M. A. Foster

Michael Anthony Foster (born July 2, 1939) is an American science fiction writer from Greensboro, North Carolina. He spent over sixteen years as a Captain and Russian linguist in the United States Air Force.

"Ler" books

He wrote a loosely connected trilogy about an offshoot of humanity called the Ler: The Warriors of Dawn (1975), The Gameplayers of Zan (1977), and The Day of The Klesh (1979). The Gameplayers of Zan takes place much earlier than the others, on Earth, and details the Ler's departure from Earth; the other two books cover two separate human-Ler encounters on other planets. The "game" from the title of The Gameplayers of Zan is based on cellular automata, a more intricate version of Conway's Game of Life.

The Warriors of Dawn mostly concerns the relationship between a human man and a ler woman, and The Day of The Klesh represents the ler as a mostly inscrutable humanoid race. The Gameplayers of Zan, on the other hand, discusses the origins of the Ler as an engineered offshoot of humanity, and is as much about ler culture as their interactions with humanity. Most of the action in this book takes place in Unwharrie National Forest, North Carolina.

Míša

Míša is a popular Czech brand of frozen confection. Míšas have been made continuously since 1961, and sell over 12 million ice pops per year, making it the most successful ice cream brand in the Czech Republic. It has survived events such as the Velvet Revolution and is fondly remembered as an integral part of Czech childhood.

They are made with frozen cream cheese, rather than ice cream or yogurt.

The logo features a grinning green bear, holding its arms above the word "Míša."

See also

References

Mia

Mia, MIA, or M.I.A. may refer to:

Airports

Government and politics

Mía (Armando Manzanero song)

"Mía" ("Mine") is a song by Mexican songwriter Armando Manzanero included in the album A Mi Amor Con Mi Amor (1967). It was first released as a double-side single along with the track "Felicidad" in 1969.

On March 20, 2001 a new version of the song was recorded as a duet with Spanish singer Miguel Bosé and was included on Manzanero's album Duetos. In 2006, Bosé also included this track on his album Papito. Popular Mexican singers like José José and Luis Miguel have performed "Mía" live on several occasions.

Mia was also performed by Los Trios Los Panchos in LP called "El Trio Los Panchos y Armando Manzanero". It included 11 songs composed by Armando Manzanero. "Contigo Aprendi, Perdoname, Cuando Estoy Contigo, Llevatela, Quiero Para Ti, Esta Tarde Vi Llover, No, Adoro, Mia, La Casa and Voy A Pagar La Luz."

References

2M1207

2M1207, 2M1207A or 2MASS J12073346-3932539 is a brown dwarf located in the constellation Centaurus; a companion object, 2M1207b, may be the first extrasolar planetary-mass companion to be directly imaged, and is the first discovered orbiting a brown dwarf.

2M1207 was discovered during the course of the 2MASS infrared sky survey: hence the "2M" in its name, followed by its celestial coordinates. With a fairly early (for a brown dwarf) spectral type of M8, it is very young, and probably a member of the TW Hydrae association. Its estimated mass is around 25 Jupiter masses. The companion, 2M1207b, is estimated to have a mass of 3–10 Jupiter masses. Still glowing red hot, it will shrink to a size slightly smaller than Jupiter as it cools over the next few billion years.

An initial photometric estimate for the distance to 2M1207 was 70 parsecs. In December 2005, American astronomer Eric Mamajek reported a more accurate distance (53 ± 6 parsecs) to 2M1207 using the moving cluster method. The new distance gives a fainter luminosity for 2M1207. Recent trigonometric parallax results have confirmed this moving cluster distance, leading to a distance estimate of 53 ± 1 parsec or 172 ± 3 light years.

Master of Arts (Scotland)

The degree of Master of Arts in Scotland typically refers to a four-year undergraduate Honours degree in the arts, humanities or social sciences awarded by one of the ancient universities of Scotland – the University of St Andrews, the University of Glasgow, the University of Aberdeen, the University of Edinburgh - plus the University of Dundee (as a result of its history as a constituent college of the University of St Andrews) and Heriot-Watt University. The first two years of the Scottish Master of Arts consist of ordinary Bachelor level courses, however, after these, students who are accepted to pursue the Honours route will complete more advanced subjects and write a dissertation in their fourth year. Students who instead choose to do a "general" degree will complete their third year at a lower level of specialisation, and receive a Bachelor of Arts (BA) or an MA without Honours. For the postgraduate degree referred to in other places as "Master of Arts", Scottish universities usually award the degree of Master of Letters (MLitt). Generally, non-ancient universities in Scotland (e.g. University of Strathclyde, The Robert Gordon University, University of the Highlands and Islands, etc.), award arts degrees as Bachelor of Arts.

M109 howitzer

The M109 is an American 155mm self-propelled howitzer, first introduced in the early 1960s. It has been upgraded a number of times, most recently to the M109A7. The M109 family is the most common Western indirect-fire support weapon of maneuver brigades of armored and mechanized infantry divisions.

The M109 has a crew of six: the section chief, the driver, the gunner, the assistant gunner and two ammunition handlers. The gunner aims the cannon left or right (deflection), the assistant gunner aims the cannon up and down (quadrant). The M109A6 Paladin needs only a crew of four: the commander, driver, gunner and an ammunition loader.

The British Army replaced its M109s with the AS-90. Several European armed forces have or are currently replacing older M109s with the German PzH 2000. Upgrades to the M109 were introduced by the U.S. (see variants below) and by Switzerland (KAWEST). With the cancellation of the U.S. Crusader and Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon, the Paladin will remain the principal self-propelled howitzer for the U.S. for the foreseeable future.