Abstract Theory

Abstract Theory is the debut solo album released by former Five member Abs. The album was released on 1 September 2003, peaking at No. 29 on the UK Albums Chart. The album failed to find success elsewhere, and resulted in Abs being dropped from his record label just months later. The album spawned five singles: "What You Got", "Stop Sign", "Shame", "7 Ways" and "Miss Perfect". The album received mixed to positive reviews from critics, comparing his material to that of his former band, Five.

Background

Abs began work on the album following Five's split in late 2001. He soon signed a record deal with Sony BMG, who had previously contracted Five on a three-album deal. The album's first single, "What You Got", was released in August 2002 to moderate success, peaking at No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart. The album's second single, "Shame", was scheduled for release in November 2002, but was subsequently only released in Australia after the record company decided to market "Stop Sign" as the second British single. Arriving in May 2003, the song peaked at No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. A third single, "Miss Perfect", was released on 25 August 2003, a week prior to the album's release, peaking at No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart. A fourth single, "7 Ways", was planned for release in November 2003, with a music video being released and several copies made available in stores from 10 November. However, the single was recalled on 11 November, and just three weeks later, Abs was dropped from his record label.

Shame (1988 film)

Shame is a 1988 Australian Film directed by Steve Jodrell and starring Deborra-Lee Furness as 'Asta', for which she won both the 1988 FCCA 'Best Actor' and Golden Space Needle 'Best Actress' awards; as well as the FCCA awarding 'Best Screenplay' to both Beverley Blankenship and Michael Brindley.

Synopsis

Tragic happenings result from conflict arising from the active feminism of Asta Cadell, a robust professional woman, after her motorbike breaks down in the fictitious township of Ginborak during a lone tour of outback Western Australia.

She gives support to a young girl, Lizzie, who has been gang raped by local youths; a crime compounded by the neurotically tolerant attitude adopted by the town's citizens, including the police sergeant and even her father, who blame the girl for the boys' behaviour

Asta is treated disrespectfully by men in the local pub. Directed to the town's mechanic, Tim Curtis, Asta stays with his family as a guest. Members of the family are visibly troubled and suffering from some sort of depressive condition.

Shame (Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow song)

"Shame" is a song written and recorded by English singers Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow for Williams's second greatest hits compilation album, In and Out of Consciousness: Greatest Hits 1990–2010 (2010). Produced by Trevor Horn, it was released as the lead single from the album on 27 August 2010 in most countries worldwide and on 1 October in the United Kingdom. "Shame" marks the first time Williams and Barlow collaborated on a song together solely and the first time they worked together since Williams left Take That in 1995. It is a pop song with country and electro music influences; two reviewers noted that it contains an acoustic guitar part similar to the one of The Beatles' 1968 song, "Blackbird". The lyrical content of the single revolves around singers's broken relationship and fixing things up.

"Shame" received generally favourable reviews from music critics who praised the song's sound and the melodic and lyrical skills of the performers. It reached the top-ten in seven countries worldwide including Hungary, Netherlands, Italy and Denmark. In the singers's native United Kingdom, it peaked at number two on the singles chart and was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), denoting shipments of over 200,000 copies in the country alone. The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Vaughan Arnell in Los Angeles and premiered on 26 August 2010. It features Williams and Barlow dancing and singing the song in a bar and fishing on a pond. Multiple critics linked the storyline and the pair's chemistry in the video to the 2005 film, Brokeback Mountain. To further promote "Shame", the pair performed it on multiple occasions including on the Help for Heroes concert and Strictly Come Dancing.

Hydra

Hydra may refer to:

Astronomy

Brands and company names

People

Places

Popular culture

Comics and animation

Hydra (chess)

Hydra was a chess machine, designed by a team with Dr. Christian "Chrilly" Donninger, Dr. Ulf Lorenz, GM Christopher Lutz and Muhammad Nasir Ali. Since 2006 the development team consisted only of Donninger and Lutz. Hydra was under the patronage of the PAL Group and Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi. The goal of the Hydra Project was to dominate the computer chess world, and finally have an accepted victory over humans.

Hydra represented a potentially significant leap in the strength of computer chess. Design team member Lorenz estimates its FIDE equivalent playing strength to be over Elo 3000, and this is in line with its results against Michael Adams and Shredder 8, the former micro-computer chess champion.

Hydra began competing in 2002 and played its last game in June 2006. In June 2009, Christopher Lutz stated that "unfortunately the Hydra project is discontinued." The sponsors decided to end the project.

Architecture

The Hydra team originally planned to have Hydra appear in four versions: Orthus, Chimera, Scylla and then the final Hydra version – the strongest of them all. The original version of Hydra evolved from an earlier design called Brutus and works in a similar fashion to Deep Blue, utilising large numbers of purpose-designed chips (in this case implemented as a field-programmable gate array or FPGA). In Hydra, there are multiple computers, each with its own FPGA acting as a chess coprocessor. These co-processors enabled Hydra to search enormous numbers of positions per second, making each processor more than ten times faster than an unaided computer.

Hydra (Within Temptation album)

Hydra is the sixth studio album by Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation. It was released on January 31, 2014 in Europe and on February 4, 2014 in North America. The album contains guest appearances by singer Howard Jones (ex-Killswitch Engage), rapper Xzibit, metal vocalist Tarja Turunen (ex-Nightwish) and alternative rock singer Dave Pirner (Soul Asylum). The first single, "Paradise (What About Us?)", was released on September 27, 2013, and featured Turunen as guest vocalist. The second single, "Dangerous", was released on December 20, in which Jones provided the male vocals.

This is the first album by Within Temptation to be recorded with three guitarists, with Stefan Helleblad making his Within Temptation studio debut on Hydra since his addition to the band shortly after the release of The Unforgiving in 2011. Hydra is also the first Within Temptation album to feature Robert Westerholt's growling techniques since the band's debut album, Enter.

Background and composition