Barley

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 13,000 years ago. Barley has also been used as animal fodder, as a source of fermentable material for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods. It is used in soups and stews, and in barley bread of various cultures. Barley grains are commonly made into malt in a traditional and ancient method of preparation.

In a 2007 ranking of cereal crops in the world, barley was fourth both in terms of quantity produced (136 million tons) and in area of cultivation (566,000 square kilometres or 219,000 square miles).

Etymology

The Old English word for 'barley' was bære, which traces back to Proto-Indo-European and is cognate to the Latin word farina "flour". The direct ancestor of modern English "barley" in Old English was the derived adjective bærlic, meaning "of barley". The first citation of the form bærlic in the Oxford English Dictionary dates to around 966 CE, in the compound word bærlic-croft. The underived word bære survives in the north of Scotland as bere, and refers to a specific strain of six-row barley grown there. The word barn, which originally meant "barley-house", is also rooted in these words.

Power!

Power! (known as Critical Mass in Europe) is a computer game developed by Simon Francis in 1985 for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.

Plot

The player operates a rocket-powered hovercraft whose mission is to destroy an enemy transfer beam that is protected not only by long-distance enemy raiders and mines, but also molecular disorientation that sucks the energy from the player's attack craft.

Gameplay

The player may control the hovercraft in either a normal joystick operational mode or with vectored movement. When the player pushes forward on the joystick, the hovercraft accelerates, and when pulling back on the joystick, speed decreases.

Reception

In 1988, Dragon reviewed Power!, and gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.

References

External links

PoweredUSB

PoweredUSB, also known as Retail USB, USB PlusPower, and USB +Power, is an addition to the Universal Serial Bus standard that allows for higher-power devices to obtain power through their USB host instead of requiring an independent power supply or external AC adapter. It is mostly used in point-of-sale equipment, such as receipt printers and barcode readers.

History

PoweredUSB, as a proprietary variant of USB, was developed and proposed by IBM, Berg (now FCI), NCR and Microsoft between 1998 and 1999, with the last revision (0.8g) issued in 2004. The specification is not endorsed by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). IBM, who owns patents to PoweredUSB, charges a licensing fee for its use.

PoweredUSB was licensed by Hewlett-Packard, Cyberdata, Fujitsu, Wincor and others.

Implementation

PoweredUSB uses a more complex connector than standard USB, maintaining the standard USB 1.x/2.0 interface for data communications and adding a second connector for power. Physically, it is essentially two connectors stacked such that the bottom connector accepts a standard USB plug and the top connector takes a power plug.

Power (2014 Telugu film)

Power is a 2014 Telugu action comedy film written and directed by K. S. Ravindra and produced by Rockline Venkatesh under the banner Rockline Entertainments, both marking their debut in Telugu cinema. It features Ravi Teja playing a dual role with Hansika Motwani and Regina Cassandra playing the female lead roles. S. Thaman composed the music while Gautham Raju edited the film. Arthur A. Wilson and Jayanan Vincent handled the film's cinematography. The film revolves around two similar looking people, Baldev Sahay - a corrupt ACP in Kolkata and Tirupathi - a person aspiring to become a police officer in Hyderabad. The home minister of Kolkata recruits Tirupathi to play as Baldev to catch a gangster rescued by Baldev. Rest of the story is all about why Baldev became a corrupt cop and how Tirupathi executed the unfinished mission of Baldev.

Production began on 11 December 2013. The film's talkie part was shot in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangkok while two songs were shot in Bulgaria marking it the first Telugu film to be shot there. Principal photography ended on 14 August 2014. The film released on 12 September 2014 to positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success.