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Nova (novel)

Nоva is a science fiction novel by American writer Samuel R. Delany and published in 1968. The plot concerns the spaceship captain Lorq Von Ray's search for a supernova, which will produce the essential power source Illyrion, and his vendetta with the Red family, who seek to kill him. Nominally space opera, it explores the politics and culture of a future where cyborg technology is universal, yet making major decisions can involve using tarot cards. It has strong mythological overtones, relating to both the Grail Quest and Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece.

Nova was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1969. In 1984, David Pringle listed it as one of the 100 best science-fiction novels written since 1949.

After Delany completed Nova at the age of 25, his published output stopped for several years, although his writing continued. His next published novel was the pornographic Equinox in 1973.

Synopsis
The novel is set in 3172, when most humans belong to one of two factions: Earth-based Draco and the Pleiades Federation. The most important family in Pleiades is the Von Rays, and the most important in Draco is the Reds, who own Red-shift Limited, a company making interstellar drives. Starship travel depends on Illyrion, a rare and valuable power source.

The story begins on Triton. A blind man named Dan tells a young drifter called the Mouse how he flew on Lorq Von Ray's starship, the Roc, and how he was injured in a dangerous voyage. A flashback to the Mouse's childhood follows, explaining how he stole a sensory syrynx (a machine capable of producing sound, images, and scents) and learned to play it from his friend Leo.

Lorq recruits the Mouse and other passers-by for a journey on the Roc. One is Katin, an intellectual who aspires to write a novel. Others are the brothers Lynceos and Idas, whose third brother is an indentured Illyrion miner; Sebastian, owner of flying pets; and his companion Tyÿ, a tarot reader. Lorq plans to fly through a nova to acquire seven tons of Illyrion. As the crew members leave Triton, Dan falls into a burning canyon and dies.

The third chapter is a flashback to Lorq's youth, beginning with his boyhood on the planet Ark, when he meets Prince Red and his sister Ruby. Prince was born without an arm and has an artificial one. As they play, Lorq mentions Prince's arm, angering him. Later, they sneak out to an arena and see Lorq's parents and the Reds' father watching animals fight.

Lorq becomes a starship racing pilot; his crew comprises Brian and Dan. He meets Prince again at a party, where Brian mentions Prince's arm. Lorq asks Ruby to run away with him, but Prince finds them and punches Lorq, scarring his face. Lorq's father describes how his great-grandfather secured the Pleiades Federation's independence by piracy and attacking Red-shift's mines, leading to a feud between the families. He also explains that the lower price of Illyrion from the Outer Colonies will shift the balance of power in the galaxy, bringing about the downfall of the Red family and ending Draco and Earth's dominance. Therefore, the two families are trying to destroy each other. Lorq wonders where to get Illyrion; later, Dan tells him how his ship accidentally fell into a nova but survived.

The main narrative resumes. Tyÿ gives Lorq a tarot reading about the mission; however, the Mouse has stolen a card. The Roc arrives at the planet Vorbis, and Lorq visits his aunt Cyana, who tells him a star likely to explode soon. Prince sends Lorq a message bragging that he destroyed Brian's life because he mentioned his arm, and that he intends to kill Lorq. Meanwhile, the Mouse visits some hunters and reunites with Leo. Ruby attacks Lorq, but one of Sebastian's pets saves him and the Roc returns to Pleiades.

The crew try to relax, but Prince and Ruby arrive. They argue with Lorq; Prince states that Lorq's quest will ruin both Draco and the Outer Colonies. Lorq replies that he is fighting for change, and Prince for stasis. Prince then reveals why he hates Lorq: their visit to the arena on Ark showed him how vicious and cruel his father could be. Sebastian and Lorq attack Prince and Ruby; Lorq uses the sensory syrynx to overwhelm their senses, leaving them seriously injured near a river of lava.

The Roc travels to the star, but Prince and Ruby reappear. Lorq boards their ship, and the star begins to erupt. Lorq seizes control and flies toward the star, killing Prince; Ruby dies too and Lorq flies through the nova, collecting the Illyrion but injuring his brain.

At the end of the novel, Katin and the Mouse leave the Roc and Katin declares that his novel should be about the Roc's last voyage. Echoing Katin's observation that stories about the quest for the Holy Grail are never finished, the last sentence of the novel is incomplete.

Characters

 * Lorq Von Ray. Lorq is the scion of the wealthy Von Ray family, the most powerful clan in the Pleiades Federation. Originally a carefree playboy, Lorq is drawn into his family's feud with the Reds and, as a result, becomes obsessed with finding Illyrion. When Prince Red attacks him as a teenager at a fabulously opulent party in Isle St.-Louis in Paris, he scars Lorq's face badly; but Lorq refuses to remove the scarring for the rest of the novel and as a result carries an air of menace. As the book unfolds, Lorq learns that his family was founded by pirates, who killed members of the Red family in previous generations in order to keep the Pleiades free of Earth-based corporations, although Lorq's ancestors did so with the support of the Pleiades' citizens. The Reds, however, still carry a grudge. Although Lorq Von Ray is described as looking between forty-five and fifty years old, according to the dates in the book he is barely thirty. The explanation for this discrepancy between Lorq's actual age and older appearance is provided in the Mouse's speculation that Lorq is "aged, not old". He has a Norwegian father and a Senegalese mother from Earth.
 * The Mouse. This is the nickname for Pontichos Provechi, a young Gypsy from Earth, who, by age 18, has led an extremely varied life, and is just beginning to work in a starship navigation crew. He also entertains people by creating illusions and music with his sensory syrynx, a sound, scent, and hologram projector.
 * Katin Crawford. Katin is an intellectual from Earth's moon, who received a liberal arts education at Harvard University and who has worked till now at a series of unfulfilling clerical positions. Katin is a loner. His passion is to explore various moons across the Solar System. He also aspires to write a novel, for which he constantly records notes, although the form is obsolete by the time Nova takes place. Sometimes Katin annoys his colleagues by going off on long lectures on any number of topics; in this capacity, he is sometimes comic, even while acting as the novel's expository voice.
 * Sebastian and Tyÿ. This wandering, working couple consists of Sebastian, a powerful-looking man who is nonetheless gentle — he keeps a number of unusual pets with him, his "flapping black gillies" — and his companion, Tyÿ, a quiet mysterious woman and tarot-card reader. Like many of Delany's characters, Sebastian is racially mixed: although he has Asian features, his hair is naturally blond. Both are from the Pleiades and consider it an honor to work for the Von Ray family.
 * Lynceos and Idas. These brothers – two members of a set of triplets – are of African descent, but Lynceos is an albino. Hailing from the Outer Colonies, all three brothers had a tendency to use drugs and make mischief. As a result of one of their pranks, they ended in a type of indentured servitude and were forced to work in the colonies' Illyrion mines. (Such arrangements are common at that time to "recruit" workers for the mines.) The two talk in tandem. Jokingly Katin calls them a pair of "glorified salt and pepper shakers." Characters like the Mouse, Lynceos, Idas, Tyÿ, Sebastian, and even Katin can be seen as hippies, with itinerant lifestyles and drugs.
 * Prince Red. The scion of the Earth-based Red family, Prince was born with only one arm. In place of the other, he wears an artificial limb, which has unnatural strength. Its grip can compress sand into quartz crystals, which he can throw with the force of bullets. A troublemaker from birth (in his youth, he was forced constantly to shift schools because of discipline problems), he detests Lorq for numerous reasons, some of which he is not consciously aware of. Because of the power his artificial arm gives him, Prince can become extremely violent if anyone so much as mentions his deformity. As a little boy he sprains Lorq's mother's wrist when, innocently, she asks for his hand to take him home when he has gotten into mischief after dark with the other children.
 * Ruby Red. Prince's younger sister, Ruby, is a quiet-spoken woman, who appears to be completely under Prince's control. As an adolescent, Lorq falls in love with her, but she rebuffs him because of their families' hostile histories. Prince appears to have an unhealthy attachment to his sister—which, often, she seems to reciprocate. While their father, Aaron, is still alive at the time of the novel and in charge of the Red's vast industrial holdings, Prince and Ruby are the most visible members of the Red clan.
 * Dan. An Australian drifter and former member of Lorq's crew, Dan is the first to suggest to Lorq how a nova might be a source for Illyrion. Unfortunately, by the beginning of the novel, an accident on the first mission has damaged his senses and probably his sanity. He kills himself soon into the book, and most of his appearances take place in flashbacks.

Setting
Nova is set in a science fictional universe with high technology, including interstellar travel and large-scale use of cyborg adaptions. Most people use intravenous drips for nutrition rather than eating, and disease is considered to be impossible. The novel is an obsolete art form and has been replaced by the "psychorama".

However, in contrast to the technological background, reading the tarot is considered both scientific and accurate. Indeed, the Mouse is ridiculed as old-fashioned for his skepticism about it. In chapter four, Tyÿ gives Lorq the most detailed tarot reading in the novel. As a child, he also had a tarot reading mentioning a death in his family, about a month before his uncle, Secretary Morgan, was assassinated. Later, Cyana makes Lorq draw a card before she gives him the nova's location.

Politically, the galaxy is divided between three factions: Draco, based on Earth, and the earliest area to be colonized; the younger Pleiades Federation; and the even newer Outer Colonies, where Illyrion is mined rather than manufactured. In chapter three, Lorq's father explains these regions in terms of social class. Draco is primarily controlled by corporations and governments based on Earth. Pleiades was settled later by "small businesses... cooperative groups; even private citizens...a comparatively middle class movement". Lorq's great-great-grandfather attacked ships from Draco, including those owned by Red-shift, attempting to expand into Pleiades, helping assure its independence. A few generations before the novel begins, planets much further from the Galactic Center were discovered to possess Illyrion, and corporations in Draco and Pleiades subsidized people "from the lowest population strata" to move there.

Economic tensions have created a feud between the "new money" Von Ray family and the "old money" Red family, both of whom have a large stake in intergalactic transportation. Shortly before the novel's events (within the lifetime of Lorq's father), the Pleiades region achieved political autonomy from Draco, and is now an independent federation. At the time of the novel, citizens of the Outer Colonies are beginning to support the idea of independence as well.

Technology and science
Illyrion is a fictional superheavy element with an atomic weight above 300, explained as being part of the hypothetical island of stability. It is a powerful energy source; a few grams provide enough energy for a starship. Katin estimates that 8-9,000 kg has been mined.

Almost all the characters in the book are cyborgs, equipped with four sockets (in the small of the back, back of the neck, and both wrists) that allow the user to connect directly to a computer. These can be used to control starships or less complicated machines; in the opening scene, one character uses it to control a "sweeper" to clean the floor. People using these sockets are called "cyborg studs".

The sockets are based on the ideas of a 23rd century philosopher and psychologist, Ashton Clark, and are intended to counteract the alienation caused by the separation between work and life. When the plugs and sockets were invented, work was done directly by people, reducing mental illness and making war impossible.

Future history
The 20th century is a pivotal period in Nova's future history. Cyana, a curator at the Alkane Museum, claims that almost a quarter of its galleries are devoted to the period. She justifies this by saying that the it encompasses the greatest change in humanity's fundamental situation: "At the beginning of that amazing century, mankind was many societies living on one world; at its end, it was basically what we are now: an informatively unified society that lived on several worlds."

Characters make frequent references to 20th century culture. At Prince's party in Paris, a group of entertainers performs a song by The Mamas & the Papas. Katin makes an offhand remark indicating that Monopoly is still in existence, and mentions Bertrand Russell and Susanne Langer as renaissance figures.

The novel refers repeatedly to a historic Vega Republic, which tried to secede from Draco in 2800. Katin states that they tried to create original art, and calls them a "last stand for cultural autonomy". However, the secession failed, and Vegan art and architecture has been absorbed by the wider culture in what he calls a "parlor game".

Intertextuality
Nova has a number of motifs in common with Delany's later works; for example, the Mouse, a damaged artist who wears one shoe as does the Kid in the later Dhalgren, is a "classic Delany protagonist" in the mold of Jean Genet and François Villon and a precursor to the Kid in Dhalgren. Other motifs include Katin, an intellectual and writer who attempts to record the events around him; the twins Lynceos and Idas, one black, the other albino; and Dan, a barefoot derelict, with a rope holding up his pants.

The novel has also been compared to sea stories, with Dan recalling the blind pirate Pew in Treasure Island and Lorq Von Ray the captain of the Flying Dutchman, and described as suggesting "Moby Dick at a strobe-light show". The name of Lorq's previous ship, the Caliban, is an reference to the character Caliban in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest.

Nova also refers to other space operas. A planet is named "Trantor", after Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy, and the name Ashton Clark alludes to the writer Clark Ashton Smith. Ruby Red has a poisoned tooth, recalling Frank Herbert's Dune. Prince's ability to squeeze sand into glass and quartz fragments strongly parallels the power of many action heroes (most notably Superman), and the idea of aristocratic families feuding in space is found in numerous other space opera novels. The character of Katin is partially written to resemble the classic "bore" in science fiction literature—a character who constantly gives lectures and explanations to describe the universe of the book. In Nova, however, Katin is constantly ridiculed for filling this role and on occasion is used for comic relief.

However, although Nova is a full-blooded space opera, it is also a counter to the ideology of expansion into and colonization of space. It is a work of postcolonial science fiction that appropriates the genre's traditions and conventions to open up space to imagine an alternative.

Myth
Nova also makes heavy use of myth. An author's note at the beginning of the book thanks Helen Adam and Russell FitzGerald for their help with Grail and tarot research. Reviewers and academics have compared it to the story of Prometheus and the Holy Grail. However, the correspondences are not directly one-to-one but far more tangled; the characters are not heroes and villains in disguise but used to give resonance to the text. Jo Walton has suggested that the story is what has been prefigured by myth, or that the tale of Lorq Von Ray has had other tales attached to it.

For instance, Lorq Von Ray has been compared to Prometheus. Idas and Lynceos share names with two of the Argonauts, the brothers Idas and Lynceus of Messene. Katin notes the story's "archetypal patterns" at the close of the story.

The tarot
Much of the story revolves around a tarot reading Tyÿ gives Lorq at the beginning of the second mission, in which she rather successfully predicts the stakes and outcome. For example, The Tower appears, indicating that a powerful family (presumably the Reds or Von Rays) will fall, and the large number of pentacles indicates wealth. Prince and Ruby are represented by the King of Swords and the Queen of Swords, respectively. An anomaly in the reading, however, occurs when Tyÿ drops The Sun — which Lorq considered to represent a nova — and the Mouse pockets it, thus making it impossible for Tyÿ's reading to include this card.

Smaller tarot readings dot the rest of the novel. As a young child, Lorq receives a reading indicating a death in his family: within a month, his Uncle Morgan is assassinated. Likewise, Lorq's Aunt Cyana (Morgan's widow) has Lorq choose a single tarot card for insight: it is The Hanged Man, reversed, indicating that Lorq will succeed in his quest, but at a very high price.

The tarot used in Nova is a modified Rider–Waite deck. Lorq is most closely concerned with tarot; he is unwilling or unable to begin his quest without Tyÿ's reading, suggesting that the cards can satisfy human needs that technology is unable to assuage. However, the Mouse also benefits from its use, as it helps him remember his mother using them to help her people. At the end of the novel, he asks Tyÿ for a reading.

Art
The two artists in Nova represent different kinds of art: the Mouse's sensory syrynx playing is spontaneous and instinctive, and on the other hand Katin's novel is carefully considered but not begun. However, while talking to the Mouse, Katin equates writing his novel to playing the sensory syrynx. Both create sensory experiences which then summon up memories, thoughts, and emotions related to those sensations. A deeper similarity is illuminated by Katin's remark that novels were primarily about relationships, and the obsolescence of the form implies that people in Nova's milieu are generally solitary and lonely. However, art can make people consider these relationships, such as when the Mouse experiences Leo's playing and thinks of his parents, analyzing the difference in his relationships with them.

Katin, the aspiring novelist, frequently records notes about what his novel should be like. The definition of the novel is one of Novas themes; contemporary Delany works with aesthetic concerns include Empire Stars concentration on point of view and Dhalgren's emphasis on the relationship between creative writing and criticism. Judith Merril's review goes so far as to call Nova "an experimental approach to literary criticism". By the end of the novel, it is clear that the novel Katin will write is Nova itself.

Another image of the work of art in Nova is the distinction between Katin and Lorq Von Ray at the end of the novel, after they have both experienced the nova. Lorq looks into the heart of the nova and his senses are overloaded; however Katin, who looked at it after the Roc left the core, is inspired to create art by organizing his experiences through controlled aesthetic techniques.

Race
Delany has consistently created black characters to populate his science fiction, and race is both obvious and essential to Nova. The main character, Lorq, is mixed-race; his father is of Norwegian descent, and his Earth-born mother is Senegalese. This prevented the novel from being serialised in Analog before publication. The Mouse is Romani (referred to in the text as a "gypsy"); his real name is Pontichos Provechi.

The residents of the Pleiades Federation (and the Outer Colonies) overall are an extremely mixed racial population. In addition to appearances, characters from the Pleiades sometimes have names that indicate a mixed racial heritage. For example, Lorq's friend Yorgos Satsumi has a clearly Japanese last name, but a first name that is decidedly Greek.

This is in sharp contrast to the Earth-centered Draco society, and the Red family are consistently referred to as Caucasian. Individuals from Earth also tend to have extremely "WASPish" names. For example, Brian's full name is Brian Anthony Sanders. Moreover, according to the Mouse, Earth still has problems with racism; he recalls seeing Gypsies lynched when he was younger.

The crew of the Roc are mixed in both 20th century terms – Lorq, Idas, and Lynceos are of African descent; Sebastian is a blond Asian (referred to in the text as "Oriental"); the Mouse is Romani – and in their own milieu, in terms of origin and economic class. Idas and Lynceos hail from the Outer Colonies, Katin and the Mouse from Draco, and Tyÿ, Sebastian, and Lorq from Pleiades. Lorq, at the center of the novel, is attracted to Ruby, angering Prince and reigniting their feud, even if his blackness is secondary to his identity as a Von Ray. Although race is different in the world of Nova, it still matters. However, Lorq is able to struggle against the Reds as equals and in the end, the fate of the galaxy turns on the abilities of a black man.

Politics
The setting of Nova is vague, but is explicitly defined as an empire, and it depends on Illyrion mining in the peripheral Outer Colonies. The name of the planet where Lynceos and Idas worked, Tubman, is a direct allusion to the American abolitionist Harriet Tubman. Colonial history is thus mapped onto the galactic setting. The Red family symbolize the continuation of colonialism and empire; but because of Lorq's victory, the mining colonies will be closed, and the workers freed.

Man and machine
Description of work before Ashton Clark and Souquet's plugs and sockets resembles the alienated, dehumanizing labor described in Karl Marx's Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. However, work with the sockets links labor to life, allowing unalienated work. This resembles Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's idea of "living labor", subverting the alienations of capitalism and providing an alternative to it, while affirming the worker rather than the product.

Although Delany sees technology as both a constructive and destructive force, he also sees it as having limits; it is not the sole determiner of a culture or a personality. Cooperation, or community, is needed for Lorq's success, as the whole diverse crew must work together to succeed. And despite the humanizing effect of plug and socket labor, the freedom from alienation that it ensures has limits. Tarot and superstitions, such as the Mouse spitting in the river, are vital psychological supports. Meanwhile, plugs and sockets are unable to cure Prince's issues, and he remains a selfish, indulgent, and incestuous murderer pursuing his economic monopoly.

Style
Delany uses a careful prose style to present his work both sensually and metaphorically. He uses language to differentiate the characters; for instance, people from Pleiades speak with verbs at the ends of their sentences, and Lynceos and Idas begin and finish each other's sentences. The same is true for point of view; due to their different upbringings, Katin, the Mouse, and Lorq all have different perspectives on the assassination of the politician Morgan. Also, each page in the book carries a header that gives the year and location of the scene (e.g., "Draco, Earth, Paris, 3162"). This is useful because of the flashbacks in the long journey around the galaxy.

The novel's prose style has been called "poetic", with every metaphor serving the larger design. The sensory syrynx is an example of this. The name alludes to the Greek god Pan's pipes; moreover, early in the novel, the Mouse refers to it as his "ax". This is both a weapon and a slang term for a guitar, fitting both the functions it performs in the novel. Furthermore, it symbolizes writing and invokes the Cretan labrys, implying the labyrinth. This allusive style has been described as a way to overcome the linearity of prose and enrich the text by invoking the textus, or web of meanings, in which Delany considers any given text to reside.

Another example of this is the word nova itself; literally, it denotes a supernova, but it is also the plural of novum, Latin for "new thing", a term that can be used to mean science fictional inventions. Lorq describes the nova is a place where all law, human and natural, breaks down, to which the Mouse replies that the voyage will be "real changey". As the title indicates, this is the novel's central metaphor: the destructive implosion/explosion of an entire sun, which both destroys most of a solar system and creates new elements.

Publishing history
While awaiting publication by Doubleday, Nova was submitted to Analog editor John W. Campbell for potential serialization. Campbell rejected the novel, saying in a telephone conversation with Delany's agent that, though he had enjoyed the book, he did not feel his magazine's readership "would be able to relate to a black main character."

Because there was no magazine serialization, however, in its first six months the novel did not get the initially wide exposure to readers that might have helped gain it a Hugo Award.

Bantam Books' 14th and final printing of the novel was in 1990. After this is it was out of print until 2001, when Gollancz reissued it as part of their SF Masterworks line. In 2002, Vintage published a new edition with some textual changes. The Library of America included it in their 2019 anthology American Science Fiction: Four Classic Novels 1968-1969, and in 2022 Centipede Press published a limited hardback edition including tarot cards designed by Russell FitzGerald, who created the original cover art.

Textual changes
In the original novel, Lorq's crew member Brian disappears without explanation after a single chapter. In later editions, Prince sends Lorq a message while he is visiting the Alkane museum, describing how, with no more provocation than a careless comment Brian made about Prince's arm, he used his wealth and power to systematically destroy Brian's life until he became homeless and died of exposure. Prince claims that he has killed some two dozen others in a similar manner for similar reasons.

This passage significantly alters Prince's characterization. In the first edition, the worst that could be said of Prince is that he had been "spoiled" and had a violent temper. The new material turns him into a remorseless murderer and adds a moral component to Lorq's quest absent in the earlier versions.

However, the above passage is in both the original typescript of Nova and Delany's handwritten version of the novel in his notebooks from 1967. These are in the Samuel R. Delany papers in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, part of Yale University Library. Delany omitted it when a friend who had read the manuscript found the section too extreme. However, when Algis Budrys' review complained about Brian's absence, Delany decided to restore Prince's message to the novel so readers would know what happened to Brian. This was present in editions printed for book clubs a few months later.

Additionally, in the first edition of Nova it is unclear whether or not Lorq's parents are still alive by the time the novel ends. When Lorq begins his quest, his mother is already dying of a degenerative disorder, but at the end he makes no mention of them, nor does he try to contact them. However, in another (much briefer) passage added in the Vintage Books edition, related to the above, Lorq has a memory that implies both of his parents and Aaron Red died during the past ten years. This is in neither the original typescript nor in the notebook version, and is a true addition.

Reception
Algis Budrys reviewed the novel in Galaxy Magazine, declaring that

"'Samuel R. Delany, right now, as of this book, Nova, not as of some future book or some accumulated body of work, is the best science-fiction writer in the world, at a time when competition for that status is intense. I don't see how a writer can do more than wring your heart while explaining how it works. No writer can.'"

He praised Nova as "highly entertaining to read" and commended Delany's integration of his sociopolitical extrapolation into his story, his accomplished characterization, and his "virtuosity" in presenting the novel's "classically posed scientific puzzle."

However, Judith Merril's review in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction was mixed. She noted the variety of readings it allowed and experiences it detailed:

"'Here are (at least some of) the ways you can read Nova: as fast-action far-flung interstellar adventure; as archetypal mystical/mythical allegory (in which the Tarot and the Grail both figure prominently); as modern myth told in the SF idiom . . . The reader observes, recollects, or participates in a range of personal human experience including violent pain and disfigurement, sensory deprivation and overload, man-machine communion, the drug experience, the creative experience – and interpersonal relationships which include incest and assassination, father-son, leader-follower, human-pet, and lots more.'"

However, she described it as "more of a fascinating exercise than a satisfying achievement" and "somehow lacking". Kirkus Reviews said that though Delany had "an extensive imagination", the reader might be overwhelmed. The review in the British New Wave magazine New Worlds by M. John Harrison, while acknowledging the skill and energy with which it had been written, called the book a "waste of time and talent".

Nova was soon regularly referred to as "the perfect science fiction novel". It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1969. In 1984, David Pringle listed it as one of the 100 best science-fiction novels written since 1949.

Jo Walton wrote articles about Nova on Tor.com in 2009 and 2010, describing it as "one of the best of Delany's early works" and noting that it had aged well and felt "cutting edge". She called the setting "a fully realised and kaleidoscopic future" with "surprisingly interesting economics". However, she thought the female characters were few and poorly developed. Alan Brown also reviewed the novel for Tor.com, opining that it was "a classic of the genre" with few obvious anachronisms.

Influence
Nova is considered one of the major forerunners of the cyberpunk movement. It prefigures, for instance, cyberpunk's staple motif of humans interfacing with computers via implants; however, in Nova these are not used to enter cyberspace but to control physical machinery.

William Gibson has said he was influenced by Delany, and Nova has been described as the stylistic bridge between Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination and Gibson's Neuromancer. Neuromancer includes allusions to Nova. The character Peter Riviera resembles the Mouse in that he also has holographic projection powers (although via implants) and is introduced in Istanbul; but unlike Delany's character, he is a psychopath. Likewise, Gibson includes a character who awkwardly wears only one shoe; this character, Ashpool, is an insane killer.

Adaptation
In 2023, it was reported that Neil Gaiman was adapting the novel into an Amazon Prime Video series.

title: Nova (novel)


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Yukimasa Kishino

Yukimasa Kishino (岸野 幸正) is a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator from Edogawa, Tokyo, Japan. He is also active in the theatrical entertainment field and is the chairman of his own theatrical group, Gekidan Kishino Gumi. Some of the members of this group include fellow voice actors Kujira and Masaaki Okura. Among his successful for voicing characters are in Dynasty Warriors and Warriors Orochi series as Cao Cao.

Television animation

 * 1990s
 * Dragon Ball Z (1990) (Butta, Cell Games Announcer, Tao Pai Pai (episode 174))
 * Magic Knight Rayearth (1995) (Lafarga)
 * Slam Dunk (1995) (Jun Uozumi)
 * Trigun (1998) (Ruth Loose (ep. 1))
 * Cowboy Bebop (1998) (Jonathan (ep. 14))
 * One Piece (1999) (Higuma (ep. 4))
 * Detective Conan (1999) (Kunitomo Oda (ep. 172 - 173), Hyōe Kuroda)
 * 2000s
 * Zoids: New Century/ZERO (2001) (Oscar Hemeros)
 * Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting! (2001) (Jimmy Sisphar's coach (ep. 40))
 * Onmyō Taisenki (2004) (Sōtarō Tachibana)

Unknown date
 * Kiteretsu Daihyakka (Kikunojō Hanamaru (second voice))

Tokusatsu

 * B-Fighter Kabuto (Spirit Evil Beast Zanshoror (ep. 24), Darkness Wave Beast Dargriffon (ep. 44))
 * Kyukyu Sentai GoGo-V (Spiritworld Guard Psyma Chaos (ep. 42 - 43))
 * Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger (Bus Org (ep. 17))

Original video animation (OVA)

 * Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1989) (Stokes (ep. 21))
 * Transformers: Zone (1990) (BlackZarak, Predaking)
 * Slow Step (1991) (Bitō)
 * 3×3 Eyes (1991) (Kimie Shingyōji)
 * Tōshinden (1996) (Mondo)
 * I'll CKBC (2002) (Masahito Hīragi)

Theatrical animation

 * Akira (1988) (Mitsuru Kawata, Assistant, Committee B, Terrorist)
 * NEMO (1989) (Goblin)
 * Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest (1990) (Kishime)
 * Street Fighter II: The Movie (1994) (Dhalsim)
 * Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos (2011) (Gonzales)
 * Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer (2018) (Hyōe Kuroda)

Video games

 * Double Dragon (1995) (Eddie)
 * Super Dodge Ball (1996) (Sabu)
 * Castlevania (2003) (Walter Bernhard)
 * Dynasty Warriors series (1997–present) (Cao Cao)
 * Dead or Alive 3 (2002) (Brad Wong)
 * Dead or Alive 4 (2005) (Brad Wong)
 * TwinBee series (1991–present) (Dr. Warumon)
 * Valkyria Chronicles series (Calvaro Rodriguez)
 * Warriors Orochi series (2007–present) (Cao Cao)

Radio drama

 * TwinBee Paradise (1993) (Dr. Warumon)

Live-action

 * Speed 2: Cruise Control (Maurice (Glenn Plummer))

Animation

 * Bambi (The Great Prince of the Forest)
 * Beast Wars: Transformers (General Ram Horn)

title: Yukimasa Kishino


text:
Tumbes, Peru

Tumbes is a city in northwestern Peru, on the banks of the Tumbes River. It is the capital of the Tumbes Region, as well as of Tumbes Province and Tumbes District. Located near the border with Ecuador, Tumbes has 111,595 inhabitants as of 2015. It is served by the Cap. FAP Pedro Canga Rodriguez Airport. It is located on the Gulf of Guayaquil along with Zorritos.

History
Tumbes has its origins back in pre-Inca times when it was inhabited by a cultural group of natives called Tumpis. At its peak, its population is estimated to have reached 178,000. After 1400, Inca Pachacuti ruled over Tumbes and the territory became an important political stronghold during the Inca Empire. Later Inca emperor Huayna Capac expanded Tumbes by ordering the construction of roads, houses and palaces.

Spanish arrival
Tumbes was first visited by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro during the start of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in 1528. Molina noted that Tumbes was a well organized town. Pizarro made a second expedition in 1532 during which he encountered resistance from the curaca (chieftain) Chilimaza in what became known as the Battle of the Manglares. Pizarro was eventually successful and is said to have planted a cross in the invaded territory as a sign of Hispanic victory. Felipillo and Yacané, the first South American Indigenous interpreters who later aided Pizarro and his followers during the conquest of Peru, were born in Tumbes.

Colony and independence
During its colonial period, Tumbes was sparsely populated and formed a part of the Audiencia of Quito through an unmodified Cedula of 1563 and Cedula of 1740. When Tumbes declared its independence from Spain, it opted to join Peru believing in the right of free determination of peoples. First, the Republic of the Gran Colombia challenged that right and then Ecuador claiming de jure rights through unmodified colonial Royal Decrees ( Real Cédulas ), but to no avail. The Protocol of Rio de Janeiro signed in 1942 with Ecuador legally confirmed Peru's previously de facto rights over Tumbes after a victorious war. However, lasting peace between both countries was not achieved until 1998, after a final conflict in 1995. Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori and Ecuadorian Presidente Jamil Mahuad signed a final document in which Ecuador accepted Perú's right over Tumbes and other territories claimed by Ecuador until then.

Climate
Tumbes has a hot arid climate (Köppen BWh), although it receives an average annual rainfall of 307.5 mm, due to its high potential evapotranspiration. Rainfall is very variable due to the El Niño Southern Oscillation, with strong El Niños frequently seeing more than twice the mean rain.

title: Tumbes, Peru


text:
Talk:Andy Breckman

Comment
I reverted this page as User:69.193.135.145 had deleted the content and replaced it. Ganymead 07:17, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Andy Breckman


text:
Sir Julius Vogel Award

The Sir Julius Vogel Awards are awarded each year at the New Zealand National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in New Zealand science fiction, fantasy, horror, and science fiction fandom. They are commonly referred to as the Vogels.

Name
The awards are named for Sir Julius Vogel, a prominent New Zealand journalist and politician, who was Premier of New Zealand twice during the 1870s. He also, in 1889, wrote what is widely regarded as New Zealand's first science fiction novel, Anno Domini 2000, or, Woman's Destiny. The book, written and published in Great Britain after Vogel had moved from New Zealand, pictured a New Zealand in the year 2000 where most positions of authority were held by women—at the time of writing, a radical proposition. In 2000, New Zealand's Head of State, Governor General, Prime Minister, Chief Justice and Attorney General were all women, as was the CEO of one of the country's largest companies, Telecom.

History
National awards have been presented annually since 1989, but were initially simply known as the New Zealand Science Fiction Fan Awards, and were originally aimed primarily at fandom rather than at professional science fiction. In these early years the awards were organised on an ad-hoc basis by the organising committees of the national conventions, though with the support of the former national fan organisation, the National Association for Science Fiction which nominally ran the awards from 1993. In the early 1990s the awards were briefly known as the Edmund Bayne Awards, after a well-known Wellington fan who had been killed in a road accident, but this name was never formalised.

In 2002 the awards were revamped and reorganised, and since that time have been aimed more at the professional science fiction and fantasy community. The current name also dates to 2002. These changes accompanied a change in the organisation of the awards, which are now formally run by national organisation SFFANZ (the Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand).

Categories change to some extent on an annual basis, but generally include professional awards for best novel, short story, dramatic presentation, and services to science fiction, as well as equivalent fan awards. Due to the size of New Zealand's science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction communities, the awards cover all three of these frequently intertwined genres and attempt to treat each equally.

New Zealand science fiction fan award winners 1989-2001

 * 1989
 * Best fan writing: Alan Robson
 * Best fanzine: Phlogiston
 * Best fan art: Dan McCarthy
 * Best fan editor: Alex Heatley
 *  Numerous other one-off awards were made in these debut awards

 * 1990
 * Best fan writing (general): Alan Robson
 * Best fan writing (media): Lana Brown
 * Best fanzine: Cry Havoc
 * Best media fanzine: Katra
 * Best fan art: Peter Gainsford
 * Best fan editor: Lyn McConchie

 * 1991
 * Best fan writing: Alan Robson
 * Best fanzine: Phlogiston
 * Best fan art: Dan McCarthy
 * Best fan editor: Alex Heatley

 * 1992
 * Best fan writing: Alan Robson
 * Best fanzine: Phlogiston
 * Best fan art (tie): James Benson and Mike Hanson
 * Best fan editor (tie): James Dignan and Alex Heatley

 * 1993
 * Best fan writing: Jon Preddle
 * Best general fanzine: Timestreams
 * Best club fanzine: Time Space Visualiser
 * Best fan art: Warwick Gray
 * Special achievement: Lana Brown

 * 1994
 * Best fan writing: Anne Marie Lloyd
 * Best fanzine: Chunder
 * Best fan art: Mark Roach
 * Best other publication: Trimmings from the Triffid's Beard

 * 1995
 * Best fan writing: Peter Friend and Li Cross (co-authors)
 * Best fanzine: Time Space Visualiser
 * Best fan art: Warwick Gray
 * Best other publication: The Best of Time Space Visualiser 21-26
 * Special achievement: Continuum convention committee

 * 1996
 * Best fan writing: Peter Friend
 * Best fanzine: Phoenixine
 * Best fan art: Nick Kim

 * 1997-2000 (details unknown)

 * 2001
 * Best fan writing: Jon Preddle
 * Best fanzine: Phoenixine
 * Best fan art: Richard Manx
 * Services to fandom: Paul Scoones

Professional award winners since 2002

 * 2002
 * Best Novel: First Hunter by Dale Elvy
 * Best Short Story: "The Good Earth" by Peter Friend
 * Dramatic Presentation - Long Form: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
 * Best New Talent: Dale Elvy
 * Services to Science Fiction and Fantasy: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Phillipa Boyens

 * 2003
 * Best Novel: Beast Master’s Ark by Andre Norton and Lyn McConchie
 * Best Art Work: John Baster, Mary Maclachlan
 * Services to Science Fiction and Fantasy: Weta Workshop, Weta Digital

 * 2004
 * Best Novel: Dark Shinto by Dale Elvy
 * Best Short Story (tie): "A Plea for Help" by Kevin G Maclean and "The Alchemist" by Peter Friend
 * Best New Talent: Glynne Maclean
 * Special Award: Peter Jackson and the team responsible for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

 * 2005
 * Best Novel: Beastmaster’s Circus by Lyn McConchie and Andre Norton
 * Best Short Story: "When Dragons Dream” by Kevin G Maclean
 * Services to Science Fiction and Fantasy: Ken Catran

 * 2006
 * Best Novel: The Duke's Ballad by Andre Norton and Lyn McConchie
 * Best Short Story: "The Real Deal” by Peter Friend
 * Services to Science Fiction and Fantasy: Margaret Mahy

 * 2007
 * Best Novel: The Assassin of Gleam by James Norcliffe
 * Best Short Story: "Western Front, 1914” by Peter Friend
 * Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form: Maddigan's Quest
 * Best New Talent: Douglas A. Van Belle

 * 2008
 * Best Novel - Adult: Path of Revenge by Russell Kirkpatrick
 * Best Novel - Young Adult (tie): The Sea-wreck Stranger by Anna Mackenzie and Cybele's Secret by Juliet Marillier
 * Best Short Story (tie): "Fendraaken" by Kevin G. Maclean and "Mist and Murder" by Lucy Sussex
 * Best Novella/Novelette: Beat of Temptation by Nalini Singh
 * Best Anthology: Doorways for the Dispossessed by Paul Haines
 * Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form: Black Sheep
 * Best Dramatic Presentation - Short Form: "Buy Kiwi Made" advertising campaign
 * Best New Talent: Tracie McBride
 * Services to Science Fiction: Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine Publishing Co-operative

 * 2009
 * Best Novel - Adult: Dark Heart by Russell Kirkpatrick
 * Best Novel - Young Adult: Thornspell by Helen Lowe
 * Best Short Story: "Under Waves and Over" by Grant Stone
 * Best Novella/Novelette: "Stroke of Enticement" by Nalini Singh
 * Best Collected Work: "The Invisible Road" by Elizabeth Knox
 * Best Professional Artwork: Cover for Newtons Sleep by Emma Weakley
 * Best Dramatic Presentation - Short Form: "Skankenstein" (music video)
 * Best Professional Publication: "Deputy Dan and The Mysterious Midnight Marauder" by Sally McLennan and Joel Liochon
 * Best New Talent: Helen Lowe

 * 2010
 * Best Novel: Beyond The Wall Of Time by Russell Kirkpatrick
 * Best Young Adult Novel: Brainjack by Brian Falkner
 * Best Novella/Novelette: "Wives" by Paul Haines
 * Best Short Story (tie): "Corrigan's Exchange" by Ripley Patton and "The Living Dead Boy" by Grant Stone
 * Best Collected Work: "Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry From New Zealand" by Mark Pirie and Tim Jones (editors)
 * Best Artwork: "The Test" by Serena Kearns
 * Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form: "Under the Mountain" (dir. Jonathan King)
 * Best Production/Publication: "Semaphore Magazine" by Marie Hodgkinson
 * Best New Talent: Simon Petrie
 * Services to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror: Phillip Mann

 * 2011
 * Best Novel (tie): The Heir Of Night by Helen Lowe and The Questing Road by Lyn McConchie
 * Best Young Adult Novel: Summer Of Dreaming by Lyn McConchie
 * Best Novella/Novelette: "A Tale Of The Interferers - Hunger For Forbidden Flesh" by Paul Haines
 * Best Short Story: High Tide At Hot Water Beach by Paul Haines
 * Best Collected Work: "A Foreign Country - New Zealand Speculative Fiction" by Anna Caro and Juliet Buchanan (editors)
 * Best Artwork: Cover for Tymon's Flight by Frank Victoria
 * Best Dramatic Presentation (tie): "This Is Not My Life" - Pilot Episode (Executive Producers: Gavin Strawhan, Rachel Lang, Steven O'Meagher, Tim White. Producer: Tim Sanders. Directors: Robert Sarkies, Peter Salmon. Associate Producer: Polly Fryer) and "Kaitangata Twitch" - Pilot Episode by Yvonne Mackay
 * Best Production/Publication: 	"White Cloud Worlds Anthology" by Paul Tobin (editor)
 * Best New Talent: Karen Healey
 * Services to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror: Simon Litten

 * 2012
 * Best Novel: Samiha's Song by Mary Victoria
 * Best Youth Novel: Battle of the Birds by Lee Murray
 * Best Novella/Novelette: "Steam Girl" by Dylan Horrocks
 * Best Short Story: Frankie and the Netball Clone by Alicia Ponder
 * Best Collected Work: "Tales for Canterbury" by Cassie Hart and Anna Caro (editors)
 * Best Professional Artwork: Cover for Oracle's Fire by Frank Victoria
 * Best Dramatic Presentation: "The Almighty Johnsons" (Producer: Simon Bennett. Writers: Rachel Lang and James Griffin)
 * Best New Talent: K. D. Berry
 * Services to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror: Ripley Patton

 * 2013
 * Best Novel: Queen of Iron Years by Lyn McConchie and Sharman Horwood
 * Best Youth Novel: The Prince of Soul and the Lighthouse by Frederik Brounéus
 * Best Novella/Novelette: "Flight 404" by Simon Petrie
 * Best Short Story: Hope is the thing with feathers by Lee Murray
 * Best Collected Work: "Mansfield with Monsters" by Matt and Debbie Cowens
 * Best Professional Artwork: Cover for Light Touch Paper, Stand Clear by Les Petersen
 * Best Professional Production/Publication: "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Chronicles" (Art and Design by Daniel Falconer (WetaNZ)
 * Best Dramatic Presentation: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh, Guillermo del Toro)
 * Best New Talent: Matt and Debbie Cowens
 * Services to Science Fiction, Fantasy And Horror: Stephen Minchin

 * 2014
 * Best Novel: Heartwood by Freya Robertson
 * Best Youth Novel: Raven Flight by Juliet Marillier
 * Best Novella: Cave Fever by Lee Murray
 * Best Short Story: By Bone-Light by Juliet Marillier
 * Best Collected Work: Baby Teeth by Lee Murray and Dan Rabarts (editors)
 * Best Professional Artwork: Cover for Regeneration: Best New Zealand Speculative Fiction by Emma Weakley
 * Best Professional Publication/Production: WearableArt by Craig Potton
 * Best Dramatic Presentation: The Almighty Johnsons (Season Three), South Pacific Films

2015

 * Best Novel: Engines of Empathy by Paul Mannering
 * Best Youth Novel: The Caller: Shadowfell by Juliet Marillier
 * Best Novella: Peach and Araxi by Celine Murray
 * Best Short Story: Inside Ferndale by Lee Murray
 * Best Collected Work: Lost in the Museum, Phoenix Writer's Group
 * Best Professional Artwork: Cover for Lost in the Museum by Geoff Popham
 * Best Professional Production/Publication: Weta: 20 Years of Imagination on Screen, Clare Burgess with Brian Stubley
 * Best Dramatic Presentation: What We Do In The Shadows, dir Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi

2016

 * Best Novel: Ardus by Jean Gilbert
 * Best Youth Novel: Dragons Realm (You Say Which Way) by Eileen Mueller
 * Best Novella/Novelette: The Ghost of Matter by Octavia Cade
 * Best Short Story: The Thief's Tale by Lee Murray
 * Best Collected Work: Work Off Line 2015: The Earth We Knew, Jean Gilbert and Chad Dick (editors)
 * Best Professional Artwork: Cover for Shortcuts - Track 1 by Casey Bailey
 * Best Professional Production/Publication: White Clouds World Anthology 3, Weta Workshops, Paul Tobin (editor)
 * Best New Talent: Jean Gilbert
 * Services to Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror: Marie Hodgkinson

2017

 * Best Novel: Into the Mist by Lee Murray
 * Best Youth Novel: Light in My Dark by Jean Gilbert and William Dresden
 * Best Novella/Novelette: The Convergence of Fairy Tales by Octavia Cade
 * Best Short Story: Splintr by A.J. Fitzwater
 * Best Collected Work: At the Edge, Dan Rabarts and Lee Murray (editors)
 * Best Professional Artwork: Cover for At the Edge by Emma Weakley
 * Best Professional Production/Publication: That Kind of Planet by Emma Weakley
 * Best Dramatic Presentation: This Giant Papier Mache Boulder is Actually Really Heavy, dir Christian Nicholson
 * Best New Talent: Eileen Mueller
 * Services To Science Fiction, Fantasy And Horror: Lee Murray

2018

 * Best Novel: Hounds of the Underworld by Dan Rabarts and Lee Murray
 * Best Youth Novel: The Traitor and the Thief by Gareth Ward
 * Best Novella/Novelette: Matters Arising from the Identification of the Body by Simon Petrie
 * Best Short Story: Crimson Birds of Small Miracles by Sean Monaghan
 * Best Collected Work: Mariah's Prologues by Grace Bridges
 * Best Professional Artwork: Cover for Teleport by Kate Strawbridge
 * Best Professional Production/Publication: Mistlands by Layla Rose
 * Best Dramatic Presentation: The Changeover, directed by Stuart McKenzie and Miranda Harcourt

2019

 * Best Novel: Into the Sounds by Lee Murray
 * Best Youth Novel: Lutapolii – White Dragon of the South by Deryn Pittar
 * Best Novella/Novelette: The Martian Job by M. Darusha Wehm
 * Best Short Story: Girls Who do not Drown by A.C. Buchanan
 * Best Collected Work: Te Korero Ahi Kā, edited by Grace Bridges, Lee Murray and Aaron Compton
 * Best Professional Artwork: Cover for The Baker Thief by Laya Rose
 * Best Professional Production/Publication: The Black Archive #15: Full Circle by John Toon
 * Best Dramatic Presentation: Wellington Paranormal, directed by Jemaine Clement and Jackie van Beek

2020

 * Best Novel: The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach
 * Best Youth Novel: The Clockill and the Thief by Gareth Ward
 * Best Novella/Novelette: From A Shadow Grave by Andi C. Buchanan
 * Best Short Story: A Shriek Across The Sky by Casey Lucas
 * Best Collected Work: Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy, Vol 1, edited by Marie Hodgkinson
 * Best Professional Artwork: Cover for Dragon Pearl by Vivienne To
 * Best Professional Production/Publication: Swords: The Webcomic by Matthew Wills
 * Best Dramatic Presentation: Dr Who: The Elysian Blade, David Bishop

2021

 * Best Novel: The Stone Wētā by Octavia Cade
 * Best Youth Novel: These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
 * Best Novella/Novelette: No Man’s Land by A. J. Fitzwater
 * Best Short Story: For Want of Parts by Casey Lucas
 * Best Collected Work: The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper by A. J. Fitzwater
 * Best Professional Artwork: Laya Rose, for the cover art for No Man’s Land by A. J. Fitzwater
 * Best Professional Production/Publication: How New Zealand's Best Fantasy and Science Fiction Authors got Shafted on a Global Stage by Casey Lucas

2022

 * Best Novel: Butcherbird, Cassie Hart
 * Best Youth Novel: Fire’s Caress, Lani Wendt Young
 * Best Novella/Novelette: The Impossible Resurrection of Grief, Octavia Cade
 * Best Short Story: "Data Migration", Melanie Harding-Shaw
 * Best Collected Work: Year's Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy Vol 3, edited by Marie Hodgkinson
 * Best Professional Artwork: Laya Rose, for the cover art of Foxhunt
 * Best Professional Production/Publication: What You Need Right Now is a Nice Soothing Horror Story, Tabatha Wood

2023

 * Best Novel: A Rake of His Own, A. J. Lancaster
 * Best Youth Novel: The Rarkyn's Familiar, Nikky Lee
 * Best Novella: How to Get a Girlfriend (When You're a Terrifying Monster), Marie Cardno
 * Best Novelette: "How to Marry a Winged King", A. J. Lancaster
 * Best Short Story: "My Nascent Garden", Melanie Harding-Shaw
 * Best Collected Work: Year's Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy Volume 4, Emily Brill-Holland
 * Best Professional Artwork: Rebecca Hawkes for the cover of Year's Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy Volume 4
 * Best Professional Production/Publication: The Black Archive #61 – Paradise Towers, John Toon

Fan award winners since 2002

 * 2002
 * Best Fan Writing: Alan Robson
 * Best Fanzine: Phoenixine
 * Best Fan Art: Nick Kim
 * Services to Fandom: Norman Cates and the SFFANZ discussion group

 * 2003
 * Best Fan Writing: Alan Robson
 * Best Fanzine: Phoenixine
 * Best Fan Art: Grant Preston
 * Services to Fandom: William Geradts and Adele Geradts

 * 2004
 * Best Fanzine: Phoenixine
 * Services to Fandom: Laurie Fleming

 * 2005
 * Best Fan Writing: Alan Robson
 * Best Fanzine (tied): Phoenixine and Time Space Visualiser
 * Services to Fandom: Martin Kealey

 * 2006
 * Best Fan Writing: Alan Robson
 * Best Fanzine: Phoenixine
 * Best Fan Production: King (short film)
 * Services to Fandom: Norman Cates

 * 2007
 * Best Fan Writing: Alan Robson
 * Services to Fandom: John and Lynelle Howell

 * 2008
 * Best Fan Writing: Ross Temple
 * Best Fanzine: Phoenixine
 * Best Fan Production: Renaldo, First Sheep on the Moon?
 * Services to Fandom: Simon Litten

 * 2009
 * Best Fan Writing: "Disappointment" (article by Alex Lindsay)
 * Best Fan Production: Chasing the Bard (podcast by Philippa Ballantine)
 * Best Fan Publication: The Girl Who Asked for Wisdom and Other Stories by Catherine and Stephanie Pegg
 * Services to Fandom: Maree Pavletich

 * 2010
 * Best Fan Writing: "SJV Watch" and "SFFANZ Reviews" (articles by Simon Litten)
 * Best Fan Production: Coals To Newcastle (short film by Yvonne Harrison)
 * Best Fan Publication (tie): Phoenixine by John and Lynelle Howell (editors) and Time Space Visualiser by Adam McGechen (editor)
 * Services to Fandom: David Lee-Smith

 * 2011
 * Best Fan Writing: "Musings From Under The Mountain" and Novazine contributions by Jacqui Smith
 * Best Fan Production: Doctor Who (podcast by Paul Mannering)
 * Best Fan Publication: Novazine by Jacqui Smith (editor)
 * Best Fan Artwork: Cover for StarshipSofa 150 by Gino Moretto
 * Services to Fandom: Ross Temple

 * 2012
 * Best Fan Writing: Various articles for Phoenixine and Novazine by Simon Litten
 * Best Fan Publication: Phoenixine
 * Best Fan Artwork: Various artwork in Phoenixine by Nick Kim
 * Services to Fandom: Jacqui and Keith Smith

 * 2013
 * Best Fan Writing: "Strange Matter" and occasional essays within Phoenixine by John Toon
 * Best Fan Production: AetherCon
 * Best Fan Publication: Phoenixine
 * Best Fan Artwork: Contributions to Novazine by Keith Smith
 * Services to Fandom: Annette Bergner

 * 2014
 * Best Fan Writing (tie): Alan Parker "Presidential Address", Novazine; Lynnelle Howell "Presidential Sweet/DuhVice", Phoenixine
 * Best Fan Production/Publication: Phoenixine, John and Lynelle Howell
 * Best New Talent: Dan Rabarts
 * Services to Fandom: The League of Victorian Imagineers
 * Services to Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror: Helen Lowe

 * 2015
 * Best Fan Writing: Rebecca Fisher
 * Best Fan Production/Publication: Phoenixine, John and Lynelle Howell
 * Best Fan Artwork: Keith Smith, Novazine
 * Best New Talent: A.J. Fitzwater
 * Services to Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror: Hugh Cook

 * 2016
 * Best Fan Writing: John Toon, Phoenixine
 * Best Fan Production/Publication: Phoenixine, John and Lynelle Howell
 * Best Fan Artist: Keith Smith
 * Services to Fandom: Glenn Young

2022
 * 2017
 * Best Fan Writing: Octavia Cade
 * Best Fan Production/ Publication: Summer Star Trek: Mirror, Mirror, Enterprise Entertainment
 * Best Fan Artist: Keith Smith
 * Services to Fandom: Lynelle Howell

 * Best Fan Writing: Andi C. Buchanan

 * Best Fan Production/ Publication: Phoenixine, John & Jo Toon
 * Best Fan Artist: Michelle Kan and Jules (joint winners)
 * Services to Fandom: Michelle Kan

2023

 * Best Fan Writing: Rem Wigmore
 * Best Fan Production/ Publication: Phoenixine, John & Jo Toon
 * Best Fan Artist: Leadambeck
 * Services to Fandom: Matthew Pavletich

title: Sir Julius Vogel Award


text:
Blue-black grassquit

The blue-black grassquit (Volatinia jacarina) is a small Neotropical bird in the tanager family, Thraupidae. It is the only member of the genus Volatinia. It is a common and widespread bird that breeds from southern Mexico through Central America, and South America as far as northern Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay, and in Trinidad and Tobago. A male was also observed in Graham County, Arizona on July 15 and July 17, 2023.

This species is sexually dimorphic; the male is glossy blue with some white under the wing. The female is brown above and pale buff with darker streaks below.

Taxonomy
The blue-black grassquit was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Tanagra jacarina. Linnaeus based his description on the "Jacarni" that was described in 1648 by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. The type locality is eastern Brazil. The specific epithet jacarina is derived from the Tupi language and was used for a type of finch. The blue-black grassquit is now the only species placed in the genus Volatinia and was introduced in 1850 by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach. The genus name is a diminutive of the Latin volatus meaning "flying".

Within the tanager family Thraupidae the blue-black grassquit is in the subfamily Tachyphoninae and is a member of a clade that contains the genera Conothraupis and Creurgops.

The blue-black grassquit was formerly placed with the buntings in the subfamily Emberizinae rather than with the tanagers in Thraupinae within an expanded family Emberizidae.

Three subspecies are recognised:
 * V. j. splendens (Vieillot, 1817) – Mexico to Colombia and east through Venezuela and the Guianas to the Amazon basin; also Trinidad, Tobago and Grenada
 * V. j. jacarina (Linnaeus, 1766) – southeast Peru to east Brazil and south to north Argentina
 * V. j. peruviensis (Peale, 1849) – west Ecuador, west Peru, and northwest Chile

Description
Adult blue-black grassquits are 10.2 cm long and weigh 9.3 g. They have a slender conical black bill. The male is glossy blue-black, with a black tail and wings; the white inner underwing is visible in flight or display. Female and immature birds have brown upperparts and dark-streaked buff underparts.

Behavior
Social monogamous, extra-pair fertilizations, intraspecific parasitism, and quasi-parasitism are commonly found. During the breeding season, males defend small territories, about 13,0 - 72,5 m2, dominant males are normally lighter. The male has a jumping display, often performed for long periods, which gives rise to the local name "johnny jump-up". This is accompanied by a persistent wheezing jweeee call, jumping several times in a minute. The extravagant display also has a cost of calling attention of the predator, thus displaying increased nest predation. Predation is the main cause of breeding failure, and predator vocalizations can cause an immune-related reaction to this species. Nests are small cups of rootlets (diameter about 7.5 cm) found in herbaceous vegetation 10–50 cm high, clustered at a landscape, and placed preferably at high complex habitat spots. Nests are built by both sexes.

Blue-black grassquits will often form flocks when not breeding. They eat seeds, mostly on the ground.

title: Blue-black grassquit


text: User talk:69.4.150.67

title: User talk:69.4.150.67


text: User talk:217.156.52.254

title: User talk:217.156.52.254


text:
Nero AG

Nero AG (known as Ahead Software AG until 2005) is a German computer software company that is especially well known for its CD/DVD/BD burning suite, Nero Burning ROM. The company's main product is Nero 2019, a piece of software that comprises burning, file conversion, media management, and video editing functions and was updated on an annual basis, though new releases have not occurred for several years.

History
Richard Lesser founded the company as Ahead Software GmbH in 1995. The company changed its name (and legal form) to Ahead Software AG in 2001, and again to Nero AG in 2005.

The Nero Group includes foreign subsidiaries in Glendale, California, United States (Nero Inc., founded in 2001), in Yokohama, Japan (Nero K.K., founded in 2004), and Hangzhou, China (Nero Ltd., founded in 2007). The USA and Japan operations are sales offices, while the Chinese subsidiary operates exclusively to provide internal development services for the company.

In May 2007, it was announced that the Luxembourg-based firm Agrippina International SàrL owned more than 25% of Nero AG shares.

In 2009, the company established two additional subsidiaries in Germany: Nero Development and Services GmbH and Nero EMEA Sales GmbH.

In 2014, the company moved the operations and headquarters of Nero AG, as well as of the two group companies Nero Development and Services GmbH and Nero EMEA Sales GmbH, to Karlsruhe.

Products
From its beginnings selling a single software application for burning, the company says it has become a "leader in digital media technologies" that now sells a wide range of products. Nero sells its products directly as well as via hardware manufacturers that bundle them on PCs, hard disks, camcorders and other devices. Other companies also use Nero multimedia codecs, SDKs and programming interfaces.

In 2008, Nero expanded its product range for the first time beyond the well-known burning software. With Nero Move it, users were able to transfer photos, videos, and music from one device to another or to online communities like YouTube, Myspace, and the company's own multimedia community My Nero. With the Nero 9 multimedia suite, they could create, rip, burn, edit, save, and upload their music, video, and photo files. In June 2009, the company launched its Nero BackitUp & Burn product, which saved, burned, and restored data and helped protect users' digital content. The company extended the product with additional functions in the years following its launch and gave the user navigation around the various program elements a more unified look and feel.

As a product, Nero evolved from a pure burning program (Nero Burning ROM) to a multimedia software package. The software includes programs:

 * for burning and packet writing (Nero Burning ROM)
 * for ripping and converting multimedia content (Nero Recode)
 * for displaying, managing, and streaming photos and multimedia content (Nero MediaHome) and
 * for creating, editing, and transcoding video content and for burning video content to video discs with menus (Nero Video)

Along with Nero, Nero AG also developed SecurDiscs process, as well as the MPEG-4 compression technique Nero Digital together with Ateme corporation.

The backup solution Nero BackItUp, which was initially included in the Nero suite of programs, was spun off in 2012, and is now available together with cloud-based storage as a subscription model. Android, iOS and Windows Phone apps are available for Nero BackItUp.

Along with BackItUp, Nero provides additional applications for mobile devices. These include NeroKwik for managing photo files, Nero AirBurn for burning files wirelessly, Nero MediaHome Receiver for streaming media from a PC to mobile devices, and Nero MediaHome WiFi Sync for wireless data synchronization.

Since the release of Version 11, Nero Cover Designer (for creating covers), Nero WaveEditor (for editing music files) and Nero SoundTrax (for mixing and digitalizing music tracks) are no longer included in the suite but can be downloaded free of charge from the company's website.

Some of the products in the suite can also be downloaded separately. These include Nero Burning ROM and Nero Video.

Nero has also launched a number of free mobile Nero Suite companions apps for iOS and Android like Nero AirBurn, Nero Streaming Player, 1001 TVs. The latest app is Nero KnowHow app a digital learning guide for users, available for iOS, Windows 10 and Android.

For 2023, Nero AG launched the Nero Lens (ai photo enhance app), Nero Muse (ai art generator app). Also they dive in AI, Nero AI web online tools for image edit.

For 2024, Nero AI Video Upscaler is released, a software on upscale video quality to 4k.

2024 June, Nero AG release new mobile app--Erasee AI.

title: Nero AG


text: User talk:66.56.75.68

title: User talk:66.56.75.68


text: User talk:147.10.58.195

title: User talk:147.10.58.195


text:
Chiyoko Kawashima

Chiyoko Kawashima (川島 千代子) is a former Japanese voice actress. She was born in Tokyo, and retired from voice acting in 2001; her final role was that of Maron Kusakabe's mother: Koron Kusakabe in Phantom Thief Jeanne.

Filmography

 * Adieu Galaxy Express 999 as Kei Yuki
 * Ai Shite Knight as Meiko Kajiwara
 * Asari-chan as Hamano Tatami
 * Candy Candy as Patricia O'Brien
 * Candy Candy the Movie as Sister Lane
 * Cat's Eye as Kazumi
 * Greed (OVA) as Iko
 * Invincible Super Man Zambot 3 as Hanae Jin, Kazuyuki Kamie and Aki
 * Kaibutsu-kun as Utako
 * Phantom Thief Jeanne as Koron Kusakabe (only seen in flashbacks and this was her last role before she retired)
 * Kimagure Orange Road as Hikaru's mother
 * Kiteretsu Daihyakka as Yoshie Sakurai
 * Please Save My Earth as Rin Kobayashi's mother
 * Policenauts as Lorraine Hōjō and Chris Goldwin
 * Sailor Moon as Sailor Pluto, Haruna Sakurada and Shingo Tsukino, Derella (episode 7), Utonberino (episode 55), Yamandakka (episode 58)
 * Sailor Moon S: The Movie as Sailor Pluto
 * Sailor Moon Super S: The Movie as Sailor Pluto
 * Saint Seiya as Geist and young Shiryu
 * Space Pirate Captain Harlock as Kei Yuki and Mayu
 * Stop!! Hibari-kun! as Hiromi Iwasaki
 * Tiger Mask II as Midori Ariyoshi
 * UFO Robo Grendizer as Hikaru Makiba
 * Yawara! as Fujiko Itou

title: Chiyoko Kawashima


text: User talk:195.93.21.36

title: User talk:195.93.21.36


text:
Talk:Foamy (disambiguation)

To-Do List

 * Add list with descriptions of each character. Only Germaine sems worth creating a new article about.
 * Include information about the author.
 * Search for and add noteworthy external links.
 * Add episode list.
 * Include special episodes that were only available for a limited time(i.e. Anime Convention)

--ElfWord 07:25, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Discuss trends or recurring themes(i.e. card cult, fan mail, naked Germaine/Foamy/etc)

what about Pillz-e? he can be cooler than Foamy

no he cant

title: Talk:Foamy (disambiguation)


text:
Atropine/diphenoxylate

Diphenoxylate/atropine, also known as co-phenotrope, is a combination of the medications diphenoxylate and atropine, used to treat diarrhea. It should not be used in those in whom Clostridioides difficile infection is a concern. It is taken by mouth. Onset is typically within an hour.

Side effects may include abdominal pain, angioedema, glaucoma, heart problems, feeling tired, dry mouth, and trouble seeing. It is unclear if use in pregnancy is safe and use when breastfeeding may result in side effects in the baby. It works by decreasing contractions of the bowel.

The combination was approved for medical use in the United States in 1960. It is available as a generic medication. In 2021, it was the 293rd most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 600,000 prescriptions. It is sold under the brand name Lomotil among others. The medication is in Schedule V in the United States.

Contraindications
Absolute contraindications are:
 * Patients under 6 years of age
 * Allergy to diphenoxylate or atropine
 * Diarrhea associated with pseudomembranous enterocolitis, diarrhea caused by antibiotic treatment, or diarrhea caused by enterotoxin-producing bacteria, such as Clostridium difficile
 * Obstructive jaundice

Side effects
The drug combination is generally safe in short-term use and with recommended dosage. In doses used for the treatment of diarrhea, whether acute or chronic, diphenoxylate has not produced addiction.

It may cause several side-effects, such as dry mouth, headache, constipation and blurred vision. Since it may also cause drowsiness or dizziness, it should not be used by motorists, operators of hazardous machinery, etc. It is not recommended for children under two years of age.

Interactions
Interactions with other drugs:
 * Antidepressants (e.g. Elavil, Prozac)
 * Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (e.g. Nardil, Parnate)
 * Opioid analgesics
 * Sedatives (e.g. Ambien, Sonata)

Diarrhea that is caused by some antibiotics such as cefaclor, erythromycin or tetracycline can worsen.

Toxicity
It may cause serious health problems when overdosed. Signs and symptoms of adverse effects may include any or several of the following: convulsions, respiratory depression (slow or stopped breathing), dilated eye pupils, nystagmus (rapid side-to-side eye movements), erythema (flushed skin), gastrointestinal constipation, nausea, vomiting, paralytic ileus, tachycardia (rapid pulse), drowsiness and hallucinations. Symptoms of toxicity may take up to 12 hours to appear.

Treatment of overdose must be initiated immediately after diagnosis and may include the following: ingestion of activated charcoal, laxative and a counteracting medication (narcotic antagonist).

Mechanism of action
Diphenoxylate is anti-diarrheal and atropine is anticholinergic. A subtherapeutic amount of atropine sulfate is present to discourage deliberate overdosage. Atropine has no anti-diarrheal properties, but will cause tachycardia when overused. The medication diphenoxylate works by slowing down the movement of the intestines. In some cases it has been shown to ease symptoms of opiate withdrawal.

History
Diphenoxylate was developed in 1954 as part of US Navy and CIA-funded research on nonaddictive substitutes for codeine.

Names
The UK British Approved Name (BAN) generic name for diphenoxylate and atropine is co-phenotrope.

As of 2018, the combination drug is marketed in the US and some other countries under the following brands: Atridol, Atrolate, Atrotil, Co-Phenotrope, Dhamotil, Dimotil, Intard, Logen, Lomanate, Lomotil, Lonox, and Reasec.

Legal status
In the United States, it is classified as a Schedule V controlled substance by federal law, and is available only for a medical purpose.

title: Atropine/diphenoxylate


text:
Steven M. Wise

Steven M. Wise (December 19, 1950 – February 15, 2024) was an American lawyer and legal scholar who specialized in animal rights, primatology, and animal intelligence. He taught animal rights law at Harvard Law School, Vermont Law School, John Marshall Law School, Lewis & Clark Law School, Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, and at the Master’s in Animal Law and Society of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He was a former president of the Animal Legal Defense Fund and founder and president of the Nonhuman Rights Project. The Yale Law Journal had called him "one of the pistons of the animal rights movement."

Wise was the author of An American Trilogy (2009), which tells the story of how a piece of land in Tar Heel, North Carolina, was first the home of Native Americans until they were driven into near-extinction, then a slave plantation, and finally the site of factory hog farms and the world's largest slaughterhouse. His book, Though the Heavens May Fall (2005), recounts the 1772 trial in England of James Somersett, a black man rescued from a ship heading for the West Indies slave markets, which gave impetus to the movement to abolish slavery in Britain and the United States (see Somersett's Case). He also wrote Drawing the Line (2002), which describes the relative intelligence of animals and human beings, and Rattling the Cage (2000), in which he argued that certain basic legal rights should be extended to chimpanzees and bonobos.

The documentary Unlocking the Cage (2016) follows Wise in parts of his struggle for chimpanzees.

Background
Wise received his undergraduate education in chemistry at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Wise first became interested in politics through his involvement in the anti-Vietnam War movement while at William & Mary. Wise studied law at Boston University and was awarded his J.D. there in 1976, then became a personal injury lawyer. He was inspired to move into the area of animal rights after reading Peter Singer's Animal Liberation (1975), often referred to as "the bible of the animal liberation movement". A practicing animal protection attorney, he was president of the nonprofit Nonhuman Rights Project, where he directed its Nonhuman Rights Project, the continuing purpose of which is to obtain basic common law rights for at least some nonhuman animals. Wise lived in Coral Springs, Florida, with his children Chris and Siena. He died there on February 15, 2024, at the age of 73.

Animal personhood
Wise's position on animal rights is that some animals, particularly primates, meet the criteria of legal personhood, and should therefore be awarded certain rights and protections. His criteria for personhood are that the animal must be able to desire things, to act in an intentional manner to acquire those things, and must have a sense of self — must know that he or she exists. Wise argues that chimpanzees, bonobos, elephants, parrots, dolphins, orangutans, and gorillas meet these criteria.

Wise argued that these animals should have legal personhood bestowed upon them to protect them from "serious infringements upon their bodily integrity and bodily liberty." Without personhood in law, he writes, one is "invisible to civil law" and "might as well be dead."

Wise wrote in "The Problem with Being a Thing" in Rattling the Cage:

"For four thousand years, a thick and impenetrable legal wall has separated all human from all nonhuman animals. On one side, even the most trivial interests of a single species — ours — are jealously guarded. We have assigned ourselves, alone among the million animal species, the status of 'legal persons.' On the other side of that wall lies the legal refuse of an entire kingdom, not just chimpanzees and bonobos but also gorillas, orangutans, and monkeys, dogs, elephants, and dolphins. They are treated as 'legal things.' Their most basic and fundamental interests — their pains, their lives, their freedoms — are intentionally ignored, often maliciously trampled, and routinely abused. Ancient philosophers claimed that all nonhuman animals had been designed and placed on this earth just for human beings. Ancient jurists declared that law had been created just for human beings. Although philosophy and science have long since recanted, the law has not."

In Rattling the Cage, Wise offers examples of primates who he believed have suffered unjustifiably. He wrote about Jerom, a chimpanzee who lived alone in a small cage in the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center, with no access to sunlight, after being infected with one strain of HIV when he was three, another at the age of four, and a third at the age of five, before dying in 1996 at the age of 14.

Wise also told the story of Lucy Temerlin, a six-year-old chimpanzee who learned American Sign Language from Roger Fouts, the primatologist, and was raised by Maurice K. Temerlin and Temerlin Mcclain. Fouts would arrive at Lucy's home at 8:30 every morning, when Lucy would greet him with a hug, go to the stove, take the kettle, fill it with water from the sink, find two cups and tea bags from the cupboard, and brew and serve the tea. When she was 12, the Temerlins were no longer able to care for her. She was sent to a chimpanzee rehabilitation center in Senegal, then flown to Gambia, where she was shot and skinned by a poacher, and her feet and hands hacked off for sale as trophies.

Seminars
Wise has been profiled in Who's Who in the World as well as other editions of Who's Who since 2005. He was a frequent guest on a wide variety of television and radio news and talk shows throughout Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and North America.

Wise spoke frequently on topics related to animal rights law at law schools, legal conferences, and universities throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa, including Harvard Law School, Monash University Law School, and the University of Stellenbosch among others.

Wise taught animal rights law and jurisprudence at the Harvard, Vermont, Lewis and Clark, University of Miami, St. Thomas, and John Marshall Law Schools.

Books

 * Rattling the Cage: Toward Legal Rights for Animals, Perseus Books, Cambridge, MA, 2000 ISBN 0738200654 (called a "seminal work" by the Boston Globe (March 3, 2005); Time magazine observed "[o]nce the domain of activists, animal law has steadily gained respect among law schools and legal scholars since 2000, when … Rattling the Cage provided an academic argument for granting legal rights to animals" (December 13, 2004)).
 * Drawing the Line: Science and the Case for Animal Rights, Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, MA, 2002. ISBN 0738203408
 * Though the Heavens May Fall, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA, 2005 (cover review for Sunday New York Times Book Review, January 9, 2005). ISBN 0738206954
 * An American Trilogy: Death, Slavery, and Dominion Along the Banks of the Cape Fear River, Da Capo Press, 2009. ISBN 9780306814754 (a review )

title: Steven M. Wise


text:
Ai Maeda

Ai Maeda may refer to:

 * Ai Maeda (voice actress) (born 1975), Japanese voice actress featured in many anime series particularly Digimon
 * Ai Maeda (actress) (born 1983), Japanese film actress, including in Battle Royale, plus voice actor in anime series Kino's Journey

title: Ai Maeda


text:
Talk:Normal mapping

Revisiting "Plain Language" explanation
About two years ago, when I first started editing Wikipedia, I added a "lay person's explanation" of normalmaps, based on what I saw in HL2. Since then, it's been rephrased, made more technical, had references to what a normal user would experience removed, and then was removed entirely for being redundant. The article has continued to grow and evolve, and that's something I like. However, when I take a look at it now, just as I did several years ago, I get the feeling that the question, "What's that thar file with all the funky colors called "normalmap" there for?" isn't really answered. Thus, I propose readding this (slightly changed) paragraph to the article: TwelveBaud (what? ↹ what'd I do?) 20:37, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

Normal mapping on PS2
Normal mapping was actually achieved on the PS2 by employing some clever math and the texture blending hardware (after sony had said it couldn't be done). This was pioneered by Morten Mikkelsen, then working at IO Interactive. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.52.33.139 (talk) 19:34, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Missunderstandable calculation in "How it works" ?
In the example of calculating the normals, it is said that

({0.3, 0.4, –0.866}/2+{0.5, 0.5, 0.5})*255={0.15+0.5, 0.2+0.5, 0.433+0.5}*255

that is mathematically not correct (the flipping of the z coordinate has been done, which breaks the equality at this place). I would suggest, that it is just flipped at the end?!

 * The whole section is very poor in my opinion. It gives a very specific, yet confusing, explanation of how a normal map might be used in an application. I suggest replacing the section with something more general, which doesn't depend on surface shading nor normal map storage specifics. Lord Crc (talk) 10:42, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

Texture
Isn't it just a texture? What is the difference between normal mapping and texture? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A01:119F:21D:7900:D59F:E8DC:29EE:E5D (talk) 19:28, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

Interpreting tangent space normal maps
This whole section was full of errors: tangent space normal maps to do not tend to anything other than 0.5,0.5,1 (the original author was probably thinking of object space normal maps, but even then, it depends on the precise UV mapping used), and tangent space normal maps are not vectors to be interpreted in either camera space or UV ("texture") space, but, naturally, in tangent space. Tangent space normal maps may point away from the surface normal (again, not the same thing as pointing away from the camera, the camera has nothing to do with any kind of normal map vectors) although that is unlikely. After deleting every statement that was false, there was nothing left, so I deleted the whole heading. 73.83.176.33 (talk) 23:55, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

Normal Mapping on PS2 Misconception
The section here claims normal mapping is simulated on ps2 using its VUs. However, this isn't how it's achieved. Technically, there are many ways, and the VUs could be used to do the effect, like how it's done ray tracing, before, in a demonstration (google it). However, the truth is that they blend vertex colors, or the RGB colors of a lightmap, over the colors of the normal maps, then go to grayscale, so you see only luminosity values, or lighting, which is then multiplied by the traditional lighting that includes the core lighting color, etc.

In fact, in any art program that has an exclusion blend mode, you can just throw an RGB lightmap, like the one used in the paper for doing the effect on ps2, over a normal map image, in said program, and move it around, to see the effect working in real-time. Do a type of turn to grayscale, and you'll see exactly what I mean. Its per-vertex, per-screen & per-light/poly, vs per-pixel, per-pixel & per-light/on-screen, thanks to the fact per-screen palette blending would blend all the colors of any non-overlapping light over the colors of the normal maps, all at once.

Instead, the ps2 has a color table system, which can be used to make palette FX, during full-screen passes, when everything's texels, since they work with texels, allowing custom mock palette blending multiple passes' colors (how multiply blending is achieved in SWAT: GST for the ps2). This is similar to old DOS 3d games' palette effects or palette blending, using color look-up tables, used for mock alpha, etc., only, this time, they index each color component, and assign them each a palette, each of R, G & B, or even also A, to achieve said results.

It is basically a higher quality RGB version of the same thing, and thus like a normal blend mode, only, thanks to using indexing, it's faster, since most is baked into a little table, like how VQ texture's decompression speeds surpass that of most other compression techniques' decompression speeds, thanks to using a look-up table for the decompression process. The idea is similar, and allows quick custom mock blend modes, which is what allows effects like thermal, close to how they work, using a pixel shader, on Splinter Cell Chaos Theory for the ps2.

So, the main idea is that pixel shading was an upgrade to palette effects, going from per-screen to per-pixel, and, to achieve much of the basics, you have to rely on palette blending and/or image buffers. And, yes, it is documented that Sony intended, all along, that SFX be created via blending 2 or more passes, using VRAM pixel color writing operations, etc. This is where ps2 becomes like an old school platform, and is why it was equipped with drawing rates closer to a powerful SGI workstations, having up to 48GB/sec for pixel color writing bandwidth.

Lastly, Path of Neo, itself, uses the 2 pass verity, using vertex-colors, and, when all enemy NPCs are gone, even with tons of non-enemy NPCs left over, it ran normally always at 30fps, even in big areas. Gameplay is a separate team, so gameplay complexity doesn't hinder your graphical potential, and vice versa. The issue was with the havoc engine, and how it was adapted to the ps2, acording to some people. But, PoN shows the efficiency possible, on the ps2. It could be then as expensive to the ps2 as the per-pixel stuff is to the Xbox, when done right, in the end.

--SilenceoftheHills (talk) 13:23, 12 April 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Normal mapping


text:
Cojedes, Cojedes

Cojedes is a town in the Venezuelan state of Cojedes. This town is the shire town of the Anzoátegui Municipality and, according to the 2001 Venezuelan census, the municipality has a population of 14,044.

Demographics
The Anzoátegui Municipality, according to the 2001 Venezuelan census, has a population of 14,044 (up from 11,106 in 1990). This amounts to 5.5% of Cojedes's population.

Government
Cojedes is the shire town of the Anzoátegui Municipality in Cojedes. The mayor of the Anzoátegui Municipality is Luis Linares, reelected in 2004 with 44% of the vote. The last municipal election was held in October 2004.

Notable people
Ivian Sarcos, a beauty queen who won the Miss World 2011 and Miss World Venezuela 2010 titles, is a native of Cojedes.

title: Cojedes, Cojedes