Impact

Impact may refer to:

In science:

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In computing:

In film, television and radio:

In literature:

Impact (novel)

Impact is a science fiction thriller novel by American writer Douglas Preston, published on January 5, 2010 by Forge Books. The novel is the third book in the Wyman Ford series. The book was reviewed on All Things Considered in February 2010.

Plot summary

Ex-CIA agent Wyman Ford returns to Cambodia to investigate the source of radioactive gemstones and uncovers an unusual impact crater. A young woman on the other side of the world photographs a meteoroid's passage in the atmosphere with her telescope and deduces that it must have struck on one of the islands just offshore from Round Pond, Maine. A NASA scientist analyzing data from the Mars Mapping Orbiter (MMO) spots unusual spikes in gamma ray activity. These threads intersect with discovery of an alien device that has apparently been on Deimos, one of the two moons of Mars, for at least 100 million years. Something has caused it to activate and fire a strangelet at Earth, setting off the events in the novel.

Timeline

The events in this novel follow those of The Codex, Tyrannosaur Canyon, and Blasphemy. As such, Wyman Ford is the protagonist once again (having appeared in Tyrannosaur Canyon and Blasphemy), and the character of Stanton Lockwood III (who debuted in Blasphemy) also returns.

Damon Harris

Damon Harris (born Otis Robert Harris, Jr., July 17, 1950 – February 18, 2013) was an African-American soul and R&B singer, most notable as a member of The Temptations from 1971 to 1975. Twenty years old when he joined the group, Harris was the youngest member of The Temptations during his tenure in the group. As a teenager Harris had formed a Temptations tribute band named The Young Tempts (aka The Young Vandals). The group had charted singles released on T-Neck Records, and later had a few minor hits under the name Impact. He also was instrumental in his former singing group partner, Billy Griffin, getting the opportunity to replace Smokey Robinson in The Miracles. Harris later founded, and became the CEO of, The Damon Harris Cancer Foundation dedicated to promoting the awareness, diagnosis, and treatment of prostate cancer.

Biography

The Young Tempts/The Young Vandals

As a teenager growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, Otis Harris, Jr. was a major Temptations fan, and idolized in particular the group's falsetto, Eddie Kendricks. Patterning himself after Kendricks, Harris and his friends John Quinton Simms, Charles Timmons (also known as Kareem Ali, who went on to perform with Glenn Leonard's Temptations Revue), and Donald Knute Tighman, formed a Temptations-inspired vocal group during his high school years called The Young Tempts ("Tempts" being a nickname for the Temptations). The Young Tempts recorded covers of two 1966 Temptations' songs, "I've Been Good to You" (a song originally recorded by The Miracles), and "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby," for The Isley Brothers' T-Neck Records in 1970. Motown Records filed an injunction against T-Neck because of the group's name; the 45 was withdrawn and re-issued with the group credited as The Young Vandals, and reached #46 on the R&B charts.

Total order

In mathematics, a linear order, total order, simple order, or (non-strict) ordering is a binary relation on some set X, which is transitive, antisymmetric, and total (this relation is denoted here by infix ≤). A set paired with a total order is called a totally ordered set, a linearly ordered set, a simply ordered set, or a chain.

If X is totally ordered under ≤, then the following statements hold for all a, b and c in X:

Antisymmetry eliminates uncertain cases when both a precedes b and b precedes a. A relation having the property of "totality" means that any pair of elements in the set of the relation are comparable under the relation. This also means that the set can be diagrammed as a line of elements, giving it the name linear.Totality also implies reflexivity, i.e., a ≤ a. Therefore, a total order is also a partial order. The partial order has a weaker form of the third condition. (It requires only reflexivity, not totality.) An extension of a given partial order to a total order is called a linear extension of that partial order.

Chain (unit)

A chain (ch) is a unit of length. It measures 66 feet, or 22 yards, or 100 links, or 4 rods (20.1168 m). There are 10 chains in a furlong, and 80 chains in one statute mile. An acre is the area of 10 square chains (that is, an area of one chain by one furlong). The chain has been used for several centuries in Britain and in some other countries influenced by British practice.

By extension, chainage (running distance) is the distance along a curved or straight survey line from a fixed commencing point, as given by an odometer.

Origin

The chain was commonly used with the mile to indicate land distances and in particular in surveying land for legal and commercial purposes. Starting in the 19th centary, the chain was used as a sub division with the mile to show distances between railway stations, tunnels and bridges. In medieval times, local measures were commonly used, and many units were adopted that gave manageable units; for example the distance from London to York could be quoted in inches, but the resulting huge number would be unmemorable. The locally used units were often inconsistent from place to place.

Chain (Paul Haig album)

Chain was Edinburgh musician Paul Haig's third album and was released in May 1989 on Circa Records, a subsidiary of Virgin Records. Chain, which Haig financed himself, was recorded and completed in 1988, but it sat on the shelf after the normally accommodating Les Disques Du Crepuscule decided not to take up the option of releasing it. The album was co-produced by long-time Haig cohort, Alan Rankine, instrumentalist with celebrated Dundee band, The Associates. There was another Associates connection on the album - the track "Chained" was written by Haig's good friend, Billy Mackenzie. Haig returned the favour and gave Mackenzie the track "Reach The Top" for his album The Glamour Chase, which after many years in limbo was finally released in 2002.

One single, "Something Good", was taken from the album, but much to Circa's disappointment, neither the single nor the album sold in great numbers.

The sleeve features a shot of Audrey Hepburn, taken by the celebrated photographer, Angus McBean in 1958.