Think Tank (Blur album)

Think Tank is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Blur, released in May 2003. Jettisoning the Britpop sound of Blur's early career as well as the lo-fi indie rock of Blur (1997), Think Tank continued the jam-based studio constructions of the group's previous album, 13 (1999). The album expanded on the use of sampled rhythm loops and brooding, heavy electronic sounds. There are also heavy influences from dance music, hip hop, dub, jazz, and African music, an indication of lead singer-songwriter, Damon Albarn's expanding musical interests.

Recording sessions started in November 2001, taking place in London, Morocco and Devon, and finished a year later. The album's primary producer was Ben Hillier with additional production by Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim), and William Orbit. At the start of the sessions, guitarist Graham Coxon had been in rehab for alcoholism. After he rejoined, relationships between him and the other members became strained. After initial recording sessions, Coxon left, leaving little of his presence on the finished album. Think Tank is a loose concept album, which Albarn has stated is about "love and politics". Albarn, a pacifist, had spoken out against the invasion of Afghanistan and, after Western nations threatened to invade Iraq, took part in the widespread protests against the war. Anti-war themes are recurrent in the album as well as in associated artwork and promotional videos.

Think tank (disambiguation)

A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy.

Think Tank or Thinktank may also refer to:

Organisations

Film and television

Comics

Music

Other uses

World of Ghost in the Shell

The manga and anime series Ghost in the Shell takes place in a cyberpunk version of Earth in the near future. The series focuses on Japan, but several other nations figure prominently in some stories. The world of Ghost in the Shell features significant advances in technology, the most significant of which is the cyberbrain, a mechanical casing for the human brain that allows mental interface with the Internet and other networks.

Technology

Cyberbrains

A cyberbrain (電脳, dennō) is a device in the fictional universe of Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow (and also in Shirow's later work Real Drive) that acts as a self-contained module containing, protecting, and interfacing an artificially augmented brain. The "brain" includes the brain stem but excludes the eyes, optic nerves, and most of the spine. By being physically self-contained, the cyberbrain allows the artificially augmented brain inside to function or be physically stored inside a body, to be physically transferred between bodies, or to be temporarily stored or transported outside any body. Cyberbrain implants, in conjunction with micromachines, allow the brain to initiate and maintain a connection to computer networks or other individuals who also possess a cyberbrain. This capability results in a number of unforeseen psychosocial phenomena whose emergence is a major plot element of the various Ghost in the Shell stories.

Freedom Force (comics)

Freedom Force is the name of two teams within Marvel Comics' universe.

Publication history

The original was a supervillain team, though they occasionally acted in a heroic capacity as well. It was a government-sponsored team originally composed mainly of Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. They mostly interacted with the X-Men, X-Factor and New Mutants, but also repeatedly met the Avengers.

The second team was set up as Montana's Fifty State Initiative superteam.

Fictional team biography

Mystique's Freedom Force

When mutant and human relationships worsen, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants's leader Mystique decides that it has become too dangerous for them to continue their current path. She offers the services of the Brotherhood to Valerie Cooper, a United States National Security Advisor, in exchange for full pardons. Cooper sees a great opportunity in Mystique's offer, but wants the team to prove their loyalty first by arresting the original Brotherhood's founder Magneto. The team accepts, is renamed Freedom Force, and the sorceress Spiral is added to the team. They attack Magneto at a remembrance ceremony for the Holocaust. Though they meet a decisive defeat at the hands of Magneto's new allies, the X-Men, Magneto decides to surrender himself to Freedom Force.