Master is a death metal band formed in Chicago, USA in 1983 as the band Warcry fell apart. However, the band was put on hold due to internal problems shortly after its inception. Paul Speckmann then formed the band Death Strike, which in 1985 he renamed to Master.
In 1985 Master obtained a record deal with Combat Records and recorded an album, which was not released until 2003 by Displeased Records as Unreleased 1985 album. In 1990 the band was signed by the German label Nuclear Blast Records, who also had contracted Speckmann's other band Abomination.
The actual debut album of Master, titled simply Master, was recorded twice; first with Mittelbrun on guitars and Schmidt on drums. This recording was not accepted by the record company Nuclear Blast. Hence it was re-recorded with Nickeas (drums) and Martinelli (guitar), which was eventually released as the Speckmann Project in 1991. The first recording was released under the name Master in 1990.
This article lists the major and recurring fictional characters created by Joss Whedon for the television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For detailed descriptions, see individual character pages.
The following characters were featured in the opening credits of the program.
The show's titular protagonist, Buffy is "The Slayer", one in a long line of young girls chosen by fate to battle evil forces in the form of vampires and demons. The Slayer has no jurisdiction over human crime. This calling mystically endows her with a limited degree of clairvoyance, usually in the form of prophetic dreams, as well as dramatically increased physical strength, endurance, agility, intuition, and speed and ease of healing. There traditionally has been only one Slayer alive at any given moment, with a new one called upon the event of her death.
Xander is a close friend of Buffy. Possessing no supernatural skills, Xander provides comic relief as well as a grounded, everyman perspective in the supernatural Buffyverse. In another departure from the usual conventions of television, Xander is notable for being an insecure and subordinate male in a world dominated by powerful females.
The master, or sailing master, was a historic term for a naval officer trained in and responsible for the navigation of a sailing vessel. The rank can be equated to a professional seaman and specialist in navigation, rather than as a military commander.
In the British Royal Navy, the master was originally a warrant officer who ranked with, but after, the lieutenants. The rank became a commissioned officer rank and was renamed to navigating lieutenant in 1867; the rank gradually fell out of use from around c1890 since all lieutenants were required to pass the same exams.
When the United States Navy was formed in 1794, master was listed as one of the warrant officer ranks and ranked between midshipmen and lieutenants. The rank was also a commissioned officer rank from 1837 until it was replaced with the current rank of lieutenant, junior grade in 1883.
In the Middle Ages, when 'warships' were typically merchant vessels hired by the crown, the man in charge of the ship and its mariners, as with all ships and indeed most endeavours ashore, was termed the Master; the company of embarked soldiers was commanded by their own Captain.
A gate or gateway is a point of entry to a space enclosed by walls, or a moderately sized opening in some sort of fence. Gates may prevent or control the entry or exit of individuals, or they may be merely decorative. Other terms for gate include yett and port. The word derives from the old Norse "gata", meaning road or path, and originally referred to the gap in the wall or fence, rather than the barrier which closed it. The moving part or parts of a gateway may be called "doors", but used for the whole point of entry door usually refers to the entry to a building, or an internal opening between different rooms.
A gate may have a latch to keep it from swinging and a lock for security. Larger gates can be used for a whole building, such as a castle or fortified town, or the actual doors that block entry through the gatehouse. Today, many gate doors are opened by an automated gate operator.
Types of gates include:
In engineering, a gate is a rotating or sliding structure, supported by hinges or by a rotating horizontal or vertical axis, that can be located at an extreme of a large pipe or canal in order to control the flow of water or any fluid from one side to the other. It is usually placed at the mouth of irrigation channels to avoid water loss or at the end of drainage channels to elude water entrance.
A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is the chamber itself (usually then called a caisson) that rises and falls.
Locks are used to make a river more easily navigable, or to allow a canal to take a reasonably direct line across land that is not level.
A pound lock is a type of lock that is used almost exclusively nowadays on canals and rivers. A pound lock has a chamber (the pound) with gates at both ends that control the level of water in the pound. In contrast, an earlier design with a single gate was known as a flash lock.
Pound locks were first used in medieval China during the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD), having been pioneered by the government official and engineer Qiao Weiyue in 984. They replaced earlier double slipways that had caused trouble and are mentioned by the Chinese polymath Shen Kuo (1031–1095) in his book Dream Pool Essays (published in 1088), and fully described in the Chinese historical text Song Shi (compiled in 1345):
MIX, often branded on-air as Today's Mix, was a channel on XM Satellite Radio playing the Hot Adult Contemporary format. It was located on XM 12 (previously 22) and plays a mix of hit songs from 1980-present day, except for urban music. MIX was one of 5 channels on XM's platform that plays commercial advertisements, which amount to about 3–4 minutes an hour, and are sold by Premiere Radio Networks. The channel was programmed by Clear Channel Communications, and was Clear Channel's most listened to channel on XM Radio, in both cume and AQH, according to the Fall 2007 Arbitron book.
Artists heard on MIX included Sheryl Crow, John Mayer, Lenny Kravitz, Jewel and Nelly Furtado; and groups like Maroon 5 and Blues Traveler. One can also hear top chart hits including songs from Train, Alanis Morissette, 3 Doors Down, Evanescence, Dave Matthews Band, No Doubt, Santana, Matchbox Twenty, and U2.
On June 8, 2011, this was replaced by a simulcast by WHTZ, licensed to Newark, New Jersey and serving the New York City area.