Liberman (album)

Liberman is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton, released on October 23, 2015, through Dine Alone Records. It is the follow up to Carlton's 2011 album Rabbits on the Run and marks her first release since signing with Dine Alone Records. The title of the album comes from an oil painting made by Carlton's late grandfather, whose given surname was Liberman.

Background and writing

Following the 2011 release Rabbits on the Run, Carlton took time off to get married, start a family and write another album. She tells CBS News that these changes in her life are reflected in Liberman's songs and that she "wanted the whole album to feel like an escape type of album, where you put it on and you feel like you're in this dreamy state."

To avoid preconceived notions, demos recorded were sent to Dine Alone Records without Carlton's name attached. Label president Joel Carriere recalls hearing the demos and tells The Toronto Star, "The songs were amazing, it was atmospheric, it kind of fit into what we’re all into ... and we never would have guessed it was Vanessa Carlton because her voice has developed so much since her pop songs 14 years ago and the songwriting had obviously changed. We were, like: 'Yeah, we want to do this. But what is it we’re doing?'"

NetHack

NetHack is a single-player roguelike video game originally released in 1987 with ASCII graphics. It is a descendant of an earlier game called Hack (1985), which is a descendant of Rogue (1980). Comparing it with Rogue, Engadget's Justin Olivetti wrote that it took its exploration aspect and "made it far richer with an encyclopedia of objects, a larger vocabulary, a wealth of pop culture mentions, and a puzzler's attitude." In 2000, Salon described it as "one of the finest gaming experiences the computing world has to offer."

The player chooses a character class and their mission is to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor in a randomly generated dungeon.

History and development

The first version of NetHack was released by Mike Stephenson on July 28, 1987.

A core development team emerged with the release of Nethack 3.0 in July 1989. Over the next 14 years of development they established a tight-lipped culture, revealing little, if anything, between releases. Owing to the ever-increasing depth and complexity found in each release, the development team enjoys a near-mythical status among some fans. This perceived omniscience is captured in the initialism TDTTOE, "The DevTeam Thinks of Everything".

Ascension (miniseries)

Ascension is a 2014 Canadian/American science fiction mystery drama television miniseries which aired on CBC in Canada and Syfy in USA. It takes place aboard a generation ship, and consists of six 43 minute episodes. The show was created by Philip Levens and Adrian A. Cruz. The pilot was written and executive produced by Philip Levens, who served as the showrunner. On July 9, 2014, CBC added Ascension to its fall programming roster. It was originally scheduled to premiere in November 2014. In October 2014, CBC announced that the premiere date had been moved to January 2015. It started airing on CBC on Monday nights starting February 9, 2015. Syfy had originally announced plans to debut the show on November 24, 2014, airing one episode per week for six weeks. Instead the series premiered on December 15, 2014, and aired two episodes each night for three consecutive nights.

Premise

Ascension is inspired by the real-life Project Orion that existed under the administration of President John F. Kennedy. The show sets up an alternate version of reality beginning in 1963, when President Kennedy and the U.S. government, fearing the Cold War will escalate and lead to the destruction of Earth, decides to launch a covert space mission. They send 600 volunteers, including men, women and children, aboard the USS Ascension, a massive, self-sustaining generation ship, on what should be a century-long voyage. Their mission is to colonize a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, assuring the survival of the human race. At 51 years into their 100-year journey (i.e. in the present) and as they approach the point of no return, the mysterious murder of a young woman – the first homicide since their departure – causes the ship's crew to question the true nature of their mission.

Blackthorne

Blackthorne (Blackhawk in some European countries) is a cinematic platformer video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released for the SNES and DOS in 1994, and with enhanced graphics and a higher color palette for the Sega 32X in 1995 and for Mac OS in 1996. The cover art for the SNES version was drawn by Jim Lee. A port to the Game Boy Advance was released in 2003, also with a brighter palette than original versions. Because of GBA's fewer number of buttons, some actions were set to combinations of buttons. In 2013 the game was added to Battle.net as free download emulated through DOSBox.

Plot

Blackthorne is set on the planet Tuul, which has existed for centuries without human knowledge. All of this time, Tuul's people have been ruled over by a single shaman who "was blessed with all knowledge". Years before the game begins, Thoros, the latest ruler, finds it near impossible to choose between his two sons as the next ruler. Believing it will solve the dilemma, he leads them to the deserts and kills himself. His body becomes two stones, light and dark, and he gives one to each boy to rule their own kingdoms respectively. The people of the lightstone form the kingdom of Androth, and the people of the darkstone form Ka'dra'suul. But while Androth respects their stone, Ka'dra'suul reject theirs, and are eventually transformed into monsters by it. In this time, a ka'dra named Sarlac seizes power. He forms an army and leads them against Androth. Knowing of his people's doom, the ruler of Androth, King Vlaros, with the aid of the Androthi magician Galadril, sends his son Kyle to Earth to save his life. Vlaros also gives Kyle the lightstone for safe keeping.

Blackthorne Publishing

Blackthorne Publishing, Inc. was a comic book publisher that flourished from 1986-1989. They were notable for the Blackthorne 3-D Series, their reprint titles of classic comic strips like Dick Tracy, and their licensed products. Blackthorne achieved its greatest sales and financial success with their licensed 3-D comics adaptations of the California Raisins, but the financial loss suffered by the failure of their 3-D adaptation of the Michael Jackson film Moonwalker was a major contributor to the publisher's downfall.

History

Blackthorne was established in 1985 by husband-and-wife team Steve Schanes and Ann Fera, formerly associated with Pacific Comics (which had gone out of business in 1984). Schanes explained, "My abilities have always been to sell and promote, and I needed to have a job to pay my debts and to maintain a minimum life-style with my family. Since I could not locate enough work where I was living, I decided to start up another company, so I borrowed on my credit cards and started Blackthorne." Schanes and Fera raised $16,000 to start Blackthorne (naming the company after the street on which they lived), mostly using their credit cards.

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.