VAX is a line of computers developed by Digital Equipment Corporation in the mid-1970s. The VAX-11/780, introduced on October 25, 1977, was the first of a range of popular and influential computers implementing the VAX instruction set architecture. A 32-bit system with a complex instruction set computer architecture based on DEC's earlier PDP-11, VAX was designed to extend or replace DEC's various Programmed Data Processor ISAs; the VAX architecture's primary features were its orthogonal instruction set. VAX has been perceived as the quintessential CISC ISA, with its large number of assembly-language-programmer-friendly addressing modes and machine instructions orthogonal architecture, instructions for complex operations such as queue insertion or deletion and polynomial evaluation, it is one of the most studied and commented-on ISA's in computer history. VAX was succeeded by the DEC Alpha instruction set architecture; the name "VAX" originated as an acronym for virtual address extension, both because the VAX was seen as a 32-bit extension of the older 16-bit PDP-11 and because it was an early adopter of virtual memory to manage this larger address space.

Early versions of the VAX processor implement a "compatibility mode" that emulates many of the PDP-11's instructions, giving it the 11 in VAX-11 to highlight this compatibility. Versions offloaded the compatibility mode and some of the less used CISC instructions to emulation in the operating system software; the VAX instruction set was designed to be orthogonal. When it was introduced, many programs were written in assembly language, so having a "programmer-friendly" instruction set was important. In time, as more programs were written in higher-level language, the instruction set became less visible, the only ones much concerned about it were compiler writers. One unusual aspect of the VAX instruction set is the presence of register masks at the start of each subprogram; these are arbitrary bit patterns that specify, when control is passed to the subprogram, which registers are to be preserved. Since register masks are a form of data embedded within the executable code, they can make linear parsing of the machine code difficult.

This can complicate optimization techniques. The "native" VAX operating system is Digital's VAX/VMS; the VAX architecture and OpenVMS operating system were "engineered concurrently" to take maximum advantage of each other, as was the initial implementation of the VAXcluster facility. Other VAX operating systems have included various releases of BSD UNIX up to 4.3BSD, Ultrix-32, VAXELN, Xinu. More NetBSD and OpenBSD have supported various VAX models and some work has been done on porting Linux to the VAX architecture. OpenBSD discontinued support for the architecture in September 2016; the first VAX model sold was the VAX-11/780, introduced on October 25, 1977 at the Digital Equipment Corporation's Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Bill Strecker, C. Gordon Bell's doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University, was responsible for the architecture. Many different models with different prices, performance levels, capacities were subsequently created. VAX superminicomputers were popular in the early 1980s.

For a while the VAX-11/780 was used as a standard in CPU benchmarks. It was described as a one-MIPS machine, because its performance was equivalent to an IBM System/360 that ran at one MIPS, the System/360 implementations had been de facto performance standards; the actual number of instructions executed in 1 second was about 500,000, which led to complaints of marketing exaggeration. The result was the definition of a "VAX MIPS," the speed of a VAX-11/780. Within the Digital community the term VUP was the more common term, because MIPS do not compare well across different architectures; the related term cluster VUPs was informally used to describe the aggregate performance of a VAXcluster. The VAX-11/780 included a subordinate stand-alone LSI-11 computer that performed microcode load and diagnostic functions for the parent computer; this was dropped from subsequent VAX models. Enterprising VAX-11/780 users could therefore run three different Digital Equipment Corporation operating systems: VMS on the VAX processor, either RSX-11S or RT-11 on the LSI-11.

The VAX went through many different implementations. The original VAX 11/780 was implemented in TTL and filled a four-by-five-foot cabinet with a single CPU. CPU implementations that consisted of multiple ECL gate array or macrocell array chips included the VAX 8600 and 8800 superminis and the VAX 9000 mainframe class machines. CPU implementations that consisted of multiple MOSFET custom chips included the 8100 and 8200 class machines; the VAX 11-730 and 725 low-end machines were built using bit-slice components. The MicroVAX I represented a major transition within the VAX family. At the time of its design, it was not yet possible to implement the full VAX architecture as a single VLSI chip. Instead, the MicroVA

The New Adam is a painting by the Hungarian artist Sándor Bortnyik from 1924. It measures 48.3 × 38 cm. The picture is part of the collection of the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest. Sándor Bortnyik falls among the representatives of Constructivism. From 1922 to 1924, he lived in Weimar, he painted abstract two- and three-dimensional compositions, to which subsequently added figures and objects. In the composition The New Adam he describes an ironic ideal of "modern" man in the 1920s, it shows an fashion-conscious man, fragile, like clockwork. With this and other paintings, Bortnyik applied the "brave new world" of constructivism; the artist uses geometric shapes and colors in abstract composition. He manages to satirize utopian ideals, but cannot avoid them because he is an active participant in the formation of a "new world“

Birmingham School of Jewellery, founded in 1890, is a jewellery school in Birmingham, England. Located on Vittoria Street in the city's Jewellery Quarter, it is the largest jewellery school in Europe, it is part of the Arts and Media Faculty, a faculty of Birmingham City University. Its portfolio of courses includes jewellery, silversmithing and gemmology; the School houses the Jewellery Industry Innovation Centre, which offers professional expertise in industry-related techniques including Computer Aided Design, rapid prototyping and surface finishing. By the mid-19th century, the jewellery trade was considered the most lucrative in Birmingham with jewellers being some of the best paid workers in the city. There were more people employed in the trade than any other in the city. Apprentices did not require any qualifications but style became a study within the industry and one jeweller's firm required all apprentices to attend the Birmingham School of Art; the Birmingham School of Jewellery and Silversmithing was established in 1890 as a branch of the School of Art when Martin & Chamberlain converted a goldsmith's factory, built in 1865 to a design by J. G. Bland.

The top storey was added in 1906 by Cossins, Peacock & Bewlay who designed the south extension in 1911. The school was acquired by Birmingham Polytechnic in 1989, along with an adjoining site; the university commissioned Associated Architects who designed a further south extension, constructed between 1992 and 1993. They redesigned much of the interior, creating a full-height atrium with gallery access to workshops; the reception area can be used as exhibition space. The building itself consists of a Lombardo-Gothic front, whilst the 1911 extension is of red brick mottled with blue; the project won the 1996 Civic Trust Award. Official website BCU website

The Battle of Lwów was a World War II battle for the control over the Polish city of Lwów between the Polish Army and the invading Wehrmacht and the Red Army. The city was defended at all cost; the town of Lwów was not to be defended as it was considered too deep behind the Polish lines and too important to Polish culture to be fought over in warfare. However, the fast pace of the Nazi invasion and the complete disintegration of the Polish reserve Prusy Army after the Battle of Łódź resulted in the city being in danger of a German assault. On September 7, 1939, General Władysław Langner started to organise the defence of the city; the Polish forces were to defend the Bełżec – Rawa Ruska – Magierów line against the advancing German forces. General Rudolf Prich was given command of the Polish forces in the area and on September 11 he prepared a plan of defence of the area; the Polish units were to defend the line of the San river, with nests of resistance along the Żółkiew – Rawa Ruska – Janów to the west of the river Wereszycą – Gródek Jagielloński line.

The following day the first German motorised units under Colonel Ferdinand Schörner, 1st Mountain Division, arrived in the area. After capturing Sambor, Schörner ordered his units to break through the weak Polish defences and capture the city as soon as possible; the assault group was composed of a battery of 150 mm guns. The group outflanked the Polish defenders and reached the outskirts of the city, but was bloodily repelled by the numerically inferior Polish defenders; the Polish commander of the sector had only three infantry platoons and two 75 mm guns, but his forces were soon reinforced and held their positions until dawn. The same day command of the city's defence was passed to General Franciszek Sikorski, a World War I and Polish–Soviet War veteran; the following day the main forces of Colonel Schörner arrived, at 14.00 the Germans broke through to the city centre, but again were driven back after heavy city fighting with the infantry units formed of local volunteers and refugees. To strengthen the Polish defences, on September 13 General Kazimierz Sosnkowski left Lwów for Przemyśl and assumed command over a group of Polish units trying to break through the German lines and reinforce the city of Lwów.

Schörner decided to encircle the city to await reinforcements. His forces achieved a limited success and captured the important suburb of Zboiska together with the surrounding hills. However, the Polish forces were now reinforced with units withdrawn from central Poland and new volunteer units formed within the city. In addition, the Polish 10th Motorised Brigade under Colonel Stanisław Maczek arrived and started heavy fighting to take back the suburb of Zboiska; the town was re-captured. The hills gave a good overview of the city centre and Schörner placed his artillery there to shell the city. In addition, the city was constantly bombed by the Luftwaffe. Among the main targets for the German air force and artillery were prominent buildings such as churches, water plant and power plants. On September 17, 1939, the Soviet Union declared all pacts with Poland null and void as the Polish state had ceased to exist, joined Nazi Germany in the occupation of Polish territory; the forces of the 6th Red Army of the Ukrainian Front under Filipp Golikov crossed the border just east of Lwów and started a fast march towards the city.

The Soviet invasion made all plans of the defence of the Romanian Bridgehead obsolete, the Polish commander decided to withdraw all his units to the close perimeter and defend only the city itself instead of the whole area. This strengthened the Polish defences. On September 18 the Luftwaffe dropped thousands of leaflets over the city urging the Poles to surrender. However, this was ignored and a general assault was started on the city, once again to be repulsed; the intervention of the Red Army on 17 September made necessary some changes in the German plan of operations. In the early morning of September 19, the first Soviet armoured units reached the eastern outskirts of the city and the suburb of Łyczaków. After a short fight, the Soviet units were pushed back. However, overnight the Soviet forces completed the encirclement of the city and linked with the German army besieging Lwów from the west; the Polish defences were composed of field fortifications and barricades constructed by the local residents under supervision of military engineers.

General Sikorski ordered organised defence of the outer city rim, with in-depth defences prepared. In the morning of September 19, the first Soviet envoys arrived and began negotiations with the Polish officers. Colonel Ivanov, the commander of a tank brigade, told Colonel Bronisław Rakowski that the Red Army entered Poland to help it fight the Nazis and that the top priority for his units was to enter the city of Lwów; the same day Colonel Schörner demanded the city be surrendered to his troops. When the Polish envoy replied that he had no intention of signing such a document, he was informed that a general assault was ordered for September 21 and the city would most be taken. Hitler's evacuation order from September 20 instructed Rundstedt to leave the capture of Lwow to the Russians; the attack planned by XVIII Corps for 21 September was cancelled, the German corps prepared to move to the west of the Vistula-San River line. The following day, General Sikorski decided; the reserves, human resources and materiel were plentiful, but fu

Blitzkrieg Bop were a punk rock band formed in Teesside, England in February 1977. They were named after a song by the Ramones with the same name, they released three singles. These were "Let's Go"/ "Bugger Off" / "9 Till 5". A collection of all these tracks, plus other unreleased material, was released in 1998 entitled Top of the Bops, but it is out of print; the core line-up of the band evolved from a rock band called Adamanta Chubb who started in 1974. After several false starts and many line-up changes this trio emerged as Blitzkrieg Bop in February 1977, joined in line-up No. 1 by Mick Hylton and Anne Hodgson. An eight-week residency at the Speedway Hotel cemented their local reputation. Buoyed by their local success they recorded their debut single "Let's Go" / "Bugger Off" / "9 Till 5", released a limited run of 500 copies in early June 1977. By this time guitarist Dimmer Blackwell had left; the band decided to carry on as a four piece. The single sold out within days and received some favourable reviews in the national music papers, most notably the NME.

Keith Yershon of Lightning Records read this review and asked the band to re-record the A-side for their second single, together with two new songs for the B-side, "Life Is Just A So-So" and "Mental Case". The band played several local gigs with fellow Teessiders Dangerbird, featuring a young Rod Liddle on lead vocals; as 1977 wore on, the band continued to gig securing support spots with bands such as Ultravox!, Radio Stars and The Saints. Anne Hodgson decided to quit the band, was replaced in September 1977 by Ray Radford, an old friend of vocalist John Hodgson; the re-recorded "Let's Go" was released in December 1977 to decent reviews, but not as positive as the Mortonsound version. By February 1978 the band were ready to record the follow-up, two songs were taped in London with line-up No. 3: " UFO" and "Viva Bobby Joe", the latter a cover version of the 1960s hit single by The Equals. Gigs continued to happen, with support spots with Penetration, Roogalator, X-Ray Spex, Generation X and Slaughter & The Dogs.

Slaughter invited the band on their 1978 "Do It Dog Style" UK tour, scheduled for May. Eater were on the bill; the tour started off brightly, but poor ticket sales and poor organisation led to the tour disintegrating after only a handful of dates. Following this debacle, guitarist Ray Radford decided to quit, he was replaced by Micky Dunn, from local Teesside band The Lice. New material was written, with the band taking a more commercial direction, leaning more towards a power pop/new wave sound; the band continued to gig during the summer of 1978, with support spots with The Adverts, Ultravox! and The Doctors Of Madness, as well as their own gigs. By September 1978 bassist Mick Hylton had had enough, feeling the band had lost momentum due to the length of time Lightning Records were taking to release the "UFO" single, their refusal to let the band record an album, he was replaced by Graeme Moses, again from local band The Lice. Around this time the "UFO" single, the band's third and final single, was released to poor reviews.

This dismayed the band further and their mood was not helped when their manager Larry Ottaway quit in November 1978. The band's spirits were revived in January 1979 when Greg Shaw licensed the Mortonsound "Let's Go" for a US release on the Bomp! Records compilation Waves; this was short-lived, in February 1979 the band called it a day when John left to join Basczax, joined a few days by drummer Alan Cornforth. A line-up of the band reformed in 1994 for two gigs, in 1999 a line-up featuring John Hodgson, Micky Dunn, Graeme Moses and Ray Radford from the 1977–79 period came together for a 20th anniversary re-union concert at The Cornerhouse, Middlesbrough. Singer Blank Frank recounted his time in the band in "A Hard Road To Nowhere" As well as the 28-track Top of the Bops compilation CD in 1998, three more private CD releases followed in 1999: Bottom of the Barrell, Now That's What I Call Rubbish Vol.1 and Live at the Cornerhouse – 1999. A 28 track compilation of live material was released on CD on 1 November 2013 on the Opportunes label, entitled "Live'77 & Beyond".

A 16 track compilation of all their studio recordings, including six unreleased songs, was released on vinyl on 1 March 2014 on Italy's Rave Up Records, entitled "Studio Stuff". A 17 track compilation of rare studio and live material was released on 22 September 2014 on Sweden's NE Records, entitled "The Usual Suspects" in black and yellow vinyl; the original Mortonsound "Let's Go" 7" single is one of the more collectable artifacts from the punk era fetching upwards of £300 on eBay. Blank Frank – Vocals/Keyboards Telly Sett – Guitar Gloria – Guitar Mick Sick – Bass Nicky Knoxx – Drums Blank Frank – Vocals/Keyboards Gloria – Guitar Mick Sick – Bass Nicky Knoxx – Drums Blank Frank – Vocals/Keyboards Ray Gunn – Guitar Mick Sick – Bass Nicky Knoxx – Drums Blank Frank – Vocals/Keyboards Bert Presley – Guitar Mick Sick – Bass Nicky Knoxx – Drums Blank Frank – Vocals/Keyboards Bert Presley – Guitar Kid Moses – Bass Nicky Knoxx – Drums Officia

"Return to Skyfire" is the 8th episode of the fifth season of the American television police sitcom series Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the 98th overall episode of the series. The episode was directed by Linda Mendoza, it aired on Fox in the United States on November 28, 2017. The show revolves around the fictitious 99th precinct of the New York Police Department in Brooklyn and the officers and detectives that work in the precinct. In the episode, Jake and Rosa meet with D. C. Parlov again after his manuscript for his next book has been stolen and Jake pressures Terry to show a novel he wrote to Parlov. Meanwhile, Holt and Boyle attend a forensics course with disastrous results. According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 1.73 million household viewers and gained a 0.7/3 ratings share among adults aged 18–49. The episode received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the performances Crews, but criticized the rehashed storyline and Boyle's subplot. Jake and Terry convince Rosa to investigate a case related to D.

C. Parlov, the Skyfire Cycle author who got his manuscript stolen, in a convention after Jake becomes a fan after reading the books in jail. At the convention, they find that Parlov's rival, Landon Lawson had his manuscript stolen and accuse each other of stealing the manuscript. During this, Jake finds that Terry wrote a fantasy novel and has Parlov take a look at it, but finds that the novel is terrible; when Parlov compliments Terry's novel and Rosa find that he's lying and that both Parlov and Lawson stole each other's manuscript to get more attention. They end up arresting both and Jake reassures Terry after finding out that Parlov found his novel terrible. Meanwhile and Amy attend a forensics course by Dr. Ronald Yee with the hope that their performance can get them a field lab in the precinct. However, they're forced to submit Boyle as well, who can't keep talking about his family on any subject, they accidentally forget to lube it, trapping him in the cast. After struggling to keep him quiet, they return to the course for help, with no chance of getting the lab.

In its original American broadcast, "Return to Skyfire" was seen by an estimated 1.73 million household viewers and gained a 0.7/3 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research. This was slight increase in viewership from the previous episode, watched by 1.66 million viewers with a 0.6/2 in the 18-49 demographics. This means that 0.7 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode, while 3 percent of all households watching television at that time watched it. With these ratings, Brooklyn Nine-Nine was the third highest rated show on FOX for the night, behind The Mick and Lethal Weapon, fifth on its timeslot and twelfth for the night, behind The Mick, a rerun of The Middle, Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Lethal Weapon, a rerun of NCIS, Chicago Med, Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, The Voice, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, This Is Us. "Return to Skyfire" received mixed reviews from critics. LaToya Ferguson of The A. V. Club gave the episode a "C-" grade and wrote, "Since Jake and Rosa's return to the precinct, Brooklyn Nine-Nine has worked hard to solidly remind the audience just how strong the bonds of the Nine-Nine are, whether they're tested in competition, business ventures, Butt-lympics, or pastry-based mysteries.'Return To Skyfire,' however, is something of an outlier to all of these episodes.

It doesn't quite belong, compared to the episodes before it, it lacks the same solid reminder of how strong the Nine-Nine is together. Or Brooklyn Nine-Nine is at all."Alan Sepinwall of Uproxx wrote, "Too much of the DC Parlov story felt like a rehash of jokes from the first one, like characters speaking in unison at great length while discussing details from the books, the scene where Jake and Terry inadvertently broke up a family felt mean and awkward in a way that doesn't fit the general tone of this show. Parts worked just because of the sheer enthusiasm of Samberg and Crews, and/or the interlocking sounds of Fred Melamed and Rob Huebel's voices, but it felt much like diminishing returns on the original concept." "Return to Skyfire" on IMDb "Return to Skyfire" at TV.com