1.
Genie
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Jinn, also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies, are supernatural creatures in early Arabian and later Islamic mythology and theology. An individual member of the jinn is known as a jinni, djinni and they are mentioned frequently in the Quran and other Islamic texts. The jinn, humans, and angels make up the three known sapient creations of God, like human beings, the jinn can be good, evil, or neutrally benevolent and hence have free will like humans. Jaini were among various creatures believe among pre-Zoroastrian peoples of Persia, Jinn is an Arabic collective noun deriving from the Semitic root JNN, whose primary meaning is to hide. Some authors interpret the word to mean, literally, beings that are concealed from the senses, cognates include the Arabic majnūn, jannah, and janīn. Jinn is properly treated as a plural, with the singular being jinni, the anglicized form genie is a borrowing of the French génie, from the Latin genius, a guardian spirit of people and places in Roman religion. It first appeared in 18th-century translations of the Thousand and One Nights from the French, numerous mentions of jinn in the Quran and testimony of both pre-Islamic and Islamic literature indicate that the belief in spirits was prominent in pre-Islamic Bedouin religion. Julius Wellhausen has observed that such spirits were thought to inhabit desolate, dingy, and dark places, One had to protect oneself from them, but they were not the objects of a true cult. In Islamic theology jinn are said to be creatures with free will, made from fire by God as humans were made of clay. When jinns are called fire spirits it´s does not refer to their current nature, Jinn are mentioned 29 times in the Quran, Surah 72 is named after the jinn, and has a passage about them. Another surah mentions jinn in the last verse, the Quran also mentions that Muhammad was sent as a prophet to both humanity and the jinn, and that prophets and messengers were sent to both communities. Like humans, jinn will also be judged on the Day of Judgment, the social organization of the jinn community resembles that of humans, e. g. they have kings, courts of law, weddings, mourning rituals and practise religion. One common belief in Muslim belief lists five distinct orders of jinn — the Marid, the Ifrit, the Shaitan, the Ghul, and the Jann. A few traditions, divide jinn into three classes, those who have wings and fly in the air, those who resemble snakes and dogs, described them as creatures of different forms, some resembling vultures and snakes, others tall men in white garb. They may even appear as dragons, onagers, or any number of other animals, in addition to their animal forms, the jinn occasionally assume human form to mislead and destroy their human victims. Ibn Taymiyyah, a late medieval theologian whose writings would later become the source of Wahhabism, believed the jinn to be generally ignorant, untruthful, oppressive. In Sūrat Al-Jinn, verses 8–10, Allah narrates concerning the jinn how they touched or sought the limits of the sky and found it full of guards and shooting stars. Seven kings of the Jinn are traditionally associated with days of the week, the notion of a qarin is not universally accepted among all Muslims, but it is generally accepted that Shayṭān whispers in human minds, and he is assigned to each human being
2.
Software developer
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A software developer is a person concerned with facets of the software development process, including the research, design, programming, and testing of computer software. Other job titles which are used with similar meanings are programmer, software analyst. According to developer Eric Sink, the differences between system design, software development, and programming are more apparent, even more so that developers become systems architects, those who design the multi-leveled architecture or component interactions of a large software system. In a large company, there may be employees whose sole responsibility consists of one of the phases above. In smaller development environments, a few people or even an individual might handle the complete process. The word software was coined as a prank as early as 1953, before this time, computers were programmed either by customers, or the few commercial computer vendors of the time, such as UNIVAC and IBM. The first company founded to provide products and services was Computer Usage Company in 1955. The software industry expanded in the early 1960s, almost immediately after computers were first sold in mass-produced quantities, universities, government, and business customers created a demand for software. Many of these programs were written in-house by full-time staff programmers, some were distributed freely between users of a particular machine for no charge. Others were done on a basis, and other firms such as Computer Sciences Corporation started to grow. The computer/hardware makers started bundling operating systems, systems software and programming environments with their machines, new software was built for microcomputers, so other manufacturers including IBM, followed DECs example quickly, resulting in the IBM AS/400 amongst others. The industry expanded greatly with the rise of the computer in the mid-1970s. In the following years, it created a growing market for games, applications. DOS, Microsofts first operating system product, was the dominant operating system at the time, by 2014 the role of cloud developer had been defined, in this context, one definition of a developer in general was published, Developers make software for the world to use. The job of a developer is to crank out code -- fresh code for new products, code fixes for maintenance, code for business logic, bus factor Software Developer description from the US Department of Labor
3.
Software release life cycle
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Usage of the alpha/beta test terminology originated at IBM. As long ago as the 1950s, IBM used similar terminology for their hardware development, a test was the verification of a new product before public announcement. B test was the verification before releasing the product to be manufactured, C test was the final test before general availability of the product. Martin Belsky, a manager on some of IBMs earlier software projects claimed to have invented the terminology, IBM dropped the alpha/beta terminology during the 1960s, but by then it had received fairly wide notice. The usage of beta test to refer to testing done by customers was not done in IBM, rather, IBM used the term field test. Pre-alpha refers to all activities performed during the project before formal testing. These activities can include requirements analysis, software design, software development, in typical open source development, there are several types of pre-alpha versions. Milestone versions include specific sets of functions and are released as soon as the functionality is complete, the alpha phase of the release life cycle is the first phase to begin software testing. In this phase, developers generally test the software using white-box techniques, additional validation is then performed using black-box or gray-box techniques, by another testing team. Moving to black-box testing inside the organization is known as alpha release, alpha software can be unstable and could cause crashes or data loss. Alpha software may not contain all of the features that are planned for the final version, in general, external availability of alpha software is uncommon in proprietary software, while open source software often has publicly available alpha versions. The alpha phase usually ends with a freeze, indicating that no more features will be added to the software. At this time, the software is said to be feature complete, Beta, named after the second letter of the Greek alphabet, is the software development phase following alpha. Software in the stage is also known as betaware. Beta phase generally begins when the software is complete but likely to contain a number of known or unknown bugs. Software in the phase will generally have many more bugs in it than completed software, as well as speed/performance issues. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to users, often incorporating usability testing, the process of delivering a beta version to the users is called beta release and this is typically the first time that the software is available outside of the organization that developed it. Beta version software is useful for demonstrations and previews within an organization
4.
Roguelike
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Most roguelikes are based on a high fantasy narrative, reflecting their influence from tabletop role playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. Some of the better-known variants include Hack, NetHack, Ancient Domains of Mystery, Moria, Angband, the Japanese series of Mystery Dungeon games by Chunsoft, inspired by Rogue, also fall within the concept of roguelike games. Indie games like Weird Worlds, Return to Infinite Space, Spelunky, The Binding of Isaac, FTL, Faster Than Light, other games, like Diablo and UnReal World, key titles in the action role-playing and the survival game genres respectively, took inspiration from roguelikes. At the start of the game, the character is placed at the top-most level of a dungeon, with equipment such as a simple weapon, armor, torches. Most combat is performed simply by attempting to move the character into the space as the monster. Other types of attacks, such as firing an arrow or performing a magic spell. Monsters may drop treasure to be looted, on the other hand, the character dies if they lose all their hit points. As most roguelikes feature the concept of permadeath, this represents the end of the game, Roguelikes are nearly always turn-based, with the game only reacting when the player makes an action with the character. This allows players to evaluate a situation, such as being cornered by several monsters, at their own pace. The player generally has to explore the dungeon to reveal its contents similar to a fog of war. Many roguelikes include factors related to light such as a torch to provide illumination to see monsters in nearby squares. Dungeons tend to be connected by stairs, lower levels generally are more difficult than higher ones. Dungeon levels and the population of monsters and treasure within them are generated randomly using procedural generation, most roguelikes have an ultimate goal of either claiming an item located at the deepest level of the dungeon, or to defeat a specific monster that lives on that level. Some of the used in this definition include, Roguelike games create random tile-based levels, monster encounters. Preferably roguelikes adhering to the Berlin Interpretation use ASCII-based graphics and they may include pre-determined levels as well, such as a town level common to the Moria family where the player can buy and sell equipment. Generated layouts typically incorporate rooms connected by corridors, some of which may be preset to some degree, open areas or natural features, such as rivers, may occur, though these are considered against the Berlin Interpretation. While early roguelikes would have levels confined to the bounds of the screen, other roguelikes enabled a much larger level size. Once a character dies, the player must begin a new game, a save game feature will only provide suspension of gameplay and not a limitlessly recoverable state, the stored session is deleted upon resumption or character death
5.
Software license
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A software license is a legal instrument governing the use or redistribution of software. Under United States copyright law all software is copyright protected, in code as also object code form. The only exception is software in the public domain, most distributed software can be categorized according to its license type. Two common categories for software under copyright law, and therefore with licenses which grant the licensee specific rights, are proprietary software and free, unlicensed software outside the copyright protection is either public domain software or software which is non-distributed, non-licensed and handled as internal business trade secret. Contrary to popular belief, distributed unlicensed software is copyright protected. Examples for this are unauthorized software leaks or software projects which are placed on public software repositories like GitHub without specified license. As voluntarily handing software into the domain is problematic in some international law domains, there are also licenses granting PD-like rights. Therefore, the owner of a copy of software is legally entitled to use that copy of software. Hence, if the end-user of software is the owner of the respective copy, as many proprietary licenses only enumerate the rights that the user already has under 17 U. S. C. §117, and yet proclaim to take away from the user. Proprietary software licenses often proclaim to give software publishers more control over the way their software is used by keeping ownership of each copy of software with the software publisher. The form of the relationship if it is a lease or a purchase, for example UMG v. Augusto or Vernor v. Autodesk. The ownership of goods, like software applications and video games, is challenged by licensed. The Swiss based company UsedSoft innovated the resale of business software and this feature of proprietary software licenses means that certain rights regarding the software are reserved by the software publisher. Therefore, it is typical of EULAs to include terms which define the uses of the software, the most significant effect of this form of licensing is that, if ownership of the software remains with the software publisher, then the end-user must accept the software license. In other words, without acceptance of the license, the end-user may not use the software at all, one example of such a proprietary software license is the license for Microsoft Windows. The most common licensing models are per single user or per user in the appropriate volume discount level, Licensing per concurrent/floating user also occurs, where all users in a network have access to the program, but only a specific number at the same time. Another license model is licensing per dongle which allows the owner of the dongle to use the program on any computer, Licensing per server, CPU or points, regardless the number of users, is common practice as well as site or company licenses
6.
GNU General Public License
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The GNU General Public License is a widely used free software license, which guarantees end users the freedom to run, study, share and modify the software. The license was written by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation for the GNU Project. The GPL is a license, which means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free licenses, of which the BSD licenses. GPL was the first copyleft license for general use, historically, the GPL license family has been one of the most popular software licenses in the free and open-source software domain. Prominent free software licensed under the GPL include the Linux kernel. In 2007, the version of the license was released to address some perceived problems with the second version that were discovered during its long-time usage. To keep the license up to date, the GPL license includes an optional any later version clause, developers can omit it when licensing their software, for instance the Linux kernel is licensed under GPLv2 without the any later version clause. The GPL was written by Richard Stallman in 1989, for use with programs released as part of the GNU project, the original GPL was based on a unification of similar licenses used for early versions of GNU Emacs, the GNU Debugger and the GNU C Compiler. These licenses contained similar provisions to the modern GPL, but were specific to each program, rendering them incompatible, Stallmans goal was to produce one license that could be used for any project, thus making it possible for many projects to share code. The second version of the license, version 2, was released in 1991, version 3 was developed to attempt to address these concerns and was officially released on 29 June 2007. Version 1 of the GNU GPL, released on 25 February 1989, the first problem was that distributors may publish binary files only—executable, but not readable or modifiable by humans. To prevent this, GPLv1 stated that any vendor distributing binaries must also make the source code available under the same licensing terms. The second problem was that distributors might add restrictions, either to the license, the union of two sets of restrictions would apply to the combined work, thus adding unacceptable restrictions. To prevent this, GPLv1 stated that modified versions, as a whole, had to be distributed under the terms in GPLv1. Therefore, software distributed under the terms of GPLv1 could be combined with software under more permissive terms, according to Richard Stallman, the major change in GPLv2 was the Liberty or Death clause, as he calls it – Section 7. The section says that licensees may distribute a GPL-covered work only if they can all of the licenses obligations. In other words, the obligations of the license may not be severed due to conflicting obligations and this provision is intended to discourage any party from using a patent infringement claim or other litigation to impair users freedom under the license
7.
Video game
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A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor. The word video in video game referred to a raster display device. Some theorists categorize video games as an art form, but this designation is controversial, the electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms, examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms range from large mainframe computers to small handheld computing devices, the input device used for games, the game controller, varies across platforms. Common controllers include gamepads, joysticks, mouse devices, keyboards, the touchscreens of mobile devices, and buttons, or even, with the Kinect sensor, a persons hands and body. Players typically view the game on a screen or television or computer monitor, or sometimes on virtual reality head-mounted display goggles. There are often game sound effects, music and, in the 2010s, some games in the 2000s include haptic, vibration-creating effects, force feedback peripherals and virtual reality headsets. In the 2010s, the game industry is of increasing commercial importance, with growth driven particularly by the emerging Asian markets and mobile games. As of 2015, video games generated sales of USD74 billion annually worldwide, early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from 1947—a Cathode ray tube Amusement Device was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December 1948, as U. S. Written by MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanens on a DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961, and the hit ping pong-style Pong, used the DEC PDP-1s vector display to have two spaceships battle each other. In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially sold and it used a black-and-white television for its display, and the computer system was made of 74 series TTL chips. The game was featured in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green, Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed by Ralph H. Baer called the Brown Box and these were followed by two versions of Ataris Pong, an arcade version in 1972 and a home version in 1975 that dramatically increased video game popularity. The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, the game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants, and convenience stores. The game also became the subject of articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines. Space Invaders was soon licensed for the Atari VCS, becoming the first killer app, the term platform refers to the specific combination of electronic components or computer hardware which, in conjunction with software, allows a video game to operate. The term system is commonly used
8.
ASCII
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ASCII, abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices, most modern character-encoding schemes are based on ASCII, although they support many additional characters. ASCII was developed from telegraph code and its first commercial use was as a seven-bit teleprinter code promoted by Bell data services. Work on the ASCII standard began on October 6,1960, the first edition of the standard was published in 1963, underwent a major revision during 1967, and experienced its most recent update during 1986. Compared to earlier telegraph codes, the proposed Bell code and ASCII were both ordered for more convenient sorting of lists, and added features for other than teleprinters. Originally based on the English alphabet, ASCII encodes 128 specified characters into seven-bit integers as shown by the ASCII chart above. The characters encoded are numbers 0 to 9, lowercase letters a to z, uppercase letters A to Z, basic punctuation symbols, control codes that originated with Teletype machines, for example, lowercase j would become binary 1101010 and decimal 106. ASCII includes definitions for 128 characters,33 are non-printing control characters that affect how text and space are processed and 95 printable characters, of these, the IANA encourages use of the name US-ASCII for Internet uses of ASCII. The ASA became the United States of America Standards Institute and ultimately the American National Standards Institute, there was some debate at the time whether there should be more control characters rather than the lowercase alphabet. The X3.2.4 task group voted its approval for the change to ASCII at its May 1963 meeting, the X3 committee made other changes, including other new characters, renaming some control characters and moving or removing others. ASCII was subsequently updated as USAS X3. 4-1967, then USAS X3. 4-1968, ANSI X3. 4-1977 and they proposed a 9-track standard for magnetic tape, and attempted to deal with some punched card formats. The X3.2 subcommittee designed ASCII based on the earlier teleprinter encoding systems, like other character encodings, ASCII specifies a correspondence between digital bit patterns and character symbols. This allows digital devices to communicate each other and to process, store. Before ASCII was developed, the encodings in use included 26 alphabetic characters,10 numerical digits, ITA2 were in turn based on the 5-bit telegraph code Émile Baudot invented in 1870 and patented in 1874. The committee debated the possibility of a function, which would allow more than 64 codes to be represented by a six-bit code. In a shifted code, some character codes determine choices between options for the character codes. It allows compact encoding, but is reliable for data transmission. The standards committee decided against shifting, and so ASCII required at least a seven-bit code, the committee considered an eight-bit code, since eight bits would allow two four-bit patterns to efficiently encode two digits with binary-coded decimal
9.
1982 in video gaming
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December 27 - Starcade, a video game television game show, debuts on TBS in the United States. Electronic Games holds the third Arcade Awards, for games released during 1980-1981, Pac-Man wins the best arcade game award, Asteroids wins the best console game award, and Star Raiders wins the best computer game award. Eidansha Boshu Service Center shortens its name to Enix and in August establishes itself as a game publisher.3 billion. The US home video market is worth $3.8 billion. The Japanese home video market is approaching ¥300 billion, equivalent to $3.1 billion in 2017. Arcade January, Sega releases Zaxxon, which introduces isometric graphics, January 13, Midway releases Ms. Pac-Man, it is the sequel to Pac-Man, but was created without Namcos authorization. They also release Baby Pac-Man and Pac-Man Plus without Namcos authorization later in the year, april 19, Namco releases Dig Dug, manufactured by Atari in North America. August, Nintendo releases Donkey Kong Jr. the sequel to Donkey Kong, August, Taito releases parallax scroller Jungle Hunt. September 24, Namco releases Pole Position, one of the first games with stereophonic and quadraphonic sound, featuring a pseudo-3D, third-person, rear-view perspective, it becomes the most popular racing game of its time. September, Sega releases maze game Pengo, starring a cute penguin, october, Namco releases Super Pac-Man, the third title in the Pac-Man series. Solely as a kit, the first game in the series. November, Konami releases Time Pilot, December, Namco releases Xevious which sets the style for scrolling shooters to come, bally/Midway releases the Tron arcade game before the movie. Atari releases Gravitar which, though difficult, inspires a number of gravity-based computer games. Williams Electronics releases Joust, Robotron,2084, Sinistar, Robotron popularizes the twin-stick control scheme first used by Space Dungeon in 1981. Taito releases Front Line, which creates the blueprint for mid-80s, vertically scrolling, console March, Atari releases the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man. 12 million cartridges are produced,7 million sold, its believed to be one of the causes of the North American video game crash of 1983, which goes on to sell 4 million copies. August, overlooked arcade games are revitalized as ColecoVision launch titles, including Cosmic Avenger, Mouse Trap, Lady Bug, october, Atari releases Swordquest, Earthworld, the first title in a planned four-game contest. December, Atari releases E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial, written in five and a half weeks, its one of the games that sparks the crash of 1983
10.
Rogue (video game)
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Rogue is a dungeon crawling video game by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman and later contributions by Ken Arnold. Rogue was originally developed around 1980 for Unix-based mainframe systems as a freely-distributed executable and it was later included in the official Berkeley Software Distribution 4.2 operating system. Commercial ports of the game for a range of computers were made by Toy, Wichman. Design and financially supported by the Epyx software publishers, additional ports to modern systems have been made since by other parties using the games now-open source code. In Rogue, players control a character as they explore several levels of a dungeon as they seek the Amulet of Yendor located in the dungeons lowest level, the player-character must fend off from an array of monsters that roam the dungeons. Along the way, they can collect treasures that can help them offensively or defensively, such as weapons, armor, potions, scrolls, and other magical items. Rogue is turn-based taking place on a square grid represented in ASCII or other fixed character sets, the dungeon levels, monster encounters, and treasures are procedurally generated on each playthrough, so that no game is the same as a previous one. Rogue was inspired by text-based computer games such as the 1971 Star Trek game and Colossal Cave Adventure released in 1976, along with the high fantasy setting from Dungeons & Dragons. Toy later worked at University of California Berkeley where he met Arnold, Arnold helped Toy to optimize the code and incorporate additional features to the game. The commercial ports were inspired when Toy met Lane while working for the Olivetti company, Rogue became popular in the 1980s among college students and other computer-savvy users in part due to its inclusion in 4. 2BSD. In Rogue, the player assumes the role of an adventurer of early fantasy role-playing games. The game starts at the uppermost level of a dungeon with myriad monsters. The goal is to fight ones way to the level, retrieve the Amulet of Yendor. Monsters in the levels become more difficult to defeat. Until the Amulet is retrieved, the player return to earlier levels. In the original text-based versions, all aspects of the game, including the dungeon, the player character, monsters are represented by capital letters, and accordingly there are twenty-six varieties. This type of display makes it appropriate for a non-graphical terminal, later ports of Rogue apply extended character sets to the text user interface or replace it with graphical tiles. The basic movement keys are the same as the control keys in the vi editor
11.
Engadget
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Engadget is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. Engadget currently operates a total of ten written in English. Engadget has in the past ranked among the top five in the Technorati top 100 and was noted in Time for being one of the best blogs of 2010 and it has been operated by AOL since October 2005. Engadget was founded by former Gizmodo technology weblog editor and co-founder, Peter Rojas, Engadget was the largest blog in Weblogs, Inc. a blog network with over 75 weblogs including Autoblog and Joystiq which formerly included Hack-A-Day. Weblogs Inc. was purchased by AOL in 2005, Engadgets editor-in-chief, Ryan Block, announced on July 22,2008, that he would be stepping down as editor-in-chief in late August, leaving the role to Joshua Topolsky. On March 12,2011, Topolsky announced that he was leaving Engadget to start The Verge, appointing Tim Stevens — profiled by Fortune on May 31, on February 13,2013, AOL acquired gdgt, a device review website that was created by Rojas and Block. Overnight on July 15,2013, Tim Stevens stepped down as the editor-in-chief, in November 2013, a major redesign was launched that merged gdgts features into Engadget, such as database of devices and aggregated reviews. The changes aimed to turn Engadget into a more consumer electronics resource, similarly to CNET and Consumer Reports. As of April 2014, Michael Gorman was tapped as the Editor-In-Chief alongside Christopher Trout as Executive Editor, Engadget operates a number of blogs spanning seven different languages including English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Polish, Korean and German. The English edition of Engadget operates four blogs which, like the international editions, have assimilated into a single site with a sub-domain prefix. These include Engadget Classic, Engadget Mobile, Engadget HD and Engadget Alt, as of late 2013, these editions exist but have been wrapped into Engadget Classic. In March 2014, a UK edition of Engadget also launched to target the developing European tech market, launched in March 2004, Engadget is updated multiple times a day with articles on gadgets and consumer electronics. These writers include Jason Calacanis, Paul Boutin, Phillip Torrone, Joshua Fruhlinger, Marc Perton, darren Murph, has worked on the site as Managing Editor and Editor-at-Large. He has written over 17,212 posts as of October 5,2010, industry analyst Ross Rubin has contributed a weekly column called Switched On since October 2004. Engadget uses the Blogsmith CMS to publish its content, the Engadget podcast was launched in October 2004 and was originally hosted by Phillip Torrone and Len Pryor. Torrone was the host for the first 22 episodes of the podcast at which point Eric Rice took over, the podcast was hosted by Editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky along with editors Paul Miller and Nilay Patel with occasional special guests until their 2011 departure. The podcast was produced by Trent Wolbe under Topolskys editorship and continued to be under Tim Stevens until December 2012, the topic of discussion for the podcast is technology-related and closely linked to events that have happened during the week in the world of technology. The show generally lasts an hour or more, the show is normally weekly, however, the frequency can change, especially during special events
12.
Salon (website)
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Salon is an American news and opinion website created by David Talbot in 1995 and owned by Salon Media Group. It focuses on U. S. politics, culture, Salons headquarters is located at 870 Market Street San Francisco, California. As of June 2013, its editor-in-chief is David Daley, after previous editor-in-chief Kerry Lauerman stepped down to partner with Larer Ventures on a new startup, lauermans predecessor Joan Walsh stepped down from that position in November 2010 but remained as editor at large. Salon covers a variety of topics, according to the senior contributing writer for the American Journalism Review, Paul Farhi, Salon offers provocative political commentary and lots of sex. In 2008, Salon launched the interactive initiative Open Salon, a social content site/blog network for its readers, originally a curated site with some of its content being featured on Salon, it fell into editorial neglect and was closed in March 2015. Responding to the question, How far do you go with the sensibility to get readers. Former Salon. com editor-in-chief David Talbot said, Is Salon more tabloid-like, yeah, weve made no secret of that. Ive said all along that our formula here is that were a smart tabloid, David Talbot founded Salon and became its original editor-in-chief. He has served stints as CEO, most recently replacing Richard Gingras who left to join Google as head of news products in July 2011. As of May,2016, the companys CEO is Jordan Hoffner, the magazine was founded by the Examiners former arts and features editor David Talbot and launched in November 1995. In its early days readers noticed a specifically Northern California flavor, in an interview in 1996, Talbott agreed, We swim in the soup of San Francisco. There are a lot of odd fish weve plucked out of the Bay here, time magazine named it one of the Best Web Site of 1996. Salon purchased the virtual community The WELL in April 1999, Salon Premium, a pay-to-view content subscription was introduced on April 25,2001. The service signed over 130,000 subscribers and staved off discontinuation of services, on October 9,2003, Michael ODonnell, the chief executive and president of Salon Media Group, said he was leaving the company after seven years because it was time for a change. When he left, Salon. com had accrued $83.6 million in losses since its inception, David Talbot, Salons chairman and editor-in-chief at the time, became the new chief executive. Elizabeth Betsy Hambrecht, then Salons chief financial officer, became the president, in July 2008, Salon launched Open Salon, a social content site and curated blog network. It was nominated for a 2009 National Magazine Award. in the category best interactive feature, on March 9,2015, Salon announced it would be closing Open Salon after six years of hosting a community of writers and bloggers. On June 10,2011, Salon closed its online chat board Table Talk without stating a reason for ending that section of the site
13.
Character race
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In tabletop role-playing games, the character race represents the people to which a player character or a non-player character belongs. People is to be taken in the sense, and may encompass ethnic groups, species. In this fantasy world, the word means the same as. It can be a race from a fictional universe, or a real people, especially in case of a history-based universe. Call of Cthulhu, Boot Hill or Bushido and this notion is also present in most fantasy or science-fiction works, novels, comics, video games, board games, LARP, etc. The transmediality is obvious in case of consistent universes, e. g. the Middle Earth or the Star Wars universe, not all works use the term race, in Tunnels and Trolls 7th ed. Ken St. Andre uses the term kinship, the term is Spezies in Das Schwarze Auge 5th ed. in the heroic fantasy games, the races are usually humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, immaterial being, etc. The main influence is the work of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, some fantasy or steampunk games also involve artificial creatures. In science-fiction games, especially space opera and cyberpunk, the races are humans, extraterrestrials, mutants, cyborgs, transhumans, robots, in some universes, it is possible to have mixed-race characters. For example, in Dungeons & Dragons, it is possible to play a half-elf or a half-orc, the first role-playing game, “original” Dungeons & Dragons, stems from the wargame Chainmail. Chainmail was especially designed to include fantasy races, the race is therefore a core notion present at the very beginning of the role-playing games. The races in Dungeons & Dragons are strongly inspired by the literature of the 1930s-1960s. In the first science-fiction role-playing game, Metamorphosis Alpha, it is possible to play humans, the 1983 game Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game also allows monsters as PCs, and these races are described in the same way as the “non-monster” races. The race is less important in a functional point of view. The “basic bricks” of the character are more flexible, the “original” Dungeons & Dragons, and the first Advanced Dungeons & Dragons manuals, do not describe any particular universe. The universe is described through the game rules, and it outlines a generic universe inspired by popular fantasy novels of the 1930s-1960s. The way the race takes place in the universe is described in optional books. The race is mainly a “functional tool”, a set of functions that the player can implement in the adventure, the elves can see in the dark
14.
Character class
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This glossary of video game terms lists the general video game industry terms as commonly used in Wikipedia articles. 1-up In games where players have a number of lives to complete a game or level, 1v1 Abbreviation of 1 versus 1, which means two players battling against each other. 8-bit A descriptor for hardware or software that arose during the generation of video game consoles. 16-bit A descriptor for hardware or software that arose during the generation of video game consoles. 2D graphics The game features 2-dimensional objects,2. 5D graphics A game consisting of 3D graphics set in a 2D plane of movement, where objects outside of this 2D plane can have an effect on the gameplay. 32-bit A descriptor for hardware or software that arose during the generation of video game consoles. 4X A genre of video games, short for explore, expand, exploit. 64-bit A descriptor for hardware or software that arose during the generation of video game consoles. AAA A high-budget game with a development team, or game studios that make them. AAA games are usually multiplatform, have multimillion dollar marketing budgets, abandonware The idea of a game being forgotten about, or abandoned by the developers for multiple different reasons, one being copyright issues. Act See Level Action point A subunit of a players turn, for example, during each turn, a player can take a set number of actions, each costing a point. Action role-playing game A genre of role-playing video games where battle actions are performed in real-time instead of a turn-based mechanic. Actions per minute The total number of actions the player can perform in a minute, ADS Aiming Down Sights, or, Aim Down Sights. Refers to the alternate method of firing a gun in an FPS game. AFK Abbreviation of Away From Keyboard, generally said through a chat function in online multiplayer games when a player intends to be temporarily unavailable. Often used in gaming to grind, sometimes facetiously used in reference to irritated bystanders. Aimbot A first-person shooter cheat that lets players shoot other player-characters without aiming, in most cases, the reticle locks on to a target within the players line of sight and the player only has to pull the trigger. Aimbots are one of the most popular cheats in multiplayer FPS, alpha release An initial, incomplete version of a game, alpha versions are usually released early in the development process to test a games most critical functionality and prototype design concepts
15.
Open-source model
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Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative public manner. According to scientists who studied it, open-source software is a prominent example of open collaboration, a 2008 report by the Standish Group states that adoption of open-source software models has resulted in savings of about $60 billion per year to consumers. In the early days of computing, programmers and developers shared software in order to learn from each other, eventually the open source notion moved to the way side of commercialization of software in the years 1970-1980. In 1997, Eric Raymond published The Cathedral and the Bazaar and this source code subsequently became the basis behind SeaMonkey, Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird and KompoZer. Netscapes act prompted Raymond and others to look into how to bring the Free Software Foundations free software ideas, the new term they chose was open source, which was soon adopted by Bruce Perens, publisher Tim OReilly, Linus Torvalds, and others. The Open Source Initiative was founded in February 1998 to encourage use of the new term, a Microsoft executive publicly stated in 2001 that open source is an intellectual property destroyer. I cant imagine something that could be worse than this for the software business, IBM, Oracle, Google and State Farm are just a few of the companies with a serious public stake in todays competitive open-source market. There has been a significant shift in the corporate philosophy concerning the development of FOSS, the free software movement was launched in 1983. In 1998, a group of individuals advocated that the free software should be replaced by open-source software as an expression which is less ambiguous. Software developers may want to publish their software with an open-source license, the Open Source Definition, notably, presents an open-source philosophy, and further defines the terms of usage, modification and redistribution of open-source software. Software licenses grant rights to users which would otherwise be reserved by law to the copyright holder. Several open-source software licenses have qualified within the boundaries of the Open Source Definition, the open source label came out of a strategy session held on April 7,1998 in Palo Alto in reaction to Netscapes January 1998 announcement of a source code release for Navigator. They used the opportunity before the release of Navigators source code to clarify a potential confusion caused by the ambiguity of the free in English. Many people claimed that the birth of the Internet, since 1969, started the open source movement, the Free Software Foundation, started in 1985, intended the word free to mean freedom to distribute and not freedom from cost. Since a great deal of free software already was free of charge, such software became associated with zero cost. The Open Source Initiative was formed in February 1998 by Eric Raymond and they sought to bring a higher profile to the practical benefits of freely available source code, and they wanted to bring major software businesses and other high-tech industries into open source. Perens attempted to open source as a service mark for the OSI. The Open Source Initiatives definition is recognized by governments internationally as the standard or de facto definition, OSI uses The Open Source Definition to determine whether it considers a software license open source
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Open Source Initiative
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The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open-source software. Later, in August 1998, the added a board of directors. Raymond was president from its founding until February 2005, followed briefly by Russ Nelson and then Michael Tiemann. In May 2012, the new board elected Simon Phipps as president, as a campaign of sorts, open source was launched in 1998 by Jon maddog Hall, Larry Augustin, Eric S. Raymond, Bruce Perens, and others. The group adopted the Open Source Definition for open-source software, based on the Debian Free Software Guidelines and they also established the Open Source Initiative as a steward organization for the movement. However, they were unsuccessful in their attempt to secure a trademark for open source to control the use of the term, public information indicates that the group included Bradley M. Kuhn, Karl Fogel, Jim Blandy, Chamindra da Silva, Lawrence Rosen, and David Ascher. Then-OSI Board member Danese Cooper was the moderator of osi-discuss. Kuhn later recollected that the Charter Membership was a brouhaha and took no action, in 2009, the OSI was temporarily suspended from operation as a California corporation, apparently in response to a complaint concerning tax paperwork from earlier years. In 2012, under the leadership of OSI director and then-president Simon Phipps, the OSI initiated an Affiliate Membership program for government-recognized non-profit charitable and not-for-profit industry associations and academic institutions anywhere in the world. Subsequently, the OSI announced an Individual Membership program and listed a number of Corporate Sponsors, on November 8,2013, OSI appointed Patrick Masson as its General Manager. As early as 1999, OSI co-founder Perens objected to the schism that was developing between supporters of Stallmans Free Software Foundation and the OSI because of their disparate approaches. Stallman has sharply criticized the OSI for its focus and for ignoring what he considers the central ethical imperative
17.
Git
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Git is a version control system for tracking changes in computer files and coordinating work on those files among multiple people. It is primarily used for development, but it can be used to keep track of changes in any files. As a distributed control system it is aimed at speed, data integrity. Git was created by Linus Torvalds in 2005 for development of the Linux kernel and its current maintainer since 2005 is Junio Hamano. Like the Linux kernel, Git is free software distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2, the copyright holder of BitKeeper, Larry McVoy, had withdrawn free use of the product after claiming that Andrew Tridgell had reverse-engineered the BitKeeper protocols. Linus Torvalds wanted a system that he could use like BitKeeper. So immediately after the 2.6. 12-rc2 Linux kernel development release, Torvalds quipped about the name git, Im an egotistical bastard, and I name all my projects after myself. The man page describes Git as the stupid content tracker, the readme file of the source code elaborates further, The development of Git began on 3 April 2005. Torvalds announced the project on 6 April, it became self-hosting as of 7 April, the first merge of multiple branches took place on 18 April. Torvalds achieved his goals, on 29 April, the nascent Git was benchmarked recording patches to the Linux kernel tree at the rate of 6.7 per second. On 16 June Git managed the kernel 2.6.12 release, Torvalds turned over maintenance on 26 July 2005 to Junio Hamano, a major contributor to the project. Hamano was responsible for the 1.0 release on 21 December 2005, gits design was inspired by BitKeeper and Monotone. Git was originally designed as a version control system engine on top of which others could write front ends. The core Git project has become a complete version control system that is usable directly. While strongly influenced by BitKeeper, Torvalds deliberately avoided conventional approaches, in Git, a core assumption is that a change will be merged more often than it is written, as it is passed around to various reviewers. In Git, branches are very lightweight, a branch is only a reference to one commit, with its parental commits, the full branch structure can be constructed. These changes are imported as added development branches, and can be merged in the way as a locally developed branch. Git also has a CVS server emulation, which enables the use of extant CVS clients, Subversion and svk repositories can be used directly with git-svn
18.
Fantasy tropes
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Fantasy tropes are a specific type of literary tropes that occur in fantasy fiction. Worldbuilding, in particular, has many common conventions, as do plot and characterization, to a lesser extent. Many works of fantasy operate using these tropes, while others use them in a revisionist manner, making the tropes over for reasons such as for comic effect. The conflict of good against evil is a theme in the popular forms of fantasy, normally, evil characters erupt from their lands to invade. In some works, mostly notably in sword and sorcery, evil is not opposed by the unambiguously good, heroic characters are a mainstay of fantasy, particularly high fantasy and sword and sorcery. Such characters are capable of more than ordinary behavior, physically, morally, sometimes they might have to grow into the role ordained for them. This may take the form of maturation, which is often through Coming of Age, many protagonists are, unknown to themselves, of royal blood. Even in so fanciful a tale as Through the Looking-Glass, Alice is made a queen in the end, commonly, these tales revolve around the maltreated hero coming into his or her own. This can reflect a wish-fulfillment dream, or symbolically embody a profound transformation, the forces of evil are often personified in a Dark Lord. Besides possessing vast magical abilities, a Dark Lord often controls great armies, the villain of the Demon Sword video game is also literally called Dark Lord. In the Lone Wolf gamebooks, the Dark Lords are a race of powerful evil beings. The protagonists of the Overlord video game franchise are classic Dark Lords in the vein of Sauron, the Dark Lord is usually seen as unmarried, though there has been occasion when one has attempted to claim a bride. Quests, a trope in literature, are common in fantasy. They can be anything from a quest to locate the MacGuffins necessary to save the world, in fantasy, magic often has an overwhelming presence, although its precise nature is delineated in the book in which it appears. It can appear in a world, or in a fantasy land that is part of reality but insulated from the mundane lands. A common trope is that the ability to work magic is innate, as a consequence the person who uses it, usually called a magician, wizard, sorcerer, warlock, mage, or magus, is a common figure in fantasy. Another feature is the item, which can endow characters with magical abilities that are not innate. Among the most common are magic swords and magic rings, self-fulfilling prophecies are amongst the most common forms of magic because they are an often used plot device
19.
Knight
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A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a monarch or other political leader for service to the monarch or country, especially in a military capacity. Historically, in Europe, knighthood was conferred upon mounted warriors, during the High Middle Ages, knighthood was considered a class of lower nobility. By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, often, a knight was a vassal who served as a fighter for a lord, with payment in the form of land holdings. The lords trusted the knights, who were skilled in battle on horseback, since the early modern period, the title of knight is purely honorific, usually bestowed by a monarch, as in the British honours system, often for non-military service to the country. The modern female equivalent in the United Kingdom is Dame, furthermore, Geoffroi de Charnys Book of Chivalry expounded upon the importance of Christian faith in every area of a knights life. This novel explored the ideals of knighthood and their incongruity with the reality of Cervantes world, in the late medieval period, new methods of warfare began to render classical knights in armour obsolete, but the titles remained in many nations. Some orders of knighthood, such as the Knights Templar, have become the subject of legend, each of these orders has its own criteria for eligibility, but knighthood is generally granted by a head of state or monarch to selected persons to recognise some meritorious achievement. This linkage is reflected in the etymology of chivalry, cavalier, the special prestige accorded to mounted warriors finds a parallel in the furusiyya in the Muslim world, and the Greek hippeus and Roman eques of classical antiquity. The word knight, from Old English cniht, is a cognate of the German word Knecht and this meaning, of unknown origin, is common among West Germanic languages. Middle High German had the phrase guoter kneht, which also meant knight, the Anglo-Saxon cniht had no connection to horsemanship, the word referred to any servant. A rādcniht, riding-servant, was a servant delivering messages or patrolling coastlines on horseback, a narrowing of the generic meaning servant to military follower of a king or other superior is visible by 1100. The specific military sense of a knight as a warrior in the heavy cavalry emerges only in the Hundred Years War. The verb to knight appears around 1300, and, from the same time, an Equestrian was a member of the second highest social class in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. This class is often translated as knight, the medieval knight, both Greek ἳππος and Latin equus are derived from the Proto-Indo-European word root ekwo-, horse. In the later Roman Empire, the classical Latin word for horse, equus, was replaced in common parlance by the vulgar Latin caballus, sometimes thought to derive from Gaulish caballos. From caballus arose terms in the various Romance languages cognate with the English cavalier, Italian cavaliere, Spanish caballero, French chevalier, Portuguese cavaleiro, the Germanic languages have terms cognate with the English rider, German Ritter, and Dutch and Scandinavian ridder. These words are derived from Germanic rīdan, to ride, in turn derived from the Proto-Indo-European root reidh-, in ancient Rome there was a knightly class Ordo Equestris from which European knighthood may have been derived. Some portions of the armies of Germanic peoples who occupied Europe from the 3rd century AD onward had been mounted, in the Early Medieval period any well-equipped horseman could be described as a knight, or miles in Latin
20.
Barbarian
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A barbarian is a human who is perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive. Alternatively, they may instead be admired and romanticised as noble savages, in idiomatic or figurative usage, a barbarian may also be an individual reference to a brutal, cruel, warlike, insensitive person. The term originates from the Greek, βάρβαρος, in ancient times, the Greeks used it mostly for people of different cultures, but there are examples where one Greek city or state would use the word to attack another. In the early period and sometimes later, Greeks used it for the Turks. Comparable notions are found in non-European civilizations, notably China and Japan, during the Roman Empire, the Romans used the word barbarian for many people, such as the Germanics, Celts, Gauls, Iberians, Thracians, Parthians and Sarmatians. The Ancient Greek name βάρβαρος, barbarian, was an antonym for πολίτης, the earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek
21.
Rogue (character class)
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The Thief, Burglar, Scoundrel, or Rogue is a character class in many role-playing games, including Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft and many MMORPGs. Thieves are usually stealthy and dexterous characters able to disarm traps, pick locks, spy on foes, Thieves are usually nimble melee or ranged combatants, and tend to be focused on dodging attacks rather than withstanding damage. They often attack by dual-wielding daggers or with other small one-handed and/or concealable weapons, relying on speed, Thieves usual work in small groups or guilds. Thieves usually have an ability, allowing them to disappear from sight. Thieves are usually restricted to the armors, leather and the like. While thieves typically cannot practice magic, they use scrolls or magic items in some games, if neither options are available. In most fantasy settings, smaller and more agile fantasy races are particularly suited for the thief class, Rogues in all editions are capable of doing lots of damage with “sneak attacks”, especially from behind their enemies. In the Fire Emblem games, the Thief is the main class able to unlock doors and their weapon of choice is usually a sword, but in Fire Emblem, Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem, Radiant Dawn, they use knives. In addition to opening doors and chests, they may also steal items from enemy units or lower drawbridges, depending on the game. Thieves were not able to steal items until Fire Emblem, Genealogy of the Holy War, and were only limited to stealing all of the targets Gold on hand by striking them. In Fire Emblem, Thracia 776, Thieves were able to steal any item from the enemy, as long as their Speed was greater and their Build was higher than the Weight of the item stolen. Similarly, in Path of Radiance, Thieves may steal weapons and items in the manner as Thracia 776. Thieves were limited to only being able to steal normal items in the GBA Fire Emblem series, Thieves may promote to Thief Fighters, Assassins, Tricksters or Rogues, depending on the game, or not promote at all. They are generally weaker than most other classes, but their high speed. In the Ragnarok Online MMORPG, the Thief is one of the character classes available to the player. The weapons a thief may equip are bow, one-handed sword, a Thief who has acquired enough experience can become either an Assassin or a Rogue. In MapleStory, thieves are one of five choices of characters, like bowmen, they have ranged weapons, a requirement of luck and dexterity, an accuracy increasing skill, and a good balance of HP and MP. Like pirates, they have the option of a weapon or melee weapon, as well as a moderate amount of HP
22.
Valkyrie
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In Norse mythology, a valkyrie is one of a host of female figures who choose those who may die in battle and those who may live. Selecting among half of those who die in battle, the valkyries bring their chosen to the hall of the slain, Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become einherjar, when the einherjar are not preparing for the events of Ragnarök, the valkyries bear them mead. They appear throughout the poetry of skalds, in a 14th-century charm, scholarly theories have been proposed about the relation between the valkyries, the norns, and the dísir, all of which are supernatural figures associated with fate. Archaeological excavations throughout Scandinavia have uncovered amulets theorized as depicting valkyries, in modern culture, valkyries have been the subject of works of art, musical works, video games and poetry. The word valkyrie derives from Old Norse valkyrja, which is composed of two words, the noun valr and the verb kjósa, together, they mean chooser of the slain. The Old Norse valkyrja is cognate to Old English wælcyrge, from the Old English and Old Norse forms, philologist Vladimir Orel reconstructs a Proto-Germanic form, *wala-kuzjōn. However, the term may have been borrowed into Old English from Old Norse, other terms for valkyries in Old Norse sources include óskmey, appearing in the poem Oddrúnargrátr and Óðins meyjar, appearing in the Nafnaþulur. Óskmey may be related to the Odinic name Óski, referring to the fact that Odin receives slain warriors in Valhalla, valkyries are mentioned or appear in the Poetic Edda poems Völuspá, Grímnismál, Völundarkviða, Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, Helgakviða Hundingsbana I, Helgakviða Hundingsbana II and Sigrdrífumál. In stanza 30 of the poem Völuspá, a völva tells Odin that she saw valkyries coming from far away who are ready to ride to the realm of the gods. The völva follows this with a list of six valkyries, Skuld who bore a shield, Skögul, Gunnr, Hildr, afterwards, the völva tells him she has listed the ladies of the War Lord, ready to ride, valkyries, over the earth. A prose introduction in the poem Völundarkviða relates that the brothers Slagfiðr, Egil, there, early one morning, the brothers find three women spinning linen on the shore of the lake Úlfsjár, and near them were their swans garments, they were valkyries. Two, daughters of King Hlödvér, are named Hlaðguðr svanhvít and Hervör alvitr, the brothers take the three women back to their hall with them—Egil takes Ölrún, Slagfiðr takes Hlaðguðr svanhvít and Völund takes Hervör alvitr. They live together for seven winters, until the women fly off to go to a battle, Egil goes off in snow-shoes to look for Ölrún, Slagfiðr goes searching for Hlaðguðr svanhvít and Völund sits in Úlfdalir. He finds one particularly striking, this valkyrie is detailed later in a narrative as Sváva, king Eylimis daughter. The valkyrie speaks to the man, and gives him the name Helgi. The valkyrie tells him she knows of a hoard of swords in Sigarsholm, and that one of them is of particular importance, further into the poem, Atli flytes with the female jötunn Hrímgerðr. After Hrímgerðr is turned to stone by the daylight, a prose narrative continues that Helgi, Helgi and Sváva are betrothed and love one another dearly
23.
Samurai
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Samurai were the military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan. In Japanese, they are referred to as bushi or buke. In both countries the terms were nominalized to mean those who serve in close attendance to the nobility, the pronunciation in Japanese changing to saburai. According to Wilson, a reference to the word samurai appears in the Kokin Wakashū. By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, the samurai were usually associated with a clan and their lord, and were trained as officers in military tactics and grand strategy. While the samurai numbered less than 10% of then Japans population, following the Battle of Hakusukinoe against Tang China and Silla in 663 AD, which led to a retreat from Korean affairs, Japan underwent widespread reform. One of the most important was that of the Taika Reform and this edict allowed the Japanese aristocracy to adopt the Tang dynasty political structure, bureaucracy, culture, religion, and philosophy. As part of the Taihō Code of 702 AD, and the later Yōrō Code, the population was required to regularly for census. With an understanding of how the population was distributed, Emperor Monmu introduced a law whereby 1 in 3–4 adult males were drafted into the national military and these soldiers were required to supply their own weapons, and in-return were exempted from duties and taxes. This was one of the first attempts by the Imperial government to form an organized army modeled after the Chinese system and it was called Gundan-Sei by later historians and is believed to have been short-lived. The Taihō Code classified most of the Imperial bureaucrats into 12 ranks and those of 6th rank and below were referred to as samurai and dealt with day-to-day affairs. Although these samurai were civilian public servants, the word is believed to have derived from this term. Military men, however, would not be referred to as samurai for many more centuries, Emperor Kanmu introduced the title of seii-taishōgun, or Shogun, and began to rely on the powerful regional clans to conquer the Emishi. Skilled in mounted combat and archery, these clan warriors became the Emperors preferred tool for putting down rebellions, though this is the first known use of the Shogun title, it was a temporary title, and was not imbued with political power until the 13th century. At this time, the Imperial Court officials considered them to be merely a military section under the control of the Imperial Court, ultimately, Emperor Kanmu disbanded his army. From this time, the Emperors power gradually declined, while the Emperor was still the ruler, powerful clans around Kyoto assumed positions as ministers, and their relatives bought positions as magistrates. To amass wealth and repay their debts, magistrates often imposed heavy taxes, through protective agreements and political marriages, they accumulated, or gathered, political power, eventually surpassing the traditional aristocracy. Some clans were formed by farmers who had taken up arms to protect themselves from the Imperial magistrates sent to govern their lands
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Archaeology
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Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. In North America, archaeology is considered a sub-field of anthropology, archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology as a field is distinct from the discipline of palaeontology, Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in societies across the world, Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time. The discipline involves surveying, excavation and eventually analysis of data collected to learn more about the past, in broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, Archaeology has been used by nation-states to create particular visions of the past. Nonetheless, today, archaeologists face many problems, such as dealing with pseudoarchaeology, the looting of artifacts, a lack of public interest, the science of archaeology grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. Antiquarians studied history with attention to ancient artifacts and manuscripts. Tentative steps towards the systematization of archaeology as a science took place during the Enlightenment era in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, in Europe, philosophical interest in the remains of Greco-Roman civilization and the rediscovery of classical culture began in the late Middle Age. Antiquarians, including John Leland and William Camden, conducted surveys of the English countryside, one of the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation was Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England. John Aubrey was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other monuments in southern England. He was also ahead of his time in the analysis of his findings and he attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting, medieval architecture, costume, and shield-shapes. Excavations were also carried out in the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and these excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii, while in Herculaneum they began in 1738. The discovery of entire towns, complete with utensils and even human shapes, however, prior to the development of modern techniques, excavations tended to be haphazard, the importance of concepts such as stratification and context were overlooked. The father of archaeological excavation was William Cunnington and he undertook excavations in Wiltshire from around 1798, funded by Sir Richard Colt Hoare. Cunnington made meticulous recordings of neolithic and Bronze Age barrows, one of the major achievements of 19th century archaeology was the development of stratigraphy. The idea of overlapping strata tracing back to successive periods was borrowed from the new geological and paleontological work of scholars like William Smith, James Hutton, the application of stratigraphy to archaeology first took place with the excavations of prehistorical and Bronze Age sites
25.
Tourist
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Tourism is travel for pleasure or business, also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. Tourism may be international, or within the travellers country, Tourism can be domestic or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a countrys balance of payments. Today, tourism is a source of income for many countries. International tourism receipts grew to US$1.03 trillion in 2011, the ITB Berlin is the worlds leading tourism trade fair. The word tourist was used by 1772 and tourism by 1811. It is formed from the tour, which is derived from Old English turian, from Old French torner, from Latin tornare, to turn on a lathe. Tourism is an important, even vital, source of income for many regions and it also creates opportunities for employment in the service sector of the economy associated with tourism. This is in addition to goods bought by tourists, including souvenirs, in 1936, the League of Nations defined a foreign tourist as someone traveling abroad for at least twenty-four hours. Its successor, the United Nations, amended this definition in 1945 and it includes movements for all purposes. In 1981, the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism defined tourism in terms of particular activities chosen and undertaken outside the home, in this context, travel has a similar definition to tourism, but implies a more purposeful journey. The terms tourism and tourist are sometimes used pejoratively, to imply a shallow interest in the cultures or locations visited, by contrast, traveler is often used as a sign of distinction. The sociology of tourism has studied the values underpinning these distinctions. International tourist arrivals reached 1.035 billion in 2012, up from over 996 million in 2011, the World Tourism Organization reports the following ten destinations as the most visited in terms of the number of international travellers in 2016. International tourism receipts grew to US$1.2 trillion in 2014, based upon air traffic, the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index reports the following cities as the top ten most popular destinations of international tourism worldwide. MasterCard reports the following cities as the top ten biggest earners on international tourism worldwide in 2015, as early as Shulgi, however, kings praised themselves for protecting roads and building waystations for travelers. During the Roman Republic, spas and coastal resorts such as Baiae were popular among the rich, pausanias wrote his Description of Greece in the 2nd century AD. In ancient China, nobles sometimes made a point of visiting Mount Tai and, on occasion, the Islamic hajj is still central to its faith and Chaucers Canterbury Tales and Wu Chengens Journey to the West remain classics of English and Chinese literature. The 10th- to 13th-century Song dynasty also saw secular travel writers such as Su Shi, under the Ming, Xu Xiake continued the practice
26.
Caveman
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A caveman is a stock character based upon widespread but anachronistic and conflated concepts of the way in which Neanderthals, early modern humans, or archaic humans may have looked and behaved. The term originates out of assumptions about the association between early humans and caves, most clearly demonstrated in cave painting, the term is not used in academic research. Cavemen are typically portrayed as wearing shaggy animal hides, and capable of painting like behaviourally modern humans of the last glacial period. Until the last glacial period, most hominins did not live in caves, being nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes living in a variety of structures, such as tents. Their societies were similar to those of modern day indigenous peoples. A few genuine cave dwellings did exist, however, such as at Mount Carmel in Israel, caveman-like heraldic wild men were found in European and African iconography for hundreds of years. During the Middle Ages, these creatures were generally depicted in art and literature as bearded and covered in hair, while wild men were always depicted as living outside of civilization, there was an ongoing debate as to whether they were human or animal. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyles The Lost World, ape-men are depicted in a fight with modern humans, edgar Rice Burroughs adapted this idea for The Land That Time Forgot. From the descriptions, Griffiths characters cant talk, and use sticks and stones for weapons and they often have grunt-like names, such as Ugg and Zog. Expressions such as living in a cave have become metaphors for a modern human who displays traits of great ignorance or uncivilized behavior. In popular culture, the comic strips B. C, alley Oop, the Spanish comic franchise Mortadelo y Filemón, and occasionally The Far Side and Gogs portray cavemen in that way. Stereotypical cavemen are also featured in advertising, including advertisements for Minute Maid. The GEICO advertisements spawned a short-lived TV series called Cavemen, there are various caveman characters in popular culture, Ice World Walking with Cavemen Walking with Beasts Prehistoric Park Joe & Mac Far Cry Primal Ark, Survival Evolved
27.
Player character
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A player character or playable character is a fictional character in a role-playing or video game whose actions are directly controlled by a player of the game rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not controlled by a player are called non-player characters, the actions of non-player characters are typically handled by the game itself in video games, or according to rules followed by a gamemaster refereeing tabletop role-playing games. The player character functions as a fictional, alternate body for the player controlling it, video games typically have one player character for each person playing the game. Some games offer a group of characters for the player to choose from. Where more than one character is available, the characters may have different abilities, strengths. A player character may sometimes be based on a real person, historical people and leaders may sometimes appear as characters too, particularly in strategy or empire building games such as in Sid Meiers Civilization series. Such a player character is properly an avatar as the player characters name. Avatars are also seen in casino game simulations. In many video games, and especially first-person shooters, the character is a blank slate without any notable characteristics or even backstory. Pac-Man, Crono, Link and Chell are examples of such characters and these characters are generally silent protagonists. Some games will go further, never showing or naming the player-character at all. This is somewhat common in first-person videogames, such as in Myst, having many different characters to play as and against, all possessing different moves and abilities, is necessary to create a larger gameplay variety in such games. In role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons or Final Fantasy, the character is usually of a certain race and class, each with strengths and weaknesses. The attributes of the characters are given as numerical values which can be increased as the gamer progresses and gains rank, a secret or unlockable character may be a playable character in a video game available after completing the game or meeting other requirements
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Deity
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A deity is a concept conceived in diverse ways in various cultures, typically as a natural or supernatural being considered divine or sacred. A male deity is a god, while a female deity is a goddess, the Oxford reference defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. Various cultures have conceptualized a deity differently than a monotheistic God, a plain deity need not be omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, or eternal, however an almighty monotheistic God generally does have these attributes. Monotheistic religions typically refer to God in masculine terms, while other religions refer to their deities in a variety of ways – masculine, feminine, androgynous, some Avestan and Vedic deities were viewed as ethical concepts. In Indian religions, deities have been envisioned as manifesting within the temple of every living beings body, as sensory organs, but in Indian religions, all deities are also subject to death when their merit runs out. The English language word deity derives from Old French deité, the Latin deitatem or divine nature, deus is related through a common Proto-Indo-European language origin to *deiwos. Deva is masculine, and the feminine equivalent is devi. Etymologically, the cognates of Devi are Latin dea and Greek thea, in Old Persian, daiva- means demon, evil god, while in Sanskrit it means the opposite, referring to the heavenly, divine, terrestrial things of high excellence, exalted, shining ones. The closely linked term god refers to supreme being, deity, which states Douglas Harper, is derived from Proto-Germanic *guthan, from PIE *ghut-, guth in the Irish language means voice. The term *ghut- is also the source of Old Church Slavonic zovo, Sanskrit huta-, from the root *gheu- An alternate etymology for the term god traces it to the PIE root *ghu-to-, the term *gheu- is also the source of the Greek khein to pour. Originally the German root was a noun, but the gender of the monotheistic God shifted to masculine under the influence of Christianity. In contrast, all ancient Indo-European cultures and mythologies recognized both masculine and feminine deities, the term deity often connotes the concept of sacred or divine, as a god or goddess, in a polytheistic religion. However, there is no accepted consensus concept of deity across religions and cultures. Huw Owen states that the deity or god or its equivalent in other languages has a bewildering range of meanings. Some engravings or sketches show animals, hunters or rituals, the Venus of Willendorf, a female figurine found in Europe and dated to about 25,000 BCE has been interpreted as an exemplar of a prehistoric divine feminine. In Buddhist mythology, devas are beings inhabiting certain happily placed worlds of Buddhist cosmology and these beings are mortal and numerous. It is also common for iṣṭadevatās to be called deities, although the nature of Yidams is distinct from what is meant by the term. Buddhism does not believe in a creator deity, however, deities are an essential part of Buddhist cosmology, rebirth and Saṃsāra doctrines
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Immortality
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Immortality is eternal life, the ability to live forever. At least one species has potential biological immortality, Turritopsis dohrnii, other advocates believe that life extension is a more achievable goal in the short term, with immortality awaiting further research breakthroughs. The absence of aging would provide humans with biological immortality, but not invulnerability to death by physical trauma, whether the process of internal endoimmortality is delivered within the upcoming years depends chiefly on research in the former view and perhaps is an awaited goal in the latter case. In religious contexts, immortality is often stated to be one of the promises of God to human beings who show goodness or else follow divine law, Life extension technologies promise a path to complete rejuvenation. Cryonics holds out the hope that the dead can be revived in the future, while, as shown with creatures such as hydra and planarian worms, it is indeed possible for a creature to be biologically immortal, it is not known if it is possible for humans. Mind uploading is the transference of brain states from a brain to an alternative medium providing similar functionality. Assuming the process to be possible and repeatable, this would provide immortality to the computation of the original brain, the soul itself has different meanings and is not used in the same way in different religions and different denominations of a religion. For example, various branches of Christianity have disagreeing views on the souls immortality, physical immortality is a state of life that allows a person to avoid death and maintain conscious thought. It can mean the unending existence of a person from a source other than organic life. There are three causes of death, aging, disease and physical trauma. Such issues can be resolved with the provided in research to any end providing such alternate theories at present that require unification. Eliminating aging would require finding a solution to each of these causes, there is also a huge body of knowledge indicating that change is characterized by the loss of molecular fidelity. Disease is theoretically surmountable via technology, in short, it is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism, something the body shouldnt typically have to deal with its natural make up. Human understanding of genetics is leading to cures and treatments for previously incurable diseases. The mechanisms by which other diseases do their damage are becoming better understood, sophisticated methods of detecting diseases early are being developed. Preventative medicine is becoming better understood, neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinsons and Alzheimers may soon be curable with the use of stem cells. Breakthroughs in cell biology and telomere research are leading to treatments for cancer, vaccines are being researched for AIDS and tuberculosis. Genes associated with type 1 diabetes and certain types of cancer have been discovered, artificial devices attached directly to the nervous system may restore sight to the blind
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Demigod
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The term demigod or demi-god can refer to a minor deity, a mortal or immortal who is the offspring of a god and a human being, or a figure who has attained divine status after death. The English term demigod is a calque of the Latin semideus, half-god, in the ancient Greek and Roman world, the word did not have a consistent definition and was rarely used. The earliest recorded use of the term is by the archaic Greek poets Homer, both describe dead heroes as hemitheoi, or half gods. In these cases, the word did not mean that these figures had one parent who was divine and one who was mortal. Instead, those who demonstrated strength, power, good family, and good behavior were termed heroes, and after death they could be called hemitheoi, pindar also used the term frequently as a synonym for hero. According to the Roman author Cassius Dio, Julius Caesar was declared a demigod by the Roman Senate after his victory at Thapsus. However, Dio was writing in the third century — centuries after the death of Caesar —, the first Roman to employ the term demigod may have been the poet Ovid, who used the Latin semideus several times in reference to minor deities. The poet Lucan also uses the term to speak of Pompey attaining divinity upon his death, the term demigod first appeared in English in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, when it was used to render the Greek and Roman concepts of semideus and daemon. Since then, it has frequently been applied figuratively to people of extraordinary ability, john Milton states in Paradise Lost that angels are demigods. Demigods are important figures in Rick Riordans Percy Jackson books, where many of the characters, in Riordans work, a demigod is defined as an individual born of one human and one divine parent. In Hinduism, the term demigod is used to refer to deities who were once human, there are three very notable demigods in Vedic Scriptures, Hanuman, Nandi, and Garuda. Examples of demigods worshiped in South India are Madurai Veeran and Karuppu Sami, the heroes of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, the five Pandava brothers, fit the Western definition of demigods though they are generally not referred to as such. Queen Kunti, the wife of King Pandu, was given a mantra that, when her husband was cursed to die if he ever engaged in sexual relations, Kunti used this mantra to provide her husband with children fathered by various deities. These children were Yudhishthira, Bhima and Arjuna and she taught this mantra to Madri, King Pandus other wife, and she immaculately conceived twin boys named Nakula and Sahadeva. Queen Kunti had previously conceived another son, Karna, when she had tested the mantra out, despite her protests, Surya the sun god was compelled by the mantra to impregnate her. Bhishma is another figures who fits the definition of demigod, as he was the son of king Shantanu. The Vaishnavites cite various verses that speak of the subordinate status. For example, the Rig Veda reads, oṃ tad viṣṇoḥ paramam padam sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ, thus the Devas are stated to be subordinate to Vishnu, or God
31.
Kitten
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A kitten, also known as a kitty or kitty cat, is a juvenile cat. After being born, kittens are totally dependent on their mother for survival, after about two weeks, kittens quickly develop and begin to explore the world outside the nest. After a further three to four weeks, they begin to eat food and grow adult teeth. Domestic kittens are highly social animals and enjoy human companionship, the word kitten derives from the Middle English word kitoun, which in turn came from the Old French chitoun or cheton. A feline litter usually consists of two to five kittens born after a gestation lasting between 64 and 67 days, with a length of 66 days. Kittens emerge in a sac called the amnion, which is bitten off, for the first several weeks, kittens are unable to urinate or defecate without being stimulated by their mother. They are also unable to regulate their temperature for the first three weeks, so kittens born in temperatures less than 27 °C can die from hypothermia if their mother does not keep them warm. The mothers milk is very important for the nutrition and proper growth. This milk transfers antibodies to the kittens, which protect them against infectious disease. Newborn kittens are unable to produce concentrated urine, and so have a high requirement for fluids. Kittens open their eyes about seven to ten days after birth, at first, the retina is poorly developed and vision is poor. Kittens are not able to see as well as adult cats until about ten weeks after birth, Kittens develop very quickly from about two weeks of age until their seventh week. They play-fight with their litter-mates and begin to explore the world outside the nest or den and they learn to wash themselves and others as well as play hunting and stalking games, showing their inborn ability as predators. These innate skills are developed by the mother or other adult cats. Later, the adult cats demonstrate hunting techniques for the kittens to emulate, as they reach three to four weeks old, the kittens are gradually weaned and begin to eat solid food, with weaning usually complete by six to eight weeks. Kittens generally begin to lose their baby teeth around three months of age, and have a set of adult teeth by nine months. Kittens live primarily on solid food after weaning, but usually continue to suckle from time to time until separated from their mothers, some mother cats will scatter their kittens as early as three months of age, while others continue to look after them until they approach sexual maturity. The sex of kittens is usually easy to determine at birth, by six to eight weeks they are harder to sex because of the growth of fur in the genital region
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Dog
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The domestic dog is a member of genus Canis that forms part of the wolf-like canids, and is the most widely abundant carnivore. The dog and the extant gray wolf are sister taxa, with modern wolves not closely related to the wolves that were first domesticated, the dog was the first domesticated species and has been selectively bred over millennia for various behaviors, sensory capabilities, and physical attributes. Their long association with humans has led dogs to be attuned to human behavior. Dogs vary widely in shape, size and colours, dogs perform many roles for people, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and military, companionship and, more recently, aiding handicapped individuals. This influence on society has given them the sobriquet mans best friend. The term domestic dog is used for both domesticated and feral varieties. The English word dog comes from Middle English dogge, from Old English docga, the term may possibly derive from Proto-Germanic *dukkōn, represented in Old English finger-docce. The word also shows the familiar petname diminutive -ga also seen in frogga frog, picga pig, stagga stag, wicga beetle, worm, the term dog may ultimately derive from the earliest layer of Proto-Indo-European vocabulary. In 14th-century England, hound was the word for all domestic canines, and dog referred to a subtype of hound. It is believed this dog type was so common, it became the prototype of the category hound. By the 16th century, dog had become the general word, the word hound is ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *kwon-, dog. This semantic shift may be compared with in German, where the corresponding words Dogge, a male canine is referred to as a dog, while a female is called a bitch. The father of a litter is called the sire, and the mother is called the dam, the process of birth is whelping, from the Old English word hwelp, the modern English word whelp is an alternate term for puppy. A litter refers to the offspring at one birth which are called puppies or pups from the French poupée, doll. The term dog typically is applied both to the species as a whole, and any male member of the same. An adult female is a bitch, in some countries, especially in North America, dog is used instead due to the vulgar connotation of bitch. An adult male capable of reproduction is a stud, an adult female capable of reproduction is a brood bitch, or brood mother. Immature males or females are pups or puppies, a group of pups from the same gestation period is a litter
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Saddle
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The saddle is a supportive structure for a rider or other load, fastened to an animals back by a girth. The most common type is the equestrian saddle designed for a horse, today, modern saddles come in a wide variety of styles, each designed for a specific equestrianism discipline, and require careful fit to both the rider and the horse. Proper saddle care can extend the life of a saddle. The word saddle originates from the Proto-Germanic language *sathulaz, with cognates in various other Indo-European languages, there is evidence, though disputed, that humans first began riding the horse not long after domestication, possibly as early as 4000 BC. The earliest known saddle-like equipment were fringed cloths or pads used by Assyrian cavalry around 700 BC and these were held on with a girth or surcingle that included breast straps and cruppers. From the earliest depictions, saddles became status symbols and these were located in Pazyryk burials finds. These saddles, found in the Ukok Plateau, Siberia were dated to 500-400 BC, the Scythians also developed an early saddle that included padding and decorative embellishments. Though they had neither a solid tree nor stirrups, these early treeless saddles and pads provided protection and comfort to the rider, with a slight increase in security. The Sarmatians also used a padded treeless early saddle, possibly as early as the century, BC. Early solid-treed saddles were made of felt that covered a wooden frame, Asian designs appeared during the Han dynasty approximately 200 BC. One of the earliest solid-treed saddles in the west was the four horn design, the invention of the solid saddle tree also allowed development of the true stirrup as it is known today. Without a solid tree, the weight in the stirrups creates abnormal pressure points. Thermography studies on treeless and flexible tree saddle designs have found there is considerable friction across the center line of a horses back. The stirrup was one of the milestones in saddle development, the first stirrup-like object was invented in India in the 2nd century BC, and consisted of a simple leather strap in which the riders toe was placed. It offered very little support, however, the stirrup appeared to be in widespread use across China by 477 AD. which then spread to Europe. This invention gave great support for the rider, and was essential in later warfare, Saddles were improved upon during the Middle Ages, as knights needed saddles that were stronger and offered more support. The resulting saddle had a higher cantle and pommel and was built on a tree that supported more weight from a rider with armor. This saddle, a predecessor to the modern Western saddle, was padded with wool or horsehair
34.
Pony
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Depending on context, a pony may be a horse that is under an approximate or exact height at the withers or a small horse with a specific conformation and temperament. The word pony derives from the old French poulenet, meaning foal, a young, immature horse, but this is not the meaning, unlike a horse foal. However, on occasion, people who are unfamiliar with horses may confuse an adult pony with a foal, the ancestors of most modern ponies developed small stature because they lived on the margins of livable horse habitat. These smaller animals were domesticated and bred for various purposes all over the Northern Hemisphere, ponies were historically used for driving and freight transport, as childrens mounts, for recreational riding, and later as competitors and performers in their own right. During the Industrial Revolution, particularly in Great Britain, a significant number were used as pit ponies, ponies are generally considered intelligent and friendly, although sometimes they also are described as stubborn or cunning. Properly trained ponies are appropriate mounts for children who are learning to ride, larger ponies can be ridden by adults, as ponies are usually strong for their size. In modern use, many organizations define a pony as a horse that measures less than 14.2 hands at the withers. Different organizations that use a strict measurement model vary from 14 hands to nearly 14.3 hands, many breeds classify an animal as either horse or pony based on pedigree and phenotype, no matter its height. Some full-sized horses may be called ponies for various reasons of tradition or as a term of endearment, for many forms of competition, the official definition of a pony is a horse that measures less than 14.2 hands at the withers. However, the pony can be used in general for any small horse. Furthermore, some breeds may have individuals who mature under that height but are still called horses and are allowed to compete as horses. In Australia, horses that measure from 14 hands to 15 hands are known as a galloway, people who are unfamiliar with horses may confuse an adult pony with a young, immature horse. While foals that will grow up to be horse-sized may be no taller than some ponies in their first months of life, a pony can be ridden and put to work, while a foal is too young to be ridden or used as a working animal. Foals, whether they grow up to be horse or pony-sized, can be distinguished from adult horses by their long legs. Their heads and eyes also exhibit juvenile characteristics, furthermore, in most cases, nursing foals will be in very close proximity to a mare who is the mother of the foal. While ponies exhibit some neoteny with the wide foreheads and small size, ponies originally developed as a landrace adapted to a harsh natural environment, and were considered part of the draft subtype typical of Northern Europe. At one time, it was hypothesized that they may have descended from a wild subspecies of Equus ferus. The usefulness of the pony was noted by farmers who observed that a pony could outperform a draft horse on small farms, by the 20th century, many pony breeds had Arabian and other blood added to make a more refined pony suitable for riding
35.
Weapon
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A weapon, arm, or armament is any device used with intent to inflict damage or harm to living beings, structures, or systems. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, self-defense. In a broader context, weapons may be construed to include anything used to gain a strategic, something that has been re-purposed, converted, or enhanced to become a weapon of war is termed weaponized, such as a weaponized virus or weaponized lasers. The use of objects as weapons has been observed among chimpanzees, however, this can not be confirmed using physical evidence because wooden clubs, spears, and unshaped stones would not have left an unambiguous record. The earliest unambiguous weapons to be found are the Schöninger Speere, the first defensive structures and fortifications appeared in the Bronze Age, indicating an increased need for security. Weapons designed to breach fortifications followed soon after, for example the battering ram was in use by 2500 BC, although early Iron Age swords were not superior to their bronze predecessors, once iron-working developed, around 1300 BC in Greece Alex Webb, Metalworking in Ancient Greece. Domestication of the horse and widespread use of spoked wheels by ca.2000 BC, led to the light, the mobility provided by chariots were important during this era. Spoke-wheeled chariot usage peaked around 1300 BC and then declined, ceasing to be militarily relevant by the 4th century BC. Cavalry developed once horses were bred to support the weight of a man, the horse extended the range and increased the speed of attacks. Ships built as weapons or warships such as the trireme were in use by the 7th century BC and these ships were eventually replaced by larger ships by the 4th century BC. European warfare during the Post-classical history was dominated by groups of knights supported by massed infantry. They were involved in combat and sieges which involved various siege weapons. Knights on horseback developed tactics for charging with lances providing an impact on the enemy formations, whereas infantry, in the age before structured formations, relied on cheap, sturdy weapons such as spears and billhooks in close combat and bows from a distance. As armies became more professional, their equipment was standardized and infantry transitioned to pikes, pikes are normally seven to eight feet in length, in conjunction with smaller side-arms. In Eastern and Middle Eastern warfare, similar tactics were developed independent of European influences, the introduction of gunpowder from the Far East at the end of this period revolutionized warfare. Formations of musketeers, protected by pikemen came to dominate open battles, the European Renaissance marked the beginning of the implementation of firearms in western warfare. Guns and rockets were introduced to the battlefield, firearms are qualitatively different from earlier weapons because they release energy from combustible propellants such as gunpowder, rather than from a counter-weight or spring. This energy is released very rapidly and can be replicated without much effort by the user, therefore even early firearms such as the arquebus were much more powerful than human-powered weapons. During the U. S. Civil War various technologies including the gun and ironclad warship emerged that would be recognizable and useful military weapons today
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Armour
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Personal armour is used to protect soldiers and war animals. Vehicle armour is used on warships and armoured fighting vehicles, a second use of the term armour describes armoured forces, armoured weapons, and their role in combat. After the evolution of armoured warfare, mechanised infantry and their weapons came to be referred to collectively as armour, the word armour began to appear in the Middle Ages as a derivative of Old French. It is dated from 1297 as a mail, defensive covering worn in combat, the word originates from the Old French armure, itself derived from the Latin armatura meaning arms and/or equipment, with the root armare meaning arms or gear. Armour has been used throughout recorded history and it has been made from a variety of materials, beginning with rudimentary leather protection and evolving through mail and metal plate into todays modern composites. For much of history the manufacture of metal personal armour has dominated the technology. Its production was influential in the revolution, and furthered commercial development of metallurgy. Armour was the single most influential factor in the development of firearms, significant factors in the development of armour include the economic and technological necessities of its production. For instance, plate armour first appeared in Medieval Europe when water-powered trip hammers made the formation of plates faster and cheaper, also, modern militaries usually do not equip their forces with the best armour available because it would be prohibitively expensive. The samurai warriors of feudal Japan utilised many types of armour for hundreds of years up to the 19th century, Japanese lamellar armour passed through Korea and reached Japan around the 5th century. These early Japanese lamellar armours took the form of a sleeveless jacket, armour did not always cover all of the body, sometimes no more than a helmet and leg plates were worn. The rest of the body was protected by means of a large shield. Examples of armies equipping their troops in this fashion were the Aztecs, in East Asia many types of armour were commonly used at different times by various cultures including, scale armour, lamellar armour, laminar armour, plated mail, mail, plate armour and brigandine. Around the dynastic Tang, Song, and early Ming Period, cuirasses and plates were also used, the Chinese, during that time used partial plates for important body parts instead of covering their whole body since too much plate armour hinders their martial arts movement. The other body parts were covered in cloth, leather, lamellar, in pre-Qin dynasty times, leather armour was made out of various animals, with more exotic ones such as the rhinoceros. Mail, sometimes called chainmail, made of interlocking iron rings is believed to have first appeared some time after 300 BC and its invention is credited to the Celts, the Romans were thought to have adopted their design. Gradually, small plates or discs of iron were added to the mail to protect vulnerable areas. Hardened leather and splinted construction were used for arm and leg pieces, the coat of plates was developed, an armour made of large plates sewn inside a textile or leather coat
37.
Scroll
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A scroll, also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. The scroll is usually unrolled so that one page is exposed at a time, for writing or reading, with the remaining pages rolled up to the left and right of the visible page. It is unrolled side to side, and the text is written in lines from the top to the bottom of the page. Depending on the language, the letters may be left to right, right to left. Some scrolls are simply rolled up pages, others may have wooden rollers on each end, scrolls were the first form of editable record keeping texts, used in Eastern Mediterranean ancient Egyptian civilizations. Parchment scroll used by Israelites after Sinai was the first use of scrolls in the recording of literature before the codex or bound book with pages was invented by the Latins in the 1st century AD. Scrolls were more highly regarded than codices until well into Roman times where they were written in single latitudinal column. The ink used in writing scrolls had to adhere to a surface that was rolled and unrolled, even so, ink would slowly flake off of scrolls. Shorter pieces of parchment or paper are called rolls or rotuli, historians of the classical period tend to use roll instead of scroll. A distinction that sometimes applies is that the lines of writing in rotuli run across the width of the rather than along the length. Rolls may be wider than most scrolls, up to perhaps 60 cm or two feet wide, Rolls were often stored together in a special cupboard on shelves. A special Chinese form of book, called the whirlwind book, consists of several pieces of paper bound at the top with bamboo. In Scotland, the term scrow was used from about the 13th to the 17th centuries for scroll, writing, there existed an office of Clerk of the Scrow meaning the Clerk of the Rolls or Clerk of the Register. The scroll was replaced by the codex, a process which started almost as soon as the codex was invented. Unfortunately, scrolls were usually discarded after their contents were transferred to a codex, most scrolls uncovered by archaeologists are found in trash middens and burial sites. The oldest complete Torah scroll was discovered in May 2013 by Professor Mauro Perani. It was stored in a library in Bolonia, Italy. It had been mislabeled in 1889 as dating from the 17th century, carbon testing dates the prayer book to the year 840, which is 300 to 400 years earlier than the previously oldest known Torah scrolls from the 12th and 13th centuries
38.
Potion
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A potion is a magical medicine, drug or poison in liquid form. In mythology and literature, a potion is made by a magician, dragon. It is used for various motives including the healing, bewitching or poisoning of people, for example, love potions for those who wish to fall in love with another, sleeping potions to cause long-term or eternal sleep, and elixirs to heal/cure any wound/malady. Creations of potions of different kinds were a common practice of alchemy, during the 19th century, it was common in certain countries to see wandering charlatans offering curative potions. These were eventually dismissed as quackery, apothecary Concoction Elixir Extract Herbal tea Spagyric Tincture Poisoning in the Middle Ages
39.
Tool
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A tool is any physical item that can be used to achieve a goal, especially if the item is not consumed in the process. Tool use by humans dates back millions of years, and other animals are known to employ simple tools. Tools that are used in fields or activities may have different designations such as instrument, utensil, implement, machine, device. The set of tools needed to achieve a goal is equipment, the knowledge of constructing, obtaining and using tools is technology. Anthropologists believe that the use of tools was an important step in the evolution of mankind, because tools are used extensively by both humans and wild chimpanzees, it is widely assumed that the first routine use of tools took place prior to the divergence between the two species. These early tools, however, were made of perishable materials such as sticks. Stone artifacts only date back to about 2.5 million years ago, however, a 2010 study suggests the hominin species Australopithecus afarensis ate meat by carving animal carcasses with stone implements. This finding pushes back the earliest known use of tools among hominins to about 3.4 million years ago. Finds of actual tools date back at least 2.6 million years in Ethiopia, one of the earliest distinguishable stone tool forms is the hand axe. Up until recently, weapons found in digs were the tools of “early man” that were studied. Now, more tools are recognized as culturally and historically relevant, as well as hunting, other activities required tools such as preparing food, “…nutting, leatherworking, grain harvesting and woodworking…” Included in this group are “flake stone tools. “Man the hunter” as the catalyst for Hominin change has been questioned, based on marks on the bones at archaeological sites, it is now more evident that pre-humans were scavenging off of other predators carcasses rather than killing their own food. Mechanical devices experienced an expansion in their use in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome with the systematic employment of new energy sources. Their use expanded through the Dark Ages with the addition of windmills, machine tools occasioned a surge in producing new tools in the industrial revolution. Advocates of nanotechnology expect a similar surge as tools become microscopic in size, one can classify tools according to their basic functions, Cutting and edge tools, such as the knife, scythe or sickle, are wedge-shaped implements that produce a shearing force along a narrow face. Ideally, the edge of the needs to be harder than the material being cut or else the blade will become dulled with repeated use. But even resilient tools will require periodic sharpening, which is the process of removing deformation wear from the edge, other examples of cutting tools include gouges and drill bits. Moving tools move large and tiny items, many are levers which give the user a mechanical advantage
40.
Blessing
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A blessing is the infusion of something with holiness, spiritual redemption, or divine will. The modern English language term bless likely derives from the 1225 term blessen, due to this, the term is related to the term blōd, meaning blood. References to this practice, Blót, exist in related Icelandic sources. To be blessed means to be favored by God, Blessings therefore are directly associated with God and come from God. Thus to express a blessing is like bestowing a wish on someone that they experience the favor of God. May you have a blessed Christmas, therefore can also be translated as, a curse, at least in its most formal sense, is the opposite of a blessing. In the Bible, blessings and curses are related, the book of Deuteronomy prescribes that obedience to the Law of Moses brings Gods blessing, similar constructions appear in the New Testament, as in the blessings and curses of Jesus recorded in the Beatitudes of Luke 6, 20-22. One of the first incidences of blessing in the Bible is in Genesis 12, 1-2 where Abram is ordered by the LORD to leave his country and is told, I will bless you, I will make your name great. In Judaism, a blessing is recited at a moment during a prayer, ceremony or other activity, especially before. The function of these blessings is to acknowledge God as the source of all blessing, a berakhah typically starts with the words, Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe. Judaism teaches that food ultimately is a gift of the one great Provider, God, within Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Lutheranism, and similar traditions, formal blessings of the church are performed by bishops, priests, and deacons. Particular formulas may be associated with episcopal blessings and papal blessings and they also give blessings to begin divine services and at the dismissal at the end. In the Orthodox Church liturgical blessings are performed over people, objects, or are given at specific points during divine services. A priest or bishop blesses with his hand, but may use a blessing cross, candles, an icon. When blessing with the hand, a priest uses his hand, holding his fingers so that they form the Greek letters IC XC. A bishop does the same, except he uses both hands, or may hold the crozier in his hand, using both to make the Sign of the Cross. A bishop may also bless with special candlesticks known as the dikirion and trikirion, when blessing an object, the rubrics often instruct Orthodox bishops and priests to make use of such substances as incense and holy water. Also, formal ecclesiastical permission to undertake an action is referred to as a blessing, the blessing may be bestowed by a bishop or priest, or by ones own spiritual father
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