Comet

A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, heats up and begins to outgas, displaying a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred metres to tens of kilometres across and are composed of loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles. The coma and tail are much larger and, if sufficiently bright, may be seen from the Earth without the aid of a telescope. Comets have been observed and recorded since ancient times by many cultures.

Comets usually have highly eccentric elliptical orbits, and they have a wide range of orbital periods, ranging from several years to potentially several millions of years. Short-period comets originate in the Kuiper belt or its associated scattered disc, which lie beyond the orbit of Neptune. Long-period comets are thought to originate in the Oort cloud, a spherical cloud of icy bodies extending from outside the Kuiper belt to halfway to the next nearest star. Long-period comets are directed towards the Sun from the Oort cloud by gravitational perturbations caused by passing stars and the galactic tide. Hyperbolic comets may pass once through the inner Solar System before being flung out to interstellar space.

Comet (disambiguation)

A comet is a small astronomical body which orbits the sun.

Comet may also refer to:

Arts and entertainment

In print

Music

Roller coasters

Comet (pinball)

Comet is a pinball machine released by Williams in June 1985. It was designed by Barry Oursler.

Rules

In this pinball game, the player attempts to navigate throughout a representation of a Carnival, with the namesake Comet being a central ramp representing a roller coaster, normally worth 10,000 points. Two banks of Shooting Gallery targets (Rabbits and Ducks) can be targeted to score points and advance the matching bonus counter. Each bonus track is worth a maximum of 63,000 points. Hitting all four targets in a target bank lights an additional objective, which allows you to collect the matching bonus during play by completing the Whirlwind ramp (for Ducks) or the Funhouse saucer (for Rabbits). Completing both target banks lights additional points for the center ramp (30,000, 50,000, 100,000, and one more 100,000 per sequential shot), including the chance for extra balls and replays depending on specific game settings. Completing the ramp advances both bonuses.

The most definitive feature of Comet is a Motorcycle Jump ramp on the upper-right side of the playfield. This features a Skee ball-like scoring setup, where the closest target is worth 20,000, the middle target is worth 50,000, and the farthest target is worth 200,000. Completing the ramp advances both bonuses. The ramp starts each ball in a lit state, then becomes unlit after being scored.

Faith in Buddhism

Faith (Pāli: saddhā, Sanskrit: śraddhā) is an initial acceptance of the Buddha's teaching prior to realising its truth for oneself. It is an important constituent element of all traditions of Buddhism, although the kind and nature of faith changes in the different schools. Other translations of saddhā/śraddhā include confidence and trust. According to received Pali-Buddhist tradition, some of the first words voiced by the Buddha after resolving to teach Dharma were, "Wide opened is the door of the Deathless to all who have ears to hear; let them send forth faith [saddhā] to meet it."

Early Buddhism

Kalama Sutta

According to Guiliano Giustarini, "Saddhā is usually translated as faith, but it is not to be meant as a dogmatic belief." In the Kalama Sutta the Buddha himself argues against simply following authority, tradition or specious reasoning. Instead, a person should himself derive a moral judgement thus:

Even though one's own experience and judgement is emphasized in accepting Buddha and Buddhism, one should also heed to the counsel of the wise, meaning a Buddha or a Buddhist teacher well versed in the Buddhist teachings.

Grilled Cheesus

"Grilled Cheesus" is the third episode of the second season of the American television series Glee, and the twenty-fifth episode overall. It was written by Brad Falchuk, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, and premiered on the Fox network on October 5, 2010. Prior to its broadcast, series co-creator Ryan Murphy predicted the episode would be Glee's most controversial, as it focuses on religion and what God means to the members of the glee club. When Burt Hummel (Mike O'Malley) has a heart attack, the glee club rally around his son Kurt (Chris Colfer), attempting to support the Hummels through their various faiths. Meanwhile, club co-captain Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) believes he has found the face of Jesus in a grilled cheese sandwich.

Murphy hoped to produce a balanced depiction of religion, and he, Falchuk and series co-creator Ian Brennan worked to ensure that there was an equality between pro and anti-religious sentiments expressed. The episode features seven cover versions of songs, each of which charted on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the series' one-week debut high in the US. Critics disagreed over the appropriateness of the musical performances, with some complaining of the tangential relationship between the numbers and religion, and others appreciating that the Glee versions brought new meaning to the songs.

List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters

This article lists the major and recurring fictional characters created by Joss Whedon for the television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For detailed descriptions, see individual character pages.

Main characters

The following characters were featured in the opening credits of the program.

The show's titular protagonist, Buffy is "The Slayer", one in a long line of young girls chosen by fate to battle evil forces in the form of vampires and demons. The Slayer has no jurisdiction over human crime. This calling mystically endows her with a limited degree of clairvoyance, usually in the form of prophetic dreams, as well as dramatically increased physical strength, endurance, agility, intuition, and speed and ease of healing. There traditionally has been only one Slayer alive at any given moment, with a new one called upon the event of her death.

Xander is a close friend of Buffy. Possessing no supernatural skills, Xander provides comic relief as well as a grounded, everyman perspective in the supernatural Buffyverse. In another departure from the usual conventions of television, Xander is notable for being an insecure and subordinate male in a world dominated by powerful females.