Cannon

A cannon (plural: cannon or cannons) is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellants to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in calibre, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees, depending on their intended use on the battlefield. The word cannon is derived from several languages, in which the original definition can usually be translated as tube, cane, or reed. In the modern era, the term cannon has fallen into decline, replaced by "guns" or "artillery" if not a more specific term such as "mortar" or "howitzer", except for in the field of aerial warfare, where it is often used as shorthand for autocannon.

First invented in China, cannon were among the earliest forms of gunpowder artillery, and over time replaced siege engines—among other forms of ageing weaponry—on the battlefield. In the Middle East, the first use of the hand cannon is argued to be during the 1260 Battle of Ain Jalut between the Mamluks and Mongols. The first cannon in Europe were in use in Iberia by the mid-13th century. It was during this period, the Middle Ages, that cannon became standardized, and more effective in both the anti-infantry and siege roles. After the Middle Ages most large cannon were abandoned in favour of greater numbers of lighter, more maneuverable pieces. In addition, new technologies and tactics were developed, making most defences obsolete; this led to the construction of star forts, specifically designed to withstand artillery bombardment though these too (along with the Martello Tower) would find themselves rendered obsolete when explosive and armour piercing rounds made even these types of fortifications vulnerable.

Cannon (automobile)

The Cannon was an automobile manufactured in Kalamazoo, Michigan, by the Burtt Manufacturing Company from 1902-06. They made several different tonneau models, with both two- and four-cylinder engines, up to 6.5L displacement.

See also

References

Cannon (band)

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Cannon were a five-piece, instrumental post-rock band, based in Glasgow, Scotland.

History

Cannon was formed in early 1999 by guitarists David Philp, Stuart Henderson, and Jonny Williamson. The band lineup was completed by the addition of Andrew Gifford of Fiddlers' Bid on bass and drummer Tom Pettigrew.

Gigging throughout Scotland, Cannon played alongside bands such as Interpol, Bis, The Cooper Temple Clause and Medal, as well as appearances at music festivals such as Truck in 2001 and T in the Park in 2002. The band were championed by DJ Vic Galloway, their records getting regular play on his BBC Radio Scotland show, "Air", and they were invited to record a live session for the show.

Pettigrew left the band in late 2001 and was replaced by former Juliet Turner and Duke Special sideman Tim Harbinson. Gifford left several months later, and was replaced by Craig Sinclair.

Cannon disbanded in 2003. Philp went on to play in Glasgow 'horror blues' band, Uncle John & Whitelock, and was guitarist on Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan's 2008 European tour. Harbinson went on to join electronica band Laki Mera along with Trevor Helliwell, Cannon's sound engineer. Philp, Gifford and Pettigrew later formed Adopted as Holograph, playing gypsy influenced folk music.

Self

The self is the subject of one's own experience of phenomena: perception, emotions, thoughts. In phenomenology, it is conceived as what experiences, and there isn't any experiencing without an experiencer, the self. The self is therefore an "immediate given", an intrinsic dimension of the fact of experiencing phenomena. In some other trends of philosophy, the self is instead seen as requiring a reflexive perception of oneself, the individual person, meaning the self in such a view is an object of consciousness.

The self has been studied extensively by philosophers and psychologists and is central to many world religions. With the recent rise in technology, the self has been discussed under various new emerging fields, such as Technoself Studies.

Philosophy

The philosophy of self seeks to describe essential qualities that constitute a person's uniqueness or essential being. There have been various approaches to defining these qualities. The self can be considered that being which is the source of consciousness, the agent responsible for an individual's thoughts and actions, or the substantial nature of a person which endures and unifies consciousness over time.

Self (programming language)

Self is an object-oriented programming language based on the concept of prototypes. Self was a dialect of Smalltalk, being dynamically typed and using just-in-time compilation (JIT) as well as the prototype-based approach to objects: it was first used as an experimental test system for language design in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2006, Self was still being developed as part of the Klein project, which was a Self virtual machine written fully in Self. The latest version is 4.5.0 released in January 2014.

Several just-in-time compilation techniques were pioneered and improved in Self research as they were required to allow a very high level object oriented language to perform at up to half the speed of optimized C. Much of the development of Self took place at Sun Microsystems, and the techniques they developed were later deployed for Java's HotSpot virtual machine.

At one point a version of Smalltalk was implemented in Self. Because it was able to use the JIT this also gave extremely good performance.

Self (band)

Self (stylized as sElf or SeLF) is an American alternative pop/rock band from Murfreesboro, Tennessee and is largely the creative vision of writer, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Matt Mahaffey.

Though it is not considered a band and not a solo project, Matt Mahaffey is the primary performer of all instrumentation and vocals on studio albums. Other members have contributed occasional parts on albums and have participated in live performances. The band currently consists of Chris James (keyboards, piano, samplers, guitar, backing vocals), Mac Burrus (bass guitar, keyboards, horns, backing vocals), and Jason Rawlings (Drums). Past members include Matt's brother, Mike Mahaffey (lead guitar, keyboards, vocals) and Timm Nobles (bass guitar). Mahaffey cites Electric Light Orchestra, Prince, and Pixies as some of his biggest musical influences.

Band history

Self began with founders Matt and Mike Mahaffey recording songs in their childhood home in the early 90s, following brief forays with other groups. The band's debut album, Subliminal Plastic Motives, was released in 1995 on the Spongebath Records, a label the Mahaffeys helped found. During this early period, the band featured Matt on vocals and guitar, Mike on lead guitar, Tim Nobles on bass, Chris James on keyboards and samplers, and Jason Rawlings on drums.