Astro

Astro may refer to:

Entertainment and media

Satellites

Astro convention

Astro is a contract bridge bidding convention used to intervene over an opponent's one notrump (1NT) opening bid. The name is derived from the initials of the surnames of its inventors - Paul Allinger, Roger Stern and Lawrence Rosler.

Astro employs a 2-level overcall in a minor suit when intervenor holds an unbalanced hand with at least nine cards in two suits, at least one of which is a major; hand strength should be unsuitable for, or not strong enough for a penalty double, typically no more than 15 points. The minor suit overcalls are artificial and carry the following meanings:

When playing Astro but not holding the prescribed two-suited hand, the following calls are available over the 1NT opening by the opponents:

Subsequent bidding

For purposes of subsequent bidding, the major suit indicated by the Astro Intervenor is termed the “anchor major�; the cheapest unbid suit is called the "neutral" suit. Depending upon action taken by the responder to the 1NT opener, Advancer may:

Astro (Japanese band)

Astro is a Japanese noise group, originally started in 1993 as a solo project of Hiroshi Hasegawa (é•·è°·å·?æ´‹, Hasegawa Hiroshi) of the group C.C.C.C.. Hiroshi Hasegawa uses assorted analog equipment including vintage Moog and EMS synthesizers. His music covers a wide range of styles in the noise field, from space music to psychedelically-tinged harsh noise. Since 2013, Astro has been a duo of Hiroshi Hasegawa and Rohco (Hiroko Hasegawa), who has played with Astro since 2009.

References

External links

List of Ultima characters

This is a list of significant or recurring characters in the Ultima series of computer games, indicating the games in which they appeared.

The Avatar and his companions

The Avatar

The Avatar is the main character in the series. The Avatar is first known as the Stranger from another world, who defeats Mondain, Minax, and their spawn, Exodus. The Stranger becomes the Avatar once his goal changes to following the path of the Virtues, and retrieving the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom from the Great Stygian Abyss. This is noted as one of the first uses of "Avatar" in the virtual context. In the fifth episode, the Avatar defeats a repressive regime over Britannia, and in the sixth he brings peace between men and gargoyles. In the first part of the seventh episode, the Avatar infiltrates the Fellowship in order to stop the Guardian from entering Britannia; in the second part, the Avatar prevents imbalance from destroying the universe and receives the title of the Hierophant of Balance. In the eighth episode, the Avatar escapes the world of Pagan by defeating the four Titans, becoming the Titan of Ether. In the ninth and final episode, the Avatar defeats the Guardian by destroying both himself and the Guardian with the Armageddon spell. The Avatar is also the main character in both Ultima Underworld games.

Spark (radio show)

Spark is a Canadian radio talk show about "technology and culture." Hosted by Nora Young, the program made its CBC Radio One début on September 5, 2007. The show is also broadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio 159 and, since January 9, 2010, on Vermont Public Radio's network of stations in the United States.Spark is produced in Toronto by Young and a team that currently consists of Michelle Parise, Dan Misener, and Kent Hoffman.

The program is made collaboratively with its audience. Nora Young often encourages listeners to become "Spark Contributors" by participating in the active conversations on the Spark Blog, notifying the Spark Team of interesting ideas to investigate, or even recording interviews and letting Spark use them on the show. The show often plays phone messages left by Spark listeners and features comments left on the Spark Blog. Its episodes made use of Creative Commons music until October 2010, when CBC management realized that Spark was available on some platforms considered to be commercial, violating use restrictions of most of the music available under the Creative Commons licenses. This prompted Spark to limit its use to the APM Music library.

Record of Lodoss War

Record of Lodoss War (ロードス島戦記, RÅ?dosu-tÅ? Senki, lit., "Lodoss Island War Chronicle") is a franchise of fantasy novels by Ryo Mizuno based on the work he originally created for a world called Forcelia as a rules-free setting for role-playing games (RPGs). There have since been multiple manga, anime and computer game adaptations, several of which have been translated into English. The plots generally follow the conventions and structure of the RPG systems including Dungeons & Dragons and Sword World RPG, in which several characters of distinct types undertake a specific quest.

Origins

Record of Lodoss War was created in 1986 by Group SNE as a Dungeons & Dragons "replay" serialized in the Japanese magazine Comptiq, though they also used the setting with other systems such as Tunnels & Trolls and RuneQuest. Replays are not novels, but transcripts of RPG sessions, meant to both hold the interest of readers and convey the events that took place. They have proven to be popular, even to those who do not play role-playing games but are fans of fiction (including fantasy fiction). Similar to light novels, many characters and parties in replays have become popular as characters of anime. An example of such a character is the female elf Deedlit in Record of Lodoss War, who was played by science fiction novelist Hiroshi Yamamoto during the RPG sessions.