Grand Tour (novel series)

The Grand Tour is a series of novels written by science fiction author Ben Bova.

The novels present a theme of exploration and colonization of the solar system by humans in the late 21st century. Most of the books focus on the exploration of one particular planet or planetary moon.

Several recurring themes are presented throughout the series. In particular, most of the solar system bodies whose exploration is the focus of a particular novel are presented as having life, either past or present. Many of the expeditions which explore the planets run into serious difficulty. The protagonists of most of these books are presented as initially weak and/or lacking in ability or confidence, and as part of surviving the trials of the story become heroic.

The future humanity as depicted in the Grand Tour novel series is divided between Greens (environmentalists) and wealthy industrialists, as well as between secularists/scientists and religious fundamentalists. These conflicts generally are presented as part of the background and often set up the initial conflicts of each of the books. In addition, several of the books reference, or indeed directly deal with, conflicts between wealthy industrialists and small, independent operators seeking to exploit the solar system's vast untapped mineral wealth.

Planets in astrology

Planets in astrology have a meaning different from the modern astronomical understanding of what a planet is. Before the age of telescopes, the night sky was thought to consist of two very similar components: fixed stars, which remained motionless in relation to each other, and "wandering stars" (Ancient Greek: ἀστέρες πλανῆται asteres planetai), which moved relative to the fixed stars over the course of the year.

To the Greeks and the other earliest astronomers, this group comprised the five planets visible to the naked eye, and excluded the Earth. Although strictly the term "planet" applied only to those five objects, the term was latterly broadened, particularly in the Middle Ages, to include the Sun and the Moon (sometimes referred to as "Lights"), making a total of seven planets. Astrologers retain this definition today.

To ancient astrologers, the planets represented the will of the gods and their direct influence upon human affairs. To modern astrologers the planets represent basic drives or urges in the unconscious, or energy flow regulators representing dimensions of experience. They express themselves with different qualities in the twelve signs of the zodiac and in the twelve houses. The planets are also related to each other in the form of aspects.

Saturn (band)

Saturn is a progressive rock band from Islamabad, Pakistan, formed in 2003. The group was founded by lead guitarist and songwriter Salman Zaidi and vocalist & lyricist Shahbaz Zaidi, who were later joined by bassist Aashir, drummer Shahbaz Asad, and rhythm guitarist Usman Ahmad Khan. The band is well known for being one of the pioneering progressive rock groups in Pakistan. Saturn became famous after releasing their debut track "Raakh" which is Urdu for "Ashes". They later gained more popularity for their energetic performances and stage presence. Saturn is known as one of the loudest bands of Pakistan. Their debut album "Naya Din" was released on April 7, 2013.

History

Formation (2003-2005)

Saturn was formed by brothers Salman and Shahbaz in 2003 and was joined by Hasham Kazi with whom they started recording "Raakh" their debut track at S & M Studios Islamabad. Hasham left the band due to personal reason shortly after the release of the song and the two brothers moved on. In 2004 Saturn released their second song with a completely new line up and started playing concerts regularly till late 2005. It was in the start of 2006 when Saturn disbanded and the band went into idle years Idle Years (2006–2007) From 2006 to 2007 Saturn remained out of the music scene, occasionally performing at music festivals, but not playing at many concerts. It was later revealed that the band had been working on their debut album "Naya Din".

Dimension (data warehouse)

A dimension is a structure that categorizes facts and measures in order to enable users to answer business questions. Commonly used dimensions are people, products, place and time.

In a data warehouse, dimensions provide structured labeling information to otherwise unordered numeric measures. The dimension is a data set composed of individual, non-overlapping data elements. The primary functions of dimensions are threefold: to provide filtering, grouping and labelling.

These functions are often described as "slice and dice". Slicing refers to filtering data. Dicing refers to grouping data. A common data warehouse example involves sales as the measure, with customer and product as dimensions. In each sale a customer buys a product. The data can be sliced by removing all customers except for a group under study, and then diced by grouping by product.

A dimensional data element is similar to a categorical variable in statistics.

Typically dimensions in a data warehouse are organized internally into one or more hierarchies. "Date" is a common dimension, with several possible hierarchies:

Dimension (metadata)

In metadata, dimension is a set of equivalent units of measure, where equivalence between two units of measure is determined by the existence of a quantity preserving one-to-one correspondence between values measured in one unit of measure and values measured in the other unit of measure, independent of context, and where characterizing operations are the same.

The equivalence defined here forms an equivalence relation on the set of all units of measure. Each equivalence class corresponds to a dimensionality. The units of measure "temperature in degrees Fahrenheit" and "temperature in degrees Celsius" have the same dimensionality, because given a value measured in degrees Fahrenheit there is a value measured in degrees Celsius with the same quantity, and vice versa. Quantity preserving one-to-one correspondences are the well-known equations Cº = (5/9)*(Fº − 32) and Fº = (9/5)*(Cº) + 32.

Units of measure are not limited to physical categories.Examples of physical categories are: linear measure, area, volume, mass, velocity, time duration.Examples of non-physical categories are: currency, quality indicator, colour intensity.

Dimension (shampoo)

Dimension Shampoo was a heavily perfumed shampoo product, which was produced in the early 1980s. This was by the personal products division of Lever Brothers, and marketed by Ogilvy. The shampoo came in a distinctive dark yellow bottle, and left a strong muskone and civetone aroma on the hair. There was also a companion conditioner marketed with this product. It has been stated by many previous users of dimension shampoo that it caused their hair to fall out, due to the extreme astringency of the product.

On April 18, 1985, Lever Brothers reorganized their marketing structure and moved their personal products division business to J. Walter Thompson.

At the time, Dimension was a highly popular brand. (Lever spent an estimated $12.5M in advertising the brand in 1984.) However, shortly after Lever's marketing reorganization, Dimension ran-out on store shelves, and never returned. Lever Brothers never made any public explanation for the disappearance of the product; although they referred to the marketing reorganization as a consolidation of the personal products brands, and stated that the decision in-part had to do with its plans for international marketing.