Spore (agricultural publication)

Spore is a magazine published by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) in English and French. It covers a wide range of agricultural topics and is extensively distributed and widely reproduced throughout African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and elsewhere. Originally known as the Bulletin of CTA it now styles itself as "the magazine for agricultural and rural development in ACP countries".

Origin

Spore was first published at the beginning 1986, two years after the establishment of CTA. The first issue noted that "rather than promoting the agency putting it out, ..........Spore aims to ensure the widest possible dissemination of information of relevance to the agricultural world, in order to fertilize ideas and allow them to germinate. It is in this down-to-earth way that Spore hopes to participate in the process of rural development." The first issue included articles on locusts, fertilizer response, bananas, aquaculture, rice husks for fuel, and sorghum. Initially published in English and French, a Portuguese version (Esporo) was added in 1993,although rising costs meant that this was discontinued in 2016.

Spore (1991 video game)

Spore was an MS-DOS video game developed by Mike T. Snyder and published by Flogsoli Productions that fused Breakout with a text adventure, and included spreadsheet puzzles.

Story

The game took place in the future about a group of intergalactic settlers who colonized a world they named Spore. The settlers and all life on Spore were mysteriously wiped out, and Earth received an S.O.S. from the planet twelve days after the disaster. The player is a lone explorer who sets out to uncover the mystery of the vanishing creatures.

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External links

Spore (2008 video game)

Spore is a 2008 multi-genre single-player god game developed by Maxis and designed by Will Wright, released for Windows and Mac OS X. Covering many genres including action, real-time strategy, and role-playing games (RPG), Spore allows a player to control the development of a species from its beginnings as a microscopic organism, through development as an intelligent and social creature, to interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture. It has drawn wide attention for its massive scope, and its use of open-ended gameplay and procedural generation. Throughout each stage, players are able to use various creators to produce content for their games. These are then automatically uploaded to the online Sporepedia and are accessible by other players for download.

Spore was released after several delays to generally favorable reviews. Praise was given for the fact that the game allowed players to create customized creatures, vehicles and buildings. However, Spore was criticized for its gameplay which was seen as shallow by many reviewers; GameSpot remarked: "Individual gameplay elements are extremely simple". Controversy surrounded Spore for SecuROM, its DRM software, which can potentially open the user's computer to security risks.

Splinter

A splinter (known as sliver in Canada) is a fragment of a larger object (especially wood), or a foreign body that penetrates or is purposely injected into a body. The foreign body must be lodged inside tissue to be considered a splinter. Splinters may cause initial pain through ripping of flesh and muscle, infection through bacteria on the foreign object, and severe internal damage through migration to vital organs or bone over time.

Splinters commonly consist of wood, but there are many other types. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), common types of splinters are glass, plastic, metal, and spines of animals.

Contracting a splinter

Generally, a splinter causes an initial feeling of pain as the sharp object makes its initial penetration through the body. Through this penetration, the object cuts through the cutaneous layer of the skin, and settles in the subcutaneous layer of the skin, and can even penetrate further down, breaking the sub-cutaneous layer, settling in muscle tissue, or even the bone. Some splinters will remain in place, but most will continue to migrate through the body, further damaging their surroundings.

Schism

A schism (pronounced /ˈsɪzəm/ SIZ-əm, /ˈskɪzəm/ SKIZ-əm or, less commonly, /ˈʃɪzəm/ SHIZ-əm) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, such as the East–West Schism or the Great Western Schism. It is also used of a split within a non-religious organization or movement or, more broadly, of a separation between two or more people, be it brothers, friends, lovers, etc.

A schismatic is a person who creates or incites schism in an organization or who is a member of a splinter group. Schismatic as an adjective means pertaining to a schism or schisms, or to those ideas, policies, etc. that are thought to lead towards or promote schism.

In religion, the charge of schism is distinguished from that of heresy, since the offence of schism concerns not differences of belief or doctrine but promotion of, or the state of, division. However, schisms frequently involve mutual accusations of heresy. In Roman Catholic teaching, every heresy is a schism, while there may be some schisms free of the added guilt of heresy.Liberal Protestantism, however, has often preferred heresy over schism. Presbyterian scholar James I. McCord (quoted with approval by the Episcopalian bishop of Virginia Peter Lee) drew a distinction between them, teaching: "If you must make a choice between heresy and schism, always choose heresy. As a schismatic, you have torn and divided the body of Christ. Choose heresy every time."

Splinter (The Offspring album)

Splinter is the seventh studio album by American punk rock band The Offspring, released on December 9, 2003. It was the first album the band released without drummer Ron Welty and also the first to have a Parental Advisory label on some album covers, even though all of their previous albums contain profanity.

Although not as successful as The Offspring's albums between Smash and Conspiracy of One, Splinter received gold certification two months after its release. The album received average reviews, but still sold reasonably well. It debuted at 30 on the U.S. Billboard 200 with around 87,000 copies sold in its first week. "Hit That" and "(Can't Get My) Head Around You" were the only two singles to accompany this album. "Spare Me the Details" was also released as a single, but charted only in New Zealand.

Production and marketing

After spending nearly two years supporting the Conspiracy of One album, The Offspring began writing songs for Splinter in late 2002. Recording sessions for the album lasted from January to August 2003, making it the first time The Offspring had recorded an album for that long (although their next album, 2008's Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace, took more than a year to record).