Smax

Smax is a fictional character from the comic book series Top 10 written by Alan Moore, illustrated by Gene Ha, and published by the America's Best Comics imprint of DC Comics. A Top-10 spin-off mini-series also called Smax focused on the character and provided him with more of a backstory. In advertisements and interviews leading up to the release of the first issue, the series was referred to as Smax the Adventurer.

Character history

Jeff Smax (born Jaafs Macksun) is a gigantic, blue-skinned, white-haired, super-powered, demi-ogre policeman who lives and works at Precinct 10, in a city populated by "science-heroes". Smax originally hailed from a land based on fantasy myth and fairy tale legends, but had left after a horrifying failure during his career as a dragon slayer.

Smax is both extremely strong, and invulnerable to most forms of harm, including radiation. Smax is often fairly gruff and guarded amongst his peers, mostly due to the frequent loss of loved ones he has experienced in life (most notably his dear friend and late partner, Stochastic Fats). Though at first very hesitant to become friendly with his new partner, Robyn Slinger AKA "Toybox", he eventually begins to bond with her, even feeling a great need to protect her when she is attacked by Commissioner Ultima and buried under precinct station rubble. The pair are not romantically involved, however, as Smax has an intimate relationship with his twin sister, Rexa. This is not an unusual situation in Smax's home dimension, which has far different laws of physics and science. Rexa, eventually comes to live with Smax and the details of their unique relationship is only known to Robyn, who keeps it secret.

Civilization: Beyond Earth

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth is a turn-based strategy, 4X video game in the Civilization series developed by Firaxis Games, published by 2K Games and released for Microsoft Windows on October 24, 2014, the Mac App Store on November 27, 2014 and for Linux on December 18, 2014. A spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri, Beyond Earth shares much of that game's development team, as well as some concepts which were introduced in the 1999 title. The game's setting is unique to the Civilization series in that it takes place in the future, with mankind traveling through space and founding colonies on extraterrestrial planets after Earth becomes uninhabitable due to an undescribed disaster known as "the Great Mistake".

An expansion pack, titled Rising Tide, was released on October 9, 2015.

Gameplay

Beyond Earth is a turn-based strategy game played on a hexagonal-based grid, iterating the ideas and building upon the engine of its predecessor, Civilization V. Co-lead designer David McDonough described the relationship between the two games by saying "The bones of the experience are very much recognisably Civ. The idea of the cities, city-base progression, leaders, the passage of time, tile-based, turn-based, building improvements, technologies. A lot of them are very familiar themes to the Civ player."

X-linked spinal muscular atrophy type 2

X-linked spinal muscular atrophy type 2 (SMAX2, XLSMA), also known as arthrogryposis multiplex congenita X-linked type 1 (AMCX1), is a rare neurological disorder involving death of motor neurons in the anterior horn of spinal cord resulting in generalised muscle wasting (atrophy). The disease is caused by a mutation in UBA1 gene and is passed in a X-linked recessive manner by carrier mothers to affected sons.

Affected babies have general muscle weakness, weak cry and floppy limbs; consequently, the condition is usually apparent at or even before birth. Symptoms resemble the more severe forms of the more common spinal muscular atrophy (SMA); however, SMAX2 is caused by a different genetic defect and only genetic testing can correctly identify the disease.

The disorder is usually fatal in infancy or early childhood due to progressive respiratory failure, although survival into teenage years have been reported. As with many genetic disorders, there is no known cure to SMAX2. Appropriate palliative care may be able to increase quality of life and extend lifespan.