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.

Mando

Mando refers to:

Mando (singer)

Mando (Greek: Μαντώ), born Adamantia Stamatopoulou (Greek: Αδαμαντία Σταματοπούλου), is a popular Greek singer. She was born in Piraeus on 13 April 1966 and raised in Athens by her jazz pianist father, Nikos Stamatopoulos and a classic soprano opera mother, Mary Apergi.

From a young age she began to develop her talent and interest in music, and was characterized as a "born musician". On 14 March 2010, Alpha TV ranked Mando the 23rd top-certified female artist in the nation's phonographic era (since 1960), totalling five gold records. On 21 April 2013 she participated at the Greek version of Your Face Sounds Familiar which was aired by Antenna TV Greece, where in the last episode (30 June 2013), she placed 4th. She was a special guest star in the semifinal of The Voice of greece where she and one of the participants, Maria Elena Kiriakou, sang together Beyonce's Hit Listen And she has presented her new song Poliploka from her upcoming album.

Early life

At the age of four Mando could easily sing operatic arias, gospel and jazz music. Her parents, astonished by her musical capability, signed her with the National Conservatory for piano and music theory lessons. Meanwhile, she took up vocal training and dance lessons. At the age of ten, Mando began to teach herself how to play the guitar and various percussion instruments. Her dedication and passion quickly led her to compose her own melodies.