International Ultramarine Corps

The International Ultramarine Corps, formerly the Ultramarine Corps, is a fictional team of superheroes published by DC Comics. They first appeared in DC One Million #2 (November 1998), and were created by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter.

History

The Corps was created by the U.S. as a government-sponsored group of superhumans to rival the more independent Justice League. Led by General Wade Eiling, the original members of the team were Flow, 4-D, Pulse 8 and Warmaker One. During a fight with the JLA, the UMC realised that Eiling was dangerously insane and that they were on the wrong side; they then sided with the League against their leader.

Having developed a mistrust of governments, the Corps subsequently declared themselves independent of any and all nations and built a free-floating city in which to dwell, which they named Superbia and set in the air above the ruins of Montevideo. They put out a call to other disaffected superheroes to join them in their city, and received a number of responses from around the globe, although the total population and demographics of Superbia are unknown.

Traffic flow (computer networking)

In packet switching networks, traffic flow, packet flow or network flow is a sequence of packets from a source computer to a destination, which may be another host, a multicast group, or a broadcast domain. RFC 2722 defines traffic flow as "an artificial logical equivalent to a call or connection."RFC 3697 defines traffic flow as "a sequence of packets sent from a particular source to a particular unicast, anycast, or multicast destination that the source desires to label as a flow. A flow could consist of all packets in a specific transport connection or a media stream. However, a flow is not necessarily 1:1 mapped to a transport connection." Flow is also defined in RFC 3917 as "a set of IP packets passing an observation point in the network during a certain time interval."

Conceptual description

A flow can be uniquely identified by the following parameters within a certain time period:

Rapping

Rapping (or emceeing,MCing,spitting bars,or rhyming) is "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The components of rapping include "content", "flow" (rhythm and rhyme), and "delivery". Rapping is distinct from spoken-word poetry in that it is performed in time to a beat. Rapping is often associated with and a primary ingredient of hip-hop music, but the origins of the phenomenon can be said to predate hip-hop culture by centuries. It can also be found in alternative rock such as that of Cake, gorrilaz and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Rapping is also used in Kwaito music, a genre that originated in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is composed of hip-hop elements.

Rapping can be delivered over a beat or without accompaniment. Stylistically, rap occupies a gray area between speech, prose, poetry, and singing. The word (meaning originally "to hit") as used to describe quick speech or repartee predates the musical form. The word had been used in British English since the 16th century. It was part of the African-American dialect of English in the 1960s meaning "to converse", and very soon after that in its present usage as a term denoting the musical style. Today, the terms "rap" and "rapping" are so closely associated with hip-hop music that many use the terms interchangeably.

Mute (short story)

"Mute" is a short story by author Stephen King, first appearing in Playboy Magazine in 2007 and in 2008 included in his collection Just After Sunset. In 2013, it was adapted into a short film by British director Jacqueline Wright, starring Patrick Ryecart.

Plot summary

Monette, a middle-aged traveling book salesman (his first name is never given), goes to confession. When the priest asks him what sin he has committed, Monette admits that while he believes he has sinned in some way, he is not entirely sure exactly what he is guilty of. He then explains the events of the preceding days.

While on the road, Monette picked up a hitchhiker, carrying a sign proclaiming him to be both deaf and mute. Once in the car, the hitchhiker seemingly falls asleep. Since Monette believes that the man cannot hear him, he decides to vent his problems to him.

Some time before the story, Monette discovered that his wife had been carrying on an affair for two years with a teacher in the school district she worked for. Despite their ages (he was 60, she was 54), their activities included binge drinking, fetishism, and compulsive gambling. She was employed by the district in an administrative role, and had access to large amounts of money, which she soon started to embezzle from her employer in order to buy various erotic underwear and sex toys. As her debt grew, she and her lover hoped to pay the money back by winning the lottery, only to embezzle more than a hundred thousand dollars without earning any to replace it. She revealed this all to Monette and to his disbelief tried to blame him for it, claiming his lack of interest drove her to it.

Mute Records

Mute is a British record label with offices in London, New York, and Berlin. It was founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller and featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Fad Gadget, Goldfrapp, Grinderman, Moby, New Order, Nitzer Ebb, Wire, and Yazoo.

History

Beginnings

During 1978, Daniel Miller began recording music using synthesisers under the name The Normal. He recorded the tracks "T.V.O.D." and "Warm Leatherette", and distributed them through Rough Trade Shops under the label name Mute Records. The label was formed initially just to release the one single. "T.V.O.D."/"Warm Leatherette" became a cult hit ensuring the future of the label. "Warm Leatherette" was later covered by Grace Jones and Chicks on Speed.

After meeting Robert Rental (who had previously worked with Thomas Leer), Miller began recording and playing live as Robert Rental & The Normal. In 1979 the band went on tour supporting the punk band Stiff Little Fingers, which had just released an album that was being distributed by Rough Trade.

Muteness

Muteness or mutism (from Latin mutus, meaning "silent") is an inability to speak often caused by a speech disorder, hearing loss, or surgery. Someone who is mute may be so due to the unwillingness to speak in certain social situations.

Causes

Those who are physically mute may have problems with the parts of the human body required for human speech (the esophagus, vocal cords, lungs, mouth, or tongue, etc.).

Trauma or injury to the Broca's area of the brain can cause muteness.

Variations

Selective mutism previously known as "elective mutism" is an anxiety disorder very common among young children, characterized by the inability to speak in certain situations. It should not to be confused with someone who is mute and cannot communicate due to physical disabilities. Selectively mute children are able to communicate in situations in which they feel comfortable. About 90% of children with this disorder have also been diagnosed with social anxiety. It is very common for symptoms to occur before the age of five and do not have a set time period. Not all children express the same symptoms. Some may stand motionless and freeze in specific social settings and have no communication whatsoever.