Cipher (newuniversal)

Cipher (Jennifer Swann) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character appears in the newuniversal imprint of Marvel Comics, and is one of the four initial superhumans created by the White Event in 2006 (the others being Justice, Nightmask, and Star Brand). newuniversal, designated Earth-555 in the Marvel Comics multiverse, is a re-imagining of the New Universe imprint from the late 1980s. The name Cipher actually refers to two things: a powerful extra-dimensional glyph (tattoo) that confers superhuman powers on a sentient being, and the name of the being that wields the glyph. Cipher is a new superhuman created by Warren Ellis and Salvador Larroca who were inspired by the original Spitfire and the nature of the Star Brand itself (as an extra-dimensional tool of near-unlimited power), combined with strong conceptual ties to Iron Man.

Fictional character biography

Project Spitfire

Essentially nothing is known about Dr. Jennifer Swann’s early life, or where she earned her doctorate. Sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s she was hired by the NSA to work on Project Spitfire, taking her father’s previous position there. Jennifer continues the work her father, Dr. Joseph Swann, began in 1959 on the H.E.X. (Human Enhancement eXperimental) initiative, an armored exoskeleton that is intended to enable its wearer to combat superhumans with a wide variety of weapons. The original suit was created by Anthony Stark in 1959 who became Cipher in the "The Fireworks" event in 1955, and is an alternate version of Tony Stark (Iron Man) from the mainstream Marvel Universe. Prior to the events in newuniversal #1, neither Jennifer nor her father were able to perfect the design, both suffering broken bones during testing.

Cipher (band)

Cipher is an American hardcore punk, metalcore band that formed in 1996 in Long Beach, New York. Cipher's core line-up consisted of Maurice "Moe" Mitchell (vocals), Danny "Cipher" Bobis (drums), Chris Fry (guitar) and Krys Maniecki (bass).

History

The band's earliest demo's released when they were High School Juniors. These releases were marked by a noticeably more metal and progressive sound than their contemporaries in the Long Island Hardcore scene. Another distinct element of Cipher's sound was Moe Ciphers vocals which were expressed as rhythmic, staccato yells rather than screams which drew some comparisons to Hip hop. Cipher's music addressed socio-political activism, hardcore scene politics and identity.

Later releases became progressively pointed in their political critiques and complex in their musical structure. The release of the EP Protoculture marks a distinct change in artistic direction for Cipher. The four song recording was the first time Cipher put together a compilation of work written for the express purpose of being released as a unit. The outcome was a treatment on race, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, spiritual indecision, and the role of the individual in changing her/his reality.

Encryption

In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding messages or information in such a way that only authorized parties can read it. Encryption does not of itself prevent interception, but denies the message content to the interceptor. In an encryption scheme, the intended communication information or message, referred to as plaintext, is encrypted using an encryption algorithm, generating ciphertext that can only be read if decrypted. For technical reasons, an encryption scheme usually uses a pseudo-random encryption key generated by an algorithm. It is in principle possible to decrypt the message without possessing the key, but, for a well-designed encryption scheme, large computational resources and skill are required. An authorized recipient can easily decrypt the message with the key provided by the originator to recipients, but not to unauthorized interceptors.

Purpose of encryption

The purpose of encryption is, to ensure that only somebody who is qualified to access data (e.g. a text message or a file) will be able to read it, using the decryption key. Somebody who is not qualified to access the information can be excluded from doing that, because he does not have the required decryption key. Without it, it's impossible to read the encrypted information.

Human?

Human? is an anthology of science fiction and fantasy stories edited by Judith Merril, published as a paperback original by Lion Books in 1954. No further editions were issued.

Contents

S&M (Metallica album)

S&M (an abbreviation of Symphony and Metallica) is a live album by the American heavy metal band Metallica, with The San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Kamen. It was recorded on April 21–22, 1999 at The Berkeley Community Theatre. This is the final Metallica album to feature Jason Newsted as bassist.

Album information

S&M contains performances of Metallica songs with additional symphonic accompaniment, which was composed by Michael Kamen, who also conducted the orchestra during the concert. The idea to combine heavy metal with an epic classical approach, as James Hetfield has stated repeatedly, was an idea of Cliff Burton. Burton’s love of classical music, especially of Johann Sebastian Bach, can be traced back to many instrumental parts and melodic characteristics in Metallica’s songwriting including songs from Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets. The other inspiration was Deep Purple's 1969 Concerto for Group and Orchestra. Purple revived their hybrid musical performance in 1999's Live at the Royal Albert Hall after being notified that Metallica were doing theirs earlier that year.

Human (Skye Sweetnam song)

"Human" is the fourth single released by Canadian pop rock singer Skye Sweetnam. The song is the lead single released by Sweetnam off of her second album Sound Soldier. The song was produced by production group The Matrix.

Song information

The song was released on her MySpace as a sneak peek, while the full version was leaked to the internet on September 8, 2007. Sweetnam performed the song while she toured across Canada in October and November 2007 as the opening act for Kalan Porter and then on her own tour with Faber Drive. She also performed "Human" as part of her setlist on the 2007 School Rocks Canada tour. The new song was released through EMI, quelling rumors of Sweetnam being dropped from Capitol Records.

Music video

The music video, directed by Sean Wainsteim, was inspired by the film Tank Girl. Sweetnam is in a wasteland where she's surrounded by "junk people" while singing about how "we're only human". She also leads the group of "junkies" in a dance sequence and is followed while driving a bulldozer. The ending of the video has a comic book-style animation sequence. This was drawn by comic book artist Cameron Stewart.