Persephone

In Greek mythology, Persephone (/pərˈsɛfəni/, per-SEH-fə-nee; Greek: Περσεφόνη), also called Kore or Cora (/ˈkɔər/; "the maiden"), is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest goddess Demeter, and is the queen of the underworld. Homer describes her as the formidable, venerable majestic princess of the underworld, who carries into effect the curses of men upon the souls of the dead. Persephone was abducted by Hades, the god-king of the underworld. The myth of her abduction represents her function as the personification of vegetation, which shoots forth in spring and withdraws into the earth after harvest; hence, she is also associated with spring as well as the fertility of vegetation. Similar myths appear in the Orient, in the cults of male gods like Attis, Adonis and Osiris, and in Minoan Crete.

Persephone as a vegetation goddess and her mother Demeter were the central figures of the Eleusinian mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon and promised the initiated a more enjoyable prospect after death. Persephone is further said to have become by Zeus the mother of Dionysus, Iacchus, or Zagreus, usually in orphic tradition. The origins of her cult are uncertain, but it was based on very old agrarian cults of agricultural communities.

Fictional planets of the Solar System

Other non-existent Solar System objects used in fiction have been proposed or hypothesized by persons with no scientific standing, while yet others are purely fictional and were never intended as serious hypotheses about the structure of the Solar System.

Vulcan

Vulcan was a hypothetical planet supposed to revolve around the Sun inside the orbit of Mercury, invoked to explain certain irregularities in Mercury's orbit. The planet was proposed as a hypothesis in 1859, and abandoned not later than 1915.

  • "Vulcan's Workshop" (Astounding Stories, June 1932), short story by Harl Vincent: a penal colony is located on Vulcan.
  • "At the Center of Gravity" (Astounding Stories, June 1936), short story by Ross Rocklynne: two individuals are trapped inside a hollow Vulcan.
  • Vulcan is part of the Solar System in the Captain Future series. In Outlaw World (1946) it is discovered that it is hollow and inhabited inside.
  • Mission to Mercury (1965), science fiction novel by Hugh Walters. During the return of the first manned flight to Mercury, a crew member notices a dark spot moving across the Sun. Since the spot is between them and the Sun and appears to be moving to the naked eye, it can only be the previously-hypothetical Vulcan; it must be moving rapidly and extremely close to the Sun.
  • Lost Experience

    The Lost Experience was an alternate reality game that was part of the American television drama Lost. The game was developed by ABC in the United States, Channel 4 in the UK, and Channel 7 in Australia. It was written by Jordan Rosenberg and created by the agency Hi-ReS!. The experience played out during Lost's second season in the United Kingdom and during the summer break in the United States until the launch of season 3. The Lost Experience, which was announced by the United Kingdom's Channel 4, Australia's Seven Network and the United States' ABC on April 24, 2006Damon Lindelof has verified the canonical status of The Lost Experience and the information provided therein.

    ABC Entertainment's senior vice president of marketing, Mike Benson, described the game as a hybrid between content and marketing. This type of marketing was previously used by ABC for Lost's premiere in 2004. ABC created a website for the fictional Oceanic Airlines, the airline of the plane that crashed in the show's pilot episode.

    Mean (song)

    "Mean" is a song written and recorded by American country pop singer-songwriter Taylor Swift for her third studio album, Speak Now (2010). Produced by Swift alongside Nathan Chapman, the song was sent to country radio in the United States on March 13, 2011, as the third single from Speak Now. "Mean" garnered mixed to positive reviews from critics for its lyrical detail and profound country sound. The song received commercial success in the United States and Canada, debuting at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number ten on the Canadian Hot 100. The song also appeared on the Australian Singles Chart at number 45.

    The song's accompanying music video was directed by Declan Whitebloom, who developed the concept together with Swift. It received mixed reviews from critics who perceived ambivalent messages in the video, despite the prevalent self-empowerment and anti-bullying themes. "Mean" was performed for the first time by Swift at the 46th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards on April 3, 2011. The song won the Grammy Awards for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance at the 54th Grammy Awards.Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Mean as #24 on their list of the 100 greatest country songs of all time. Taylor Swift was tied up in the music video for mean.

    Arithmetic mean

    In mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean (pronunciation: /ˌærɪθˈmɛtɪk ˈmn/, stress on third syllable of "arithmetic"), or simply the mean or average when the context is clear, is the sum of a collection of numbers divided by the number of numbers in the collection. The collection is often a set of results of an experiment, or a set of results from a survey. The term "arithmetic mean" is preferred in some contexts in mathematics and statistics because it helps distinguish it from other means, such as the geometric mean and the harmonic mean.

    In addition to mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean is used frequently in fields such as economics, sociology, and history, and it is used in almost every academic field to some extent. For example, per capita income is the arithmetic average income of a nation's population.

    While the arithmetic mean is often used to report central tendencies, it is not a robust statistic, meaning that it is greatly influenced by outliers (values that are very much larger or smaller than most of the values). Notably, for skewed distributions, such as the distribution of income for which a few people's incomes are substantially greater than most people's, the arithmetic mean may not accord with one's notion of "middle", and robust statistics, such as the median, may be a better description of central tendency.

    Mean (album)

    Mean is the fifth and final album by the California-based hard rock band Montrose and released in 1987. It has much more of a glam metal sound than previous Montrose albums.

    According to Ronnie Montrose, singer Johnny Edwards and drummer James Kottak were still officially in the band Buster Brown at the time of the recording of Mean. They later played together in the first line-up of the band Wild Horses.

    Guitarist Ronnie Montrose and bassist Glenn Letsch played together in the band Gamma both before and after this album.

    It features the song "M for Machine" which was written as a potential song for the 1987 American cyberpunk action film RoboCop, directed by Paul Verhoeven.

    Drummer James Kottak would go on to join the original line-up of hard rock/glam metal band Kingdom Come, remaining with that band during their most commercially successful period, prior to reconnecting with Edwards in Wild Horses. After leaving Wild Horses, Edwards became the frontman for Foreigner on their 1991 album, Unusual Heat.

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