Patience (play)

Patience is a play written and published in 1998 by Jason Sherman (Doollie.com). It is about Reuben, who one day loses everything. The play follows a path similar to David Mamet's play Edmond. It traces a psychological journey through Reuben's head while he tries to figure out how everything happened. The play was written at a time when the story would hit home for a lot of middle-aged, middle-class men.

Play Synopsis

Act 1

Patience (George Michael album)

Patience is the fifth studio album by British singer-songwriter George Michael, released in 2004. The much delayed follow-up to Older is considered Michael's comeback album since it was Michael's first album composed of original material since 1996, and his first for Sony Music Entertainment since 1990's Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1. The album spanned six singles. The first two, "Freeek!" and "Shoot the Dog", were already released in 2002 by Polydor, when the album was originally due.

Return to Sony

On 17 November 2003, George Michael re-signed with Sony Music Entertainment, the company he had left after a legal battle in which Michael claimed that his contract was stifling him and was keeping him in "professional slavery". As a result, his contract was sold by Sony to rival record companies Virgin Records and DreamWorks Records on 14 July 1995.

Chart success

Patience went on sale in most of the world in late March 2004 and debuted at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart, and at number 2 in Australia on 22 March. It became one of the fastest selling albums in the UK, selling over 275,000 copies in the first week. The record reached the top five on most other European charts. The album went on sale in the US on 18 May 2004, however it did not contain "Patience Pt. 2" and "Shoot the Dog". It debuted in the US at a rather disappointing 29 but after many TV specials such as on The Oprah Winfrey Show the following week it reached its chart peak of number 12. As of 2006, the album sold 381,000 in United States. It sold around four million copies worldwide, and contained six singles.

Patience (game)

Patience, or solitaire as it is known in the US and Canada, is a genre of card games that can be played by a single player. Patience games can also be played in a head-to-head fashion with the winner selected by a scoring scheme.

In the US, the term solitaire is often used specifically to refer to solitaire with cards, while in other countries solitaire specifically refers to peg solitaire. Both Solitaire and Patience are sometimes used to refer specifically to the Klondike form of Patience.

Overview

The purpose of patience generally involves manipulating a layout of cards with a goal of sorting them in some manner. However it is possible to play the same games competitively (often a head to head race) and cooperatively.

Patience games typically involve dealing cards from a shuffled deck into a prescribed arrangement on a tabletop, from which the player attempts to reorder the deck by suit and rank through a series of moves transferring cards from one place to another under prescribed restrictions. Some games allow for the reshuffling of the deck(s), and/or the placement of cards into new or "empty" locations. In the most familiar, general form of Patience, the object of the game is to build up four blocks of cards going from ace to king in each suit, taking cards from the layout if they appear on the table.

Floating point

In computing, floating point is the formulaic representation that approximates a real number so as to support a trade-off between range and precision. A number is, in general, represented approximately to a fixed number of significant digits (the significand) and scaled using an exponent; the base for the scaling is normally two, ten, or sixteen. A number that can be represented exactly is of the following form:

where significand ∈ Z, base ∈ N, and exponent ∈ Z.

For example:

The term floating point refers to the fact that a number's radix point (decimal point, or, more commonly in computers, binary point) can "float"; that is, it can be placed anywhere relative to the significant digits of the number. This position is indicated as the exponent component, and thus the floating-point representation can be thought of as a kind of scientific notation.

A floating-point system can be used to represent, with a fixed number of digits, numbers of different orders of magnitude: e.g. the distance between galaxies or the diameter of an atomic nucleus can be expressed with the same unit of length. The result of this dynamic range is that the numbers that can be represented are not uniformly spaced; the difference between two consecutive representable numbers grows with the chosen scale.

Float (bartending technique)

Floating is a bartending technique where a liquor or ingredient is layered at the top of a drink. The cocktails or shots produced with this technique are known as either a Pousse-café or a layered drink. Although the amount of alcohol used in a float is only about half an ounce, it enhances the tone flavor of the drink at hand.

Floating Liqueurs

Begin with the lowest proof or heaviest liqueur on the bottom, then spoon float the next layer drop by drop over the back of a spoon. Each layer should be at least 10 degrees of proof higher than the previous layer. As a general rule, the higher the proof, the lighter the density of the liqueur. The lowest proof goes on the bottom, with the highest proof on the top. Though as many liqueurs as desired can be layered on top of one another, the majority of layered shots only contain three to five different layers.

"Creating a rainbow effect in a glass with different-colored cordials requires a special pouring technique. Simply pour each liqueur slowly over an inverted teaspoon (rounded side up) into a glass. Start with the heaviest liqueur first. (Recipes will give proper order.) Pour slowly. The rounded surface of the spoon will spread each liqueur over the one beneath without mixing them. You can accomplish the same trick using a glass rod. Pour slowly down the rod."

Float (liquid level)

Liquid level floats, also known as float balls, are spherical, cylindrical, oblong or similarly shaped objects, made from either rigid or flexible material, that are buoyant in water and other liquids. They are non-electrical hardware frequently used as visual sight-indicators for surface demarcation and level measurement. They may also be incorporated into switch mechanisms or translucent fluid-tubes as a component in monitoring or controlling liquid level.

Liquid level floats, or float switches, use the principle of material buoyancy (differential densities) to follow fluid levels. Solid floats are often made of plastics with a density less than water or other application liquid, and so they float. Hollow floats filled with air are much less dense than water or other liquids, and are appropriate for some applications.

Stainless Steel Magnetic floats are tubed magnetic floats, used for reed switch activation; they have a hollow tubed connection running through them. These magnetic floats have become standard equipment where strength, corrosion resistance and buoyancy are necessary. They are manufactured by welding two drawn half shells together. The welding process is critical for the strength and durability of the float. The weld is a full penetration weld providing a smoothly finished seam, hardly distinguishable from the rest of the float surface.