Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet

Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet (also known as SST7) is a jazz ensemble formed in Seattle, Washington, in 2002.

Music

Although uniquely merging jazz and funk, the music of Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet can also include "New Orleans flavors", solid grooves, swing and hip hop, combined into something both appealing and undefinable. Their music has been self-described by Skerik as "...punk-jazz. Maybe a punk-jazz version of the Thelonious Monk Octet."

A theme in the music is a recognition that traditional jazz having reached a zenith in the early 1960s cannot be contained in reverence. The Syncopated Taint Septet is a synthesis of traditional music with current and experimental music forms. The project displays a band member equality with "leads being shared by everyone."

History

Their first album, Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet, was recorded live at the Owl and Thistle in Seattle and was released in 2003. It was reviewed as occasionally loud, yet also having a "spirited [and] immediate musicianship." Although popularly associated with jam band music, an improvisational distinction can be made regarding the large musical vocabulary displayed by the band in the recording.

USS Mackerel (SST-1)

USS Mackerel (SST-1), originally known as USS T-1 (SST-1), was the lead ship of the T-1-class of training submarines. She was the second submarine of the United States Navy named for the mackerel, a common food and sport fish, and was in service from 1953 to 1973. She was one of the smallest operational submarines ever built for the U.S. Navy.

Construction and commissioning

T-1 was originally planned as an experimental auxiliary submarine with hull number AGSS-570, but she was redesignated as a training submarine (SST-1) and her hull number was changed to SST-1. She was laid down on 1 April 1952, at the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation at Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 17 July 1953, sponsored by Mrs. Charles R. Muir, and placed in non-commissioned service as USS T-1 on 9 October 1953, with Lieutenant J. M. Snyder, Jr., in command.

Service history

Training, target, and equipment testing services, 1954–1966

After completing sea trials in the New London, and Massachusetts Bay areas, T-1 departed in February 1954 for Key West, Florida. Arriving at Key West, she commenced operations with submarine and antisubmarine forces in the areas of southern Florida and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, providing services to the Fleet Training Group working up recently constructed and recently overhauled antisubmarine warships.

SST-1 (tokamak)

SST-1 (steady state superconducting tokamak) is a plasma confinement experimental device in the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), an autonomous research institute under Department of Atomic Energy, India. It belongs to a new generation of tokamaks with the major objective being steady state operation of an advanced configuration ('D' Shaped) plasma. It has been designed as a medium-sized tokamak with superconducting magnets.

The SST-1 project will increase India's stronghold in a selected group of countries who are capable of conceptualizing and making a fully functional fusion based reactor device. The SST-1 System is housed in Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar. The SST-1 mission has been chaired by eminent Indian plasma physicists like Prof. Y.C. Saxena, Dr. Chenna Reddy, and is headed by Dr. Subrata Pradhan.

Next stage of the SST-1 mission, the SST-2, dubbed as 'DEMO', has already been initiated.

History

Razzia

The word razzia was borrowed via French from Algerian Arabic ghaziya غزية "raiding", and can mean

Razzia (artist)

Gérard Courbouleix–Dénériaz, also known as Razzia, is a French graphic artist born in 1950.

Razzia is one of the last poster artists to remain in an era dominated by computer-generated images. He began his career in what can be called the golden age of poster art. Razzia is unique in that he still uses the same old style to make his posters. He continues to make posters from an original painting, as opposed to computer graphics.

His work evokes Art Deco. He is best known for his work for Louis Vuitton. A retrospective of his work was published in 2007.

References

Ra (board game)

Ra is a board game for two to five players designed by Reiner Knizia and themed around Ra, the sun-god of Heliopolis in ancient Egyptian culture.

Originally published in Germany, it was republished in an English language translation by Rio Grande Games. Subsequent English language editions have been published by Überplay and again by Rio Grande Games. The last of these increased the number of players from the original 3-5 to 2-5, but otherwise all editions have used the same rules. Ra won the 2000 International Gamers Award and placed 2nd in the 1999 Deutscher Spiele Preis.

Gameplay

Ra is an auction game, where the players are all competing for the same resources. The game is played in three rounds, called Epochs, reflecting the history of ancient Egypt. Players use their sun tokens to bid against each other on auctions for tiles. At the end of an epoch, points will be scored for the number and types of tiles a player managed to win. The price of the tiles is determined by the players bidding for them, and values can shift rapidly.