Prism

In optics, a prism is a transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light. At least two of the flat surfaces must have an angle between them. The exact angles between the surfaces depend on the application. The traditional geometrical shape is that of a triangular prism with a triangular base and rectangular sides, and in colloquial use "prism" usually refers to this type. Some types of optical prism are not in fact in the shape of geometric prisms. Prisms can be made from any material that is transparent to the wavelengths for which they are designed. Typical materials include glass, plastic and fluorite.

A dispersive prism can be used to break light up into its constituent spectral colors (the colors of the rainbow). Furthermore, prisms can be used to reflect light, or to split light into components with different polarizations.

How prisms work

Light changes speed as it moves from one medium to another (for example, from air into the glass of the prism). This speed change causes the light to be refracted and to enter the new medium at a different angle (Huygens principle). The degree of bending of the light's path depends on the angle that the incident beam of light makes with the surface, and on the ratio between the refractive indices of the two media (Snell's law). The refractive index of many materials (such as glass) varies with the wavelength or color of the light used, a phenomenon known as dispersion. This causes light of different colors to be refracted differently and to leave the prism at different angles, creating an effect similar to a rainbow. This can be used to separate a beam of white light into its constituent spectrum of colors. Prisms will generally disperse light over a much larger frequency bandwidth than diffraction gratings, making them useful for broad-spectrum spectroscopy. Furthermore, prisms do not suffer from complications arising from overlapping spectral orders, which all gratings have.

List of Humanx Commonwealth planets

This is a list of the fictional planets in the Humanx Commonwealth series of novels by Alan Dean Foster.

Alaspin

Alaspin has large jungles surrounded by equally large savannas and river plains; its only notable celestial feature is two moons.

Currently the planet has no sentient race; the native race died out, possibly by racial suicide, over 75,000 years ago leaving behind hundreds of ancient, abandoned cities that have proved a source of fascination to modern xeno-archaeologists.

A variety of lifeforms currently live on Alaspin, most notably the Alaspinian minidrag.

Annubis

Annubis is most notable for the fictional Hyperion forests from which the fictional drug bloodhype is manufactured. In an attempt to eradicate the highly addictive and deadly drug, the trees were burned in 545 A.A. and are thought to be completely destroyed.

The planet first appeared in the novel Bloodhype.

Blasusarr

Blasusarr is the homeworld of the AAnn race and is often called the Imperial Home World. Climate is dry and hot, largely desert, the preferred atmospheric conditions of the AAnn. Beyond this, little is known about Blasusarr other than the fact that it is very well-protected by a detection and space defense network. Its capital city, also the capital of the AAnn Empire, is Krrassin.

Yoshida Brothers

The Yoshida Brothers (吉田兄弟, Yoshida Kyōdai) are Japanese musicians who have released several albums on the Domo Records label.

The two brothers are performers of the traditional Japanese music style of Tsugaru-jamisen which originated in northern Japan. They debuted in 1999 in Japan as a duo playing the shamisen. Their first album sold over 100,000 copies and made them minor celebrities in Japan, a fact that surprised the Yoshida Brothers themselves. They have since attracted an international audience.

Their music has been a fusion of the rapid and percussive Tsugaru-jamisen style along with Western and other regional musical influences. In addition to performing songs that are only on the shamisen, they also use instruments such as drums and synthesizers.

The commercials for the Nintendo's Wii video game console that began airing in North America in November 2006 featured the Yoshida Brothers song "Kodo (Inside the Sun Remix)".

Members

Ryōichirō Yoshida (吉田 良一郎, Yoshida Ryōichirō, born 26 July 1977) and Kenichi Yoshida (吉田 健一, Yoshida Ken'ichi, born 16 December 1979) were born in Noboribetsu in Hokkaido, Japan. The two brothers have played the shamisen from a very young age. They both began to study and play the shamisen from five years of age under Koka Adachi, learning the Minyō-shamisen style; from about 1989 they studied the Tsugaru-jamisen style under Takashi Sasaki.

Eclipse (video game)

Eclipse is a mod for the video game Half-Life 2. It is a fantasy-themed action-adventure viewed in third-person. Eclipse was developed by CelTech Studios, a group of students from The Guildhall at SMU and released June 17, 2005.

Storyline

Eclipse is a third-person total conversion of Valve's Half-Life 2. Eclipse is an action/adventure game featuring puzzles and combat. The player plays a character named Violet, a young sorceress with telekinetic abilities. This ability allows Violet to pick up and throw objects; this is what the player uses to fight. Violet eventually learns new abilities like Hellstorm, an ability to summon up to three "Fairy Orbs" which can cause significant damage.

Critical reaction

Eclipse received the ModDB 2005 Editor's Choice award for released mods from Mod DB. ModDB highlighted an interesting telekinesis-based combat, gorgeous visuals, excellent level design, and original soundtrack.

References

External links

Notable mentions

List of Kiddy Grade characters

This article is a list of characters from the 2002 anime series Kiddy Grade.

Main characters

Éclair

Éclair works for the Galactic Organization of Trade and Tariffs, or GOTT for short. While her primary job is to be a receptionist, her job also incorporates being sent on missions as an ES member of the so-called "Shadow Unit" in order to ensure normal economic operation on the various planets around the Galaxy. She does this with the assistance of her younger partner and fellow receptionist Lumière, her Guard robot Donnerschlag and the space-ship La Muse. She is 165 cm tall, her three sizes (in cm) are 80-54-85, her favourite foods are celery and carrots and her favourite phrase is "Que será, será".

Known for her childish nature, she often dresses up in either a skimpy or amusing, but loosely related to the situation, costume. For instance when she was sent to take a letter of attorney to the Faunusian government, she dressed up in a pizza delivery outfit, and placed the letter in a pizza box. She also has a tendency to shout "Ta-da!" (じゃっじゃ～ん！) whenever she arrives on the scene to arrest someone or instances when she surprises or saves Lumière. Her rash nature also often makes her overreact to situations, for instance, in one instance she could not get official arrest authorization and jumped off and pursued to destroy many robots. This lack of composure often makes Lumière say "A Lady should be more elegant", also later Mrs. Padushka also states "You're so rash, how will you ever find a husband?" Despite this she is naturally honest and direct, and tries to remain cheerful even when on assignment. Although she is hot-headed and immature, Éclair is also very sweet, caring, willing to help others, and loves children whether it be friend or stranger. This gentle tendency has got her and Lumière pursued by GOTT because she defied her orders by helping the civilians when on an enforcement mission to support the dictator.

Eclipse (software)

In computer programming, Eclipse is an integrated development environment (IDE). It contains a base workspace and an extensible plug-in system for customizing the environment. Eclipse is written mostly in Java and its primary use is for developing Java applications, but it may also be used to develop applications in other programming languages through the use of plugins, including: Ada, ABAP, C, C++, COBOL, Fortran, Haskell, JavaScript, Julia,Lasso, Lua, NATURAL, Perl, PHP, Prolog, Python, R, Ruby (including Ruby on Rails framework), Scala, Clojure, Groovy, Scheme, and Erlang. It can also be used to develop packages for the software Mathematica. Development environments include the Eclipse Java development tools (JDT) for Java and Scala, Eclipse CDT for C/C++ and Eclipse PDT for PHP, among others.

The initial codebase originated from IBM VisualAge. The Eclipse software development kit (SDK), which includes the Java development tools, is meant for Java developers. Users can extend its abilities by installing plug-ins written for the Eclipse Platform, such as development toolkits for other programming languages, and can write and contribute their own plug-in modules.