Operation Sigma Sigma

The Sigma is an experimental glider developed in Britain from 1966 by a team led by Nicholas Goodhart. After disappointing performance during flight testing the Sigma was passed on to a Canadian group which carried out modifications, making the Sigma more competitive.

Design and development

Designed to compete in the 1970 World Championships, the team aimed to develop a wing that would climb well through a high lift coefficient and a large wing area, but equally had the "maximum possible reduction of area for cruise at low lift coefficients". At the same time for the minimum possible drag they aimed for "extensive" laminar flow. To achieve this they employed flaps that would alter both wing area and wing camber. Based on analysis of the nature of thermals encountered in cross-country flying, they reasoned that by having a slow turning circle, their sailplane could stay close to the central (and strongest) part of the thermal and gain maximum benefit.

Its unusual feature is its ability to vary its wing area using Fowler flaps. It had been tried before by the Hannover Akaflieg in 1938 with their AFH-4, the South African Beatty-Johl BJ-2 Assegai and the SZD Zefir gliders.

Sigma (cosmology)

Sigma in cosmology was a property of galaxies used when trying to work out the mystery of galaxies and their supermassive black holes.

History

In the late 1990s the NUKER experts had made observations with a spectroscope of two galaxies, one of an active galaxy with an active galactic nucleus called NGC10-68 and a dormant galaxy next door to us named Andromeda.

The observations are shown. The light from the centre in Andromeda galaxy was distorted proving the existence of super-massive black holes.

Other observations proved most galaxies had a similar centre whether it be active or dormant.

They then realised that the black holes must have something to do with a galaxy's formation, so they turned to something they thought was useless: the speed of the stars around the edge of the galaxy. This was Sigma, the speed of the stars at the edge of the galaxy supposedly unaffected by the mass of the black hole at the centre.

Usage In Cosmology

The NUKER team calculated the sigma of several stars in different galaxies and the mass of the black hole at the (nucleus) centre. They expected no correlation what so ever. But when plotting their results on a Scatter diagram and drawing a line of best fit they ended up with a positive correlation. It appeared that the heavier the black hole at the centre was the faster the stars within the galaxy travelled.

Sigma (duo)

Sigma is an English drum and bass duo consisting of Cameron Edwards and Joe Lenzie. They met at Leeds University at drum and bass nights. Their 2010 collaboration with DJ Fresh, "Lassitude", peaked at number 98 on the UK Singles Chart. Their single "Nobody to Love" topped the UK Singles Chart, becoming their first UK number one. Follow-up single "Changing", featuring Paloma Faith, also got to number one.

Career

Formation

Lenzie and Edwards met in 2006 at Leeds University; Cameron was working in local record store Tribe Records and with Echo Location's Obi running local night Event Horizon, while Lenzie was DJing hip-hop and warming up Event Horizon for such acts as Rahzel and Grandmaster Flash. Once they had finished in Leeds, they relocated to London and became a three-piece with Edwards' school friend Ben Mauerhoff, being signed under DJ Fresh's Breakbeat Kaos. After a while, long distances took their toll – Edwards and Mauerhoff were based in Surrey, whereas Lenzie was based in Harpenden, Hertfordshire and they couldn't get three people into the Harpenden studio – and Mauerhoff left. In December 2008 they formed their own record label, Life Recordings (so called because, according to Lenzie, the industry demanded that it be their life). Its inaugural release was a VIP mix of their early Bingo Beats single "El Presidente".

Mantis (disambiguation)

Mantis is the common name of any insect in the order Mantodea, also commonly known as praying mantises. The word itself means "prophet" in Latin and Greek (μάντις). This may also refer to:

In biology:

In comics:

In computing:

In games:

Shades of green

Varieties of the color green may differ in hue, chroma (also called saturation or intensity) or lightness (or value, tone, or brightness), or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being a green or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these various colors is shown below.

Green in nature

Green is common in nature, especially in plants. Many plants are green mainly because of a complex chemical known as chlorophyll which is involved in photosynthesis. Many shades of green have been named after plants or are related to plants. Due to varying ratios of chlorophylls (and different amounts as well as other plant pigments being present), the plant kingdom exhibits many shades of green in both hue (true color) and value (lightness/darkness). The chlorophylls in living plants have distinctive green colors, while dried or cooked portions of plants are different shades of green due to the chlorophyll molecules losing their inner magnesium ion.

K. W. Jeter

Kevin Wayne Jeter (born March 26, 1950), known both personally and professionally as K.W. Jeter, is an American science fiction and horror author known for his literary writing style, dark themes, and paranoid, unsympathetic characters. He has written novels set in the Star Trek and Star Wars universes, and has written three (to date) sequels to Blade Runner.

Biography

Jeter attended college at California State University, Fullerton where he became friends with James P. Blaylock and Tim Powers, and through them, Philip K. Dick. Jeter was actually the inspiration for the character named Kevin in Dick's novel, Valis. Many of Jeter's books focus on the subjective nature of reality in a way that is reminiscent of works by Dick.

Jeter wrote an early Cyberpunk novel, Dr. Adder, which was enthusiastically recommended by Philip K. Dick. Due to its violent and sexually-provocative content, it took Jeter approximately ten years to find a publisher for it. Jeter is also the first to coin the term "Steampunk," in a letter to Locus magazine in April 1987, to describe the retro-technology, alternate-history works that he published along with his friends, Blaylock and Powers. Jeter's Steampunk novels were Morlock Night, Infernal Devices and its sequel Fiendish Schemes (2013).