Aisha

‘Ā’ishah bint Abī Bakr (613/614 – 678 CE;Arabic: عائشة‎ transliteration: ‘Ā’ishah [ʕaːʔiʃa], also transcribed as A'ishah, Aisyah, Ayesha, A'isha, Aishat, Aishah, or Aisha /ˈɑːiːˌʃɑː/) was one of Muhammad's wives. In Islamic writings, her name is thus often prefixed by the title "Mother of the Believers" (Arabic: أمّ المؤمنين umm al-mu'minīn), per the description of Muhammad's wives in the Qur'an.

Aisha had an important role in early Islamic history, both during Muhammad's life and after his death. In Sunni tradition, Aisha is thought to be scholarly and inquisitive. She contributed to the spread of Muhammad's message and served the Muslim community for 44 years after his death. She is also known for narrating 2210 hadiths, not just on matters related to the Prophet's private life, but also on topics such as inheritance, pilgrimage, and eschatology. Her intellect and knowledge in various subjects, including poetry and medicine, were highly praised by early luminaries such as al-Zuhri and her student Urwa ibn al-Zubayr.

Transliteration

Transliteration is the conversion of a text from one script to another.

For instance, a Latin transliteration of the Greek phrase "Ελληνική Δημοκρατία", usually translated as 'Hellenic Republic', is "Ellēnikḗ Dēmokratía".

Transliteration is not concerned with representing the sounds of the original, only the characters, ideally accurately and unambiguously. Thus, in the above example, λλ is transliterated as 'll', but pronounced /l/; Δ is transliterated as 'D', but pronounced 'ð'; and η is transliterated as 'ē', though it is pronounced /i/ (exactly like ι) and is not long.

Conversely, transcription notes the sounds but not necessarily the spelling. So "Ελληνική Δημοκρατία" could be transcribed as "elinikí ðimokratía", which does not specify which of the /i/ sounds are written as η and which as ι.

Definitions

Systematic transliteration is a mapping from one system of writing into another, typically grapheme to grapheme. Most transliteration systems are one-to-one, so a reader who knows the system can reconstruct the original spelling.

Romancing SaGa

Romancing SaGa (ロマンシング サ・ガ, Romanshingu Sa・Ga) is a role-playing video game originally developed and published by Square as the fourth game of their SaGa series. Initially made available in January 1992 for the Super Famicom, the game was later ported to the WonderSwan Color handheld system in December 2002, with both releases being exclusive to Japanese players. In April 2005, an enhanced remake of the title for the PlayStation 2 called Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song (ロマンシング サガ -ミンストレルソング-, Romanshingu Sa Ga -Minsutoreru Songu-) was released in April 2005 in Japan, and in English for the first time in North America the following October simply under the title Romancing SaGa. The game was designed by Akitoshi Kawazu who had served as head developer for the previous SaGa titles, with fellow series veteran Kenji Ito providing the game's soundtrack. In 2009, the original Super Famicom version was ported to mobile phones and the Wii Virtual Console service in Japan.

Set in the fictional world of Mardias, Romancing SaGa allows players to assume the role of one of eight main characters who must journey across the world to prevent the resurrection of an evil god named Saruin who was sealed away a millennium previous. The original Super Famicom version sold over a million copies worldwide and was voted by readers of Japanese Famitsu magazine as the 53rd greatest game of all time in a 2006 poll. Conversely, the PlayStation 2 remake received largely mixed to average reviews in North America due to the game's high difficulty, steep learning curve, and questionable character designs.

Mayall II

Mayall II (M31 G1) also known as NGC-224-G1, SKHB 1, GSC 2788:2139, HBK 0-1, M31GC J003247+393440 or Andromeda's Cluster is a globular cluster orbiting M31, the Andromeda Galaxy.

It is located 130,000 light-years (40 kpc) from Andromeda's galactic core, and is the brightest (absolute magnitude) globular cluster in the Local Group, having an apparent magnitude of 13.7. G1 is considered to have twice the mass of Omega Centauri. G1 may contain a central, intermediate-mass (∼ 2×10⁴M_⊙) black hole.

It was first identified as a possible globular cluster by Nicholas Mayall & O.J. Eggen in 1953 using a Palomar 48-inch Schmidt plate exposed in 1948.

Because of the widespread distribution of metallicity, indicating multiple star generations and a large stellar creation period, many contend that it is not a true globular cluster, but is actually the galactic core that remains of a dwarf galaxy consumed by Andromeda.

Origin of names

Music4Games

Music4Games was a video game music information site originally launched in 1999. It focused on the video game soundtrack industry and claimed to target dedicated gamers, game music fans, audiophiles, students, composers, developers, publishers, producers, audio directors and music executives as a consumer and industry website. In December 2009, the website closed down without any prior announcement or reasons given.

Details

Music4Games was a media partner for industry events and organizations including The Composer Expo, Develop Conference (Audio Track); MIDEM Music For Images Conference;Game Developers Conference; Game Audio Conference; The Game Audio Network Guild; GC Symphonic Game Music concert in Leipzig, Germany; Play! A Videogame Symphony concert series, Video Games Live (Official concert tour program), Mutek Festival, Arcadia Festival; media supporter for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards for best ‘Original Music’ and best ‘Sound’ in a video game.

See also

M240 machine gun

The M240, officially Machine Gun, 7.62mm, M240, is the US military designation for the FN MAG (Mitrailleuse d'Appui Général, meaning general-purpose machine gun), a family of belt-fed, gas-operated medium machine guns firing the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge.

The M240 has been used by the United States Armed Forces since the late-1970s. It is used extensively by infantry, most often rifle companies as well as ground vehicles, watercraft and aircraft. Despite being heavier than comparable weapons, it is highly regarded for reliability and its standardization among NATO members is a major advantage.

All variants are fed from disintegrating belts, and are capable of firing most types of 7.62 mm (.308) NATO ammunition. M240 variants can use non-disintegrating belts (following replacement of a few easily swappable parts). There are significant differences in weight and some features among some versions which restrict interchangeability of parts. The M240s used by the US military are currently manufactured by FN Manufacturing, a US-based branch of FN Herstal.