Universe (book)

Universe: The Definitive Visual Guide is a 528-page, non-fiction book by nine British co-authors (listed alphabetically below) with a short Foreword by Sir Martin Rees, first published in 2005. The book is divided into three sections, beginning with an introduction to theories of the Universe, space exploration, Earth's view of space and how the Universe will end. The second section, "Guide to the Universe," contains information on the Sun and the Solar System, as well as the Milky Way and other types of galaxies. The last section, "The Night Sky," has full-page maps and charts of the night sky for both northern and southern viewers as well as a comprehensive list of the constellations. The book contains full-colour pictures, maps, and probe photographs. There are in-depth looks at features of planets in the Solar System, such as Venus's craters and Mars's ridges. There are also captions describing the scientists and stories behind various discoveries. The book was produced in London, England, by Dorling Kindersley and is published internationally. A revised and updated edition was published in September 2007, including recent developments such as the reclassification of Pluto as a dwarf planet. In October 2012, the book was revised for a third time adding newly discovered information about planets in other planetary systems and water on Mars.

Fictional universe

A fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with events, and often elements, that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm (or world). Fictional universes may appear in novels, comics, films, television shows, video games and other creative works.

A fictional universe can be almost indistinguishable from the real world, except for the presence of the invented characters and events that characterize a work of fiction; at the other extreme it can bear little or no resemblance to reality, with invented fundamental principles of space and time.

The subject is most commonly addressed in reference to fictional universes that differ markedly from reality, such as those that introduce entire fictional cities, countries, or even planets, or those that contradict commonly known facts about the world and its history, or those that feature fantasy or science fiction concepts such as magic or faster than light travel—and especially those in which the deliberate development of the setting is a substantial focus of the work.

Universe (economics)

In economics and marketing a universe is a population to be studied or measured.

In economics a population to be measured is described as a "universe", and the measures which are generated are intended to reflect the behavior of that population. Different statistical surveys may measure related, but different, universes and have to be adjusted to reflect this difference. For example, the American Bureau of Labor Statistics has a household survey and an establishment survey to measure employment. The differences in the populations and behavior that these two surveys measure are said to be the differences in their "universe".

The word has a similar meaning in marketing, where it describes the activity in a given population. For example, ASCAP measures airplay in different radio "universes" to determine royalties for different songs, because e.g. air play in the "classical" universe is compensated differently from popular music. It also fundamental to television audience measurement: advertisers buy into programmes based on the ratings in different demographic universes and those different universes will cost different amounts. For example, a hair dye ad campaign may buy 1000 Gross Rating Points (GRP) in the Women 25-44 universe in order to target that particular audience, rather than a demographic irrelevant to their product.

Universe (mathematics)

In mathematics, and particularly in set theory and the foundations of mathematics, a universe is a class that contains (as elements) all the entities one wishes to consider in a given situation. There are several versions of this general idea, described in the following sections.

In a specific context

Perhaps the simplest version is that any set can be a universe, so long as the object of study is confined to that particular set. If the object of study is formed by the real numbers, then the real line R, which is the real number set, could be the universe under consideration. Implicitly, this is the universe that Georg Cantor was using when he first developed modern naive set theory and cardinality in the 1870s and 1880s in applications to real analysis. The only sets that Cantor was originally interested in were subsets of R.

This concept of a universe is reflected in the use of Venn diagrams. In a Venn diagram, the action traditionally takes place inside a large rectangle that represents the universe U. One generally says that sets are represented by circles; but these sets can only be subsets of U. The complement of a set A is then given by that portion of the rectangle outside of A's circle. Strictly speaking, this is the relative complement U \ A of A relative to U; but in a context where U is the universe, it can be regarded as the absolute complement A^C of A. Similarly, there is a notion of the nullary intersection, that is the intersection of zero sets (meaning no sets, not null sets). Without a universe, the nullary intersection would be the set of absolutely everything, which is generally regarded as impossible; but with the universe in mind, the nullary intersection can be treated as the set of everything under consideration, which is simply U.

Book

A book is a set of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of ink, paper, parchment, or other materials, fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is a leaf, and each side of a leaf is a page. A set of text-filled or illustrated pages produced in electronic format is known as an electronic book, or e-book.

Books may also refer to works of literature, or a main division of such a work. In library and information science, a book is called a monograph, to distinguish it from serial periodicals such as magazines, journals or newspapers. The body of all written works including books is literature. In novels and sometimes other types of books (for example, biographies), a book may be divided into several large sections, also called books (Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, and so on). An avid reader of books is a bibliophile or colloquially, bookworm.

A shop where books are bought and sold is a bookshop or bookstore. Books can also be borrowed from libraries. Google has estimated that as of 2010, approximately 130,000,000 unique titles had been published. In some wealthier nations, printed books are giving way to the usage of electronic or e-books, though sales of e-books declined in the first half of 2015.

Bibliomancy

Bibliomancy is the use of books in divination. The method of employing sacred books (especially specific words and verses) for 'magical medicine', for removing negative entities, or for divination is widespread in many religions of the world.

Terminology

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word bibliomancy (etymologically from βιβλίον biblio- "books" and μαντεία -mancy "divination by means of") "divination by books, or by verses of the Bible" was first recorded in 1753 (Chambers' Cyclopædia). Sometimes this term is used synonymously with stichomancy (from στίχος sticho- "row, line, verse") "divination by lines of verse in books taken at hazard", which was first recorded ca. 1693 (Urquhart's Rabelais).

Bibliomancy compares with rhapsodomancy (from rhapsode "poem, song, ode") "divination by reading a random passage from a poem". A historical precedent was the ancient Roman practice of sortes ("sortilege, divination by drawing lots") which specialized into sortes Homericae, sortes Virgilianae, and sortes Sanctorum, using the texts of Homer, Virgil, and the Bible.

Shepherd Book

Derrial Book (commonly called Shepherd Book and born as Henry Evans) is a fictional character played by Ron Glass in the science-fiction/Western television series Firefly and its sequel movie, Serenity. He is a Shepherd (the literal English translation of the clerical title "Pastor", from the Latin), and provides frequent spiritual advice and perspectives for the crew of Serenity.

Production details

During production of the film Serenity, Book's first name was Meria, and it appears as such in the documentary "Re-Lighting the Firefly". However, by the time the film was completed, Joss Whedon changed his first name to Derrial, which is the way it appears in all printed official works based on Firefly.

Casting

Glass, a veteran actor well known for his role as Detective Ron Harris in the television sitcom Barney Miller, had never tackled the science-fiction genre and was hesitant about this role when his agent approached him. However, once he read the script he "...fell in love with it." As Glass notes: