Bastion
A bastion (also named bulwark, derived from the Dutch name "bolwerk"), is an angular structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of an artillery fortification. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks with fire from the flanks being able to protect the curtain wall and also the adjacent bastions. It is one element in the style of fortification dominant from the mid 16th to mid 19th centuries. Bastion fortifications offered a greater degree of passive resistance and more scope for ranged defense in the age of gunpowder artillery compared with the medieval fortifications they replaced.
Effectiveness
Bastions differ from medieval towers in a number of respects. Bastions are lower than towers and are normally of similar height to the adjacent curtain wall. The height of towers, although making them difficult to scale, also made them easy for artillery to destroy. A bastion would normally have a ditch in front, the opposite side of which would be built up above the natural level then slope away gradually. This glacis shielded most of the bastion from the attacker's cannon while the distance from the base of the ditch to the top of the bastion meant it was still difficult to scale.
Bastion (Nanaimo)
The Bastion, also known as the Nanaimo Bastion, is an historic octagonal shaped bastion or fortification located at 98 Front Street in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. The Hudson's Bay Company, which then held a royal lease on all of what was then the Colony of Vancouver Island, built it between 1853 and 1855 to defend its coal mining operations in Nanaimo. Square logs were used for the walls of the three-storey building whose third floor extends out over the lower floors. It has been called "Nanaimo's premier landmark", because of its shape and its "high visibility from both land and sea." In 1891 and again in 1979 it was moved a short distance for historic preservation purposes.
During the Summer of 2010, the Bastion was torn apart, to renew rotting boards, and stabilizing steel beams. The director of the event said that they were 'Making a historic movement'. On December 12, 1985, the city of Nanaimo designated it a local heritage site. Today the Bastion is under the supervision of the Nanaimo District Museum and is open to visitors during the summer. The Nanaimo Museum has heritage interpreters in costume on-site, and also hosts a daily cannon firing at noon during the summer months.
Bastion (video game)
Bastion is an action role-playing video game produced by independent developer Supergiant Games and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. In the game, the player controls "the Kid" as he moves through floating, fantasy-themed environments and fights enemies of various types. It features a dynamic voiceover from a narrator, and is presented as a two-dimensional game with an isometric camera and a hand-painted, colorful art style. Bastion's story follows the Kid as he collects special shards of rock to power a structure, the Bastion, in the wake of an apocalyptic Calamity.
The game was built over the course of two years by a team of seven people split between San Jose and New York City. They debuted the game at the September 2010 Penny Arcade Expo, and it went on to be nominated for awards at the 2011 Independent Games Festival and win awards at the Electronic Entertainment Expo prior to release. Bastion was published in July 2011 for Xbox Live Arcade and in August 2011 through digital distribution for Windows on Steam. Supergiant Games made it available as a browser game for Google Chrome in December 2011. It was released for Mac OS X via the Mac App Store in April 2012 and directly followed by a SteamPlay update in early May 2012 which allows the version purchased via Steam to be playable on both Mac OS X and Windows. A version for iPad was released in August 2012. In April 2015 it was released for the PlayStation 4. Bastion's soundtrack was produced and composed by Darren Korb, and a soundtrack album was made available for sale in August 2011.
Fad
A fad or trend is any form of behavior that develops among a large population and is collectively followed enthusiastically for a period of time, generally as a result of the behavior being perceived as popular by one's peers or being deemed "cool" by social or other media. A fad is said to "catch on" when the number of people adopting it begins to increase rapidly. They normally fade quickly once the perception of novelty is gone.
Overview
The specific nature of the behavior associated with a fad can be of any type including language usage, apparel, financial investment and even food. Apart from general novelty, fads may be driven by mass media programming, emotional excitement, peer pressure, or the desire to "be hip". Fads may also be set by popular celebrities.
Though the term trend may be used interchangeably with fad, a fad is generally considered a quick and short behavior whereas a trend is considered to be a behavior that evolves into a relatively permanent change.
In economics, the term is used in a similar way. Fads are mean-reverting deviations from intrinsic value caused by social or psychological forces like those that cause fashions in political beliefs or consumption goods.
Flavin adenine dinucleotide
In biochemistry, flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) is a redox cofactor, more specifically a prosthetic group, involved in several important reactions in metabolism. FAD can exist in three (or four: flavin-N(5)-oxide) different redox states, which are the quinone, semiquinone, and hydroquinone. FAD is converted between these states by accepting or donating electrons.
FAD, in its fully oxidized form, or quinone form, accepts two electrons and two protons to become FADH2 (hydroquinone form). The semiquinone (FADH·) can be formed by either reduction of FAD or oxidation of FADH2 by accepting or donating one electron and one proton, respectively. See the mechanism section below for details.
A flavoprotein is a protein that contains a flavin moiety, this may be in the form of FAD or flavin mononucleotide (FMN). There are many flavoproteins besides components of the succinate dehydrogenase complex, including α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase and a component of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, some examples are shown in section 6.
FAD (disambiguation)
In other uses, FAD or fad may refer to:
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