Paul Julian (artist)

Paul Hull Husted (June 25, 1914 – September 5, 1995), better known as Paul Julian, was an American background animator, sound effects artist, and voice actor for Warner Bros. Cartoons. Julian worked on "Looney Tunes" short films, primarily on director Friz Freleng's Sylvester and Tweety Bird shorts.
During his time at Warner, Julian also provided the vocal effects of the Road Runner. His warm and tightly-cropped urban scenes were also featured early in his career in the Bugs Bunny film "Baseball Bugs" (1946), and in the crime syndicate-themed Daffy Duck film "Golden Yeggs" (1950). Julian also worked extensively as a WPA mural artist. Julian died in Van Nuys, California at the age of 81.
Early life & Career.
Julian was born in Illinois on June 25, 1914.
Julian worked on mural projects all around Southern California for the WPA prior to beginning his career in Hollywood. In 1942, an oil and canvas mural ("Orange Pickers") painted by Julian was added to the interior of the Fullerton, California post office. When completed, the Post Office and interior mural brought to the Fullerton community a symbol of government efficiency, services, and culture. Julian's 1942 mural works are also at the Upland Elementary School in Upland, California at the side of the school auditorium. Though faded, the murals are in decent shape. Julian used a technique called petrachrome for this fine mural that utilized 24 different colors of marble to complete the mural's four panels. The mural inside the Fullerton Post Office is in excellent condition.
Later, while working at Warner Brothers as a background artist, Julian provided the Road Runner's "Beep-Beep!" sound. Julian first made the sound on the Warner Bros. studio lot. He imitated a car horn as a lighthearted way to get people out of his way when he was in a hurry. Editor Treg Brown recorded Julian's noises and ultimately used them for the "Road Runner" films, which are still in use in modern "Looney Tunes" media.
Julian directed the animated films "Baby Boogie" (1955), and "The Hangman" (1964), which was produced by Les Goldman. The film garnered over 15 international film festival awards. He also produced (1964) and was a production designer for the 1978 anime fantasy "Winds of Change", based on Ovid's "Metamorphoses". Julian also had a long working relationship with Roger Corman providing artwork for many of his movies, including "Dementia 13" and "The Terror".
Death.
Julian was still working as artist when he died in Van Nuys, California in 1995.


Philippe Chiffre

Philippe Chiffre, is a French cinema Production Designer
Biography.
Philippe Chiffre is the son of Yvan Chiffre, and the father of Cesar Chiffre.
Painter, he started as an intern in the decoration in the cinema 1974 to Zorro of Duccio Tessari. Intern, assistant, assembler, head painter, he traveled all the posts on twenty films before becoming a Production Designer in 1988.


Kyle Schuneman

Kyle Schuneman (born Chicago, Illinois) is an American interior designer, author and television personality. He wrote the book, "The First Apartment Book: Cool Design for Small Spaces" that was published by Clarkson Potter on August 28, 2012. He runs the design firm, Kyle Schuneman Designs, in Los Angeles that handles interior design, art directing, and product design. Kyle first rose to fame doing design segments for the Los Angeles morning show, "The KTLA Morning Show", which turned into a design career specializing in small spaces.
He has been named on House Beautiful's "Next Wave" list, Refinery 29's "30 under 30" list, and a "Tastemaker" by Los Angeles Magazine. His work has also appeared in Esquire, Dwell, Cosmopolitan, This Old House, Redbook, Sunset, HGTV Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Real Simple, Angeleno Interiors, and L'Uomo Vogue. Kyle also wrote the former Los Angeles Times column, "The Apt. Life" following the success of his book.
His art directing work includes the Emmy-winning Food Network show, "Giada At Home", and the Style Network show, "Peter Perfect", as well as print work for Target, CB2, Martha Stewart, JCP, Vizio, Microsoft, and QVC.
Kyle released his first upholstery line in January 2014. The line aimed at urban apartment-dwellers was in collaboration with the online retailer Apt2B. The debut line consisted of 16 pieces including chairs, sofas, and sectionals. The line, Kyle Schuneman for Apt2B, eventually grew to 3 collections and 90 pieces.
References.
http://www.kyleschuneman.com
http://www.apt2b.com/sofas-1/kyle-schuneman-for-apt2b
https://www.amazon.com/The-First-Apartment-Book-Design/dp/0307952908
http://www.latimes.com/home/la-lh-apt-life-sg-storygallery.html


Squeezie

Lucas Hauchard (born 27 January 1996), known professionally as Squeezie, is a French YouTuber. He is the most well-known francophone gamer with over 15.7 million subscribers and 7 billion views. He specialises in Let's Play commentaries and vlogs, and also collaborates with Cyprien Iov on "Bigorneaux & Coquillages", a channel with over 13.9 million subscribers as of November 2020. In September 2018, he launched a gaming channel titled Squeezie Gaming on which are exposed edited videos of his lives on Twitch.
Early life and career.
Debuts on YouTube.
Lucas Hauchard launched on YouTube in May 2008 with a first channel specialized in the game Dofus, "Dofus Bouclier". This channel, inactive since June 2008, has two videos. In November 2010, he created another channel, "TheVideobc", inactive since November 18, 2010, which has three videos; it also has a video game thematics.
He created his current YouTube channel under the pseudonym "Squeezie" in 2011, at the age of 15. Focused on video games testing, his channel achieved a fairly high profile, making him the youngest French person to gain over one million subscribers on YouTube, at the age of 17. He reached about 300,000 views per video during this period, during which he obtained his baccalauréat.
Growing popularity.
In April 2013, when he had half a million subscribers, he teamed up with "Cyprien", another French Youtuber, to create the channel "CyprienGaming" (currently "Bigorneaux & Coquillage").
In 2014, he was frequently accused of plagiarism on PewDiePie, an accusation he refuted through a video. In March 2014, according to SocialBlade, Lucas Hauchard became the most popular French YouTuber, ahead of "The Sound you Need", "Cyprien", "Rémi Gaillard" and "Norman". At the end of 2014, the same website reported that Squeezie's videos were viewed 70.7 million times, more than "Rémi Gaillard", "Norman" and "Cauet" combined.
He appears in the "YouTube Rewind 2015", a video created by YouTube bringing together YouTubers and Internet personalities who marked the year.
In 2017, he participated to "Fort Boyard", with Cyprien. Squeezie peaked at more than 1,860,000 subscribers in 2017, adding more than a billion to its viewing meter. He surpassed Norman in number of subscribers in June 2018 and then Cyprien a year later, becoming the first French-language videographer in number of subscribers.
On Twitch.
Squeezie started regular lives in 2018. He has more than 2 millions followers and he participated in the French-speaking live with the most viewers with a peak of 395,000 viewers with Cyprien, and Mcfly & Carlito.


Metro Manila Film Festival Award for Best Production Design

The Metro Manila Film Festival Award for Best Production Design is an award presented annually by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to recognize achievement in art direction in film. It was first awarded in 1976 at the 2nd Metro Manila Film Festival ceremony, to Augusto Buenaventura for "Diligin mo ng Hamog ang Uhaw na Lupa". The category's original name was Best Art Direction but was changed to its current name in 1987. Currently, nominees and winners are determined by executive committees, headed by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman and key members of the film industry.


Elle (India)

Elle is the Indian edition of the worldwide lifestyle magazine of French origin called "Elle".
History and profile.
The first issue of the Indian edition of "Elle" was the December 1996 issue. The magazine is published by Ogaan Publications Pvt. Ltd. Ogaan is based in Mumbai and has offices in New Delhi and Bangalore.
Editors.
The following have served as Editors of "Elle India":
Neerja Shah
Nonita Kalra
Aishwarya Subramanium
Supriya Dravid
Kamna Malik (Present)


Nike Zoom KD line

Nike produced a signature shoe line for the Oklahoma City, Golden State Warriors and now Brooklyn Nets superstar, Kevin Durant in 2008. The line is known for its price and its on-court performance.
Nike Zoom KD.
Released in 2008, the Nike Zoom KD featured a leather upper in a midtop form. The midsole featured Nike Zoom unit in the forefoot in a cushion midsole. Traction was provided with a solid rubber outsole with flex grooves. Some of the colorways released are:
OKC Home: January 1, 2009
White/Black/Silver: January 1, 2009
White/Black-Varsity Red-Silver: January 1, 2009
All Star: February 17, 2009
Boys and Girls Club: February 19, 2009
Drew Freeman Middleschool: February 19, 2009
Montrose: February 17, 2009
All American: February 19, 2009
Sonics: February 19, 2009
Texas: February 19, 2009
OKC Away: March 1, 2009
Texas Away: March 1, 2009
OKC Home: March 1, 2009
Nike Zoom KD II.
Released in 2009, the Nike Zoom KD II featured leather upper, in a lowtop form with a midfoot strap. The midsole is the same as the Nike Zoom KD, but has lightweight Phylon in place. The Nike Zoom forefoot is still there to give the wearer cushion. The outsole is similar to what we saw in Zoom KD. Some of the colorways released are:
Creamsickle: January 15, 2010
OKC Away: January 16, 2010
OKC Home: January 23, 2010
All Star: February 6, 2010
Black/Black-Sport Red: March 1, 2010
White/Midnight Navy-Photo blue:March 1, 2010
Texas: March 27, 2010
White/Black-Photo Blue: April 1, 2010
AAU: May 1, 2010
China: June 5, 2010
Scoring Title: June 28, 2010
Nike Zoom KD III.
Released in 2010, the Nike Zoom KD III featured Flywire along the lateral forefoot with leather and woven mesh. The tongue featured a pull ring, surrounded by the letter "d" of the KD logo. Along the medial midfoot, an "H" shaped strap that has two eyelets positioned by column to provide support and lockdown fit. The midsole featured a Nike Zoom forefoot unit encased in lightweight Phylon midsole. The outsole featured a solid rubber outsole with a herringbone pattern. The heel has a cutaway to reveal the Phylon midsole in the outsole for compression. There is a solid rubber wrapped around the heel for durability, but most wearers found it uncomfortable for some reason that when the heel strikes the floor, the foot ends up hitting the rubber piece, which is hard. Here are some of the released colorways:
OKC Away: November 26, 2010
X-Mas: December 21, 2010
OKC Home: December 23, 2010
White/Midnight Navy-Photo Blue White: January 8, 2011
TB: February 1, 2011
All Star: February 17, 2011
EA Sports: February 17, 2011
Redskins: March 6, 2011
Texas: March 18, 2011
Carbon Fiber: March 22, 2011
Wolf Grey/Del Sol-White: March 22, 2011
Scoring Title: August 20, 2011
Mike Miller: October 6, 2011
Nike Zoom KD IV.
Released in 2011, the Nike Zoom KD IV has a Hyperfuse upper, and places the Adaptive Fit strap along the midfoot. The midsole featured the Nike Zoom forefoot unit and Phylon for cushioning. The outsole featured a storytelling pattern in the form of thunderbolts. Here are some of released colorways:
OKC Away: December 3, 2011
Black/Dark Grey: December 3, 2011
Weatherman: December 10, 2011
Nerf: December 17, 2011
X-Mas: December 26, 2011
Midnight Navy/White Team Orange: January 7, 2012
White/White-Black-Cool Grey: January 13, 2012
Year of the Dragon: January 17, 2012
OKC Home: January 27, 2012
Cool Grey/Del Sol White: January 27, 2012
TB: February 1, 2012
BHM Black History Month: February 11, 2012
All Star: February 24, 2012
Texas: March 17, 2012
Easter: April 6, 2012
Creamsickle: April 12, 2012
Entourage: April 21, 2012
Aunt Pearl: May 12, 2012
Undftd: May 14, 2012
N7: May 25, 2012
Scoring Title: July 21, 2012
USA: July 28, 2012
Gold Medal: September 29, 2012
Nike KD V.
Released in 2012, the Nike Zoom KD V brought back the midtop upper with Hyperfuse and the Adaptive Fit lacing system. The midsole featured Nike Zoom forefoot, but is shaped like a bar to increase flexibility, and for the first time in the KD line, a 180 Air Max unit in the heel, placed in a lightweight Phylon midsole which also acts as a heel cup. The outsole featured storytelling pattern in the form of pentagons, which has five sides, and five is the number of the KD V, also is the second number in his jersey.
An elite version released on April 20, 2013. The elite version was a lowtop and featured Flywire upper with the Adaptive Fit lacing system, and an external carbon fiber heel counter. The midsole featured caged Nike Zoom heel unit along with the bar-shaped Nike Zoom forefoot unit. The outsole featured the same storytelling pattern as the original KD V, but was decoupled for range of motion. Here are some of released colorways:
OKC Away: December 8, 2012
DMV: December 15, 2012
X-Mas: December 26, 2012
Energy: December 31, 2012
Black/Blue Glow-Game Royal-Strata Grey: January 5, 2013
Black/Electric Green-Pine-Grey-Strata Grey: January 5, 2013
Black/Bright Crimson-University Red-Strata Grey: January 5, 2013
Black/Total Orange-Team Orange-Strata Grey: January 5, 2013
OKC Home: January 19, 2013
BHM Black History Month: January 26, 2013
Ice Blue: February 6, 2013
Birch: February 9, 2013
All Star: February 15, 2013
Texas: February 23, 2013
Hulk: March 9, 2013
Aunt Pearl: March 23, 2013
Easter: March 29, 2013
N7: April 13, 2013
WHAT THE: June 14, 2013


Andrea Lieberman

Andrea Lieberman is an American fashion designer and founder of women's ready-to-wear line A.L.C.
Career.
Born in New York City, Lieberman graduated from Parsons School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Fashion. During her time at Parsons, she interned with designer Giorgio di Sant' Angelo and after graduating she worked in the press room for Romeo Gigli. Before becoming a personal stylist, Lieberman opened her first boutique in New York, called Culture and Reality.
She began her career as a stylist in the music industry styling hip hop figures such as Sean Combs. Her work with Combs led to an introduction to Jennifer Lopez whom she styled for magazine editorials, music videos, red carpet appearances. She styled Jennifer Lopez in a green silk chiffon Versace dress for the 2000 Grammy Awards, which was listed as one of the "Top Grammy Dresses of All Time" according to "InStyle". In January 2015, Google's president Eric Schmidt cited the massive attention to this dress as a motivation for the creation of Google Images search. Her work with Lopez also included spreads in "Vibe" magazine and Lopez’ music video for "I'm Real" in 2001.
 Lieberman styled Janet Jackson for her All for You Tour in 2001 during which she worked with Francis Lawrence.
Lieberman met Gwen Stefani in 2002 while working with Eve on the music video "Let Me Blow Ya Mind." In 2004, Lieberman designed costumes for Stefani's "Love. Angel. Music. Baby." album cover and the album's solo tour. She styled Stefani’s Harajuku Girl look for the music video "What You Waiting For?" Lieberman served as creative consultant for Stefani's L.A.M.B clothing line. In 2005, Lieberman styled Mary J. Blige for the album cover for her hit single "Be Without You."
Additionally, Lieberman worked with Hollywood stars such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Drew Barrymore, Kate Hudson and Cameron Diaz. Her editorial styling work appeared in "Vogue", "Vanity Fair", "Elle", "InStyle", and other publications.
In 2007 Lieberman introduced a line of fine jewelry sold exclusively at Barneys New York and Maxfield Los Angeles.
In 2009, Lieberman moved to Los Angeles and debuted her A.L.C. ready-to-wear collection. In 2011, Lieberman was accepted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America and the following year, she became one of ten finalists in the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund.


Daniele Ranzoni

Daniele Ranzoni (1843 in Intra, Novara – 1889 in Intra, Novara) was an Italian painter of second half of the 19th century.
Biography.
Daniele Ranzoni was born to a working-class family (his father was a cobbler), in Intra, a town today incorporated into the municipality of Verbania-Pallanza on the Piedmont side of Lake Maggiore.
A precocious artist, he started his academic training at age thirteen at the Brera Academy in Milan, a city at the time still under the Austrian rule. At the insistence of his rich patrons from Intra, he continued his studies at the Albertina Academy in Turin – a logical choice for somebody born in Piedmont- But owing to a prestigious scholarship from the Collegio Caccia in Novara he was granted the right to resume his studies at Brera in Milan, where he trained under Giuseppe Bertini a remarkable teacher who encouraged his pupils to sketch from nature and experiment with primary colors.
There he befriended Tranquillo Cremona and the sculptor Giuseppe Grandi. Their friendship and shared aesthetics gave rise, in the 1870s, to a revolutionary style in the visual arts, known as Scapigliatura, a movement rightly considered the first Italian avant-garde in the visual art. In fact Ranzoni is the inventor of the technique through which shape delineation is replaced by a building of forms through nuances of colors. Vibrant splashes of color are applied directly on the canvas, without preliminary drawing, in a cursory brushwork that emphasizes tonal nuances, and suggests volumes and contrasts of light. The revolutionary manner initiated by Ranzoni and Cremona in the 1870s is similar to what the Impressionist group achieved in Paris in the same decade. However, while the former were mostly interested in translating the immediacy of the vision and tended to concentrate on landscape, Ranzoni and the Scapigliati neglected out of door painting, preferring to concentrate on portrait, the expression of emotions, intensity of moods and psychological introspection.
Ranzoni is essentially a portrait painter. In facts, he became the artist of the international milieu of aristocratic expats that gathered around Lake Maggiore in the 1870s and 1880s. Living between Milan and his native Intra, he had a liaison with Ada Troubetzkoy, an American opera singer who had married Prince Pierre Troubetzkoy, scion of an important Russian family. She was mother of three boys, whose artistic education she entrusted to Ranzoni. Two of these pupils became artists, Paul Troubetzkoy, the internationally renowned Belle Époque sculptor and Pierre, the society painter. Ada had introduced Ranzoni of the privileged society who frequented Lake Maggiore. He became their painter and owing to their connections he was invited to England where he spent two years as painter of the English gentry (1878/1879).
Upon his return, he had to face the demise of the cosmopolitan society which he had portrayed with so much insight. In Milan, after the death of Cremona (July 1878), the Scapigliatura of the street happenings and of the endless debates in the “Osterie “was but a memory. On Lake Maggiore Villa Ada had been sold and the separation of the couple was destroying the family of Ranzoni’s ex pupils. Around Lake Maggiore the expats were returning home, unable to resist the global economic crisis defined as “Long Depression” (1873-1896) in the Anglo-Saxon world, to differentiate it from the “Great Depression” of the 1930s. Bankruptcies and suicides were a daily occurrence. From 1880 to 1885 Ranzoni produced his most important works. Aware of the progressive destruction of his world, he reacted with a feverish activity accompanied by despair. A mental breakdown occurred and he was forcefully committed to the Psychiatric Hospital of Novara where he remained from March, 22 to May 6, 1885. As if mental illness had intensified the acuteness of his vision, this tormented period (just before and immediately after the hospitalization) corresponds to the acme in Ranzoni’s evolution. He died on October 29, 1889. The rare works produced between 1885 and his death, owing to their expressionist intensity are among the most moving of the late Nineteenth century. They have become abstract creations in which the paint is spare to maximum and color reduced to two tones, or at time, simply to a chromatic scale of on tone, a palette of grays, whose nuances suggest not only the fleeting quality of light but also the estrangement of the artist in front of his sitter.
Works.
Ranzoni paintings are mostly in private collections. Only eight Museums - all of them in Northern Italy- count Ranzoni’s paintings or drawings among their holdings.
The most important nucleus extant in public collections is divided between the Landscape Museum in Pallanza - Verbania and the civic collections in Milan, Galleria d’Arte Moderna and the Castello Sforzesco. The municipal “Galleria d’Arte Moderna Paolo e Adele Giannoni” in Novara, holds in permanent loans the two paintings of the Collegio Caccia, "Ritratto di Giovane Donna" and "Fratello e sorella". Since the publication of the Catalogue raisonné, Varese (Castello di Masnago) Biella (Museo Civico) and Pavia (Castello Visconteo ) have acquired through donation one or two paintings, oil or watercolor. The Pinacoteca of the Fondzione Cassa di Risparmia in Tortona has bought The Portrait of the child Ettore Nicò.


Video Pinball series

The Video Pinball brand is a series of first-generation single-player dedicated home video game consoles manufactured, released and marketed by Atari, Inc. starting in 1977. Bumper controllers on the sides or a dial on the front are used to control the games depending on the game selected. There are three game types in the first model of the Video Pinball series: "Pinball", "Basketball", and "Breakout".
The first model is based on the single chip 011500-11/C011512-05 ("Pong-on-a-chip") produced by Atari.
Gameplay.
Video Pinball allows 7 games—4 pinball variations, a basketball game, and two versions of "Breakout" ("Breakout" and a variant called "Break Away") -- for one to two players. The unit provides digital on-screen scoring, automatic serves, and color graphics. Video Pinball uses a micro-controller and a small amount of RAM rather than the "Pong on a chip" IC's that had been used in the slew of pong machines Atari Inc. had been releasing. Pinball was played primarily with the side bumper buttons, and Breakout and Basketball with the dial and top buttons.
Models.
There were three different models of Video Pinball released over its lifetime. Atari released both woodgrain and cream colored versions as "Atari Video Pinball". An OEM version whose name was changed to "Pinball Breakaway" was also produced by Sears under the Sears' Tele-Games label.
Arcade.
An arcade video game version, called "Video Pinball", was released by Atari in February 1979. It sold a total of 1,505 arcade cabinets.


Nimish Pilankar

Nimish Pilankar ( – 24 November 2019) was an Indian sound editor who worked on many films.
Biography.
Pilankar first work in Bollywood was "Race 3". He also worked in films like "Kesari" and "Housefull 4".
Pilankar died of brain haemorrhage on 24 November 2019 at the age of 29.


Raster Blaster

Bill Budge's Raster Blaster (or Rasterblaster on the disk label) is a pioneering home computer pinball simulation written by Bill Budge for the Apple II and published in 1981 by Budge's company, BudgeCo. It was ported to the Atari 8-bit family. "Raster Blaster" resembles the Williams "Firepower" table from 1980.
While not the first pinball game for home computers, "Raster Blaster" set a higher bar for visual fidelity, and the next several years saw a flurry of Apple II pinball titles: "David's Midnight Magic" (1982), "Night Mission Pinball" (1982), and Budge's own "Pinball Construction Set" (1983).
Reception.
Debuting in April 1981, the game sold 25,000 copies by June 1982, tied for fourth on "Computer Gaming World"s list of top sellers. "BYTE" praised the game's realistic physics, writing that "Most microcomputer games that are versions of existing board or equipment games aren't worth the disks they're printed on, but "Raster Blaster" does not fall into that category!"
"Raster Blaster" was voted "Softalk" magazine's Most Popular Program of 1981.
"Softline" stated when reviewing "David's Midnight Magic" that it "ratifies Bill Budge's extraordinary program as a programming tour de force" and "proof of Budge's technical lead over his rivals", as "Midnight" was merely equal to "Raster Blaster" despite being nine months ("an eternity in the Apple II world") newer.
"Compute!" called the Atari version "addictive", although it noted some bugs.


Brendan Emmett Quigley

Brendan Emmett Quigley (born 1974) is an American crossword constructor. He has been described as a "crossword wunderkind". His work has been published in "The New York Times", "The Washington Post", "The Wall Street Journal", "The Boston Globe", by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, and "The Onion". He appeared in the documentary "Wordplay" and the book "Crossworld: One Man's Journey into America's Crossword Obsession".
In a 2007 interview, "The Boston Globe Magazine" credited Quigley with "making the New York "Times" crossword hip."
Career.
Quigley was born in Norwood, Massachusetts. He became interested in crosswords while studying at the University of New Hampshire. Will Shortz brought his first submission to the New York "Times".
He lists Merl Reagle, Frank Longo, Elizabeth Gorski and Patrick Berry among his influences.
He has constructed puzzles for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, the Boston Crossword Puzzle Tournament, and Lollapuzzoola. As a tournament competitor, Brendan finished second in the E Division at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in 2001, and second in the Local Division at Lollapuzzoola 5 in 2012.
Quigley is also a musician, playing in such Boston-area bands as The Campaign For Real-Time and Hip Tanaka. He is currently a member of the Boston Typewriter Orchestra.
Quigley maintains a blog, entitled "Crossword Puzzles by Brendan Emmett Quigley."


Ian Hanomansing

Ian Harvey Hanomansing (born 1961) is a Canadian television journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). He formerly hosted "CBC News Network Vancouver" on CBC News Network, and reports for CBC Television's nightly newscast, "The National".
On August 1, 2017, he was named a co-anchor of "The National", and currently anchors the show on Fridays and Sundays. He is also the current interim host of CBC Radio One's weekly call-in show "Cross Country Checkup", while regular host Duncan McCue is on sabbatical.
Early life.
Hanomansing was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago and grew up in Sackville, New Brunswick. He attended Mount Allison University for his undergraduate education and graduated in 1983 with a degree in political science and sociology. He studied law at Dalhousie Law School and graduated in 1986.
Broadcasting career.
His broadcast media career began at CKDH in Amherst, Nova Scotia in the summer after his graduation, followed by work at CKCW in Moncton, New Brunswick and at CHNS in nearby Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1986 he joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He worked for CBC bureaus in the Maritimes and Toronto, Ontario before moving to Vancouver, where he was a network reporter and hosted the now-defunct programs "Pacific Rim Report", "Foreign Assignment", and "Times 7" (a joint venture with "The New York Times") and also hosted a summer series on CBC Radio One, "Feeling the Heat".
From 2000 to 2007, he was the anchor of the national segment of the defunct newscast "Canada Now"; following that program's cancellation, he was the co-anchor of "CBC News: Vancouver", CBUT's supper hour newscast, from 2007 to 2010. He returned to his former role as network reporter for "The National" in 2010 and from 2012 to 2017 he hosted "CBC News Now with Ian Hanomansing", which was broadcast live from CBC Vancouver on weeknights. On August 1, 2017, he was named as one of four new co-hosts of "The National", CBC's flagship news broadcast alongside Adrienne Arsenault, Rosemary Barton and Andrew Chang. In 2020, he was named the Friday and Sunday anchor of the programme.
Hanomansing has developed and hosted a series of innovative live news specials including "Downtown Drugs", in November 1998, from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside during a public health emergency declared after a high number of fatal overdoses. In March 2005, "Crime on the Streets" was broadcast, in part, from Stoney Mountain Institution in Manitoba. It is believed to be the only live national news special from a Canadian federal penal institution. It won a national Justicia Award for Excellence in Legal Reporting, as well as a Jack Webster Award.
Hanomansing received an honorary degree, Doctor of Laws honoris causa (LLD), from Mount Allison University in 2003. On November 28, 2008 Hanomansing won the Gemini Award for Best News Anchor, beating Kevin Newman and Peter Mansbridge. In March 2016, he won the Canadian Screen Award for Best National News Anchor over Peter Mansbridge, Lisa LaFlamme and Heather Hiscox.
Hanomansing also designed Big League Manager, an NHL-licensed board game. His game was voted a "Best Bet" by the Canadian Toy Testing Council.


Zvonko Vranesic

Zvonko Vranesic (born 4 October 1938) is a Croatian–Canadian International Master of chess, and an International Master of Correspondence Chess. He is an electrical engineer, a university professor, and a developer of computer chess software.
Early life, immigration, education.
Zvonko Vranešić was born in Zagreb. He won the Junior Championship of Yugoslavia in 1957. He immigrated to Canada in October 1958, settling in Toronto, Ontario. He graduated in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto, earning bachelor and doctoral degrees. He began competing with success in Canadian chess tournaments, soon after his arrival. Vranesic won the Toronto City Championship in 1959 (with a perfect score), and repeated in 1967, 1970, and 1972. He won the Ontario Open Championship in 1959 and 1963.
Near-misses in Canadian championships.
Vranesic placed 2nd, with 8/11, in the 1961 Canadian Chess Championship, at Brockville, Ontario 1961 (Lionel Joyner won); he repeated this placing in the 1963 Canadian Chess Championship, Winnipeg, Manitoba 1963, with 11.5/15 (Daniel Yanofsky won). Vranesic placed 2nd, to GM Pal Benko, at the 1964 Canadian Open Chess Championship.
He represented Canada in the Interzonal at Amsterdam 1964 (Yanofsky had qualified, but declined his place in favour of Vranesic), but placed 24th (last). However, his game was improving with opportunities to compete at high levels. He tied for first place at the Canadian Chess Championship, Pointe-Claire 1969. He earned the International Master title for this result. But he lost the Vancouver playoff match (and the right to advance to the 1970 Interzonal) to Duncan Suttles, by 1.5-0.5.
Olympiads.
He represented Canada at five Chess Olympiads. Here are his detailed results:
His totals in Olympiad play for Canada are (+25 -13 =32), for 58.6 per cent.
One noteworthy Olympiad win came in 1964 at Tel Aviv, when he defeated the Soviet champion GM Leonid Stein. In 1970, he scored a Grandmaster norm (a performance rating of over 2600) at Siegen; this would be his best career performance. He also served as the captain of the 1980 Canadian team, which attained Canada's second-best result to date, ninth place on tiebreak. Vranesic played chess at a high level, but was never a professional player. He earned the title of International Master of Correspondence Chess (IMC) in 1973. He has been virtually retired from serious chess competition since the mid-1990s.
Professor, computer chess.
Dr. Zvonko Vranesic is Professor Emeritus, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto. He was co-developer of a computer chess program, Chute, which competed in Computer Chess Championships. Details of his career at the University of Toronto are given at his academic web page.


The Dolans

The Dolans, consisting of Ken Dolan and Daria Dolan, were an American double act known for offering financial advice.
Career.
Ken Dolan and Daria Dolan were anchors for Dolans "Unscripted" on CNN. They have also written six books on personal finance and hosted several money seminars. Prior to joining CNN, the Dolans were contributors to "CBS This Morning" and "CBS News Saturday Morning" and hosted their own show on the now-defunct CNNfn. They also have sporadically hosted a nationally syndicated radio program, "The Dolans" on the WOR Radio Network.
The Dolans have been awarded the four-star rating for financial broadcasting excellence by "Newsweek", the only four-star rating ever awarded by the magazine. They were named to the "Vanity Fair" Magazine Radio Hall of Fame.
They have appeared:
Biographies.
Prior to her career in radio and television, Daria Dolan was vice president of a New York Stock Exchange firm. She holds an honorary doctorate in commercial sciences from St. Thomas Aquinas College in New York City and a bachelor's degree in theater arts from Webster University in St. Louis.
Prior to his career in radio and television, Ken Dolan was co-founder and vice chairman of a merchant banking firm. He began his career as an account executive at a major New York Stock Exchange firm. He also served in the United States Navy in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968 and holds a bachelor's degree in marketing from Boston College. Ken died in April 2018.


Perturbator

James Kent (born 1993), known by his stage name Perturbator, is a French synthwave musician from Paris.
Biography.
Kent has a background as a guitarist in several black metal bands. Since 2012, he has produced electronic music inspired by cyberpunk culture and with inspiration from movies such as "Akira", "Ghost in the Shell", and "the Running Man". He uses a variety of software synths in his productions, such as the emulators of old vintage synths like the OB-X or the CS-80. Since his debut EP "Night Driving Avenger" he has released four full-length albums, the latest of which is "New Model" on the Blood Music label, and has performed several live shows. Several of his tracks were featured in the 2012 game "Hotline Miami" and its 2015 sequel "". Perturbator's EP "Sexualizer" was released in part to officially release the song "Miami Disco" and as a way to thank the developers of "Hotline Miami". The success of the "Hotline Miami" games resulted in a greater amount of exposure to a mainstream audience.
Perturbator released his fourth full-length album "The Uncanny Valley" on 6 May 2016 through Blood Music on a range of formats including Digibook CD, vinyl, and cassette tape. The album was met with generally positive reviews, with MetalSucks and Bloody Disgusting both writing in praise of it. Some versions of the album also included a bonus EP, with Kent writing that "The first three songs complement the themes covered within "The Uncanny Valley", and the final track—'VERS/US'—is a demo from "The Uncanny Valley" writing sessions that fits the mood and atmosphere of the album but didn't quite make it into the final cut." Bloody Disgusting gave the album 5/5 and wrote that "The Uncanny Valley" "is sure to not only please fans of the genre but also win over newcomers."
Kent became interested in music in part due to the influence of his parents, who are journalists and rock music critics. His parents were themselves musicians and had a tech trance band when they were young, which influenced Kent to take an interest in synthesizers.
Kent also has a side project called L'Enfant De La Forêt and his own label called "Music of the Void".
In 2019 Kent appeared in the documentary film "The Rise of the Synths", appearing alongside various other composers from the Synthwave scene, including filmmaker John Carpenter who also narrated the film which explored the origins and growth of the genre.
Discography.
Adapted from AllMusic, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Google Play Music, and official website.


Alice and Martin Provensen

Alice Rose Provensen ("née" Twitchell; August 14, 1918 – April 23, 2018) and Martin Provensen (July 10, 1916 – March 27, 1987) were an American couple who illustrated more than 40 children's books together, 19 of which they also wrote and edited. According to Alice, "we were a true collaboration. Martin and I really were one artist."
Biographies.
Their early lives were similar. Both were born in Chicago and both moved to California when they were twelve. Both received scholarships to the Art Institute of Chicago, and both attended the University of California, though at separate campuses. After college, Alice went to work with Walter Lantz Studio, the creators of Woody Woodpecker, and Martin took work with the Walt Disney Studio, where he collaborated on "Pinocchio", "Fantasia", and "Dumbo".
The pair met in 1943 when Martin, working as a creator of training films for the American military, was assigned to the Walter Lantz Studio. They were married in 1944 and settled in Washington, D.C., where they worked on war-related projects. After the war they moved to New York City where a friend helped them get their first job, illustrating "The Fireside Book of Folk Songs". They illustrated several Little Golden Books including "The Color Kittens" by Margaret Wise Brown (1949). In 1952, Tony the Tiger, designed by Martin, debuted as a Kellogg's mascot.
The Provensens were a runner-up for the 1982 Caldecott Medal as illustrators of "A Visit to William Blake's Inn" by Nancy Willard (who won the companion Newbery Medal). Two years later they won the Caldecott for "The Glorious Flight", the story of aviator Louis Blériot, the first man to fly solo across the English Channel, which they also wrote. The annual award by U.S. professional librarians recognizes the year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". Eight of their books were named to "The New York Times" annual Ten Best Illustrated Books, including "Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm" (1974) and "An Owl and Three Pussycats" (1981). The couple were collaborative illustrators for Donald Waxman's "Pagaents for Piano," a series of pedagogical primers.
The couple lived for many years at Maple Hill Farm in Dutchess County, New York, which they portrayed in "A Year at Maple Hill Farm" (1978) as well as "Our Animal Friends". Martin died of a heart attack on March 27, 1987, in Staatsburg. Alice continued to live and work at Maple Hill Farm, publishing solo work such as "The Buck Stops Here: the Presidents of the United States" (1990) and "My fellow Americans: a family album" (1995), two presentations of people and events from American history (juvenile nonfiction)."Punch in New York", published in 1991, is considered her best solo work. The book received several honors and is dedicated to her grandson, Sean.
After turning ninety, Alice moved to San Clemente, California, to live with her daughter, Karen Mitchell, and her family. Provensen continued working (an addition was added to her daughter's house for a studio) well into her nineties. She died only four months before her 100th birthday.
Books.
‡ unpaged picture books


Cosmopolitan Russia

Cosmopolitan Russia is the Russian edition of "Cosmopolitan" magazine. It is the first international women's magazine published in the post-Soviet period in Russia.
History and profile.
"Cosmopolitan Russia" was established in 1994. The first issue was published in May 1994 and featured Cindy Crawford on the cover.
The magazine is part of Sanoma Independent Media, a subsidiary of Sanoma company. The Independent Media was founded by Derk Sauer and was acquired by the Finnish media company SanomaWSOY in 2005. "Cosmopolitan Russia" is published by Fashion Press on a monthly basis. The owners of Fashion Press are Sanoma and Hearst. The editor-in-chief of the magazine which targets women is Polina Sokhranova. The headquarters is in Moscow.
In June 2015 Sanoma Independent Media planned to sell the publisher of "Cosmopolitan Russia", Fashion Press, to its partner Hearst Shkulev Media. However, the proposal was rejected by the Russian Federal Anti-Monopoly Service.
Circulation.
The first issue of the magazine sold 50,000 copies. In 2005 "Cosmopolitan Russia" sold 1,000,000 copies and was acknowledged by the "Guinness Book of Records" as the magazine with the largest number of copies. The circulation of the monthly was 1,050,000 copies in 2009. Between May and October 2014 the magazine had a circulation of 800,000 copies.


The Review of Economics and Statistics

The Review of Economics and Statistics is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering applied quantitative economics. It was established in 1919 as "The Review of Economic Statistics" and obtained its current name in 1948.
The inaugural issue stated the purpose of the journal to be to:
The journal is edited at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and published by MIT Press. Its current editors are Olivier Coibion, Raymond Fisman, Benjamin R. Handel, Rema N. Hanna, Brian A. Jacob, Shachar Kariv, Amit K. Khandelwal, and Xiaoxia Shi.


Czech Lion Award for Best Costume Design

Czech Lion Award for Best Costume Design is award given to the Czech film with best Costume Design.


List of Turks and Caicos Islands flags

This is a list of flags used by and in the Turks and Caicos Islands.


Micro Precision Products

Micro Precision Products Ltd (MPP) was a British optical company that between 1941 and 1982 produced cameras and related equipment. (From 1976, its name was MPP Photographic Products Ltd.)
MPP was formed in 1941 to sell equipment produced by Celestion Ltd.; in its early days, MPP employees also worked for Celestion or the related McMurdo Instrument Company. MPP was based in London: in Kingston until 1976, Wandsworth thereafter.
Products.
MPP's first major product was the Micro-Technical Camera, in 1948. This was far in advance of any other camera produced in Britain. Mark II followed in 1949; Mark III in 1951; Marks VI, VII and VIII in 1952, 1956, and 1963. (Marks IV and V were not sold.) These had the full versatility and quality of technical cameras; some long remained in professional use.
The Micro-Press Camera was a press camera available through the 1950s.
MPP is the only postwar British manufacturer of twin-lens reflex cameras. The Microcord (1951) was based on the Rolleicord; it was soon (1952) followed by the Microcord Mk II, with an improved shutter (the German Prontor). The Ross lens is of high quality. In 1958, MPP brought out the lever-wound Microflex, inspired by the Rolleiflex. This had excellent optics (by Taylor, Taylor and Hobson) and the camera was well made, but the crank invited hard use for which it was not designed. Shortly after its introduction, Britain dropped the high duty rates that had made Rollei equipment prohibitively expensive, and the Microflex had to be heavily discounted.
Other products included enlargers (even for large format), projectors, dark slides, carrying cases and a flashgun that was similar in design and appearance to Graflex models.


Skullgirls

Skullgirls is a 2D fighting game developed by Reverge Labs and published by Autumn Games. The game was released through the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in North America, Europe, and Australia from April to May 2012, and later received a Japanese release by CyberFront for the PlayStation Network in February 2013. A Microsoft Windows version, developed by Lab Zero Games and co-published by Autumn Games and Marvelous, was released in August 2013. A Japanese arcade version, produced by M2 for the NESiCAxLive service, was released in 2015. A mobile spin-off of the game, developed by Hidden Variable Studios and published by Line, was released for Android and iOS devices in May 2017.
In "Skullgirls", players engage in combat against one another, with teams of one, two, or three characters attempting to knock out their opponents or have the most cumulative health when time runs out. The setting of the game revolves around the "Skull Heart", an artifact which grants wishes for women. If a wisher with an impure soul uses the Skull Heart, she is transformed into the next "Skullgirl", a monster bent on destruction. "Skullgirls" received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the animation and gameplay mechanics, while criticizing its limited roster size and online multiplayer features.
Development of post-release content faced numerous setbacks. In May 2012, publisher Autumn Games was sued over allegations of fraud regarding an unrelated property, "Def Jam Rapstar", cutting off "Skullgirls"' financial support and forcing developer Reverge Labs to lay off the entire development team. The core team would eventually reform as Lab Zero Games in November 2012, launching a successful crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to continue their work. After Autumn Games severed ties with distributor Konami Digital Entertainment in December 2013, the latter formally requested to have the game removed from the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. The game was later re-released on both platforms in 2014 as Skullgirls Encore. When the game was ported to the PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and PC in 2015, it was renamed to Skullgirls 2nd Encore. Skybound Games published "2nd Encore" for the Nintendo Switch in October 2019.
In August 2020, Autumn Games and Hidden Variable Studios severed ties with Lab Zero Games after sexual harassment allegations were raised against lead designer and programmer Mike Zaimont. Following the dissolution of Lab Zero Games, several former members founded another independent game studio named Future Club, which collaborated with Hidden Variable Studios on future content for "2nd Encore".
Gameplay.
The engine and playstyle for "Skullgirls" were intentionally modeled after ', incorporating several similar game mechanics such as tag team-based combat, character assists, snapbacks, and delayed hyper combos. The game can be played using different ratios of characters (similarly to '), with each player able to select up to three fighters on their team. The teams are then balanced based on the number of team members. A single character possesses more health and deals more damage, while larger teams gain the ability to perform character assists and recover health when tagged out. Players can also customize their character assist attacks.
The game includes a story mode, arcade mode, versus mode, training room, tutorial mode, and online play using the GGPO networking library. "Skullgirls" includes various unique features to address system and balance problems, such as infinite combo detection. When the game detects a looping combo through monitoring the players' attacks, the other player can break free of the infinite by hitting any button. In addition, "Skullgirls" offers protection against "unblockable attacks", which occur when a player, for example, uses a low-hitting move and a high-hitting assist attack at the same time, making it nearly impossible for the opponent to block. The game attempts to remedy the issue by offering a brief period of unblockable protection after successfully blocking any attack.
At release, "Skullgirls Encore" saw numerous gameplay adjustments and additions, including character balance tweaks, faster gameplay, an online training mode, and a stun meter designed to limit lengthy combos without compromising creativity. A new local game mode called "Typing of the Skullgirls", a mode inspired by games like "The Typing of the Dead", was also added. When enabled, teams automatically generate meter and all attacks deal negligible damage. Super moves give typing prompts to the player, awarding damage for typing accuracy. In addition to fully voiced story modes and cross-platform play across the entire PlayStation family, "Skullgirls 2nd Encore" introduced challenges, where players fight against opponents under unique battle conditions; trials, which test players' skills by having them perform combos; and survival mode, which pits players against endless waves of enemies. The mobile version of "Skullgirls" incorporates RPG-like progression, customization, and deck-building mechanics.
Setting.
"Skullgirls" takes place in the fictional Canopy Kingdom, a country reminiscent of 1940s post-war America. In a corrupt and war-torn world, several individuals and organizations seek to obtain an artifact known as the Skull Heart. Once every seven years, the Skull Heart grants one woman's wish. However, if a woman with an impure soul attempts to use the Heart, her wish will be corrupted and she will be transformed into a monster known as the Skullgirl. Hundreds have sought after the Skull Heart, yet none of its wielders have been deemed worthy and spared of its curse.
Seven years following the Grand War, a battle fought between three nations, the newest Skullgirl, Marie, has emerged and begun to terrorize the Canopy Kingdom. The game follows several fighters and their journeys to confront Marie and claim the Skull Heart. Each character has their own motive for seeking the Heart, whether to destroy the artifact or use its power for their own interests.
Characters.
The "Skullgirls" roster initially consisted of eight playable characters: Filia, Cerebella, Peacock, Parasoul, Ms. Fortune, Painwheel, Valentine, and Double. Following the conclusion of the game's Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in 2013, an additional five downloadable characters were developed: Squigly, Big Band, Eliza, Beowulf, and Robo-Fortune. In 2014, a clone of Filia, named Fukua, was added to the game. The character was intended to be a temporary inclusion for April Fools' Day, but was kept in response to fan feedback. As part of the first season pass, four more playable fighters will be released in 2021 and 2022: Annie, Umbrella, and two currently unannounced characters.
Development.
"Skullgirls" was originally conceived as several stray character designs that illustrator Alex "o_8" Ahad had been creating since high school. While attending college, Ahad had the hypothetical idea to use the character concepts for a fighting game roster. The idea would later become a reality when Ahad was introduced to fighting game enthusiast and tournament-goer Mike "Mike Z" Zaimont, who had been working on a fighting game engine during his own spare time. Early work on their new "Skullgirls" project began in 2008. Engine development and pre-production began in 2009. Ahad drew the art style and character designs based on a wide variety of his influences and inspirations, such as the works of Mike Mignola and Bruce Timm, Gainax's "FLCL", Tex Avery's "Red Hot Riding Hood", Capcom's "Darkstalkers", and artists George Kamitani and Daisuke Ishiwatari. Ahad and Zaimont pitched "Skullgirls" to several companies, eventually teaming up with recently founded independent developer Reverge Labs in 2010. They later went on to sign with publisher Autumn Games. In April 2011, Reverge Labs licensed OtterUI as its user interface solution for the development of "Skullgirls". At the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011, Japanese developer and publisher Konami announced that they would help distribute the game.
Following the game's release, the "Skullgirls" team began teasing future content for the game, including new voice packs, color palettes, and downloadable characters. However, shortly thereafter, Autumn Games was hit with a series of lawsuits regarding "Def Jam Rapstar", which "gummed up everything related to Autumn's funding." The entire "Skullgirls" development team was laid off by Reverge Labs in June 2012 after Autumn Games and Reverge Labs allowed their contract to expire without agreeing upon a new one. This prompted the team to reform under a new moniker, Lab Zero Games, to continue work on the PC release and downloadable content. Autumn Games, revealed to be in full possession of the IP, claimed it was "fully behind the new studio" and promised to "continue to work with [Lab Zero Games] in the future on all "Skullgirls"-related endeavors."
From January through February 2013, fighting game website Shoryuken hosted a charity donation drive to determine the final game to be featured in the 2013 Evolution Championship Series' tournament lineup, with all proceeds sent to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The "Skullgirls" community raised over , placing second to eventual winner "Super Smash Bros. Melee", which raised over $94,000. Although the game did not win, Shoryuken announced that EVO 2013 event organizers would support the "Skullgirls" side tournament by providing prize money and exhibition support due to their effort in the fundraiser.
Crowdfunding and publisher transition.
Despite Autumn Games' support and desire to expand "Skullgirls", their continued litigation prevented the publisher from providing any financial backing. Attempting to pick up where they left off, Lab Zero Games decided to ask its fanbase for help once more, following the success of the EVO 2013 charity drive. On February 25, 2013, Lab Zero Games set up an Indiegogo page for "Skullgirls", in an effort to raise $150,000 for the development of the game's first DLC character, Squigly. Contributors received various rewards, including desktop wallpapers, a digital copy of the official soundtrack, Steam keys for the PC release, Steam keys for "Half-Minute Hero", and the chance to add a background character to the game, among others. The campaign reached its initial goal in less than 24 hours, while the stretch goal of a second DLC character, Big Band, secured funding in just over 2 weeks. A third DLC character, determined by fan vote, was funded during the final two days, along with a playable robotic version of Ms. Fortune named Robo-Fortune. An additional stretch goal that would provide a free license for the game's engine, Z-Engine, to the developers of "Them's Fightin' Herds" (at the time called "Fighting is Magic") was also funded. With minutes left before the end of the drive, the last stretch goal was met, securing funding for another fan-selected DLC character. The Indiegogo campaign raised nearly $830,000 of its original $150,000 goal. Several alternate character and announcer voice packs were also funded. All downloadable characters and voice packs were free to download on all platforms within the first three months of their release.
On November 7, 2013, Lab Zero Games announced that Autumn Games had severed ties with Konami, citing Konami's unresponsiveness as a major hurdle to the release of further console patches. Following the dissolution of the partnership, Konami requested the removal of "Skullgirls" from the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade by the end of 2013. In response, Lab Zero Games announced on December 17, 2013 that "Skullgirls" would be re-released on consoles as "Skullgirls Encore", a new build including up-to-date changes and additions, in January 2014. "Encore" marked the transition of the console versions to its new publishers, Marvelous and CyberFront, and coincided with the console releases of Squigly and the "Character Color Bundle" DLC. While "Encore" was released as a title update for the Xbox 360 version, the PlayStation 3 version required owners to re-download the game at no cost; leaderboard rankings, save data, and trophies were not carried over. The PC version was later patched to reflect the new title.
Staff resignations and developer transition.
In June 2020, multiple allegations of misconduct were made against lead designer and programmer Mike Zaimont. Two individuals claimed that Zaimont had made inappropriate sexual comments towards them, which triggered an internal investigation of Zaimont's behavior within Lab Zero Games. A decision was reached by Lab Zero Games' board to request Zaimont's resignation. According to senior art producer Brian Jun, Zaimont refused to resign unless a series of demands were met, which Jun deemed "unrealistically high and potentially illegal". Zaimont's demands were rejected by the board. In response, Zaimont disbanded the board and assumed sole ownership of Lab Zero Games. Senior animator Jonathan Kim claimed that Zaimont delivered an ultimatum wherein he gave all unsatisfied employees until August 31 to leave the company. In late August, Kim, Jun, and lead animator Mariel Cartwright resigned from Lab Zero Games and individually issued statements denouncing Zaimont's actions.
Within a day of the series of resignations, Hidden Variable Studios and Autumn Games severed their ties with Mike Zaimont and Lab Zero Games in a joint statement. In the statement, both parties expressed intent to work with the employees who resigned from Lab Zero Games on the continued development of "Skullgirls". Shortly after the resignations, Zaimont retaliated by firing the rest of the staff, leaving him the sole employee and owner of Lab Zero Games. Cartwright raised money for the staff, who had been fired without severance, by selling her sketchbooks. Additional inappropriate interactions with the community came to light after the resignations. Several former Lab Zero Games members, including Cartwright and Kim, then went on to establish a new cooperatively-structured independent game studio called Future Club.
In February 2021, Autumn Games revealed the development of the "Season 1 Pass", which includes Annie, Umbrella, two other unannounced DLC characters, a digital artbook, and an updated soundtrack. The publisher also teased the possibility of a fifth DLC fighter, along with other free content, depending on the success of the season pass. In March 2021, Future Club formally announced their collaboration with Hidden Variable Studios in developing "2nd Encore"s DLC content.
Soundtrack.
The "Skullgirls Original Soundtrack" consists of 28 original compositions. The album features music by Michiru Yamane, Vincent Diamante, Blaine McGurty, and Brenton Kossak. The soundtrack was released on April 24, 2012 on iTunes. People who donated at least $10 to the "Skullgirls" Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign received a digital copy of the soundtrack. An exclusive, physical CD release of the "Skullgirls Original Soundtrack" was offered, among other rewards, to those who donated $150 or more to the drive.
On April 20, 2011, Reverge Labs officially announced that they had enlisted Yamane, primarily known for her work on Konami's "Castlevania" series, to help create the soundtrack for "Skullgirls". According to Richard Wyckoff, CEO of Reverge Labs, the developers sought out Yamane because "[they] knew her mixture of haunting gothic themes, jazz and rock would lend itself perfectly to Skullgirls' 'Dark Deco' style." When Reverge Labs requested Yamane to write "jazzy" music, she "played a bit with the rhythm and different sounds to try and heighten the impact and almost primal nature of the unique graphics."
Release.
"Skullgirls" was released on the PlayStation Network in North America on April 10, 2012, and the Xbox Live Arcade on April 11, 2012. Europe and Australia later received the PlayStation Network version on May 2, 2012. The game was released in Japan by CyberFront on the PlayStation Network on February 14, 2013, and was also brought to Japanese arcades through the NESiCAxLive digital distribution system by game developer M2. The public beta test for the Microsoft Windows version of "Skullgirls" began on July 4, 2013. The official Microsoft Windows version was released by Marvelous on August 22, 2013.
"Skullgirls Encore" launched on the PlayStation Network in North America on February 11, 2014, and Europe on March 19, 2014. The Xbox Live Arcade version of "Skullgirls" received an update for "Encore" on April 22, 2014. On July 10, 2014, Lab Zero Games announced that "Skullgirls Encore" would be released on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita sometime in 2014. The PlayStation 4 and Vita port, later titled "Skullgirls 2nd Encore", would eventually be delayed until 2015. "2nd Encore" was released for the PlayStation 4 on July 7, 2015. The Android and iOS versions, developed by Hidden Variable Studios and published by Line, were released on May 25, 2017, in North America, South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. "2nd Encore" was published in Japan by Arc System Works. Hidden Variables Limited Run Games produced a limited physical edition of "2nd Encore", which included a disc-based copy of the game, a slip cover, a full-color instruction manual, and a special selection soundtrack.
In May 2013, when Lab Zero Games was asked on their official Twitter account about a potential release for Nintendo's Wii U console, the developer replied that while it was possible, it "[wasn't] looking likely", citing the console's low sales and not having an established "digital presence" at the time. During Anime Expo in July 2018, Lab Zero Games confirmed that a port of "Skullgirls 2nd Encore" was in development for the Nintendo Switch. The Nintendo Switch release would include all content, and be available both physically and digitally. In February 2019, Lab Zero Games announced that the Nintendo Switch port of "Skullgirls 2nd Encore" would be released the following month, and that an Xbox One port would be released at the same time, courtesy of Skybound Games. Despite this announcement, the game eventually released for the Nintendo Switch on October 22, 2019, whilst the Xbox One port was "postponed indefinitely due to unforeseen development and production challenges".
Reception.
Critical response.
"Skullgirls" received "generally positive" reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.
Several reviewers praised the presentation and animation. Ryan Clements of IGN praised the graphics, claiming that the game created "some of the best hand-drawn character sprites ever used in gaming." Clements also gave the game an Editor's Choice award. John Learned of GamesRadar also praised the art style, stating that the art deco design gave playable characters and backgrounds added flair. However, some reviewers criticized the art style and overtly sexualized all-female cast, including accusations of sexism. Dan Ryckert of "Game Informer" stated that while "Skullgirls" was beautifully animated, some animations were "juvenile and unnecessary". Ryckert expressed disappointment with the artistic focus on "anatomy and fetishistic outfits."
Reviewers also praised the gameplay and system mechanics. Maxwell McGee of GameSpot credited the ability to adjust team sizes, adding that the trade-off between strength and versatility helped to accommodate a wider skill range of players. Neidel Crisan of 1UP praised the tutorial system for teaching beginner players about the fundamentals of the fighting game genre. Daniel Maniago of G4 complimented the custom assists, anti-infinite system, and online play, praising Reverge Labs for utilizing feedback from the fighting game community during development.
"Skullgirls" received its share of criticism. IGN's Ryan Clements criticized the small selection of gameplay modes, missing character move lists, and overly aggressive AI. GameTrailers criticized the limited roster size, stating that the tag-based battling felt underdeveloped as a result. Simon Parkin of Eurogamer pointed out the lack of online features, such as a spectator mode, replays, and endless lobbies. Jordan Mallory of Joystiq reprimanded the game for its "goofy and immature" premise, sexualized art style, and unoriginal character movesets. Mallory concluded that the series would have been better off spending another year in development.
"Skullgirls" received Best Fighting Game nominations from IGN, 1UP, and the Official E3 Game Critics Awards. The game was nominated for 2012 Best Animated Video Game at the 40th Annual Annie Awards. "Skullgirls" was also recognized in the 2013 "Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition" for the most frames of animation per character, reaching 11,515 total frames for its initial eight characters and averaging 1,439 frames per fighter. In 2017, "Skullgirls: 2nd Encore" was listed in "Game Informer"'s list of "The 10 Most Underrated Games Of This Generation".
Sales.
"Skullgirls" sold over 50,000 copies across both platforms within ten days, becoming the highest selling game on the Xbox Live Arcade upon its release and third best-selling title on PlayStation Network for April 2012. The game saw a similar performance in Japan, climbing to the top of PSN's list of best-selling downloadable PlayStation 3 titles within a week. According to Peter Bartholow, CEO of Lab Zero Games, "Skullgirls" met Japanese publisher CyberFront's lifetime sales expectations in the first two weeks of release. On September 4, 2017, Zaimont announced that "Skullgirls" had sold one million copies on Steam.
Legacy.
At the 2019 Anime Expo, an upcoming webcomic series published by Webtoon was announced.


Rigger boot

A rigger boot is a particular type of pull-on safety boot in the United Kingdom. The name "rigger" comes from the fact that they were standard issue for workers on the offshore oil rigs in the North Sea, but are nowadays worn by most types of manual worker as a general purpose workboot.
Riggers, as they are commonly nicknamed, are usually tan in colour and go approximately third of the way up the leg and feature a steel toe cap for safety. Other distinguishing features of the boots include pull-on loops around the top of the boot's shaft and internal fur lining.
Many rigger boots are unbranded or generic brands, some of which may have steel toe caps which may not conform to the EN-345 standard, and some workplaces concerned about their lack of adequate ankle support now ban them.
The boots are sometimes made in other colours, such as black, where they can be worn as fashion items in the punk and heavy metal scenes.


Gunbird 2

 is a 2D scrolling shooter developed by Psikyo and published by Capcom as a sequel to the original "Gunbird". It was originally released in Japanese arcades in 1998, and was later ported to the Dreamcast in 2000 and released worldwide. An Android version was released in Korean in 2014, it came out worldwide on both Android and iOS in 2016. The arcade game was also included in "Gunbird Special Edition" for the PlayStation 2. A version was released on Nintendo Switch in June 2018.
Gameplay.
There are seven stages in each game loop (two loops total). The first three stages are randomly chosen from possible four. At the second loop, enemies fire denser bullet patterns moving at faster speeds. Stage 2-1 takes place at the only stage not available in 1st loop, instead of the 1-1 counterpart. After completing the first loop with only one player, player can choose one of two choices for a wish with magic potion, with unique ending for each choice. If 1st loop is completed with two players, a combination-specific ending is played.
This was the first Psikyo shooter to feature medal-chaining: picking up 2000 point medals (when they flash) repeatedly results in a slight point increase and a coin chain, recorded separately from the score. This was later featured in "Strikers 1945 III/Strikers 1999".
The arcade game supports both English and Japanese languages, chosen via arcade board dip switch settings. The language setting is Japanese if dip switches are set to Japanese, English otherwise.
Two exclusive playable characters in the Sega Dreamcast port of "Gunbird 2", released in 2000, includes Morrigan Aensland from the "Darkstalkers" series and Aine from the "Samurai Aces" series. Other new features include Internet ranking, gallery, and voices during intermission.
Plot.
Seven warriors are challenged to head on a quest to find three powerful elements of Sun, Moon and Stars. Whoever brings the elements to the Potion God will be rewarded the legendary Almighty Potion and all its magical powers.
Reception.
In Japan, "Game Machine" listed "Gunbird 2" on their January 1, 1999 issue as being the fourth most-successful arcade game of the year.
Jeff Lundrigan reviewed the Dreamcast version of the game for "Next Generation", rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "if you want a ridiculously high level of pure twitch-response challenge, look no further. If you don't, well, move along".
"Gunbird 2" received mostly positive reviews. The Dreamcast version received scores of 8.5/10 from both Gaming Target and Planet Dreamcast, while Game Revolution graded it a B-. It also scored an 80% from French "Consoles +" while the three reviewers from "Dreamcast Magazine" each gave it a 7/10. "IGN"'s Anthony Chau gave it an 8.4/10: "I hope that most of you that decide to get "Gunbird 2" are those that know the excitement of weaving between enemy fire, appreciate 2D artistry, and respect classic gameplay that never gets old. If that's you, you'll definitely be satisfied". "GameSpot"'s Steven Garrett, however, was much more critical of the game, rating it only a 5.8/10 and opining that "if a good 16-bit shooter is what you're looking for, you could do a lot better elsewhere".
Legacy.
"Gunbird Special Edition".
The PlayStation 2 version of the game was based on the arcade version.
Cancelled PlayStation Portable remake.
An enhanced remake, titled "Gunbird 2 Remix" was announced by PM Studios for the PlayStation Portable in 2009. It was slated for an early 2010 release exclusively in digital format. No news has been heard since then, and it is considered vaporware.


Aliens Infestation

Aliens: Infestation is a 2011 2D sidescroller game for the Nintendo DS handheld console. It was developed by WayForward Technologies and Gearbox Software. It is a tie-in to the "Alien" franchise. The cover art as well as the character designs and avatars were drawn by renowned comic-book artist Chris Bachalo.
The game received generally positive reviews, with many calling it a successful callback to the original alien series and an improvement over the previous games, with particular praise towards the atmosphere, graphics and art design.
Gameplay.
Gameplay of "Aliens: Infestation" is comparable to the "Metroid" and "Castlevania" video games, where players are encouraged to search and backtrack for weapons, upgrades, and keys. The player controls one of a party of four marines and explores the U.S.S. Sulaco as well as LV-426 and Phobos in order to investigate the Union of Progressive Peoples (UPP) and Weyland-Yutani's involvement in Xenomorph development. The game incorporates a permadeath mechanic. If a marine falls in battle, another in the party will take their place. The player loses if the entire party is wiped out. Fallen characters can be replaced with any of fifteen displaced marines found throughout the game, each with their own unique dialog.
Plot.
The USS "Sephora" has discovered the USS "Sulaco" adrift in space after the events of "Aliens" and "Alien 3". The Colonial Marines are sent aboard the "Sulaco "to investigate and recover the life form detected aboard the ship.
Development.
"Aliens: Infestation" was developed by WayForward Technologies and Gearbox Software and was originally intended to be a tie-in to the PC and console game. When doing their research, Game Director, Adam Tierney, focused heavily on Ridley Scott's Alien and James Cameron's Aliens as inspiration. To capture the films' "slasher" appeal, while still keeping you emotionally invested, the development team created 20 unique characters, with the game's dialogue carefully re-written 20 times, to make sure it offered the biggest 'gut-punch' when one dies. In conjunction with the game's 'party of four' mechanic, the developers wanted players to grow attached to their favorites, which in-turn, increased the likelihood of getting one killed.
Reception.
"Aliens: Infestation" received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.
"The A.V. Club" gave it a B+, saying, "It's a shame that "Aliens: Infestation" peters out by the end. In the push toward the conclusion, the upgraded weapons you've collected lessen the threat, and the thin plot culminates in a boring fight against a big alien queen." "Digital Spy" gave it four stars out of five, saying, "In many ways, it feels like the "Aliens" game we should have been given back in the 16-bit era when the movie series was still relatively new. Whether it has been worth the wait is debatable, but this is certainly a worthy addition to the DS library." However, "The Digital Fix" gave it seven out of ten, saying that "It can be uneven at times in terms of quality but it is highly enjoyable, especially if you are fan of either the franchise or even if you are just a fan of 'MetroidVania' games."


Procedural generation

In computing, procedural generation is a method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually, typically through a combination of human-generated assets and algorithms coupled with computer-generated randomness and processing power. In computer graphics, it is commonly used to create textures and 3D models. In video games, it is used to automatically create large amounts of content in a game. Depending on the implementation, advantages of procedural generation can include smaller file sizes, larger amounts of content, and randomness for less predictable gameplay. Procedural generation is a branch of media synthesis.
Overview.
The term "procedural" refers to the process that computes a particular function. Fractals are geometric patterns which can often be generated procedurally. Commonplace procedural content includes textures and meshes. Sound is often also procedurally generated, and has applications in both speech synthesis as well as music. It has been used to create compositions in various genres of electronic music by artists such as Brian Eno who popularized the term "generative music".
While software developers have applied procedural generation techniques for years, few products have employed this approach extensively. Procedurally generated elements have appeared in earlier video games: "" takes place in a mostly procedurally generated world, giving a world roughly two thirds the actual size of the British Isles. "Soldier of Fortune" from Raven Software uses simple routines to detail enemy models, while featured a randomly-generated level mode. Avalanche Studios employed procedural generation to create a large and varied group of detailed tropical islands for "Just Cause". "No Man's Sky", a game developed by games studio Hello Games, is all based upon procedurally generated elements.
The modern demoscene uses procedural generation to package a great deal of audiovisual content into relatively small programs.
New methods and applications are presented annually in conferences such as the IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games and Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment.
Particularly in the application of procedural generation with video games, which are intended to be highly replayable, there are concerns that procedural systems can generate infinite numbers of worlds to explore, but without sufficient human guidance and rules to guide these. The result has been called "procedural oatmeal", a term coined by writer Kate Compton, in that while it is possible to mathematically generate thousands of bowls of oatmeal with procedural generation, they will be perceived to be the same by the user, and lack the notion of perceived uniqueness that a procedural system should aim for.
Contemporary application.
Tabletop role-playing games.
Using procedural generation in games had origins in the tabletop role playing game (RPG) venue. The leading tabletop system, "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons", provided ways for the "dungeon master" to generate dungeons and terrain using random die rolls, expanded in later editions with complex branching procedural tables. Strategic Simulations under license from TSR released the "Dungeon Master's Assistant", a computer program that generated dungeons based on these published tables. "Tunnels & Trolls", also published by TSR, was designed primarily around solitary play and used similar procedural generation for its dungeons. Other tabletop RPGs borrowed similar concepts in procedural generation for various world elements.
Many online tools for Dungeon Masters now use procedural generation to varying degrees.
Video games.
Early history.
Prior to graphically oriented video games, roguelike games, a genre directly inspired by "Dungeons & Dragons" adopted for solitaire play, heavily utilized procedural generation in the same manner that tabletop systems had done. Such early games include "Beneath Apple Manor" (1978) and the genre's namesake, "Rogue" (1980). The procedural generation system in roguelikes would create dungeons in ASCII- or regular tile-based systems and define rooms, hallways, monsters, and treasure to challenge the player. Roguelikes, and games based on the roguelike concepts, allow the development of complex gameplay without having to spend excessive time in creating a game's world.
1978's "Maze Craze" for the Atari VCS used an algorithm to generate a random, top-down maze for each game.
Some games used pseudorandom number generators. These PNGs were often used with predefined seed values in order to generate very large game worlds that appeared to be premade. "The Sentinel" supposedly had 10,000 different levels stored in only 48 and 64 kilobytes. An extreme case was "Elite", which was originally planned to contain a total of 248 (approximately 282 trillion) galaxies with 256 solar systems each. However, the publisher was afraid that such a gigantic universe would cause disbelief in players, and eight of these galaxies were chosen for the final version.
Other notable early examples include the 1985 game "Rescue on Fractalus" that used fractals to procedurally create, in real time, the craggy mountains of an alien planet and "River Raid", the 1982 Activision game that used a pseudorandom number sequence generated by a linear feedback shift register in order to generate a scrolling maze of obstacles.
Modern use.
Though modern computer games do not have the same memory and hardware restrictions that earlier games had, the use of procedural generation is frequently employed to create randomized games, maps, levels, characters, or other facets that are unique on each playthrough.
In 2004, a PC first-person shooter called ".kkrieger" was released by a German demo group. It is entirely contained in a 96 kilobyte executable for Microsoft Windows that generates hundreds of megabytes of 3D and texture data when run. According to one of the programmers, "it was a complete failure as far as the game side was concerned (mostly because no one involved really deeply cared about that aspect)."
Naked Sky's "RoboBlitz" used procedural generation to maximize content in a less than 50 MB downloadable file for Xbox Live Arcade. Will Wright's "Spore" also makes use of procedural synthesis.
Procedural generation is often used in loot systems of quest-driven games, such as action role-playing games and massive multiplayer online role playing games. Though quests may feature fixed rewards, other loot, such as weapons and armor, may be generated for the player based on the player-character's level, the quest's level, their performance in the quest, and other random factors. This often leads to loot having a rarity quality applied to reflect when the procedural generation system has produced an item with better-than-average attributes. For example, the "Borderlands" series is based on its procedural generation system which can create over a million unique guns and other equipment.
Many open world or survival games procedurally create a game world from a random seed or one provided by the player, so that each playthrough is different. These generation systems create numerous pixel- or voxel-based biomes with distribution of resources, objects, and creatures. The player frequently has the ability to adjust some of the generation parameters, such as specifying the amount of water coverage in a world. Examples of such games include "Dwarf Fortress" and "Minecraft". An artifact of the procedural generation around these games is that if the space that the player is allowed to explore is not limited, the randomness of the procedural generation will start to produce more noise than content; this is exemplified in the idea of the "Far Lands" within some earlier versions of "Minecraft", where the usual smooth transitions between biomes was replaced with haphazard formations.
Procedural generation is also used in space exploration and trading games. "", through using the 400 billion known stars of the Milky Way Galaxy as its world basis, uses procedural generation to simulate the planets in these solar systems. Similarly, Star Citizen uses the technology for its planets, to create a collection of seamlessly-loaded planet-sized planets among its hand-crafted universe. "I-Novae Infinity" features a plethora of planets which are procedurally generated between which the player can travel via space ships. "Outerra Anteworld" is a video game in development that uses procedural generation and real world data to create a virtual replica of planet Earth in true scale. "No Man's Sky" features a universe containing 18 quintillion planets which are procedurally generated on the fly as the player encounters them, including their terrain, weather, flora, and fauna, as well as a number of space-faring alien species. This universe is defined by the use of a single random seed number to their deterministic engine, assuring that the same content will be generated at the same places for all players, which enables players to share discoveries using only knowledge of the locations of the planets in the virtual galaxy.
Film.
As in video games, procedural generation is often used in film to create visually interesting and accurate spaces rapidly. This comes in a wide variety of applications.
One application is known as an "imperfect factory", where artists can rapidly generate many similar objects. This accounts for the fact that, in real life, no two objects are ever exactly alike. For instance, an artist could model a product for a grocery store shelf, and then create an imperfect factory to generate many similar objects to populate the shelf.
MASSIVE is a high-end computer animation and artificial intelligence software package used for generating crowd-related visual effects for film and television. It was developed to create fighting armies of hundreds of thousands of soldiers for Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" films automatically.
Coherent noise can be extremely important to procedural workflow in film. Simplex noise is often faster with fewer artifacts, though an older function called Perlin noise may be used as well. Coherent noise, in this case, refers to a function that generates smooth pseudo-randomness in dimensions.
The landscapes in "The Mandalorian" are produced on the fly using a modified Unreal Engine 4 and LEDs for projection of the result which is being filmed in real time to show accurate reflections on the set.


Joseph Goguen

Joseph Amadee Goguen ( ; June 28, 1941 – July 3, 2006) was an American computer scientist. He was professor of Computer Science at the University of California and University of Oxford, and held research positions at IBM and SRI International.
Goguen's work was one of the earliest approaches to the algebraic characterisation of abstract data types and he originated and helped develop the OBJ family of programming languages. He was author of "A Categorical Manifesto" and founder and Editor-in-Chief of the "Journal of Consciousness Studies". His development of institution theory impacted the field of universal logic. Standard implication in product fuzzy logic is often called "Goguen implication". Goguen categories are named after him.
He was married to Ryoko Amadee Goguen, who is a composer, pianist, and vocalist.
Education and academic career.
Goguen received his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Harvard University in 1963, and his PhD in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1968, where he was a student of the founder of fuzzy set theory Lotfi Zadeh.
He taught at UC Berkeley, the University of Chicago and University of California, Los Angeles, where he was a full professor of computer science. He held a Research Fellowship in the Mathematical Sciences at the IBM Watson Research Center, where he organised the "ADJ" group. He also visited the University of Edinburgh in Scotland on three Senior Visiting Fellowships.
From 1979 to 1988, Goguen worked at SRI International in Menlo Park, California. From 1988 to 1996, he was a professor at the Oxford University Computing Laboratory (now the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford) in England and a Fellow at St Anne's College, Oxford. In 1996 he became professor of Computer Science at the University of California, San Diego.
Research areas.
Goguen's research interests included category theory (a branch of mathematics), software engineering, fuzzy logic, algebraic semantics, user interface design, algebraic semiotics, and the social and ethical aspects of science and technology.
Lotfi Zadeh viewed Goguen's 1968 approach to "The Logic of Inexact Concepts" as seminal in the field of fuzzy logic. Goguen's PhD dissertation "Categories of fuzzy sets" was the first work to apply category theory to fuzzy logic, and led to Goguen categories being named after him.
Goguen's research in the 1970s was one of the earliest approaches to the characterisation of computational automata from a categorical perspective. Goguen's research with Thatcher, Wagner and Wright (also in the 1970s) was one of the earliest works to formalise the algebraic basis for data abstraction.
In the early 1990s Goguen and Rod Burstall developed the theory of institutions, a category-theoretic description of logical systems in computer science. Institution theory impacted the development of universal logic and became one of its most studied aspects. The term "Carnapian Goguenism" is used to refer to the application of institutions to ontologies.
Goguen also studied the philosophy of computation and information, formal methods (especially hidden algebra and theorem proving), and relational and functional programming. He wrote a retrospective of his work and its context, "Tossing Algebraic Flowers Down the Great Divide".
Personal views.
Goguen was a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism. Specifically, since the early 1970s he was a student of Chögyam Trungpa and, after his death in 1986, of his son Sakyong Mipham. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, he was a faculty member of the science program at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado.


Anchors (Will Hoge album)

Anchors is the tenth studio album by country music musician Will Hoge released on August 11, 2017.
Background.
After touring for his previous album, "Small Town Dreams", Hoge disbanded his group and started to write songs at home and toured solo. After a period of depression, Hoge saw his children get together in the family garage and perform songs. Hoge said, "I watched from the bedroom window and it was like a portal back to the time when you’re not thinking about touring companies or LLCs or insurance for employees...I was 16 or 17 when I got my first guitar and wanted to write songs and wanted to do this professionally. Seeing them really over the next couple of days helped me re-center what I wanted to do and I wrote that song, ’17.'"
Reception.
The album has been met with positive reception. Writing for AllMusic, Thom Jurek called the album "honest" and Hoge a "master storyteller".
Personnel.
Adapted from LP liner notes


Ode to Sunshine

Ode to Sunshine is an album by American rock band Delta Spirit, released August 26, 2008, on Rounder Records. It is the band's debut album, following their 2006 EP "I Think I've Found It".
Reception.
"AllMusic"'s Hal Horowitz wrote, "The ex-Noise Ratchet founders shift to more rootsy territory with their new band, yielding impressive results," and that ""Ode to Sunshine" was recorded in a cabin in Julian, CA, and those surroundings seem to have brought a raw, rootsy, almost Basement Tapes-styled feel to the stripped-down songs and production." "The A.V. Club"'s Chris Martins said the album "is brimming with gritty, staggering soul that floods the gap between the Stones' R&B-inflected; early oeuvre and Cold War Kids' world-weary keening. That said, "Ode" is impressively measured, and neither the rollicking shambolics of "Trashcan" nor the slow, whiskey-seeping grind of "Parade" would be half as effective without a certain tautness." "NME"'s Tessa Harris said the band's "sound is timeworn and instantly familiar: the "set me free" chorus of 'Streetwalker' is pure Springsteen, while the honky-tonk of 'Trashcan' is classic Stones, made more remarkable by the sandpaper snarl of their frontman."
"PopMatters"' Andrew Martin wrote that "Every year there is one album that comes out of nowhere, kicks you in the ass, and demands your attention. It finds itself on your iPod, inside your CD player, and blaring out of your headphones or speakers. Then, you commit to spreading the word about the album to anyone and everyone. Because, just like how misery loves company, so does a music lover who has just discovered a fantastic new album. For me, and others I am sure, Delta Spirit's "Ode to Sunshine" is just that album." Prefix Magazine said "it would be easy to christen the Delta Spirit's sonically referential sound as the Violent Femmes gone sepia. Many already have," and "Despite Delta Spirit's anarchic (i.e., creatively opportunistic) sampling of everything from cold war folk to the Cold War Kids, when the band members hit their stride — as on the rumbling, locomotive grooves of piano-stung epic Americana on "Trashcan" — "Sunshine" becomes nothing less than an ode to musical joy." "Slant"'s Nate Adams wrote that "The songs on Sunshine range from vaguely spiritual (the groove-heavy first single "Trashcan") to openly Christian (the passable but forgettable "Children"), and while this is by no means a bad thing, it can be distracting at times: No one likes to be preached at, even if the message is wrapped up inside bluesy pop songs," and that "Sadly, the guitars are buried low in the mix, forcing the vocals and piano to do most of the work." "Spin"'s Nate Adams said "Whether it's a happy accident or a painstaking work of art, the rousing debut of this San Diego quintet impresses mightily. Despite passing echoes of Spoon and Violent Femmes, Delta Spirit's rough barroom pop is its own creature, with jangly pianos, rattling drums, and scruffy acoustic guitars making a thrilling ruckus."


Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour

The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours (RSW) is a Scottish organisation of painters.
The first preliminary meeting of the society took place in Glasgow on 21 December 1877 as a reaction to a lack of interest in watercolour art by existing exhibitors. The society was inaugurated on 4 March 1878 with the election of its first president, Sir Francis Powell and vice president, Sam Bough. Its first exhibition of 172 pictures took place in November.
It was founded to "promote, through exhibition, the medium of watercolour and encourage the bold, free and colourful qualities of Scottish Painting."
The society received permission from Queen Victoria to use the prefix "Royal" in February 1888. In around 1894 the society changed its rules to allow female artists to be admitted with the same privileges as male artists.
Throughout its history many renowned artists have been members, including David McClure, William McTaggart, Adam Bruce Thomson, Claire Harrigan, George Paul Chalmers, Alison Dunlop, William Somerville Shanks, Elizabeth Blackadder and Barbara Rae.
Past presidents include William J L Baillie (1975–1988), Ian McKenzie Smith (1988–1998), Philip T L Reeves (1998–2005), John Inglis (2005–2016); the current president is Jim Dunbar.
Past vice presidents include Alison Dunlop, Helga Chart, Gregor Smith and Iona Montgomery.


Jenny Packham

Jenny Packham is a British fashion designer. She mostly makes ready-to-wear clothes and wedding dresses. She is the sister of naturalist and television presenter Chris Packham.
Career.
Packham studied at Southampton College of Art, and then at Saint Martin's School of Art in London.
Her designs were first presented in 1988, at the London Designer Show. In 2013 a retrospective selection of her work was shown in the Raphael Gallery of the V&A Museum, in celebration of twenty-five years of her label.
Packham has designed at least eight dresses for Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, including the one she wore to the Olympic Gala Concert at the Albert Hall in 2012. She has also designed clothes for Jennifer Aniston, Miley Cyrus and Keira Knightley, among others.
Packham's designs have been used in the James Bond films "Die Another Day" and "Casino Royale" – and in television; she designed costumes for Kim Cattrall in "Sex and the City", and for various episodes of "Gossip Girl".
Recognition.
Packham received an honorary doctorate from Southampton Solent University in 2008.


Group Normal

Group Normal is a German Czech group of artists formed in 1979.
It consists of the artists Peter Angermann, Jan Knap and Milan Kunc, who met in the early 1970s at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the classes of Joseph Beuys and Gerhard Richter.
They championed the rejection of individualism and, in line with this, created a large number of joint works – paintings that in some cases were done in public. The declared ambition of the three artists was to overcome the predominating and elitist “academic avantgardism” by an art as demystified and accessible as possible.


Darby and Tarlton

Darby and Tarlton were an early country music duo, who achieved some level of success in the late 1920s. The duo consisted of Tom Darby (born August 25, 1891 Columbus, Georgia - died August 20, 1971) and Jimmie Tarlton, (born May 8, 1892 Cheraw, South Carolina - died November 29, 1979 Phenix City, Alabama).
Biography.
Tarlton grew up on a farm in Chesterfield County, South Carolina learning folk songs from an early age. His parents were sharecroppers and he had to help out with the chores. He still managed to find the time to learn the slide guitar and banjo. After working as a street musician in the 1920s, Tarlton met Frank Ferera who taught him how to play the Hawaiian guitar. Tarlton soon moved to Columbus, Georgia where he met Tom Darby. They began performing together and shortly, they were offered a chance to make a recording for Columbia Records. Two songs were cut on April 5, 1927 and the recording sold well enough to allow a second recording session. On November 10, 1927 they recorded four songs, among them "Birmingham Jail" and "Columbus Stockade Blues". The two songs, coupled on one record, became the duo's biggest hits selling more than 200 000 copies. Darby and Tarlton recorded 63 songs between 1927 and 1933. In the early 1930s they became hostile towards each other and went their separate ways professionally. Their hostility seemed to be about royalty issues. Darby DID, however, visit Tarlton occasionally.
Tom Darby formed a short lived duo in 1931 together with Jesse Pitts, called "The Georgia Wildcats". Darby and Tarlton both retired in 1935. In 1963, Darby and Tarlton reunited to perform in Weracoba Park (known locally as "Lakebottom") when they agreed to be part of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra's opening pops concert. Thomas P. Darby's nephew Richard "Ricky" Whitley claims that he learned guitar from Tom Darby and Jimmy Tarlton. Darby was quoted as saying in a 1963 interview with "The Columbus Enquirer" (now known as "The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer") regarding the opening pops concert performance that "Tarlton’s fine wife said we sounded even better than before. Made goose pimples come up on her arms, she said." Darby was drafted during World War I, but was shortly thereafter honorably discharged due to being "unfit to serve" (flat feet).
Darby was married to Alma "Olene" Darby (née Brown) until his death at the Columbus Medical Center after a long bout with lung cancer. He was interred in Columbus, Georgia's Riverdale Cemetery in the Veteran's section. His wife died in 1984 after a brief illness and is buried beside him. The song "Little Ola" was actually written by Darby as a tribute to his wife ("Olene" Darby was several years his junior). After retiring from the music business, Darby had other business ventures, including a stint "running moonshine". He would row a boat filled with moonshine from a small island near Phenix City, Alabama (where his still was located) to the Columbus, Georgia side across the Chattahoochee River. A simple yet effective method was employed to avoid prosecution. If "Olene" saw a "revenooer" (as they were called), she would wave a dark handkerchief. If it was safe, she would wave a light-colored handkerchief. On at least one occasion, a "revenooer" had shown up...and a dark-colored handkerchief was waved. Darby reversed course, rowing back to the Alabama side. When the agent approached Mrs. Darby, he asked what she was doing. She replied, "I was waving to my husband." When asked why he'd turned around, she replied, "He must have forgotten something."
During the folk revival of the 1960s, Tarlton performed again.


Derek Khan

Derek Khan (August 21, 1957 – February 15, 2021) was a Trinidadian-American fashion stylist. He was known for his styling of hip-hop artists in the 1990s and 2000s.