Wizard

Wizard is a synonym for a magician.

Wizard, the wizard or wizards may also refer to:

Characters

Film and television

Wizard (Marvel Comics)

The Wizard (Bentley Wittman), also known as the Wingless Wizard, is a fictional character, a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared as an enemy for the Human Torch.

Publication history

The Wizard's first appearance was in Strange Tales #102 and was created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby.

Fictional character biography

Bentley Wittman grew up possessing near-superhuman levels of genius and was a child prodigy and chess champion. As an adult, he became an inventor of great renown, selling his futuristic inventions to the wealthy and becoming quite rich. He became known as the Wizard by legally assuming this stage name and using his advanced scientific inventions to perform feats of "magic" as a stage magician and escape artist.

Intellectually bored, however, he decided to become a professional criminal and defeat Johnny Storm, who had just appeared to the world as the Human Torch. Pretending to be a victim by pretending his attempt to use a new drill had gone wrong and he was trapped, he really had enough air for weeks, he was rescued by the Torch and invited him to his high-tech, futuristic mansion on Long Island. There he captured the Torch with ease by pretending to take a three-dimensional photo, but really squirting a liquid onto the Torch. The Torch was then locked in an asbestos cell at gunpoint. The Wizard impersonated the Torch, launching a crime spree to destroy the Torch's reputation. However, the Torch escaped and with help from the Invisible Girl, got photos showing the Wizard had impersonated him and the Wizard was sent to prison.

Wizard (board game)

Wizard was designed by Steve Jackson, later of Steve Jackson Games, and released by Metagaming in 1978 as Microgame #6 as a magic-based pocket board game of individual combat. It was based on Metagaming's earlier Melee release, with the difference being that it added magic to the game system. Melee, Wizard and gamemaster supplement In the Labyrinth eventually formed Metagaming's The Fantasy Trip fantasy role-playing system. Both Melee and Wizard were expanded and re-released as Advanced Wizard and Advanced Melee, with many role-playing elements added to the basic fantasy combat system. When Steve Jackson released GURPS years later, the magic system in its fantasy supplements took some ideas from Wizard.

Gameplay

Wizard continued the melee system of having strength and dexterity being the key physical attributes that determined combat outcomes, and added IQ as a third ability score that determined magical ability. A player had points to put into each attribute. A high IQ score allowed the use of more varied and powerful spells. Casting a spell would cause a temporary drain on one's strength score, limiting the amount of spells one could cast in a given period of time before resting.

Grain (textile)

For woven textiles, grain refers to the orientation of the weft and warp threads. The three named grains are straight grain, cross grain, and the bias grain. In sewing, a pattern piece can be cut from fabric in any orientation, and the chosen grain or orientation will affect the way the fabric hangs and stretches and thus the fit of a garment. Generally speaking a piece is said to be cut on a particular grain when the longest part of the pattern or the main seams of the finished piece are aligned with that grain. Non-woven materials such as felt, interfacing or leather do not have a grain.

Straight grain

The straight grain is oriented parallel with the warp threads and the selvedge. The straight grain typically has less stretch than the crossgrain since the warp threads will be pulled tighter than the weft during weaving. Most garments are cut with the straight grain oriented top to bottom.

Cross grain

The cross grain runs perpendicular to the selvedge and parallel to the weft threads. The cross grain generally has more stretch than the straight grain since the weft threads are generally looser than the warp during weaving. Most garments (like pants or shirts) are cut on the straight grain with the cross grain parallel with the floor when the wearer is standing. This allows more stretch through the width of the garment, such as in a pants leg which needs more circumferential than vertical stretch.

Weekend (Underground Lovers album)

Weekend is the eighth album by Australian indie rock/electronic band Underground Lovers, the band's first after a 12-year hiatus. It followed a reunion for Sydney and Melbourne performances at the 2009 Homebake festival and the release of their 2011 retrospective album, Wonderful Things. A Rubber Records media release said: "This led to sporadic carefully selected shows and the realisation that the band still had something to say."

"The moment we got back together it clicked", lyricist and vocalist Vincent Giarrusso told The Courier-Mail. "We did one rehearsal, we had six or seven song ideas and we went to the studio to record them. The first four songs on the album are from that initial recording and some of those are first takes. The song 'Can For Now', what you are hearing is the first time we played it." The band also reunited with producer Wayne Connolly, producer of their 1997 album Ways T' Burn, to get the guitar sounds they wanted.

Giarrusso said the album was inspired by the energy of director Jean-Luc Godard's 1960s cinema hit Weekend, and Godard's film was used in their video for "Au Pair".

Weekend (EP)

Weekend is the second studio EP of the New Zealand band Young Lyre, released on 25 November 2015.

Background

In the 2011, the band released their first EP, title Night Swimming. After a long period of tour and festivals, the band started to produce their second EP. On 24 May 2014, the band started their crowd funding campaign to help funding their second EP. The campaign of $2,000 meet its goal on 21 February 2015 with the total of $2,135. The EP was officially released on 27 November 2015.

Singles

The first single from the album, was "We Go Faster" released on 10 May 2015. The music video to the video was crowdfunded alongside the album production. Also they received the help to fund the video and the album by a New Zealand project called NZ On Air.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Young Lyre. 

Personal

Jumping All Over the World

Jumping All Over the World is the thirteenth studio album by German eurodance group Scooter, released in Germany in 2007. Five singles have been released from it: "The Question Is What Is the Question?", "And No Matches", "Jumping All Over the World", a remix of "I'm Lonely" and a new version of "Jump That Rock!" titled "Jump That Rock (Whatever You Want)" recorded with British rock group Status Quo. The album's original artwork features people performing Jumpstyle.

A revised version of the album was released in the UK in 2008, their first album release in that country since The Stadium Techno Experience in 2003. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number 1, replacing Madonna's album Hard Candy, and is their highest ever charting release there. On 30 May 2008 it was certified Gold by the BPI and on 22 August 2008 it was certified Platinum.

On 3 October 2008 a new version of Jumping All Over the World was released, titled Jumping All Over the World - Whatever You Want.