Bolt (website)

Bolt was a social networking and video website active from 1996 to 2007 before reopening in April 2008. It was shut down for a period of one year due to copyright violations leading to bankruptcy. It was acquired by new owners on January 4, 2008 and operated successfully for several months before announcing plans to go offline in October 2008.

1996-2006

In 1996 Bolt.com was started as a teen community, by a team including Dan Pelson, Lee Morgenroth, David Cancel and Jane Mount as part of Concrete Media. In many ways Bolt.com was ahead of its time. It was among the first social networking sites to appear on the Internet. It offered a wide range of unique services including a daily horoscope, chat rooms, message boards, tagbooks (a knowledge market feature), photo albums, internet radio, browser games, blogs, e-cards, an instant messenger service, a clubs feature (giving people with similar interests a common message board), and badges (a system of awards for user profiles). An e-mail service was hosted, but it was discontinued due to email companies such as Yahoo and Google providing between 1 and nearly 3 gigabytes of email storage for free, rendering Bolt's email service obsolete. This was done without notifying its email subrscribers. Also bolt was one of the first sites to give its members their own web page. As the site aged it relied more on corporate sponsorships. In 2002 the badges slowly started leaning towards company sponsored badges, which led to Bolt becoming more commercial with an increase of ads into the users' activities. Some notable ones included the Verizon Wireless, Gillette, and Sony badges.

Bolt

Bolt or Bolts may refer to:

Common meanings

Arts and entertainment

Bolting (horticulture)

Bolting is when agricultural and horticultural crops prematurely produce a flowering stem (or stems) before the crop is harvested, in a natural attempt to produce seeds and hence reproduce. These flowering stems are usually vigorous extensions of existing leaf-bearing stems, and in order to produce them, a plant diverts resources away from producing the edible parts such as leaves or roots, resulting in a poor quality harvest from the grower's point of view. Plants that have produced flowering stems in this way are said to have bolted. Crops inclined to bolt include lettuce, beetroot, brassicas, spinach, celery and onion.

Bolting is induced by plant hormones of the gibberellin family, and can occur as a result of several factors, including changes in day length, the prevalence of low temperatures at particular stages in a plant's growth cycle, and the existence of stresses such as insufficient water or minerals. These factors may interact in a complex way. Day length may affect the propensity to bolt in that some plants are "long day plants", some are "short day plants" and some are "day neutral", so for example when a long day plant, such as spinach, experiences increasingly long days that reach a particular length, it will be inclined to bolt. Low temperatures can affect the propensity of some plants to bolt if they are experienced for sufficient periods at particular points in the life cycle of the plant; once these conditions have been met, plants that require such a trigger will subsequently bolt regardless of subsequent temperatures. Plants under stress may respond by bolting so that they can produce seeds before they die.

Bolt (video game)

Bolt is a video game available for PC, Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS, and Microsoft Windows. It is based on the Disney film of the same name. It was released in North America on November 18, 2008. It was released in Australia on December 4, 2008. It was released in Europe on February 13, 2009. The video game was developed by Avalanche Software and published by Disney Interactive.

Synopsis

Setting

In the game, the player follows and controls the superdog Bolt and Penny on various missions taking place in the fictional universe from the movie. By using Bolt's superpowers, the player can fight enemies. New powers, such as Superbark and Laser Eyes, can be unlocked during the game. The levels are shared between Bolt and Penny. Bolt has superpowers, whereas Penny has maneuverability by using her Wheelbar. However, the game focuses on Bolt's fake TV life, not the actual movie storyline. Penny's father has been kidnapped by the evil Dr. Calico, and Penny and Bolt must travel through 5 different countries to rescue him.