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BEATBOXING

Beatboxing (also beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (typically a TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice. It may also involve vocal imitation of turntablism, and other musical instruments. Beatboxing today is connected with hip-hop culture, often referred to as " the fifth element" of hip-hop, although it is not limited to hip-hop music. The term " beatboxing" is sometimes used to refer to vocal percussion in general.

BEATBOXING HISTORY

Techniques similar to beatboxing have been employed in diverse American musical genres since the 19th century, such as early rural music, both black and white, religious songs, blues, ragtime, vaudeville, and hokum. Examples include the Appalachian technique of eefing and the blues song Bye bye bird by Sonny Boy Williamson II.

Additional influences may perhaps include forms of African traditional music, in which performers utilize their bodies (e. g., by clapping or stomping) as percussion instruments and produce sounds with their mouths by breathing loudly in and out, a technique used in beatboxing today.

Vocal percussion [is], " the imitation or approximation of percussion instruments, " and beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion but can be described as, " music with your mouth... beatboxing is making and being the music, not just rhythm. " ... Beatboxing is both the rhythm — predominantly through the bass and snare drums as well as hi-hat — while also incorporating various sound effects such as DJ scratching, synthesizers, and bass lines. Using the mouth, lips, tongue, and voice to make music is thus the beatboxer's equivalent to a pianist's fingers and arms.

Many well-known performers used vocal percussion occasionally, even though this was not directly connected to the cultural tradition that came to be known as beatboxing. Paul McCartney's " That Would Be Something" (1969) includes vocal percussion. Pink Floyd's " Pow R. Toc H. " (1967) also includes vocal percussion performed by the group's original lead vocalist, Syd Barrett. Jazz singers Bobby McFerrin and Al Jarreau were very well known for their vocal styles and techniques, which have had great impact on techniques beatboxers use today. Michael Jackson was known to record himself beatboxing on a dictation tape recorder as a demo and scratch recording to compose several of his songs, including " Billie Jean", " The Girl Is Mine", and others. [8] In contrast, the 1960s/70's band Jethro Tull adopted beat boxing on at least one track on their 2003 Christmas album. Gert Frö be, a German actor most widely known for playing Auric Goldfinger in the James Bond film Goldfinger, " beatboxes" as Colonel Manfred von Holstein (simultaneously vocalizing horned and percussive instruments) in Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, a 1965 British comedy film.

MODERN BEATBOXING

The Internet has played a large part in the popularity of modern beatboxing. Alex Tew (aka A-Plus) started the first online community of beatboxers in 2000 under the banner of HUMANBEATBOX. COM. An early example of modern beatboxing was seen in the 2001 South Korean romantic comedy film My Sassy Girl. In 2001, Gavin Tyte, a member of this community created the world's first tutorials and video tutorials on beatboxing. In 2003, the community held the world's first Human Beatbox Convention in London featuring beatbox artists from all over the world.

Beatboxing's current popularity is due in part to releases from artists such as Rahzel, RoxorLoops, Reeps One and Alem. In the Pacific, American beatboxer of Hawaii Chinese descent Jason Tom co-founded the Human Beatbox Academy to perpetuate the art of beatboxing through outreach performances, speaking engagements and workshops in Honolulu, the westernmost and southernmost major U. S. city of the 50th U. S. state of Hawaii.

Sometimes, modern beatboxers will use their hand or another part of their body to extend the spectrum of sound effects and rhythm. Some have developed a technique that involves blowing and sucking air around their fingers to produce a very realistic record scratching noise, which is commonly known as the " crab scratch. " Another hand technique includes the " throat tap, " which involves beatboxers tapping their fingers against their throats as they throat sing or hum. Beatboxers today can produce up to 8 different sounds at the same time.

Modern beatboxing has also evolved with the advent of technology such as live looping. Many beatboxers like the Beardyman, KRNFX, and The Petebox use modern looping devices such as the Boss RC-505 to sample or layer their beatboxing sounds live on stage, in addition to traditional solo beatboxing. Such adaptation has allowed modern beatboxers to perform entire musical compositions much like DJ's but with their mouths.

Today there is an increase in the variety in which we see beatboxing throughout musical culture. People have gone as far as adding beatboxing in with different instruments to create a completely different sound unlike any other. Artist Greg Patillo goes as far as adding in beatboxing while playing the flute to very iconic songs. Beatbox has become modernized and has even been seen in popular movies such as Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2. These movies showcase classical songs performed with a cappella covers in which all of the beats to the songs are done completely using the idea and technique of beatboxing to complete the sound capable to imitate the original song.

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

A programming language is any set of rules that converts strings, or graphical program elements in the case of visual programming languages, to various kinds of machine code output. Programming languages are one kind of computer language, and are used in computer programming to implement algorithms.

Most programming languages consist of instructions for computers. There are programmable machines that use a set of specific instructions, rather than general programming languages. Since the early 1800s, programs have been used to direct the behavior of machines such as Jacquard looms, music boxes and player pianos. The programs for these machines (such as a player piano's scrolls) did not produce different behavior in response to different inputs or conditions.

Thousands of different programming languages have been created, and more are being created every year. Many programming languages are written in an imperative form (i. e., as a sequence of operations to perform) while other languages use the declarative form (i. e. the desired result is specified, not how to achieve it).

The description of a programming language is usually split into the two components of syntax (form) and semantics (meaning), which are usually defined by a formal language. Some languages are defined by a specification document (for example, the C programming language is specified by an ISO Standard) while other languages (such as Perl) have a dominant implementation that is treated as a reference. Some languages have both, with the basic language defined by a standard and extensions taken from the dominant implementation being common.

Programming language theory is a subfield of computer science that deals with the design, implementation, analysis, characterization, and classification of programming languages.

DEFINITION

A programming language is a notation for writing programs, which are specifications of a computation or algorithm. Some authors restrict the term " programming language" to those languages that can express all possible algorithms. Traits often considered important for what constitutes a programming language include:

Function and target

A computer programming language is a language used to write computer programs, which involves a computer performing some kind of computation or algorithm and possibly control external devices such as printers, disk drives, robots, and so on. For example, PostScript programs are frequently created by another program to control a computer printer or display. More generally, a programming language may describe computation on some, possibly abstract, machine. It is generally accepted that a complete specification for a programming language includes a description, possibly idealized, of a machine or processor for that language. In most practical contexts, a programming language involves a computer; consequently, programming languages are usually defined and studied this way. Programming languages differ from natural languages in that natural languages are only used for interaction between people, while programming languages also allow humans to communicate instructions to machines.

Abstractions

Programming languages usually contain abstractions for defining and manipulating data structures or controlling the flow of execution. The practical necessity that a programming language support adequate abstractions is expressed by the abstraction principle. This principle is sometimes formulated as a recommendation to the programmer to make proper use of such abstractions.

Expressive power

The theory of computation classifies languages by the computations they are capable of expressing. All Turing-complete languages can implement the same set of algorithms. ANSI/ISO SQL-92 and Charity are examples of languages that are not Turing complete, yet are often called programming languages.

Markup languages like XML, HTML, or troff, which define structured data, are not usually considered programming languages. Programming languages may, however, share the syntax with markup languages if a computational semantics is defined. XSLT, for example, is a Turing complete language entirely using XML syntax. Moreover, LaTeX, which is mostly used for structuring documents, also contains a Turing complete subset.

The term computer language is sometimes used interchangeably with programming language. However, the usage of both terms varies among authors, including the exact scope of each. One usage describes programming languages as a subset of computer languages. Similarly, languages used in computing that have a different goal than expressing computer programs are generically designated computer languages. For instance, markup languages are sometimes referred to as computer languages to emphasize that they are not meant to be used for programming.

Another usage regards programming languages as theoretical constructs for programming abstract machines, and computer languages as the subset thereof that runs on physical computers, which have finite hardware resources. John C. Reynolds emphasizes that formal specification languages are just as much programming languages as are the languages intended for execution. He also argues that textual and even graphical input formats that affect the behavior of a computer are programming languages, despite the fact they are commonly not Turing-complete, and remarks that ignorance of programming language concepts is the reason for many flaws in input formats.

SYNTAX

A programming language's surface form is known as its syntax. Most programming languages are purely textual; they use sequences of text including words, numbers, and punctuation, much like written natural languages. On the other hand, there are some programming languages which are more graphical in nature, using visual relationships between symbols to specify a program.

The syntax of a language describes the possible combinations of symbols that form a syntactically correct program. The meaning given to a combination of symbols is handled by semantics (either formal or hard-coded in a reference implementation). Since most languages are textual, this article discusses textual syntax.

Programming language syntax is usually defined using a combination of regular expressions (for lexical structure) and Backus–Naur form (for grammatical structure). Below is a simple grammar, based on Lisp:

This grammar specifies the following:

an expression is either an atom or a list;

an atom is either a number or a symbol;

a number is an unbroken sequence of one or more decimal digits, optionally preceded by a plus or minus sign;

a symbol is a letter followed by zero or more of any characters (excluding whitespace); and

a list is a matched pair of parentheses, with zero or more expressions inside it.

The following are examples of well-formed token sequences in this grammar: 12345, () and (a b c232 (1)).

Not all syntactically correct programs are semantically correct. Many syntactically correct programs are nonetheless ill-formed, per the language's rules; and may (depending on the language specification and the soundness of the implementation) result in an error on translation or execution. In some cases, such programs may exhibit undefined behavior. Even when a program is well-defined within a language, it may still have a meaning that is not intended by the person who wrote it.

Using natural language as an example, it may not be possible to assign a meaning to a grammatically correct sentence or the sentence may be false:

" Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. " is grammatically well-formed but has no generally accepted meaning.

" John is a married bachelor. " is grammatically well-formed but expresses a meaning that cannot be true.

The following C language fragment is syntactically correct, but performs operations that are not semantically defined (the operation *p > > 4 has no meaning for a value having a complex type and p-> im is not defined because the value of p is the null pointer):

complex *p = NULL;

complex abs_p = sqrt(*p > > 4 + p-> im);

If the type declaration on the first line were omitted, the program would trigger an error on undefined variable p during compilation. However, the program would still be syntactically correct since type declarations provide only semantic information.

The grammar needed to specify a programming language can be classified by its position in the Chomsky hierarchy. The syntax of most programming languages can be specified using a Type-2 grammar, i. e., they are context-free grammars. Some languages, including Perl and Lisp, contain constructs that allow execution during the parsing phase. Languages that have constructs that allow the programmer to alter the behavior of the parser make syntax analysis an undecidable problem, and generally blur the distinction between parsing and execution. In contrast to Lisp's macro system and Perl's BEGIN blocks, which may contain general computations, C macros are merely string replacements and do not require code execution.

Semantics

The term semantics refers to the meaning of languages, as opposed to their form (syntax).

Static semantics

The static semantics defines restrictions on the structure of valid texts that are hard or impossible to express in standard syntactic formalisms. For compiled languages, static semantics essentially include those semantic rules that can be checked at compile time. Examples include checking that every identifier is declared before it is used (in languages that require such declarations) or that the labels on the arms of a case statement are distinct. Many important restrictions of this type, like checking that identifiers are used in the appropriate context (e. g. not adding an integer to a function name), or that subroutine calls have the appropriate number and type of arguments, can be enforced by defining them as rules in a logic called a type system. Other forms of static analyses like data flow analysis may also be part of static semantics. Newer programming languages like Java and C# have definite assignment analysis, a form of data flow analysis, as part of their static semantics.

Dynamic semantics

Main article: Semantics of programming languages

Once data has been specified, the machine must be instructed to perform operations on the data. For example, the semantics may define the strategy by which expressions are evaluated to values, or the manner in which control structures conditionally execute statements. The dynamic semantics (also known as execution semantics) of a language defines how and when the various constructs of a language should produce a program behavior. There are many ways of defining execution semantics. Natural language is often used to specify the execution semantics of languages commonly used in practice. A significant amount of academic research went into formal semantics of programming languages, which allow execution semantics to be specified in a formal manner. Results from this field of research have seen limited application to programming language design and implementation outside academia.

GAMES

HEROES OF MIGHT AND MAGIC

Heroes of Might and Magic V is the fifth installment of the Heroes of Might and Magic fantasy turn-based strategy video game series. The game was released by Ubisoft in Europe on May 16, and then in the United States and Canada on May 24, 2006, with the publisher guiding Russian studio Nival Interactive in its development. Following the closure of The 3DO Company, Ubisoft bought the rights to the Might and Magic franchise, and used Heroes V as a means to reboot the series with a brand-new setting, called Ashan, and no continuity to previous titles.

Like the other games in the series, players take control of " heroes" (leaders with magical abilities) who provide their services for a faction, recruiting an army from settlement strongholds, such as castles, out of various forces (humanoid, undead, monsters, and so forth) and then doing battle against roaming armies, enemy heroes and rival factions. The game features a campaign series that covers six factions from Ashan, along with stand-alone and multiplayer scenarios. Unlike the preceding games in the series, which used 2D computer graphics but with some isometric touches, Heroes V was the first to be completely 3D.

A hero can learn a new skill, upgrade an existing one, gain a new ability or create combos of multiple abilities upon gaining a new level or visiting special buildings on the adventure map. There are two sets of skills available to heroes: racial skills and regular skills. A hero can have up to five regular skills and always has the proper racial skill. Skills are divided into four levels: Basic, Advanced, Expert, and Ultimate. Each skill is associated with three to five abilities, depending on the race of the hero. Each level of skill gives the hero a chance to learn one ability under the skill. That is, a hero with Basic level of a skill can learn one ability, Advanced level two, and Expert level three. An ability is not immediately learned when the hero increases the corresponding skill level.

The racial skill that a hero learns is dependent on their native faction. All heroes from a faction learn the same racial skill and racial abilities. Each racial skill culminates in an 'ultimate ability' that can only be gained by learning a very specific set of regular skills and abilities. In addition to the three levels of skills that apply to regular skills, the racial skill can reach an ultimate level when a certain artifact is worn by the hero.

There are six factions in the game: Haven, Inferno, Necropolis, Dungeon, Sylvan and Academy. Additionally, the game's expansion packs added the Fortress and Stronghold alignments.

Haven

Haven is a faction populated by humans and ruled by religious warlords; the Holy Griffin Empire propagates " Law and Order" and faith in Elrath, the Dragon of Light. Arising from their military tradition, they have the ability to train their soldiers, promoting them from one level to another. They are the primary protagonists of the game's campaign missions. Their main Heroes are young Queen Isabel and faithful Godric, the king's uncle and the top general for the Griffin Empire.

Inferno

A dark kingdom of demons from the underworld known as Sheogh, the Inferno is a faction which uses " Gating", a method used to summon additional, though temporary, reinforcements onto the battlefield. Making their infernal abode on blasted lava terrain, the demons are the primary antagonists in the game, led by Urgash, the Dragon of Chaos, and their evil overlord, the Demon Sovereign Kha-Beleth. They are the protagonists of the second act of the campaign, where they are led by the ambitious and ruthless Agrael.

Necropolis

Once a secret cult flourishing within the dark underside of the Empire and the Silver Cities, the Necropolis faction resides in Heresh and is ruled by corrupted wizards who worship a twisted spider version of Asha, the Dragon of Order, seeking to find everlasting peace and beauty in death that has been denied to them in life. They can use the dark magic of necromancy to re-animate slain enemies and fill their own ranks with shambling corpses. The Hero for the Necropolis campaign is the shrewd and cunning Markal.

Dungeon

Hailing from the underground empire of Ygg-Chall, the dark elves Dungeon faction are a group of fallen elves whose society is built around faith in Malassa, the Dragon of Darkness, secrecy, plots, and betrayal. They were once part of the Sylvan faction, but became renegades when they made a pact with the mysterious Faceless (in fact they are falsely accused of Brittiga's burning and the king Arniel's death, and they had to turn to Malassa for their survival). They mastered the ability of Irresistible Magic, which made their spells so powerful that even those who had the strongest resistance to magic have little chance to resist. The hero for the dark elf campaign is Raelag, a mysterious and ambitious warlock.

Sylvan

The old Rampart faction from HoMM III in spirit, the Sylvan faction is more distinctly Elvish this time around, residing in the Elven kingdom Irollan which is said to be blessed by Sylanna, the Dragon of Earth. Their heroes focus on archery, and so do their creatures, who can finish off their enemies without touching them. Their racial skill gives entire armies bonuses when fighting certain enemies they have slain previously. They are the counterpart to the Dungeon. The hero for the Sylvan Campaign is Findan, a diplomat and a determined fighter.

Academy

The Academy faction is a town dominated by wizards and magical creatures since its debut in the second game of the series. Not much has changed besides its location, moving away from the snowy mountains of the Tower City in Heroes of Might and Magic III to a vibrant desert scene closer to the original Wizard castle, now filled with middle-eastern dresses. Most of its heroes focus on magic, and their army comprises mostly shooters and flyers. Their Dragon is Sar-Elam, also known as the Seventh Dragon and the very first wizard who had so much power he became a Dragon and helped to banish the malicious Urgash, the Dragon of Chaos. The hero for the Academy Campaign is the young and brash Zehir, the son of the late Arch-mage Cyrus and the new Arch-mage of the Silver Cities.

WARHAMMER 40000 DAWN OF WAR

Warhammer 40, 000: Dawn of War is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment and based on Games Workshop's tabletop wargame Warhammer 40, 000. It was released by THQ on September 20, 2004 in North America and on September 24 in Europe. Three expansion packs have been released: Winter Assault in 2005, Dark Crusade in 2006, and Soulstorm in 2008. Its first sequel, Dawn of War II was released in February 2009. Another sequel, Dawn of War III, was released in April 2017.

As a series, Warhammer 40, 000: Dawn of War has sold more than 7 million copies worldwide as of January 2013.

Gameplay is initially focused on capturing and holding strategic locations on the battlefield. These control points are captured by infantry squads and provide resources to construct additional units and buildings or unlock certain units in an army's tech tree. Battles are won either by holding a certain number of control points for a period of time or by destroying all of the opposing armies' HQ structures. A number of special conditions are available to choose from to customize matches.

Warhammer 40, 000: Dawn of War features four playable armies:

Space Marines are the elite, highly skilled and genetically modified superhuman soldiers of the Imperium. Inducted at a young age, each Space Marine receives biological modifications, a lifetime of rigorous training, and lives to experience centuries of endless battle in the defense of humanity. Space Marines have the highest morale in the game. Their troops and vehicles are more expensive, however, reflecting their limited numbers. The Space Marines are the only playable race in the single player section of the game, and the 11-mission campaign features the 3rd Company of the Blood Ravens chapter as the protagonists, led by Captain Gabriel Angelos and Librarian Isador Akios.

The Chaos Space Marines are traitors that, ten thousand years ago, chose to abandon their duties to humanity, betray the Immortal Emperor of Mankind and the Imperium, and instead worship the Gods of Chaos, accepting promises of power and immortality. In Dawn of War, they use troops that are corrupted mirrors of their loyal Imperial counterparts. In addition, they employ morale-draining daemons and psykers. The campaign features the Alpha Legion, with their leaders, Sindri Myr and Lord Bale.

The Eldar are a sophisticated psychic race, ancient and technologically advanced, that have fought the fell powers of Chaos for millions of years before mankind's birth. Eldar in Dawn of War are fast and agile but most of their units are more fragile. Swift both on foot and in their hovering grav-vehicles, they are also able to move quickly around the map via webway gates. The campaign features a warhost hailing from the craftworld Biel-Tan, led by Farseer Macha.

The Orks are a savage, brutal and warlike species who exist to seek the thrilling challenge of battle. While generally lacking in sophisticated technology, they are physically powerful, using brute force and crude weapons that well complement their tendency to attack in massive hordes. In large enough numbers, they gain morale immunity. The tech tree for Orks differs from the other races in that it depends on the amount of Orks currently in the army and the number of erected WAAAGH!! banners. Several clans are featured in the campaign, as is the hulking Ork Warboss, Orkamungus.

One of the two newer races, the Tau are unique in multiple ways. Tau warriors and vehicles are powerful in ranged battles, but lack melee prowess; their commander even lacks a melee attack entirely. Many Tau units tend to be relatively fragile, few in number, and expensive. To compensate, they fight alongside the alien Kroot, using these primal warriors as auxiliaries. Also, they are the only race with a 'choice' in their final technology choices; two final tier buildings are presented, which provide different end-game units and technologies. Only one may be chosen. The Tau also do not have any standalone defensive structures or minefields. However one of their Heavy Infantry; the Broadside Battlesuit, can be entrenched and use its shoulder mounted railguns, effectively making them into turrets.

The Necrons are unique, as they do not require requisition to build their army. All units are in and of themselves free of requisition point cost. Power is the only resource Necrons need, in order to perform research, construct buildings and to construct and reinforce squads. However, capturing Strategic Points and building Obelisks (the Necrons listening post) on them will increase the speed of research and building, and will also expand the population cap. The Necron Monolith, their home base, is restored as more buildings are built, while also unlocking new units, and functions as the only vehicle- and troop-producing building. When fully restored it becomes mobile (albeit very slow, though it can teleport) and is armed with powerful weaponry. Many Necron units have the ability to resurrect, and most will leave persistent corpses on the battlefield that may either self-resurrect after they die or be restored by specialized Necron units (this resurrection can actually allow the Necrons to go over their population cap).

Story

The Blood Ravens make planetfall.

The Blood Ravens' Space Marines under Angelos, upon descent to the planet's surface, secure Tartarus' spaceport and start their own operations against the warring Orkish forces, including key elimination of their leaders (including an Ork Warboss) to destabilize the Orks' fighting spirit. Unknown to the Space Marines, however, the Orks' invasion was in fact engineered by the Chaos Alpha Legion's Sorcerer, Sindri Myr, as a smokescreen to their operations on this world using the forces of Sindri's supposed commander, Lord Bale. However, during the confrontation with the Warboss, the shuttle which ferries Sindri and Bale away is spotted by a Blood Ravens' scout.

Hearing this, Angelos is set to investigate, but is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Mordecai Toth of the Inquisition, whom attempts ordering the Blood Ravens to evacuate Tartarus due to an upcoming Warp Storm that will soon engulf the planet in Chaos energy and prevent warp travel and escape. Angelos allows Toth use of Space Marine transports to assist in the evacuation but desires to remain and investigate, clashing with Toth's resolution, whom attempts citing Angelos' previous request of an Exterminatus (A space-based planetary bombardment) on his once homeworld of Cyrene, years ago, may have affected his judgement, " seeing Chaos where it doesn't exist". During Angelos' obstinate pursuit, he uncovers the presence of Eldar forces from the Biel-Tan Craftworld, under Farseer Macha, covertly operating on Tartarus and coming across Chaos " markers" (Sacrificial sites which point to a specific direction) that Angelos orders his long-friend and Librarian, Isador Akios, to document and then destroy them, but Isador secretly harbors Chaos artifacts and even damages the Blood Ravens' transports to allow further research time, being influenced constantly by Sindri's temptations.

Angelos' forces track the Eldar to the city of Loovre Marr, engaging them in a full-scale battle as Sindri and the Alpha Legion infiltrate the city and abscond with an artifact, which Macha believes being a " key to the undoing of this world". Witnessing the events too late, Angelos presses Macha for more information, but Macha instead implicates Toth's involvement in the matter, citing his obstinance in withholding information and using the matter of the upcoming Warp Storm to avoid involving any interested party in the matter. Angelos clashes again with Toth, whom assumes command of almost all of the planet's Imperial assets (Except the Blood Ravens) after learning Angelos employed Colonel Brom's Imperial Guard to assist him, and cites Angelos' stubbornness as a possible sign of Chaos corruption.

On a hint given by Macha, whose forces are severely weakened due to the battle of Loovre Marr, the Blood Ravens track down the Alpha Legion to the ruins of an Imperial Temple where they are stalled by traitorous Imperial Guard regiments, corrupted by Chaos, giving time for Sindri and Bale to evade pursuit once again. After the battle, Angelos confronts Toth when he arrives at the scene, with Toth revealing the planet bears an ancient Chaos artifact called the Maledictum, a stone which contains the essence of a daemon, capable of influencing human minds to perform its bidding, while summoning Warp Storms to imprison any whom attempt to escape. Toth explains the Eldar presence on Tartarus was to prevent the Alpha Legion from unearthing the stone, unwilling to inform or cooperate with Imperial forces due to arrogant behavior, seeing themselves " as the only capable defence against its influence".

Gabriel executes the Traitor Isador.

Angelos and Toth make amends and advance against the Alpha Legion's primary position, performing an unholy ritual to unearth the Maledictum. However, while the Blood Ravens and the remaining loyal Imperial Guard exterminate Lord Bale's forces, the same abandoned by Sindri to die to unearth the artifact, Isador takes the Maledictum and departs with Sindri, revealing he was overcome by the temptations of Chaos. Angelos and Toth pursue him as Sindri takes away the Maledictum from Isador, with Toth revealing he suspected corruption from within the Blood Ravens, but made a mistake in focusing more on Angelos than Isador because of Angelos' obstination and dark past, citing it took either " steel or rot" to plead the Inquisition to exterminate the whole population of Angelos' former home. As the Blood Ravens destroy Isador's Chaos forces, Angelos fights Isador in a one-on-one duel. Despite Isador's taunts of Gabriel's supposed weakness and guilt for the events of Cyrene, Gabriel overcomes them, citing " innocents must die so that humanity may live", implying that the planet was long corrupted by Chaos and there was no salvation but by destruction. Defeating Isador, Angelos executes him even as the Librarian tries pleading for forgiveness.

Angelos and Toth chase Sindri to a ritual site at the apex of the Warp Storm, performing a ritual with the Maledictum to turn into a Daemon Prince. As Toth bequeaths his Daemon Hammer, " God-Splitter", to Angelos, the Blood Ravens, assisted by the Eldar survivors, fight and overcome the remaining Alpha Legion in a violent battle, killing Sindri despite his demonic power. However, in the aftermath, as Toth orders Angelos to destroy the Maledictum, Macha pleads to not destroy it and tries interfering with her forces, but Angelos quickly destroys it. As all parties start to evacuate, Angelos is called and faces the daemon within the Maledictum, whom Angelos unknowingly released. The daemon reveals that all of Tartarus was actually a sacrificial altar to the Chaos God Khorne (The Blood God) and that all confrontation, including the Ork invasion which was arranged by Sindri, were offerings to empower the stone's power to allow the Daemon's release - had the Blood Ravens realised this and destroyed the Maledictum earlier, the daemon would likely be destroyed as well.

The daemon allows the release of Angelos and the Blood Ravens, though with a message that he soon would be coming for them all. Gabriel vows to destroy the daemon, stating " I know you now", before departing Tartarus.

COUNTER-STRIKE

Counter-Strike (CS) is a series of multiplayer first-person shooter video games in which teams of terrorists battle to perpetrate an act of terror (bombing, hostage-taking, assassination) while counter-terrorists try to prevent it (bomb defusal, hostage rescue, escort mission). The series began on Windows in 1999 with the release of the first game, Counter-Strike. It was initially released as a modification (" mod" ) for Half-Life that was designed by Minh " Gooseman" Le and Jess " Cliffe" Cliffe before the rights to the mod's intellectual property were acquired by Valve, the developers of Half-Life, who then turned Counter-Strike into a retail product.

The original Counter-Strike was followed by Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, developed by Turtle Rock Studios and released in March 2004. A previous version of Condition Zero that was developed by Ritual Entertainment was released alongside it as Condition Zero: Deleted Scenes. Eight months later, Valve released Counter-Strike: Source, a remake of the original Counter-Strike and the first in the series to run on Valve's newly created Source engine. The fourth game in the main series, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, was released by Valve in 2012 for Windows, OS X, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Hidden Path Entertainment, who worked on Counter-Strike: Source post-release, helped to develop the game alongside Valve.

There have been several third-party spin-off titles created for Asian markets over the years. These include the Counter-Strike Online series, Counter-Strike Neo, and Counter-Strike Nexon: Studio.

Counter-Strike is an objective-based, multiplayer first-person shooter. Two opposing teams—the Terrorists and the Counter Terrorists—compete in game modes to complete objectives, such as securing a location to plant or defuse a bomb and rescuing or guarding hostages. At the end of each round, players are rewarded based on their individual performance with in-game currency to spend on more powerful weapons in subsequent rounds. Winning rounds results in more money than losing, and completing objectives such as killing enemy players gives cash bonuses. Uncooperative actions, such as killing teammates, results in a penalty.

AGE OF EMPIRES

Age of Empires is a series of historical real-time strategy video games, originally developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. The first game was Age of Empires, released in 1997. Nine total games within the series have been released so far (more specifically as of 28 October 2021).

Age of Empires focused on events in Europe, Africa and Asia, spanning from the Stone Age to the Iron Age; the expansion game explored the formation and expansion of the Roman Empire. The sequel, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, was set in the Middle Ages, while its expansion focused partially on the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The subsequent three games of Age of Empires III explored the early modern period, when Europe was colonizing the Americas and several Asian nations were on the decline. Another installment, Age of Empires Online, takes a different approach as a free-to-play online game utilizing Games for Windows Live. A spin-off game, Age of Mythology, was set in the same period as the original Age of Empires, but focused on mythological elements of Greek, Egyptian, and Norse mythology. The fourth main installment in the series, Age of Empires IV, was released on October 28, 2021.

The Age of Empires series has been a commercial success, selling over 25 million copies. Critics have credited part of the success of the series to its historical theme and fair play; the artificial intelligence (AI) players have fewer advantages than in many of the series' competitors.

The games in the series focus on historical events throughout time. Age of Empires covers the events between the Stone Age and the Classical period, in Europe and Asia. Its expansion, The Rise of Rome, follows the formation and rise of the Roman Empire. The Age of Kings and its Nintendo DS spin-off follow Europe and Asia through the Middle Ages. The Age of Kings' expansion pack, The Conquerors, is set during the same period, but also includes scenarios about the Spanish conquest of Mexico, El Cid, and Attila the Hun. Age of Empires III and its first expansion, The WarChiefs, take place during the European colonization of the Americas. Its second expansion, The Asian Dynasties, follows the rise of Asia in the same period. Age of Empires Online focuses on the Greek and Egyptian civilizations. The series' spin-off, Age of Mythology, and its expansion pack, The Titans, are set during the Bronze Age, but focus on mythology as their themes, rather than history.

Age of Empires, released on October 26, 1997, was the first game in the series, as well as the first major release from Ensemble Studios. It was one of the first history-based real-time strategy games made, utilizing the Genie game engine. GameSpot described it as a mix of Civilization and Warcraft. The game gives players a choice of 12 civilizations to develop from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. The expansion pack, The Rise of Rome, published by Microsoft on October 31, 1998, introduced new features and four new civilizations, including the Romans. Although the two games had contained many software bugs, patches resolved many of the problems.

Age of Empires was generally well received, despite some highly negative reviews. GameSpot criticized a confused design, while Computer and Video Games praised the game as strong in single and multiplayer. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences named Age of Empires the 1998 " Computer Strategy Game of the Year. " For several years, the game remained high on the sales charts, with over three million units sold by 2000. The Rise of Rome sold one million units in 2000 and attained 80% as an aggregate score from GameRankings.

In June 2017, Adam Isgreen, creative director of Xbox Game Studios announced Age of Empires: Definitive Edition at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017. It will feature overhauled graphics with support for 4K resolution, a remastered soundtrack, and other gameplay improvements, and was planned to be released on October 19, 2017, but was delayed until February 20, 2018, when it was released on the Microsoft Store. On May 30, 2019, Microsoft announced that the Definitive Edition would be coming to Steam in the future, along with the Definitive Editions of both Age of Empires II and Age of Empires III.

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, released on September 30, 1999, used the Genie game engine, and had gameplay similar to its predecessor. Age of Kings is set in the Middle Ages, from the Dark Ages to the Imperial Age. It allows players to choose one of 13 civilizations, from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

On August 24, 2000, Microsoft published the expansion, The Conquerors. It added new units and five new civilizations, including two Mesoamerican civilizations: the Maya and the Aztec. The Age of Kings was a bigger critical success than the first two games, with Game Rankings and Metacritic scores of 92%. Microsoft shipped out more than two million copies to retailers, and the game received numerous awards and accolades. Critics agreed that The Conquerors expanded well on The Age of Kings, though issues of unbalanced gameplay were raised. The Age of Kings and The Conquerors won the 2000 and 2001 " Computer Strategy Game of the Year" awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, respectively.

In April 2013, Age of Empires II: HD Edition was released on the Steam digital distribution platform for Windows operating systems. The HD Edition includes both the original game and the expansion The Conquerors, as well as updated graphics for high-resolution displays. Originally a fan-made modpack made for The Conquerors, Age of Empires II: The Forgotten was an unofficial expansion that added a new campaign, playable civilizations, maps, and quality of service updates. The Forgotten was later developed into an official expansion with SkyBox Labs and Forgotten Studios, and in November 2013 The Forgotten HD was released by Microsoft exclusively for the HD Edition on Steam. A third expansion named The African Kingdoms was released by Microsoft in November 2015, also exclusively for the HD Edition. A fourth expansion entitled Rise of the Rajas was released on 19 December 2016. On August 21, 2017, Microsoft announced Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.

In June 2019, Adam Isgreen, now the Franchise Creative Director for Age of Empires, shared more information regarding the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2019. He confirmed that the Definitive Edition was being developed by Forgotten Empires, Tantalus Media, and Wicked Witch Software. He announced that the game would feature new 4K graphics, Xbox Live support for multiplayer, exclusive achievements, four new civilizations (Bulgarians, Cumans, Lithuanians, Tatars), three new campaigns, a new spectator mode and tournament features, and additional quality of life improvements. It was released on November 14, 2019. Bert Beeckman, co-founder of Forgotten Empires, confirmed on June 12 that Age of Empires II: HD Edition would not be removed from sale after the release of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.

Age of Empires III, released on October 18, 2005, was built on an improved version of the Age of Mythology game engine with the most significant changes being the updated graphics engine and the inclusion of the Havok physics middleware engine. The game is set in the period between 1421 and 1850, and players can choose one of eight European nations. The game introduced a large number of features, such as home cities. Described by Ensemble Studios as " an important support system to your efforts in the New World, " home cities help provide the player with resources, equipment, troops, and upgrades. They can be used across multiple games, and upgraded after each battle; the feature was compared to a role-playing game character by Ensemble Studios. The first expansion to Age of Empires III, The WarChiefs, was released October 17, 2006. Most gameplay changes in the expansion pack were small, but it introduced three new civilizations, with a focus on Native Americans. Most notable was the introduction of the WarChief unit. The second expansion, The Asian Dynasties, went on sale October 23, 2007. It was a jointly developed product; Big Huge Games helped Ensemble Studios develop the game, with Brian Reynolds joining Bruce Shelley as lead designer. The game expanded the Age of Empires III universe into Asia, and introduced three new civilizations. Reception towards Age of Empires III was mixed; Game Revolution described it as " about as much fun" as a history textbook, while GameZone argued it was " one of the best looking games, much less an RTS game, that is out on the market currently". It sold more than two million copies, and won the GameSpy " real-time strategy game of the year" award. The WarChiefs failed to equal the success of its predecessor, with a lower score on both Game Rankings and Metacritic, and The Asian Dynasties' score was lower still with 80%.

Several collectors' editions of Age of Empires III included a hardcover artbook. The last page of the artbook has a pictorial depiction of the series; the Roman numerals below each panel range from I to V, indicating the series would include an Age of Empires IV and Age of Empires V. Ensemble Studios employee Sandy Petersen said that the image " was total speculation on [their] part. "

In 2008, Microsoft announced they were closing down Ensemble Studios following the completion of Halo Wars. Some of its employees would form a new team as part of Microsoft Studios. Kevin Unangst, director of Games for Windows, denied it was the end of the Age of Empires series, telling The San Francisco Chronicle " we're very excited about the future potential for Age of Empires". Edge confirmed, in an interview with Microsoft's corporate vice president of interactive entertainment, Shane Kim, that Microsoft continued to own Age of Empires and that they had plans to continue the series. However, Bruce Shelley wrote in his blog that he would not be part of any new studios formed.

Following the announcement of remastered editions of previous games, Microsoft announced Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition on August 21, 2017. On May 30, 2019, the company revealed that the Definitive Edition would come to Steam in the future, along with the Definitive Editions of both Age of Empires and Age of Empires II. On August 28, 2020 Microsoft announced at Gamescom 2020 that Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition would release officially on October 15, 2020.

On January 23, 2020, Microsoft announced a closed beta for early February of that year. Betas ran on Steam and the Microsoft Store, with each beta session including a small piece of the game. The first closed beta session began on February 11, 2020 and ended on February 19, 2020. The second closed multiplayer session began on March 31 and ran until April 7. The game was released on October 15, 2020.

On August 21, 2017, Microsoft announced Age of Empires IV, developed by Relic Entertainment. Microsoft's Executive Vice-President of Gaming, Phil Spencer, confirmed on June 11, 2019, that Age of Empires IV is still in development, with more information coming later in 2019. On November 14, 2019, gameplay footage of Age of Empires IV was shown at the X019 event. It showed medieval warfare between English and Mongol forces. Age of Empires IV was officially released on October 28, 2021, with eight civilizations available at launch: the Abbasid Dynasty, the Chinese, the Delhi Sultanate, the English, the French, the Holy Roman Empire, the Mongols, and the Rus. This title revisits the Middle Ages and incorporates several features and mechanics of Age of Empires II that were changed or removed in Age of Empires III.

ACTORS

Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (born 23 July 1989) is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Harry Potter in the film series of the same name, and has received numerous awards and nominations.

Radcliffe made his acting debut at age 10 in the BBC One television film David Copperfield (1999), followed by his feature film debut in The Tailor of Panama (2001). The same year, he starred in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Over the next decade, he played the titular role in seven sequels, culminating with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011). During this period, he became one of the world's highest-paid actors and gained worldwide fame, popularity, and critical acclaim.

Following the success of Harry Potter, Radcliffe played lawyer Arthur Kipps in the horror film The Woman in Black (2012), poet Allen Ginsberg in the biographical drama film Kill Your Darlings (2013), the title character's assistant Igor in the science-fiction fantasy film Victor Frankenstein (2015), a sentient corpse in the comedy-drama film Swiss Army Man (2016), technological prodigy Walter Mabry in the heist thriller film Now You See Me 2 (2016), and FBI agent Nate Foster in the critically acclaimed thriller film Imperium (2016). Since 2019, he has starred in the TBS anthology series Miracle Workers.

Radcliffe branched out to stage acting in 2007, starring in the West End and Broadway productions of Equus and in the 2011 Broadway revival of the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He continued in Martin McDonagh's dark comedy The Cripple of Inishmaan (2011) in the West End and Broadway and a revival of Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (2017) at The Old Vic. He also starred in the satirical plays Privacy (2016) and The Lifespan of a Fact (2018), respectively off-Broadway and Broadway.

Radcliffe has contributed to many charities, including Demelza Hospice Care for Children and the Trevor Project; the latter awarded him its Hero Award in 2011.

Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian actor and film producer. He began his career starring in the Canadian teen soap opera Hillside (1991–1993), and had minor roles before landing the lead role on the sitcom Two Guys and a Girl between 1998 and 2001. Reynolds then starred in a range of films, including comedies such as National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002), Waiting... (2005), and The Proposal (2009). He also performed in dramatic roles in Buried (2010), Woman in Gold (2015), and Life (2017), starred in action films such as Blade: Trinity (2004), Green Lantern (2011), 6 Underground (2019) and Free Guy (2021), and provided voice acting in the animated features The Croods (2013), Turbo (2013), Poké mon: Detective Pikachu (2019) and The Croods: A New Age (2020).

Reynolds' biggest commercial success came with the superhero films Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018), in which he played the title character. The former set numerous records at the time of its release for an R-rated comedy and his performance earned him nominations at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards and the Golden Globe Awards.

Reynolds was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2017. He has been married twice: to actress Scarlett Johansson from 2008 to 2011, and since 2012 to actress Blake Lively, with whom he has three daughters.

Ryan Rodney Reynolds was born on October 23, 1976, in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is the youngest of four sons. His father, James Chester Reynolds, was a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman before retiring from the force and going to work as a foods wholesaler. His mother, Tamara Lee (né e Stewart) worked in retail sales. Reynolds has two brothers that work in law enforcement in British Columbia, one of whom followed his father into the RCMP. His paternal grandfather, Chester Reynolds, was a farmer who represented Stettler in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1940 to 1944. Reynolds has Irish and Scottish ancestry, and was raised in the Roman Catholic Church in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood. He has been involved in acting since age thirteen. He graduated from Kitsilano Secondary School in 1994, which he attended with actor Joshua Jackson.

Reynolds played small roles in a number of television series, but became discouraged and quit acting at age 19 to enroll at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. A few months later he ran into fellow actor Chris William Martin, who convinced him to try again and move with him to Los Angeles.

Thomas Stanley Holland (born 1 June 1996)[1] is an English actor. An alumnus of the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in London, he began his acting career on the West End stage in the title role of Billy Elliot the Musical at the Victoria Palace Theatre from 2008 to 2010. He then starred in the disaster film The Impossible (2012), for which he received a London Film Critics Circle Award for Young British Performer of the Year.

Holland achieved international recognition when he portrayed Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films, beginning with Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021). In 2017, at the age of 20, he won the BAFTA Rising Star Award, becoming the award's second-youngest recipient at the time.

Thomas Stanley Holland was born on 1 June 1996 in the town of Kingston upon Thames, England to photographer Nicola (né e Frost) and Dominic Holland, a comedian and author. He has three younger brothers. His paternal grandmother was from Tipperary, Ireland.

Holland was educated at Donhead, a Catholic preparatory school in Wimbledon in South West London, followed by Wimbledon College, a voluntary aided Jesuit comprehensive school, up until December 2012. He was bullied in school for being a dancer. After Wimbledon College, he attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. In his late teens, during a lull in his career, Holland briefly attended carpentry school in Cardiff, Wales.

Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), also known by his ring name The Rock, is an American actor, businessman, and former professional wrestler. Regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he wrestled for WWE for eight years prior to pursuing an acting career. His films have grossed over $3. 5 billion in North America and over $10. 5 billion worldwide, making him one of the world's highest-grossing and highest-paid actors.

Johnson played college football at the University of Miami, and won a national championship in 1991. He aspired to a professional career in football, but went undrafted in the 1995 NFL Draft. He signed with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL), but was cut from the team in his first season. Part of the Anoa'i family, Johnson's father Rocky and maternal grandfather Peter Maivia were professional wrestlers, and he secured a contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 1996. He rose to prominence after developing the gimmick of a charismatic trash-talker and helped usher in the Attitude Era, an industry boom period in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Johnson left WWE in 2004 and returned in 2011 as a part-time performer until 2013, making sporadic appearances until retiring in 2019. A 10-time world champion, including the promotion's first of African-American descent, he is also a two-time Intercontinental Champion, a five-time Tag Team Champion, the 2000 Royal Rumble winner, and WWE's sixth Triple Crown champion. Johnson headlined the most-bought professional wrestling pay-per-view (WrestleMania XXVIII) and was featured among the most watched episodes of WWE's flagship television series (Raw and SmackDown).

Johnson's first leading role was as the titular character in the sword and sorcery film The Scorpion King (2002). He has since starred in the comedies The Game Plan (2007), Tooth Fairy (2010), and Central Intelligence (2016); the action-adventure films Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012), G. I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), Hercules (2014), and Skyscraper (2018); the science-fiction films San Andreas (2015) and Rampage (2018), and the animated film Moana (2016). His role as Luke Hobbs in the Fast & Furious films, beginning with Fast Five (2011), has helped it become one of the highest-grossing film franchises. [19] Johnson also stars in the Jumanji films, appearing in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019), and is set to portray Black Adam in its superhero film adaptation.

Johnson produced and starred in the HBO comedy-drama series Ballers (2015–2019), and stars and produces the autobiographical sitcom Young Rock (2021). In 2000, Johnson released the autobiography The Rock Says, which was a New York Times bestseller. In 2012, he co-founded the entertainment production company Seven Bucks Productions, and is the co-owner of American football league, the XFL. In 2016 and 2019, Johnson was named by Time as one of the world's most influential people.

Kevin Darnell Hart (born July 6, 1979) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Hart began his career by winning several amateur comedy competitions at clubs throughout New England, culminating in his first real break in 2001 when he was cast by Judd Apatow for a recurring role on the TV series Undeclared. The series lasted only one season, but he soon landed other roles in films such as Paper Soldiers (2002), Scary Movie 3 (2003), Soul Plane (2004), In the Mix (2005), and Little Fockers (2010).

Hart's comedic reputation continued to grow with the release of his first stand-up album I'm a Grown Little Man (2008), and performances in the films Think Like a Man (2012), Grudge Match (2013), Ride Along (2014) and its sequel Ride Along 2 (2016), About Last Night (2014), Get Hard (2015), Central Intelligence (2016), The Secret Life of Pets (2016), Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017), Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017), Night School (2018), and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019).

He also released four more comedy albums, Seriously Funny in 2010, Laugh at My Pain in 2011, Let Me Explain in 2013, and What Now? in 2016. In 2015, Time Magazine named Hart one of the 100 most influential people in the world on the annual Time 100 list. He starred as a fictionalized version of himself in the lead role of Real Husbands of Hollywood/

In 2017, Hart launched the Laugh Out Loud Network, a subscription video streaming service in partnership with Lionsgate.

CONTINENTS

ARCTIC

The Arctic (/ˈ ɑ ː rtɪ k/ or /ˈ ɑ ː rktɪ k/) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Alaska (United States), Canada, Finland, Greenland (Denmark), Iceland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden. Land within the Arctic region has seasonally varying snow and ice cover, with predominantly treeless permafrost (permanently frozen underground ice) containing tundra. Arctic seas contain seasonal sea ice in many places.

The Arctic region is a unique area among Earth's ecosystems. The cultures in the region and the Arctic indigenous peoples have adapted to its cold and extreme conditions. Life in the Arctic includes zooplankton and phytoplankton, fish and marine mammals, birds, land animals, plants and human societies. Arctic land is bordered by the subarctic.

The Arctic is characterized by cold winters and cool summers. Its precipitation mostly comes in the form of snow and is low, with most of the area receiving less than 50 cm (20 in). High winds often stir up snow, creating the illusion of continuous snowfall. Average winter temperatures can go as low as − 40 °C (− 40 °F), and the coldest recorded temperature is approximately − 68 °C (− 90 °F). Coastal Arctic climates are moderated by oceanic influences, having generally warmer temperatures and heavier snowfalls than the colder and drier interior areas. The Arctic is affected by current global warming, leading to Arctic sea ice shrinkage, diminished ice in the Greenland ice sheet, and Arctic methane release as the permafrost thaws. [9] The melting of Greenland's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification.

Due to the poleward migration of the planet's isotherms (about 56 km (35 mi) per decade during the past 30 years as a consequence of global warming), the Arctic region (as defined by tree line and temperature) is currently shrinking. Perhaps the most alarming result of this is Arctic sea ice shrinkage. There is a large variance in predictions of Arctic sea ice loss, with models showing near-complete to complete loss in September from 2035 to some time around 2067.

Arctic life is characterized by adaptation to short growing seasons with long periods of sunlight, and cold, dark, snow-covered winter conditions.

PLANTS

Arctic vegetation is composed of plants such as dwarf shrubs, graminoids, herbs, lichens, and mosses, which all grow relatively close to the ground, forming tundra. An example of a dwarf shrub is the bearberry. As one moves northward, the amount of warmth available for plant growth decreases considerably. In the northernmost areas, plants are at their metabolic limits, and small differences in the total amount of summer warmth make large differences in the amount of energy available for maintenance, growth and reproduction. Colder summer temperatures cause the size, abundance, productivity and variety of plants to decrease. Trees cannot grow in the Arctic, but in its warmest parts, shrubs are common and can reach 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in height; sedges, mosses and lichens can form thick layers. In the coldest parts of the Arctic, much of the ground is bare; non-vascular plants such as lichens and mosses predominate, along with a few scattered grasses and forbs (like the Arctic poppy).

ANIMALS

Herbivores on the tundra include the Arctic hare, lemming, muskox, and caribou. They are preyed on by the snowy owl, Arctic fox, Grizzly bear, and Arctic wolf. The polar bear is also a predator, though it prefers to hunt for marine life from the ice. There are also many birds and marine species endemic to the colder regions. Other terrestrial animals include wolverines, moose, Dall sheep, ermines, and Arctic ground squirrels. Marine mammals include seals, walrus, and several species of cetacean—baleen whales and also narwhals, killer whales, and belugas. An excellent and famous example of a ring species exists and has been described around the Arctic Circle in the form of the Larus gulls.

RESOURCES

The Arctic includes copious natural resources (oil, gas, minerals, fresh water, fish and, if the subarctic is included, forest) to which modern technology and the economic opening up of Russia have given significant new opportunities. The interest of the tourism industry is also on the increase.

The Arctic contains some of the last and most extensive continuous wilderness areas in the world, and its significance in preserving biodiversity and genotypes is considerable. The increasing presence of humans fragments vital habitats. The Arctic is particularly susceptible to the abrasion of groundcover and to the disturbance of the rare breeding grounds of the animals that are characteristic to the region. The Arctic also holds 1/5 of the Earth's water supply.

ANTARCTIC

Antarctica (/æ nˈ tɑ ː rtɪ kə / or /æ nˈ tɑ ː rktɪ kə / )[note 1] is Earth's southernmost continent. The continent, which contains the geographic South Pole, is situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14, 200, 000 square kilometres (5, 500, 000 square miles), it is the fifth-largest continent, being nearly twice the size of Australia. During the summer months 5, 000 people reside at research stations, a figure that drops to around 1, 000 in the winter. Most of Antarctica is covered by ice, with an average thickness of 1. 9 km (1. 2 mi; 6, 200 ft).

Antarctica is on average the coldest, driest, and windiest of the continents, and has the highest average elevation. [4] It is mainly a polar desert, with annual precipitation of 200 mm (8 in) along the coast and far less inland. About 70% of the world's freshwater reserves are frozen there, enough to raise global sea levels by about 60 metres (200 ft) if it all melted. Antarctica holds the record for the lowest temperature on Earth, which was measured to be − 89. 2 °C (− 128. 6 °F). The average for the third quarter (the coldest part of the year) is − 63 °C (− 81 °F). Native species of animals include mites, nematodes, penguins, seals and tardigrades. Vegetation consists of tundra.

Antarctica was probably first seen in 1820, when the Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev sighted the Fimbul ice shelf. The continent was discovered in January 1840 by the United States Exploring Expedition, under Lieutenant Charles Wilkes; and a separate French expedition under Jules Dumont d'Urville. The Wilkes expedition—though it did not make a landing—remained long enough in the region to survey 1, 300 kilometres (800 mi) of the coast. The first confirmed landing was by a Norwegian team in 1895.

Antarctica is governed by about 30 countries, all of which are parties to the 1959 Antarctic Treaty System. According to the terms of the treaty, military activity, mining, nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal are all prohibited.

Antarctica is the coldest, windiest and driest of Earth's continents. [1] It was ice-free until about 34 million years ago. [98] The lowest natural air temperature ever recorded on Earth was − 89. 2 °C (− 128. 6 °F) at the Russian Vostok Station in Antarctica on 21 July 1983. [99] A lower air temperature of − 94. 7 °C (− 138. 5 °F) was recorded in 2010 by satellite—however, it may have been influenced by ground temperatures and was not recorded at a height of 2 metres (7 ft) above the surface as required for official air temperature records. [100] Average temperatures can reach a minimum of between − 80 °C (− 112 °F) in the interior of the continent during winter and a maximum of over 10 °C (50 °F) near the coast in summer. [101] Signy Island recorded a temperature of 19. 8 °C (67. 6 °F) in January 1982, the highest temperature ever recorded in the Antarctic region (including non-continental islands).

Antarctica is a frozen desert with little precipitation; the South Pole receives less than 10 mm (0. 4 in) per year, on average. Sunburn is often a health issue as the snow surface reflects almost all of the ultraviolet light falling on it. Given the latitude, long periods of constant darkness or constant sunlight create climates unfamiliar to human beings in much of the rest of the world.

The aurora australis, commonly known as the southern lights, is a glow observed in the night sky near the South Pole created by the plasma-full solar winds that pass by the Earth. Diamond dust, a ground-level cloud composed of tiny ice crystals, generally forms under otherwise clear or nearly clear skies, so people sometimes also refer to it as clear-sky precipitation. A sun dog, a frequent atmospheric optical phenomenon, is a bright " spot" beside the true sun.

ANIMALS

Invertebrate life of Antarctica includes microscopic mites like Alaskozetes antarcticus, lice, nematodes, tardigrades, rotifers, krill and springtails. The flightless midge Belgica antarctica, up to 6 mm (1⁄ 4 in) in size, is the largest purely terrestrial animal in Antarctica. Other members of Chironomidae, such as Parochlus steinenii, also inhabit the continent. Antarctic krill, which congregate in large schools, is the keystone species of the ecosystem of the Southern Ocean, and is an important food organism for whales, seals, leopard seals, fur seals, squid, icefish, penguins, albatrosses and many other birds.

Few terrestrial vertebrates live in Antarctica, and those that do are limited to the sub-Antarctic islands. Some species of marine animals exist and rely, directly or indirectly, on the phytoplankton. Antarctic sea life includes penguins, blue whales, orcas, colossal squids and fur seals. The emperor penguin is the only penguin that breeds during the winter in Antarctica; it and the Adé lie penguin breed farther south than any other penguin. The snow petrel is one of only three birds that breed exclusively in Antarctica. The Antarctic fur seal was very heavily hunted in the 18th and 19th centuries for its pelt by sealers from the United States and the United Kingdom. [148][149] The Weddell seal, a " true seal", is named after Sir James Weddell, commander of British sealing expeditions in the Weddell Sea. Leopard seals are apex predators in the Antarctic ecosystem, and migrate across the Southern Ocean in search of food.

A Census of Marine Life by some 500 researchers during the International Polar Year, was released in 2010. The research found that more than 235 marine organisms live in both polar regions, having bridged the gap of 12, 000 km (7, 456 mi). Large animals such as some cetaceans and birds make the round trip annually. More surprising are small forms of life such as sea cucumbers and free-swimming snails found in both polar oceans. Various factors may aid in their distribution—fairly uniform temperatures of the deep ocean at the poles and the equator which differ by no more than 5 °C, and the major current systems or marine conveyor belt which transport eggs and larval stages.

FUNGI

About 1, 150 species of fungi have been recorded from Antarctica, of which about 750 are non-lichen-forming and 400 are lichen-forming. Some of these species colonize structural cavities within porous rocks as a result of evolution under extreme conditions, and have significantly contributed to shaping the impressive rock formations of the McMurdo Dry Valleys and surrounding mountain ridges. The apparently simple morphology, scarcely differentiated structures, metabolic systems and enzymes still active at very low temperatures, and reduced life cycles shown by such fungi make them particularly suited to harsh environments such as the McMurdo Dry Valleys. In particular, their thick-walled and strongly melanised cells make them resistant to UV light. Those features can also be observed in algae and cyanobacteria, suggesting that these are adaptations to the conditions prevailing in Antarctica. This has led to speculation that, if life ever occurred on Mars, it might have looked similar to Antarctic fungi such as Cryomyces antarcticus, and Cryomyces minteri. Some of these fungi are also apparently endemic to Antarctica. Endemic Antarctic fungi also include certain dung-inhabiting species, which live in the dung of birds, and which have had to evolve in response to the double challenge of extreme cold while growing on dung, and the need to survive passage through the gut of warm-blooded animals.

PLANTS

About 300 million years ago Permian forests started to cover the continent, and tundra vegetation survived as late as 15 million years ago, but the climate of present-day Antarctica does not allow extensive vegetation to form. A combination of freezing temperatures, poor soil quality, lack of moisture, and lack of sunlight inhibit plant growth. As a result, the diversity of plant life is very low and limited in distribution. The flora of the continent largely consists of bryophytes. There are about 100 species of mosses and 25 species of liverworts, but only three species of flowering plants, all of which are found in the Antarctic Peninsula: Deschampsia antarctica (Antarctic hair grass), Colobanthus quitensis (Antarctic pearlwort) and the non-native Poa annua (annual bluegrass). Growth is restricted to a few weeks in the summer.

OTHERS

Seven hundred species of algae exist, most of which are phytoplankton. Multicoloured snow algae and diatoms are especially abundant in the coastal regions during the summer. Bacteria have been found living in the cold and dark as deep as 800 m (0. 50 mi; 2, 600 ft) under the ice. There is some evidence, in the form of ice cores drilled to about 400 m (1, 300 ft) above the water line, that Lake Vostok's waters may contain microbial life. The frozen surface of the lake shares similarities with Jupiter's moon Europa. If life is discovered in Lake Vostok, it would strengthen the argument for the possibility of life on Europa. There exists a community of extremophile bacteria in the highly alkaline waters of Lake Untersee. The prevalence of highly resilient creatures in such inhospitable areas could further bolster the argument for extraterrestrial life in extremely cold, methane-rich environments.

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