Shock wave

In physics, a shock wave or shock is a type of propagating disturbance. When a wave moves faster than the local speed of sound in a fluid it is a shock wave. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy, and can propagate through a medium; however it is characterized by an abrupt, nearly discontinuous change in pressure, temperature and density of the medium. In supersonic flows, expansion is achieved through an expansion fan also known as a Prandtl-Meyer expansion fan.

Unlike solitons (another kind of nonlinear wave), the energy of a shock wave dissipates relatively quickly with distance. Also, the accompanying expansion wave approaches and eventually merges with the shock wave, partially cancelling it out. Thus the sonic boom associated with the passage of a supersonic aircraft is the sound wave resulting from the degradation and merging of the shock wave and the expansion wave produced by the aircraft.

When a shock wave passes through matter, energy is preserved but entropy increases. This change in the matter's properties manifests itself as a decrease in the energy which can be extracted as work, and as a drag force on supersonic objects; shock waves are strongly irreversible processes.

Shockwaves (Unkle Bob album)

Track listing

Red Hot Rhythm & Blues

Red Hot Rhythm and Blues is a 1987 studio album by the American singer Diana Ross released via EMI and RCA labels.

Overview

The album made the charts in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, as well as reaching the top 20 in Sweden and Norway. It was Ross's final album for RCA Records. It peaked at No. 73 on the "Billboard album chart in the US despite an Emmy nominated television special that was a ratings success. It sold around 125,000 copies in the USA.

The album included the Top 15 US R&B and UK Top 50 hit, "Dirty Looks", written by Richard Scher & Lotti Golden, and the ballad "It's Hard for Me to Say", produced by Luther Vandross. It also included cover versions of several R&B classics, including The Bobbettes' "Mr. Lee", Jackie Ross' "Selfish One," Etta James' "Tell Mama", and The Drifters' "There Goes My Baby". A Shep Pettibone remix of "Shockwaves" was released as a single in the UK which peaked at #76.

The album was promoted with a TV special featuring Etta James, Little Richard, Billy Dee Williams, Leslie Nielsen, LL Cool J, Bernadette Peters and Wolfman Jack. The tracks "Mr Lee" and "Tell Mama" did not feature on the US version of the album and the mix of "Dirty Looks" was the UK version which differs from the US version.

Thalamus

The thalamus (from Greek θάλαμος, "chamber") is a midline symmetrical structure of two halves, within the vertebrate brain, situated between the cerebral cortex and the midbrain. Some of its functions are the relaying of sensory and motor signals to the cerebral cortex, and the regulation of consciousness, sleep, and alertness. The two parts of the thalamus surround the third ventricle. It is the main product of the embryonic diencephalon.

Anatomy

The thalamus is located in the forebrain superior to the midbrain, near the center of the brain, with nerve fibers projecting out to the cerebral cortex in all directions. The medial surface of the thalamus constitutes the upper part of the lateral wall of the third ventricle, and is connected to the corresponding surface of the opposite thalamus by a flattened gray band, the interthalamic adhesion.

Morphology

The two halves of the thalamus are prominent bulb-shaped masses, about 5.7 cm in length, located obliquely (about 30°) and symmetrically on each side of the third ventricle. Both parts of the thalamus, in the human, are about the size and shape of a walnut. These are about three centimetres in length, at the widest part 2.5 centimetres across and about 2 centimetres in height (comparable to an unshelled walnut, with the nut-shell joining in the horizontal plane).

Thalamus Ltd

Thalamus Ltd (also known as Thalamus) was a British computer game developer that published titles for a number of 8-bit and 16-bit platforms during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

History

Genesis

Thalamus Ltd was created in 1986 as an in-house software publishing label of British magazine publisher Newsfield Publications Ltd, to take advantage of their leading position publishing computer game magazines, such as Crash and Zzap!64, during the mid-1980s. Ex-Activision PR Manager Andrew Wright was assigned the position of Company Director and Newsfield staff writer Gary Liddon was appointed Technical Executive. The company was initially based in Canonbury, North London, in an office shared with staff of Newsfield's newly launched lifestyle magazine LM.

First Titles

Thalamus capitalised on the success of the Commodore 64 gaming scene by releasing their first batch of titles on this platform. Having established numerous contacts within the C64 development scene through the popularity of their Zzap!64 gaming magazine, Thalamus were able to sign up Finnish programmer Stavros Fasoulas to develop their first three titles, Sanxion, Delta and Quedex. Sanxion was the first release to bear the Thalamus name, and it garnered a Sizzler rating from Zzap!64 - this led to accusations of favouritism from rival publications, in particular Commodore User, despite the game deserving the award - it was technically competent, visually attractive, and ran at breakneck speed for its time. Legendary C64 musician Rob Hubbard came on board to provide the music for the first two titles, while Matt Gray provided the music for Quedex. "Thalamusik", the loading tune that accompanied the C64 version of Sanxion proved to be so popular amongst fans that Zzap!64 later included a full synthesised version of Rob Hubbard's classic tune on one of their cover cassettes.