Serial Experiments Lain

Serial Experiments Lain (シリアルエクスペリメンツレイン, Shiriaru Ekusuperimentsu Rein) is an avant-garde anime series directed by Ryutaro Nakamura, with character design by Yoshitoshi ABe, screenplay written by Chiaki J. Konaka, and produced by Yasuyuki Ueda for Triangle Staff. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo from July to September 1998. The series is influenced by themes such as reality, identity, and communication, and it demonstrates them by using philosophy, computer history, cyberpunk literature, and conspiracy theory.

Plot

The series focuses on Lain Iwakura, an adolescent girl living in suburban Japan, and her introduction to the Wired, a global communications network similar to the Internet. Lain lives with her middle-class family, which consists of her inexpressive older sister Mika, her emotionally distant mother, and her computer-obsessed father. Lain herself is somewhat awkward, introverted, and socially isolated from most of her school peers, but the status-quo of her life becomes upturned by a series of bizarre incidents which start to take place after she learns that girls from her school have received an e-mail from Chisa Yomoda, a schoolmate who had committed suicide. When Lain receives the message herself at home, Chisa tells her that she is not dead, but has merely "abandoned her physical body and flesh", and is alive deep within the virtual reality-world of the Wired itself where she has found the almighty and divine God. From this point, Lain is caught up in a series of cryptic and surreal events that see her delving deeper into the mystery of the network in a narrative that explores themes of consciousness, perception, and the nature of reality.

Weird (travel guides)

Weird is a series of travel guides written by various authors and published by Sterling Publishing of New York City. Started by Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman with a magazine called Weird N.J., together or separately, they often write, collaborate, edit and/or write the forward of the other guides. As of July 2011, all but seventeen states (Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming) have been covered within individual books.

The franchise now includes calendars and spin-off books.

Titles in Series

General U.S.

Hilary Duff (album)

Hilary Duff is the self-titled third studio album by American recording artist Hilary Duff. It was released on September 15, 2004, by Hollywood Records. Duff cited the album as being more mature than her previous albums, stating "Basically, I'm not Lizzie McGuire anymore". The seventeen-track album saw Duff collaborating with the same producers she did on Metamorphosis, saying that it was more comfortable for her that way. Recording sessions for the album took place during May to August 2004, partially between filming of Raise Your Voice (2004) and The Perfect Man (2005), both in which Duff had starring roles.

It received generally negative reviews from music critics, many of whom compared the album to the music of Avril Lavigne and Ashlee Simpson. The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 192,000 copies in its first week. To date, Hilary Duff has sold 1,800,000 copies in the US. It became her second consecutive number one debut in Canada and produced two singles that were not major hits. It was eventually certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Hilary Duff was number sixty-five on Billboard magazine's year-end top albums chart in November 2005.

Taraxacum

Taraxacum (/təˈræksəkᵿm/) is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae and consists of species commonly known as dandelion. They are native to Eurasia and North America, and two species, T. officinale and T. erythrospermum, are found as commonplace wild flowers worldwide. Both species are edible in their entirety. The common name dandelion (/ˈdændᵻlaɪ.ən/ DAN-di-ly-ən, from French dent-de-lion, meaning "lion's tooth") is given to members of the genus. Like other members of the Asteraceae family, they have very small flowers collected together into a composite flower head. Each single flower in a head is called a floret. Many Taraxacum species produce seeds asexually by apomixis, where the seeds are produced without pollination, resulting in offspring that are genetically identical to the parent plant.

Description

The species of Taraxacum are tap-rooted, perennial, herbaceous plants, native to temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere. The genus contains many species which usually (or in the case of triploids, obligately) reproduce by apomixis, resulting in many local populations and endemism. In the British Isles alone, 234 microspecies are recognised in 9 loosely defined sections, of which 40 are "probably endemic".

Out of Exile

Out of Exile is the second studio album by the American rock supergroup Audioslave, first released on May 23, 2005 internationally, and a day later in the United States. It is the band's only number one album on the Billboard 200. Four singles were released: "Be Yourself", "Your Time Has Come", "Doesn't Remind Me", and "Out of Exile". "Doesn't Remind Me" was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 2006 Grammy Awards.

Background

Drummer Brad Wilk explained: "Audioslave the band has arrived. The first record was people from two other bands with history attached. I don't feel that with this record."Chris Cornell admitted to writing his most personal songs ever on this album, influenced by the positive changes in his life since 2002. He also described the album as more varied than the debut and relying less on heavy guitar riffs.

On May 6, 2005, Audioslave played a free show in Havana, Cuba. Audioslave became the first American rock group to perform a concert in Cuba, playing in front of an audience of 70,000. The band traveled to Havana on May 4 to interact with Cuban musicians. Cornell commented: "Hopefully, this concert will help to open the musical borders between our two countries." The 26-song set concert was the longest the band had ever played. Many songs from Out of Exile were performed at the concert, held three weeks prior to the release date, making these the first live performances of the tracks from this album. The concert was documented on the Live in Cuba DVD released in October of the same year.

Dandelion (song)

“Dandelion” is a song by the English rock 'n roll band The Rolling Stones, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and first released as a B-side to “We Love You” in August 1967. An apparently lighthearted song (with references to the English children's game of using the seedheads of dandelions as clocks) albeit with an undertone of wistfulness, it reached #14 in the United States, and effectively became the A-side there (as the edgier “We Love You” disappointed at #50 on US charts). This is reflected in “Dandelion” appearing on both the US and United Kingdom versions of Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) in 1969, while “We Love You” appeared only on the UK version.

The first demo version of “Dandelion” was recorded in November 1966; it was originally titled “Sometimes Happy, Sometimes Blue”, had different lyrics, and was sung and played by Keith Richards. On the released version, Mick Jagger sang lead vocals.

The Rolling Stones have never performed “Dandelion” live; nonetheless it has been included on several compilations, including Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2), More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies), Singles Collection: The London Years, and Rolled Gold+: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones.