Ruins are the remains of human-made architecture: structures that were once complete, as time went by, have fallen into a state of partial or complete disrepair, due to lack of maintenance or deliberate acts of destruction. Natural disaster, war and depopulation are the most common root causes, with many structures becoming progressively derelict over time due to long-term weathering and scavenging.
There are famous ruins all over the world, from ancient sites in China, the Indus valley and Judea to Zimbabwe in Africa, ancient Greek, Egyptian and Roman sites in the Mediterranean basin, and Incan and Mayan sites in the Americas. Ruins are of great importance to historians, archaeologists and anthropologists, whether they were once individual fortifications, places of worship, houses and utility buildings, or entire villages, towns and cities. Many ruins have become UNESCO World Heritage Sites in recent years, to identify and preserve them as areas of outstanding value to humanity.
Ruins is an Australian black metal band, based in Hobart, Tasmania. The band was formed somewhere between 2000 and 2002 by Alex Pope, (formerly of the Sea Scouts,) and Dave Haley (The Amenta, Blood Duster and Psycroptic).
Ruins began as a recording project, featuring Pope supplying vocals, guitar and bass, with Haley on drums. It has been incorrectly reported that Haley is merely a session player in the band, and he has publicly dismissed such views as nonsense. The band consists of two core-members used on recordings, with extra live members added for shows, similar to Norwegian black metal band, Satyricon. Initial recordings were intended for demo purposes only, but were decided later to be of sufficient quality for public use. Their first recording, Atom and Time, was released in 2004 by Blacktalon Media.
Their debut full length album Spun Forth as Dark Nets was engineered by Joe Haley, Dave's brother and member of the live Ruins line-up. From the response to their recordings, Ruins decided to recruit session musicians to play live.
Ruins is a two-issue comic book mini-series, written by Warren Ellis with painted artwork by Terese Nielsen, her husband Cliff Nielsen, and Chris Moeller, who took over for the last seventeen pages of the second issue.
The series, conceived by Ellis as a parody of the Marvels series by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross is set in a dystopian version of the Marvel Universe. Like Marvels, the comic features reporter Phil Sheldon as the main character and was published in prestige format, with fully painted artwork and acetate covers, further creating the impression that it is a more twisted companion piece.
In the Marvel Multiverse, Earth of the Ruins universe is listed as Earth-9591.
Ruins follows former Daily Bugle reporter Phil Sheldon as he explores a dystopian alternate Marvel Universe where, in his words, "everything that can go wrong will go wrong"; a world where the myriad experiments and accidents which led to the creation of superheroes in the mainstream Marvel Universe instead resulted in horrible deformities and painful deaths. Sheldon tours the country investigating the after-effects of these events, researching a book about the strange phenomena in order to prove that the world has taken a wrong turn somewhere.
Grouper is an online, invite-only social club that uses data gathered from Facebook profiles to organize group outings (called Groupers). Matches for the outings are gathered and analyzed first by a computer and then by a human to ensure strong matches. The excursions are planned in venues throughout 25 cities for six people. Groupers consist of two groups of three friends and can consist of three males and three females, six males, six females, or any other possible combination.
Michael Waxman founded the New York-based startup in 2011. The company is run by a staff of 25 people.
In 2013, Time Inc. listed Grouper in its 10 NYC Startups to Watch for 2013.
Grouper is an invite-only service that matches two individuals according to data found – with the permission of the user – on the user’s Facebook profile, including age, career, education, etc. The company determines a match between two individuals using both algorithms and its member experience team. A time is then set for the "Grouper". The two parties are asked to each bring two friends.No names, photos, or information are disclosed before the actual meet. Upon arrival at the determined location, the group receives a complimentary first round of drinks, including tax and tip, at a reserved table (the cost is included in Grouper’s service fee).
Grouper is the solo project of musician and artist Liz Harris. After releasing material independently beginning in 2005, Harris released the critically acclaimed Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill (2008), followed by four more records, including a two-part concept album, A I A. Her tenth studio album, Ruins, was released on October 31, 2014.
Harris' music, described as "ethereal" and "hazy," often consists of guitar layered with vocals and tape loops. She has collaborated with a number of other artists, including Xiu Xiu, Tiny Vipers, Lawrence English, and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. She resides on the Oregon coast.
Harris was born in Northern California and grew up around the San Francisco Bay area and in Oregon. Harris’ first album was 2005’s Grouper, a self-released full-length CD-R, followed later that year by Way Their Crept on Free Porcupine (re-released in 2007 on Type Records). In 2006 she released a single (He Knows), one album, called Wide, and a collaboration with Xiu Xiu entitled Creepshow. Harris made available new material steadily through the years, and continued to collaborate with various artists such as Roy Montgomery and Xela.
A grouper is a type of fish.
Grouper may also refer to: