Contra

Contra is a Latin preposition (also used in English as a prefix) meaning "against". It may also refer to:

Finance

Media

Music

Video games

Contra (album)

Contra is the second studio album by the American indie rock band Vampire Weekend, released in January 2010 on XL Recordings. It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200. The album title is intended as a thematic allegory and a complex reference to the Nicaraguan counter-revolutionaries, the 1980 album by The Clash Sandinista!, and partially to the Contra video game.

The album was recognized as one of The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far by Pitchfork Media in August 2014.

Release

The release of Contra was announced on September 15, 2009, and was released in the UK on January 11, 2010. It was released in the U.S. on the next day. However, the album was already available on January 8 on iTunes. "Horchata" was released as a free download on October 5, 2009 on the band's website. The first single was "Cousins", accompanied by a 7" single, and a music video. The album was available for streaming on the band's MySpace starting on January 3, 2010. It was also available for streaming from their official website, as of January 5, 2010.

Super Contra

Super Contra (スーパー魂斗羅 エイリアンの逆襲, Sūpā Kontora: Eirian no Gyakushū, "Super Contra: The Alien Strikes Back") is a Run and Gun-style action video game by Konami that was released as a coin-operated arcade game in 1988. It is the sequel to the original Contra and the second and last game in the Contra series released for the arcades. The game stars Bill Rizer and Lance Bean, as they are sent to thwart yet another alien invasion.

The game was adapted for the Nintendo Entertainment System under the shortened title of Super C in North America and in Europe and Australia as Probotector II: Return of the Evil Forces. Both the arcade version and the NES version, have been re-released in various other platforms since their original releases.

Plot

A year after the battle with the Red Falcon Organization, Bill and Lance are sent on another mission. This time, the alien forces have taken over an allied military base, possessing most of its troops. Bill and Lance must not only fight against their former comrade-in-arms, but also a new mutated form of the same alien creatures they fought during their previous mission.

Slide (musical ornament)

The slide (Schleifer in German, Coulé in French, Superjectio in Latin) is a musical ornament often found in baroque musical works, but used during many different periods. It instructs the performer to begin two or three scale steps below the marked note and "slide" upward—that is, move stepwise diatonically between the initial and final notes. Though less frequently found, the slide can also be performed in a descending fashion.

History

In The Interpretation of Early Music, Robert Donington surveys many treatises to ascertain the history of the slide. Writing in 1654, John Playford noted that the slide can be used in ascending (he called it "elevation") or in descending (he called it "double backfall") forms.Christopher Simpson described the figure in his Division Violist: "Sometimes a note is graced by sliding to it from the third below, called an 'elevation', now something obsolete. Sometimes from the third above; which we call a double-backfall. This sliding a third, up, or down, is always done upon one string."Thomas Mace (1676) notes that the + sign above a note indicates its use.

Transformers (toy line)

The Transformers (トランスフォーマー, Toransufomā) is a line of toys produced by the Japanese company Takara (now known as Takara Tomy) and American toy company Hasbro. The Transformers toyline was created from toy molds mostly produced by Japanese company Takara in the toylines Diaclone and Microman. Other toy molds from other companies such as Bandai were used as well. In 1984, Hasbro bought the distribution rights to the molds and rebranded them as the Transformers for distribution in North America. Hasbro would go on to buy the entire toy line from Takara, giving them sole ownership of the Transformers toy-line, branding rights, and copyrights, while in exchange, Takara was given the rights to produce the toys and the rights to distribute them in the Japanese market. The premise behind the Transformers toyline is that an individual toy's parts can be shifted about to change it from a vehicle, a device, or an animal, to a robot action figure and back again. The taglines "More Than Meets The Eye" and "Robots In Disguise" reflect this ability.

Pistol slide

The slide is the part of the weapon on a majority of semi-automatic pistols that moves during the operating cycle and generally houses the firing pin or striker and the extractor, and serves as the bolt. It is spring-loaded so that once it has moved to its rearmost position in the firing cycle, spring tension brings it back to the starting position chambering a fresh cartridge during the motion provided that the magazine is not empty.

Through the principles of recoil or blowback operation, the slide is forced back with each shot. Generally, this action serves three purposes: ejecting the spent casing, cocking the hammer or striker for the next shot, and loading another cartridge into the chamber when the slide comes forward.

Once the magazine and chamber both are empty, the slide will lock back, released only when the slide stop is depressed; if a new magazine is inserted before the slide stop is depressed then a new cartridge will be chambered.

Some handguns also utilise the slide stop as a means of releasing the slide, when the slide stop is held upwards for purposes such as field stripping eliminating the need for any further lock mechanisms and the room that these may use inside the gun.