Eris (spider)

Eris is a genus of the spider family Salticidae (jumping spiders). It is not a large spider and, although it is prone to biting, is not poisonous to humans.

Name

The genus name is derived from Eris, the Greek goddess of discord (known as Discordia in Roman mythology).

Species

Further reading

External links

Eris (simulation)

Eris is a computer simulation of the Milky Way galaxy's physics. It was done by astrophysicists from the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland and University of California, Santa Cruz. The simulation project was undertaken at the NASA Advanced Supercomputer Division’s Pleiades and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre for nearly eight months, which would have otherwise taken 570 years in a personal computer. The Eris simulation is the first successful detailed simulation of a Milky Way like galaxy. The results of the simulation were announced in August 2011.

Background

Simulation projects intending to simulate spiral galaxies have been undertaken for the past 20 years. All of these projects had failed as the simulation results showed central bulges which are huge compared to the disk size.

Simulation

The simulation was undertaken using supercomputers which include the Pleiades supercomputer, the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre and the supercomputers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The simulation used 1.4 million processor-hours of the Pleiades supercomputer.

Mercenary (video game)

Mercenary is the first in a series of computer games, published on a number of 8-bit and 16-bit platforms from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, by Novagen Software. The second and third games were known as Damocles and Mercenary III: The Dion Crisis respectively.

The games were notable for their smooth vector and polygonal graphics, vast environments, and open-ended gameplay which offered several ways to complete each game. All three titles were favourably reviewed when they were originally released, and the titles have a following in the retrogaming community.

Overview

The Mercenary series consists of three main games and a number of add-on datasets. While each game is self-contained, they make occasional references to other games in the series and are connected in terms of their freeform, open-ended gameplay, visual appearance and general ambience.

Within each game the player must explore a world rendered in realtime 3D graphics, completing a number of non-linear tasks in order to achieve a single main objective. The title of the series derives from the player's role in carrying out tasks as a "hired gun". In Mercenary the player crash lands into an ongoing conflict and is able to play the warring factions off against one another to the player's own advantage. In Damocles the player is encouraged to bargain the fate of a whole world for financial reward. However, in The Dion Crisis the player has a less selfish agenda, and must gain the support of voters against the plotting of a sinister businessman.

List of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy characters

This is a list of characters from the American animated television series, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, which was created by Maxwell Atoms, and which originally aired on Cartoon Network from June 13, 2003 to November 9, 2007

Main characters

Grim Reaper

Voiced by Greg Eagles

Grim is over one hundred and thirty-seven thousand years old (as had been born at the time of the Stone Age) and speaks using a Jamaican accent. The continuity of how Grim got his reaper status and tremendously strong and powerful supernatural powers comes up quite a few times and it is unknown which way he really got his supernatural powers (for example, in The Wrath of the Spider Queen movie, he was elected to his position as the Grim Reaper while he was in middle school; however, in A Grim Prophecy, it is shown that he was the Grim Reaper since his childhood with his parents forcing him to be the Reaper, which is further contradicted in a later episode where he is seen stumbling over his scythe to become Grim Reaper). His long scythe is the source of all of his supernatural and magical abilities, and possesses many magical capabilities and qualities; although he is still capable of using some incredibly powerful magic spells without it, though these instances are quite rare.

Spider

Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other orders of organisms. Spiders are found worldwide on every continent except for Antarctica, and have become established in nearly every habitat with the exceptions of air and sea colonization. As of November 2015, at least 45,700 spider species, and 114 families have been recorded by taxonomists. However, there has been dissension within the scientific community as to how all these families should be classified, as evidenced by the over 20 different classifications that have been proposed since 1900.

Anatomically, spiders differ from other arthropods in that the usual body segments are fused into two tagmata, the cephalothorax and abdomen, and joined by a small, cylindrical pedicel. Unlike insects, spiders do not have antennae. In all except the most primitive group, the Mesothelae, spiders have the most centralized nervous systems of all arthropods, as all their ganglia are fused into one mass in the cephalothorax. Unlike most arthropods, spiders have no extensor muscles in their limbs and instead extend them by hydraulic pressure.

Spider (pulp fiction)

The Spider is an American pulp-magazine hero of the 1930s and 1940s.

Background

The Spider was created in 1933 by Harry Steeger at Popular Publications as direct competition to Street and Smith Publications' vigilante hero, the Shadow. Though similar, The Spider was millionaire playboy Richard Wentworth, who had served as a Major in World War I, and was living in New York City unaffected by the financial deprivations of the Great Depression. The ninth pulp has him as the last surviving member of a rich family.

Wentworth was easily identified as The Spider by his enemies in a number of earlier novels and was arrested by the police but quickly escaped, adopting a disguise and associated alias Tito Caliepi, donning make-up, a wig of lank hair, a black cape, and slouch hat. Later in the pulp series, vampire-like makeup appeared and then a face mask with grizzled hair; a hunchback was then added to terrorize the criminal underworld with The Spider's brand of violent vigilante justice. (Actor and comedian Harold Lloyd previously had used a similar mask, lank hair wig, and hunchback in the comedy film Dr. Jack (1922)). Caliepi sometimes begged, utilizing Wentworth's talent with a violin.

Spider (2007 film)

Spider is a 2007 Australian Black Comedy short film directed by Nash Edgerton and written by David Michôd and Nash Edgerton. The film had its world premiere in competition at the Sydney Film Festival on 17 June 2007. After that the film compete at number of film festivals and later theatrically released with Edgerton's feature-film The Square.

Plot

Consummate joker Jack plays a prank on his girlfriend Jill that goes too far. But like mum said, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye."

Cast

Reception

Critical response

The film earned mainly positive reviews from critics. Jason Sondhi of short of the week gave film the positive review said "It’s for sure a superior film, I just think I loved everything about it except the parts that I assume everyone loves." David Brook of blue print review gave the film four out of five stars and said "A simple one-gag comedy-short that works surprisingly well due to some accomplished naturalistic direction and performances. A nice touch at the end, although unnecessary, went down well with the audience too." Wesley Morris of Boston.com said that "as well-delivered as its shocks are, this film is cleverness in the service of cruelty."