Things (application)

Things is an award-winning task management app for OS X, iOS, and watchOS made by Cultured Code, a software startup based in Stuttgart, Germany. It was the first modern task manager available for Mac when it released to 12,000 people as an alpha in late 2007, and quickly gained popularity. The following summer, when the App Store launched, it was among the first 500 apps available for iPhone. It was then released alongside the iPad in April 2010, and became one of the first apps available for Apple Watch in March 2015.

In December 2013, Cultured Code announced that they had sold one million copies of the software to date, and in December 2014 the company announced that downloads had increased by an additional three million.

Awards

Things has won multiple awards over the years. It first won the MacLife Editors' Choice Award in 2008, and then in 2009 it went on to win the Apple Design Award, the Macworld Editors’ Choice Award, and the Macworld Best of Show Award. In 2012, after the release of Things 2, Apple selected it as Editors’ Choice, named it among the App Store Best of 2012, and inducted it into the App Store Hall of Fame.

Things (Bobby Darin song)

"Things" is a song which was written and recorded by Bobby Darin in 1962. It reached #3 in the US, #2 in the UK, and #3 in the first ever official Irish Singles Chart, published by RTÉ in October 1962. However, there had been an Irish Top 10 before 1962, published in the Evening Herald from February 1959. As a result, "Things" actually peaked at #2 in the "unofficial" Evening Herald Chart.

In 1962, Darin began to write and sing country music, with hit songs including "Things". It was the final Darin single released on the Atco Records unit of Atlantic Records before he began recording for Capitol Records. While vault material would continue to be issued on Atco, Darin would later return to Atlantic Records. The song was sung by Dean Martin and Nancy Sinatra in the 1967 TV special Movin' with Nancy, starring Nancy Sinatra, which was released to home video in 2000.

A cover of the song by Anne Murray from her 1976 album Keeping in Touch peaked at #12 on the adult contemporary chart.

Things (film)

Things (stylized as THINGS) is a 1989 Canadian, low budget, independent, horror exploitation straight-to-video film, written and produced by Andrew Jordan and Barry J. Gillis. Marking the mainstream film debut of porn star Amber Lynn, this Z movie has a cult following of fans who call themselves "Things-ites". Some critics have argued that it might be the worst film of all time.

Plot

A husband with a fanatical desire but inability to father children is driven to force his wife to undergo a dangerous experiment. This results in hatching a non-human life form in his wife's womb, and the birth of a multitude of "things."

Cast

Production

With a budget between $35,000 and $40,000, the film was shot on both super 8 and 16mm film. Andrew Jordan figured the movie would not get any publicity if the true budget were announced, so he convinced Barry J. Gillis to go along with the lie that the movie was shot for $350,000. It wasn't until recent years that Gillis and Jordan began revealing the true budget.

Operation Sigma Sigma

The Sigma is an experimental glider developed in Britain from 1966 by a team led by Nicholas Goodhart. After disappointing performance during flight testing the Sigma was passed on to a Canadian group which carried out modifications, making the Sigma more competitive.

Design and development

Designed to compete in the 1970 World Championships, the team aimed to develop a wing that would climb well through a high lift coefficient and a large wing area, but equally had the "maximum possible reduction of area for cruise at low lift coefficients". At the same time for the minimum possible drag they aimed for "extensive" laminar flow. To achieve this they employed flaps that would alter both wing area and wing camber. Based on analysis of the nature of thermals encountered in cross-country flying, they reasoned that by having a slow turning circle, their sailplane could stay close to the central (and strongest) part of the thermal and gain maximum benefit.

Its unusual feature is its ability to vary its wing area using Fowler flaps. It had been tried before by the Hannover Akaflieg in 1938 with their AFH-4, the South African Beatty-Johl BJ-2 Assegai and the SZD Zefir gliders.

Sigma (cosmology)

Sigma in cosmology was a property of galaxies used when trying to work out the mystery of galaxies and their supermassive black holes.

History

In the late 1990s the NUKER experts had made observations with a spectroscope of two galaxies, one of an active galaxy with an active galactic nucleus called NGC10-68 and a dormant galaxy next door to us named Andromeda.

The observations are shown. The light from the centre in Andromeda galaxy was distorted proving the existence of super-massive black holes.

Other observations proved most galaxies had a similar centre whether it be active or dormant.

They then realised that the black holes must have something to do with a galaxy's formation, so they turned to something they thought was useless: the speed of the stars around the edge of the galaxy. This was Sigma, the speed of the stars at the edge of the galaxy supposedly unaffected by the mass of the black hole at the centre.

Usage In Cosmology

The NUKER team calculated the sigma of several stars in different galaxies and the mass of the black hole at the (nucleus) centre. They expected no correlation what so ever. But when plotting their results on a Scatter diagram and drawing a line of best fit they ended up with a positive correlation. It appeared that the heavier the black hole at the centre was the faster the stars within the galaxy travelled.

Sigma (duo)

Sigma is an English drum and bass duo consisting of Cameron Edwards and Joe Lenzie. They met at Leeds University at drum and bass nights. Their 2010 collaboration with DJ Fresh, "Lassitude", peaked at number 98 on the UK Singles Chart. Their single "Nobody to Love" topped the UK Singles Chart, becoming their first UK number one. Follow-up single "Changing", featuring Paloma Faith, also got to number one.

Career

Formation

Lenzie and Edwards met in 2006 at Leeds University; Cameron was working in local record store Tribe Records and with Echo Location's Obi running local night Event Horizon, while Lenzie was DJing hip-hop and warming up Event Horizon for such acts as Rahzel and Grandmaster Flash. Once they had finished in Leeds, they relocated to London and became a three-piece with Edwards' school friend Ben Mauerhoff, being signed under DJ Fresh's Breakbeat Kaos. After a while, long distances took their toll – Edwards and Mauerhoff were based in Surrey, whereas Lenzie was based in Harpenden, Hertfordshire and they couldn't get three people into the Harpenden studio – and Mauerhoff left. In December 2008 they formed their own record label, Life Recordings (so called because, according to Lenzie, the industry demanded that it be their life). Its inaugural release was a VIP mix of their early Bingo Beats single "El Presidente".