Smile

A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a "Duchenne smile". Smiles performed without the eye contraction can be perceived as "fake".

Among humans, smiling is an expression denoting pleasure, sociability, happiness, or amusement. It is distinct from a similar but usually involuntary expression of anxiety known as a grimace. Although cross-cultural studies have shown that smiling is a means of communication throughout the world, there are large differences between different cultures, with some using smiles to convey confusion or embarrassment.

Historical background

Primatologist Signe Preuschoft traces the smile back over 30 million years of evolution to a "fear grin" stemming from monkeys and apes who often used barely clenched teeth to portray to predators that they were harmless. The smile may have evolved differently among species and especially among humans. Apart from Biology as an academic discipline that interprets the smile, those who study kinesics and psychology such as Freitas-Magalhaes view the smile as an affect display that can communicate feelings such as love, happiness, pride, contempt, and embarrassment.

Smile! (novel)

Smile! is a children's book by Geraldine McCaughrean. In 2004 it won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize Bronze Award.

References

Smile (musical)

Smile is a musical with music by Marvin Hamlisch and book and lyrics by Howard Ashman. It was originally produced on Broadway in 1986. The musical is based loosely on the 1975 comedy film of the same title, from a screenplay by Jerry Belson.

Original Film

The original 1975 film was directed by Michael Ritchie with a screenplay by Jerry Belson. It starred Barbara Feldon as Brenda DiCarlo, Nicholas Pryor as Andy DiCarlo (Brenda's husband in the film), Bruce Dern as Big Bob Freelander, Geoffrey Lewis as Wilson Shears, Joan Prather as Robin Gibson, Annette O'Toole as Doria Hudson, Melanie Griffith as Karen Love, and choreographer Michael Kidd as Tommy French. The movie was filmed on location in Santa Rosa, California with the pageant festivities at Veteran's Memorial Auditorium.

Production

The original production opened on Broadway on November 24, 1986 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre and closed on January 3, 1987 after 48 performances. It was directed by Ashman with musical staging by Mary Kyte. It received a Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical as well as Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical (Michael O'Gorman) and Outstanding Costume Design (William Ivey Long).

Poing (video game)

Poing is a freeware computer game, made by Paul Van der Valk, and released on the Amiga in 1992. It is a variant of the arcade games Breakout and Arkanoid but is presented in a horizontal orientation similar to the 8 bit computer game Krakout.

Description

Gameplay

The game is divided into stages, each containing a number of levels. Each level consists of a rectangular playing area, which contains an arrangement of blocks. The levels appear in a random order each game. In later versions this feature became optional.

In each level, the player controls a simple paddle, which is positioned on the left side of the playing area and can be moved up or down. The player uses the paddle to deflect strategically a ball, which can damage or destroy blocks on contact.

To complete a level, the right-hand wall of the playing area must be hit by the ball a number of times to break it, and then the ball must pass through the right-hand side, taking it to the next level. A 'Force' bar in the corner of the screen indicates the number of hits required. At the start of each level the wall needs to be hit 10 times, but powerups can damage or recover the wall.