Zombie

A zombie (Haitian French: zombi, Haitian Creole: zonbi) is a fictional undead being created through the reanimation of a human corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, where a zombie is a dead body reanimated through various methods, most commonly magic. Modern depictions of zombies do not necessarily involve magic but often invoke science fictional methods such as radiation or viruses.

The English word "zombie" is first recorded in 1819, in a history of Brazil by the poet Robert Southey, in the form of "zombi". The Oxford English Dictionary gives the origin of the word as West African, and compares it to the Kongo words nzambi (god) and zumbi (fetish).

One of the first books to expose Western culture to the concept of the voodoo zombie was The Magic Island by W.B. Seabrook in 1929. This is the sensationalized account of a narrator who encounters voodoo cults in Haiti and their resurrected thralls. Time claimed that the book "introduced 'zombi' into U.S. speech".

Zombi (film series)

The Zombi series refers collectively to various European horror films that have been falsely marketed as sequels to either George A. Romero's Italian-American film Dawn of the Dead (1978) or Lucio Fulci's Italian film Zombi 2 (1979); the latter was itself falsely marketed as a sequel to the former. A confusing history has emerged from the practise of retitling films for release in different countries, in which a given film may have a different title in each country in which it is released. In Britain, these films were released as the Zombie Flesh Eaters series. In North America, these same films became known as the Zombie series.

For the European release of Romero's Dawn of the Dead, the film was re-edited by Dario Argento and re-scored by Goblin, and retitled Zombi. Following its success, a zombie film by Lucio Fulci that was already in production was retitled Zombi 2 to appear as an ersatz sequel. A series of increasingly tenuous efforts by various producers to capitalize on the Zombi name ensued.

Perfectionist (album)

Perfectionist is the debut studio album by English singer Natalia Kills. It was released on 1 April 2011 through will.i.am Music Group, Cherrytree Records, KonLive and Interscope. Despite having started an acting career, Kills ventured into rap and released a single in 2005; however, her label went bankrupt. Kills continued working as a songwriter until 2008, when she was signed by will.i.am and started recording for the album.

Kills worked with musicians including Fernando Garibay, Jeff Bhasker, and Martin Kierszenbaum, and created a concept album based on perfectionism. Its lyrical content contains references to love, sex, and money while its sound is mostly styled in synthpop and dance-pop. Perfectionist received generally mixed reviews from music critics, who criticised its music and preferred Kills' visual projects. The album performed moderately on international record charts, obtaining top 50 positions in some European countries. In the United States, it reached number 129, and has sold 14,000 copies there as of September 2013; in the United Kingdom, it peaked at number 134.

Devolution

Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. It is a form of decentralization. Devolved territories have the power to make legislation relevant to the area.

Devolution differs from federalism in that the devolved powers of the subnational authority may be temporary and ultimately reside in central government, thus the state remains, de jure unitary. Legislation creating devolved parliaments or assemblies can be repealed or amended by central government in the same way as any statute.

Federal systems, or federations, differ in that state or provincial government is guaranteed in the constitution. Australia, Canada, India, the United States have federal systems, and have constitutions (as do some of their constituent states or provinces). They also have territories, with less power and authority than a state or province. Other examples of federations include Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Russia and Switzerland.

Devolution (disambiguation)

Devolution is the transfer of powers from a central government to a regional or a constituent national government.

Devolution, Devolve, or Devolved may refer to:

Devolution (band)

Devolution is a US based industrial metal band established by Mike Garrett, later recording under the pseudonym of Mykill Mayhem. The first release from Devolution, entitled "Cerebrequiem", was in the genre of death metal and was released in 1996, featuring session musicians assembled from Mykill's previous band, Astaroth. Singer Larry Sapp (also a member of national recording artist Brutality) performed vocals, and Tony Laureano (also a member of Malevolent Creation, Dimmu Borgir, and Angelcorpse, and several other national recording artists in the death metal genre) lent his talents in recording the drums for the CD. Another death metal album was written, but technical difficulties and Laureano's touring schedule with Nile prevented this album from being released.

The next release was written and recorded in 1999, entitled, Self-Made Monster. This release was in the vein of the industrial metal genre, and was more well-received than the previous release. "Death's Shadow" was the first single to be promoted, and charted at number 1 on mp3.com for two months for the industrial genre from January 2000 to March 2000, with the second single, "Crack Rocks In The Engine Block" charting at number 2 in industrial charts, and the third single, "Flesh", charting in the top 10 in industrial charts on mp3.com, simultaneously.