Moment or Moments may refer to:
Moment is Japanese J-pop band Speed's greatest hits album following their first album, Starting Over and second album, Rise. Moment was released on December 16, 1998 and contains all the commercially released singles from their first and second albums along with additional tracks. Debuting at number 1 on the Oricon charts and eventually selling 2.32 million copies, Moment is the best-selling album by a female group in Japanese music history.
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A moment (momentum) was a medieval unit of time. The movement of a shadow on a sundial covered 40 moments in a solar hour. An hour in this case means one twelfth of the period between sunrise and sunset. The length of a solar hour depended on the length of the day, which in turn varied with the season, so the length of a moment in modern seconds was not fixed, but on average, a moment corresponds to 90 seconds: A day was divided into 24 hours (of unequal lengths, twelve hours of the day and the night each), and an hour was divided into four puncta (quarter-hours), ten minuta and 40 momenta.
The unit was used by medieval computists before the introduction of the mechanical clock and the base 60 system in the late 13th century. The unit would not have been used in everyday life. For our medieval counterparts the main marker of the passage of time was the call to prayer at intervals throughout the day.
The earliest reference we have to the moment is from the 8th century writings of the Venerable Bede. Bede describes the system as 1 hour = 4 points = 10 minutes = 15 parts = 40 moments. Bede was referenced four centuries later by Bartholomeus Anglicus in his early encyclopedia De Proprietatibus Rerum (On the Properties of Things). Centuries after Bede's description, the moment was further divided into 60 ostents, although no such divisions could ever have been used in observation with equipment in use at the time.
Fortunato can refer to any of the following:
Vincente Fortunato is an elderly crime boss and enemy of the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man. He first appeared in Spider-Man #70. He is affiliated with the Maggia and HYDRA, and a competitor to the Kingpin.
When the Kingpin (Wilson Fisk) was absent from New York for a long period of time, Fortunato stepped into the power vacuum and, using his Hydra ties, was able to force the other crime lords, such as the Slug and Hammerhead, into accepting him as the new kingpin.
His elder son Giacomo is present at the meeting where Fortunato portrays his power. The Don brings out the killer Tombstone to be executed. Then he brings out random civilians from each of the crime lord's territories. The plan is to have each crime lord kill a civilian, showcasing how Fortunato would punish disobedience by civilian massacres.
Jimmy 6, horrified, pulls a gun on his father in front of the crowd of people. The spectators do not intervene, wishing to see how Fortunato would handle this. Ben Reilly (then Spider-Man), intervenes, soon joined by Daredevil. The innocent civilians are freed but they and the heroes are cornered, pursued by various members of the meeting. Jimmy-6 shows up in an attack helicopter, killing the pursuers and rescuing the civilians and the superheroes. Jimmy eventually reconciles with his father, but extends his debt to Ben to Peter Parker.
This is a list of characters from the Wild Cards book series.
The Astronomer is a character from the Wild Cards series of books. He first appeared in the short story "Pennies from Hell" by Lewis Shiner in Wild Cards II: Aces High, though his presence was earlier implied in "The Long, Dark Night of Fortunato" in the first volume of the series. Leader of a cult consisting mainly of superhuman aces and deformed jokers known as the Egyptian Freemasons. The Astronomer planned to conquer the world in the aftermath of an invasion by fungoid aliens called the Swarm. Unknown to him, the Shakti device of the Egyptian Freemasons lacked a power source and was designed to contact an alien organization, the Network. Once his plans were foiled, the Astronomer lived only for revenge.
The Astronomer is an old man (born in 1925), who has thinning white hair, wears glasses and is best described as "mole-like"; he is also noted as having a disproportionately large head, the upper part of which enlarges further when he is fully empowered. He has wiped his own memory of all events prior to becoming the Astronomer. The Astronomer usually uses a wheelchair, although the proper use of his Ace powers can allow him to walk. The Astronomer practices a horrific form of death magic, gaining immense energy through the ritualistic slaying of his victims (usually young women). He greatly enjoys having Demise slowly kill the victims, taking their suffering from projected death as his energy source.