuses more on what id knows best--shooting things in the face. This is one post-apocalyptic wasteland that you'll definitely want to venture into." "Ars Technica" gave a more negative review of the Xbox 360 version, criticizing lack of story, undeveloped characters, uninteresting quests and a "broken save system" (autosave checkpoints being too far apart, forcing frequent manual saves which are slow on the Xbox 360), while acknowledging the quality of the visuals. "Edge" gave it seven out of ten and called it "a stunningly rendered FPS, but one that seems caught between a desire to innovate and the desire to be true to the template its creators defined."
"Game Informer" said that "while most people will rave about Rage's technology, this game's most impressive component is its gunplay ... the mutated hostiles of the wastes ... crawl out of the woodwork, scamper along walls, and create a sense of absolute terror", and "the challenge posed to the player is to put them down quickly or pray that every close range shotgun blast takes a large chunk of flesh." The soundtrack was described as "appropriately moody", and the animation system as one of the most "impressive" ever made. However, the review also argued that "the driving sections are no more than optional diversions" and "the lack of content in the overworld is disappointing". In conclusion, the story and overworld were described as "dated", but the "pulse-pounding gunplay" was hailed as "a nice change of pace" that "stands out in a crowded market". IGN praised the game's graphics, calling them some of the best, but criticized the game's story and forgettable characters. In Japan, where the game was ported on October 6, 2011 (the same release date as Australia's), "Famitsu" gave the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions a score of two nines, one eight, and one nine for a total of 35 out of 40.
411Mania gave the PS3 version a score of eight out of ten and said it was "by no means a bad game. Id has a solid shooter with great graphics and solid controls. However, plenty of other games have done the same things now. "Rage" is still a good game and will tide shooter fans over until other shooters release later this year. Just don't expect anything groundbreaking here." "Digital Spy" gave the same console version four stars out of five and called it "a triumphant mix of vintage shooter mechanics and high-octane driving segments. The end result is a title that captures the essence of its genre-defining predecessors while offering fans something new. id's Tech 5 engine ensures that this is the studio's best-look release to date, and the sheer volume of features on offer make it one of the most rewarding." Softpedia gave the Xbox 360 version a score of four stars out of five and called it "a must-have, must-play game." "The Digital Fix" gave the same console version eight out of ten and called it "a sound purchase". "The Guardian" gave the same console version a similar score of four stars out of five and called it "a decidedly mixed affair. It isn't perfect, some of it feels quite antiquated, and it is by no means the high-water moment in the FPS genre that Doom and Quake were in their day. But it is still a very eye-catching and incredibly fun shooter, and in its best moments, it can't be matched for pure entertainment value."
However, "The Daily Telegraph" gave the Xbox 360 version three-and-a-half stars out of five and called it "a game that would have benefitted from being streamlined, with additional FPS levels replacing the awkward driving. It should have been an id game. Instead, it occupies this weird halfway-house between "Borderlands", "MotorStorm", and "Doom", not quite an RPG, not quite a racer and not quite an FPS." "The A.V. Club" gave the same console version a C+ and said that its "huge swaths ... are lifted wholesale from "Fallout 3", "Borderlands", and "BioShock", making "Rage" forever veer between loving homage and blatant plagiarism. In the end, "Rage" is an insecure, overly busy game that tries too hard to be too many things, and winds up with a greasy sheen of flop-sweat on its brow."
Accolades.
"Rage" was also recognized in several 2011 end-of-year award ceremonies. It was nominated for "Best Graphics" and "Best New Franchise" in Xbox Achievements' Game of the Year 2011 Awards. GameTrailers nominated it for "Best First Person Shooter" and "Best New IP". At the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, it was nominated for "Best Graphics" and "Best Shooter". Technical issues with the PC version led to articles explaining to users how to "fix" "Rage"s problems. AMD has released drivers that attempt to fix some of the issues. On October 10, 2011, patches for the Windows version were released which added various graphical options to the game and fixed some driver-related graphical issues.
Sequel.
A sequel, "Rage 2", which is a joint development between id Software and Avalanche Studios, was released on May 14, 2019, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.


The Shoe Company

The Shoe Company is a Canadian shoe store, originating in Greater Toronto Area in 1992. From its inception, The Shoe Company was operated by conglomerate Town Shoes. The founder of Town Shoes, Leonard Simpson, had predicted a growth opportunity for footwear to be sold in a big box format.
In May 2018, The Shoe Company, along with fellow Town Shoes banners Shoe Warehouse and DSW Canada, were acquired by DSW Inc., now Designer Brands.
They currently operate 76 stores coast to coast, and offer Canada's largest selection of branded family footwear.


The Club (video game)

The Club is a third-person shooter video game developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Sega. The story of the game centres on The Club, an underground blood sport controlled by a wealthy elite who place their bets on who will survive the gladiatorial-style combat.
Plot.
The player chooses from a roster of characters who are forced to compete in The Club, a modern form of gladiatorial combat. There are 8 characters to choose from: Renwick, Dragov, Nemo, Seager, Adjo, Kuro, Finn, and Killen.
Gameplay.
"The Club" is played from a third-person perspective. The player must make their way through a level as quickly as possible, or defend one location and survive attacks from respawning enemies for a set amount of time. Gameplay is centred on a score mechanic where each kill acts as a bonus multiplier. Various kill methods, such as ricochets, head shots, and long range shots earn extra points. After each kill, the player has several seconds to get another kill before the bonus multiplier starts to reduce. This interval also reduces the higher the multiplier gets. Icons are scattered throughout each level, offering bonuses. Weapons, ammunition and health are present but the player is not rewarded for picking them up. "The Club" incorporates elements from racing video games, including time attack events.
Multiplayer.
The game includes eight multiplayer modes, with online leaderboards to compare scores. Online games can feature up to seven opponents on-line, or four-player local split screen.
Development.
The lead designer of the game was Matt Cavanagh who described the title as "a racing game with guns". At first the game was literally a shooting gallery with limited AI. After 6 months of development a new prototype was created with an emphasis on scoring rather than narrative. The gameplay was designed before any setting and back story was created. Many publishers declined to take on the title before Sega chose to back it.
The title was released globally on February 8, 2008. Composer Richard Jacques wrote the score for the single player levels, Chris Chudley from Audioantics wrote the score for the multiplayer levels, while Jesper Kyd scored the main theme.
Reception.
"The Club" received positive reviews. Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell complimented it as "a shooter that turns tired genre conventions around with a bullet to the shoulder", but stated that it would be "divisive" due to the game's run and gun mentality, which went against the contemporary trend towards tactical shooters. Bramwell pointed out that "The Club" "does for the third-person shooter what no one else has even bothered trying to do: moving it closer to the 2D shoot-'em-ups of old in a manner that appeals anew".
Andrew Reiner, writing for "Game Informer", mentioned Bizarre Creations' background and its influence on "The Club": "The speed-first mentality of the racing genre is cleverly infused into the framework of a run-and-gun shooter...And to truly capture the racing atmosphere, some of the levels have players running laps in specific environments...It may sound odd, but the racing shooter formula works amazingly well". Reiner called "The Club" "a nice change of pace, and hopefully the beginning of a new genre".
"GamePro" reviewer Cameron Lewis wrote: "What might be most impressive about The Club is that despite the many disparate elements that it cherry-picks from genres as diverse as racing, skateboarding, and first-person shooters, the whole never bears the disjointed feel of a Frankenstein creation".
IGN reviewer Alec Meer stated that the scoring system "will prove an immediate turn-off for some" and went on to blame the "fairly dismal" graphics for putting potential players off, saying that "it's about how it plays, not how it looks. But if it looked better, more people would want to play it". He praised the gameplay as "it does the job it sets out to do very well", but said the game only had "specialist appeal".
VideoGamer.com's Tom Orry praised "The Club" as "a game packed full of style, brimming with replay value and demanding of the most skilful players around. This is an arcade shooter like you've never seen before...The Club is one of the finest examples of bringing the essence of arcade gaming to modern consoles".
"Edge" called "The Club" "a heavily structured and well-considered score-attack game", granting it 7/10.


Girolamo Dalla Casa

Girolamo Dalla Casa (also known as Hieronymo de Udene, died 1601) was an Italian composer, instrumentalist, and writer of the late Renaissance. He was a member of the Venetian School, and was perhaps more famous and influential as a performer than as a composer.
Nothing is known about his life prior to his arrival at Venice, but he was probably born at Udine sometime before the middle of the 16th century. He was first hired by the musical establishment of St Mark's Basilica on 29 January 1568, along with his two brothers, Giovanni and Nicolò, where they formed the first permanent instrumental ensemble.. The sonorous acoustical environment of this basilica was the center of activity of the Venetians. Giovanni Gabrieli clearly had Dalla Casa's group in mind for much of his music, and the Dalla Casas are presumed to have played in many the elaborate polychoral compositions of the time.
In 1572, Dalla Casa served as Venetian agent for the purchase of a large number of wind instruments and printed editions of music for the court of John of Austria, half-brother of Philip II of Spain and hero of the Battle of Lepanto in the previous year. The transaction, made though the Spanish resident ambassador in Venice, Diego Guzmán de Silva, came to the considerable sum of 154 scudi, 3 lire, and 20 soldi in gold. The instruments purchased included four tenor and two soprano shawms, six alto cornetts, five mute cornetts, two large [bass?] cornetts, two dulcians, and trumpets from Nuremberg and Augsburg. An unusually large sum was charged for a "'cassa di flauti grossi" (chest of large recorders), which may have included several SATB consorts. The music included five printed books by Cipriano de Rore, four books by Orlando di Lasso, four books by Vincenzo Ruffo, and a collection by Pedro Guerrero, as well as other books whose contents were not specified in the receipt, which is dated 20 February 1572 and signed in Dalla Casa's hand.
Dalla Casa was a virtuoso player of the cornett, which he described as 'the most excellent of all the wind instruments ... because it mimics the human voice better than the other instruments do'.
The use of the Dalla Casas by Gabrieli and St. Mark's foreshadowed, and may have influenced, the development of the "concertino-ripieno" style of the concerto grosso in the later Baroque. Being a smaller group of virtuoso instrumentalists playing in contrast to larger instrumental and vocal forces arrayed around them, and being in the center of a hugely influential stylistic movement, they functioned as an early form of "concertino". Much of the music which Gabrieli and the other Venetians wrote for them survives.
Two books of madrigals and one book of motets survive from his compositional output, which probably was not large. More important to musicology, however, was his two-part 1584 treatise on ornamentation ("Il vero modo di diminuir"), which gives clear and precise examples of ornamentation as it was practiced in singing and playing French chansons and Italian madrigals at the time. In contrast to earlier ornamentation treatises, Dalla Casa introduced short ornamental patterns with jerky and discontinuous rhythms, such as the "tremoli groppizati" and "groppi battute", to emphasize particular notes and heighten their emotional effect. Diminutions on intervalic skips of sixths, sevenths, and octaves also appear for the first time in this treatise, which is therefore regarded as marking the end of the purely Renaissance style of ornamentation and the beginnings of Baroque practice. From this treatise it is clear that polyphonic works were usually performed unadorned, but works in a more homophonic style, and especially grand polychoral works with frequent sectional changes and prominent cadences, were embellished with ornaments, few of which appear in the actual notated music.


Zhiming Liu (computer scientist)

Prof. Zhiming Liu (, born 10 October 1961, Hebei, China) was a computer scientist. He studied mathematics in Luoyang, Henan in China and obtained his first degree in 1982. He holds a master's degree in Computer Science from the Institute of Software of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (1988), and a PhD degree from the University of Warwick (1991). His PhD thesis was on "Fault-Tolerant Programming by Transformations".
After his PhD, Zhiming Liu worked as a guest scientist at the Department of Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby in 1991–1992. Then he returned to the University of Warwick and worked as a postdoctoral research fellow on formal techniques in real-time and fault-tolerant systems till October 1994 when he became a university lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Leicester (UK). He worked at UNU-IIST during 2002–2013 at UNU-IIST as Research fellow and Senior Research Fellow. He joined Birmingham City University (UK) in October 2013 as the Professor of Software Engineering. In 2016, he moved to a new professorial post at Southwest University in Chongqing, China, with funding through the Thousand Talents Program.
Zhiming Liu's main research interest is in the areas of formal methods of computer systems design, including real-time systems, fault-tolerant systems, object-oriented and component-based systems. His research results have been published in mainstream journals and conferences. His joint work with Mathai Joseph work on fault tolerance gives a formal model that defines precisely the notions of "fault", "error", "failure" and "fault-tolerance", and their relations. It also gives the properties that models of fault-affected programs and fault-tolerant programs in terms of model transformations. They proposed a design process for fault-tolerant systems from requirement specifications and analysis, fault environment identification and analysis, specification of fault-affected design and verification of fault-tolerance for satisfaction of the requirements specification. In collaboration with Zhou Chaochen and Anders Ravn, et al., he also developed a Probabilistic Duration Calculus for system dependability analysis. His recent work with He Jifeng and Xiaoshan Li on the rCOS theory of semantics and refinement of object-oriented and component-based design is being developed into a method with tool support for component-based and model-driven software development.
Zhiming Liu is the founder of International Colloquium on Theoretical Aspects of Computing (ICTAC), the International Symposium on Formal Aspects of Component Software (FACS), and International Symposium on Foundations of Health Information Engineering and systems (FHIES). He has served as a PC chair for a number of conferences and PC members of a number of conferences. He has also edited a number of books.
Zhiming Liu is married to Hong Zhao with two sons, Kim Chang Liu and Edward Tanze Liu.


Edge of Twilight (series)

Edge of Twilight is a multi-platform, multi-genre series of steampunk titles, all taking place in the same world, a world which is made up of two realms: day and night. The series itself will not be a particular genre, but instead focus on fleshing out a complete world as the series progresses.
Games.
Main series.
"Edge of Twilight: Athyr Above".
"Edge of Twilight: Athyr Above" is the first canon installment in the series. It was released on iOS on March 28, 2013, and will later be released on the Google Play Store. The game involves a large number of puzzles, and gives players the chance to switch between the protagonist, Lex's, Day and Night personas. Players can mix and match combat talents with the game's skill system, as well as including an "easy to use but hard to master" combat system. As well as puzzles, the game is primarily action-based in terms of combat with RPG elements also available.
"Edge of Twilight".
"Edge of Twilight", which is set for release in summer 2013, will be the first console game of the series. It will focus around Lex, a half-breed who can bridge the gap between the realms of darkness and light. The forthcoming title will be an action-adventure game with heavy focus on gameplay, story, and puzzles.
Other games.
"Edge of Twilight: Horizon".
The first officially released game of the series, "Edge of Twilight: Horizon" is an "endless running" iOS game, much in the vein of "Temple Run". The player takes the role of the protagonist Lex, as his Night persona, as he escapes from the Foresaken, a giant beast, through the forests of Hellayem.


David di Donatello for Best Costumes

The David di Donatello for Best Costumes () is a film award presented annually by the Accademia del Cinema Italiano (ACI, "Academy of Italian Cinema") to recognize outstanding efforts on the part of film costume designers who have worked within the Italian film industry during the year preceding the ceremony. It was first presented during the 1981 edition of the David di Donatello award show.
Winners and nominees.
Winners are indicated in bold.
1980s.
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990s.
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000s.
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010s.
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020s.
2020


Monhegan Light (short story)


Grace Golden

Grace Lydia Golden (2 April 1904 – 3 June 1993) was an English illustrator and historian. Raised in London, she began illustrating books in the early 1930s and began painting exhibition pieces after becoming the recipient of a small legacy in 1934, working in watercolours and oil paint.
Early life.
Grace Golden (Associate of the Royal College of Art) was born to a working-class family in east London. After her education at the City of London School for Girls, she won a scholarship to the Chelsea College of Art, where she studied from 1920 to 1923. She progressed from there to the Royal College of Art, where she first studied and later taught from 1926 to 1927. She also studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic for a time.
Career.
Her career in book illustration began in the early 1930s. She received a small legacy in 1934 which enabled her to work on exhibition pieces. Working in both watercolours and oil paint, she exhibited at the Royal Academy, as well as the Fine Art Society and Leicester Galleries.
Golden received a commission from The Pilgrim Trust to make illustrations of historic buildings and landmarks during World War II, as well as her work appearing in touring exhibitions. Golden received a sketching permit from the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC, which allowed her to draw and paint in public during the war. WAAC also purchased her painting "An Emergency Food Office" which showed people queuing for ration books.
Later, she worked for the Ministry of Information – painstakingly producing illustrations which were used to aid the reading of educational books. Posters promoting safe working practice were produced from her illustrations, many of which were used to stress the hazards of a mixed sex workforce within wartime manufacturing environments, with slogans such as ‘Keep your mind on the job – and save your knuckles’.
Golden had always been interested in the working life of the Thames. She had witnessed the lives of the industrious people who were employed near and on the river from the age of five, when her parents had moved to a five-storey house at the City End of Southwark Bridge. This fascination led to her producing her book "Old Bankside" which contained some fifty-one illustrations of the wharfs and alleys alongside the Thames between Blackfriars Bridge and London Bridge. Years later, Sam Wanamaker invited Golden to become the honorary archivist to his Globe Theatre project, which was based in the same part of London. Her work also frequently appeared in the "Swift" annual (1957–1961).
Final years.
Grace Golden died on 3 June 1993, aged 89 at the Royal Free Hospital. She had, during her last years, become something of a recluse, having closed herself off from the world around her and living a life of frugality and simplicity. Her work, which was popular with many writers, including Enid Blyton, will be remembered for its attention to detail, which now makes her work of distinctive historical value.
Some of her work is exhibited at the Tate Gallery and The National Archives. At Golders Green Crematorium, London, there is a commemorative plaque to her.


Deadfall Adventures

Deadfall Adventures is an action-adventure video game developed by The Farm 51 and published by Nordic Games. "Deadfall Adventures" was released on November 15, 2013, for Windows and Xbox 360, and on October 28, 2014, for PlayStation 3. The game is set in the universe of the Allan Quatermain series, created by H. Rider Haggard.
Gameplay.
"Deadfall Adventures" is a first person action-adventure video game that takes place during World War II. The protagonist, James Lee Quatermain, is a treasure hunter who fights Nazi soldiers and supernatural enemies through various environments like Egypt, the Arctic, and Mayan ruins. He has a compass that helps him find hidden treasures that improve his stats. He uses Allan Quartermain's notebook to solve puzzles and overcome traps, and a flashlight to travel in dark areas and fend off supernatural enemies like mummies. He can use various weapons like revolvers, shotguns and a knife for melee combat.
Plot.
The story takes place in the year 1938, with players assuming the role of famous adventurer Allan Quartermain's great-grandson, James Lee Quatermain. James' goal is to escort a U.S. agent as they travel to Egypt in search for the Heart of Atlantis. Rival factions such as the Nazis and Soviets are looking it for their own purposes.
Development.
"Deadfall Adventures" was developed with Unreal Engine 3. It is reportedly inspired by action-adventure books and movies such as "Indiana Jones" and adventurer Allan Quartermain (from the novels written by Henry Rider Haggard). The development team researched popular films and also took assistance from movie industry professionals to capture the treasure hunting genre’s tone and look. The game was announced to be released on July 30, 2013, but was delayed twice to September 27 and November 15, 2013, when it was finally released. A collector's edition was released that contains an Allan Quartermain revolver skin for the revolver in single-player mode and three multiplayer skins, a "Making Of" DVD, original soundtrack CD, a printed game manual and a "Bonus Content" DVD that included an artbook. A beta version for Linux was released on December 31, 2013, for those who bought the Windows version of the game on Steam. On June 11, 2014, the developers announced that a PlayStation 3 version titled "Deadfall Adventures: Heart of Atlantis" would be released in the summer of 2014 with a number of enhancements. The game includes a new co-op survival mode, new boss fights, cutscenes, locations and an improved leveling system.
Reception.
The game received a mixed-to-negative reception. The Windows and Xbox 360 versions have scores of 53/100 and 43/100 respectively on Metacritic. Cameron Woolsey of GameSpot gave it a negative review of 3/10, saying "Deadfall Adventures becomes hopelessly predictable, breaking down into a tiresome formula of kill rooms and effortless puzzles." Craig Pearson of IGN gave it a negative review of 4/10 saying "It's an uninspired retread of good concepts, and an unfortunate visitor into a genre with some genuine giants. It might take you on a long trip across the globe to visit some attractive locations, but by the end the only temples I cared for were throbbing away in my head." Jeff Marchiafava of Game Informer gave it a score of 4/10 calling it "An Adventure Best Forgotten". Edge also gave it a review score of 4/10.


Ulrich Kiesow

Ulrich Kiesow was one of the co-founders of Fantasy Productions (FanPro) in 1983, together with Werner Fuchs and Hans Joachim Alpers. He was the translator of the first German language editions for both "Tunnels & Trolls", which was the first German language RPG rule book, and "Dungeons & Dragons".
Most importantly, Kiesow was the creator of the pen and paper role-playing game "The Dark Eye" and its accompanying universe. Besides contributing to many publications regarding this game, Kiesow used the pseudonym "Andreas Blumenkamp" to write satirical articles for the now defunct German roleplaying game magazine "Wunderwelten" that was produced by FanPro.
Kiesow suffered a severe heart attack in August 1995. While recovering he began to write the "Dark Eye" novel "Das zerbrochene Rad" ("The broken wheel", a symbol for death in the universe of "The Dark Eye"). The novel had just been completed when Kiesow died of heart failure in his home on January 30, 1997.


Shehr-e-Zaat

Shehr-e-Zaat () is a 2012 Pakistani spiritual romantic drama serial based on the novella of the same name by Umera Ahmad. It is directed by Sarmad Sultan Khoosat, and produced by Momina Duraid and Abdullah Kadwani. It stars Mahira Khan, Mikaal Zulfiqar and Mohib Mirza in the leads. .
Shehr-e-Zaat is a story of young woman's journey as she strives to make up for all the time she has lost in worldly pursuits and finally give in to Allah's will, after learning harsh realities of life she traveled from "Self to Subsistence", It premiered on 29 June 2012 in Pakistan, with the prime slot of 8:00 pm every Friday on the channel Hum TV, the serial aired its final episode on 2 November 2012, and was extremely praised. The final episode of serial left an unforgettable effect on audience, despite the usual revenge ending. "Shehr-e-Zaat" received widespread critical acclaim and is widely regarded to be one of the greatest television series of all time. Due to the Islamic serial trend and minimum cult philosophy cliché dialogues, the serial was a major hit and was praised heavily.
The serial won three Hum Awards at its first ceremony, including Best Drama Serial, and was nominated for seven categories. The serial was nominated for the Lux Style Awards in 2013 but did not win. Mohib Mirza was nominated for best supporting actor at the Pakistan Media Awards in 2013. Due to widespread acclaim and owing to its popularity, a special transmission was held in Karachi and broadcast on Hum TV at the conclusion of the drama.
Plot.
Shehrezaat revolves around a beautiful day-dreamer Falak Sher Afgan (Mahira Khan); an only child to very rich parents. Falak is a student of fine arts who makes the sculpture of the man of her dreams and falls head over heels in love when she finds the breathing manifestation of it in Salman Ansar (Mikaal Zulfiqar). But the more Falak tries to get close to Salman, the more he ignores her. Hamza (Mohib Mirza) is a close friend of Falak and he adores her dearly. Falak is oblivious to his love for her for a long time. Belonging to the elite class she has always been the centre of attention and never been deprived of anything. She never came across through religious brightness and divinity. Falak's mother, Mehr-un-Nisa (Hina Khawaja Bayat) built her subsistence according to the worldly life. Finally, Falak manages to get married to Salman. They live happily together and Salman initially proves to be a good husband despite his father in law, Sher Afgan's reservations. Life was luxurious and full of joy but destiny decides doom for Falak when Salman falls in love with an uneducated an crass employee Tabinda (Nadia Afgan) at his factory with whom he begins an extramarital relationship. Falak decides to meet Tabinda and confront her. Upon seeing her unattractive physical appearance and crassness, she goes in a state of shock and eventually suffers from a major nervous breakdown. She comes back to consciousness with a broken heart and for the first time in life looks at her tragedy from a different perspective. Instead of craving for Salman's lost love she ponders over the power of destiny. The fact that Salman preferred Tabinda, an ugly looking woman with a loose character over her, forces her to go through a journey of self-discovery. She comes across bitter realities and learns the true purpose of life while receiving Islamic perceptions from her Nani (Samina Peerzada). Falak adapts simplicity, patience and humbleness, she brought quietness in her life and manages to get rid of unnecessary worldly and hollow pursuits. She eventually accepts Salman back in her life after Tabinda leaves him but without her previous obsession.
Cast.
Guest Appearances
Original soundtrack.
The Theme song of "Shehr-e-Zaat" is taken from the 2000s enormous hit album "Raqs-e-Bismil" also known as "Dance of Wounded" of Sufi singer Abida Parveen, written or poetry by 18th century most famous Sufi poet Shah Niaz and originally composed by "Muzaffar Ali" for Parveen's album. Director Sultan Khoosat requested Abida Parveen to give the song for the show, as the song was perfectly fitted for the serial with its spiritualism cliché storyline and manner. Despite its original release of almost above decade, Serial OST goes hit once again and highly appreciated by listeners of this song selection for "Shehr-e-Zaat" genre style serial. Abida's song "Zahid ne Mera" was also used when Falak finds out the relationship between Tabinda and Salman.
Difference from the Novel.
Prior to adaptation "Shehr-e-Zaat" was a story of comprises no more than 70 to 88 pages and was published in Ahmad's book "Meri Zaat Zara-e-Benishan" along with two more stories in first edition. Moreover, it was also published in Umeras another book "Main Ne Khwabon Ka Shajar Dekha Hai" with five other stories, but as for 2010s editions of Umera's work all adapted work is printed separately. To give the strength to story, Umera add two new characters "Hamza" (portrayed by Mohib Mirza) and Nani (portrayed by Samina Peerzada). Changes into story were positively accepted, although script for Drama serial settled with different opening and ended with not a same but similar ending. Umera mentions the story plot set in Lahore and Karachi, but more than 85% of shoot was completed only in Karachi.
Broadcast and availability.
Zindagi Channel began broadcasting this series in India starting 13 August 2015. It was initially available on Hum TV's official YouTube channel but later all the episodes were deleted. The show was reuploaded by the channel in June 2019 with all music muted. It was also available on iflix app till 2019.
Reception.
Critical reception.
Shehr-e-Zaat received a rating of 7.9 trp, owing to its popularity, a special transmission was held in Karachi and broadcast on Hum TV at the conclusion of the drama. Hum TV. Shehr-e-Zaat was ranked No. 4. Due to story Sufism and Islamization touch it draws orthodox reviews commented that "Shehr-e-Zaat and its misplaced knowledge of Islam". It is the third highest-rated Pakistani television series. In a blog on The Tribune, a writer wrote about "misplaced knowledge of Islam" due to the way the story presented Sufism and Islamization. Dawn declared the series as one of the highlights of 2012. It received universal acclaim all around the world. Indian TV channel Star Plus wanted to telecast it in India but Hum TV refused it. Mahira Khan was praised for her acting many called her the heart of show also saying that she outclassed her co-actors with her acting. Shehr-e-zaat was named the best drama serial by CNN. Shehr e Zaat won best drama serial at Hum Awards 2013. The show rose Mahira Khan to a limelight once again after "Humsafar" and Yash Chopra also said in an interview that after seeing the serial he decided to launch Mahira Khan. She also won Best Actress award. Many called her the new face of Pakistani Cinema.
Controversies.
Shehr-e-Zaat was the most talked about show when it went on air, people talked about everything from the inspirational message it contained to whether Falak should or should not be wearing a dupatta. Shehr-e-Zaat is still the most talked about drama, not because people are still impressed by it but because of the rift it caused between the writer Umera Ahmed, the channel on which it was being aired and the director Sarmad Khoosat. Umera wrote the script of serial for only 16 episodes but it went on to 19 episodes due to positively received reception, Hum TV apologizes for doing that because the last three episodes which were unnecessarily stretched.
The last episodes lost the charm of the serial. In the final episode of serial, the director wrote an ending monologue; "cheezain behaya nahi hoti, jo kuch un se mansoob kya jata hay woh behaya hota hai..." which was actually neither the part of Novel nor the script and was written against the will of writer.


Distrust (video game)

Distrust is a survival game developed by Cheerdealers and published by Alawar. The player controls a team who, after surviving a helicopter crash at an arctic base, must scrounge for supplies. It is available for Microsoft Windows, iOS, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Gameplay.
The gameplay is inspired by "The Thing", a 1982 horror film by John Carpenter. After a helicopter crash, the survivors take refuge at an abandoned arctic base. Initially, players choose two out of a roster of three characters. The roster can be expanded by unlocking up to fifteen characters, each of whom have special abilities to aid in their survival. The base's map is randomly generated. While scrounging for supplies, the characters must satisfy basic needs: sleep, heat, and hunger. Sleeping risks drawing the attention of aliens known as "anomalies", which can kill characters or set back progress. Failure to satisfy their needs can cause madness, which brings on random status effects, such as quoting Shakespeare or consuming more food. After solving a randomized puzzle, players unlock a new zone, and another random map is generated. The game concludes once six zones have been completed.
Release.
"Distrust" was released on August 23, 2017.
Reception.
On Metacritic, the PC version of "Distrust" has a rating of 75/100 based on five reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Leif Johnson of "GameSpot" rated it 7/10 stars and wrote that the game's roguelike gameplay, which depends heavily on random chance, keeps replays fresh. However, he said this randomization can also make it "maddeningly tough". Ted Hentschke of Dread Central rated it 2.5/5 stars, criticizing how little inspiration the game took from "The Thing", its trivially-overcome challenges, and the pointlessness of many of the randomized gameplay elements. Reviewing the game for Bloody Disgusting, Jim Hargreaves rated it 3/5 stars and wrote that the game's unpredictability and rushed micromanagement may frustrate some players, who find themselves overwhelmed. In comparing it to "Don't Starve", Alec Meer of "Rock, Paper, Shotgun" called it "a neat and tense survive 'em up".


Stacy Igel

Stacy Morgenstern Igel is an American fashion designer and founder and creative director of the fashion line Boy Meets Girl.
Early life.
Igel was born in Chicago. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she majored in retailing, with concentrations in design and merchandising, and secured a certificate in business.
Personal life.
Igel, born as Stacy Morgenstern, is of Jewish heritage. She is married to Brian Igel. On October 4, 2014, Igel gave birth to her first child Dylan Reid Igel. Igel currently resides in New York City.
Career.
Igel held internships with several designers, including Zandra Rhodes and Donna Karan, as well as on-air icon, Elsa Klensch. Igel then secured a position at IZOD, and then Elie Tahari.
In 2001, Igel launched her brand “Deesh” which featured boy/girl silhouettes. In 2006, Igel officially dropped the brand name Deesh and marketed her brand exclusively as Boy Meets Girl.
In 2010, Igel partnered with The Moret Group and launched the first Boy Meets Girl New York Fashion Week (NYFW) show, titled “Intrepid Traveler”, featuring a musical performance from The Neon Trees.
In 2015, Igel purchased the Boy Meets Girl brand and company under private ownership. The brand, Boy Meets Girl (BMG), has been worn by celebrities including Rosario Dawson, Rachel Bilson, Nina Dobrev, and Kendall Jenner. The Boy Meets Girl brand’s boy and girl silhouette logo has been featured in publications including InStyle, Teen Vogue, Lucky, Seventeen, Women’s Wear Daily, and The New York Times. The brand is currently sold at Nordstrom.
Charity.
Igel is involved with the Young Survival Coalition (YSC), a charity that focuses on helping young woman who are diagnosed with and have survived breast cancer. Starting in 2008, Stacy Igel, on behalf of Boy Meets Girl, sponsored and co-chaired the Young Survival Coalition’s (YSC) annual In Living Pink Gala to raise money for breast cancer research. Igel collaborated with Urban Outfitters in 2009 to create Boy Meets Girl x YSC clothing and accessory products that have raised over $20,000 for the YSC.
In addition, since 2009 Igel, on behalf of Boy Meets Girl has worked with the BullyBust Campaign, on behalf of the National School Climate Center (NSCC), to raise awareness to help stop bullying in schools nationwide. Igel partnered with teen celebrity, Sammi Hanratty, to educate teens on how to stand up to bullying. Igel created a Boy Meets Girl t-shirt, which sold exclusively at Bloomingdales, to raise money for the anti-bullying movement. Igel has sponsored various BullyBust events, including the annual fundraising gala, to continue help raise awareness.


Mitch Epstein

Mitchell Epstein (born 1952) is an American fine-art photographer, among the first to make significant use of color. Epstein's books include "Sunshine Hotel" (2019), "Rocks and Clouds" (2018), "New York Arbor", (2013) "Berlin" (2011); "American Power" (2009); "Mitch Epstein: Work" ( 2006); "Recreation: American Photographs 1973-1988" (2005); and "Family Business" (2003), which won the 2004 Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award.
Epstein's work has been exhibited and published extensively in the United States and Europe, and collected by numerous major museums, including New York's Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art, The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Tate Modern in London.
He has also worked as a director, cinematographer, and production designer on several films, including "Dad", "Salaam Bombay!", and "Mississippi Masala."
Early life and education.
Epstein was born and raised in a Jewish family in Holyoke, Massachusetts. He graduated from Williston Academy, where he studied with artist and bookmaker Barry Moser. In the early 1970s he studied at Union College, New York; Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode Island, and the Cooper Union, New York, where he was a student of photographer Garry Winogrand.
Career.
By the mid-1970s, Epstein had abandoned his academic studies and begun to travel, embarking on a photographic exploration of the United States. Ten of the photographs he made during this period were in a 1977 group exhibition at Light Gallery in New York. Ben Lifson wrote in his "Village Voice" review: “Mitch Epstein’s ten color photographs are the best things at Summer Light…. At 25, Epstein's apprenticeship is over, as his work shows. He stands between artistic tradition and originality and makes pictures about abandoned rocking-horses and danger, about middle-age dazzled by spring blossoms, about children confused by sex and beasts. He has learned the terms of black-and-white photography, and although he adds color, he hasn't abandoned them, loving photography's past while trying to step into its future.”
In 1978, he journeyed to India with his future wife, director Mira Nair, where he was a producer, set designer, and cinematographer on several films, including "Salaam Bombay!" and "India Cabaret". His book "In Pursuit of India" is a compilation of his Indian photographs from this period.
From 1992 to 1995, Epstein photographed in Vietnam, which resulted in an exhibition of this work at Wooster Gardens in New York, along with a book titled "Vietnam: A Book of Changes." “I don’t know that Mitch Epstein’s glorious photographs record all of what is salient in end-of-the-twentieth century Vietnam,” wrote Susan Sontag for his book jacket, “for it’s been more than two decades since my two stays there. I can testify that his images confirm what moved and troubled me then…and offer shrewd and poignant glimpses into the costs of imposing a certain modernity. This is beautiful, authoritative work by an extremely intelligent and gifted photographer.” Reviewing an exhibition of the Vietnam pictures for Art in America, Peter Von Ziegesar writes, “In a show full of small pleasures, little prepares one for the stunning epiphany contained in "Perfume Pagoda"…Few photographers have managed to make an image so loaded and so beautiful at once.”
Having lived and traveled beyond the United States for over a decade, Epstein began to spend more time in his adopted home of New York City. His 1999 series "The City" investigated the relationship between public and private life in New York. Reviewing "The City" exhibition at Sikkema Jenkins in New York, Vince Aletti wrote that the pictures “[are] as assured as they are ambitious.”
In 1999, Epstein returned to his hometown of Holyoke, Massachusetts, to record the demise of his father's two businesses—a retail furniture store and a low-rent real estate empire. The resulting project assembled large-format photographs, video, archival materials, interviews and writing by the artist. The book, "Family Business", which combined all of these elements, won the 2004 Krazna-Kraus Best Photography Book of the Year award. In reviewing the book, Nancy Princenthal wrote in Art in America, “The family business chronicled by Mitch Epstein was a small-town retail furniture with a sideline in real estate, and his patiently plotted bell curve of its history is worthy of Dreiser….” In 2004, his work was exhibited during evening screenings at Rencontres d'Arles festival (at the Théatre Antique), France.
From 2004 to 2009, Epstein investigated energy production and consumption in the United States, photographing in and around various energy production sites. This series, titled "American Power", questions the meaning and make-up of power—electrical and political. Epstein made a monograph of the American Power pictures (2009), in which he wrote that he was often stopped by corporate security guards and once interrogated by the FBI for standing on public streets and pointing his camera at energy infrastructure. The large-scale prints from this series have been exhibited worldwide.
In his Art in America review, Dave Coggins wrote that Epstein “grounds his images…in the human condition, combining empathy with sharp social observation, politics with sheer beauty.” In an essay for the catalogue "Contemporary African Photography from The Walther Collection: Appropriated Landscapes" (Steidl, 2011), Brian Wallis wrote, “Epstein has made clear that his intention is neither to illustrate political events nor to create persuasive propaganda. Rather, he raises the more challenging question of how inherently abstract political concepts about the nation and the culture as a whole can be represented photographically…But equally significant is the unique form of documentary storytelling that he has invented in "American Power"—colorful, sweeping, concerned, intimate, honest.” In the New York Times, Martha Schwendener wrote: “What is interesting, beyond the haunting, complicated beauty and precision of these images, is Mr. Epstein's ability to merge what have long been considered opposing terms: photo-conceptualism and so-called documentary photography. He utilizes the supersize scale and saturated color of conceptualism, and his odd, implied narratives strongly recall the work of artists like Jeff Wall.”
In 2008, Epstein won the Berlin Prize in Arts and Letters from the American Academy in Berlin. Awarded a 6-month residency, he moved to Berlin with his wife and daughter from January–June 2008. The photographs he made there of significant historical sites were published in the monograph "Berlin" (Steidl and The American Academy in Berlin, 2011).
In 2009, Epstein collaborated with his second wife, author Susan Bell, on a public art project and website based on "American Power." "The What Is American Power?" project used billboards, transportation posters, and a website to "inspire and educate people about environmental issues."
In 2013, The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis commissioned Epstein and cellist Erik Friedlander to create a theatrical performance of "American Power", which premiered at the Walker and, in 2015, traveled to the Wexner Center for the Arts in Ohio and The Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Created in collaboration with directors Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar, this theatrical rendition of Epstein’s photographic series combines projected photographs, archival material, video, music, and storytelling.
For his recent New York trilogy, "New York Arbor" and "Rocks and Clouds", Epstein photographed the city’s trees, rocks, and clouds with an 8x10 view camera and black and white film to depict the interplay between society and nature: “Epstein's trees extend the photographer’s longstanding interest in mankind’s disruption of our environment,” writes Rob Slifkin, “...his new work typically addresses this theme of human engagement with nature without recourse to the inclusion of actual people. Instead it is the way the human environment clumsily perches itself upon and amidst the natural world that defines Epstein’s approach to landscape.”
Recent solo exhibitions of Epstein's work were at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. (2019), Yancey Richardson Gallery (2016), Galerie Thomas Zander (2016 & 2019), The A Foundation, Brussels (2013), Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris (2011) and Kunstmuseum Bonn (2011); the Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne (2011) and Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool (2011).
Personal life.
His first marriage to director Mira Nair ended in divorce. He currently lives in New York with his wife and frequent collaborator, Susan Bell, and his daughter.


Masaba Gupta

Masaba Gupta (born November 2nd,1989) is an Indian fashion designer with her own label called House of Masaba.
Early life.
Gupta was born in 1989 and is the daughter of Indian actress Neena Gupta and West Indies cricketer Sir Viv Richards and grew up in Mumbai. Her parents never married and she was raised by her mother, who moved the family from New Delhi to Mumbai. Gupta found a father figure in her late maternal grandfather, and when she turned 20 she reconnected with her father and the two now share a strong bond.
At the age of 8 she wanted to become a tennis player, but stopped training at 16. Passionate about dance and music, Gupta wanted to join Shiamak Davar's dance group, but did not when her mother discouraged it. She subsequently took up a course in music and dance in London, but dropped out when she felt lonely and homesick.
Gupta later joined Premlila Vithaldas Polytechnic of Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women's University.
Gupta has stated that her schooling was sometimes marred with racism from other students.
Career.
At 19, Gupta applied for Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai with support from Wendell Rodricks. She named her first collection "Kattran" (English:"miniature bits of fabric"). Her Lakme Fashion Week 2014 collection "Wanderess" was "inspired by novelist Roman Payne’s doe-eyed gypsy girl character, Saskia" in his novel, "The Wanderess." Gupta has become known for the creative and artistic names she gives each collection.
Gupta's design aesthetic has been defined as a blend of contemporary and traditional with modernity taking the upper hand. She specializes in ethnic wear for women and uses silk, chiffon and cotton as well as rich embroidery work, and is noted for her unconventional prints along with feminine drapes and silhouettes. The Mumbai daily broadsheet "dna" remarked her work has "a unique Indianness in a very modern context", citing her "Tamil script sarees and jackets" and the way she uses cotton and muslin. Gupta was named one of the "Ten best Indian fashion designers you should know", by "Culture Trip", a magazine style internet publication.
In 2016, Gupta collaborated with Maybelline New York to produce a collection of clothes inspired by a new lipstick line that the company was launching, but the project fell through for a variety of logistical reasons. She has stated that the biggest regret of her career was her Stylista collection.
In 2017, she was tasked with representing India in an exhibit showcasing re-designs of Levi's iconic trucker jacket. She chose to use her signature cow motif. The exhibit also featured a re-design by Justin Timberlake and other celebrities.
In 2018 she launched a hijab-saree line targeting Muslim women who want to wear Indian high fashion.
In 2019, Netflix announced a new TV series starring Gupta and her mother Neena Gupta, "Masaba Masaba", a semi fictional series in which the duo show glimpses of their lives with fashion and film.
Personal life.
Gupta married film producer Madhu Mantena in 2015 in a civil ceremony. In late 2018 the couple announced that they were on a trial separation. In March 2019 they officially divorced.
Social media influence.
Gupta has been credited as the first Indian designer to do a fashion show via Instagram. She claims that around 60 per cent of her sales happen through WhatsApp.
External links.
Authentic Indian Cuisine"Italic text"
Indian food Wokingham"Italic text"


Bob Singer

Bob Singer (born 1928) is an American animation artist, character designer, layout and background artist and storyboard director of animated television programs, most memorably of several Hanna-Barbera productions such as "The Flintstones", "Jonny Quest", "Scooby-Doo", "Yogi Bear", "Droopy", "Tom and Jerry", "The Jetsons", "The Smurfs", "Super Friends", "Richie Rich" and the "Harlem Globetrotters" cartoons.
Bob was born in Santa Barbara and raised in Santa Paula. He attended the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles and graduated in 1955 with honors and a BPA.
He worked at Carson/Roberts Advertising until 1956, then entered the fledgling Los Angeles television animation industry. During his tenure there he worked for such companies as Marvel, Hanna-Barbera, U.P.A. Pictures, Shamus Culhane and Warner Bros.
Hanna-Barbera used Bob's talents for 27 years, and during that time he worked on many of the most popular Hanna-Barbera television shows. He was the founding creator of their character design department, layout department head, and later became art director of publicity. He also served as a guest lecturer at the University of Southern California, and several local high schools.
The Singer/Bandy Group was established in 1988, and for two years he designed coloring books, cassette covers, greeting cards, plush dolls, picture puzzles and illustrated children's books. Bob returned to Hanna-Barbera in 1990 as a storyboard director and animation cel art designer.
Bob is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and has been for over 45 years. He currently enjoys creating animation artwork for galleries and collectors, and designing limited edition prints for Clampett Studio Collections. His personal appearances, lecturing and teaching about storyboarding and animation practices have been well received throughout the continental U.S., Hawaii, England, and Australia. The children's literature Studio Group "Studio 5" holds Bob Singer as their most senior member, and most valuable information and experience source.
He authored the animation storyboard book "How to Draw Animation Storyboards" in 1992, and is currently working on his autobiography.
Singer also appeared as the voice of Rot in the 1985 syndicated cartoon special "A Pumpkin Full of Nonsense", based on Selchow and Righter's Scrabble People property.


Kenny Hall (musician)

Kenny Hall was born blind in San Jose, California on October 14, 1923. He attended the California School for the Blind in Berkeley, where he learned his first music on violin. He later worked in broom factories in both Oakland and San Jose. Over the course of his life, he learned over 1,100 tunes from fellow students at the School for the Blind, coworkers at the broom factories, 78rpm records, and artists like the Happy Hayseeds he heard on the radio. Though he played Old-time music on fiddle and mandolin, he played many tunes from Ireland, Mexico, Scotland, Italy, Portugal, and elsewhere in the world. He picked up the Italian-style bowlback mandolin in 1937 and learned from a blind Texas-born mandolin player named W.D. Sanford. His eclectic repertoire and distinctive mandolin style were influential among folk musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area and San Joaquin Valley.
Publications.
Kenny Hall and Vykki Mende Gray. (1999) "Kenny Hall's Music Book: Old-Time Music for Fiddle and Mandolin" (Mel Bay Publications)


Leonard Asper

Leonard Asper (born May 31, 1964) is a Canadian businessperson, entrepreneur and lawyer. He is a graduate of Brandeis University and the University of Toronto Law School, and is a member of the Ontario Bar Association and The Law Society of Upper Canada.
Biography.
Leonard Asper is the son of the late Izzy Asper, founder of CanWest Global Communications Corp. He is the younger brother of Gail Asper and David Asper. He is currently the CEO of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp..
Asper has over 20 years of broadcast and media experience, including 10 years as president and CEO of CanWest Global Communications Corp.
Asper is one of the founders of Canterbury Park Capital, a private equity fund, and holds a significant interest in Creswin Properties, a real estate development company. He was a 2002 recipient of the "Top 40 Under 40," a business award recognizing achievement in Canada by individuals less than 40 years of age. Additionally, Asper was named "CEO of the Year" by "Playback", a media industry publication for the Canadian television and film production community.
Asper served on the Board of Trustees of Brandeis University for five years, during which time he founded the Asper Center for Global Entrepreneurship atBrandeis International Business School. He currently serves on the board of overseers of Brandeis IBS. Asper also served for five years on the board of the University of Winnipeg Foundation and holds an honorary doctorate in laws from that institution.
Asper is the vice chair of the Asper Foundation and a member of the board of governors of the Saul and Claribel Simkin Center, a seniors' housing complex in Winnipeg.
Asper and his wife Susan founded the Joshua Foundation, which contributes to the arts, health care and general community services, primarily in Winnipeg. The Joshua Foundation also serves as the sponsor for the Joshua Project, which focuses on addressing inner city issues in Winnipeg, including refugees, victims of abuse, adult education, youth and recreation, and support for aboriginal services.
History.
Canwest.
Asper was the president and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian media company, CanWest Global Communications Corp, a position he held for 10 years.
Asper began his career in 1991 as Associate General Counsel at Canada's leading private television network, Global Television. In 1994, Asper took over the role of corporate development for Canwest.
In this role, Asper was responsible for a number of acquisitions and launches, including, amongst others:
Asper also led several investigations into additional acquisitions in a variety of areas around the world, including South America and Eastern Europe.
In 1999, Asper became CEO of Canwest while leading the acquisition of Canada's third largest broadcaster, publicly traded WIC, in an $800 million transaction. Soon afterward, Canwest acquired most of the Hollinger newspapers in Canada in a $3.2 billion transaction.
During his tenure as CEO at Canwest, the company also expanded its international television operations further by launching TV4 in New Zealand as a sister station to its existing channel TV3. Canwest also acquired five radio stations in Turkey and the U.K., and formed Eye Corp., an outdoor advertising company operating in the U.S. and several countries in Australasia. Eye Corp. was formed by acquiring and integrating three separate out-of-home advertising companies based in Australia.
Recognizing that future expansion opportunities existed in the cable channel business, Canwest launched five digital cable channels in 2002, including Mystery, Men TV, Deja View, Fox Sportsworld and Xtreme Sports Network. In 2006, Asper negotiated a partnership with Goldman Sachs to acquire 13 cable/thematic channels owned by Alliance Atlantis, including Home & Garden TV, Food Network, History Channel, National Geographic, BBC Canada, BBC Kids, among others. The acquisition was valued at $2.3 billion, and also identified and implemented more than $50 million in synergies.
During Asper's tenure as CEO, Canwest grew to be Canada's largest media company, operating 20 television channels, including the national Global Television Network and 18 specialty channels. Canwest was also Canada's largest publisher of paid English language daily newspapers and operated one of the largest digital portals in the country, Canada.com and its group of 80 associated websites. Internationally, Canwest owned, operated and held substantial interests in TV, out-of-home advertising, websites, radio stations and networks in New Zealand, Australia, Turkey, Indonesia, Singapore, the U.K. and the U.S. Canwest's revenues nearly quadrupled between 1999 and 2008 to total $3.2 billion, while operating profit grew at annual rate of 8.5% between 1999 and 2008 to total $551 million.
Canwest also positioned itself at the forefront of the upcoming changes and integration in the media industry. Canwest received a number of awards for its success in creating sales and marketing groups that crossed platforms, media sectors and geographies. Canwest received the award as "Media Player of the Year" in 2007 from the leading Canadian marketing industry organization, and Canwest received the Broadcast Engineering Magazine's "Broadcast Engineering Excellence Award" from the U.S.-based National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) in 2009. The award recognized news studio technology for technical innovation, quality design and construction.
During the financial crisis that enveloped the global economy in 2008-2009, Canwest's debt load resulted in breaches of certain covenants in its loan documents and led to a filing under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) in September 2009. As part of that filing, the Asper family and bondholder group announced a plan whereby the Asper family would reinvest in a restructured company. Shaw Communications subsequently bid $2 billion for the broadcasting assets. The Canwest newspaper group was sold to a group led by GoldenTree Asset Management.
Asper stepped down as Canwest CEO on March 3, 2010 to participate in a competing bid in partnership with Goldman Sachs and Catalyst Partners, which was ultimately rejected by the court, paving the way for Shaw to acquire the broadcast assets.
In September 2010, Asper formed Sygnus Ventures, established to invest in and nurture digital media companies.
Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp..
On December 8, 2010, Asper's Sygnus Corp. acquired a "significant ownership stake" in Anthem Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of Fight Network and several other sports-oriented specialty channels.


Antonia Campbell-Hughes

Antonia Campbell-Hughes is a Northern Irish actress and former fashion designer, best known for appearing in Jack Dee's sitcom "Lead Balloon" and for portraying Natascha Kampusch in "3096 Days".
After the success of series one of "Lead Balloon", Campbell-Hughes went on to be cast in a variety of comedy shows on British television, alongside Jennifer Saunders and Alex Macqueen, and went on to create her own one-woman show "Bluebell Welch" for MTV.
Biography.
Campbell-Hughes was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, living there until the age of two. She has lived in the United States, Switzerland, Germany, and England.
Television.
Campbell-Hughes has appeared in popular UK TV series such as "Silent Witness", "Casualty", "Blackbeard: Terror at Sea" and "Spooks"; in Channel 4's "Scapegoat"; in Neil Jordan's "Breakfast on Pluto"; and on stage in productions such as "Roberto Zucco". Her performances in "Lead Balloon" and Jennifer Saunders vehicle "The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle" have been praised by critic Sam Wollaston of "The Guardian".
She wrote and starred in a series of comedy minisketches for MTV entitled "Bluebell Welch". In April 2011, she appeared in series five of ITV's "Lewis".
Fashion career.
Campbell-Hughes had her own fashion label, started in her teens. She ran a clothing line that sold internationally under her own name and a diffusion line for high street store Topshop. She was featured on the cover of the "Sunday Times"' "Style" supplement in December 2007, and models regularly for French fashion label Devastee. She left fashion full-time in 2005 to focus fully on "her greater love" acting.
Film career.
Campbell-Hughes' film work to date has been varied, including the BBC period drama "Blackbeard", the Jane Campion feature film "Bright Star", the psychological thriller "The Other Side of Sleep", which premiered at Cannes 2011 Director's Fortnight, "Lotus Eaters", which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2011, and the BBC film "When Harvey Met Bob", chronicling the lead-up to "Live Aid" as the charity concert celebrated its 25th anniversary.