Rocket Knight Adventures

 is a 1993 platform game developed and published by Konami for the Sega Genesis. It was released in North America on August 5, 1993, in Japan on August 6, 1993, and in Europe in 1993. "Rocket Knight Adventures" was designed by Nobuya Nakazato, designer of "Contra" games such as ', ' and "".
Players control Sparkster, an opossum knight who fights an army of robots and pigs, many of whom are piloting various mechanical vehicles. Sparkster is armed with a sword that can project energy over a short distance and a rocket pack that allows him to fly.
Gameplay.
"Rocket Knights Adventures" is a side-scrolling platform game, with linear runs through levels. The player is able to jump, attack with Sparkster's sword, either directly or by "shooting" energy forward when swung, or charge up their rocket pack and go flying in one of the 8 standard directions, depending of the direction the player presses (if no direction is pressed, Sparkster performs a stationary spinning attack).
Levels are occasionally switched up with alternate styles of gameplay. Some levels are horizontal scrolling shooters (akin to "Gradius", often with in-level references to that game), while one level has the player controlling a large machine to duel with the antagonist Axel Gear.
The difficulty levels in the game are differently presented in each regional version of the game. Both the Japanese and European versions have two difficulty levels accessible normally via the options menu, while in the American version four are enabled by default.
Plot.
The first King El Zebulos repelled some invaders in a powerful ship called the Pig Star and was made ruler of the land. Knowing the Pig Star had the power to destroy entire worlds, El Zebulos had it placed under a magic seal for safekeeping. The "Key to the Seal" would be guarded and passed down by El Zebulos, and his Royal Family. Generations into the future, the kingdom has been subject to attack by neighboring countries which wanted control of The Pig Star. To protect the kingdom of Zebulos, an elite group of warriors known as the Rocket Knights were formed. These Warriors wore armor with Rocket Packs, wielded mystical swords, and harnessed awesome combat skills.
Around this time, an orphan named Sparkster was taken in by Mifune Sanjulo; a friend of the King, and current leader of the Rocket Knights. Sparkster was trained to become a Rocket Knight at an early age. Later on, a corrupt Rocket Knight by the name of Axel Gear fought and wounded Mifune as he tried to steal an ancient book, which contained the secrets of the rocket knights. Sparkster was appointed the new Rocket Knight leader and spent 10 years posing as an outlaw as he searched for Axel Gear, only to return to Zebulos and hear rumors about Axel Gear's return.
By now the Kingdom is under attack by the Devotindos Empire led by Emperor Devligus Devotindos; who is said to have the power of hypnosis. Sparkster finds that Axel Gear has kidnapped Princess Sherry in attempt to blackmail the king into surrendering The "Key to the Seal". However it just so happens that the Princess is the only one who knows of its location. Sparkster rushes through jungles, caves, and even into Devotindos territory to save the princess, until he finally confronts Devilgus himself, who quickly flees after he gets the "Key to the Seal" from the Princess and takes off into space to The Pig Star. The Princess casts a spell on Sparkster to allow him to go after Devilgus and into The Pig Star. Sparkster fights the Emperor himself, only to discover he was a machine all along. Exploring the spaceship shows that Devilgus was not unique as the ship was a factory of Devilgus robots.
After Devilgus' destruction, Sparkster runs into Axel Gear, who tries to jettison Sparkster into space, but gets sucked into space instead. Inside the ship's core, Sparkster discovers that the real Devligus was the Pig Star's core itself, hinting that the Emperor Devilgus was but a robotic proxy sent to Earth to establish an empire to invade Zebulos in an attempt to break free from its confinement. The ship's core attempts to destroy Sparkster. However, its efforts fail as The Pig Star explodes, and it makes a last-ditch effort to kill Sparkster while he is defenseless in an escape pod, eventually burning apart in Elhorn's atmosphere. Sparkster escapes in one piece and reaches the castle with Princess Sherry. Satisfied that the kingdom is safe, Sparkster flies off to continue his duties.
Ports, sequels, spin-offs and films.
A SNES version of "Rocket Knight Adventures" was planned, but was never released.
Two follow-up games "" on the Mega Drive, and "Sparkster" on the SNES were released. Despite both games being produced simultaneously and sharing the same name and box art, they were different games, sharing only their character design and music score, with the Mega Drive release acting as a direct sequel and the SNES game being a spin-off. The two games are often confused for being the same game due to the "Rocket Knight Adventures 2” subtitle only being employed in Japan.
In October 2009, Konami announced they would release another sequel, "Rocket Knight" (which is the sequel to the Sega Megadrive/Genesis game called "", but not really a remake of the Sega Megadrive/Genesis game called Rocket Knight Adventures), made by the British developer, Climax Group. The game was released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Steam on May 12, 2010. Nobuya Nakazato was not involved with this title in any way, though Nazakato was credited by the developers in the Special Thanks section of the game credits.
Sparkster has appeared as a playable character in games such as "New International Track & Field" for Nintendo DS and "Krazy Kart Racing" for iPhone and iPod Touch. He also has cameos in ' for the SNES, "Snatcher" for the Mega-CD, ' for the SNES, "Mitsumete Knight" for the PlayStation, They was disguised by Pastel in "TwinBee PARADISE in Donburishima" for PC, and a figure resembling him also appears in an alternate ending to "" for the PlayStation 2, and as nonogram pixel on "Pixel Puzzle Collection" for the iPhone and Android.
A Sparkster comic was written by Nigel Kitching in the UK-made "Sonic the Comic". It was based on the Mega Drive/Genesis version of "Sparkster". In an interview, Kitching said that "Sparkster" was the easiest game to adapt into a story, due to being similar to the "Sonic the Hedgehog" games. He was working on a second Sparkster story, but the plan was dropped when Fleetway were unable to obtain permission from Konami to use the character.
Reception.
Rocket Knight Adventures was well received by critics, who praised the music and graphics. HonestGamers gave the game a 9/10. Sega-16 gave it the same mark, saying that "it is not only one of the system’s best titles, it’s one of the greatest platformers ever made".


Hum Award for Best Soap Actress

The Hum Award for Best Soap Actress is one of the Hum Awards of Merit presented annually by the Hum Television Network and Entertainment Channel (HTNEC). It is given in honor of an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance of leading role in soap series while working within the television industry. The 1st Hum Awards (for 2012) was held in 2013, Sumbul Iqbal was the first winner of the award for her role in "Raju Rocket". Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote, within the actors and jury branch of HTNEC; winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Hum. Multiple nominations for an actor in same category but for different work is eligible.
Since its inception, the award has been awarded to three actresses, while Arij Fatyma is the most nominated actress in this category. As of 2016 ceremony, Resham is the most recent winner in this category for her role in "Ishq Ibadat".
Winners and nominees.
In the list below, winners are listed first in the colored row, followed by the other nominees. Following the hum's practice, the dramas below are listed by year of their Pakistan qualifying run, which is usually (but not always) the drama's year of release.
As of the first ceremony, four soap actresses were nominated for the award. This year Hum nominated four dramas for this category (one drama was nominated twice for a performance by an actor) so, total four dramas was nominated. For the first ceremony, the eligibility period spanned full calendar years. For example, the 1st Hum Awards presented on April 28, 2013, to recognized soap actors of dramas that were released between January, 2012, and December, 2012, the period of eligibility is the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31. However, this rule was subjected to change when at third year ceremony two (Sadqay Tumhare and Digest Writer) of seven nominated drama serials were running on TV at the time when nominations were announced.
Date and the award ceremony shows that the 2010 is the period from 2010-2020 (10 years-decade), while the year above winners and nominees shows that the dramas year in which they were telecast, and the figure in bracket shows the ceremony number, for example; an award ceremony is held for the dramas of its previous year.


Object graph

In computer science, in an object-oriented program, groups of objects form a network through their relationships with each other—either through a direct reference to another object or through a chain of intermediate references. These groups of objects are referred to as object graphs.
An object graph is a view of an object system at a particular point in time. Whereas a normal data model such as a UML class diagram details the relationships between classes, the object graph relates their instances. Object diagrams are subsets of the overall object graph.
Object-oriented applications contain complex webs of interrelated objects. Objects are linked to each other by one object either owning or containing another object or holding a reference to another object. This web of objects is called an object graph and it is the more abstract structure that can be used in discussing an application's state.
Physical representation.
An object graph is a directed graph, which might be cyclic. When stored in RAM, objects occupy different segments of the memory with their attributes and function table, while relationships are represented by pointers or a different type of global handler in higher-level languages.
Examples.
For instance, a Car class can compose a Wheel one. In the object graph a Car instance will have up to four links to its wheels, which can be named frontLeft, frontRight, backLeft and backRight.
Example of an adjacency list representation: c:Car → {frontLeft:Wheel, frontRight:Wheel, backLeft:Wheel, backRight:Wheel}.


British Film Designers Guild

"(Also known as Designer's Guild or B.F.D.G. and can be seen after a member's name as a professional certification abbreviation)"
A society of British Film Directors and Designers was founded in 1946, for the betterment of the Design in British Films. Out of this society grew the Guild of Film Art Directors, and the present British Film Designers Guild, who now include in their membership all the various branches of the Art Department. They are not a trade union. The British equivalent of the Art Directors Guild (of America), although smaller in size are one of the key organisations in the Cine Guilds of Great Britain that work directly with the UK Government: Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport.
This Guild is presented primarily to assist Producers and others to select Department members who will maintain the highest standards of Art Direction, even on the smallest of productions, and whose knowledge, experience and talent have been proven to be the highest in a medium where four-fifths of the spectators' attention is visual.
The British Film Designers Guild has members in every grade of the art department, from draughtspersons to costume designers, set decorators to production designers, and was formed with the aim of raising the standards and the profile of the art department and protecting the interest of its members.
Art Department positions.
The hierarchy in the United Kingdom does have some title variants with job descriptions. Here is a guide to the main positions within each area, as there are many alternatives dependent on the film requirements and to which country the film is based in. Some titles vary like for example Draughtsman "UK", to Set Designer or Draftsman "USA" .
The Production Designer is the head of various departments, Art, Construction, Decorating, Property & Prop Making. Here is a guide to the main positions within each area.
Other titles include Visual Effects art director, Vehicles art director, Locations art director, Concept artist "(Illustrator U.S.)", Storyboard artist, Graphic designer, Sign writer or Lettering artist, Model maker, Armourer, Greensman "(Greenskeeper U.S.)", Drapes master and Scenic artist.
Refer also to "Film crew" & Art Department Guide U.S..
Collecting Society.
This Society was formed out of work done within the Guild to benefit members and has since grown to assist many other departments within film production.
The BFDG no longer operates as a collecting society, after a reorganising of its core business model. They are proud to have championed the establishment of the principles behind "Copyright" and the definition of "Authors" within the Film and Television Industries, and to have paved the way for residuals to be paid to Key UK based technicians. Do contact the guild for more information on directly joining other existing societies.
External links.
Official sites of...


Carlo Dossi

Carlo Alberto Pisani Dossi (born March 27, 1849 in Zenevredo; died November 19, 1910, Cardina, Como) was an Italian writer, politician and diplomat. He belonged to the Scapigliati.
In 1892 he became a diplomat in Colombia, where he married Carlotta Borsani, with whom he had three children. He came to Athens in 1895, there developing an appreciation for archeology.
He was an atheist.
Dossi was a politician.


Kroyer Films

Kroyer Films, Inc. was a pioneering animation studio formed in 1986 by animator Bill Kroyer and his wife Susan Kroyer and is one of the earliest studios to combine computer and hand-drawn animation.
Productions.
Kroyer Films produced the Oscar-nominated short film "Technological Threat" and the 20th Century Fox feature film '. It also produced the animation for the 1994 video game '.
Legacy.
The Academy Film Archive preserved "Technological Threat" in 2013.
Filmography.
Films
TV Series
Video Game


Greed Corp

Greed Corp is a turn-based strategy video game developed by W!Games. It was released on February 24, 2010 for Xbox Live Arcade and February 25, 2010 for the PlayStation Network. It is also available for purchase via Steam. It was released for the Mac App Store for iOS and OS X. on November 2, 2011. Linux and Android versions released as part of a Humble Bundle on October 15, 2013.
Gameplay.
"Greed Corp" is a turn-based game involving strategic battles on a map featuring a land collapsing mechanic. Players choose one of four factions (Freemen, Pirates, Cartel, Empire) in matches of around 20 minutes. The game also features a single player campaign for each faction.
Players gain credits at the start of their turn and through harvesting layers of land. Built harvesters will slowly destroy the tile they are on and in the area around them. When players harvest too much, the playing field starts to crumble, making depleted tiles collapse. Tactics involve understanding the offensive value of a harvester as well, using it as a weapon and strategically causing destruction to both opponent and playing field.
Credits may be spent on:
Factions.
While the four factions are completely identical in terms of gameplay, each faction has its own visual style and role in the campaigns.
Reception.
"Greed Corp" received mostly positive reviews. On Metacritic, the Xbox 360 version has 79%, and the PlayStation 3 version 78%. The PC version is rated positively at 76%


Tony Bath

Tony Bath (1926–2000) was a British wargamer who favored the ancient period. He was the founder of the Society of Ancients.
Life.
Tony Bath was born in Southampton. After serving in World War II, he began collecting military figures. In 1955 he joined the British Model Soldier Society.
When Bath began playing wargames set in the ancient period, the only miniatures available were German flats which were difficult to procure. As the period became more popular with hobbyists, Bath's rules were the ones most often used in ancient wargames. In 1966 Featherstone published Bath's rules for ancient, medieval, and 18th century warfare in three separate pamphlets, part of a set of rulebooks covering eight historical epochs.
Bath founded the Society of Ancients in 1965. In 1973 his "Setting up a Wargames Campaign" was published by the Wargames Research Group. He worked as an administrative manager for Miniature Figurines, Ltd., helping them expand their selection of ancient and medieval miniatures.
The Tony Bath Rules.
They have been described by Kevin Large as "not intended for aggressive competitive play, but for a fast moving enjoyable game".
The earliest version that survives is the version in Donald Featherstone's book, "War Games". Phil Barker claimed this version to be his "second favorite" ancients ruleset but considered the ruleset to have lost some of its appeal as later versions became more complex.
The rules were written to be played with flats (thin model soldiers, virtually two dimensional) and when solid figures became dominant he was slow to adapt the rules as he had written them first of all for his personal use. Some see this as a key reason that other rule sets became dominant. This is, however, disputed by others on the grounds that the Bath rules continued to be played extensively for a time after flats had been made obsolete by solids.
He wrote a version of his rules designed for solid figures which was published as "Peltast and Pila" in 1976. In those rules Tony Bath did adapt to the trends of rules of the time while still keeping his basic style. In the tradeoff between historical accuracy and playability, Phil Barker considered Tony Bath to have firmly chosen the side of playability. The basing was compatible with the frontages of WRG of that time though differed slightly in respect of base depth. The rules for terrain were especially detailed as were the rules for street fighting.
The rules mixed dicing for groups to inflict hits along with individual saving throws to decide how many hits became kills.
Tony Bath wrote an extension to his rules to cover naval warfare which was published as a supplement to the Society of Ancients Rules in 1968 and also appears in Donald Featherstone's Naval Wargames.
Book.
His key works on wargaming have been collated in the book "Tony Bath's Ancient Wargaming" This is a collaboration between the Society of Ancients Society of Ancients and The History of Wargaming Project.


Back Roads to Cold Mountain

Back Roads to Cold Mountain is a 2004 compilation album released by Smithsonian Folkways. The album was released in the wake of the award-winning soundtrack to the film Cold Mountain, and is composed of Appalachian folk music recordings compiled by musicologist John Cohen in Appalachia.
The album was released in 2004, and the material was recorded between 1944 and 2002. The recordings vary from traditional songs recorded by well-known artists, such as Wayfaring Stranger by Bill Monroe, to obscure field recordings. There is also a Sacred Harp track.
Thom Jurek of Allmusic says the album is "one of true Otherness, where dislocation, quark strangeness, and untamed spirits gather in order to whisper, cry, moan, shout and laugh in a language that has not so much died as disappeared" and is "essential listening for anyone interested in authentic American roots music".
Liner notes by Charles Frazier, author of "Cold Mountain", and Cohen are included as well.


Wham-o magic window


Eike Best

Eike Best (born 13 March 1951) is a German computer scientist, best known for his contributions to concurrency theory.
Early life and education.
Eike Best was born in Neustadt an der Weinstraße. During his childhood, he lived in Argentina, Germany, and Turkey, where his father worked as high school teacher. Best received a high school diploma from the German School of Istanbul in 1969, a Diploma in Computer Science from the Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe in 1974, and a PhD from Newcastle University in 1981 for a dissertation on semantics, verification, and design of concurrent programs, supervised by Peter Lauer and Brian Randell. He habilitated in 1988 at the University of Bonn with a thesis on causal semantics of non-sequential programs.
Career and contributions.
Best was research assistant in Carl Adam Petri's research group at the Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung near Bonn (1981–1988), and professor in the Computer Science departments at the University of Hildesheim (1989–1996) and the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (1996–2018), where he headed the Group for Parallel Systems. During his Bonn period he developed Petri's theory of non-sequential processes together with César Fernández, and contributed to the theory of free-choice Petri nets. During his Hildesheim and Oldenburg periods he developed the Petri Box Calculus, a process algebra with a Petri net semantics, together with Raymond Devillers and Maciej Koutny. During the last years of his career in Oldenburg he worked on the automatic synthesis of Petri nets from transition systems.
In the 1990s, Best was one of the founders of CONCUR, the International Conference on Concurrency Theory, together with Jos Baeten, Kim Larsen, Ugo Montanari, and Pierre Wolper. Moreover, Best was coordinator of the DEMON and CALIBAN projects, funded
by the European Community.
He acted as dean of the Computer Science Faculty from 2000 to 2002 and became director of the Computer Science Department at University of Oldenburg in 2009.
Selected publications.
Eike Best is the author and co-author of multiple books in computer science, including:


Atelje Trag


John Mollo

John Mollo (18 March 1931 – 25 October 2017) was a British costume designer and book author, most known for his Oscar-winning costume design for the "Star Wars" film series. He was the older brother of Boris and Andrew Mollo.
Biography.
Mollo was born in London on 18 March 1931. His father was Eugene Simonovitch Mollo, a Russian immigrant who had escaped Russia in the 1920s, and his mother was Ella Clara Mollo ("née" Cockell). Eugene Mollo had started his own company that specialised in spraying cement. He was a collector of tin soldiers and military insignia and he wrote a book, "Russian Military Swords, 1801–1917". Eugene was also a noted illustrator, and some of his drawings are now held in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. John Mollo followed his father's interest in military history and developed a particular interest in military uniforms from a very young age. He recalled being especially inspired when he saw the 1935 film "Clive of India" as a child and returned home from the cinema to draw the costume of King George II. John Mollo was educated at Charterhouse School and then went on to study at the Farnham School of Art in Surrey. After World War II, he was conscripted to do his national service in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry in Hong Kong.
Mollo's first marriage was to Ann Farquharson who worked as a set decorator on films such as Rob Roy (1995) and "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (1981). In 1968 he married Louise Pongracz. The son of this second marriage, Tom Mollo, served as a captain in the Coldstream Guards captain and as equerry to Queen Elizabeth II.
He died on 25 October 2017, aged 86.
Career.
Mollo's interest in military uniform shaped his career and he became a respected authority on European and American uniforms. He wrote several carefully researched books on European and American military uniform, including "Uniforms of the American Revolution" (1975) and "Into the Valley of Death: The British Cavalry Division at Balaclava 1854", often in collaboration with his brother Boris and with illustrator Malcolm McGregor.
Mollo's specialist knowledge put him in demand as an advisor to war film productions. He was engaged as advisor for the movies "Charge of the Light Brigade" (1966), "Nicholas and Alexandra" (1971) and on Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" (1975), ensuring the historical accuracy of the military uniforms worn by actors.
Mollo subsequently moved into costume design. For his first film, Mollo unexpectedly found himself working not on a historical military drama but in a genre he had no knowledge of: science fiction. He was commissioned in 1975 by a young filmmaker named George Lucas to devise uniforms and outfits for a fantasy space war film, "Star Wars". When asked at the time by a friend about the project, Mollo said that he thought it was a "sort of a space western and one of the heroes is a dustbin". Lucas's project envisioned a cast of heroes battling an evil Galactic Empire, and he briefed Mollo to design costumes that would not resemble the stereotypical "spacey" look of earlier science fiction productions such as "Flash Gordon" — " I don't want the audience to notice any of the costumes. I just want to see light versus dark." The aim was to make Lucas's fantasy universe appear authentic – Mollo considered that his total ignorance of science fiction was advantageous in achieving this. Lucas provided Mollo with sketches and concept art by Ralph McQuarrie to work from, working McQuarrie's designs for Imperial stormtroopers and the malevolent character of Darth Vader into functional costumes for actors to wear. McQuarrie's image of Darth Vader had developed from Samurai armour, and Mollo built up a costume using a combination of clerical robes, a motorcycle suit, a German military helmet and a gas mask from Bermans and Nathans costumiers in Camden Town. Mollo intentionally designed the uniforms of Imperial officers to resemble German Nazi officers' uniforms; by contrast, the heroes of the film were dressed in costumes resembling Wild West outfits. One of Mollo's biggest challenges on "Star Wars" was to create a plethora of exotic aliens to feature in the Mos Eisley Cantina scene. Mollo worked with George Lucas to compile a chart of visual designs for a range of character types. He collaborated with make-up artist Stuart Freeborn, who designed the masks and prosthetics to match each of the costumes, along with Doug Beswick, Rick Baker and Phil Tippett.
Mollo was surprised by the success of "Star Wars", and in 1978 he won an Academy Award for Costume Design. In his acceptance speech at the Oscars ceremony, he said that the "Star Wars" costumes were "really not so much costumes as a bit of plumbing and general automobile engineering."
Mollo went on to work as advisor on more conventional military films such as "Zulu Dawn". He also designed costumes for the crew of the "Nostromo" spacecraft in Ridley Scott's "Alien" (1979), and he returned to the "Star Wars" universe to work with Irvin Kershner on the 1980 sequel, "The Empire Strikes Back". His work on Richard Attenborough's "Gandhi" (1983) involved designing historically accurate British military uniforms as well as Ben Kingsley's loincloth for the title role, and for this production he won his second Oscar, jointly with Bhanu Athaiya. Mollo's other credits include "" (1984), Attenborough's "Cry Freedom" (1987), and "Chaplin" (1992).
Costume design.
Films.
Mollo's film credits include:
Publications.
Mollo's books documented the history of military uniform in particular theatres of war such as the American Revolution, the Seven Years' War and the Crimean War.


Christina Kim (fashion designer)

Christina Kim (born 1957) is a South Korean-born fashion designer based in Los Angeles, California and founder of design house Dosa.
Early life and career.
Kim was born in South Korea, and came to the United States with her family in 1971, at the age of 15. She would go on to work in the import/export industry beginning in the mid-1980s. Dosa employed 30 people as of 2007, with a workspace in Los Angeles, as well as a store in New York City. Her joint work with jeweller Pippa Small was featured in London's Anthony d'Offay Gallery in 2002; she continued working with d'Offay after the closure of his gallery. She was one of three finalists for the Smithsonian Institution's National Design Award in the area of Fashion Design in 2003. She does not hold or participate in fashion shows in order to promote her products, and refers to herself as an "artist" rather than a stylist; further, she designs a new collection only once a year, in contrast to the typical fashion-design practice of designing new collections for every season. She works with traditional craftspeople in Bosnia, Cambodia, China, India, Kenya, Korea, Mexico, and Peru, and has been noted for her extensive use of traditional materials. She has stated that she is particularly fond of "khadi", a hand-woven Indian cloth; In 2002, she employed roughly 500 women in India's Assam region to spin "eri" silk for her. Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts, and Nicole Kidman count themselves among her fans.


Ethan Skemp

Ethan Skemp is an author and developer of role-playing games.
Career.
Skemp is best known for his work for White Wolf, Inc. He has worked on numerous ' and ' titles, and was the designer of "Werewolf: The Forsaken". along with other games of the new World of Darkness. He was one of the last line developers standing at White Wolf before its demise.
Skemp was one of the writers and content designers on the video game "".


J. D. Wiker

J. D. Wiker is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Career.
JD Wiker originally comes from Indianapolis, where he began his love of games, starting with his family's collection of board games and the weekly game night. He designed his first game — a mash-up of "Stratego" and "Tank Battle" — in 1977, and discovered "Dungeons & Dragons" while buying miniatures to use as playing pieces. Wiker has done work on Wizards of the Coast's version of the "Star Wars Roleplaying Game", including "The Dark Side Sourcebook", "The Hero's Guide", and "The Galactic Campaign Guide". After leaving Wizards in 2002, he founded The Game Mechanics, and is the company's president and lead roleplaying game designer, with credits including "Artifacts of the Ages: Swords & Staves" and the City Quarters series: "Thieves' Quarter", "Temple Quarter", and "Arcane Quarter".
Wiker lives and works in the San Diego area.
Works.
His "Dungeons & Dragons" work has included design contributions to the third edition "Player's Handbook", "Monster Manual", and "Dungeon Master's Guide" (2000), "Unearthed Arcana" (2004), "Planar Handbook" (2004), "Sandstorm" (2005), and "Monster Manual IV" (2006).


Free Painters and Sculptors

Free Painters and Sculptors (FPS) is an artist-led organisation based in London, England, which regularly exhibits every year. It played a pivotal role in the establishment of abstract art in the 1950s and 1960s.
History.
Background.
FPS was founded in 1952 by a number of members of the ICA who wanted to create their own painting group. Known initially as 'Painters Group from the ICA', the idea of freedom was one of the group's core beliefs. In the aftermath of World War II it was vital for the group to be able to stand for principles of artistic freedom and each artist was free to express themselves however they chose. Artists with a 'modern approach' were welcomed, generally falling into abstract or figurative camps.
Formative Years.
The first exhibition was held at the end of 1953 in the Three Arts Centre, Great Cumberland Place and was opened by art critic John Berger. Twenty six artists exhibited.
Soon after this the group was renamed the 'Free Painters Group' and annual exhibitions followed in Walker's Galleries on New Bond Street. There were also satellite exhibitions in the New Vision Centre Gallery on Seymour Place, Marble Arch and the Drian Gallery on Porchester Place, Bayswater.
These three galleries were early natural homes for the group: The Walker's Galleries had been the location of the first exhibition of the Seven and Five Society - a natural predecessor of the Free Painters Group; New Vision Centre Gallery was run by members Denis Bowen, Halima Nalecz and Frank Avray Wilson and was a hub for the avant-garde and experimental. Halima Nalecz also ran the Drian Gallery and many exhibitions were held there by members over the years.
Middle Years.
In the early 1960s the group began to stage exhibitions at the FBA Galleries in Suffolk Street, Pall Mall. This larger venue was well suited to the growing number of members and also was able to house larger works that were created.
With this increasing membership and more sculptors in the group, in 1965 'Free Painters Group' was renamed to its current name of 'Free Painters and Sculptors'. Also at this time, FPS became a registered charity.
Exhibitions were gathering more interest and garnered reviews in local and national press. As well as an annual exhibition (now branded 'Trends'), many members staged exhibitions around the UK as well as overseas.
In the early 1970s a desire to find venues aside from the annual exhibition was facilitated by the then-secretary of the group Nina Hosali. Nina's mother Kate Hosali had founded the Society for Protection of Animals in North Africa (SPANA) in 1923 and the headquarters were at their home at 15 Buckingham Gate. The property was used by the free painters for meetings and storage space and in 1972 the loggia in its gardens was turned into a permanent gallery space - the Loggia Gallery and Sculpture Garden.
In 1973 'Trends' moved to the Mall Galleries, Pall Mall and exhibited there until the next decade.
Membership by the mid 1970s had grown rapidly and was at a peak of nearly 500.
Later Years.
The 1980s saw the group achieve a milestone of 30 years but the period saw challenges. The group had healthy number of members but had to work hard to ensure that quality remained high. In addition, founding members were reaching old age and retirement and their loss was felt. Lastly, societal changes meant whereas the group had always been London focussed, it had to look outwards as artists left London.
However, these challenges created interesting opportunities whereby exhibitions outside of London were staged and new blood was found. A new generation of artists joined the ranks and thus kept the group relevant and vital. Exhibitions continued to be held at the London venue of the Loggia Gallery although other suitable venues in London were harder and increasingly expensive to come by.
Modern Era.
FPS celebrated its 65th anniversary in 2017. It currently has over 50 members, both from the UK and overseas. Membership is granted by election of the Executive Committee on the submission of acceptable samples of work.
FPS exhibits at least twice year in London, most recently at the Menier Gallery and the gallery at the Oxo Tower. An annual Open exhibition celebrates the work of members alongside selected work chosen from artist submissions.
Members.
The following is a select list of notable members of the group throughout its lifetime.


Rodger Maus

Rodger Maus (September 15, 1932 – March 16, 2017) was an American art director and production designer. He was the art director for 103 episodes (1973–1978) of the 251 episode television series M*A*S*H.
He shared an Emmy award in 1995 for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Art Direction for a Miniseries or a Special for episode 1 of the 1994 miniseries Scarlett. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film "Victor/Victoria".


Dynasty Warriors 8

 is a hack and slash video game and the eighth official installment of the "Dynasty Warriors" series. It is developed by Omega Force and published by Tecmo Koei. The story is based on the 14th-century Chinese historical novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Having more than 82 characters featured in the game, the game largely based its system on "Dynasty Warriors 7" and focused on adding more content for replayability while also making several tweaks to the combat system.
The game was unveiled on October 30, 2012 via "Jump Magazine" and released on February 28, 2013 for the PlayStation 3 in Japan. On April 3, 2013, it was confirmed by Tecmo Koei that there would be an overseas release for both North America and Europe in July 2013. It was released on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 for both physical and digital release. The option of English and Japanese voice overs also return, where there is also an option to change the subtitles to English, French or German.
The game is followed by two expansions. The first, "Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends" was released for PlayStation 3 on November 28, 2013 in Japan and in 2014 in North America and Europe. The second, ' 'Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires was released in Versions for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 are developed as well, both of which package the expansion with the original version and are released under the title of "Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends - Complete Edition". The PlayStation Vita version was released on the same day as PlayStation 3, while the PlayStation 4 version was released as a launch title for the console in Japan, on March 25, 2014 in North America, and on April 4, 2014 for Europe. The PC port for "Complete Edition" was released on May 13, 2014, with a port for Nintendo Switch following on December 27, 2018. The second expansion, "Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires" was released for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 20, 2014 in Japan, with North American and European versions released in February 2015 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows (via Steam). A Japan-exclusive Switch port of "Empires" was released on November 9, 2017.
Gameplay and features.
Story mode and free mode.
The story mode retains the same faction-based storyline and returns with seamless cutscenes. In addition, each of the characters of the "Other" faction has one scenario dedicated to them, forming a loose "Other" faction story mode, in a first for the series. Stages now have more freedom of progression for the player, unlike the previous installment, which was strongly preset in means of stage routes. A selection of up to four characters will be offered for each stages in story mode, instead of controlling a pre-defined character; the mission objectives in each level differ based on the character chosen. The story has been entirely rewritten, with each of the four factions' stories dividing into a historical path and a hypothetical path at a critical portion of their stories. Each mission may have a number of optional objectives which unlock additional side story missions or alter the course of history, such as the moment where the flood attack in Fan Castle fails and therefore saves Guan Yu's life from being extinguished and therefore in relation also saves Zhang Fei from the betraying officers. In order to unlock the hypothetical path, players must complete all of the optional objectives in both the main and side stories prior to the critical point of the storyline. The game also allows a co-op play of the story mode and it can be played both offline and online. However, online co-op is only available on the PS3, and Xbox 360. The PC version does not have online multiplayer. In the previous installment to the franchise, "Dynasty Warriors 7", the story mode was only single-player.
"Xtreme Legends" adds an additional storyline for Lu Bu's forces, primarily focused on Lu Bu, Chen Gong, and Zhang Liao. In addition, a series of hypothetical missions are added to the four main kingdoms' storylines, mostly recreating historical events with a slight hypothetical twist (for example, one Wei mission is premised on Cao Cao sparing Lu Bu after the Battle of Xiapi and utilizing him in the Battle of Guandu, while a Shu scenario has Liu Bei turning to Sun Ce rather than Cao Cao after the Battle of Xiaopei). Each of the three main kingdoms contains a two-part "mini-campaign" centered around the new character introduced to their respective factions (Yu Jin, Fa Zheng, and Zhu Ran), while the Jin faction, having no new characters, has a three-part mini-campaign featuring a fictional version of Zhong Hui's Rebellion. Each campaign concludes with a whimsical side-story mission, not set to any particular timeline. Additional "Other" scenarios are also included for the Other faction.
The music for the hypothetical portion of each Story Mode is taken from earlier "Dynasty Warriors" installments, with four pieces specifically remixed for this game (one each from "Dynasty Warriors 3", "5", "6", and "7", as well with original). Furthermore, the four kingdom leitmotifs introduced in "Dynasty Warriors 7" return and are further expanded upon in the soundtrack of "Dynasty Warriors 8"; "Xtreme Legends" adds a kingdom leitmotif for Lü Bu's faction based on his recurring theme.
Free mode returns for the first time since "Dynasty Warriors 6" in terms of main game. Players will be given opportunity to play as an opposing faction in the stages a la "Dynasty Warriors 3 and 4", instead of being forced to play in a faction as in "Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends".
Ambition Mode.
A new game mode, called the "Ambition Mode", has been introduced. In it, the player is tasked to create a social base for peasants called the "Tongquetai Tower" and to make Emperor Xian visit it. To raise the tower's status, the player must take part in three different kind of battles; Skirmish battles which give materials to construct the tower, Raid battles which increase fame, and Large-scale battles which can recruit new partners. Players start out with the weapon shop as their sole base facility. More can be added or expanded upon as the town gradually becomes populated with people. These include a food market, a trade shop, a menagerie, etc.
"Xtreme Legends" introduces a countdown timer into Ambition Mode, where a player is initially given 7 minutes of time (the base game granted 15, 30, or 60 minutes per scenario, based on the game map), and is granted additional time for every 100 enemies killed, for every officer defeated, or for achieving stage objectives (up to a maximum of 15 minutes). It also introduces a second portion to Ambition Mode, reminiscent of both "Dynasty Warriors Next" and the "Empires" installments, where, following the construction of the Tonquetai and the visitation of the emperor, a false emperor has arisen and the player is tasked to eliminate the false emperor by subjugating territories under the false emperor's influence. The bodyguard system of the base game is expanded, where, instead of the ability to bring one (playable) character with them to battle, they may bring three (generic or playable) officers with them. The ability to select bodyguards is based on a "fee" system, constrained by the playable character's leadership rating as well as an inherent cost to hiring the character as a bodyguard (for example, playable characters cost more than generic officers). Each bodyguard is also associated with a particular bodyguard skill, which may be used by the playable character to affect the course of gameplay. Bodyguard skills may be upgraded with use, or by releasing other officers (the released officers return as enemies, and may be re-recruited), while the leadership rating of playable characters may be upgraded by using the skills of their bodyguards.
Challenge Mode.
As with previous "Dynasty Warriors" games, "Xtreme Legends" adds a Challenge Mode, which uses stock characters (as opposed to the customized characters in Story, Free, or Ambition modes) for various arcade-style challenges. There are a total of five mini-games, each of which reward the player with a customizable weapon based on the character's score in the challenge; these may include weapons with weapon elements that are unobtainable in any of the other modes.
New Mechanics.
The game features new battle mechanics that rely on a new concept called the "Three-Point System", where each weapon is given an affinity of either "Heaven", "Earth", or "Man"; each affinity is strong against one of the affinities and weak against the other. If the player faces an officer whose affinity is weaker, they may trigger the "Storm Rush", a multi hitting attack that requires repeatedly pressing the attack buttons. It is shown through a blue gauge above the opponent which decreases as you attack. Storm Rush is then initiated automatically when the gauge is fully depleted; in "Xtreme Legends", this can be configured to be triggered manually by pressing both the normal and charge attack buttons. Conversely, if the player faces an officer whose affinity is stronger, they may trigger the "Switch Counter", a counterblow attack that allows you to avoid a hard hitting attack from an opponent while also blowing them away before switching to another weapon. It is shown through a red exclamation mark. A switch counter may be triggered by pressing the weapon switch attack button when the opponent is preparing a charge attack or a Storm Rush; a visual indicator will appear when the opportunity to Switch Counter arises.
"Dynasty Warriors 8" also adds Rage Mode; this mechanic is similar to the Musou Rage system from "Dynasty Warriors 5". This requires the Rage Gauge to be full, which may be achieved by attacking enemies. When it is full, it can be initiated (with R3 on the PS3 and PS4, and by touching the screen where the Rage Gauge lies on the PS Vita) where the player's stats dramatically increase while the gauge slowly depletes. While in Rage Mode, the player's Musou bars merged, and is automatically replenished; when the player presses the Musou attack button, the player is able to perform a Rage Attack, a powerful move reminiscent of Musou attacks from past "Dynasty Warriors" games, in that it will slowly deplete a character's Musou gauge, and ends whenever the player releases the Musou attack button or the gauge is empty (the Rage Gauge may be depleted while a player is performing the Rage Attack; Rage Mode will end in this case when the Rage Attack ends).
In the previous installment, each character could hold up to two musou attacks; either two ground attacks (termed "Musou 1" and "Musou 2"; the latter triggered by pressing the Musou and weapon switch attack buttons at the same time), or one ground and one air attack. In this installment, all characters have all three types of Musou attacks, though the ability to use the aerial Musou and Musou 2 attacks must be unlocked through strengthening the character.
Weapon Updates.
The game retains the EX weapon system from "Dynasty Warriors 7", where each character's six normal and charge attacks are determined entirely by the two weapons that they have equipped; in addition, each character is associated with a single weapon, for which a special EX attack (a character-specific followup to a charge attack) is available to them; in "Xtreme Legends" each character gains a second EX attack. Each character may equip two weapons, and may freely switch them in battle by pressing the weapon switch button; a character may perform their Musou attack regardless of which weapon is equipped. Unlike "Dynasty Warriors 7", characters no longer share EX weapon types; each character is now associated with a unique EX weapon type. Examples include Sun Jian featuring a new nine-ringed blade. This is a dao that has a total of nine rings that connect to the sword's back. The rings are able to produce sound that inflicts damage upon enemies. All weapons from "Dynasty Warriors 7" and its expansions return, with many new ones added. Unlike "Dynasty Warriors 7", players may keep multiple copies of a single weapon type, each of which containing six "element" slots. Weapons broadly fall into two categories in terms of customization: standard weapons and "treasure weapons". Whereas treasure weapons have preset elements and cannot be customized, players may customize standard weapons through one of three methods (all inspired by the "Warriors Orochi" series): weapon tempering, reforging, and, in "Xtreme Legends", fusion. Weapon tempering and reforging require the use of "weapon materials", which may be obtained through Ambition Mode play; tempering sacrifices a weapon to strengthen another one while reforging trades three weapons for two stronger ones. Weapon Fusion requires the use of Gems, acquired through Free and Ambition modes, where players may selectively replace an existing element on a weapon with elements found on another weapon (which will be sacrificed in the process), change the affinity of an existing weapon, or improve the base attack rating of a weapon. The process of weapon customization must be unlocked through Ambition Mode, though in "Xtreme Legends" once unlocked it may also be used in Free Mode.
A weapon's type now includes an affinity, being one of the following three elements: 天 Heaven, 地 Earth, 人 Man. With these three affinity elements, a triangular relationship connecting the three in an infinite manner determines which affinity will outdo one another. This triangular relationship is similar to Rock-paper-scissors. The relationship states that the "Man" affinity is effective against the "Heaven" affinity, the "Heaven" affinity is effective against the "Earth" affinity, and the "Earth" affinity is effective against the "Man" affinity.
Other features.
"Dynasty Warriors 8" features upgraded graphics compared to previous games in the series, with less lag and fewer framerate issues. The weather effects on the stages have been improved and there are more gimmicks implemented in the system, adding a more distinctive playstyle.
The morale gauge also returns. Horses are now called by pressing L2 where if held down, players can automatically mount their horse. Clothing will also be dirtied throughout the course of battle.
Character List.
The following is a list of the 83 playable characters in the game. Characters available by default are the ones who are selectable in the first stage of each kingdom stories; other characters are unlocked by unlocking the first stage they are made playable in Story Mode. Players who import saved data from the base game to "Xtreme Legends" will have the new characters unlocked for use in Story Mode and Free Mode by default, in addition to the characters that were previously unlocked in the base game. In "Xtreme Legends", if the character is defeated as an ally in Ambition Mode or if they are released to strengthen another officer, they will be unavailable until they are defeated and recruited again.
"* Denotes new characters to the series"

"** Denotes characters added through Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends"

"*** Denotes characters added through Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires"

"Bold denotes default characters" "(Dynasty Warriors 8 only)"
Reception.
The game has received generally mixed reviews.
Among the Famitsu 2013 Top 100, a listing of the top 100 Japanese retail software sales for the year of 2013 from data collected by Famitsu's parent company Enterbrain, "Dynasty Warriors 8" ranked number 19, with 354,980 physical retail sales within Japan.
Related games.
Like previous games in the series, "Dynasty Warriors 8" is followed by two expansions. The first, was released for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita on November 28, 2013 in Japan while the PlayStation 4 version was released as a launch title in Japan. Both versions were released on March 25, 2014 in North America and Europe on April 4, 2014. A PC port was also released on May 23, 2014 in Japan as well as May 13, 2014 in North America and Europe, with a Nintendo Switch port following on December 27, 2018 in Japan. It includes additional features not present in "Dynasty Warriors 8", such as a new story mode dedicated to Lu Bu and his allies, new stages for the rest of the kingdoms and other characters, new content for Ambition Mode, Challenge Mode, a new EX attack for each character, and five new playable characters: Chen Gong, Fa Zheng, Lu Lingqi, Yu Jin, and Zhu Ran. It also enables cross-platform multiplayer. Players may also have the option to buy just the expansion or a package with the original version (called "Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends - Complete Edition" for the PS4, also called "Dynasty Warriors 8 Portable" for the PlayStation Vita) through either physical discs or digital download.
The second expansion, was released for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 20, 2014 in Japan and it was released in February 2015 in North America and Europe. An additional PlayStation Vita port, which includes all previously released DLC, was released in November 2015; the same version was also released for the Nintendo Switch on November 9, 2017 to commemorate Omega Force's 20th anniversary. Like previous "Empires" expansions, it focuses more on strategical and tactical battle system. It allows players to modify the player force's flags, horses, and soldiers, as well as featuring large-scale strategems, enhanced from "Dynasty Warriors 7: Empires". In addition to the marriage system, players' officers can have children with their spouses. A new playable character, Xun Yu was also added in "Empires".
The visuals of the game's playable characters are used in the spin-off game, , a free-to-play card-based social game for the mobile phones released on July 31, 2014. Like the 100man-nin social game of sister series "Samurai Warriors", the game has a large amount of original character designs in addition to the playable characters of the main "Dynasty Warriors" series, some of whom may be implemented to the main series according to producer Suzuki.


Stewart Bale

Stewart Bale Ltd was a family run photographic practice specialising in commercial and industrial photography. The firm was based in Liverpool from approximately 1911 through to around the 1980s; an additional London studio operated between 1949 and 1970.
The founder, Herbert Stewart Bale (1859-1929) came to Liverpool from Australia in 1899 and started an advertising agency. He found that it was hard to get good photographs and his son, Edward Stewart Bale (1889 - 1944), began to take photographs for the agency.
The Stewart Bale archive at the Merseyside Maritime Museum's Archives and Library holds some 195,445 negatives (62,845 glass negatives & 132,600 film negatives) principally dating from around 1924 to the early 1980s. The film negatives are currently in frozen storage in order to preserve them and are, therefore, inaccessible. National Museums Liverpool is hoping to digitize this collection with external funding so that it becomes fully accessible and is in the process of planning this project.
There was an exhibition of Stewart Bale images on display at the National Conservation Centre in Liverpool, starting on March 21, 2008, called 'Metropolis: Capturing Modern Liverpool.'


Felicity Brown

Felicity Brown is an English-born artist and designer. She lives and works in London in the United Kingdom. Her website is www.felicitybrown.co.uk.
She studied Fine Art and Printed Textiles at the Glasgow School of Art, receiving a first class honors degree. From there she went on to the Royal College of Art in London, graduating in 2002 with an MA in Textiles.
After leaving college, she gained experience in the European fashion houses, and craft skills from working in India, before setting up her own designer label with her brother, Henry Brown.
The Felicity Brown label was officially launched in London in February 2010 and featured Felicity's signature dip-dyed silks, hand printing and artisan finishing.
In 2010, the fashion magazine Vogue Italia noted: "Raw yet refined, the collection shows the amazing attention for detail and fantastic creative talent that have marked Felicity’s career to date".
At the beginning of 2011, Felicity became part of NEWGEN, a talent identification scheme developed by the British Fashion Council that helped new fashion businesses to develop. This enabled Felicity to show collections in London, Paris and New York.
In 2011, the Victoria and Albert Museum asked Felicity Brown to create an exclusive dress for its 2012 Ballgowns Exhibition.
In 2012, curator Judith Clark commissioned a dress for the opening of a permanent exhibition at the Simone Handbag Museum in Seoul, South Korea.
In June 2012, model Erin O'Connor wore a unique dress by Felicity Brown at the Investec Derby.
Since 2013, Felicity Brown has been travelling on 'Fashion Journeys' throughout America and Europe. The concept involves taking a bag of fabric, meeting people, listening to their stories and making pieces for them in the moment. These journeys and stories have been documented through photography and are included on Felicity's website.
In 2015, Felicity Brown's 'Bird Dress' was included in The Fashion Project's exhibition at Bal Harbour Shops, Miami. The 'Bird Dress' was exhibited alongside pieces from Jean Cocteau, Elsa Schiaparelli, Léon Bakst and Hussein Chalayan.
In 2017, Felicity Brown's 'recycled silk and cotton top' was included in the Financial Times' 'How To Spend It' section.


KNRG

KNRG is a terrestrial American radio station airing an Americana format licensed to New Ulm, Texas, and broadcasting on 92.3 MHz FM. The station is owned by Roy E. Henderson.
History.
KNRG was issued its initial License to Cover on November 4, 1999. The facility's transmission tower is located near Farm to Market Road 2981 and Laird Rd., northeast of La Grange, Texas.


Dave Fredrickson

David Allen Fredrickson (August 11, 1927 – August 28, 2012) was an American archaeologist, anthropologist, and folk singer.
He was born in Berkeley, California, and moved with his family to Redwood City in 1932, spending much of his childhood with his mother's farming family in the San Joaquin Valley. He enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1944, and returned there after a period in the U.S. Navy at the end of World War II. He started graduate studies in archaeology at Berkeley, but left in 1952 and took various jobs including driving cabs and trucks, gardening work, and giving guitar lessons. He married in 1954.
A lover of old-time and cowboy songs, and influenced by Woody Guthrie and Burl Ives, he stated that "I do not consider myself to be a folk-singer; more I am a singer of old-time songs." He recorded an album, "Songs of the West", for Folkways Records in 1961. The album was described by the Journal of American Folklore as "a masterpiece of straightforward western style singing."
He returned to archaeology in 1960 and began working on excavations across California. He completed his M.A. degree at University of California, Davis in 1966, and gained a Ph.D. in 1973. In 1967 he was appointed to the Anthropology Department at Sonoma State College, where he rose to become Professor in 1976. He developed the work of the archaeology program particularly through cooperation, mutual respect, and beneficial relationships between the indigenous peoples of California and archaeologists. He retired in 1992, and the Anthropological Collections Facility at Sonoma State University was named in his honor in 2004.
Throughout his career he continued his active involvement in music groups in and around Berkeley, organising the Crabgrass group and releasing a CD, "Four Cords", in 2005. He died in 2012 at the age of 85.


Endless Express

Endless Express is a first-person simulation video game developed in 2014 by Florian Veltman, Alexandre Taillefert, Martin Gugger, Felix Meunier, and Baptiste Virot. The game was first created as part of a 7-day game jam, but was later "reimagined" and re-titled "The Endless Express" in 2016, however, the project was discontinued, with its work-in-progress build publicly released. "Endless Express" was released on Microsoft Windows, MacOS, and Linux systems.
Development.
"Endless Express" was the product of a five person team collaborating at a "7DFPS" game jam in 2014 - an event which is meant for first-person shooter video games, as noted by "PC Gamer".
Gameplay.
"Endless Express"' starts off with the player waking up in a train station. Using only a watch and a train timetable, they must find their way home, being sure to catch the correct trains. The game is a combination between accelerated time and semi-real-time, with train stations being in real time and the travel being accelerated. The game also makes use of different animation styles, with low-polygonal textures for terrain, while using a cartoonish style elsewhere.
Reception.
In a November 2014 article, "PC Gamer" called the gameplay of "Endless Express" "compelling", with "Kotaku" stating that it was "full of charm." Killscreen described the game as having a "dreamlike quality...magical realism."
External links.
Endless Express on itch.io:


April Greiman

April Greiman (born March 22, 1948) is an American designer widely recognized as one of the first designers to embrace computer technology as a design tool. Greiman is also credited, along with early collaborator Jayme Odgers, with helping to import the European New Wave design style to the US during the late 70s and early 80s." According to design historian Steven Heller, “April Greiman was a bridge between the modern and postmodern, the analog and the digital.” “She is a pivotal proponent of the ‘new typography’ and new wave that defined late twentieth-century graphic design.” Her art combines her Swiss design training with West Coast postmodernism.
Greiman finds the title "graphic designer" too limiting and prefers to call herself a "transmedia artist". Her work has inspired designers to develop the computer as a tool of design and to be curious and searching in their design approach. Her style includes typelayering, where groups of letterforms are sandwiched and layered, but also made to float in space along with other 'objects in space' such as shapes, photos, illustrations and color swatches. She creates a sense of depth and dynamic, in particular by combining graphic elements through making extensive use of Apple Macintosh technology. Los Angeles Times called her graphic style "an experiment in creating 'hybrid imagery'".
Background.
Born on March 22, 1948, April Greiman grew up in New York City. Her father was an early computer programmer, systems analyst, and founder and president of The Ventura Institute of Technology. Her only sibling, Paul, became a meteorologist and specialist in climatic and atmospheric interplanetary modeling.
After completing her studies at the Kansas City Art Institute, Greiman worked as a freelance designer and worked directly with the curator of design at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City. Greiman moved to Los Angeles in 1976 where she established the multi-disciplinary approach where she "...blends technology, science, word and image with color and space...". She directed her first design studio April Greiman, Inc"." from 1978–2004 and began her current Los Angeles-based design consultancy "Made In Space" in 2005. During the 1970s, she rejected the belief among many contemporary designers that computers and digitalization would compromise the International Typographic Style; instead, she exploited pixelation and other digitization "errors" as integral parts of digital art, a position she has held throughout her career.
In 1982, Greiman became head of the design department at the California Institute of the Arts, also known as Cal Arts. Upon her relocation from New York City to Los Angeles, she met photographer-artist Jayme Odgers, who became a significant influence on Greiman. Together, they designed a famous Cal Arts poster in 1977 that became an icon of the California New Wave. In 1984, she lobbied successfully to change the department name to Visual Communications, as she felt the term “graphic design” would prove too limiting to future designers. In that year, she also became a student herself and investigated in greater depth the effects of technology on her own work.
She then returned to full-time practice and acquired her first Macintosh computer. She would later take the Grand Prize in "MacWorld"'s First Macintosh Masters in Art Competition. April also contributed to the design of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, by creating a memorable poster of running legs silhouetted against a square of bright blue sky in collaboration with Jayme Odgers. An early adopter of this computer as noted in Apple's Mac @ 30 video , Greiman produced an issue of "Design Quarterly" in 1986, notable in its development of graphic design. Entitled "Does it make sense?", the edition was edited by Mildred Friedman and published by the MIT Press / Walker Art Center. "She re-imagined the magazine as a fold-out artwork to almost three-by-six feet. The poster must be carefully unfolded three times across, nine times down. It contained a life-size, MacVision-generated image of her outstretched naked body adorned with symbolic images and text— a provocative gesture, which emphatically countered the objective, rational and masculine tendencies of modernist design." Greiman has said about the poster's unusual format and title “Hopefully, someone will make some sense out of this… The sense it has for me is that it’s new and yet old,… it’s a magazine, which is a poster, which is an object, which is… crazy.” The poster was also launched as a complement to the Walker Art Center's new Everyday Art Gallery.
Miracle Manor , a desert spa retreat owned with her husband, architect Michael Rotondi, from 1997–2018 is a showcase for her more recent three-dimensional design of space in natural landscapes.
Greiman has won many awards, including lifetime achievement awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts Gold Medal in 1998 and the Society of Typographic Arts (STA) in 2018, as well as the Chrysler Award for Innovation in 1998. She has also published several books, such as "April Greiman: Floating Ideas into Space" and "Something from Nothing". Greiman currently teaches at the University of Southern California as a Professor of Design in the Roski School of Art and Design, and previously taught at Woodbury University's School of Architecture and the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). With four honorary doctorates, April Greiman is seen as one of the "ultimate risktakers" for her unorthodox and progressive approach to design by embracing new technologies. In 1995, the US Postal Service launched a stamp designed by Greiman to commemorate the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (Women's Voting Rights).
In 2006, the Pasadena Museum of California Art mounted a one-woman show of her digital photography entitled: "Drive-by Shooting: April Greiman Digital Photography". She was also in the major group show at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris called "Elle@Centre Pompidou". In 2007, Greiman completed her largest ever work: a public mural, "Hand Holding a Bowl of Rice", spanning "seven stories of two building facades marking the entrance to the Wilshire Vermont Metro Station in Los Angeles." In 2014, Greiman collaborated with the London based artist-run organization Auto Italia South East along with a group of artists including Metahaven, in an exhibition "POLYMYTH x Miss Information". The exhibition program was included in the external listings for Frieze Art Fair.
Education.
Greiman first studied graphic design as an undergraduate at the Kansas City Art Institute, from 1966–1970. She then went on to study at the Allgemeine Kunstgewerbeschule Basel, now known as the Basel School of Design (Schule für Gestaltung Basel) in Basel, Switzerland (1970–1971). She was also a student of Armin Hofmann and Wolfgang Weingart, and she was influenced by the International Style and by Weingarts' introduction to the style later known as New Wave, an aesthetic that moved away from a Modernist heritage.
Greiman has received four honorary doctorates from Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, California (2012); Academy of Art University, San Francisco, California (2003); College of Art and Design, Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2002); and Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri (2001).
Teaching experience.
Since 2019, Greiman has been a Professor of Design at the Roski School of Art and Design, University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, California. She was Adjunct Faculty at the School of Architecture, Woodbury University, Burbank, California from 2010–2018 and Adjunct Faculty at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Los Angeles, California from 1992–2009. Greiman worked with the California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts), Valencia, California as Adjunct Faculty in the Graphic Design Program, School of Art in 1978 and was the Director of the Visual Communications Program (formerly Graphic Design) from 1982–1984. Additionally she was an Assistant Professor in the Graphic Design Program, University of the Arts (formerly Philadelphia College of Art), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1971–1976.


The Last Blade 2

The Last Blade 2 is a video game developed and released by SNK in 1998. Like its predecessor, "The Last Blade", it is a weapons-based versus fighting game originally released to arcades via the Neo Geo MVS arcade system, although it has since been released for various other platforms.
Gameplay.
Gameplay elements remain the same as its predecessor with some minor adjustments. An "EX" mode was added to play, which is a combination of "Speed" and "Power". The mood is grimmer than its predecessor through the introduction to the game. The characters are colored slightly darker, and the game's cut-scenes are made longer to emphasize the importance of the plot. Characters are no longer equal, hosting greater differences of strengths and weaknesses than before.
Plot.
The game is set one year after the events of the first game. Long before humanity existed, death was an unknown, equally distant concept. When death first came to the world, the "Messenger from Afar" was born. With time, the Sealing Rite was held to seal Death behind Hell's Gate. At that time, two worlds, one near and one far, were born, beginning the history of life and death. Half a year has passed since Suzaku's madness, and the underworld is still linked by a great portal. Our world has been called upon. Legends of long ago told of the sealing of the boundary between the two worlds. The Sealing Rite would be necessary to hold back the spirits of that far away world.
Characters.
Three new characters were introduced:
Home versions.
"The Last Blade 2" was made available for various consoles, including SNK's own Neo Geo AES and Neo Geo CD. The Neo Geo CD version includes an extra quiz mode, voiced cutscenes, and a gallery section featuring art from both "Last Blade" titles. Most of these additional features were also included with the Dreamcast port titled Last Blade 2: Heart of the Samurai, released in 2001. The Neo Geo CD and Dreamcast versions added an additional character named Musashi Akatsuki.
"The Last Blade 2" was subsequently bundled with the original "Last Blade" for a PlayStation 2 compilation released only in Japan; both games are arcade perfect emulations of the original games. At PlayStation Experience 2015, SNK Playmore announced PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita versions of "The Last Blade 2" developed by Code Mystics.
Reception.
In Japan, "Game Machine" listed "The Last Blade 2" on their December 15, 1998 issue as being the second most popular arcade game at the time. According to "Famitsu", the Neo Geo CD sold over 9,379 copies in its first week on the market. Blake Fischer reviewed the Dreamcast version of the game for "Next Generation", rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "A unique 2D fighter for Dreamcast which is a welcome break from the plethora of "Street Fighter" variants we've seen in the States. Too bad you'll have to track down an import to play." In 2012, "GamesRadar+" included "Last Blade 2" among the little-known classic fighting games that deserve HD remakes, calling it "one of the Neo Geo’s prettiest, deepest fighters."


Silly String

Silly String (generically known as aerosol string) is a toy of flexible, sometimes brightly colored, plastic string propelled as a stream of liquid from an aerosol can. The solvent in the string quickly evaporates in mid-air, creating a continuous strand. Silly String is often used during weddings, birthday parties, carnivals and other festive occasions, but it has also proven useful militarily to detect tripwires.
Composition.
Silly String is made of a mixture of components dispersed throughout a liquid solvent in the product’s aerosol can. These substances include a polymer resin that provides the string’s structure, a plasticizer to tune the physical properties of the string, and a surfactant that promotes foaming of the product. Other ingredients include silicone fluid (to make the strands easier to clean up), flame retardant, and a pigment for color.
A key component in Silly String is its aerosol spray can and the propellant that ejects the product mixture from the can. The product originally used chlorofluorocarbon propellant Freon 12 mixed with Freon 11, both part of a group of compounds that damage the ozone layer. In 1978, the United States banned the use of CFCs like Freon 11 and 12 in aerosol cans. The manufacturers then changed the formulation to use permitted propellants. Aerosol propellants are liquids with very low boiling points. When under pressure inside the can, the propellant is in liquid form, but when the nozzle is opened, it rapidly escapes – along with the compounds mixed in it – and evaporates as it enters the air. The string takes shape as the propellant evaporates.
The inventors sought to control the ratio of compounds in the product to form a string that holds itself together while remaining slightly sticky to the touch. This allows the product to weakly adhere to people and windows, for instance, but easily be cleaned up without the string falling apart or staining inert surfaces.
The current formulation is not published, but one of the primary recipes in the original patent calls for 12.2% of the synthetic resin poly(isobutyl methacrylate) by weight. It additionally calls for 0.5% of the selected plasticizer, dibutyl phthalate, 2.5% of sorbitan trioleate surfactant, 0.35% silicon fluid such as dimethyl siloxane or methyl phenyl siloxane, 5.6% of flame retardant hexabromobenzene, and 2–3% pigment (all percentages by weight). The aerosol propellant represents the bulk of the product. Solubility of the resin and other materials in the product is enhanced by addition of another solvent, originally Freon 11, in 6.6% by weight.
History.
The invention of the original silly string was accidental. In 1972, A United States Patent was issued to Leonard A. Fish, an inventor, and Robert P. Cox, a chemist, for a "foamable resinous composition." The partners initially wanted to create a can of aerosol that one would be able to spray on a broken/sprained leg or arm and use as an instant cast. Their invention worked, but when it came down to packaging the can, the two had to test 500 different kinds of nozzles. After having gone through about 30 or 40, Fish came upon one that produced a nice string, which shot about 30 feet across the room. This incident inspired Fish to turn the product into a toy. After altering the formula to be less sticky and adding colors, the pair decided to market their product. Because neither of them knew how to sell toys, they made an appointment with Wham-O in California. Fish describes how, during that meeting, he sprayed the can all over the person he was meeting with and all over his office. This person became very upset and asked him to leave the premises. One day later, Fish received a Western Union Telegram asking him to send 24 cans of "Squibbly" for a market test immediately, signed by the same individual who had kicked him out. He called them back and explained that, after he had finished cleaning up his office, the two owners of Wham-O had come back to talk to him, and one had noticed a piece of the string on a lamp shade – he had overlooked it while cleaning up. He explained where the string came from and the owners quickly asked him to send samples over for a market test. Two weeks later, Wham-O signed a contract with Fish and Cox to license the product now known as Silly String.
Silly String was licensed to and produced by Wham-O, in a range of colours including blue, red, and green, until the Car-Freshner Corporation, the maker of Little Trees, acquired the Silly String trademark in 1997. Silly String Products, a division of Car-Freshner Corporation, manufactures Silly String in the United States and distributes Silly String in North America through big box stores, party supply stores, toy stores and drug stores. The U.S. Patent #3705669 includes a clear description of preferred implementations. Similar toys are Goofy String, Streamer String, Wacky String and Nickelodeon Smatter.
Safety.
In December 2006, Tween Brands Inc., a retailer of girls' clothing and accessories in the United States, was fined $109,800 by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for "allegedly distributing canned confetti string damaging to the ozone". EPA said that the product marketed under various names by the retailer damages the stratospheric ozone layer. The production and use of chemicals harmful to that layer is controlled by U.S. federal law.
Military use.
Silly String and similar products have been used by the military to detect tripwires for explosive booby traps. The string is sprayed over the suspected area, and if the string falls to the ground, no tripwires are present, since the string would catch on the tripwires (but is not heavy enough to activate the explosive).
 it was being used by U.S. troops in Iraq for this purpose. However, because the material is an aerosol, it cannot be shipped privately to Iraq and is not provided by official channels. Thus, 80,000 cans were unintentionally stockpiled in New Jersey. In October 2007, a shipping company with the required credentials was finally found.
Bans.
The use of aerosol string products has been banned in several places for various reasons, including cleanup and removal costs and fears of potential damage to house or vehicle paint.
It has been banned in the city of Ridgewood, New Jersey, and a number of other places, and also at some public gatherings and events. The town board of Huntington on Long Island banned the sale of Silly String within of the route of a parade. In 2001, the town of Middleborough, Massachusetts, banned Silly String; offenders face a $300 fine.
In 2004, Los Angeles enacted a city ordinance (LAMC Section 56.02) to ban aerosol string in Hollywood on Halloween night.


Beaumont and Fletcher

Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, who collaborated in their writing during the reign of James I (1603–25).
They became known as a team early in their association, so much so that their joined names were applied to the total canon of Fletcher, including his solo works and the plays he composed with various other collaborators including Philip Massinger and Nathan Field.
The first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647 contained 35 plays; 53 plays were included in the second folio in 1679. Other works bring the total plays in the canon to about 55. While scholars and critics will probably never render a unanimous verdict on the authorship of all these plays — especially given the difficulties of some of the individual cases — contemporary scholarship has arrived at a corpus of about 12 to 15 plays that are the work of both men. (See the individual pages on Beaumont and Fletcher for more details).
Works.
The plays generally recognised as Beaumont/Fletcher collaborations:
Beaumont/Fletcher plays, later revised by Massinger:
Due to Fletcher's distinctive pattern of contractional forms and linguistic preferences ("'em" for "them", "ye" for "you", etc.), his hand can be fairly readily distinguished from Beaumont's in their collaborative works. In "A King and No King", Beaumont wrote Acts I, II, and III in their entirety, plus scene IV,iv and V,ii and iv, while Fletcher wrote only the first three scenes in Act IV (IV,i-iii) and the first and third scenes of Act V (V,i and iii). The play is more Beaumont's than it is Fletcher's. Beaumont also dominates in "The Maid's Tragedy", "The Noble Gentleman," "Philaster", and "The Woman Hater". In contrast, "The Captain", "The Coxcomb", "Cupid's Revenge", "Beggars' Bush", and "The Scornful Lady" contain more of Fletcher's work than Beaumont's. The cases of "Thierry and Theodoret" and "Love's Cure" are somewhat confused by Massinger's revision; but in these plays too, Fletcher appears the dominant partner.
Critics and scholars debate other plays. Fletcher clearly wrote the last two quarters of "Four Plays in One", another play in his canon — and he clearly didn't write the first two sections. Many scholars attribute the play's first half to Nathan Field — though some prefer Beaumont. Given the limits of the existing evidence, some of these questions may be unresolvable with currently-available techniques.


Jak Beula

Jak Beula Dodd (born John Bubeula Dodd on 4 July 1963), commonly known as Jak Beula, is a British entrepreneur and cultural activist of Jamaican heritage, who is best known for inventing the board game Nubian Jak. He is also a musician, social-worker, and former model. Beula has received recognition for developing African-centred products and campaigning to commemorate black history in the UK. He is the founder and chief executive of the Nubian Jak Community Trust, which since 2006 has been memorializing the contributions of African-Caribbean people in Britain.
Early life and career.
Beula was born in St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, to parents who were both from Jamaica, and he was raised and educated in the Paddington/Notting Hill area of West London. He had a religious early childhood, being raised by his grandmother, who wanted him to be a doctor. He attended Kynaston School, and has said (in a 2020 BBC Radio London interview with Vanessa Feltz) that in his schooldays he wanted to be a detective, a stunt man, and a singer.
His love for music led him to become a jazz musician and singer (with his 1980s band Stigma and 1990s band This Medusa); having grown dreadlocks, he also worked as a model, who between 1992 and 1995 featured in a successful long-running advertising campaign by Interflora.
Social work.
Becoming disillusioned with the music industry, Beula decided to go into social work. It was in his capacity as a social worker with Islington Council that he began to notice what he has described as society's neglect of black and white working-class youth in the social care system. Not only did it appear as if care staff were ill-equipped to deal with demands of the young people. Some of the young people were adopting sub-cultural stereotypical behaviour. Beula put this down to, in part, their educational experiences, as well as a lack of positive role models in both the media and their immediate environment. Noting that there were hardly any multi-cultural resources available within their homes, he has said:
"They were hungry for role models, because we all need a sense of identification, a sense of self and of self-esteem. Most of the role models they were being given in the media were negative and were stereotypes, it was very disappointing. So I decided to give the young people some new information, whether they wanted the information or not, I was going to give it to them."
He began to devise an educational programme that would try to address these points, out of which came the board game Nubian Jak. It immediately became a bestseller in London, prompting Beula to give up work as a social worker. By the end of 1996 educational magnates such as Time-Life were commenting on its innovation. In 1998 Beula self-published the first edition of "Nubian Jak's Book of World Facts". Dubbed "the truth with proof", it was subtitled "The Ultimate Reference Guide to Global Black Achievement". In 2001 Beula signed a publishing deal with HarperCollins in New York to reissue the book.
A Nubian Jak phone app was released in 2016.
Beula was the founder of the Nubian Jak Community Trust, Britain's only national BME commemorative plaque and sculpture scheme, which since 2006 has been honouring Black personalities of the past, and also organised Britain's first African and Caribbean War Memorial, in Windrush Square.
Beula worked alongside London 2012 with his innovated diversity project, On Track 4 Gold.
Beula was named on the 2020 list of 100 Great Black Britons.


Ed Boon

Edward John Boon Born February 22, 1964 is an American video game programmer, voice actor, and director who was employed for over 15 years at Midway Games and since 2011 has worked for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in its company NetherRealm Studios. Boon is best known for the widely popular "Mortal Kombat" series, which he created with John Tobias.
Life and career.
Boon was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, on February 22, 1964 and graduated from high school at Loyola Academy in Wilmette. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and computer science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
After graduation, he was employed by Williams Entertainment in their pinball department, working on approximately 20 pinball games over the next two years. During this time, he was called the Mortal Master, an early indicator towards a future creation.
He is the co-creator of the "Mortal Kombat" fighting game series, along with John Tobias, and served as the series' lead programmer, with Tobias the lead designer, until their partnership dissolved with Tobias' departure from Midway in 2000. Boon named series characters Sonya and Tanya after his sisters Sonia and Tania, while another character, Noob Saibot, was named after Boon and Tobias' reversed surnames. This is also elaborated in their Twitter handles, @noobde and @therealsaibot.
Boon was ranked #100 in IGN's 2009 list of "Top 100 Game Creators" for his involvement in the "Mortal Kombat" series. He continues to be directly involved with the "MK" franchise and its multimedia side projects, and has also provided voice acting and motion capture work for the games, most notably providing the voice for the "Come here!" and "Get over here!" catchphrases uttered by Scorpion in every installment of the series as well as all feature films. The 2008 edition of "Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition" consequently awarded him a world record for the "longest-serving video game voice actor."
In 2018 Mortal Kombat was exhibited in an arcade cabinet at the Chicago New Media 1973-1992 exhibition, curated by jonCates.


Steve Kordek

Steve Kordek (December 26, 1911 – February 19, 2012) was an American businessman of Polish descent who was best known for the design of the pinball machines.
Kordek is credited with designing over 100 pinball machines. The last game Kordek helped design was 2003's "Vacation America", based on the "National Lampoon's Vacation" movies. Among the companies that Kordek designed for are Genco, Williams and Bally.
Kordek was credited with many innovations to pinball machines. He revised the machines of the 1930s by putting two inward-facing flippers at the bottom of the playing field that were controlled by two buttons on the side of the machine. Other innovations still used today are drop targets and multi-ball mode.
Kordek died on February 19, 2012, at age 100.
Kordek can be seen at the age of 81 when the television show "Wild Chicago" toured the Williams factory in 1993