Gift

A gift or a present is an item given to someone without the expectation of payment. An item is not a gift, if that item, itself, is already owned by the one to whom it is given. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is meant to be free. In many countries, the act of mutually exchanging money, goods, etc. may sustain social relations and contribute to social cohesion. Economists have elaborated the economics of gift-giving into the notion of a gift economy. By extension the term gift can refer to anything that makes the other happier or less sad, especially as a favor, including forgiveness and kindness. Gifts are also first and foremost presented on occasions - birthdays and Christmas being the main examples.

Presentation

In many cultures gifts are traditionally packaged in some way. For example, in Western cultures, gifts are often wrapped in wrapping paper and accompanied by a gift note which may note the occasion, the recipient's name, and the giver's name. In Chinese culture, red wrapping connotes luck. Although inexpensive gifts are common among colleagues, associates and acquaintances, expensive or intimate gifts are considered more appropriate among close friends, romantic interests or relatives.

Gift (Kanjani Eight EP)

"GIFT" is a triple-single released by the Japanese boyband Kanjani Eight—stylized Kanjani∞. The three singles are the band's 11th, 12th, and 13th singles. The songs were released during the Christmas period. Each single release, except "Green", contains two songs; Green has three songs. Each single has cover art reflecting the color theme of each single. GIFT was advertised as a gift from the group members to their fans. The three singles were sold at a special price of ¥888 and were a limited-press release.

The "GIFT" singles have seven Christmas-themed songs; some were written or composed by members of the group. Shota Yasuda designed the label for the single; Kanjani8 collectively photographed the backstage activities and provided creative ideas for the jacket design. Like the previous singles since "It's My Soul", member Tadayoshi Okura dresses as Santa Claus as the singles' joke for this release. He appears in the outfit on "Gift ~Green~", completing the group picture that spans the backs of all three singles.

Gift (Taproot album)

Gift is the first major label album by the rock group Taproot. It was released on June 27, 2000. "I" and "Again & Again" were minor Mainstream Rock singles. The album has sold at least 250,000 copies.

Music and lyrics

Described as a nu metal album, the album's lyrical topics are primarily about topics such as depression and disliking life. Taproot's vocalist Stephen Richards' vocals on the album Gift have been compared to vocalists such as Chino Moreno, Trent Reznor, Jonathan Davis and Mike Patton. The album consists of vocal styles such as singing, rapping, growling and screaming. The album features characteristics that have been compared to Tool, Incubus, Deftones, Glassjaw, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Outkast, P.O.D., Faith No More, Slipknot and Papa Roach.

Track listing

Notes

Pluto

Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond Neptune. It was the first Kuiper belt object to be discovered. It is the largest and second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object directly orbiting the Sun. It is the largest known trans-Neptunian object by volume but is less massive than Eris, a dwarf planet in the scattered disc. Like other Kuiper belt objects, Pluto is primarily made of ice and rock and is relatively small—about one-sixth the mass of Earth's Moon and one-third its volume. It has a moderately eccentric and inclined orbit during which it ranges from 30 to 49 astronomical units or AU (4.4–7.4 billion km) from the Sun. This means that Pluto periodically comes closer to the Sun than Neptune, but a stable orbital resonance with Neptune prevents them from colliding. Light from the Sun takes about 5.5 hours to reach Pluto at its average distance (39.5 AU).

Pluto (manga)

Pluto (プルートウ, Purūtō) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa. It was serialized in Shogakukan's Big Comic Original magazine from 2003 to 2009, with the chapters collected into eight tankōbon volumes. The series is based on Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy, specifically "The Greatest Robot on Earth" (地上最大のロボット, Chijō saidai no robotto) story arc, and named after the arc's chief villain. Urasawa reinterprets the story as a suspenseful murder mystery starring Gesicht, a Europol robot detective trying to solve the case of a string of robot and human deaths. Takashi Nagasaki is credited as the series' co-author. Macoto Tezuka, Osamu Tezuka's son, supervised the series, and Tezuka Productions is listed as having given cooperation.

Pluto was awarded the ninth Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, an Excellence Prize at the seventh Japan Media Arts Festival and the 2010 Seiun Award for Best Comic. In France, it won the Intergenerational Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival and the Prix Asie-ACBD award at Japan Expo in 2011. The series was licensed and released in English in North America by Viz Media, under the name Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka. By 2010, over 8.5 million volumes of the manga had been sold.

University of Central Lancashire

The University of Central Lancashire (abbreviated UCLan) is a public university based in Preston, Lancashire, England. It has its roots in The Institution For The Diffusion Of Useful Knowledge founded in 1828. Subsequently known as Harris Art College, then Preston Polytechnic, then Lancashire Polytechnic, in 1992 it was granted university status by the Privy Council. The university is the 19th largest in the UK in terms of student numbers.

History

The Institution for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge was founded in 1828 by Joseph Livesey's Temperance Society. The society was born from a pledge made by seven Preston working men (whose names can be seen on a plaque in the university's library) to never again consume alcohol.

The institute was housed in a classical-revivalist building on Cannon Street, before eventually expanding under the endowment of a local lawyer, Edmund Robert Harris, who died in 1877. The expansion brought with it several new buildings and houses in the nearby Regent Street were purchased and demolished as a consequence. The institute became a regional centre of excellence for the arts and sciences.