Spastic

Derived via Latin from the Greek spastikos ("drawing in" or "tugging"), the word at its root still refers to an alteration in muscle tone affected by the medical condition spasticity, which is seen in spastic diplegia and many other forms of cerebral palsy and also in terms such as "spastic colon". In this usage, which is still today the word's main environment, the word spastic has no negative connotation, because it is accurately descriptive of the condition. In India, 'The Spastics Society of India' (now known as 'ADAPT - Able Disable All People Together'), a non-profit and non-governmental organization, kept its name for many years without being criticised.

Colloquially, the word spastic can be, but is not necessarily, pejorative; largely this depends on whether one understands the word as it is used in the United States or the United Kingdom. In British English today the mention of the word spastic is typically extremely inappropriate, as in the UK it is considered an offensive way to refer to disabled people.

Spazz (band)

Spazz was an influential American powerviolence band active between 1992 and 2000. The trio released numerous records within this time, many of which are now highly collectible due to their relative rarity. The band's releases often showcased their unusual sense of humour: absurdly long and nonsensical song titles, audio samples from b-movies and kung-fu films between songs and the occasional use of hip hop beats as well as saxophones, banjos and other instruments rarely associated with hardcore punk. All three of the members shared vocal duties, usually changing in sequence from line to line.

After Spazz

Spazz vocalist and bassist Chris Dodge's record label, Slap a Ham Records, was a fixture during the rapid rise and decline of power violence in the late '80s and early '90s, releasing influential records by the likes of Neanderthal, No Comment, Crossed Out, Infest and Spazz, amongst others. The label's Fiesta Grande was an annual power violence festival held at 924 Gilman during its heyday, from 1992 to the band's demise in 2000. Since then, he has been involved in several musical projects, most notably East West Blast Test with highly regarded extreme music drummer Dave Witte, formerly of Discordance Axis, Melt Banana and many others. Spazz vocalist and drummer Max Ward's label, 625 Thrashcore, has started their own festival, 'Super Sabado Gigante', in a similar vein. Spazz vocalist and guitarist Dan Boleri makes hip hop music under the alias DJ Eons One.

Bracket

A bracket is a tall punctuation mark typically used in matched pairs within text, to set apart or interject other text. Used unqualified, brackets refer to different types of brackets in different parts of the world and in different contexts.

Brackets include round brackets/parentheses, square brackets, curly brackets, angle brackets, and various other pairs of symbols.

In addition to referring to the class of all types of brackets, the unqualified word bracket is most commonly used to refer to a specific type of bracket. In modern American usage this is usually the square bracket and in modern British usage this is usually the parenthesis.

History

Chevrons (< >) were the earliest type of bracket to appear in written English. Desiderius Erasmus coined the term lunula to refer to the rounded parentheses (), recalling the shape of the crescent moon.

Names for various bracket symbols

Some of the following names are regional or contextual.

Bracket (band)

Bracket is an American rock band from Forestville, California formed in 1992. The lineup consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Marty Gregori, bassist and backing vocalist Zack Charlos, drummer Ray Castro, and guitarist and backing vocalist Angelo Celli, who replaced Larry Tinney in 1998. Bracket has issued numerous albums, EPs and singles since its inception, including many releases for Caroline Records and Fat Wreck Chords. Their sound could most easily be described as power pop influenced punk rock with a continued focus on vocal harmonies.

Bracket emerged during the pop punk resurgence of the early 1990s and released its first two albums 924 Forestville St. (1994) and 4-Wheel Vibe (1995) on Caroline Records. Following a staff shake-up, the label dropped the group and cancelled the release of its third album Like You Know in 1996. Bracket's next two albums Novelty Forever (1997) and When All Else Fails (2000) were put out by Fat Wreck Chords, who had previously issued 7-inch vinyl for the band. Having completed multiple tours of the United States and trips to Canada, Europe and Japan throughout their career, Bracket released Live in a Dive (2002) which gathered some of the band's best-known material into one performance. After building their own studio, the group took several years to write, record and self-produce its sixth album Requiem (2006), released by Takeover Records. Bracket began work on a new album in 2011, detailing each stage of the recording process on its official Facebook page.Like You Know and the three volume rarities collection Rare Cuts were issued as digital downloads in 2013 to help fund the band's upcoming projects. Bracket's new album Hold Your Applause was released in August 2014, while progress has continued on an additional forthcoming album.

Bracket (mathematics)

In mathematics, various typographical forms of brackets are frequently used in mathematical notation such as parentheses ( ), square brackets [ ], braces { }, and angle brackets . In the typical use, a mathematical expression is enclosed between an "opening bracket" and a matching "closing bracket". Generally such bracketing denotes some form of grouping: in evaluating an expression containing a bracketed sub-expression, the operators in the sub-expression take precedence over those surrounding it. Additionally, there are several uses and meanings for the various brackets.

Historically, other notations, such as the vinculum, were similarly used for grouping; in present-day use, these notations all have specific meanings. The earliest use of brackets to indicate aggregation (i.e. grouping) was suggested in 1608 by Christopher Clavius and in 1629 by Albert Girard.

In the Z formal specification language, braces denote a set and angle brackets denote a sequence.

Symbols for representing angle brackets