Mieszko II Lambert was King of Poland from 1025–1031, Duke from 1032 until his death. He was the second son of Bolesław I the Brave but the eldest born from his third wife Emnilda of Lusatia, he was named after his paternal grandfather, Mieszko I. His second name, sometimes erroneously considered to be a nickname, was given to him as a reference to Saint Lambert, it is probable that this name Lambert was chosen after Bolesław's half-brother Lambert. It is thought that the choice of this name for his son was an expression of warming relations between Bolesław I and his stepmother Oda, he organized two devastating invasions to Saxony in 1028 and 1030. Mieszko II ran a defensive war against Germany and the Kievan princes. Mieszko II was forced to escape from the country in 1031 after an attack of Yaroslav I the Wise, who installed Mieszko's older half-brother Bezprym onto the Polish throne. Mieszko took refuge in Bohemia. In 1032 he regained power in one of the three districts united the country, making good use of the remaining power structures.
At this time, several Polish territorial acquisitions of his father were lost: Upper Lusatia, part of Lower Lusatia, Red Ruthenia and central part of Upper Hungary and Moravia. Mieszko II was well educated for the period, he was able to read and write, knew both Greek and Latin. He is unjustly known as Mieszko II Gnuśny, he received that epithet due to the unfortunate way. Since Mieszko II was politically active before his father's death, Bolesław I appointed him as his successor, he participated in German politics, both as a representative of his father and the commander of the Polish troops. In 1013 Mieszko II went to Magdeburg, where he paid homage to the Emperor Henry II. A few months Bolesław I paid homage in person; the real purpose of Mieszko's visit is unclear since soon after his father paid homage to the Holy Roman Empire. The young prince paid homage for Milsko or Moravia and Lusatia; the relevant treaty stipulated that it was only a personal tribute, not entailing any legal obligations.
Another hypothesis assumes that the territories were transferred by Bolesław to him, as a result made Mieszko a vassal of the Empire. The position of the young prince, at the both Polish and Imperial courts, became stronger in 1013 when he married Richeza daughter of Count Palatine Ezzo of Lotharingia and niece of Emperor Otto III. Ezzo was a prince of a considerable influence as a great leader of the opposition against Henry II. Through the marriage with his daughter Mieszko, he entered into the circle of the Imperial family and became a person equal to, if not higher than the Emperor himself. After the wedding, in accordance with prevailing custom, Bolesław I the Brave gave a separate district to Mieszko II to rule: Kraków. One of his towns, was chosen by the prince as his residence. In the year 1014 Mieszko II was sent by his father to Bohemia as an emissary, he had to persuade Duke Oldřich to make an alliance against the Emperor Henry II. The mission failed as Oldřich imprisoned Mieszko, he was released only after the intervention of the Emperor, despite the planned betrayal of Bolesław I, loyally acted on behalf of his vassal.
As a result, Mieszko was sent to the Imperial court in Merseburg as a hostage. Henry II wanted to force the presence of Bolesław I in Merseburg and make him explain his actions; the plan failed however, under pressure from his relatives, the Emperor soon agreed to release Mieszko. A year Mieszko II stood at the head of Polish troops in the next war against the Emperor; the campaign wasn't favorable to Henry. His army needed over a month to reach the line of the Oder River, once there, his troops encountered strong resistance led by Mieszko and his father. Henry II sent a delegation to the Polish rulers, in an effort to induce them to conclude a peace settlement. Mieszko II refused, after the Emperor's failure to defeat his troops in battle, Henry decided to begin retreating to Dziadoszyce; the Polish prince went on pursuit, inflicted heavy losses on the German army. When the Polish army advanced to Meissen, Mieszko II unsuccessfully tried to besiege the castle of his brother-in-law, Margrave Herman I.
The fighting was resumed only in 1017 after the failure of peace talks. Imperial forces bypassed the main defensive site near besieged Niemcza. At the same time, at the head of ten legions, Mieszko went to Moravia and planned an allied attack together with Bohemia against the Emperor; this action forced the Emperor to give up on a plan of any frontal attack. A year the Peace of Bautzen was concluded, with terms favorable to the Polish side. Beginning in 1028, he waged war against the Holy Roman Empire, he was able to repel its invading army, even invaded Saxony. He allied Poland with Hungary; this war was prompted by family connections of Mieszko's in Germany who opposed Emperor Conrad II. Due to the death of Thietmar of Merseburg, the principal chronicler of that period, there is little information about Mieszko II's life from 1018 until 1025, when he took over the government of Poland. Only Gallus Anonymus mentions the Prince on occasion of the description of his father's trip to Rus in 1018: "due to the fact that his son Mieszko wasn't considered yet capable of taking the governm
Quantum Conundrum is a puzzle-platformer video game developed by Airtight Games and published by Square Enix. It was directed by Kim Swift, who worked at Valve as a lead designer on the critically acclaimed Portal; the game was released for download for Microsoft Windows on June 21, 2012, for PlayStation 3 on July 10, 2012, for Xbox 360 on July 11, 2012. The silent player-protagonist is the twelve-year-old nephew of the brilliant but peculiar Professor Fitz Quadwrangle, he is sent to stay with Quadwrangle, unprepared for his arrival as he is presently working on an experiment. The experiment goes awry, causing Quadwrangle to become trapped in a pocket dimension with a loss of memory of what went wrong before, but able to watch and communicate to the protagonist; the results of the experiment leave portions of the Quadwrangle mansion in flux between four dimensions with alternate properties. Quadwrangle guides the protagonist to acquire a glove that can tame these fluxes through which he can safely travel through the labyrinth of rooms to reach three separate power generators and restart each, which Quadwrangle believes will allow him to escape the pocket dimension.
The protagonist gains help from IKE, a small alien creature that Quadwrangle had adopted as a pet during his travels. As Quadwrangle guides his nephew, he tries to recall the exact events leading to the current situation. After starting the three generators, the house begins to shake, Quadwrangle realizes that a fourth generator must be started; the protagonist begins to activate the device, but Quadwrangle remembers too late that restarting the device had nearly killed him before and he had escaped to the pocket dimension for safety. With the device started, the house begins to shake violently, Quadwrangle instructs his nephew to the safety of the pocket dimension, where he will be safe, while Quadwrangle can now work out how to resolve the problems of the half-ruined mansion, now affecting the entire planet. Quantum Conundrum is a puzzle-platformer viewed from the first-person perspective; as the boy protagonist, the player can run and jump, interact with various switches, lift light objects.
The player can die by falling into toxic liquids, bottomless pits, or falling from too great a height, if hit by destructive lasers. The goal of each room is to reach its exit door, though it may be necessary to activate certain switches or other devices before the exit can become available. Most puzzles require the player to manipulate the room and objects within it using four different dimensions which impart unique physical properties to the world; the four dimensions are the Fluffy dimension, where objects are ten times lighter than normal, allowing the character to pick up most non-fixed objects, the Heavy dimension, where objects are ten times heavier than normal. Only one dimension can be accessed at a time. For example, with access to the Fluffy and Slow dimensions, the player can pick up a heavy safe in the Fluffy dimension, toss it towards a distant platform, immediately switch to the Slow dimension, giving themselves enough time to jump onto the safe as it crosses the gap to the platform.
The player does not have control of when the dimensions are shifted, but gains access to the Interdimensional Shift Device glove where they can switch to any dimension so long as a battery for that dimension is placed in a power receptacle for that room. In some puzzles, the players must locate these batteries. Kim Swift was one of the developers of Valve's 2007 Portal video game, an extension of her student team project Narbacular Drop from the DigiPen Institute of Technology, she spent time helping to develop Left 4 Dead 2 after Portal's release. During that period, she came up with the general concept of Quantum Conundrum during a trip to a local bakery. During the initial states of the development of Portal 2, she had approached Airtight Games with the idea, who saw Swift's game concept as a means of expanding their own portfolio of games for a broader audience, offered her a position there. Swift departed Valve for Airtight in late 2009, stating that with "the opportunity to work on innovative titles with my friends over at Airtight", she "couldn't pass it up".
She worked with the team on a project, cancelled after about eight months. Swift's goal with Quantum Conundrum was to create a title that would have broad appeal to a wide audience but still be challenging to hardcore players, she wanted to make a game like Portal in the puzzle genre, but worked to distance the concept from Portal to avoid direct comparisons. At Airtight, she worked in a democratic style with their small team of about sixteen people to offer ideas for their first game, similar to the nature of the smaller teams used on individual projects at Valve; this was in part d
I Speak Because I Can is the second studio album by British singer-songwriter Laura Marling, released on 22 March 2010. Produced by Ethan Johns, the album deals with "responsibility the responsibility of womanhood." The album was preceded by the singles "Goodbye England", released on iTunes in December 2009 and "Devil's Spoke" on 15 March 2010. The next single released was "Rambling Man", on 10 May 2010; the track "What He Wrote" was inspired by letters from a wife to her husband in the Second World War. On 28 March 2010, I Speak Because I Can entered the official UK Charts at #4. and has been certified Silver for sales of 60,000 in the UK. Back-up vocals are provided throughout the album by Marcus Mumford, the lead singer and guitarist of London-based folk band Mumford & Sons; these are prevalent on the tracks "Hope in the Air" and "I Speak Because I Can". Early radio promos of the album contained four tracks that did not make the final commercial release. Two of these tracks, "Mama, How Far I've Come" and "Nature of Dust" were made available as a b-side to the single "Rambling Man" and an iTunes bonus track, respectively.
On the strength of the album, Marling won the Brit Award for British Female Solo Artist. The themes are described by Marling as being centred on the roles of men in society; the album is written in the first person, but is autobiographical. The song, Devil's Spoke is reported by Marling as being inspired by the Odyssey, while the final track, I Speak Because I Can, is informed by Margaret Atwood's novella, The Penelopiad, a counterpoint to Homer's epic; the song, Goodbye England, according to Marling, is about a walk she and her family took to a church during winter. I Speak Because I Can was received with acclaim from music critics, most noting the maturity and depth of the album, as well as Marling's rich vocals; the music aggregation site, reported an average of 81, signifying universal acclaim. The record was listed in many end of year lists by publications, including being placed at number 8 on The Guardian's Albums of 2010. Marling won the best British solo artist at the Brit awards in 2011.
In 2013, NME listed the album at 263 in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. All tracks by Laura Marling. "Devil's Spoke" – 3:40 "Made by Maid" – 2:51 "Rambling Man" – 3:16 "Blackberry Stone" – 3:28 "Alpha Shallows" – 3:42 "Goodbye England" – 3:45 "Hope in the Air" – 4:32 "What He Wrote" – 4:07 "Darkness Descends" – 3:40 "I Speak Because I Can" – 3:59 "Nature of Dust" – 1:29 Laura Marling – voice, guitar Marcus Mumford – drums Winston Marshall – banjo Ted Dwane – double bass Tom Hobden – fiddle Ruth De Turberville – cello Pete Roe – keyboards