Circus (building)

The Roman circus (from Latin, "circle") was a large open-air venue used for public events in the ancient Roman Empire. The circuses were similar to the ancient Greek hippodromes, although circuses served varying purposes and differed in design and construction. Along with theatres and amphitheatres, Circuses were one of the main entertainment sites of the time. Circuses were venues for chariot races, horse races, and performances that commemorated important events of the empire were performed there. For events that involved re-enactments of naval battles, the circus was flooded with water.

According to Edward Gibbon, in Chapter XXXI of his work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the Roman people, at the start of the 5th century:

Architectural design

The performance space of the Roman circus was normally, despite its name, an oblong rectangle of two linear sections of race track, separated by a median strip running along the length of about two thirds the track, joined at one end with a semicircular section and at the other end with an undivided section of track closed (in most cases) by a distinctive starting gate known as the carceres, thereby creating a circuit for the races. The Circus of Maxentius epitomises the design.

FF Meta

FF Meta is a humanist sans-serif typeface family designed by Erik Spiekermann and released in 1991 through his FontFont library. According to Spiekermann, FF Meta was intended to be a “complete antithesis of Helvetica,” which he found “boring and bland.” It originated from an unused commission for the Deutsche Bundespost (West German Post Office). Throughout the 1990s, FF Meta was embraced by the international design community with Spiekermann and E. M. Ginger writing that it had been dubiously praised as the Helvetica of the 1990s.

FF Meta has been adopted by numerous corporations and other organizations as a corporate typeface, for signage or in their logo. These include Imperial College London, The Weather Channel, Free Tibet, Herman Miller, Zimmer Holdings, and Fort Wayne International Airport.

Visually distinctive characteristics

Characteristics of this typeface are:

Red vs. Blue

Red vs. Blue, often abbreviated as RvB, is an American comic science fiction video web series created by Burnie Burns with his production company Rooster Teeth Productions. The show is distributed through the Internet on Rooster Teeth's website, as well as on DVD, Blu-ray, and is syndicated through the El Rey Network. The story centers on two opposing teams of soldiers fighting a civil war in the middle of a desolate box canyon (Blood Gulch), in a parody of first-person shooter (FPS) games, military life, and science fiction films. Initially intended to be a short series of six to eight episodes, the project quickly and unexpectedly achieved significant popularity following its Internet premiere on April 1, 2003. The series consists of thirteen canonical seasons and five mini-series. Red vs. Blue is the longest running episodic web series.

Red vs. Blue emerged from Burnie Burns' voice-over-enhanced gameplay videos of Bungie Studios' FPS video game Halo: Combat Evolved. The series is primarily produced using the machinima technique of synchronizing video footage from a game to pre-recorded dialogue and other audio. Footage is mostly from the multiplayer modes of Halo: Combat Evolved and its sequels, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4, along with its prequel, Halo: Reach, and Halo 3 ODST on the Xbox and Xbox 360 video game consoles.

Rōnin

A rōnin (浪人) was a samurai with no lord or master during the feudal period (1185–1868) of Japan. A samurai became masterless from the death or fall of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or privilege.

In modern Japanese usage, the term also describes a salaryman who is "between employers" or a secondary school graduate who has not yet been admitted to university.

Etymology

The word rōnin literally means "wave man". It is an idiomatic expression for "vagrant" or "wandering man", someone who is without a home. The term originated in the Nara and Heian periods, when it referred to a serf who had fled or deserted his master's land. It then came to be used for a samurai who had no master. (Hence, the term "wave man" illustrating one who is socially adrift.)

The word "浪人" means a "drifter" or a "wanderer", i.e. "he who drifts/wanders".

Status

According to the Bushido Shoshinshu (the Code of the Samurai), a samurai was supposed to commit seppuku (also "hara kiri" — ritual suicide) upon the loss of his master. One who chose not to honor the code was "on his own" and was meant to suffer great shame. The undesirability of rōnin status was mainly a discrimination imposed by other samurai and by daimyo, the feudal lords.

Ronin (Marvel Comics)

Ronin is an alias used by multiple characters in the Marvel Comics Universe. The Ronin identity was created by Brian Michael Bendis and Joe Quesada, though the characters who have adopted the identity were pre-existing characters created by other writers.

The name "Ronin" refers to the Japanese term for a masterless samurai, a lone warrior.

Publication history

Maya Lopez

Maya Lopez was the first person to don the Ronin identity. A deaf woman with photographic reflexes, Maya became Ronin to investigate the Silver Samurai in Japan.

Maya Lopez first appeared as Ronin in New Avengers #11 (November 2005), though the character appeared on the covers of several earlier issues.

New Avengers writer Brian Michael Bendis revealed in the introduction to the New Avengers Vol. 1 Hardcover collection that his original intention was to make Matt Murdock the true identity of Ronin, but could not do so due to a conflict with the plans for the character in the Daredevil comic book title.

Clint Barton

Ronin (band)

Ronin is a rock band based in Singapore. They are infamous for their live performances and being one of the few high profile rock bands around. Before their entry to the mainstream market, the band launched a self-released EP which included 5 songs, and later released an LP which was hugely successful. Their debut album Do or Die has received rave reviews by local press, and is one of the top selling English-language albums in Singapore of all time. In 2006, the band collaborated with local Mediacorp artiste Fiona Xie in a love song duet, entitled "Love Will Shine on Through". The song was recorded to raise funds for a cancer project, with a book and a CD recorded together. One of their songs, "One More Moment", was covered by Singaporean artiste Ho Yeow Sun.

The band enjoyed a number one hit called Black Maria in the Singapore charts, the song Crazy Son reached third. Ronin has also written the theme song and title soundtrack 'Memories' for the film Singapore Dreaming.

On 24 June 2007, lead singer Levan Wee performed with the band for the last time, due to a combination of personal issues, as well as differences in musical direction. He is now the lead singer of ASTRONINJA. The band has since returned to the studios to continue work on their 2nd LP.