Count Zero

Count Zero is a science fiction novel written by William Gibson, originally published 1986. It is the second volume of the Sprawl trilogy, which begins with Neuromancer and concludes with Mona Lisa Overdrive, and is a canonical example of the cyberpunk subgenre.

Count Zero was serialized by Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in the 1986 January (100th issue), February and March issues. The black and white story art was produced by J. K. Potter. The January cover is devoted to the story, with art by Hisaki Yasuda.

Count Zero was nominated for the Locus and British Science Fiction Awards in 1986, as well as the Hugo and Nebula awards in 1987.

Plot introduction

Seven years after the events of Neuromancer, strange things begin to happen in the Matrix, leading to the proliferation of what appear to be voodoo gods (hinted to be the fractured remains of the joined AIs that were Neuromancer and Wintermute).

Two powerful multinational corporations, Maas Biolabs and Hosaka, are engaged in a battle for control over a powerful new technology (a biochip), using hackers and the Matrix as well as espionage and violence.

Born Again (Black Sabbath album)

Born Again is the eleventh studio album by English rock band Black Sabbath, released in August 1983. It is the only album the group recorded with lead vocalist Ian Gillan, best known for his work with Deep Purple. In addition, it is also the last Black Sabbath album to feature original bassist Geezer Butler prior to his departure in November 1984, although he did return to the band in 1991 to record Dehumanizer. The album has received mixed to negative reviews from critics, but it was a commercial success upon its 1983 release, reaching No. 4 in the UK charts. The album as well hit the top 40 in the United States.

With Black Sabbath opting against recording a follow-up to 13,Born Again is the final studio album with Bill Ward.

Origins

Numeral (linguistics)

In linguistics, a numeral is a member of a word class (or sometimes even a part of speech) designating numbers, such as the English word 'two' and the compound 'seventy-seven'.

Identifying numerals

Numerals may be attributive, as in two dogs, or pronominal, as in I saw two (of them).

Many words of different parts of speech indicate number or quantity. Quantifiers do not enumerate, or designate a specific number, but give another, often less specific, indication of amount. Examples are words such as every, most, least, some, etc. There are also number words which enumerate but are not a distinct part of speech, such as 'dozen', which is a noun, 'first', which is an adjective, or 'twice', which is an adverb. Numerals enumerate, but in addition have distinct grammatical behavior: when a numeral modifies a noun, it may replace the article: the/some dogs played in the park → twelve dogs played in the park. (Note that *dozen dogs played in the park is not grammatical, so 'dozen' is not a numeral.)

Count

Count (male) or countess (female) is a title in European countries for a noble of varying status, but historically deemed to convey an approximate rank intermediate between the highest and lowest titles of nobility. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning “companion”, and later “companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor”. The adjective form of the word is "comital". The British and Irish equivalent is an earl (whose wife is a "countess", for lack of an English term). Alternative names for the "count" rank in the nobility structure are used in other countries, such as Graf in Germany and Hakushaku during the Japanese Imperial era.

Definition

In the late Roman Empire, the Latin title comes, meaning (imperial) "companion", denoted the high rank of various courtiers and provincial officials, either military or administrative: before Anthemius became emperor in the West in 467, he was military comes charged with strengthening defenses on the Danube frontier.

Sengoku Basara

Sengoku Basara (戦国BASARA) is a series of video games developed and published by Capcom, and a bigger media franchise based on it, including three anime series and an animated film. Its story is very loosely based on real events of the titular Sengoku era in the history of feudal Japan.

Games

Sengoku Basara (Devil Kings)

The original game in the series, released in 2005 only for the PS2 as a "crowd-fighting" action game in the vein of Koei's similarly themed Samurai Warriors series. Devil Kings, an English-language version of the game featured an altered gameplay and a completely different, supposedly more western audience-oriented fantasy story with original characters, which was however never used again due to the mostly negative response the localization received from critics as well as consumers.

Sengoku Basara 2

The 2004 sequel, also for the PS2. The game was also ported to the Wii.

Sengoku Basara X

A 2D fighting game by Arc System Works, creators of the Guilty Gear series, made in 2008 for the arcades and ported for the PS2 later the same year.