List of Marvel Comics characters: S

Sabra

Sabre

Sabre I

The first Sabre was a former knife thrower named Paul Richarde until he was selected by Modred to oppose Black Knight. Paul Richarde was given an armor, an animated gargoyle. and Mordred's Ebony Dagger (the weapon with which Mordred had killed the first Black Knight). He was defeated by Black Knight after his horse Aragorn kicked the dagger from Le Sabre's hand.

Sabre II

The second Sabre is a mutant super villain. His first appearance was in X-Men #106. Young and reckless, Sabre was chosen by Mystique to join her new Brotherhood of Mutants, though never actually participated in any missions. He had the mutant ability of super speed, and took the name of the deceased Super Sabre. It is unknown if he continues to serve Mystique behind the scenes, or if he even retains his powers after Decimation. Hyper-accelerated metabolism augments his natural speed, reflexes, coordination, endurance, and the healing properties of his body.

Supercharger (album)

Supercharger is the fourth album by the heavy metal band Machine Head. The release was ill-timed, and, as a result of little promotion, fell far short of the success of The Burning Red, which has sold about 134,000 copies in the US to date. Supercharger has sold about 45,000 copies in the US to date, making it a commercial failure.

Album information

Supercharger was released in October, 2001, just weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The lead (and only) single "Crashing Around You", was pulled from MTV and rock radio just as soon as it was added despite being the "most added" track in the United States. The pull was a result of the metaphorical "crashing" lyric in the song and the burning San Francisco skyline in the video.

Machine Head's support tour for the album was done without help from their label Roadrunner Records, and after the release of Hellalive to fulfill their contract, led the band to a two-year hiatus from the label's American branch.

With The Burning Red, the band changed their sound to nu metal. Supercharger was darker and heavier than The Burning Red, but lacked as much groove metal sound as Burn My Eyes and The More Things Change.... Two years later, the band would release Through the Ashes of Empires and return to their groove metal roots.

Blinking

Blinking is a semi-autonomic rapid closing of the eyelid. A single blink is determined by the forceful closing of the eyelid or inactivation of the levator palpebrea superioris and the activation of the orbicularis oculi, not the full open and close. It is an essential function of the eye that helps spread tears across and remove irritants from the surface of the cornea and conjunctiva. Blink speed can be affected by elements such as fatigue, eye injury, medication, and disease. The blinking rate is determined by the "blinking center", but it can also be affected by external stimulus. When an animal (usually human) chooses to blink only one eye as a signal to another in a social setting (a form of body language), it is known as winking. Some animals (for example, tortoises and hamsters) blink their eyes independently of each other.

Function and anatomy of blinking

Blinking provides moisture to the eye by irrigation using tears and a lubricant the eyes secrete. The eyelid provides suction across the eye from the tear duct to the entire eyeball to keep it from drying out.

Spyro (series)

Spyro is a series of platform games which primarily features the protagonist Spyro the Dragon and his friend, Sparx the Dragonfly. Since its introduction in 1998, there has been a complete reboot to the series called The Legend of Spyro trilogy, making it a total of ten Spyro games and three Legend of Spyro games. The Spyro series has sold more than 20 million units worldwide. After The Legend of Spyro series concluded, a spin-off franchise under the name of Skylanders was made where Spyro and other related characters were included in.

Games

Spyro the Dragon

Spyro the Dragon was first released in North America on 11 September 1998, for the PlayStation. It was released in Europe on 23 October 1998, In Australia on 15 November 1998 and in Japan on 1 April 1999. It is a platform game that placed the player as Spyro, a small, purple dragon set with the task of freeing his fellow dragons from crystal prisons, which are scattered around their world. Each level is accessed through 'portals' from a main world. The game concludes with a fight between Spyro and the primary antagonist, Gnasty Gnorc. The game sold well, most critics giving it favorable reviews. It also received acclaim for its musical score by Stewart Copeland.

Blink (band)

Blink are a pop rock band from Ireland. They are noted for their mixture of humour and melancholy. They have released three albums to date: A Map of the Universe by Blink (1994), The End Is High (1998) and Deep Inside the Sound of Sadness (2004). "A Map of the Universe by Blink" was an Irish top ten album. "The End is High" was a Billboard album of the week and "Deep inside the Sound of Sadness" was nominated as Best Irish Album of the Year in the 2005 Meteor Music Awards.

The band are also notable as being the first band to be pictured on a telephone card.

The San Diego, California based pop punk band now known as Blink-182 was originally also called Blink, but a legal dispute with the Irish Blink resulted in their name change to Blink-182.

Biography

Blink was formed in the early 1990s by Dermot Lambert (vocals/guitars), Robbie Sexton (keyboards), Brian McLoughlin (bass) and Barry Campbell (drums). Blink's inclusion on a CD for a trade festival in New York generated a positive review, which ended with the band signing with EMI for their debut release.