Although each installment of the Final Fantasy series is generally set in a different fictional world with separate storylines, there are several commonalities when it comes to character design, as certain design themes repeat themselves, as well as specific character names and classes. Within the main series, Yoshitaka Amano was the character designer for Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI, Tetsuya Nomura was the character designer for Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIII, Yoshitaka Amano created and did the concept art for the characters while Toshiyuki Itahana was the final character designer for Final Fantasy IX, and Akihiko Yoshida was the character designer for Final Fantasy XII.
The series has often featured male characters with slightly effeminate characteristics, as well as female characters with slightly tomboyish, but still feminine, characteristics. This trend has generally increased as the series evolved. These characters are usually teenagers, which some critics have interpreted as an effort on the part of the designers to ensure the players identify with them. At the same time, some female characters have been increasingly designed to wear very revealing outfits. Square Enix has stated that a more rugged looking hero had been considered for Final Fantasy XII but had ultimately been scrapped in favor of Vaan, another effeminate protagonist. The developers cited scenaristic reasons and target demographic considerations to explain their choice. For Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix settled on a female main character, described as a "female version of Cloud from FFVII." This aspect of Final Fantasy can also be seen in Sora, the protagonist of Kingdom Hearts, a crossover series featuring Final Fantasy and Disney characters.
F.A.M.E. is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Chris Brown. It was first released on March 18, 2011, by Jive Records. The album serves as the follow-up to his third album Graffiti (2009). The album also marks as his last album with Jive Records. On this album, Brown worked with several record producers and songwriters; including Kevin McCall, Jean-Baptiste, Brian Kennedy, DJ Frank E, The Underdogs and The Messengers, among others. The album features guest appearances, from Wiz Khalifa, Game, Timbaland and Big Sean, among others.
Musically, F.A.M.E. combines the musical genres of R&B, pop, hip hop and Europop. Upon its release, the album received mixed reviews from most music critics, who were ambivalent towards its songwriting and material. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 270,000, Brown's first number-one album in the United States. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for selling more than 500,000 copies. The album garnered three Grammy Award nominations at the 54th annual ceremony, eventually winning Best R&B Album. F.A.M.E. also won the Album of the Year at the 2011 Soul Train Music Awards.
In the motion picture industry, a "box office bomb" or "box office flop" is a film that is viewed as highly unsuccessful or unprofitable during its theatrical run, sometimes preceding hype regarding its cost, production, or marketing efforts. Generally, any film for which the production and marketing costs exceed the combined revenue recovered after release is considered to have "bombed".
Gauging the financial success of a film is difficult, and because there is no reliable definition, what makes a "box-office bomb" can be very subjective. Not all films that fail to earn back their estimated costs during their theatrical runs are "bombs," and the label is generally applied to films that miss earnings projections by a wide margin, particularly when they are very expensive to produce, and sometimes in conjunction with middling or poor reviews (though critical reception has an imperfect connection to box office performance).
Beginning in the 1980s, cinemas started to drop movies that suffered a poor opening weekend. This made the performance of a film on its opening weekend much more crucial to its perception. With the growth of the Internet during the 1990s, chat rooms and websites enabled negative word of mouth to spread rapidly.
Mao (or Mau) is a card game of the shedding family, in which the aim is to get rid of all of the cards in hand without breaking certain unspoken rules. The game is from a subset of the Stops family and is similar in structure to the card game Uno or Crazy Eights.
The game forbids its players from explaining the rules, and new players are often told only "the only rule you may be told is this one". The ultimate goal of the game is to be the first player to get rid of all the cards in their hand. Specifics are discovered through trial and error. A player who breaks a rule is penalized by being given an additional card from the deck. The person giving the penalty must state what the incorrect action was, without explaining the rule that was broken.
There are many variants of Mao in existence. While beginners sometimes assume that the dealer (sometimes called the "Chairman", the "Mao" or the "Grand Master") and other experienced players are simply making up possibly inconsistent rules (as in the games Mornington Crescent or Fizbin), the rules of Mao are consistent within each game and can be followed correctly.
The mao or ma'oma'o is a passerine bird belonging to the genus Gymnomyza in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. It is an endangered species and is endemic to the Samoan Islands.
It is a large honeyeater, 28–31 cm long. The plumage is dark, varying from blackish on the head and breast to olive-green on the wings and body. There is a dark greenish mark under the eye. The bill is long, curved and black in an adult and yellowish in a chick or juvenile and the legs and feet are also black. Adult birds have light blue or brown eyes whilst all juveniles have a brown iris. It characteristically bobs its tail while foraging along the trunk and branches of trees.
Nests are built at varying heights in the branches of many different tree species. A single whitish brown speckled egg is laid in a simple sticky cup nest. The single chick is in the nest for approximately 1 month prior to fledging. During this time it is feed both small vertebrates, such as geckos, and insects. After leaving the nest the juvenile remains in the core breeding territory where it is fed by the female for 2-2.5 additional months. During this time it follows the female making loud begging calls.
Jiao (Chinese: 角), or mao, or Hou (Chinese: 毫) in Cantonese, is a unit of currency used in Greater China, including People's Republic of China (Mainland China), Republic of China (Taiwan), Hong Kong and Macao. One jiao is equal to one-tenth of a yuan or ten fēn (分).
Schiller is a German electronic DJ, who rose to fame in 1998 and named after the German poet and dramatist Friedrich Schiller. Originally it was a duo consisting of Christopher von Deylen and Mirko von Schlieffen. Around 2001 or 2002, von Schlieffen left the band, leaving von Deylen the sole member.
Schiller won the ECHO award in 2002 for the Best Dance Single of the Year with "Dream of You". Schiller has sold over 7 million albums worldwide.
Christopher von Deylen does not provide any vocals for Schiller productions himself. Vocals are sung by guest artists including Sarah Brightman, Moya Brennan of Clannad, Adam Young of Owl City, Andrea Corr of The Corrs, Colbie Caillat, Sarah Howells of Welsh emotional folk / indie band Paper Aeroplanes, Ben Becker, Peter Heppner of synthpop band Wolfsheim, MiLù - also known as Mila Mar, Xavier Naidoo, Maya Saban, Kim Sanders formerly of Culture Beat, Ana Torroja of the Spanish pop group Mecano, Tarja Turunen formerly of power metal group Nightwish, Despina Vandi, Alexander Veljanov of Darkwave group Deine Lakaien, Swedish singer September, French voice artist Pierre Maubouché.