Bliss

Bliss may refer to:

People

Bliss (short story)

Bliss is a modernist short story by Katherine Mansfield first published in 1918. It was published in the English Review in August 1918 and later reprinted in Bliss and Other Stories.

Plot summary

Bliss (image)

Bliss is the name of the default computer wallpaper of Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. It is an image of a rolling green hill and a blue sky with cumulus and cirrus clouds. The landscape depicted is in the Los Carneros American Viticultural Area of Sonoma County, California, United States.

Overview

Former National Geographic photographer Charles O'Rear, a resident of the nearby Napa Valley, took the photo on film with a medium-format camera while on his way to visit his girlfriend in 1996. While it was widely believed later that the image was digitally manipulated or even created with software such as Adobe Photoshop, O'Rear says it never was. He sold it to Corbis for use as a stock photo. Several years later, Microsoft engineers chose a digitized version of the image and licensed it from O'Rear.

Over the next decade it has been claimed to be the most viewed photograph in the world during that time. Since it was taken, the landscape in it has changed, with grapevines planted on the hill and field in the foreground, making O'Rear's image impossible to duplicate for the time being. That has not stopped other photographers from trying, and some of their attempts have been included in art exhibits.

Condor

Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere.

They are:

Taxonomy

Condors are part of the family Cathartidae, whereas the 15 species of Old World vultures are in the family Accipitridae, that also includes ospreys, hawks, and eagles. The New World and Old World vultures evolved from different ancestors. However, they both are carrion-eaters and have distinctive bare heads.

See Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy for an alternative classification.

Description

Both condors are very large broad-winged soaring birds, the Andean condor being 5 cm shorter (beak to tail) on average than the northern species, but larger in wingspan. California condors are the largest flying land birds in North America. The Andean condor is second only to the wandering albatross (up to 3.5 m) in terms of wingspan among all living flying birds.

Condor (ride)

The Condor is the trade name of an amusement ride sold by HUSS of Bremen, Germany. It was debuted at the 1984 New Orleans World's Fair, under the name "Cyclo Tower".

The Condor has 28 steel-framed gondolas, each equipped with a painted fiberglass shell - frequently to resemble the seats to be an actual bird. The seats hold one or two people seated in each, one sitting behind the other if they decide to ride double. It can accommodate approximately 1,700 riders per hour. The automatic doors on the ride are operated by pneumatic air pressure, and are manually opened and closed during necessary points at the beginning/end of the ride cycle. The ride uses a cable and counterweight system within the tower to assist with the raising and lowering of the rotating assembly.

There is a DC induction motor located at the end of each arm responsible for rotating the gondolas, as well as three more on the middle lifting structure used for rotation of the entire assembly and travelling the tower. To start the ride, most Condors use a three-button start system - with three buttons required to be hit at the same time to start the cycle. (The operator in the booth uses his or her thumbs on the two buttons located on the panel, while an attendant in a location around the perimeter must be holding that one as well.)

Condor (comics)

Condor is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Publication history

The Condor first appeared in Nova #2-3 (October–November 1976), and was created by Marv Wolfman and John Buscema.

The character subsequently appears in Nova #6-8 (February–April 1977), #10 (June 1977), Nova #2-5 (February–May 1994), #13 (January 1995), Nova #3-4 (July–August 1999), #7 (November 1999), and Amazing Spider-Man #562-563 (August 2008).

Fictional character biography

Condor is a winged criminal scientist, and is a member of the same race of avians as Red Raven. He was a member of the Terrible Trio, along with Diamondhead and Powerhouse, and an enemy of Nova and the Champions of Xandar. During a battle with the Sphinx, he was transformed into an actual condor.

Condor spent several years in the form of an animal, until he landed on the island of Bird-Brain and the Ani-Mates. Bird-Brain recognized that the Condor was not a real animal and transformed him into a semi-humanoid. He confronted Nova again angrily, and ultimately left feeling their conflict had been useless.