Flannery

Flannery is a bridge convention using an 2♦ opening bid to show a hand of minimal opening bid strength (11-15 high card points) with exactly four spades and five (or sometimes six) hearts. It was invented by American player William L. Flannery.

This convention was introduced because of the awkwardness of describing such a holding, especially with four-card major systems. For example, with the hand ♠ KQ82 ♥ AJ643 ♦ KJ ♣ 54, if the bidding starts 1♥ - 1NT (denying four spades), the opener cannot rebid 2♠, as it would be a reverse bid showing a stronger hand, 2♥ would show a six-card suit, and two of a minor would show four or at least three good cards. Thus, the opener cannot easily explore for a 5-3 fit in hearts. Five-card major openers are somewhat better placed, because 1NT denies both three hearts and four spades, so opener may pass more safely but is nevertheless at risk of missing a potential optimum 4-3 Moysian fit in spades. Flannery is also useful when playing five-card majors in conjunctions with forcing notrump, to prevent opener from having to respond in a nonsuit after 1♥ – 1NT when not strong enough to reverse.

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (ポケットモンスター オメガルビー&アルファサファイア, Poketto Monsutā Omega Rubī & Arufa Safaia) are two 2014 role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. They are part of the sixth generation of the Pokémon series, serving as enhanced remakes of the 2002 Game Boy Advance titles Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. The games were announced on May 7, 2014, in a teaser trailer released by Nintendo. As with Pokémon X and Y, the games include all official translations, unlike previous generations where each game contained only a single language.

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were released in Japan, North America, and Australia on November 21, 2014, exactly twelve years after the release date of the original Ruby and Sapphire; the European and Indian release was one week later on November 28, 2014.

Gameplay

List of Pokémon characters

This is a list of Pokémon characters in the games, anime series, and manga series. A single character may appear in multiple continuities, sometimes in the same basic role (e.g. Giovanni) and sometimes in very different roles (e.g. Brock).

All references to the "video games" collectively refer to Pokémon Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen, Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, SoulSilver, Black, White, Black 2, White 2, X, Y, OmegaRuby, and AlphaSapphire only, unless noted otherwise. Likewise, references to the Pokémon anime also include, in addition to the eponymous anime itself, the related sidestory Pokémon Chronicles anime, the game Pokémon Channel, and Ash & Pikachu manga unless otherwise noted.

Names in bold are the names from the English-language versions of the video games or anime. Names within parentheses in plain text are the anglicized form of the characters' original Japanese language name if different from the English-language version. Italicized names are the romanized version of the Japanese language name if different from the anglicized version.

Flannery O'Connor

Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925 – August 3, 1964) was an American writer and essayist. An important voice in American literature, she wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern writer who often wrote in a Southern Gothic style and relied heavily on regional settings and grotesque characters. Her writing also reflected her own Roman Catholic faith, and frequently examined questions of morality and ethics.

O'Connor's Complete Stories won the 1972 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and was named the "Best of the National Book Awards" by Internet visitors in 2009. O'Connor was the first writer born in the twentieth century to have her works collected and published in the Library of America.

Early years and education

O'Connor was born on March 25, 1925, in Savannah, Georgia, the only child of Edward F. O'Connor, a real estate agent, and Regina Cline. She described herself as a "pigeon-toed child with a receding chin and a you-leave-me-alone-or-I'll-bite-you complex." When she was six, living at a home still standing, she experienced her first brush with celebrity status. The Pathé News people filmed "Little Mary O'Connor" with her trained chicken, and showed the film around the country. She said, "When I was six I had a chicken that walked backward and was in the Pathé News. I was in it too with the chicken. I was just there to assist the chicken but it was the high point in my life. Everything since has been an anticlimax." In 1937, her father was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus. It led to his eventual death on February 1, 1941, and the 15-year-old O'Connor was left devastated.

Pokémon

Pokémon (ポケモン, Pokemon, /ˈpoʊkeɪˌmɒn/ POH-kay-mon) is a media franchise owned by The Pokémon Company, and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1995. It is centered on fictional creatures called "Pokémon", which humans known as Pokémon Trainers catch and train to battle each other for sport.

The franchise began as a pair of video games for the original Game Boy, developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo. The franchise now spans video games, trading card games, animated television shows and movies, comic books, and toys. Pokémon is the second-most successful and lucrative video game-based media franchise in the world, behind only Nintendo's Mario franchise.

The franchise celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2006. Cumulative sales of the video games (including home console games, such as Hey You, Pikachu! for the Nintendo 64) have reached more than 200 million copies. In November 2005, 4Kids Entertainment, which had managed the non-game related licensing of Pokémon, announced that it had agreed not to renew the Pokémon representation agreement. Pokémon USA Inc. (now The Pokémon Company International), a subsidiary of Japan's Pokémon Co., now oversees all Pokémon licensing outside of Asia. As of 2013, the Pokémon media franchise has grossed revenues of ¥4 trillion worldwide (equivalent to US$37.76 billion). The brand earned $2 billion in 2014 alone.