Desert

A desert is a barren area of land where little precipitation occurs and consequently living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to the processes of denudation. About one third of the land surface of the world is arid or semi-arid. This includes much of the polar regions where little precipitation occurs and which are sometimes called polar deserts or "cold deserts". Deserts can be classified by the amount of precipitation that falls, by the temperature that prevails, by the causes of desertification or by their geographical location.

Deserts are formed by weathering processes as large variations in temperature between day and night put strains on the rocks which consequently break in pieces. Although rain seldom occurs in deserts, there are occasional downpours that can result in flash floods. Rain falling on hot rocks can cause them to shatter and the resulting fragments and rubble strewn over the desert floor is further eroded by the wind. This picks up particles of sand and dust and wafts them aloft in sand or dust storms. Wind-blown sand grains striking any solid object in their path can abrade the surface. Rocks are smoothed down, and the wind sorts sand into uniform deposits. The grains end up as level sheets of sand or are piled high in billowing sand dunes. Other deserts are flat, stony plains where all the fine material has been blown away and the surface consists of a mosaic of smooth stones. These areas are known as desert pavements and little further erosion takes place. Other desert features include rock outcrops, exposed bedrock and clays once deposited by flowing water. Temporary lakes may form and salt pans may be left when waters evaporate. There may be underground sources of water in the form of springs and seepages from aquifers. Where these are found, oases can occur.

The Desert (Dragon Prince)

The Desert is a fictional Princedom (or country) in Melanie Rawn's fantasy novels of the Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies. It is the primary setting of these trilogies.

"For as long as the sands spawn fire..."

The Desert is Prince Rohan's princedom. It is the home or birthplace of most of the main Characters of Dragon Prince. The royal color of the Desert is blue; its banner is of a gold dragon on a blue field. It is a land rich in dragons, Fire, and sand. The Desert people are known for their rugged strength, loyalty, and fierceness.

The Land

The Desert is an eastern princedom with only one seaport: Radzyn Keep. It is bordered by Princemarch, Cunaxa, Meadowlord, and Syr. The Desert is the hottest, driest princedom and one of the largest. The Long Sand, through which there is no water and no shelter from the sweltering sun, stretches the length of princedom. To the West of the Long Sand there are some mountains and some vegetation, and Skybowl is nestled above a lake. Near Stronghold is Rivenrock, a valley where dragons breed and where the dragon eggs can be gathered for their gold. To the East is Radzyn and the sea, the Desert's sole port and main trade center.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (season 2)

Season Two (Book Two: Earth) of Avatar: The Last Airbender, an American animated television series on Nickelodeon, first aired its 20 episodes from March 17, 2006 to December 1, 2006. The season was created and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and starred Zach Tyler Eisen, Mae Whitman, Jack DeSena, Jessie Flower, Dante Basco, Dee Bradley Baker, Mako Iwamatsu and Grey DeLisle as the main character voices.

In this season, the protagonist Aang and his friends Katara and Sokka are on a quest to find an Earthbending teacher which finishes when they recruit Toph Beifong. After finding important information concerning the war with the Fire Nation, Appa ends up kidnapped. Their journey leads to Ba Sing Se, the capital of the Earth Kingdom, where they uncover great internal government corruption.

Throughout the season's airing, the show received much critical acclaim, with praises such as, "As a flat concept, Avatar: The Last Airbender is nothing special, but in execution, it is head and shoulders above other children's entertainment", and that "as a whole, the look of Avatar is consistently excellent." Season 2 has won multiple awards, including the "Best Character Animation in a Television Production" award from the 34th Annie Awards and the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation" award from the 2007 Emmy Awards.

Angel (company)

Angel.com Incorporated was an American telecommunications company supplying interactive voice response, call center technology, and voice applications to businesses over the internet using the software as a service model. Angel was acquired in 2013 by Genesys and rebranded as Genesys Cloud.

History

Angel was developed by the CEO of MicroStrategy Michael J. Saylor, in 1997 as DSS Telecaster and DSS Broadcaster and were then merged into Angel.com. Moving away from the original telecaster idea, the company signed its first small business customers at the end of 2001 as a provider of hosted interactive voice response.

Angel.com was incorporated on April 30, 2008. In 2009, Dave Rennyson, former VP of Sales at Angel, was named President and COO replacing long-time CEO Michael Zirngibl. In 2011, Angel introduced Voice for Twitter Voice for Facebook, and Voice for Chatter, applications that add voice capabilities to the popular social networks and Salesforce.com's internal social network, Chatter.

Angel (Angel album)

Angel is the first album by the rock band Angel. "Tower", the keyboard-heavy opening track, was used widely during the late 1970s and early 1980s by album rock radio stations in the USA for various advertising purposes. The track is also on K-SHE radio's Classic List. This album can be seen as representing the band's early progressive roots, with Helluva Band seeing the group starting to move towards an increasingly hard rock-oriented sound. Tracks 6-8 segue to form a 10-minute mini suite.

Track listing

Personnel

References

Angel (season 5)

The fifth and final season of the television series Angel, the spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, premiered on October 1, 2003 on The WB and concluded its 22-episode season and its television run on May 19, 2004. The season aired on Wednesdays at 9:00 pm ET. This was the first and only season of Angel to air following the finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Season synopsis

Desert (philosophy)

Desert (/dᵻˈzɜːrt/) in philosophy is the condition of being deserving of something, whether good or bad.

Nomenclature

The word is related to justice, revenge, blame, punishment and many topics central to moral philosophy, also "moral desert". In the English language, the word "desert" with this meaning tends to be a rather uncommon word colloquially where it is almost exclusively collocated in the popular phrase one's just deserts (e.g. "Although she was not at first arrested for the crime, she later on received her just deserts.").

In ordinary usage, to deserve is to earn or merit a reward; in philosophy, the distinction is drawn in the term desert to include the case that which one receives as one's just deserts may well be unwelcome, or a reward. For example, if one scratches off a winning lottery ticket, one may be entitled to the money, but one does not necessarily deserve it in the same way one would deserve $5 for mowing a lawn, or a round of applause for performing a solo.