Icon

An icon (from Greek εἰκών eikōn "image") is typically a painting depicting Christ, Mary, saints and/or angels, which is venerated among Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and in certain Catholic Churches.

Icons may also be cast in metal, carved in stone, embroidered on cloth, painted on wood, done in mosaic or fresco work, printed on paper or metal, etc. Icons are often illuminated with a candle or jar of oil with a wick. (Beeswax for candles and olive oil for oil lamps are preferred because they burn very cleanly, although other materials are sometimes used.) The illumination of religious images with lamps or candles is an ancient practice pre-dating Christianity.

Although common in translated works from Greek or Russian, in English iconography does not mean icon painting, and "iconographer" does not mean an artist of icons, which are painted or carved, not "written", as they are in those languages.

Comparable images from Western Christianity are generally not described as "icons", although "iconic" may be used to describe a static style of devotional image.

Black operation

A black operation or black op is a covert operation by a government, a government agency, or a military organization. This can include activities by private companies or groups. Key features of a black operation are that it is secret and it is not attributable to the organization carrying it out. The main difference between a black operation and one that is merely secret is that a black operation involves a significant degree of deception, to conceal who is behind it or to make it appear that some other entity is responsible ("false flag" operations).

A single such activity may be called a "black bag operation"; that term is primarily used for covert or clandestine surreptitious entries into structures to obtain information for human intelligence operations. Such operations are known to have been carried out by the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency,Mossad, MI6, ISI (Pakistan), RAW, MSS, and the intelligence services of other nations.

Etymology

"Black" may be used as a generic term for any government activity that is hidden or secret. For example, some activities by military and intel agencies are funded by a classified "black budget," of which the details, and sometimes even the total, are hidden from the public and from most congressional oversight.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Call of Duty: Black Ops III is a military science fiction first-person shooter video game, developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. It is the twelfth entry in the Call of Duty series and the sequel to the 2012 video game Call of Duty: Black Ops II. It was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 6, 2015. A feature-limited version developed by Beenox and Mercenary Technology that only supports multiplayer modes was released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Upon release, the game received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success.

Plot

Single-player campaign

Setting and characters

Call of Duty: Black Ops III takes place in 2065, 40 years after the events of Black Ops II, in a world facing upheaval from climate change and new technologies. In response to the drone assaults of Black Ops 2, several countries around the world have developed high-tech air defenses that render conventional air forces virtually useless. As such, most of the warfare between countries is done by covert operatives fighting behind enemy lines. Military technology has progressed to the point where robotics play a major role in combat, and both fully robotic humanoid drones and cyborg supersoldiers have been developed to fight in the battlefield. As a result, there is speculation and fear about an eventual robotic takeover. The game follows a team of black ops soldiers, like previous installments in the Black Ops series.

1000

Year 1000 (M) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. It was also the last year of the 10th century as well as the last year of the 1st millennium of the Dionysian era ending on December 31st, but the first year of the 1000s decade.

The year falls well into the period of Old World history known as the Middle Ages; in Europe, it is sometimes and by convention considered the boundary date between the Early Middle Ages and the High Middle Ages. The Muslim world was in its "Golden Age". China was in its Song dynasty, Japan was in its "classical" Heian period. India was divided into a number of lesser empires, such as the Rashtrakuta Dynasty, Pala Empire (Kamboja Pala dynasty; Mahipala), Chola dynasty (Raja Raja Chola I), Yadava dynasty, etc. Sub-Saharan Africa was still in the prehistoric period, although Arab slave trade was beginning to be an important factor in the formation of the Sahelian kingdoms. The pre-Columbian New World was in a time of general transition in many regions. Wari and Tiwanaku cultures receded in power and influence while Chachapoya and Chimú cultures rose toward florescence in South America. In Mesoamerica, the Maya Terminal Classic period saw the decline of many grand polities of the Petén like Palenque and Tikal yet a renewed vigor and greater construction phases of sites in the Yucatán region like Chichén Itzá and Uxmal. Mitla, with Mixtec influence, became the more important site of the Zapotec, overshadowing the waning Monte Albán. Cholula flourished in central Mexico, as did Tula, the center of Toltec culture.

Adobe After Effects

Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing application developed by Adobe Systems and used in the post-production process of filmmaking and television production. Among other things, After Effects can be used for keying, tracking, rotoscoping, compositing and animation. It also functions as a very basic non-linear editor, audio editor and media transcoder.

Description

Adobe After Effects is software primarily used for creating motion graphics and visual effects. It allows users to animate, edit, and compose media in 2D or 3D space with many different built-in tools and third party plug-ins which can be downloaded from the Internet depending on what type of plug in the user is looking for. It also provides individual attention to variables like parallax and also user adjustable angles of observation.

Adobe After Effects is a layer-oriented program. Each individual media object like video clips, still images, audio clips, etc. runs on its own. In contrast, other Non-Linear Editing Systems use a system where individual media objects can occupy the same track as long as they do not overlap at the same time. This track-oriented system is more suitable for editing and can keep project files more simple. The layer oriented system that Adobe After Effects has is suitable for extensive video effects work and also key framing. Other compositing packages, especially the ones that employ tree or node workflows, such as Nuke and Fusion, are better suited to managing complex interconnected data flow within a composite. Adobe After Effects is capable of countering the problem somewhat by selectively hiding layers or by grouping them into pre-compositions.