Espionage

Espionage or, casually, spying involves a spy ring, government and company/firm or individual obtaining information considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, as it is by definition unwelcome and in many cases illegal and punishable by law. Espionage is a subset of "intelligence" gathering, which includes espionage as well as information gathering from public sources.

Espionage is often part of an institutional effort by a government or commercial concern. However, the term is generally associated with state spying on potential or actual enemies primarily for military purposes. Spying involving corporations is known as industrial espionage.

One of the most effective ways to gather data and information about the enemy (or potential enemy) is by infiltrating the enemy's ranks. This is the job of the spy (espionage agent). Spies can bring back all sorts of information concerning the size and strength of enemy forces. They can also find dissidents within the enemy's forces and influence them to defect. In times of crisis, spies can also be used to steal technology and to sabotage the enemy in various ways. Counterintelligence operatives can feed false information to enemy spies, protecting important domestic secrets, and preventing attempts at subversion. Nearly every country has very strict laws concerning espionage, and the penalty for being caught is often severe. However, the benefits that can be gained through espionage are generally great enough that most governments and many large corporations make use of it to varying degrees.

Spy (Carly Simon album)

Spy is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's ninth album, and eighth studio album, released in 1979. It is also her last album for Elektra Records. The title of the album is a tribute to Anaïs Nin, whose quote “I am an international spy in the house of love”, is written across the top on the inside jacket. Simon dedicated the album to producer Arif Mardin, in which she wrote in the liner notes, "Dedicated to Arif who is himself fantastic."

Although Spy did not yield any major hit singles, "Vengeance" earned Simon a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female in early 1980, the first year to feature this new category. It peaked at #48 on the Billboard Pop singles chart. Simon made a music video for the song, and MTV later used a clip from it in a commercial that tried to entice viewers to get stereo sound on their TV sets. The promotional clip was also chosen by Pioneer Electronics to be part of their first demo disc for its then-new Laserdisc player.

The album also features a track entitled "Never Been Gone", which has gone on to become a fan favorite, as well as one of Simon's personal favorites. In 2009, she would release an album entitled after the track.

Spy (Super Junior song)

"Spy" is a digital single by South Korean boy band Super Junior. It is the second promotional single for the group's sixth studio album Sexy, Free & Single and title track of the repackaged edition, titled Spy. It was digitally released on August 5, 2012, along with three other new tracks in the repackaged album, which was released offline on August 6.

Background

"Spy" is a fast urban dance song that is reminiscent of a spy film. It samples a selection from the 1995 TV series "Get Smart". On 3 August, the teaser for the "Spy" music video was released on their official YouTube channel,and the music video was released on August 12. The group made their "Spy" stage debut on 9 August on Mnet's M! Countdown.

Track listing

Chart

References

External links

Mute (music)

A mute is a device fitted to a musical instrument to alter the sound produced: by affecting the timbre, reducing the volume, or most commonly both.

Musical directions for muting

The use of a mute is usually indicated in musical notation by the direction con sordino (often abbreviated con sord, sord, sordino). (Sordina, with plural sordine, is the strictly correct Italian term for mute as used on string instruments; but the forms con sordino, senza sordino, sordino via, etc., are much more commonly used as terms in music than the forms con sordina, senza sordine, etc.) The mute should be removed with the senza sordino (or senza sord, senza sordina, etc.) direction.

When written in English the directions, "mute" and "open" (for brass instruments) or "unmute" (for stringed instruments) are used.

The equivalent German terms for "with mute" ("mute on") are mit Dämpfer (Dämpfer auf), and for "without mute" ("mute off") are ohne Dämpfer (Dämpfer ab/weg). The word Dämpfer is cognate to English "damper".

Mute (short story)

"Mute" is a short story by author Stephen King, first appearing in Playboy Magazine in 2007 and in 2008 included in his collection Just After Sunset. In 2013, it was adapted into a short film by British director Jacqueline Wright, starring Patrick Ryecart.

Plot summary

Monette, a middle-aged traveling book salesman (his first name is never given), goes to confession. When the priest asks him what sin he has committed, Monette admits that while he believes he has sinned in some way, he is not entirely sure exactly what he is guilty of. He then explains the events of the preceding days.

While on the road, Monette picked up a hitchhiker, carrying a sign proclaiming him to be both deaf and mute. Once in the car, the hitchhiker seemingly falls asleep. Since Monette believes that the man cannot hear him, he decides to vent his problems to him.

Some time before the story, Monette discovered that his wife had been carrying on an affair for two years with a teacher in the school district she worked for. Despite their ages (he was 60, she was 54), their activities included binge drinking, fetishism, and compulsive gambling. She was employed by the district in an administrative role, and had access to large amounts of money, which she soon started to embezzle from her employer in order to buy various erotic underwear and sex toys. As her debt grew, she and her lover hoped to pay the money back by winning the lottery, only to embezzle more than a hundred thousand dollars without earning any to replace it. She revealed this all to Monette and to his disbelief tried to blame him for it, claiming his lack of interest drove her to it.

Funeral

A funeral is a ceremony for honoring, respecting, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor. Customs vary widely both between cultures and between religious groups and denominations within cultures. Common secular motivations for funerals include mourning the deceased, celebrating their life, and offering support and sympathy to the bereaved. Additionally, funerals often have religious aspects which are intended to help the soul of the deceased reach the afterlife, resurrection or reincarnation.

The funeral generally includes a ritual through which the corpse of the deceased is given up. Depending on culture and religion, these can involve either the destruction of the body (for example, by cremation or sky burial) or its preservation (for example, by mummification or interment). Differing beliefs about cleanliness and the relationship between body and soul mean that a funerary practice that is deeply sacred to one culture may be absolutely taboo in another. When a funerary ceremony is performed but the body of the deceased is not available, it is usually called a memorial service.