1.
Star Wars
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Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise, centered on a film series created by George Lucas. It depicts the adventures of characters a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The franchise began in 1977 with the release of the film Star Wars and it was followed by the successful sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, these three films constitute the original Star Wars trilogy. A prequel trilogy was released between 1999 and 2005, which received mixed-to-negative reactions, a sequel trilogy began in 2015 with the release of Star Wars, The Force Awakens. All seven films were nominated for Academy Awards and have been successes, with a combined box office revenue of over $7.5 billion. Spin-off films include Star Wars, The Clone Wars and Rogue One, Star Wars also holds a Guinness World Records title for the Most successful film merchandising franchise. In 2015, the value of the Star Wars franchise was estimated at USD $42 billion. In 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for $4.06 billion and earned the rights to all subsequent Star Wars films. Walt Disney Studios owns digital distribution rights to all the Star Wars films, the events depicted in the Star Wars franchise take place in an unnamed fictional galaxy at an undetermined point in the distant past. Many species of creatures are depicted. Robotic droids are also commonplace and are built to serve their owners. Space travel is common, and many planets in the galaxy are members of a single galactic government. In the prequel trilogy, this is depicted in the form of the Galactic Republic, at the end of the trilogy and throughout the original trilogy. Preceding and during the trilogy, this government is the New Republic. One of the prominent elements of Star Wars is the Force and it is described in the first produced film as an energy field created by all living things surrounds us, penetrates us, binds the galaxy together. While the Force can be used for good, known as the side, it also has a dark side that, when pursued, imbues users with hatred, aggression. The sequel trilogy introduces the Knights of Ren, an order of practitioners of the side of the Force aligned with the First Order. The first film in the series, Star Wars, was released on May 25,1977 and this was followed by two sequels, The Empire Strikes Back, released on May 21,1980, and Return of the Jedi, released on May 25,1983
2.
Lucasfilm
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LLC is an American film and television production company based in the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco, California. The studio is best known for creating and producing the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as its leadership in developing special effects, sound and computer animation for film. Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971 in San Rafael, California, the Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm in 2012 at a valuation of $4.06 billion. Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971, and incorporated as Lucasfilm Ltd. on September 12,1977, on July 8,2005, Lucasfilms marketing, online, and licensing units moved into the new Letterman Digital Arts Center located in the Presidio in San Francisco. It shares the complex with Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm had planned an expansion at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California, but shelved the plan in 2012 due to opposition from neighbors. However, it plans to expand elsewhere. Skywalker Sound remains the only Lucasfilm division based at Skywalker Ranch, in January 2012, Lucas announced his retirement from producing large-scale blockbuster films and instead re-focusing his career on smaller, independently budgeted features. She would in June 2013 and is now chairperson of Lucasfilm, on September 5,2012, Micheline Chau, who served as president and COO of Lucasfilm for two decades, announced that she was retiring. With her departure, senior executives for each of the Lucasfilm divisions will report directly to Kathleen Kennedy, Chau was credited with keeping the Lucasfilm and Star Wars brands strong, especially through animation spin-offs and licensing initiatives. Lucas told Iger he was considering retirement and planned to sell the company, on October 30,2012, Disney announced a deal to acquire Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, with approximately half in cash and half in shares of Disney stock. Kathleen Kennedy, co-chairman of Lucasfilm, became president of Lucasfilm, additionally she serves as the brand manager for Star Wars, working directly with Disneys global lines of business to build, further integrate, and maximize the value of this global franchise. Kennedy serves as producer on new Star Wars feature films, with George Lucas originally announced as serving as creative consultant, the company also announced the future release of new Star Wars films, starting with Star Wars, The Force Awakens in 2015. Disney also acquired Lucasfilms portfolio of entertainment technologies, the intent was for Lucasfilm employees to remain in their current locations. Star Wars merchandising would begin under Disney in the fiscal year 2014, starting with Star Wars Rebels, certain products will be co-branded with the Disney brand, akin to what Disney has done with Pixar. On December 4,2012, the Disney-Lucasfilm merger was approved by the Federal Trade Commission, on December 18,2012, Lucasfilm Ltd. was reincorporated as Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC, and on December 21,2012, the deal was announced to be completed, in April 2013, the development arm of the LucasArts division was closed down and most of its staff was laid off. However, LucasArts remained open with a staff of fewer than ten employees so it could retain its function as a video game licensor. On May 6,2013, Disney announced a deal with Electronic Arts to produce Star Wars games for the core gaming market
3.
Star Wars (film)
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Star Wars is a 1977 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. The first installment in the Star Wars film series, it stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, David Prowse, James Earl Jones, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and Peter Mayhew co-star in supporting roles. The plot focuses on the Rebel Alliance, led by Princess Leia, and its attempt to destroy the Galactic Empires space station and this conflict disrupts the isolated life of farmhand Luke Skywalker, who inadvertently acquires a pair of droids that possess stolen architectural plans for the Death Star. Star Wars was released theatrically in the United States on May 25,1977 and it earned $461 million in the U. S. and $314 million overseas, totaling $775 million. It surpassed Jaws to become the film of all time until the release of E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial. When adjusted for inflation, Star Wars is the film in North America. It received ten Academy Award nominations, winning seven and it was among the first films to be selected as part of the U. S. Library of Congress National Film Registry as being culturally, historically, at the time, it was the most recent film on the registry and the only one chosen from the 1970s. Its soundtrack was added to the U. S. National Recording Registry in 2004, today, it is often regarded as one of the best films of all time, as well as one of the most important films in the history of motion pictures. It launched an industry of tie-in products, including TV series spinoffs, novels, comic books, and video games, the films success led to two critically and commercially successful sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. A prequel trilogy was released between 1999 and 2005, followed by a trilogy beginning in 2015. In 2016, Rogue One was released as a prequel to the original Star Wars film. The galaxy is in the midst of a civil war, spies for the Rebel Alliance have stolen plans to the Galactic Empires Death Star, a heavily armed space station capable of destroying an entire planet. Rebel leader Princess Leia has the plans, but her ship is captured by Imperial forces under the command of the evil Darth Vader, before she is captured, Leia hides the plans in the memory of an astromech droid, R2-D2, along with a holographic recording. R2-D2 flees to the surface of the desert planet Tatooine with C-3PO, the droids are captured by Jawa traders, who sell them to moisture farmers Owen and Beru Lars and their nephew Luke Skywalker. While cleaning R2-D2, Luke accidentally triggers part of Leias message, the next morning, Luke finds R2-D2 searching for Obi-Wan, and meets Ben Kenobi, an old hermit who lives in the hills and reveals himself to be Obi-Wan. Contrary to his uncles statements, Luke learns that his father, Anakin, Obi-Wan tells Luke that Vader was his former pupil who turned to the dark side of the Force and killed Anakin. Obi-Wan then presents to Luke his fathers weapon – a lightsaber, Obi-Wan views Leias complete message, in which she begs him to take the Death Star plans to her home planet of Alderaan and give them to her father for analysis
4.
George Lucas
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George Walton Lucas Jr. is an American filmmaker and entrepreneur. He is best known as the creator of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as the founder of Lucasfilm and he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm, before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Upon graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967, Lucas co-founded American Zoetrope with fellow filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, Lucas wrote and directed THX1138, based on his earlier student short Electronic Labyrinth, THX1138 4EB, which was a critical success but a financial failure. His next work as a writer-director was the film, American Graffiti, inspired by his teen years in early 1960s Modesto, California, the film was critically and commercially successful, and received five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Following the first Star Wars film, Lucas produced and co-wrote the following installments in the trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, along with Steven Spielberg, Lucas co-created and wrote the Indiana Jones films Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade. Lucas also produced and/or wrote a variety of films through Lucasfilm in the 1980s and 1990s, Lucas also returned to directing with the Star Wars prequel trilogy, consisting of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. He later collaborated on the story for the Indiana Jones sequel Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, five of Lucass seven features are among the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Lucas is one of the American film industrys most financially successful filmmakers, Lucas is considered a significant figure in the New Hollywood era. Lucas was born and raised in Modesto, California, the son of Dorothy Ellinore Lucas and George Walton Lucas and he is of German, Swiss-German, English, Scottish, and distant Dutch and French descent. Growing up, Lucas had a passion for cars and motor racing, on June 12,1962, while driving his souped-up Autobianchi Bianchina, another driver broadsided him, flipping over his car, nearly killing him, causing him to lose interest in racing as a career. He attended Modesto Junior College, where he studied anthropology, sociology and he also began shooting with an 8 mm camera, including filming car races. At this time, Lucas and his friend John Plummer became interested in Canyon Cinema, screenings of underground, avant-garde 16 mm filmmakers like Jordan Belson, Stan Brakhage, and Bruce Conner. Lucas and Plummer also saw classic European films of the time, including Jean-Luc Godards Breathless, François Truffauts Jules et Jim, thats when George really started exploring, Plummer said. Through his interest in racing, Lucas met renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler, another race enthusiast. Wexler, later to work with Lucas on several occasions, was impressed by Lucas talent, George had a very good eye, and he thought visually, he recalled. Lucas then transferred to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, USC was one of the earliest universities to have a school devoted to motion picture film. During the years at USC, Lucas shared a room with Randal Kleiser. Along with classmates such as Walter Murch, Hal Barwood, and John Milius and he also became good friends with fellow acclaimed student filmmaker and future Indiana Jones collaborator, Steven Spielberg
5.
Science fiction
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Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a literature of ideas. Science fiction is difficult to define, as it includes a range of subgenres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying science fiction is what we point to when we say it, a definition echoed by author Mark C. Glassy, who argues that the definition of science fiction is like the definition of pornography, you do not know what it is, in 1970 or 1971William Atheling Jr. According to science fiction writer Robert A, rod Serlings definition is fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible, Science fiction is largely based on writing rationally about alternative possible worlds or futures. Science fiction elements include, A time setting in the future, in alternative timelines, a spatial setting or scenes in outer space, on other worlds, or on subterranean earth. Characters that include aliens, mutants, androids, or humanoid robots, futuristic or plausible technology such as ray guns, teleportation machines, and humanoid computers. Scientific principles that are new or that contradict accepted physical laws, for time travel, wormholes. New and different political or social systems, e. g. utopian, dystopian, post-scarcity, paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, telekinesis Other universes or dimensions and travel between them. A product of the budding Age of Reason and the development of science itself. Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Keplers work the first science fiction story and it depicts a journey to the Moon and how the Earths motion is seen from there. Later, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story about a flight to the moon, more examples appeared throughout the 19th century. Wells The War of the Worlds describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod fighting machines equipped with advanced weaponry and it is a seminal depiction of an alien invasion of Earth. In the late 19th century, the scientific romance was used in Britain to describe much of this fiction. This produced additional offshoots, such as the 1884 novella Flatland, the term would continue to be used into the early 20th century for writers such as Olaf Stapledon. In the early 20th century, pulp magazines helped develop a new generation of mainly American SF writers, influenced by Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories magazine. In 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs published A Princess of Mars, the first of his series of Barsoom novels, situated on Mars
6.
Fencing
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Fencing, also called Olympic fencing, is a sport in which two competitors fight using rapier-style swords, winning points by making contact with their opponent. Fencing was one of the first sports to be played in the Olympics, there are three forms of modern fencing, each using a different style of weapon and different rules, and as such the sport is divided into three competitive scenes, foil, épée, and sabre. Most competitive fencers choose to specialise in one weapon. Competitive fencing is one of five activities which have featured in every one of the modern Olympic Games, the other four being athletics, cycling, swimming. Fencing is governed by Fédération Internationale dEscrime, today, its head office is in Lausanne, Switzerland. The FIE is composed of 145 national federations, each of which is recognised by its countrys Olympic Committee as the representative of Olympic-style fencing in that country. The FIE maintains the current rules used for FIE sanctioned international events, including cups, world championships. The FIE handles proposals to change the rules the first year after an Olympic year in the annual congress, the US Fencing Association has slightly different rules, but usually adhere to FIE standards. Fencing traces its roots to the development of swordsmanship for duels, the ancestor of modern fencing originated in Spain, where several books on fencing were written. In conquest, the Spanish forces carried fencing around the world, particularly southern Italy, Fencing was mentioned in the play The Merry Wives of Windsor written sometime prior to 1602. The mechanics of modern fencing originated in the 18th century in an Italian school of fencing of the Renaissance, the Spanish school of fencing stagnated and was replaced by the Italian and French schools. There, he taught the aristocracy the fashionable art of swordsmanship and his school was run by three generations of his family and dominated the art of European fencing for almost a century. He established the rules of posture and footwork that still govern modern sport fencing. The first regularized fencing competition was held at the inaugural Grand Military Tournament and Assault at Arms in 1880, held at the Royal Agricultural Hall, the Tournament featured a series of competitions between army officers and soldiers. Each bout was fought for five hits and the foils were pointed with black to aid the judges, the Amateur Gymnastic & Fencing Association drew up an official set of fencing regulations in 1896. Fencing was part of the Olympics Games in the summer of 1896, starting with épée in 1933, side judges were replaced by the Laurent-Pagan electrical scoring apparatus, with an audible tone and a red or green light indicating when a touch landed. Foil was automated in 1956, sabre in 1988, the scoring box reduced the bias in judging, and permitted more accurate scoring of faster actions, lighter touches, and more touches to the back and flank than before. There are three weapons in modern fencing, foil, épée, and sabre, each weapon has its own rules and strategies
7.
Stabbing
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A stabbing is penetration with a sharp or pointed object at close range. Stab connotes purposeful action, as by an assassin or murderer, stabbing differs from slashing or cutting in that the motion of the object used in a stabbing generally moves perpendicular to and directly into the victims body, rather than being drawn across it. Stabbings today are common among gangs and in prisons because knives are cheap, easy to acquire, easily concealable, in 2013 about 8 million stabbings occurred. In Japan, the practice of stabbing oneself deliberately in ritual suicide is known as seppuku. The ritual is highly codified, and the person committing suicide is assisted by a second who is entrusted to decapitate him cleanly once he has made the abdominal wound. It has thus been speculated that the fuller, a concave depression in a metal blade. This misconception has led to fullers becoming widely known as blood grooves, the fuller is actually a structural reinforcement of the blade similar in design to a metal I-beam used in construction. Death from stabbing is caused by shock, severe blood loss, infection, although previously a victim of abdominal stabbing would be subject to exploratory surgery laparotomy, it is now considered safe not to operate if the patient is stable. In that case, they should be observed for signs of decompensation indicating a serious injury, in the event that the patient initially presents stabbing injuries and is unstable, laparotomy should be initiated to discover and rectify any internal injury. When someone who has sustained a stab wound dies, the body is autopsied, such examination can yield valuable information about the weapon used to produce the injury. It is possible to determine whether the weapon was single edged or double edged, sometimes factors like the taper of the blade and movement of knife in the wound can also be determined. Bruises or abrasions may give information about the guard
8.
Cutting
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Cutting is the separation of a physical object, into two or more portions, through the application of an acutely directed force. Implements commonly used for cutting are the knife and saw, or in medicine and science the scalpel, however, any sufficiently sharp object is capable of cutting if it has a hardness sufficiently larger than the object being cut, and if it is applied with sufficient force. Even liquids can be used to cut things when applied with sufficient force, cutting is a compressive and shearing phenomenon, and occurs only when the total stress generated by the cutting implement exceeds the ultimate strength of the material of the object being cut. Hence, the smaller the area, the force is needed to cut something. It is generally seen that cutting edges are thinner for cutting soft materials and this progression is seen from kitchen knife, to cleaver, to axe, and is a balance between the easy cutting action of a thin blade vs strength and edge durability of a thicker blade. Cutting has been at the core of manufacturing throughout history, for metals many methods are used and can be grouped by the physical phenomenon used. Chip forming - sawing, drilling, milling, turning etc, abrading - grinding, lapping, polishing, water-jet. Heat - flame cutting, plasma cutting, laser cutting, electrochemical - etching, electrical discharge machining. Every method has its limitations in accuracy, cost, and effect on the material, for example, heat may damage the quality of heat treated alloys, and laser cutting is less suitable for highly reflective materials such as aluminum. Laser cutting sheet metal produces flat parts and etches and engraves parts from complex or simple designs and it is used over other cutting options for its quick process and customizable abilities
9.
Welding
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In addition to melting the base metal, a filler material is typically added to the joint to form a pool of molten material that cools to form a joint that is usually stronger than the base material. Pressure may also be used in conjunction with heat, or by itself, although less common, there are also solid state welding processes such as friction welding or shielded active gas welding in which metal does not melt. Some of the best known welding methods include, Oxy-fuel welding - also known as oxyacetylene welding or oxy welding, uses fuel gases and oxygen to weld and cut metals. Shielded metal arc welding – also known as stick welding or electric welding, the electrode holder holds the electrode as it slowly melts away. Slag protects the weld puddle from atmospheric contamination, gas tungsten arc welding – also known as TIG, uses a non-consumable tungsten electrode to produce the weld. The weld area is protected from contamination by an inert shielding gas such as argon or helium. Flux-cored arc welding – almost identical to MIG welding except it uses a special tubular wire filled with flux, it can be used with or without shielding gas, submerged arc welding – uses an automatically fed consumable electrode and a blanket of granular fusible flux. The molten weld and the arc zone are protected from contamination by being submerged under the flux blanket. Electroslag welding – a highly productive, single pass welding process for thicker materials between 1 inch and 12 inches in a vertical or close to vertical position. Electric resistance welding - a welding process that produces coalescence of laying surfaces where heat to form the weld is generated by the resistance of the material. In general, an efficient method, but limited to relatively thin material, many different energy sources can be used for welding, including a gas flame, an electric arc, a laser, an electron beam, friction, and ultrasound. While often a process, welding may be performed in many different environments, including in open air, under water. Welding is an undertaking and precautions are required to avoid burns, electric shock, vision damage, inhalation of poisonous gases and fumes. Until the end of the 19th century, the welding process was forge welding. Arc welding and oxyfuel welding were among the first processes to develop late in the century, Welding technology advanced quickly during the early 20th century as the world wars drove the demand for reliable and inexpensive joining methods. Developments continued with the invention of laser welding, electron beam welding, magnetic pulse welding. Today, the continues to advance. Robot welding is commonplace in industrial settings, and researchers continue to develop new welding methods, the history of joining metals goes back several millennia
10.
Melting
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Melting, or fusion, is a physical process that results in the phase transition of a substance from a solid to a liquid. This occurs when the energy of the solid increases, typically by the application of heat or pressure. At the melting point, the ordering of ions or molecules in the solid breaks down to an ordered state. Substances in the state generally have reduced viscosity as the temperature increases. An exception to this principle is the element sulfur, whose viscosity increases to a point due to polymerization, some organic compounds melt through mesophases, states of partial order between solid and liquid. Melting is therefore classified as a phase transition. Melting occurs when the Gibbs free energy of the liquid becomes lower than the solid for that material, the temperature at which this occurs is dependent on the ambient pressure. Low-temperature helium is the only exception to the general rule. Helium-3 has an enthalpy of fusion at temperatures below 0.3 K. Helium-4 also has a very slightly negative enthalpy of fusion below 0.8 K. This means that, at appropriate constant pressures, heat must be removed from these substances in order to melt them, among the theoretical criteria for melting, the Lindemann and of Born criteria are those most frequently used as a basis to analyse the melting conditions. The Lindemann melting criterion is supported by experimental data both for crystalline materials and for transitions in amorphous materials. The Born criterion is based on rigidity catastrophe caused by the elastic shear modulus. Under a standard set of conditions, the point of a substance is a characteristic property. The melting point is equal to the freezing point. However, under carefully created conditions, supercooling or superheating past the melting or freezing point can occur, water on a very clean glass surface will often supercool several degrees below the freezing point without freezing. Fine emulsions of pure water have been cooled to −38 degrees Celsius without nucleation to form ice, nucleation occurs due to fluctuations in the properties of the material. If the material is still there is often nothing to trigger this change. Thermodynamically, the liquid is in the metastable state with respect to the crystalline phase
11.
Heating
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Heating, ventilation and air conditioning is the technology of indoor and vehicular environmental comfort. Its goal is to provide comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. HVAC system design is a subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, Refrigeration is sometimes added to the fields abbreviation as HVAC&R or HVACR, or ventilating is dropped as in HACR. Ventilation removes unpleasant smells and excessive moisture, introduces outside air, keeps interior building air circulating, ventilation includes both the exchange of air to the outside as well as circulation of air within the building. It is one of the most important factors for maintaining acceptable indoor air quality in buildings, methods for ventilating a building may be divided into mechanical/forced and natural types. HVAC systems can be used in domestic and commercial environments. HVAC systems can provide ventilation, reduce air infiltration, and maintain pressure relationships between spaces, the means of air delivery and removal from spaces is known as room air distribution. In modern buildings the design, installation, and control systems of functions are integrated into one or more HVAC systems. For very small buildings, contractors normally estimate the capacity, engineer, for larger buildings, building service designers, mechanical engineers, or building services engineers analyze, design, and specify the HVAC systems. Specialty mechanical contractors then fabricate and commission the systems, Building permits and code-compliance inspections of the installations are normally required for all sizes of building. HVAC is based on inventions and discoveries made by Nikolay Lvov, Michael Faraday, Willis Carrier, Edwin Ruud, Reuben Trane, James Joule, William Rankine, Sadi Carnot, heaters are appliances whose purpose is to generate heat for the building. This can be done via central heating, such a system contains a boiler, furnace, or heat pump to heat water, steam, or air in a central location such as a furnace room in a home, or a mechanical room in a large building. The heat can be transferred by convection, conduction, or radiation, heaters exist for various types of fuel, including solid fuels, liquids, and gases. Another type of source is electricity, normally heating ribbons composed of high resistance wire. This principle is used for baseboard heaters and portable heaters. Electrical heaters are used as backup or supplemental heat for heat pump systems. The heat pump gained popularity in the 1950s in Japan and the United States, heat pumps can extract heat from various sources, such as environmental air, exhaust air from a building, or from the ground. In the case of heated water or steam, piping is used to transport the heat to the rooms, most modern hot water boiler heating systems have a circulator, which is a pump, to move hot water through the distribution system
12.
Shield
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A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand or mounted on the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry or projectiles such as arrows, by means of active blocks. Shields vary greatly in size, ranging from large panels that protect the whole body to small models that were intended for hand-to-hand-combat use. In prehistory and during the era of the earliest civilisations, shields were made of wood, animal hide and they were carried by foot soldiers, knights and cavalry. Depending on time and place, shields could be round, oval, square, rectangular, triangular, sometimes they took on the form of kites or flatirons, or had rounded tops on a rectangular base with perhaps an eye-hole, to look through when used with combat. The shield was held by a grip or by straps that went over or around the users arm. Often shields were decorated with a pattern or an animal representation to show their army or clan. These designs developed into systematized heraldic devices during the High Middle Ages for purposes of battlefield identification, even after the introduction of gunpowder and firearms to the battlefield, shields continued to be used by certain groups. In the 20th and 21st century, shields have been used by military and police units that specialize in anti-terrorist actions, hostage rescue, riot control and siege-breaking. The modern term usually refers to a device that is held in the hand or attached to the arm, Shields are also sometimes mounted on vehicle-mounted weapons to protect the operator. The oldest form of shield was a device designed to block attacks by hand weapons, such as swords, axes and maces, or ranged weapons like sling-stones. Shields have varied greatly in construction time and place. Sometimes shields were made of metal, but wood or animal hide construction was more common, wicker. Many surviving examples of metal shields are generally felt to be rather than practical, for example the Yetholm-type shields of the Bronze Age. Lightly armored warriors relying on speed and surprise would generally carry light shields that were small or thin. Heavy troops might be equipped with robust shields that could cover most of the body, many had a strap called a guige that allowed them to be slung over the users back when not in use or on horseback. During the 14th–13th century BC, the Sards or Shardana, working as mercenaries for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, the Mycenaean Greeks used two types of shields, the figure-of-eight shield and a rectangular tower shield. These shields were made primarily from a frame and then reinforced with leather
13.
Fighting
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Combat or fighting is a purposeful violent conflict meant to weaken, establish dominance over, or kill the opposition, or to drive the opposition away from a location where it is not wanted or needed. Combat violence can be unilateral, whereas fighting implies at least a defensive reaction, a large-scale fight is known as a battle. A verbal fight is known as an argument. Combat effectiveness, in the field, requires combat readiness. In military areas, the term is applied also to personnel, Combat may take place under a specific set of rules or be unregulated. Examples of rules include the Geneva Conventions, medieval chivalry, the Marquess of Queensberry rules, Combat in warfare involves two or more opposing military organizations, usually fighting for nations at war. Warfare falls under the laws of war, which govern its purposes and conduct, Combat may be armed or unarmed. Hand-to-hand combat is combat at close range, attacking the opponent with the body and/or with a melee weapon. “Combat Motivation in Today’s Soldiers, U. S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute. ”Armed Forces & Society, vol. “Combat Casualties and Race, What Can We Learn from the 2003-2004 Iraq Conflict. ”“Undermining Combat Readiness in the Russian Military, 1992-2005. ”Armed Forces & Society, Jul 2006, vol. Http, //afs. sagepub. com/cgi/content/abstract/32/4/513 Ben-Shalom, Uzi, Lehrer, Zeev, and Ben-Ari, Eyal. “Cohesion during Military Operations, A Field Study on Combat Units in the Al-Aqsa Intifada. ”Http, //afs. sagepub. com/cgi/content/abstract/32/1/63 Woodruff, Todd, Kelty, Ryan, Segal, Archie Cooper, David R.2006. “Propensity to Serve and Motivation to Enlist among American Combat Soldiers. ”Armed Forces & Society, Apr 2006, vol
14.
Burning
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Combustion in a fire produces a flame, and the heat produced can make combustion self-sustaining. Combustion is often a sequence of elementary radical reactions. Solid fuels, such as wood, first undergo endothermic pyrolysis to produce gaseous fuels whose combustion then supplies the required to produce more of them. Combustion is often hot enough that light in the form of either glowing or a flame is produced, a simple example can be seen in the combustion of hydrogen and oxygen into water vapor, a reaction commonly used to fuel rocket engines. The bond energies in the play only a minor role, since they are similar to those in the combustion products. The heat of combustion is approximately -418 kJ per mole of O2 used up in the combustion reaction, uncatalyzed combustion in air requires fairly high temperatures. Complete combustion is stoichiometric with respect to the fuel, where there is no remaining fuel, thermodynamically, the chemical equilibrium of combustion in air is overwhelmingly on the side of the products. Thus, the smoke is usually toxic and contains unburned or partially oxidized products. Since combustion is rarely clean, flue gas cleaning or catalytic converters may be required by law, fires occur naturally, ignited by lightning strikes or by volcanic products. Combustion was the first controlled chemical reaction discovered by humans, in the form of campfires and bonfires, usually, the fuel is carbon, hydrocarbons or more complicated mixtures such as wood that contains partially oxidized hydrocarbons. Combustion is also currently the only used to power rockets. Combustion is also used to destroy waste, both nonhazardous and hazardous, oxidants for combustion have high oxidation potential and include atmospheric or pure oxygen, chlorine, fluorine, chlorine trifluoride, nitrous oxide and nitric acid. For instance, hydrogen burns in chlorine to form hydrogen chloride with the liberation of heat, although usually not catalyzed, combustion can be catalyzed by platinum or vanadium, as in the contact process. In complete combustion, the reactant burns in oxygen, producing a number of products. When a hydrocarbon burns in oxygen, the reaction will yield carbon dioxide. When elements are burned, the products are primarily the most common oxides, carbon will yield carbon dioxide, sulfur will yield sulfur dioxide, and iron will yield iron oxide. Nitrogen is not considered to be a combustible substance when oxygen is the oxidant, Combustion is not necessarily favorable to the maximum degree of oxidation, and it can be temperature-dependent. For example, sulfur trioxide is not produced quantitatively by the combustion of sulfur, NOx species appear in significant amounts above about 2,800 °F, and more is produced at higher temperatures
15.
Lighting
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Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve a practical or aesthetic effect. Lighting includes the use of artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylight. Daylighting is sometimes used as the source of light during daytime in buildings. This can save energy in place of using lighting, which represents a major component of energy consumption in buildings. Proper lighting can enhance performance, improve the appearance of an area. Indoor lighting is accomplished using light fixtures, and is a key part of interior design. Lighting can also be a component of landscape projects. With the discovery of fire, the earliest form of lighting used to illuminate an area were campfires or torches. As early as 400,000 BCE, fire was kindled in the caves of Peking Man, prehistoric people used primitive oil lamps to illuminate surroundings. These lamps were made from naturally occurring materials such as rocks, shells, horns and stones, were filled with grease, lamps typically used animal or vegetable fats as fuel. Hundreds of these lamps have been found in the Lascaux caves in modern-day France, oily animals were also used as lamps after being threaded with a wick. Fireflies have been used as lighting sources, candles and glass and pottery lamps were also invented. Chandeliers were a form of light fixture. A major reduction in the cost of lighting occurred with the discovery of whale oil, in 1849, Dr. Abraham Gesner, a Canadian geologist, devised a method where kerosene could be distilled from petroleum. Earlier coal-gas methods had been used for lighting since the 1820s, gesners kerosene was cheap, easy to produce, could be burned in existing lamps, and did not produce an offensive odor as did most whale oil. It could be stored indefinitely unlike whale oil, which would eventually spoil, the American petroleum boom began in the 1850s. By the end of the decade there were 30 kerosene plants operating in the United States, the cheaper, more efficient fuel began to drive whale oil out of the market. John D. Rockefeller was most responsible for the success of kerosene
16.
Throwing
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Throwing is the launching of a ballistic projectile by hand. This action is possible for animals with the ability to grasp objects with their hands. Humans, being bipedal, have a variety of throwing techniques and abilities. These have been employed in warfare – first through rock-throwing, then refined weapon-throwing, Throwing is used in many sports and games, particularly ball games, and in throwing sports the action is the main determiner of the outcome. These serve as forms of recreation and exercise in society, humans are believed to be unusually good throwers due to their high dexterity and good timing capabilities, and it is believed that this is an evolved trait. Evidence of hominid throwing dates back 2 million years to homo erectus, the 90 mph throwing speed found in many athletes far exceeds the speed at which chimpanzees can throw things, which is about 20 mph. This ability reflects the ability of the shoulder muscles and tendons to store elasticity until it is needed to propel an object. Types of throws include overhand throws, underhand throws and using both hands, overhand throws are thrown predominantly above the shoulder, underhand throws below. Overhand throws are usually faster, and ball speeds of 105 miles per hour have been recorded in baseball. Thrown objects are often spun for stability or aerodynamic effects. It is used almost exclusively in athletic events, the throwing motion can be broken down into three basic steps, cocking, accelerating, and releasing. Desired qualities in the produce a fast, accurate throw. These qualities are affected by the attributes of the thrower like height, strength. However it is mainly the throwing motion mechanics and the ability to coordinate them that determines the quality of the throw. Determining the desired qualities of the motion is difficult to assess due to the extremely short amount of time that it takes professionals to perform the motion. Throwing is used for propelling weapons such as stones or spears at enemies, predators, shurikenjutsu are traditional Japanese thrown weapons Hand grenades are thrown explosives Pitching or bowling in bat-and-ball games, e. g. The weight throw is the fifth most common field throwing event, males are often found to be better at throwing. However, it unclear whether this is biologically or culturally based
17.
Jedi
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The Jedi /ˈdʒɛˌdaɪ/ are the main protagonists in the Star Wars universe. They are depicted as an ancient monastic and academic meritocratic organization whose origin dates back to c.25,000 BBY. The Jedi Order mostly consists of polymaths, teachers, philosophers, scientists, engineers, physicians, diplomats and warriors, by serving others, the Jedi give of themselves through acts of charity, citizenship, and volunteerism. A Jedis ideology and strict way of life as a challenge to live up to is a recurring theme in the Star Wars universe. Their traditional weapon is the lightsaber, a device which generates a blade-like plasma controlled by a crystal, the fictional organization has inspired a real-world new religious movement, Jediism. As depicted in the canon, the Jedi study and utilize the Force, in order to help, like their counterparts, the Sith, their main weapon is the lightsaber. By training the mind and the body the Jedi seek to improve themselves by gaining unfettered access to the Force while also seeking to improve those individuals, the film Rogue One suggests that it relates to the planet Jedha, source of the kyber crystals used in lightsabers. George Lucas acknowledged Jedi concepts have been inspired by many sources, the work of the mythologist Joseph Campbell, especially his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, directly influenced Lucas, and was what drove him to create the modern myth of Star Wars. The Lost Twenty was the given to a group of Jedi Masters—numbering twenty in total—who left the Jedi Order throughout its history. The first twelve of these ‘Lost Twenty’ left the Jedi Order before the Third Great Schism, these twelve Masters later became Dark Jedi who eventually founded the first Sith Empire. In the years preceding the Clone Wars, Jedi Master Dooku left the Jedi Order as a result of differences with his fellow Jedi, to commemorate these former Jedi, memorial statue busts were displayed at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. The prequel films depict the Jedi in their prime, dealing with the presence of the dark side of the Force and determined to fight their mortal enemies. Once corrupted, Vader helps Palpatine hunt down and destroy all of the Jedi, leaving very few left, such as Jedi Masters Yoda. The first person to be issued this order was Clone Commander Cody, Darth Vader led Operation, Knightfall against the Jedi Temple with the 501st Legion while the rest of the clone army around the galaxy carried out Order 66. Palpatine convinced the people of the Republic that Jedi were corrupted warmongers responsible for prolonging the Clone Wars, Darth Vader continued to hunt and execute surviving Jedi by the thousands during the first 10 years of the Empires history. The Jedi are first introduced in the 1977 motion picture Star Wars as an order of monks who serve as the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy. Obi-Wan Kenobi explains that the Galactic Empire had all but exterminated the Jedi some twenty years before the events of the film, Darth Vader is also established as the Jedis main enemy. By the end of the film, Luke is on the path to becoming a Jedi, the third film in the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi, ends with Luke redeeming Vader and helping to destroy the Empire, thus fulfilling his destiny as a Jedi
18.
Star Wars universe
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The Star Wars expanded universe is a collective term for all Star Wars fictional material produced by Lucasfilm or officially licensed by it. This restructuring left the Star Wars theatrical films, the Clone Wars animated film, a number of works have subsequently been produced, including the Rebels animated TV series, the 2015 film The Force Awakens, and multiple novels and comic book series. Fosters 1978 novel Splinter of the Minds Eye was commissioned by Lucas as the basis for a potential sequel to Star Wars should the film prove unsuccessful. A Star Wars comic book series from Marvel Comics ran from April 1977 to May 1986, former Marvel Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter credited the titles strong sales for saving Marvel financially in 1977 and 1978. Marvels Star Wars series was one of the top selling titles in 1979 and 1980. The material was used as a resource by some novelists that followed, StarWars. com wrote in 2014 that the novel jumpstarted a publishing program that endures to this day and formalized the Expanded Universe. It introduced, among others, the popular characters Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade and this so-called Thrawn trilogy is widely credited with revitalizing the Star Wars franchise. In The Secret History of Star Wars, Michael Kaminski suggests that this renewed interest was a factor in Lucass decision to create the prequel trilogy. Around this same time, Dark Horse Comics acquired the Star Wars license and launched a number of series set after the film trilogy. In 1999, Star Wars book publishing moved from Bantam Spectra to Del Rey Books, New Jedi Order, set 25 to 30 years after the original films, introduced a new threat, the Yuuzhan Vong, a powerful alien race attempting to invade and conquer the entire galaxy. The bulk of Expanded Universe storytelling explores the time period after Return of the Jedi, subsequent novels and comics were set before, concurrent with, and after the events of these works. In 2004, USA Today reported that over 1,100 Star Wars titles had been published, including novels, comics, non-fiction, then-president of Lucas Licensing, Howard Roffman, estimated that there were more than 65 million Star Wars books in print. He said, The books are a way of extending the fantasy of Star Wars, the movies have had a really profound effect on a couple of generations. Star Wars has become a cultural touchpoint, and our fans are avidly interested in exploring more stories, the animated television series Star Wars, The Clone Wars ran from 2008 to 2014 and was set between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Lucas discussed ideas for a sequel trilogy several times after the conclusion of the original trilogy, in October 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for $4.06 billion. In April 2014, Lucasfilm rebranded the Expanded Universe material as Star Wars Legends, the companys focus would be shifted towards a restructured Star Wars canon based on new material. The announcement called these works the immovable objects of Star Wars history and it was also made clear that a planned Star Wars sequel trilogy, and subsequent works developed within the restructured canon, would not be based on Legends material but could possibly draw from it. Lucas had previously used the character Aayla Secura, introduced in 2000 in the Star Wars, Republic comic book series, in Attack of the Clones
19.
Hilt
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The hilt of a sword is its handle, consisting of a guard, grip and pommel. The guard may contain a crossguard or quillons, a ricasso may also be present, but this is rarely the case. A tassel or sword knot may be attached to the guard or pommel, the pommel is an enlarged fitting at the top of the handle. They were originally developed to prevent the sword slipping from the hand, from around the 11th century in Europe they became heavy enough to be a counterweight to the blade. This gave the sword a point of not too far from the hilt allowing a more fluid fighting style. Depending on sword design and swordsmanship style, the pommel may also be used to strike the opponent, pommels have appeared in a wide variety of shapes, including oblate spheroids, crescents, disks, wheels, and animal or bird heads. They are often engraved or inlayed with various designs and occasionally gilt, ewart Oakeshott introduced a system of classification of medieval pommel forms in his The Sword in the Age of Chivalry to stand alongside his blade typology. Oakeshott pommel types are enumerated with capital letters A–Z, with subtypes indicated by numerals, one of the most common forms, found throughout the 10th to 15th centuries. I, a disk with wide chamfered edges, the disk being much smaller than in H. I1 is a hexagonal variant J, as I. T1 to T5 are variants of this basic type U, key-shaped type of the half of the 15th century V. W, a wheel shape Z, square shape, with its sub-types used to closely define the area and age, Z1 and Z2b, Z3. The grip is the handle of the sword and it was usually of wood or metal, and often covered with shagreen. Shark skin proved to be the most durable in temperate climates but deteriorated in hot climates, alternatively, many sword types opt for ray skin instead, referred to in katana construction as the same. Whatever material covered the grip, it was usually glued on and held on with wire wrapped around it in a helix. It is a misconception that the cross-guard protects the users entire hand from the opponents sword. Only with the abandonment of the shield and then the armoured gauntlet did a full hand guard become necessary, the crossguard still protected the user from a blade that was deliberately slid down the length of the blade to cut off or injure the hand. Early swords do not have true guards but simply a form of stop to prevent the hand slipping up the blade when thrusting as they were used in conjunction with a shield. From the 11th century, European sword guards took the form of a straight crossbar perpendicular to the blade, beginning in the 16th century in Europe, guards became more and more elaborate, with additional loops and curved bars or branches to protect the hand
20.
Close combat
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Close combat means a violent physical confrontation between two or more opponents at short range. Among many types of fighting encompassed by the term close combat include the modern terms hand-to-hand combat. Close combat occurs when opposing military forces engage in restricted areas, military small unit tactics traditionally regarded as forms of close combat include fighting with hand-held or hand-thrown weapons such as swords, knives, axes, or tools. In modern times, the close combat has also come to describe unarmed hand-to-hand combat, as well as combat involving firearms. William E. CQC techniques have been taught for thousands of years by military formations as part of a tactical doctrine. The bayonet charge is an example of a close combat technique incorporated as part of an offensive tactical concept. Close quarters combat Charge Melee weapon Combatives
21.
Blaster (Star Wars)
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The blaster is a science fictional energy weapon that appears in the Star Wars universe. Lucasfilm defines the blaster as ranged energized particle weaponry, many blasters mirror the appearance, functions, components, operation, and usage of real life firearms. In the films, the design of the rifle was based on the Sterling submachine gun. Lucasfilms prop department added a scope and a nozzle to the pistol. The blaster made for the 1977 film A New Hope was lost, the blaster was subsequently used as a prop in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Functional Sterlings firing blank cartridges were used in scenes with the laser bolt added later in post-production. Ben Burtt, a designer who worked on the Star Wars films. Burtt hit the guy-wire of an AM radio transmitter tower with a hammer, like in Ran, color-coding and an onscreen sense of direction of blaster fire are used to depict opposing forces. In the Star Wars original trilogy, rebels employed red blaster fire and often attacked from the left, while the Empire employed green blaster fire and attacked from the right. In Star Wars, Episode II – Attack of the Clones, the film of the prequel trilogy, the color. In that film, the Republic employed green and blue fire and attacked from the right, while the villains employed red blaster fire. The effects of a blaster on a target were portrayed more or less the same in every part of the Star Wars series. Since blaster bolts consist of light or particle based energy, the bolts would burn through the flesh of a target, with some even exploding against their target, the latter effect was usually from a blaster with greater size. Blasters have also shown to utilize plasma bolts as ammunition. As of The Force Awakens, these bolts can rupture and damage flesh with little to no burning, causing bleeding injuries, for example, on Jakku, Poe Dameron shoots a Stormtrooper with a blaster, which causes heavy bleeding resulting in the troopers death. In many modern showings of blaster fights, someone hit by a blaster has cinders, additionally, some blaster bolt hits cause a flash of bright light on the target. In Attack of the Clones, Geonosians were shown to have sonic or concussive blasters and cannons that could crush, disruptor weapons also exist, but as powerful blasters capable of disintegrating a target by breaking down molecular bonds in the target. The inner workings of blasters essentially create particle beams to inflict damage, when the trigger is pulled, the blaster chambers a small volume of the fictional Tibanna gas into a gas conversion enabler
22.
Rotoscoping
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Rotoscoping is an animation technique used by animators to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, when realistic action is required. Originally, photographed live-action movie images were projected onto a glass panel and this projection equipment is referred to as a Rotoscope. Although this device was replaced by computers, the process is still referred to as Rotoscoping. In the visual effects industry, the term Rotoscoping refers to the technique of creating a matte for an element on a live-action plate so it may be composited over another background. Rotoscoping has often used as a tool for visual effects in live-action movies. By tracing an object, the moviemaker creates a silhouette that can be used to extract that object from a scene for use on a different background. While blue and green screen techniques have made the process of layering subjects in scenes easier, Rotoscoping in the digital domain is often aided by motion tracking and onion-skinning software. Rotoscoping is often used in the preparation of garbage mattes for other matte-pulling processes, Rotoscoping has also been used to allow a special visual effect to be guided by the matte or rotoscoped line. To achieve this, effects technicians traced a line over each frame with the prop, then enlarged each line, the live-movie reference for the character, later known as Koko the Clown, was performed by his brother dressed in a clown costume. Originally conceived as a short-cut to animating, the Rotoscope process proved to be time consuming due the precise, Rotoscoping is achieved by two methods, rear projection and front surface projection. In either case, the results can have slight deviations from the line due to the separation of the projected image. Misinterpretations of the cause the line to wiggle, and the Roto Tracings must be reworked over an animation disc, using the tracings as a guide where consistency. Fleischer returned to Rotoscoping in the 1930s for referencing intricate dance movements in his Popeye, the most notable of these are the dance routines originating from Jazz Performer, Cab Calloway in Minnie the Moocher, Snow White, and The Old Man of the Mountain. In these examples, the Roto tracing were used as a guide for timing and positioning while the characters of different proportions were drawn to conform to those positions. By 1934, Fleischers patent expired, and other producers could use Rotoscoping freely, walt Disney and his animators used the technique in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs during 1937. Leon Schlesinger Productions, which produced the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons for Warner Bros. occasionally used Rotoscoping, the 1939 MGM cartoon Petunia Natural Park from the The Captain and the Kids featured a Rotoscope version of Jackie. Rotoscoping was used extensively in Chinas first animated movie, Princess Iron Fan. The technique was used extensively in the Soviet Union from the late-1930s to the 1950s, most of the movies produced with it were adaptations of folk tales or poems—for example, The Night Before Christmas or The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish
23.
Original trilogy (Star Wars)
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Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise, centered on a film series created by George Lucas. It depicts the adventures of characters a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The franchise began in 1977 with the release of the film Star Wars and it was followed by the successful sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, these three films constitute the original Star Wars trilogy. A prequel trilogy was released between 1999 and 2005, which received mixed-to-negative reactions, a sequel trilogy began in 2015 with the release of Star Wars, The Force Awakens. All seven films were nominated for Academy Awards and have been successes, with a combined box office revenue of over $7.5 billion. Spin-off films include Star Wars, The Clone Wars and Rogue One, Star Wars also holds a Guinness World Records title for the Most successful film merchandising franchise. In 2015, the value of the Star Wars franchise was estimated at USD $42 billion. In 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for $4.06 billion and earned the rights to all subsequent Star Wars films. Walt Disney Studios owns digital distribution rights to all the Star Wars films, the events depicted in the Star Wars franchise take place in an unnamed fictional galaxy at an undetermined point in the distant past. Many species of creatures are depicted. Robotic droids are also commonplace and are built to serve their owners. Space travel is common, and many planets in the galaxy are members of a single galactic government. In the prequel trilogy, this is depicted in the form of the Galactic Republic, at the end of the trilogy and throughout the original trilogy. Preceding and during the trilogy, this government is the New Republic. One of the prominent elements of Star Wars is the Force and it is described in the first produced film as an energy field created by all living things surrounds us, penetrates us, binds the galaxy together. While the Force can be used for good, known as the side, it also has a dark side that, when pursued, imbues users with hatred, aggression. The sequel trilogy introduces the Knights of Ren, an order of practitioners of the side of the Force aligned with the First Order. The first film in the series, Star Wars, was released on May 25,1977 and this was followed by two sequels, The Empire Strikes Back, released on May 21,1980, and Return of the Jedi, released on May 25,1983
24.
Prequel trilogy (Star Wars)
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Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise, centered on a film series created by George Lucas. It depicts the adventures of characters a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The franchise began in 1977 with the release of the film Star Wars and it was followed by the successful sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, these three films constitute the original Star Wars trilogy. A prequel trilogy was released between 1999 and 2005, which received mixed-to-negative reactions, a sequel trilogy began in 2015 with the release of Star Wars, The Force Awakens. All seven films were nominated for Academy Awards and have been successes, with a combined box office revenue of over $7.5 billion. Spin-off films include Star Wars, The Clone Wars and Rogue One, Star Wars also holds a Guinness World Records title for the Most successful film merchandising franchise. In 2015, the value of the Star Wars franchise was estimated at USD $42 billion. In 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for $4.06 billion and earned the rights to all subsequent Star Wars films. Walt Disney Studios owns digital distribution rights to all the Star Wars films, the events depicted in the Star Wars franchise take place in an unnamed fictional galaxy at an undetermined point in the distant past. Many species of creatures are depicted. Robotic droids are also commonplace and are built to serve their owners. Space travel is common, and many planets in the galaxy are members of a single galactic government. In the prequel trilogy, this is depicted in the form of the Galactic Republic, at the end of the trilogy and throughout the original trilogy. Preceding and during the trilogy, this government is the New Republic. One of the prominent elements of Star Wars is the Force and it is described in the first produced film as an energy field created by all living things surrounds us, penetrates us, binds the galaxy together. While the Force can be used for good, known as the side, it also has a dark side that, when pursued, imbues users with hatred, aggression. The sequel trilogy introduces the Knights of Ren, an order of practitioners of the side of the Force aligned with the First Order. The first film in the series, Star Wars, was released on May 25,1977 and this was followed by two sequels, The Empire Strikes Back, released on May 21,1980, and Return of the Jedi, released on May 25,1983
25.
Star Wars sequel trilogy
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The Star Wars sequel trilogy is the third film trilogy in the American space opera franchise Star Wars, created by George Lucas. It is being produced by Lucasfilm and Bad Robot Productions, unlike the previous Star Wars films, which were distributed by 20th Century Fox, the sequel films will be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The trilogy will consist of episodes VII through IX and chronologically follows after Return of the Jedi in the saga, Lucas originally planned a sequel trilogy in the mid-1970s, but had abandoned these plans by the late 1990s. The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm in late 2012 and then announced the production of a sequel trilogy. The first installment, Star Wars, The Force Awakens, was released on December 18,2015 in the U. S. following a premiere screening in Los Angeles on December 14. The film is directed by J. J. Abrams who cowrote the screenplay with Lawrence Kasdan, unlike the previous trilogies, whose films were released approximately three years apart, the sequel films are planned to be released around two years apart. Star Wars, The Last Jedi is set for release on December 15,2017, with Rian Johnson as screenwriter, Johnson is also set to write a story treatment for Episode IX, which is to be directed by Colin Trevorrow and released in 2019. The Force Awakens, like the subsequent two films, is based on a screenplay and not a storyline from the expanded universe. The original trilogys cast joins newcomers Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, and Oscar Isaac. It is directed by J. J. Abrams, who co-wrote a revised version of the screenplay along with Lawrence Kasdan, co-writer of the screenplays for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. J. He has never been able to be surprised by a Star Wars film before, the film began pre-production on October 30,2012. Production began in April 2014, it was released on December 18,2015, in the US, the film is rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence, the second Star Wars film to receive that rating after Revenge of the Sith. The film broke opening weekend box office records in North America with $248 million and totals of $529 million worldwide, the film set another new record by becoming the first movie to break the $1 billion mark in box office sales in just 12 days. It is currently the film of all time in North America. On June 20,2014, Rian Johnson was announced as writer and director of Episode VIII, kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman were the producers and J. J. Abrams is the executive producer. Johnson confirmed in August 2014 that he would direct Episode VIII, in March 2015, Oscar Isaac confirmed he would reprise his The Force Awakens role of Poe Dameron in Episode VIII. In July 2015, it was reported that Benicio del Toro was being considered for a villain, in September 2015, it was reported that Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tatiana Maslany, Gina Rodriguez, Olivia Cooke, and Bel Powley were on the shortlist for two separate parts. Jimmy Vee was cast as R2-D2, succeeding Kenny Baker, much of the filming for Episode VIII took place at Pinewood Studios near London
26.
Cauterization
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Cauterization is a medical practice or technique of burning a part of a body to remove or close off a part of it. It destroys some tissue in an attempt to mitigate bleeding and damage, remove a growth, or minimize other potential medical harm. The practice was widespread for treatment of wounds. Actual cautery refers to the device, generally heated to a dull red glow, that a physician applies to produce blisters, to stop bleeding of a blood vessel. The main forms of cauterization used today in the first world are electrocautery and chemical cautery—both are, for example, cautery can also mean the branding of a human, either recreational or forced. Cauterization was used to heavy bleeding, especially during amputation. The procedure was simple, a piece of metal was heated over fire and this caused tissues and blood to heat rapidly to extreme temperatures, causing coagulation of the blood and thus controlling the bleeding, at the cost of extensive tissue damage. Cauterization was a treatment in the Middle Ages, sometimes unintentionally as with Saint Huberts Key. Cautery is described in the Hippocratic Corpus, the cautery was employed for almost every possible purpose in ancient times, as a counter-irritant, as a haemostatic, as a bloodless knife, as a means of destroying tumours, etc. Later, special medical instruments called cauters were used to cauterize arteries, the technique of ligature of the arteries as an alternative to cauterization was later improved and used more effectively by Ambroise Paré. Electrocauterization is the process of destroying tissue using heat conduction from a metal probe heated by electric current, the procedure stops bleeding from small vessels. Electrocautery applies high frequency alternating current by a unipolar or bipolar method and it can be a continuous waveform to cut tissue, or intermittent to coagulate tissue. In unipolar cauterization, the contacts the tissue with a single small electrode. The circuits exit point is a surface area, such as the buttocks. The amount of heat generated depends on size of area, power setting or frequency of current, duration of application. Constant waveform generates more heat than intermittent, frequency used in cutting the tissue is higher than in coagulation mode. Bipolar electrocautery passes the current between two tips of a forceps-like tool and it has the advantage of not disturbing other electrical body rhythms and also coagulates tissue by pressure. Lateral thermal injury is greater in unipolar than bipolar devices, electrocauterization is preferable to chemical cauterization, because chemicals can leach into neighbouring tissue and cauterize outside of intended boundaries
27.
Star Wars expanded universe
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The Star Wars expanded universe is a collective term for all Star Wars fictional material produced by Lucasfilm or officially licensed by it. This restructuring left the Star Wars theatrical films, the Clone Wars animated film, a number of works have subsequently been produced, including the Rebels animated TV series, the 2015 film The Force Awakens, and multiple novels and comic book series. Fosters 1978 novel Splinter of the Minds Eye was commissioned by Lucas as the basis for a potential sequel to Star Wars should the film prove unsuccessful. A Star Wars comic book series from Marvel Comics ran from April 1977 to May 1986, former Marvel Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter credited the titles strong sales for saving Marvel financially in 1977 and 1978. Marvels Star Wars series was one of the top selling titles in 1979 and 1980. The material was used as a resource by some novelists that followed, StarWars. com wrote in 2014 that the novel jumpstarted a publishing program that endures to this day and formalized the Expanded Universe. It introduced, among others, the popular characters Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade and this so-called Thrawn trilogy is widely credited with revitalizing the Star Wars franchise. In The Secret History of Star Wars, Michael Kaminski suggests that this renewed interest was a factor in Lucass decision to create the prequel trilogy. Around this same time, Dark Horse Comics acquired the Star Wars license and launched a number of series set after the film trilogy. In 1999, Star Wars book publishing moved from Bantam Spectra to Del Rey Books, New Jedi Order, set 25 to 30 years after the original films, introduced a new threat, the Yuuzhan Vong, a powerful alien race attempting to invade and conquer the entire galaxy. The bulk of Expanded Universe storytelling explores the time period after Return of the Jedi, subsequent novels and comics were set before, concurrent with, and after the events of these works. In 2004, USA Today reported that over 1,100 Star Wars titles had been published, including novels, comics, non-fiction, then-president of Lucas Licensing, Howard Roffman, estimated that there were more than 65 million Star Wars books in print. He said, The books are a way of extending the fantasy of Star Wars, the movies have had a really profound effect on a couple of generations. Star Wars has become a cultural touchpoint, and our fans are avidly interested in exploring more stories, the animated television series Star Wars, The Clone Wars ran from 2008 to 2014 and was set between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Lucas discussed ideas for a sequel trilogy several times after the conclusion of the original trilogy, in October 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for $4.06 billion. In April 2014, Lucasfilm rebranded the Expanded Universe material as Star Wars Legends, the companys focus would be shifted towards a restructured Star Wars canon based on new material. The announcement called these works the immovable objects of Star Wars history and it was also made clear that a planned Star Wars sequel trilogy, and subsequent works developed within the restructured canon, would not be based on Legends material but could possibly draw from it. Lucas had previously used the character Aayla Secura, introduced in 2000 in the Star Wars, Republic comic book series, in Attack of the Clones
28.
Sword
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A sword is a long bladed weapon intended for slashing or thrusting. The precise definition of the term varies with the epoch or the geographical region under consideration. A sword consists of a blade attached to a hilt. The blade can be straight or curved, thrusting swords have a pointed tip on the blade, and tend to be straighter, slashing swords have sharpened cutting edge on one or both sides of the blade, and are more likely to be curved. Many swords are designed for thrusting and slashing. Historically, the sword developed in the Bronze Age, evolving from the dagger, the later Iron Age sword remained fairly short and without a crossguard. The word sword continues the Old English, sweord, the use of a sword is known as swordsmanship or as fencing. In the Early Modern period, western sword design diverged into two forms, the thrusting swords and the sabers. The thrusting swords such as the rapier and eventually the smallsword were designed to impale their targets quickly and their long and straight yet light and well balanced design made them highly maneuverable and deadly in a duel but fairly ineffective when used in a slashing or chopping motion. A well aimed lunge and thrust could end a fight in seconds with just the swords point, the saber and similar blades such as the cutlass were built more heavily and were more typically used in warfare. Built for slashing and chopping at multiple enemies, often from horseback, most sabers also had sharp points and double edged blades, making them capable of piercing soldier after soldier in a cavalry charge. Sabers continued to see use until the early 20th century. The US Navy kept tens of thousands of sturdy cutlasses in their armory well into World War II, non-European weapons called sword include single-edged weapons such as the Middle Eastern scimitar, the Chinese dao and the related Japanese katana. The Chinese jian is an example of a non-European double-edged sword, the first weapons that can be described as swords date to around 3300 BC. They have been found in Arslantepe, Turkey, are made from arsenical bronze, some of them are inlaid with silver. The sword developed from the dagger when the construction of longer blades became possible, from the late 3rd millennium BC in the Middle East, first in arsenic copper, then in tin-bronze. Blades longer than 60 cm were rare and not practical until the late Bronze Age because the strength of bronze is relatively low. These are the type A swords of the Aegean Bronze Age, one of the most important, and longest-lasting, types swords of the European Bronze Age was the Naue II type, also known as Griffzungenschwert
29.
Edmond Hamilton
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Edmond Moore Hamilton was an American writer of science fiction during the mid-twentieth century. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he was raised there and in nearby New Castle, something of a child prodigy, he graduated from high school and entered Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania at the age of 14, but washed out at 17. Hamilton quickly became a member of the remarkable group of Weird Tales writers assembled by editor Farnsworth Wright. Weird Tales would publish 79 works of fiction by Hamilton from 1926 to 1948, in the late 1930s Weird Tales printed several striking fantasy tales by Hamilton, most notably He That Hath Wings, one of his most popular and frequently-reprinted pieces. Hamilton is wrote one of the first hardcover compilations of what would come to be known as the science fiction genre, The Horror on The Asteroid. The book compiles the stories, The Horror on the Asteroid, The Accursed Galaxy, The Man Who Saw Everything, The Earth-Brain, The Monster-God of Mamurth. Through the late 1920s and early 1930s Hamilton wrote for all of the SF pulp magazines then publishing and he was very popular as an author of space opera, a subgenre he created along with E. E. His story The Island of Unreason won the first Jules Verne Prize as the best SF story of the year, in the later 1930s, in response to the economic strictures of the Great Depression, he also wrote detective and crime stories. Hamilton was always associated with an extravagant, romantic, high-adventure style of SF, as the SF field grew more sophisticated, his brand of extreme adventure seemed ever more quaint, corny, and dated. In 1942 Hamilton began writing for DC Comics, specializing in stories for their characters Superman and Batman and his first comics story was Bandits in Toyland in Batman #11. He wrote the science fiction series Chris KL-99 in Strange Adventures. He and artist Sheldon Moldoff created Batwoman in Detective Comics #233, Hamilton co-created Space Ranger in Showcase #15 with Gardner Fox and Bob Brown. Hamilton was instrumental in the growth of the Legion of Super-Heroes feature. He introduced many of the early Legion concepts including the Time Trapper in Adventure Comics #317, Hamilton retired from comics with the publication of The Cape and Cowl Crooks in Worlds Finest Comics #159. On December 31,1946, Hamilton married fellow science fiction author and screenwriter Leigh Brackett in San Gabriel, California, and moved with her to Kinsman, Ohio. Afterward he would some of his best work, including his novels The Star of Life, The Valley of Creation, City at Worlds End. His single most frequently-reprinted and anthologized work, Edmond Hamilton died February 1977 in Lancaster, California, of complications following kidney surgery. The Captain Future adaptation was later exported to Europe, winning Hamilton a new and different fan base than the one that had acclaimed him half a century before, notably in France and Germany
30.
Fritz Leiber
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Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theater and films, playwright, with writers such as Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock, Leiber can be regarded as one of the fathers of sword and sorcery fantasy, having in fact created the term. Moreover, he excelled in all fields of fiction, writing award-winning work in fantasy, horror. Fritz Leiber was born December 24,1910, in Chicago, Illinois, to the actors Fritz Leiber, for a time, he seemed inclined to follow in his parents footsteps, the theater and actors are prominently featured in his fiction. From 1932 to 1933, he worked as a lay reader and studied as a candidate for the ministry at the Episcopal Church-affiliated General Theological Seminary in Chelsea, Manhattan without taking a degree. He also appeared alongside his father in uncredited parts in films, including George Cukors Camille, James Whales The Great Garrick. In 1936, he initiated a brief yet intense correspondence with H. P, Lovecraft, who encouraged and influenced literary development before succumbing to small intestine cancer and malnutrition in March 1937. He introduced Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in Two Sought Adventure, Leiber married Jonquil Stephens on January 16,1936, their only child, the philosopher and science fiction writer Justin Leiber, was born in 1938. From 1937 to 1941, he was employed by Consolidated Book Publishing as a writer for the Standard American Encyclopedia. In 1941, the moved to California, where Leiber served as a speech. Unable to conceal his disdain for politics as the United States entered World War II. He accepted a position with Douglas Aircraft in quality inspection, primarily working on the C-47 Skytrain, throughout the war, thereafter, the family returned to Chicago, where Leiber served as associate editor of Science Digest from 1945 to 1956. During this decade, his output was characterized by Poul Anderson as a lot of the best science fiction, in 1958, the Leibers returned to Los Angeles. By this juncture, he was able to relinquish his journalistic career, Other reports suggest that Leiber preferred to live simply in the city, spending his money on dining, movies and travel. In the last years of his life, royalty checks from TSR, in 1992, the last year of his life, Leiber married his second wife, Margo Skinner, a journalist and poet with whom he had been friends for many years. Leibers death occurred a few weeks after a collapse while traveling from a science fiction convention in London, Ontario. The cause of his death was given as organic brain disease and he wrote a 100-page-plus memoir, Not Much Disorder and Not So Early Sex, which can be found in The Ghost Light. Leibers own literary criticism, including essays on Lovecraft, was collected in the volume Fafhrd
31.
Isaac Asimov
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Isaac Asimov was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. He was known for his works of fiction and popular science. Asimov was a writer, and wrote or edited more than 500 books. His books have published in 9 of the 10 major categories of the Dewey Decimal Classification. Asimov wrote hard science fiction and, along with Robert A. Heinlein, Clarke, he was considered one of the Big Three science fiction writers during his lifetime. Asimovs most famous work is the Foundation Series, his major series are the Galactic Empire series. The Galactic Empire novels are set in earlier history of the same fictional universe as the Foundation series. He wrote hundreds of stories, including the social science fiction Nightfall. Asimov wrote the Lucky Starr series of juvenile science-fiction novels using the pen name Paul French, Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as much nonfiction. Most of his science books explain scientific concepts in a historical way. He often provides nationalities, birth dates, and death dates for the scientists he mentions, as well as etymologies, Asimov was a long-time member and vice president of Mensa International, albeit reluctantly, he described some members of that organization as brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs. He took more joy in being president of the American Humanist Association, the asteroid 5020 Asimov, a crater on the planet Mars, a Brooklyn elementary school, and a literary award are named in his honor. His exact date of birth within that range is unknown, the family name derives from a word for winter crops, in which his great-grandfather dealt. This word is spelled озимые in Russian, and азімыя in Belarusian, phonetically, both words are almost identical because in Russian О in the first unstressed syllable is always pronounced as А. Accordingly, his name originally was Исаак Озимов in Russian, however, he was known in Russia as Ayzek Azimov. Asimov had two siblings, a sister, Marcia, and a brother, Stanley, who was vice-president of New York Newsday. His family emigrated to the United States when he was three years old, since his parents always spoke Yiddish and English with him, he never learned Russian, but he remained fluent in Yiddish as well as English. Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Asimov taught himself to read at the age of five, after becoming established in the U. S. his parents owned a succession of candy stores, in which everyone in the family was expected to work
32.
Lucky Starr series
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Not to be confused with Lucky Star. Lucky Starr is the hero of a series of fiction books by Isaac Asimov, using the pen name Paul French. On 23 March 1951, Asimov met with his agent, Frederik Pohl, Bradbury, then the science fiction editor at Doubleday & Co. who had a proposal for him. Pohl and Bradbury wanted Asimov to write a science fiction novel that would serve as the basis for a television series. Fearing that the novel would be adapted into the uniformly awful programming he saw flooding the television channels, Asimov began work on the novel, David Starr, Space Ranger, on 10 June. He completed it on 29 July, and it was published by Doubleday in January 1952, although plans for the television series fell through, Asimov continued to write novels in the series, eventually producing six. A seventh, Lucky Starr and the Snows of Pluto, was planned, with no worries about being associated with an embarrassing televised version, Asimov decided to abandon the pretense that he was not the author. He brought the Three Laws of Robotics into Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury, eventually, Asimov used his own name in later editions. Some cover pages bear his name only, while others credit Isaac Asimov writing as Paul French and these novels have a long and varied publishing history. They came out in hardcover with Doubleday in its first edition, Bantam was the latest, in 1993, to bring out the series in 3 volumes, publishing pairs of titles together. In 2001 the Science Fiction Book Club came out all six novels at the same time in one volume under the title The Complete Adventures of Lucky Starr. The British editions of all six novels omitted the prefixes altogether and were titled Space Ranger, Oceans of Venus, the first book was translated to French in 1954 under the title Sur la planète rouge with the original pseudonym, Paul French. It was published in the Anticipation science fiction imprint of Fleuve noir and it was later adapted as a comic book twice, in 1975 and 1992. Three books were published in Dutch. Fawcett 1982 ISBN 0-449-23461-4 Science fiction Book club ISBN 0-7394-1941-2 Bantam ISBN 0-553-29166-1 Lucky Starr series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
33.
Gordon R. Dickson
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Gordon Rupert Dickson was a Canadian-American science fiction writer. He was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2000, Dickson was born in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1923. After the death of his father, he moved with his mother to Minneapolis, Minnesota and he served in the United States Army, from 1943 to 1946, and received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Minnesota, in 1948. From 1948 through 1950 he attended the University of Minnesota for graduate work and his first published speculative fiction was the short story Trespass. Written jointly with Poul Anderson, in the Spring 1950 issue of Fantastic Stories Quarterly, next year three of his solo efforts were published by John W. Campbell in Astounding Science Fiction and one appeared in Planet Stories. Anderson and Dickson also inaugurated the Hoka series with The Sheriff of Canyon Gulch, Dicksons series of novels include the Childe Cycle and the Dragon Knight. He won three Hugo awards and one Nebula award, for a great part of his life, he suffered from the effects of asthma. He died of complications from severe asthma, John Clute has characterized Dickson as a gregarious, engaging, genial, successful man of letters, who had not been an introvert. Clute considers Dickson a science fiction romantic, Clute points out that Dickson, like Poul Anderson, with whom he collaborated in the Hoka series, to infuse an austere Nordic pathos into wooded, rural midwestern American settings. His works often have mercenaries as their protagonists and deal with aliens that are less deracinated and they are inclined to take on a heightened, sagalike complexion, particularly through the insertion of lyric poetry that is sometimes rather inferior. Danger—Human Mutants The Star Road Ancient, My Enemy Gordon R. Dicksons SF Best In Iron Years Love Not Human The Man from Earth Dickson. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction from NESFA— for his contribution to SF and he was inducted by the Science Fiction and he won several annual literary awards for particular works. Obituary, Gordon R. Dickson,77, science fiction writer, archived from the original on June 6,2011. Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, archived from the original on October 9,2009. Works by Gordon R. Dickson at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Gordon R. Dickson at Internet Archive Works by Gordon R. Dickson at LibriVox Gordon R. Dickson biography, Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame
34.
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
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Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science-fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. The first issue, titled Astounding Stories of Super-Science, was dated January 1930, published by William Clayton, Clayton went bankrupt in 1933 and the magazine was sold to Street & Smith. At the end of 1937, Campbell took over editorial duties under Tremaines supervision, the period beginning with Campbells editorship is often referred to as the Golden Age of Science Fiction. By 1950, new competition had appeared from Galaxy Science Fiction, in 1960, Campbell changed the title of the magazine to Analog Science Fiction & Fact, he had long wanted to get rid of the word Astounding in the title, which he felt was too sensational. At about the same time Street & Smith sold the magazine to Condé Nast, Campbell remained as editor until his death in 1971. Ben Bova took over from 1972 to 1978, and the character of the magazine changed noticeably, Bova won five consecutive Hugo Awards for his editing of Analog. The title was sold to Davis Publications in 1980, then to Dell Magazines in 1992, Crosstown Publications acquired Dell in 1996 and remains the publisher. Schmidt continued to edit the magazine until 2012, when he was replaced by Trevor Quachri, in 1926, Hugo Gernsback launched Amazing Stories, the first science-fiction magazine. Amazing was very successful, quickly reaching a circulation over 100,000, Clayton was unconvinced, but the following year decided to launch a new magazine, mainly because the sheet on which the color covers of his magazines were printed had a space for one more cover. He suggested to Harry Bates, a newly hired editor, that start a magazine of historical adventure stories. Bates proposed instead a science-fiction pulp, to be titled Astounding Stories of Super Science, Astounding was initially published by Publishers Fiscal Corporation, a subsidiary of Clayton Magazines. The first issue appeared in January 1930, with Bates as editor, Bates aimed for straightforward action-adventure stories, with scientific elements only present to provide minimal plausibility. In February 1931, the original name Astounding Stories of Super-Science was shortened to Astounding Stories, the magazine was profitable, but the Depression caused Clayton problems. Normally a publisher would pay a printer three months in arrears, but when a credit squeeze began in May 1931, it led to pressure to reduce this delay. The financial difficulties led Clayton to start alternating the publication of his magazines, some printers bought the magazines which were indebted to them, Clayton decided to buy his printer to prevent this from happening. As it turned out, enough stories were in inventory, and enough paper was available, to one further issue. In April, Clayton went bankrupt, and sold his titles to T. R. Foley for $100, Foley resold them in August to Street & Smith. Science fiction was not entirely a departure for Street & Smith, the first Street & Smith issue was dated October 1933, until the third issue, in December 1933, the editorial team was not named on the masthead
35.
Larry Niven
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Laurence van Cott Niven —known as Larry Niven—is an American science fiction writer. His best-known work is Ringworld, which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named him the 2015 recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. His work is hard science fiction, using big science concepts. It also often includes elements of fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes the series The Magic Goes Away, rational fantasy dealing with magic as a non-renewable resource, Niven was born in Los Angeles. He briefly attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas and he did a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles. On September 6,1969, he married Marilyn Joyce Fuzzy Pink Wisowaty, Niven is the author of numerous science fiction short stories and novels, beginning with his 1964 story The Coldest Place. In this story, the coldest place concerned is the side of Mercury. In addition to the Nebula award in 1970 and the Hugo and Locus awards in 1971 for Ringworld and he won the same award in 1972, for Inconstant Moon, and in 1975 for The Hole Man. In 1976, he won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for The Borderland of Sol, Niven has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect. The Ringworld series is part of the Tales of Known Space, Niven has also written a logical fantasy series The Magic Goes Away, which utilizes an exhaustible resource called mana to power a rule-based technological magic. The Draco Tavern series of short stories take place in a more light-hearted science fiction universe, much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes, but also Brenda Cooper and Edward M. Lerner. The ideas genesis came from Nivens attempts to imagine a more efficient version of a Dyson Sphere, Niven used this as a core plot element in the sequel novel, The Ringworld Engineers. This idea proved influential, serving as an alternative to a full Dyson Sphere that required fewer assumptions and this was further developed by Iain M. Banks in his Culture series, which features about 1/100th ringworld–size megastructures called Orbitals that orbit a star rather than encircling it entirely. Alastair Reynolds also uses ringworlds in his 2008 novel House of Suns, the Ringworld-like namesake of the Halo video game series is the eponymous Halo megastructure/superweapon. The 2013 film Elysium also featured a similar structure, the original release of Magic, The Gathering paid homage to Larry Niven on a card called Nevinyrrals Disk, with Nevinyrral being Larry Niven spelled backwards. Subsequent sets have featured no new cards featuring Nevinyrral, although the character is sporadically quoted on the text of various cards. Netrunner paid a homage to Larry Niven with the card Nevinyrral
36.
Ringworld
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Ringworld is a 1970 science fiction novel by Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe and considered a classic of science fiction literature. Niven later added four sequels and four prequels and these books tie into numerous other books set in Known Space. Ringworld won the Nebula Award in 1970, as well as both the Hugo Award and Locus Award in 1971, the novel opens in 2850 AD on Earth. Louis Gridley Wu is celebrating his 200th birthday, despite his age, Louis is in perfect physical condition but is bored. He has experienced life thoroughly, and is thinking of taking a trip to and beyond the reaches of Known Space and he is confronted by Nessus, a Piersons Puppeteer, and offered one of three open positions on an exploration voyage beyond Known Space. Speaker-to-Animals, who is a Kzin, and Teela Brown, a human woman. It rotates, providing artificial gravity that is 99. 2% as strong as Earths gravity through the action of centrifugal force, the Ringworld has a habitable, flat inner surface equivalent in area to approximately three million Earth-sized planets. Night is provided by a ring of shadow squares which are connected to each other by thin. None of the attempts at contacting the Ringworld succeed, and their ship. The severely damaged vessel collides with a strand of shadow-square wire, the team now has to set out to find a way to get back into space, as well as fulfilling their original mission – learning more about the Ringworld. Using their flycycles, they try to reach the rim of the ring and it will take them months to cross the vast distance. When Teela develops Plateau trance from becoming too absorbed in watching the vast landscape ahead, on the ground, they encounter apparently human Ringworld natives. The natives, who are living primitively in the ruins of a once advanced city, think that the crew are the Engineers of the Ring. The crew is attacked when they commit what the natives consider blasphemy and they continue their journey during which Nessus is forced to reveal some Puppeteer secrets, they have performed indirect breeding experiments on both humans and kzin. The resulting hostility forces Nessus to abandon the three and follow them at a safe distance. They encounter a city and, in a building, they find a map of the Ringworld. In a giant storm, caused by air escaping through a hole in the Ring floor due to meteoroid impact, while Louis and Speaker search for her in a ruined city, their flycycles are caught by an automatic police station designed to catch traffic offenders. They are trapped in a prison in the basement of the police station, Nessus arrives, entering the station to help his team
37.
Laser
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A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The term laser originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, the first laser was built in 1960 by Theodore H. Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, based on theoretical work by Charles Hard Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow. A laser differs from other sources of light in that it emits light coherently, spatial coherence allows a laser to be focused to a tight spot, enabling applications such as laser cutting and lithography. Spatial coherence also allows a laser beam to stay narrow over great distances, Lasers can also have high temporal coherence, which allows them to emit light with a very narrow spectrum, i. e. they can emit a single color of light. Temporal coherence can be used to produce pulses of light as short as a femtosecond, Lasers are distinguished from other light sources by their coherence. Spatial coherence is typically expressed through the output being a narrow beam, Laser beams can be focused to very tiny spots, achieving a very high irradiance, or they can have very low divergence in order to concentrate their power at a great distance. Temporal coherence implies a polarized wave at a single frequency whose phase is correlated over a great distance along the beam. A beam produced by a thermal or other incoherent light source has an amplitude and phase that vary randomly with respect to time and position. Lasers are characterized according to their wavelength in a vacuum, most single wavelength lasers actually produce radiation in several modes having slightly differing frequencies, often not in a single polarization. Although temporal coherence implies monochromaticity, there are lasers that emit a broad spectrum of light or emit different wavelengths of light simultaneously, there are some lasers that are not single spatial mode and consequently have light beams that diverge more than is required by the diffraction limit. However, all devices are classified as lasers based on their method of producing light. Lasers are employed in applications where light of the spatial or temporal coherence could not be produced using simpler technologies. The word laser started as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, in the early technical literature, especially at Bell Telephone Laboratories, the laser was called an optical maser, this term is now obsolete. A laser that produces light by itself is technically an optical rather than an optical amplifier as suggested by the acronym. It has been noted that the acronym LOSER, for light oscillation by stimulated emission of radiation. With the widespread use of the acronym as a common noun, optical amplifiers have come to be referred to as laser amplifiers. The back-formed verb to lase is frequently used in the field, meaning to produce light, especially in reference to the gain medium of a laser. Further use of the laser and maser in an extended sense, not referring to laser technology or devices, can be seen in usages such as astrophysical maser
38.
Theatrical property
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A prop, formally known as property, is an object used on stage or on screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinct from the actors, scenery, costumes, consumable food items appearing in the production are also considered props. The earliest known use of the properties in English to refer to stage accessories is in the 1425 CE Morality play. The Oxford English Dictionary finds the first usage of props in 1841, during the Renaissance in Europe, small acting troupes functioned as cooperatives, pooling resources and dividing any income. Many performers provided their own costumes, but special items—stage weapons, furniture or other hand-held devices—were considered company property, some experts however seem to think that the term comes from the idea that stage or screen objects belong to whoever uses them on stage. There is no difference between props in different media, such as theatre, film, or television, bland Wade, a properties director, says, A coffee cup onstage is a coffee cup on television, is a coffee cup on the big screen. He adds, There are definitely different responsibilities and different vocabulary, the term theatrical property originated to describe an object used in a stage play and similar entertainments to further the action. Technically, a prop is any object that gives the scenery, actors, or performance space specific period, place, props in a production originate from off stage unless they have been preset on the stage before the production begins. Props are stored on a prop table backstage near the entrance during production then generally locked in a storage area between performances. The term has readily transferred to television, motion picture and video game production, in recent years, the increasing popularity of movie memorabilia has added new meaning to the term prop, broadening its existence to include a valuable after-life as a prized collectors item. Typically not available until after a premiere, movie props appearing on-screen are called screen-used. However, a prop must read well from the house or on-screen, in some cases, a prop is designed to behave differently from how the real object would, often for the sake of safety. A mop, representing a string mop, but built out of a shape covered with fabric. A prop weapon that reads well but lacks the intentional harmfulness of the real weapon. In the theater, prop weapons are almost always either non-operable replicas, guns fire caps or noisy blanks, swords are dulled, and knives are often made of plastic or rubber. In film production, fully functional weapons are used. Real cartridges with bullets removed are still dangerously charged which has caused several instances when used on stage or film. The safety and proper handling of weapons used as movie props is the premiere responsibility of the prop master
39.
John Stears
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John Stears was a British two-time Academy Award-winning special effects expert. John Stears was born in Uxbridge, London, on 25 August 1934, Stears studied at Harrow College of Art and Southall Technical School before working as a draughtsman with the Air Ministry. For most of his life he lived on an estate in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, where he reared cattle and where his wife ran the Livny Borzoi Kennels, breeding Borzoi show dogs. In 1993, he sold his estate in Buckinghamshire to the rock legend Ozzy Osbourne and retired to California with his wife Brenda, whom he married in 1960 and he created some of the most famous scenes in the movies. He blew up the villains Jamaican hideout at the end of Dr and he also created an avalanche for On Her Majestys Secret Service and built flying cars for the musical film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun. Stears grew disenchanted with the Bond franchise, and vowed never to do another one and he complained that the team spirit had gone. Stears expressed great regret that Kevin McClory couldnt get his rival Bond film, Warhead, into production, for Star Wars Episode IV, A New Hope, Stears created the robots R2-D2 and C-3PO, Luke Skywalkers Landspeeder, the Jedi Knights lightsabers, and the Death Star. Stears was also credited, along with John Dykstra, for the films climactic aerial dogfight. In 1978 producer Harry Saltzman hired Stears to direct the shrunken man epic film The Micronauts, the troubled project had been in pre-production for many years and saw many directors come and go, ultimately the film never made it into production. John Stears notably one of only a few people to win an Academy Award for a James Bond film. His wife, Brenda, and other members had wanted the death kept quiet until after services in Pacific Palisades in May. The family announced his death in June of that same year, Stears owned homes in Pacific Palisades and in Beaconsfield, England, where he and his wife raised cattle and show dogs
40.
Press camera
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A press camera is a medium or large format view camera that was predominantly used by press photographers in the early to mid-20th century. It was largely replaced for press photography by 35mm film cameras in the 1960s, the quintessential press camera was the Speed Graphic. Press cameras are used as portable and rugged view cameras. The focal plane shutter allows for fast shutter speeds and the use of lenses which do not have an integral shutter, the Graphlex Speed Graphic models and the Ihagee Zweiverschluss Duplex are examples of press cameras that had both focal plane and iris shutters. The most common film size for press cameras was the 4×5 inch film format. Models have also produced for the 2. 25×3.25 inch format,3. 25×4.25 inch format. European press cameras, such as the Goerz and Van Neck, used the 9x12cm format, in news photography, the press camera has been largely supplanted by the smaller formats of 120 film and 135 film, and more recently by digital cameras. The advantage of the 4x5 inch format over 35 mm format is that the size of the negative is 16 times that of a 35 mm film negative image. Press cameras were largely superseded by the 6x6cm medium format Rolleiflex in the early to mid-1960s, the smaller formats gained acceptance as film technology advanced and quality of the smaller negatives was deemed acceptable by picture editors. The smaller cameras generally offered lenses with maximum apertures and by the nature of their smaller size, were easier to transport. Compared to view cameras, press cameras do not have the range of movements of the front standard. BeselerBeseler 4×5 Burke & James Press, Burke & James Inc
41.
Flash (photography)
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A flash is a device used in photography producing a flash of artificial light at a color temperature of about 5500 K to help illuminate a scene. A major purpose of a flash is to illuminate a dark scene, other uses are capturing quickly moving objects or changing the quality of light. Flash refers either to the flash of light itself or to the flash unit discharging the light. Most current flash units are electronic, having evolved from single-use flashbulbs, modern cameras often activate flash units automatically. Flash units are built directly into a camera. Some cameras allow separate flash units to be mounted via an accessory mount bracket. In professional studio equipment, flashes may be large, standalone units, or studio strobes, studies of magnesium by Bunsen and Roscoe in 1859 showed that burning this metal produced a light with similar qualities to daylight. The potential application to photography inspired Edward Sonstadt to investigate methods of manufacturing magnesium so that it would burn reliably for this use and he applied for patents in 1862 and by 1864 had started the Manchester Magnesium Company with Edward Mellor. It also had the benefit of being a simpler and cheaper process than making round wire, mather was also credited with the invention of a holder for the ribbon, which formed a lamp to burn it in. The packaging also implies that the ribbon was not necessarily broken off before being ignited. An alternative to ribbon was flash powder, a mixture of powder and potassium chlorate, introduced by its German inventors Adolf Miethe. A measured amount was put into a pan or trough and ignited by hand, producing a brilliant flash of light, along with the smoke. This could be an activity, especially if the flash powder was damp. An electrically triggered flash lamp was invented by Joshua Lionel Cowen in 1899 and his patent describes a device for igniting photographers’ flash powder by using dry cell batteries to heat a wire fuse. Variations and alternatives were touted from time to time and a few found a measure of success in the marketplace, especially for amateur use. The use of powder in an open lamp was replaced by flashbulbs, magnesium filaments were contained in bulbs filled with oxygen gas. Manufactured flashbulbs were first produced commercially in Germany in 1929, such a bulb could only be used once, and was too hot to handle immediately after use, but the confinement of what would otherwise have amounted to a small explosion was an important advance. A later innovation was the coating of flashbulbs with a film to maintain bulb integrity in the event of the glass shattering during the flash
