Pain

Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli, such as stubbing a toe, burning a finger, putting alcohol on a cut, and bumping the "funny bone". Because it is a complex, subjective phenomenon, defining pain has been a challenge. The International Association for the Study of Pain's widely used definition states: "Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage." In medical diagnosis, pain is a symptom.

Pain motivates the individual to withdraw from damaging situations, to protect a damaged body part while it heals, and to avoid similar experiences in the future. Most pain resolves once the noxious stimulus is removed and the body has healed, but it may persist despite removal of the stimulus and apparent healing of the body. Sometimes pain arises in the absence of any detectable stimulus, damage or disease. Simple pain medications are useful in 20% to 70% of cases.

Pain (philosophy)

Philosophy of pain may be about suffering in general or more specifically about physical pain. The experience of pain is, due to its seeming universality, a very good portal through which to view various aspects of human life. Discussions in philosophy of mind concerning qualia has given rise to a body of knowledge called philosophy of pain, which is about pain in the narrow sense of physical pain, and which must be distinguished from philosophical works concerning pain in the broad sense of suffering. This article covers both topics.

Historical views of pain

Two near contemporaries in the 18th and 19th centuries, Jeremy Bentham and the Marquis de Sade had very different views on these matters. Bentham saw pain and pleasure as objective phenomena, and defined utilitarianism on that principle. However the Marquis de Sade offered a wholly different view - which is that pain itself has an ethics, and that pursuit of pain, or imposing it, may be as useful and just as pleasurable, and that this indeed is the purpose of the state - to indulge the desire to inflict pain in revenge, for instance, via the law (in his time most punishment was in fact the dealing out of pain). The 19th-century view in Europe was that Bentham's view had to be promoted, de Sade's (which it found painful) suppressed so intensely that it - as de Sade predicted - became a pleasure in itself to indulge. The Victorian culture is often cited as the best example of this hypocrisy.

Pain (musical project)

Pain (typeset as PAIN) is a musical project from Sweden that mix heavy metal with influences from electronic music and techno. The project started out as a hobby project for front man Peter Tägtgren, whose idea was to fuse heavy metal with 1980s-inspired electro-industrial and techno influences. Tägtgren, who is also the vocalist/guitarist of Hypocrisy and producer of his own The Abyss studios, is the only current member.

Pain's self-titled debut was released in 1997, and since then Pain has released six more albums and a DVD. Starting with their second, all of Pain's albums have made the Swedish charts, thanks in large part to hit singles such as "End of the Line", "Shut Your Mouth", and "Same Old Song". In early February 2006, Blabbermouth.net reported that Pain had signed with Roadrunner Records. Currently, Pain is under the Nuclear Blast Records banner.

In 2008, Pain was on tour as a supporting performer for the Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish. During this tour singer Peter Tägtgren, drummer David Wallin, and bassist Johan Husgafvel were assaulted by a gang in Leipzig. Tägtgren received 10 stitches in his face, Wallin suffered a concussion and stitches to his head, and Husgafvel had his nose broken.

List of Fullmetal Alchemist characters

The Fullmetal Alchemist manga and anime series feature an extensive cast of fictional characters created by Hiromu Arakawa. The story is set in a fictional universe within the 20th Century in which alchemy is one of the most advanced scientific techniques. Although they basically start the same, the first anime, midway through its run, begins to differ greatly from the original manga; characters that are killed early on in the manga survive to the end of the first anime and vice versa. The second anime's (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) events, however, faithfully follow those from the manga.

The story follows the adventures of two alchemist brothers named Edward and Alphonse Elric. While trying to revive their mother, the brothers lost parts of their bodies, with Alphonse's soul being contained in a suit of armor, and Edward replacing his right arm and left leg with two sets of automail, a type of advanced prosthetic limb. Advised by Roy Mustang, an alchemist from the State Military, Edward becomes a State Alchemist, and starts traveling with Alphonse through the country of Amestris in order to find a way to recover their bodies. In their search, they hear of the Philosopher's Stone, a powerful alchemy artifact that the brothers can use to recover their bodies. However, after becoming a State Alchemist, Edward discovers that several members of the military are also attempting to get the stone, most notably humanoid creatures known as homunculi, who start chasing the Elric brothers.

Greed (song)

"Greed" is a song by the band Godsmack. It served as the third and final single from their second album, Awake, released in 2001.

Music video

A video was produced for "Greed." The woman seen on the album cover of Godsmack's self-titled debut makes a brief cameo at the very beginning of the video. Erna described in a Fuse TV interview the difficulty they had in tracking her down for the role.

"Greed" has the band living in a rundown apartment owned by a rich, unsympathetic landlord. The group finally has enough of their poor living conditions and tramples the landlord at the end of the video, leaving him in a humorous slump in his underwear. The video frequently cuts between the story aspect to band performance, featuring the group dressing in black and silver, performing in a spacious silver room with the Godsmack logo imprinted on the floor.

The video for "Greed" is rather unusual for Godsmack in that it follows an actual story rather than loosely connected elements and aesthetics. Also of note is its lighter, somewhat humorous nature compared to previous Godsmack videos. Erna stated that it was their attempt at fitting in with the more mainstream music video crowd and that he was not pleased with it.

List of Soul characters

A comprehensive list of characters from the Soul series of fighting games produced by Namco.

Overall conception and development

The Soul series is a weapon-based fighting game franchise developed by Namco Bandai's Project Soul division and consists of eight games: Soul Edge, Soulcalibur, Soulcalibur II, Soulcalibur III, Soulcalibur Legends, Soulcalibur IV, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny and Soulcalibur V. Set in the 16th century, the plot of the games revolve around Soul Edge, a cursed sword able to possess its wielder and devour souls. Its sprit is called Inferno, and his avatar/host is called Nightmare. Soul Calibur, a holy sword and Soul Edge's antithesis, also has a spirit called Elysium.

Characters

With each character, their weapon was decided upon before other aspects were. The design was then built to revolve around it, starting with gender, then physical measurements, and lastly background details. Once established, appearance and movement were fleshed out by the team's concept artist and rendered as a 3D model by a design team that worked solely on the character. The completed model was then animated by a motion capture artist working directly with the team. During this phase the team additionally worked with the story creators, refining the character's own role in the plot as needed throughout development. In the course of the series, two characters have been an exception to the process: Johan Druer, a berserker exclusive to the Soulcalibur Japanese player's guide, and Necrid, a character co-produced with Todd McFarlane that appears in Soulcalibur II.