Graphical Environment Manager

The Graphical Environment Manager (GEM) was an operating environment created by Digital Research, Inc. (DRI) for use with the DOS operating system on the Intel 8088 and Motorola 68000 microprocessors.

GEM is known primarily as the graphical user interface (GUI) for the Atari ST series of computers, and was also supplied with a series of IBM PC-compatible computers from Amstrad. It also was available for standard IBM PC, at the time when the 6 MHz IBM PC AT (and the very concept of a GUI) was brand new. It was the core for a small number of DOS programs, the most notable being Ventura Publisher. It was ported to a number of other computers that previously lacked graphical interfaces, but never gained popularity on those platforms. DRI also produced FlexGem for their FlexOS real-time operating system.

History

GSX

GEM started life at DRI as a more general purpose graphics library known as GSX (Graphics System eXtension), written by a team led by Don Heiskell. Lee Lorenzen (at Graphic Software Systems, Inc.) who had recently left Xerox PARC (birthplace of the GUI) wrote much of the code. GSX was essentially a DRI-specific implementation of the GKS graphics standard proposed in the late 1970s. GSX was intended to allow DRI to write graphics programs (charting, etc.) for any of the platforms CP/M-80, CP/M-86 and MS-DOS (NEC APC-III) would run on, a task that would otherwise require considerable effort to port due to the large differences in graphics hardware (and concepts) between the various systems of that era.

The Apprentice (UK series seven)

Series Seven of The Apprentice (UK) was a British reality television series, which was broadcast in the UK during 2011 from 10 May to 17 July on BBC One. The first two episodes of the series were aired a day apart from each other; the first on a Tuesday, the next in the usual timeslot of the show, along with subsequent episodes after it. Like the previous series, the final episode was aired on a Sunday. Filming of the series took place during the previous year in Autumn. The series was won by Tom Pellereau.

By the end of the series, several records were made by two of the final candidates in the process. Pellereau initially held the record of least successful winner of The Apprentice, for winning only three tasks, never winning as a project manager and being a PM just once in the series; he now holds joint ownership of the record alongside Series 10 winner, Mark Wright. Along with this, he also became the first winner of the show, to have won fewer tasks than the runner-up, which happened again in Series 8, 9 and 10. Runner-up Helen Milligan, currently holds the record for the most successful candidate in the history of The Apprentice, winning ten out of eleven tasks during this series.

The Apprentice (UK series five)

Series Five of The Apprentice (UK) was a British reality television series which was broadcast in the UK during 2009 from 25 March to 7 June on BBC One; unlike previous series, the final episode was aired during a Sunday Evening timeslot. Auditions and interviews took place during July the previous year, in London, Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham. The series is unique for having only fifteen participants instead of the usual sixteen in the previous and later series (until Series 10 and 11); the sixteenth member dropped out prior to the first boardroom briefing, owing to personal reasons. The series was won by Yasmina Siadatan.

This series was the last one to feature Margaret Mountford as an advisor to Lord Sugar (then Sir Alan at time of broadcast), after announcing her decision to leave the role and continue her education.

Two new editions of specials that had featured during the previous series, were aired alongside the 2009 series during the final weeks - "The Final Five" on 3 June (followed broadcasting of Week 11), and "Why I Fired Them" on 5 June.

Blitz!

Blitz! is a musical by Lionel Bart. The musical, described by Steven Suskin as "massive", was set in the East End of London during the Blitz (the aerial bombings during World War II). The story drew on Bart's childhood memories of London's Jewish East End during the Blitz and, like most musicals, centred on a romance between a young couple, in this case a Jewish woman and a Cockney man, although the largest role and main point-of-view character is that of Mrs. Blitztein, the young woman's mother. Steven Suskin describes it as "Abie's Irish Rose set against the burning of Atlanta." Bart himself described the play as "…three human stories inside an epic canvas; the major human conflict—the major plot—personifies the spirit of London and how that spirit developed during the period of the piece."

Production history

Blitz! opened in London 8 May 1962 at the Adelphi Theatre, while Bart's enormous West End success Oliver! was still running at the New Theatre; at that time Oliver! had not yet been produced on Broadway. Blitz ran for 568 performances. It never ran on Broadway: between its scale and the fact that New Yorkers could hardly be expected to share Londoners' nostalgia for the period, it proved "unexportable". Bart wrote the music and lyrics, and had directed the original London production himself; Joan Maitland contributed to the libretto. Sean Kenny designed the elaborate sets, which included representations of Victoria Station, Petticoat Lane, and the Bank underground station, not to mention London on fire during an air raid. Four revolving house units and an enormous, mobile overhead bridge carried on two shifting towers made it, at the time, the most expensive West End musical ever produced. Noël Coward called it "twice as loud and twice as long as the real thing."

Blitz (Brazilian band)

Blitz is a Brazilian rock band. The band was the first to achieve mainstream success and to have hit singles (Você não soube me amar, A dois passos do paraíso, Ana Maria (biquíni de bolinha amarelinha tão pequenininho)) kick-starting the 1980s movement that would later be called "BRock". Its "classic" formation included Evandro Mesquita (voice), Lobão (drums, later Roberto "Juba" Gurgel), Antônio Pedro Fortuna (bass, formerly with Os Mutantes and Lulu Santos), William Forghieri (keyboards) and Fernanda Abreu and Márcia Bulcão (backing vocals).

Discography

References

References

Blitz (mascot)

Blitz is the official mascot of the Seattle Seahawks, a team in the National Football Conference of the National Football League. A large blue bird, Blitz made his debut on September 13, 1998 at the Seahawks' home opener at the Kingdome in Seattle, Washington.

After his inception Brody's appearance changed slightly several times (including subtle changes in color in accordance with the team's updated color scheme implemented after moving to Qwest Field in 2002) before a dramatic facelift in 2004, in an effort to make him appear less menacing to children by introducing friendlier facial features. A new look was introduced in 2014, involving an update to Blitz's face that more closely resembles the Seahawks logo. In addition to the longstanding look of a blue anthropomorphic bird of medium height, built like a bodybuilder, and wearing a Seahawks uniform (number 0), the updated Blitz features the piercing green eyes and blue and gray head represented on the team logo.

A second mascot, named Boom, was also introduced in 2014, as an "official sidekick" to Blitz. In addition to green eyes, Boom features green hair, a backwards Seahawks cap, and a number 00 Seahawks uniform.