Joker (playing card)

The Joker is a playing card found in most modern card decks, as an addition to the standard four suits (clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades). Originating in the United States during its civil war, the card is unique in that it lacks an industry-wide standard appearance. Created as a trump card for Euchre, it has since been adopted into many other card games where it may function as a wild card.

Origin

In the game of Euchre, the highest trump card is the Jack of the trump suit, called the right bower (from the German Bauer); the second-highest trump, the left bower, is the Jack of the suit of the same color as trumps. Around 1860, American Euchre players may have devised a higher trump, the "Best Bower", out of a blank card.

Samuel Hart is credited with printing the first illustrated "Best Bower" card in 1863 with his "Imperial Bower". Best Bower-type jokers continued to be produced well into the 20th-century. Cards labelled "Joker" began appearing around the late 1860s with some depicting clowns and jesters. It is believed that the term "Joker" comes from Juker or Juckerspiel, the original German spelling of Euchre. One British manufacturer, Charles Goodall, was manufacturing packs with Jokers for the American market in 1871. The first joker for the domestic British market was sold in 1874.

Martha Wayne

Martha Wayne (née Martha Kane) is a fictional character of the Batman series of comic books, published by DC Comics. She is Bruce Wayne's mother and Dr. Thomas Wayne's wife. When she and her husband are murdered during a holdup, her son swears to avenge their deaths by fighting crime and fulfills this as Batman.

Background

Martha Wayne first appeared in Detective Comics #33 (November 1939) in a story by Bob Kane and Bill Finger which detailed the origin of Batman. Initially little more than a cipher whose death inspired her heroic son, later comics would expand upon her history.

Born Martha Kane (a maiden name given in homage to co-creator Bob Kane), Martha was the heir to the Kane Chemical fortune and a member of one of Gotham City's wealthiest families. It has not been revealed whether she has any connection to the other prominent Kanes of Gotham, Kathy Kane (Batwoman) or Bette Kane (Flamebird). Despite her Irish-Catholic background, in her youth, Martha had a reputation as a notorious party girl, socialite, and debutante, frequenting all the most prestigious country clubs, night clubs, and soirees. She also had a developed social conscience and often used her family's wealth and status to champion causes and charities.

List of The Batman characters

The following is a list of characters that have appeared in the television series The Batman, which ran from September 11, 2004 to March 22, 2008.

Main character

Supporting characters

Antagonists

Additional characters

External links

Studio (TV channel)

STUDIO was a subscription television arts channels available in Australia on the FOXTEL and AUSTAR platforms.

The channel launched in April 2010 as STVDIO, and is owned and operated by SBS Subscription TV, a subsidiary of free-to-air broadcaster Special Broadcasting Service.

STUDIO is Australia's only channel dedicated to the arts and entertainment and themed nights. It shows classical and popular music, literature, film, visual arts and dance with documentaries and performances.

As part of a brand redesign in March 2012, the channel was renamed to STUDIO, suggested to be a more accessible name.

The channel was forced into closure on 27 March 2015 as they were unable to re-negotiate their contract with Foxtel, and was instead replaced with Foxtel-owned channel Foxtel Arts. As a result, a number of the channel's arts programming moved to SBS and its video on demand service.

Local Australian Productions

The channel also records live local music, theatre and dance productions, known as the STUDIO Season Ticket.

Studio.co.uk

Studio (also known as Studio.co.uk) is part of a multi-brand retailing company in the United Kingdom, which specialises in home shopping services. Based in Accrington in Lancashire, Studio is the online sector of Studio (formerly known as Studio Cards and Gifts). Currently, Studio produces 100 different publications, and mails over 63 million catalogues in a calendar year. Their customer base of 1.2 million people is geographically spread across the UK, with the highest concentration of customers residing in city areas. 89% of Studio’s customer base is female.

Due to Studio’s Autumn Winter catalogue being their biggest publication of the year and containing a high proportion of Christmas products, much of the company’s business is undertaken in the final third of the year.

Studio is owned by Findel plc Findel plc.; a British home shopping company based in West Yorkshire.

History

Founded in Preston in 1962, Studio originally specialised in paper products, such as greetings cards, and sold them through a mail order catalogue. Over time, the company expanded, and in 1974 they bought a company called Ace, selling a similar product range to that of Studio.

Studio apartment

A studio apartment, also known as a studio flat (UK), a self-contained apartment (Nigeria),efficiency apartment or bachelor apartment, is a small apartment which combines living room, bedroom, and kitchenette into a single room.

Design

These kinds of apartments typically consist of one large room which serves as the living, dining, and bedroom. Kitchen facilities may either be located in the central room, or in a small separate room, and the bathroom is usually in its own smaller room.

Cost

Studio, efficiency, and bachelor style apartments all tend to be the smallest apartments with the lowest rents in a given area, usually ranging around 300 to 450 square feet (25–45 square metres) in the United States, but considerably smaller in countries such as Japan, South Korea, and several European capitals.

Global variations

See also

References