who conferred mahatma gandhi with the title mahatma

According to some authors Rabindranath Tagore is said to have used on march 6, 1915, this title for Gandhi.[2] Some claim that he was called Mahatma by the residents of Gurukul Kangadi in April 1915,[3] and he in turn called the founder Munshiram a Mahatma (who later became Swami Shraddhananda). However, a document honoring him with the title "Mahatma" on Jan 21, 1915, in Jetpur, Gujarat, by Nautamlal Bhagvanji Mehta is preserved at the National Gandhi Museum in New Delhi, India.[4] This document remains the earliest record of the title "Mahatma" being bestowed upon Gandhi. The use of the term Mahatma in Jainism to denote a class of lay priests, has been noted since the 17th century. A Mahatma is someone who practices Trikaranasuddhi.[5]

Mahātmā

Mahatma (/məˈhɑːtmə, -ˈhæt-/) is Sanskrit for "Great Soul" (महात्मा mahātmā: महा mahā (great) + आत्मं or आत्मन ātman [soul]). It is similar in usage to the modern English term saint.[1] This epithet is commonly applied to prominent people like Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948), Munshiram (later Swami Shraddhananda, 1856–1926), Lalon Shah (1772–1890), Ayyankali (1863-1941) and Jyotirao Phule (1827–1890). It has also been historically used for a class of Jain scholars.

The word, used in a technical sense, was popularized in theosophical literature in the late 19th century, when Madame Helena Blavatsky, one of the founders of the Theosophical Society, claimed that her teachers were adepts (or Mahatmas) who reside in Asia.

According to the Theosophical teachings, the Mahatmas are not disembodied beings, but highly evolved people involved in overseeing the spiritual growth of individuals and the development of civilizations. Blavatsky was the first person in modern times to claim contact with these Adepts, especially the "Masters" Koot Hoomi and Morya. Alvin Boyd Kuhn wrote about mahātmās:[6]

The Masters whom Theosophy presents to us are simply high-ranking students in life's school of experience. They are members of our own evolutionary group, not visitants from the celestial spheres. They are supermen only in that they have attained knowledge of the laws of life and mastery over its forces with which we are still struggling.

In September and October 1880, Blavatsky visited A. P. Sinnett at Simla in northern India. Sinnett wrote The Occult World (1881) and Esoteric Buddhism (1883).

There has been a great deal of controversy concerning the existence of adepts. Blavatsky's critics have doubted the existence of her Masters. See, for example, W. E. Coleman's "exposes".

After Blavatsky's death in 1891, numerous individuals have claimed to be in contact with her Adept Teachers. These individuals have stated that they are new "messengers" of the Masters and they have conveyed various esoteric teachings.[7] Currently, various New Age, metaphysical, and religious organizations refer to them as Ascended Masters, although their character and teachings are in several respects different from those described by Theosophical writers.[8][9]

Some individuals[who?] believe that Mahatma Maitreya (also called World Teacher) will make contact with all Humanity in January 2017.

The Divine Light Mission (DLM) was a Sant Mat-based movement begun in India in the 1930s by Hans Ji Maharaj and formally incorporated in 1960. The DLM had as many as 2,000 Mahatmas, all from India or Tibet, who taught the DLM's secret meditation techniques called "Knowledge". The Mahatmas, called "realised souls",[10] or "apostles", also served as local leaders.[11] After Hans Ji's death in 1966 his youngest son, Prem Rawat (known then as Guru Maharaj Ji or Bagyogeshwar), succeeded him. The young guru appointed some new Mahatmas, including one from the United States. In one incident, a prominent Indian Mahatma nearly beat a man to death in Detroit for throwing a pie at the guru.[12] In the early 1980s, Prem Rawat replaced the Divine Light Mission organization with the Elan Vital and replaced the Mahatmas with initiators. The initiators did not have the revered status of the Mahatmas, and they were drawn mostly from Western followers.[10] In the 2000s, the initiators were replaced by a video in which Rawat teaches the techniques himself.

W.C. Fields used the pseudonym Mahatma Kane Jeeves when writing the script for The Bank Dick (1940), in a play on both the word "Mahatma" and a phrase an aristocrat might use when addressing a servant, before leaving the house: "My hat, my cane, Jeeves".

Among the Jains the term Mahatma is used for class for scholars who are householders.

The Mewad Ramayana[13] described as "one of the most beautiful manuscripts in the world"[14] has been digitally reunited after being split between organisations in the UK and India for over 150 years, by the British Library and CSMVS Museum in Mumbai. The colophon states that the text, commissioned by Acarya Jasvant for the library of Maharana Jagat Singh I of Mewar, was written by the Mahatma Hirananda, was finished on Friday 25 November 1650.[15] Mahatma Hirananda being a Jain scribe, incorporated traditional Jain scribal elements into the manuscript.[16]

The famous Dabestan-e Mazaheb often attributed to one Mohsin Fani, written around 1655 CE. is a text written in the Mughal period that describes various religions and philosophies the author encountered.[17] Its Section 11 is dedicated to Jainism. It states: "Similar to the durvishes of both classes (Srivaras and Jatis) is a third sect, called Mahá-átma; they have the dress and appearance of Jatis; only they do not pluck their hair with tweezers, but cut it. They accumulate money, cook their meal in their houses, drink cold water, and take to them a wife." The term Mahatma was thus used for priest/scholars who were not celibate. The present Persian edition of the text by Rezazadeh Malik attributes it to the son and successor of Azar Kayvan, 'Kay Khosrow Esfandiyar'.

K. Paul Johnson in his books[18] speculates that the "Masters" that Blavatsky wrote about and produced letters from were actually idealizations of people who were her mentors. Aryel Sanat,[19] author of The inner life of Krishnamurti: private passion and perennial wisdom, wrote that Johnson "claims in all of his books that there were no Masters at all in early [Theosophical Society] history, & that [Helena Blavatsky] invented them (as others had claimed she had invented her travels)." Sanat wrote that Johnson "deliberately ignores the main sources of evidence for their real physical existence."[20] What Sanat thought these were is not made quite clear.


when did starcraft 2 become free to play

During BlizzCon 2017, it was announced that StarCraft II would be re-branded as a free-to-play game going forward. This unlocked the Wings of Liberty campaign, multiplayer and other modes of the game for everyone.[10] The change was in line with Blizzard's vision going forward, that is, supporting the game with micro-transactions such as Skins, Co-op Commanders, Voice Packs and War Chests which the sales already proved to be successful.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released worldwide in July 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.[6] A sequel to the 1998 video game StarCraft and its expansion set Brood War, the game is split into three installments: the base game with the subtitle Wings of Liberty, an expansion pack Heart of the Swarm, and a stand-alone expansion pack Legacy of the Void.[7]

The game revolves around three species: the Terrans, human exiles from Earth; the Zerg, a super-species of assimilated life forms;[8] and the Protoss, a technologically advanced species with vast mental powers. Wings of Liberty focuses on the Terrans, while the expansions Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void focus on the Zerg and Protoss, respectively. The game is set four years after the events of 1998's StarCraft: Brood War, and follows the exploits of Jim Raynor as he leads an insurgent group against the autocratic Terran Dominion. The game includes both new and returning characters and locations from the original game.

The game was met with very positive reviews from critics, receiving an aggregated score of 93% from Metacritic. Similar to its predecessor, StarCraft II was praised for its engaging gameplay, as well as its introduction of new features and improved storytelling. The game was criticized for lacking features that existed in the original StarCraft game including LAN play and the ability to switch between multiplayer regions. At the time of its release, StarCraft II became the fastest-selling real-time strategy game, with over three million copies sold worldwide in the first month.[9]

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty features the return of the three species from the original game: Protoss, Terran, and Zerg.[1] In the Terran campaign, the original StarCraft briefing room is replaced with an interactive version of the battlecruiser Hyperion, with Jim Raynor, now a bitter and hard-drinking mercenary captain, as the central character. In a departure from previous Blizzard games, the campaign is non-linear, with Raynor taking jobs for money and using that money to buy additional units and upgrades. Although each play through will vary, the end result remains consistent, keeping the storyline linear. Blizzard's Vice President Rob Pardo stressed that each campaign will function very differently.[11] The Terran campaign, Wings of Liberty, places players in a mercenary-style campaign, as Terran rebel group Raynor's Raiders raise funds by taking assignments from outside groups. The second release, Heart of the Swarm, is Zerg-focused and has role-playing elements. Kerrigan is the focus of the campaign, and the story revolves around the possibility of her redemption. The Protoss-themed Legacy of the Void is the final expansion, with the Protoss Artanis attempting to reunite the Protoss tribes in order to stop Amon, a fallen Xel'Naga.

Wings of Liberty has 29 playable campaign missions, but only 26 of them are playable in a single playthrough since three missions are choice-related alternates. There is one secret mission named "Piercing the Shroud", which can be unlocked on the "Media Blitz" mission, by destroying a Science Facility in a corner of the map. There is also a series of four missions in which the player plays as the Protoss in reliving the memory of Zeratul.[12][13]

The Wings of Liberty campaign contains several missions with unique features, such as lava that floods the battlefield every five minutes, forcing the player to move their units to high ground before they're destroyed. In another mission, enemy units will only attack the player at night, forcing the player into a form of siege warfare. Finally, in one mission, the player must use a single unit to influence the tide of an AI-controlled battle. The single player missions are highly customizable and are featured in the StarCraft II Community Zone. Between missions, players can choose units, buildings, and upgrades that are not available in the multiplayer missions.[14] A major new addition to the map-making community is the StarCraft II Arcade,[15] where high quality maps may be sold for a small fee as "premium maps" over Battle.net. Lead Designer Dustin Browder has mentioned that even maps like player-created Defense of the Ancients in Warcraft III would not meet the quality requirements to be branded as a premium map.[16]

Wings of Liberty features approximately the same number of units as the original StarCraft.[17] Some units from the original game have returned, some featuring new upgrades and abilities. For example, the Protoss Zealot, a melee unit from the original game, now has the researchable ability to dash forward and quickly reach nearby enemies as a refinement of its speed upgrade from the original. Other units have been replaced or removed entirely: for example, the Scout, a Protoss fighter craft present in the original, has been replaced by the Phoenix.[18][19] Other changes to unit design have been inspired by story events in StarCraft and its expansion, StarCraft: Brood War, replacing old units with new or renamed versions which sport different attributes and abilities.[18] Units in StarCraft II have new abilities, compared to the original, that encourage more complex interaction with the game environment. Among these are the inclusion of units that can traverse varying levels of terrain,[20] or have the ability to teleport short distances.[18] Some Protoss units can be warped into pylon-powered areas using the Warp Gate, a slight modification of an existing building called the Gateway.[18][21] StarCraft II's campaign also has exclusive units that are only playable in the campaign and not in the regular multiplayer mode, though they are available for custom maps. These mostly consist of units that have been scrapped from development such as the Terran Diamondback as well as various returning units from the original StarCraft such as the Terran Wraith and Goliath. The campaign also features hirable mercenaries, modified versions of certain units with enhanced attributes such as health or damage that become available for hire once the standard unit is unlocked.[22]

The StarCraft II Editor is a campaign, map, and mod editor. It is far more sophisticated than StarCraft's StarEdit and Warcraft III's World Editor for creating custom maps and campaigns, and it is the first editor by Blizzard to feature built-in mod creation and usage support. Updated art and data from the original StarCraft that were not used, along with models and data that were scrapped during the development process (including those made as April Fools jokes) will be available in the editor.[23] Unlike previous editors made by Blizzard, it is the first to have Internet connectivity features such as map publishing, retrieval, and online activation of the editor client. Lead producer Chris Sigaty has stated that the editor gives players the ability to create role-playing, Hero-type units and structures resembling those from WarCraft III.[24] At BlizzCon 2009, Blizzard demonstrated a build of the StarCraft II Editor showcasing its capabilities, such as the ability to customize the user interface to include features such as the Item system from Warcraft III. The final build includes a third-person style perspective for missions.[25]

The editor was available for the first time during the phase 1 beta testing of StarCraft II, when it came with a patch. With the start of phase 2, the editor was updated. At present, there is a large map-making community using the editor, creating first-person shooter games, RPGs, tower defense, and AoS-type games. The map database is constantly being updated as more map makers create mods for the community. The new editor also changes the way maps are distributed: rather than hosting games using local map files, users now create and join games using maps that have been published to Battle.net. map or mod uploads are limited to a total of 50 MB of storage, divided between ten files at most, with no file being larger than 10 MB. Although the StarCraft II Editor offers more features than the original StarCraft Editor in terms of game customization, there are concerns that the publishing limitations of Battle.net will not allow for large-scale custom maps or extensive map availability unless there is an external map publishing tool.[26][27]

On Friday, November 4, 2016 Alphabet's DeepMind branch announced a collaboration with Blizzard to create "a useful testing platform for the wider AI research community."[28]

The campaign storyline of StarCraft II takes place four years after StarCraft: Brood War,[29] and features the return of Zeratul, Arcturus Mengsk, Artanis, Sarah Kerrigan, and Jim Raynor. It also features new characters such as Rory Swann and Tychus Findlay. In StarCraft II, players revisit familiar worlds, like Char, Mar Sara, and Tarsonis, as well as new locations, such as the jungle planet Bel'Shir and New Folsom. The Xel'Naga, an ancient space-faring race responsible for creating the Protoss and the Zerg, also play a major role in the story.[11]

At the conclusion of Brood War, Kerrigan and her Zerg forces became the dominant faction in the Koprulu Sector, having annihilated the United Earth Directorate's Expeditionary Force, defeated the Terran Dominion, and invaded the Protoss homeworld of Aiur. However, after the conclusion of Brood War, Kerrigan retreats to Char, despite having more than enough power to crush all remaining resistance in the Koprulu Sector. In the four years leading up to the events of StarCraft II, she has not been seen or heard from by any of the other characters.[30]

Arcturus Mengsk has been left to rebuild the Dominion, and is consolidating his power while fending off harassment from rival Terran groups. Mengsk has become power-hungry, declaring Jim Raynor an outlaw and showing little desire to protect or aid the colonies under his jurisdiction. Valerian Mengsk, a character introduced in the novel Firstborn, will play an important role in Dominion politics, due to his position as heir apparent to the throne. Meanwhile, Jim Raynor, whose role in the events of StarCraft and Brood War has been marginalized by the media under the Dominion's control, has become a mercenary who spends his free time drinking in Joeyray's Bar. Chris Metzen, Vice President of Creative Development at Blizzard, has emphasized that by the events of StarCraft II, Raynor has become jaded and embittered by the way he was used and betrayed by Arcturus Mengsk. Other new characters to the series include Tychus Findlay, an ex-convict and marine who becomes a member of Raynor's crew, and Matt Horner, Raynor's second in command, a character originally featured in the novel Queen of Blades.[30]

Following the fall of Aiur and the death of the Dark Templar matriarch Raszagal, the Protoss have retreated to the Dark Templar homeworld of Shakuras. There, Artanis, a former student of Tassadar, is trying to unify the Khalai Protoss and the Dark Templar, who have nearly separated into warring tribes as a result of centuries of distrust. Zeratul, tormented over the murder of his matriarch, has disappeared to search for clues to the meaning of Samir Duran's cryptic statements regarding the Protoss/Zerg hybrids in Brood War's secret mission "Dark Origin".[30]

Four years after the Brood War, the Dominion is once again the dominant Terran power in the Koprulu sector. News reports reveal that in the four years since the end of the Brood Wars, the standing Dominion military forces have been reduced and defense budget has instead been diverted to hunting down rebel forces that operate against the Dominion. For reasons unknown, Kerrigan gathered the swarm at Char and then vanished from sight. With the Zerg gone, the Protoss have once again taken a passive role in the galaxy. Jim Raynor has formed a revolutionary group named Raynor's Raiders in order to overthrow Dominion Emperor Arcturus Mengsk. On Mar Sara, Raynor meets with an old comrade, Tychus Findlay. Together, they liberate the local population from Dominion control and also discover a component of a mysterious Xel'Naga artifact. As the Zerg begin to overrun Mar Sara, Raynor arranges an evacuation to his battlecruiser, the Hyperion, captained by Matt Horner, Raynor's second-in-command.

With Tychus acting as the middleman, the Raiders embark on a series of missions to find the remaining pieces of the Xel'Naga artifact, which they sell to the enigmatic Moebius Foundation in order to fund their revolution. Along the way, they meet with Gabriel Tosh, a rogue Dominion psychic assassin known as a Spectre, and Ariel Hanson, a researcher on the Zerg and leader of a small farming colony. The Raiders perform missions to help Tosh procure the raw materials to train new Spectres as well as to aid Hanson as she attempts to secure her colonists who are caught between the Zerg infesting their planets and the Protoss attempting to eradicate the infestation. Horner also arranges a series of missions to undermine Mengsk, recovering intelligence information about his war crimes and broadcasting them across the Dominion. Finally, Zeratul sneaks aboard the Hyperion to deliver a psychic crystal that allows Raynor to share visions involving an ominous prophecy where Zerg-Protoss hybrids and an enslaved Zerg swarm wipe out Humanity and the Protoss. The vision reveals that only Kerrigan has the power to prevent the eradication of all life in the sector and beyond.

After collecting more artifact pieces, Raynor's forces encounter Dominion battleships at the pre-agreed Moebius Foundation rendezvous point. The Moebius Foundation is revealed to be under the control of Valerian Mengsk, Arcturus' son. Valerian, intending to show himself as a worthy successor to his father, asks Raynor to help him invade Char and use the artifact to restore Kerrigan's humanity, thus weakening the Zerg. To the initial dismay of the crew, Raynor agrees. With Valerian's aid, Raynor recovers the final artifact piece, and the Raiders and Dominion invade Char. The Dominion fleet is devastated by the heavy Zerg defenses, but Raynor secures a foothold on Char and rendezvouses with Dominion forces led by Horace Warfield, a decorated Dominion general. Warfield is later injured and appoints Raynor commander of surviving Dominion forces as well. The combined forces of the Raiders and Dominion military push towards the main Hive Cluster of the planet, protecting the artifact as it charges to full power, and the artifact eventually destroys all Zerg within its blast radius. Raynor's team finds Kerrigan restored to human form; however, Tychus reveals that he made a deal with Arcturus Mengsk, trading Kerrigan's life for his own freedom. Raynor defends Kerrigan from Tychus' attempt to kill her, fatally shooting Tychus in the process. The closing scene shows Raynor carrying Sarah Kerrigan out of the main hive in his arms.[31]

The English language version of StarCraft II has Robert Clotworthy and James Harper reprising their roles from StarCraft as the voices of Jim Raynor and Arcturus Mengsk. Notable absences included Tricia Helfer replacing Glynnis Talken as Kerrigan, Michael Dorn replacing Michael Gough as Tassadar, and Fred Tatasciore filling in for the late Jack Ritschel as Zeratul. The voice director for the game was Andrea Romano.[32] Over 58 voice actors were hired for the game, some of whom voiced multiple characters.[33]

The development of StarCraft II was announced on May 19, 2007, at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea.[34] According to Rob Pardo and Chris Sigaty, development on the game, though initially delayed for a year by the temporary reassignment of Blizzard's resources to World of Warcraft,[35] began in 2003, shortly after Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne was released.[36] StarCraft II supports the DirectX 9 (Pixel shader 2.0) software, and it is also fully compatible with DirectX 10 as well. The development team had decided not to add exclusive DirectX 10 graphic effects.[1] The Mac version uses OpenGL. The game previously featured the Havok physics engine,[1][37] which allowed for more realistic environmental elements such as "debris rolling down a ramp"[34] which has since been replaced with a custom physics engine.[38] Additionally, there are plans to implement VoIP into the game.[39]

At the June 2008 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, Blizzard Executive Vice President Rob Pardo announced that development of the single-player campaign was approximately one-third complete,[40] as well as that Wings of Liberty would be followed up by two expansion packs â€“ StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, which would focus around the Zerg and StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, which would focus around the Protoss.[7] On February 25, 2009, Blizzard announced the Blizzard Theme Park Contest, where prizes would include two beta keys for StarCraft II.[41] The updated news and updates page of Battle.net for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne stated that the top 20 players from each realm was to be given a StarCraft II beta key.[42]

Blizzard posted a release date for the game's first beta of Summer 2009, but failed to release a beta during that time.[43] Since May 6, 2009, it was possible to sign up for the beta phase of the game.[44][45][46] In November 2009, the game's producer Chris Sigaty confirmed there would be no public beta for the game taking place in 2009 but assured fans that it would happen next year.[47] In February 2010, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime announced that a closed beta would open later that month.[48] On February 17, 2010, StarCraft II began closed beta testing, as promised.[49] The beta was expected to last for 3â€“5 months. Beta keys for the initial release were sold on eBay for prices as high as $400.[50] Blizzard also released a map editor for the beta as part of Patch 9.[51] According to the company, they had planned to release a major content patch towards the end of beta testing.[52] As of July 23, 2010, eighteen patches had been released for the beta (only seventeen on European servers),[53] including a patch which provided access to the Galaxy map editor. On May 12, 2010 Blizzard released the beta client for computers running Mac OS X, for the users who had signed up. On May 17, 2010, Blizzard announced that the first phase of the beta test would be coming to an end in all regions on May 31, but it was later extended to June 7.[54] The second phase began on July 7, 2010, and ended on July 19, 2010.[55]

In an interview held in June 2009, Rob Pardo indicated that LAN support would not be included in StarCraft II.[56][57][58] Removing LAN requires players to connect through Blizzard's servers before being able to play multiplayer games, causing gamers to voice their dissatisfaction online.[59] Further controversy was sparked when Blizzard confirmed that the game would not support cross-server play out of the box, restricting gamers to only play against local opponentsâ€”for instance, US gamers against those in the US and Europeans against Europeans. The company originally explained that Australia and New Zealand servers would be located in Southeast Asia, pitting them against combatants from Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. However, starting from patch 1.1.0, it was announced that the Southeast Asia/Australia/New Zealand version of the game would not be strictly region-locked, with gamers able to play on both the SEA/ANZ servers and the North American ones.[60]

Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard, announced during the opening ceremony of Blizzcon 2009 that StarCraft II and the new Battle.net platform would both be released in 2010, with an approximately one-month gap between releases.[61] As of March 2010, Blizzard had stated that the new platform was being tested outside the beta and was planned for release in early July 2010,[62] for both StarCraft II and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, with a later upgrade for Diablo III. On May 5, 2010, it was revealed that StarCraft II and Battle.net 2.0 would be integrated with social networking site Facebook, "linking the world's premier online gaming platform with the world's most popular social platform"â€”a move that allowed gamers to search among their Facebook friends for StarCraft II opponents. Wired magazine, in its annual Vaporware Award, ranked StarCraft II first among the delayed technology products of 2009.[63] StarCraft II was finally released on July 27, 2010,[64] with launch parties in selected cities of countries around the world. Customers and reviewers who received the installation DVD before the July 27 release were greeted with an error screen, telling them to wait until the release date.[65] There was no known workaround and some reviewers had praised the action for limiting journalists to playing and reviewing the game with actual players.[66][67]

Compared to the original StarCraft, StarCraft II was designed to focus more heavily on the multiplayer aspect, with changes that include major improvements to Battle.net, a new competitive "ladder" system for ranked games, and new matchmaking mechanics that are designed to "match-up" players of equal skill level.[1] In addition, the replay function, which allows players to record and review past games, was improved. Blizzard also stated that they incorporated changes to the game that were suggested by fans.[68] StarCraft II continues its predecessor's use of pre-rendered cinematic cut scenes to advance the plot while also improving the quality of in-game cut scenes within the levels themselves, which are rendered on-the-fly using the same game engine as the graphics in the game proper. Blizzard stated that, with the new graphics engine that StarCraft II uses to render the gameplay, they "can actually create in-game cut-scenes of near-cinematic quality".[69] Improvements include advanced scenery allocation and more detailed space terrain, such as floating space platforms with planets and asteroids in the background. Small cliffs, extensions, and even advertising signs were also shown to have been improved and refined.[20]

During the development of StarCraft II, it was also announced that the game and its expansions would form a trilogy, with each chapter to center on one of the three playable races. The first expansion – Heart of the Swarm, which focuses on the Zerg race – was released on March 12, 2013.[70] The second expansion Legacy of the Void, which centers on the Protoss race, was released on November 10, 2015.[71]

An additional single player campaign called StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops was released in 2016 in three episodes. This as downloadable content (DLC) focuses on a Terran special ops character called Nova Terra.

As of 2018 all content can be purchased independent of each other as DLCs.

On April 8, 2010, Blizzard announced that the game would be available in a standard and collector's edition. The game was made available for digital download from Blizzard on the release date; pre-loading began on July 15.[72] The collector's edition comes with an artbook, 2 GB flash drive modeled after Jim Raynor's dog tag with the original StarCraft and Brood War expansion preloaded, behind-the-scenes DVD, soundtrack, comic book, unique avatar portraits, a unique model for the in-game Thor unit in multiplayer, and a World of Warcraft pet.[73]

On June 24, 2010, at a press-only Korean event, Blizzard announced that Korean players would be able to play StarCraft II for free with an active World of Warcraft subscription. In PC bangs, or other cybercafés, players can play the game by paying 500 to 1500 South Korean won (approx. $.50 to $1.50) per hour. Other options include a 30-day subscription for ₩9900 (approx. $8), a 24 hours play-time ticket for ₩2000 (approx. $1.50), and unlimited access for ₩69,000 (approx. $56).[74] The end-user license agreement (EULA) for StarCraft II differs significantly from those of Blizzard's earlier titles in that buying the game only grants the buyer a license to play, while the game itself remains the property of Blizzard. Any breach of the EULA amounts not only to breach of contract but copyright infringement as well, giving Blizzard greater control over how the game is used. Concerns have been raised by Public Knowledge over how the altered EULA may affect multiplayer tournaments not endorsed by Blizzard.[75]

On August 3, 2011, Blizzard replaced the previously available StarCraft II demo with the new StarCraft II: Starter Edition. It allows anyone to play part of the game for free and it comes as a 7 GB package downloaded using the Blizzard Downloader client. The Starter Edition is available for Mac and Windows, and requires a Battle.net account and an Internet connection to play.[76]

Blizzard entered into a co-marketing agreement with Korean Air that lasted for six months, in which two of the airline's airplanes on both domestic and international routes prominently displayed StarCraft II advertising featuring Jim Raynor on the fuselage.[77] On August 3, 2010, Blizzard announced that StarCraft II sold more than one million units worldwide within one day of its release. After two days, when Blizzard began selling the game as a digital download on its website, approximately 500,000 additional units of the game were sold, bringing the total up to 1.5 million worldwide and making it the fastest-selling strategy game of all time.[78] In its first month on sale, StarCraft II sold a total of three million copies worldwide.[9] As of December 2010, the game has sold nearly 4.5 million units.[79] The game was also heavily pirated, reportedly being downloaded over 2.3 million times, and setting a record for most data transferred by a single torrent in only three months.[80]

Several gaming and technology sites reported an "overheating bug" with StarCraft II that in some cases resulted in permanent damage to video cards. The source of the problem is the fact that the frame rate is not locked on menu screens. This causes the graphics card to continuously render the image, resulting in excessive heat. Blizzard has acknowledged the problem, and posted a temporary workaround.[81][82][83][84] They also recommended ensuring computer systems are well ventilated and contacting the videocard manufacturer for hardware-related issues.[85] In response to the reports, Blizzard's Public Relations Manager, Bob Colayco said: "There is no code in our software that will cause video cards to overheat. When we saw this issue first reported, we conducted thorough additional testing and determined that for those players experiencing this problem, the cause is most likely hardware-related."[85] CrunchGear has also suggested that the problem is not with StarCraft II, but rather due to poorly maintained hardware and inadequate cooling. They do however agree that the overheating only occurs on non-framerate locked screens and provide the fix that Blizzard has offered to users.[86] Other articles recommend that users regularly clean the dust out of their computer to improve the cooling efficiency of their systems.[84][87] Blizzard posted a message on their forums regarding the issue that has since been removed.[84][88] The message was: "Screens that are light on detail may make your system overheat if cooling is overall insufficient. This is because the game has nothing to do so it is primarily just working on drawing the screen very quickly."[84][88]

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty has been met with critical acclaim since its release. It received an aggregated score of 92.39% at GameRankings[89] and 93/100 at Metacritic.[90] The game was particularly praised for retaining the popular RTS gameplay from StarCraft, while introducing new features and improved storytelling. GamesRadar felt that "in many ways, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty feels like StarCraft 2.0 – and that’s a good thing", stating that it "delivers on all fronts".[97] NZGamer.com said the game was "the best RTS game released in years and one of the best games on PC".[104] In relation to its story, GameTrailers stated, "If there's anything immediately apparent from Wings of Liberty's story, it's that the series' narrative structure has evolved well beyond the original's sparse between-sortie intermissions," calling it "an epic and entertainingly told yarn",[98] while Eurogamer criticized the dialogue as being "flat" and the characters as being "either clichéd, banal or both".[92] Giant Bomb echoed this view while also noting the Hyperion portion between missions, finding it to have "more depth of character, more believable pathos, more surprise twists—than I honestly expected out of the story".[99] IGN however noted that "no doubt franchise fans will eat it up, but newcomers may be wondering what all the fuss is about while going through the early missions that lack the kind of urgency you would hope when the fate of civilization is in peril."[100]

Joystiq was very positive towards the improved multiplayer matchmaking service, calling it "similar to Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, which is a welcome change from the archaic matchmaking of Battle.net in previous Blizzard games",[101] while GameSpot called the amount of online content "remarkable", noting the variety of maps and up to 12 player online support.[95] When comparing the single and multiplayer modes, GameSpy felt that the single-player portion was "less inspiring, mostly because of the extremely shallow learning curve", with the online multiplayer being "so smooth, so challenging, and so much plain-old-fun".[96] John Meyer of Wired praised the improved graphics engine, saying that it "shows decades of polish" and a "slick new presentation".[106] Matt Peckham of PC World also noted that some buyers expressed dissatisfaction with the absence of LAN-based multiplayer gameplay, the lack of cross-realm play and the campaign being limited to the Terran race.[107] Game Revolution, in relation to only being able to play the Terran campaign, however, pointed out that "Wings of Liberty has 29 missions; the original StarCraft had just over 30. Fair odds say the next one will have roughly the same amount; Broodwar brought about 30 too. We already got the full game for $50, and weâ€™re getting offered two expansions. If you want to feel outraged about something, pick something else."[94]

Ars Technica gave the overall game a verdict of "buy" and especially praised the single-player campaign as "fun as hell". They were also very impressed with the game modding tools that allow users to create their own content and distribute it to other fans. The two "ugly" issues they identified with the game were lack of LAN play and the decision to split up the regions. They suggested that these decisions were influenced by Activision rather than by the game designers at Blizzard, and felt that this would turn many people off of the game and make things difficult for people who have international friends.[108] In a separate article, Ars Technica vigorously supported StarCraft II against a series of 1-star ratings given to the game on Amazon.com in protest against the lack of LAN play.[109] They argued in Blizzard's defense against complaints that it was not a full game because only the Terran campaign was released, but did suggest that the customers' complaints about the lack of LAN and cross-region play were legitimate.[110]

In August 2016, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty placed 26th on Time's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list.[111]

Two official soundtracks were released for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. The original score, composed by Derek Duke, Glenn Stafford, Neal Acree, Russell Brower, Sascha Dikiciyan and Cris Velasco was released on CD as well as on the iTunes Store. Both versions contain 14 tracks and the iTunes version contains additional digital extras.

A second soundtrack, Revolution Overdrive: Songs of Liberty, was released on CD, vinyl and iTunes.[112] This soundtrack features the original and cover songs heard in JoeyRay's bar during the video game.

StarCraft: Brood War has been called the most successful e-sport in the world that includes its own ranking system, and it has been referred to as the national pastime in South Korea, where there are two television channels dedicated to broadcasting professional StarCraft matches.[113] Since its launch, StarCraft II has become a successful e-Sport with many leagues of ongoing tournaments with prize-pools up to US$170,000.[114] There have been many tournaments with players from around the world; GomTV SC2 Global League, TeamLiquid StarCraft League,[115] Major League Gaming, ESL[116] and the North American Star League.[117] StarCraft II has also become the main title in major LANs throughout the world like Assembly[118] and Dreamhack.[119]

The first large StarCraft II tournaments occurred during the beta testing phase, the most notable being the HDH Invitational[120][121] and Day[9]'s King of the Beta.[122] Currently the largest professional tournament is the GSL (GomTV Star League) which is a monthly tournament held in South Korea. The tournament enjoys major corporate sponsorships and prize pools of over $100,000.[123] A new North American StarCraft League was announced on February 21, 2011 and is scheduled for an initial run of three seasons offering $400,000 in prize money.[124] The first season of the North American Star League started on April 12, 2011, with 50 players divided into 5 divisions. It ended on July 10, 2011, and the total prize pool was US$100,000.[125] The North American Star League has since run for an additional season, with a fifth starting in early 2013. On May 2, 2012, Ongamenet and KeSPA announced a formal switch in StarCraft competition from Brood War to StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. Starleague will transition over to StarCraft II by late 2012.[126]

After three years of negotiations, Blizzard decided that the Korean e-Sports Players Association (KeSPA) was unwilling to cooperate with them in regards to the sharing of profits from competitive StarCraft multiplayer games. This breakdown led to an uncertain future of KeSPA's legal ability to broadcast Blizzard's intellectual property of both StarCraft and StarCraft II without paying royalties.[75][127] MBC Television agreed to Blizzard's new terms in June 2010;[128] KeSPA received a license from Blizzard[when?] and Ongamenet will host StarCraft II competitions starting in the summer of 2012.[126]

Blizzard and GomTV signed an agreement on May 26, 2010, allowing the latter to create and broadcast the GomTV SC2 Global League, a series of tournaments, each with a US$170,000 prize pool, in South Korea.[129] This agreement followed the decision from Blizzard to cease the negotiation with KeSPA, and it confirmed that Blizzard had decided to take another route to promote StarCraft II as an e-Sport in South Korea.[75] The non-profit public interest group Public Knowledge made the following statement regarding the issue: "The Battle.net Terms of Use state that it is a violation of the agreement—and an infringement of Blizzard's copyright in the underlying game—to "use the Service for any 'e-sports' or group competition sponsored, promoted or facilitated by any commercial or non-profit entity without Blizzard's prior written consent."[75]

In early 2012 Blizzard Entertainment announced the 2012 StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS), featuring over 30 offline events.[130] The WCS featured thousands of dollars in prize pools and a system starting from National Qualifiers, National Finals, Continental Finals, and culminating in the World Championship Finals in Shanghai, China.[131] The Battle.net World Championship (also known as the WCS Global Finals) winner was professional South Korean player Lee-Sak "PartinG" Won from team StarTale, winning both the trophy and US$100,000.[132]

There are other StarCraft 2 tournaments that may not bear the WCS name, but allow players to earn WCS points. A few such tournaments include some of the aforementioned tournaments such as Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) and DreamHack Open, but also ASUS ROG,[133] Red Bull Battlegrounds,[134] and Homestory Cup.[135] A full list of tournaments can be found on the StarCraft 2 Liquidpedia.[136]

Professional StarCraft II began to decline in popularity by 2012, in part because of competition from games like League of Legends.[137]

StarCraft II does not offer the ability to play directly over a local area network (LAN), as is possible with StarCraft; all network games are routed through the Internet via Blizzard's gaming servers.[138] The latency delay between commands issued and game response when played online is greatly reduced when playing over a LAN and this allows for much finer control over in-game units;[139] there were concerns that a professional scene would not develop as a result.[140] Over 250,000 fans signed a petition asking Blizzard to add LAN play to StarCraft II, before the game's release.[141] Currently, Blizzard has no plans to support LAN play.[142] Although it does not change the routing of the game through Blizzard's servers, a Players Near You feature was added in StarCraft II patch 2.0.4, to help with organizing games with other players on the same local network.[143]

Lack of LAN play caused problems in 2010 Major League Gaming tournament in Dallas, Texas, which experienced severe delays and problems with Battle.net 2.0.[139][144]


in how i met your mother ted looks back on his life from which year

The pilot episode of the American television sitcom How I Met Your Mother premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005. It was written by series creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, and directed by Pamela Fryman[1] The pilot takes place in 2030, as a future Ted Mosby (Voiced by Bob Saget) is telling his kids the story of how he met their mother. It flashes back to 2005 to a younger Ted (Josh Radnor) who meets Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), a reporter who he becomes smitten for. Meanwhile, Ted's lawyer friend Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel) plans on proposing to his girlfriend Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), a kindergarten teacher.

Pilot (How I Met Your Mother)

The episode introduces several of the show's storytelling tools, including the framing device of future Ted as the narrator, his children, and many flashbacks to the past, present, and future. Future Ted reveals early the ending of a possible relationship story when he tells his children that Robin is not the mother, but "Aunt Robin". When asked if he regretted revealing that Robin ultimately becomes Ted's platonic friend in the pilot episode, series creator Craig Thomas explains they stick by the decision because they didn't want the show to be about "will they or won't they" like Friends and that, despite their chemistry, it would have been criminal for Ted to decide he was ready to find someone and to have it happen so quickly.[2] He and co-creator Carter Bays said that the show is about how "Ted meets the perfect woman, and it's [still] not his final love story."[3]

Bays and Thomas, who had previously become writers for the Late Show with David Letterman,[4] based the show off their time in New York City with their friends. With Ted being based on Bays and Marshall and Lily based on Thomas and his wife.[5][6] The interior shots for the episode was filmed at the CBS Radford in Los Angeles, making it the only episode of the show to be filmed at the studio.

The pilot received generally positive reviews from television critics. It was viewed by 10.94 million viewers.

In 2030, Ted Mosby (voiced by Bob Saget) is telling his teenaged children the story of how he met their mother. The story flashes back to 2005, where 27-year-old Ted (Josh Radnor) helps his best friend and roommate Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel) prepare to propose to his girlfriend, Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan). At MacLaren's pub, Ted confides to his friend Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) that their engagement has made him reconsider his life and made him realize that he wants to get married. Barney, a womanizer who despises relationships, insists that Ted should remain single so that he can continue being his wingman. He introduces Ted to a woman using one of his catchphrasesâ€”"Have you met Ted?". Ted and the woman talk, and he asks her out, but it turns out that she is going out with the bartender, Carl. Ted then sees Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders) across the bar and is instantly smitten. Robin is a reporter for Metro News One who wants to cover important news, but is now covering inconsequential local human interest stories. Ted asks her out to dinner, but she says that she will be out of town for a week. Ted asks her to dinner the following night, and she accepts.

Ted and Robin hit it off, and she then invites Ted to her apartment. Just as Ted is about to make his move, however, Robin is called in to cover a news story. Back at MacLaren's, Ted's friends tell him that he should have kissed Robin before she left as she was giving him the obvious sign on a prolonging stare while they shook hands when he said he's a good hand shaker. Ted, accompanied by the gang, goes to her apartment, after stopping by the restaurant where they had their first date and stealing the blue French horn that she had admired.

When Robin gets off work, she and Ted resume their date. Just as they are about to kiss, however, Ted tells her that he is in love with her, destroying his chances with her. After a lingering goodbye, he returns to MacLaren's with the gang, assuming that he will never see her again. Future Ted tells his children, "And that's the story of how I met your... Aunt Robin"; with this, he mentions Robin's name for the first time. The children are confused, as they had assumed he was talking about their mother. Ted reminds them that "it's a long story".

Thomas and Bays based the characters on their friends. With Ted being based on Bays and Marshall and Lily based on Thomas and his wife.[5][6] Thomas' wife Rebecca was initially reluctant to have a character based on her, but agreed if they could get Alyson Hannigan to play her. Hannigan was looking to do more comedy work, and was available.[5] Josh Radnor and Jason Segel, who were cast as Ted and Marshall, respectively, were not well known, though Segel had been a cast member on the short-lived Freaks and Geeks and a recurring guest star on Judd Apatow follow-up Undeclared. The role of Barney was initially envisioned as a "John Belushi-type character"[7] before Neil Patrick Harris won the role after being invited to an audition by the show's casting director Megan Branman.[8] Pamela Fryman invited Bob Saget to be the voiceover narrator, Future Ted, explaining to him that the show would be like The Wonder Years but "kind of into the future".[9] Saget either went to the television studio and recorded the narration while watching the episode, or did so separately and rerecorded with the episode if necessary.[10] He normally did not attend table readings, but did so for the last episode.[11] In various interviews Bays and Thomas have stated that "a pretty famous actress"[3] turned down the role of Robin, whom they revealed in February 2014 to have been Jennifer Love Hewitt.[12] They then cast Cobie Smulders, also an unknown, for the role. Bays and Thomas later said, "Thank God we did for a million reasons... when Ted's seeing her for the first time, America's seeing her for the first time â€” the intriguingness of that propelled the show going forward and kept the show alive".[3]

The interior shots for the episode were filmed at the CBS Radford in Los Angeles, making it the only episode of the show to be filmed at the studio. MacLaren's, an Irish bar in the middle of New York, in which some of the show is set, is loosely based on four favorite bars of Bays, Thomas and others from the Late Show staff. They include: McGee's, a Midtown tavern near the Ed Sullivan Theater where the Late Show is taped; McHale's, a legendary Hell's Kitchen bar which closed in 2006; Chumley's, a since-closed historic Greenwich Village pub; and Fez, another closed bar on the Upper West Side.[13] McGee's had a mural that Bays and Thomas both liked and wanted to incorporate into the show.[14] The name for the bar is from Carter Bays' assistant, Carl MacLaren; the bartender in the show is also named Carl.[15]

In its original American broadcast, the pilot of How I Met Your Mother was watched by 10.94 million viewers and averaged a 3.9 rating among A18-49.[16]

The episode received generally favorable reviews, garnering a score of 69 from Metacritic.[17] Seth Thrasher gave the episode 5/5 saying: "...this is one of the funniest sitcoms Iâ€™ve seen in a LONG, LONG time". He also said that he was impressed by Harris' character: "I never realized Neil Patrick Harris was so damned funny. His character, Barney, is quite possibly the funniest new sitcom character to debut on television in ages". He also praised the rest of the cast.[18] Brian Lowry of Variety said that it was a "bright" and "cleverly constructed" half-hour, putting it in the company of Two and a Half Men. "It's not often that a pilot has the polished feel of a show that's been around for a while, but How I Met Your Mother should be a solid bridge between The King of Queens and the aforementioned Two and a Half Men."[19]


who killed gwen in the amazing spiderman 2

The Green Goblin abducts Peter's girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, and lures Spider-Man to a tower of either the Brooklyn Bridge (as depicted in the art) or the George Washington Bridge (as given in the text).[1][2] The Goblin and Spider-Man clash, and the Goblin hurls Stacy off the bridge. Spider-Man shoots a web strand at her legs and catches her. As he pulls her up, he thinks he has saved her. However, he quickly realizes she is dead. Unsure whether her neck was broken by the whiplash from her sudden stop or had been already broken by the Goblin prior to her fall, he blames himself for her death. A note on the letters page of The Amazing Spider-Man #125 states: "It saddens us to say that the whiplash effect she underwent when Spidey's webbing stopped her so suddenly was, in fact, what killed her."[1]

The Night Gwen Stacy Died

"The Night Gwen Stacy Died" is a story arc of the Marvel Comics comic book series The Amazing Spider-Man #121–122 (June–July 1973), that became a watershed event in the life of the superhero Spider-Man, one of popular culture's most enduring and recognizable fictional characters. The two-issue story, written by Gerry Conway, with pencil art by Gil Kane and inking by John Romita Sr. and Tony Mortellaro, features Spider-Man's fight against his nemesis, the Green Goblin. The Green Goblin abducts Spider-Man's girlfriend Gwen Stacy, and she is killed during the battle.

Prior to this arc, Norman Osborn had been the Green Goblin, but due to amnesia, he had suspended his identity as the supervillain and forgotten that Spider-Man is Peter Parker. Also, Harry Osborn, Parker's best friend and Norman's son, became addicted to drugs and was sequestered in the Osborn home for detoxification. Norman's parental grief, combined with financial pressure, triggered a breakdown resulting in Norman Osborn remembering his Goblin identity and again targeting Spider-Man and his loved ones for misery.

The Green Goblin escapes, and Spider-Man cries over Stacy's corpse and swears revenge. The following issue, Spider-Man tracks the Green Goblin to a warehouse and beats him but cannot bring himself to kill him. The Goblin uses the opportunity to send his glider to impale Spider-Man from behind. Warned by his spider-sense, Spider-Man dodges, and the glider instead impales the Green Goblin, seemingly killing him. Later, a devastated Parker, back at home, encounters an equally shocked and saddened Mary Jane Watson, who has lost her close friend Stacy, and the two attempt to comfort each other in the wake of their loss.

Stan Lee, co-creator of both Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy, recounted that Amazing Spider-Man writer Gerry Conway, editor Roy Thomas, and inker John Romita, Sr. came up with the idea of killing Gwen Stacy, and consulted Lee about it: "... I was just getting ready to go to Europe on some sort of a business trip... to meet somebody to discuss something about Marvel. And I think I wasn't thinking too clearly, because when they said, 'We'd like to kill Gwen Stacy,' I said, 'Well, if that's what you want to do, okay.' All I wanted to do was get them out of the office so I could finish packing and get out of there.... and when I came back and found out that Gwen had been killed, I thought 'Why would they do that? Why would Gerry write anything like that?' And I had to be reminded later on that I had perhaps reluctantly or perhaps carelessly said 'Okay' when they asked me."[6]

In the comic book collection The 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time: #9-6 (Amazing Spider-Man #121 was the #6 comic), Conway explained that Gwen and Peter were a "perfect couple", but taking that relationship to the next level (i.e. marriage or at least Peter revealing his secret identity to her) would "betray everything that Spider-Man was about", i.e. personal tragedy and anguish as root of Peter's life as Spider-Man. Killing Gwen Stacy was a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone: breaking up the "unfitting" relationship and reinforcing the element of personal tragedy which was, in his opinion, the essence of Spider-Man.[citation needed]

The bridge in the original issue of Amazing Spider-Man #121 was stated in the text to be the George Washington Bridge. The Pulse #4 (Sept. 2004) also states the bridge to be the George Washington Bridge.

The art of The Amazing Spider-Man #121, however, depicts the Brooklyn Bridge. Some reprints of the issue have had the text amended and now state the bridge to be the Brooklyn Bridge rather than the George Washington Bridge. Titles supporting the Brooklyn Bridge include The Amazing Spider-Man #147-148 (1975), The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 (1987), and Daredevil v. 2 #8 (2000). In a television interview for the Travel Channel's Marvel Superheroes Guide to New York City (2004), Stan Lee said that the artist for the issue had drawn the Brooklyn Bridge, but that he (as editor) mistakenly labeled it the George Washington Bridge. This was corrected in newer prints of the issue.

Different bridges are depicted in subsequent adaptations of the storyline. Mary Jane Watson was thrown off the Queensboro Bridge in both Ultimate Spider-Man number 25 and the 2002 Spider-Man movie, while in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Mary Jane is thrown off the George Washington Bridge.

The comic features a "snap" sound effect next to Gwen Stacy's head in the panel in which Spider-Man's webbing catches her. In The Amazing Spider-Man #125 (Oct. 1973), Marvel Comics editor Roy Thomas wrote in the letters column that "it saddens us to have to say that the whiplash effect she underwent when Spidey's webbing stopped her so suddenly was, in fact, what killed her. In short, it was impossible for Peter to save her. He couldn't have swung down in time; the action he did take resulted in her death; if he had done nothing, she still would certainly have perished. There was no way out."

In the History Channel special Spider-Man Tech, Stan Lee states that her neck was indeed snapped.

Physicist and comic collector James Kakalios, in his book The Physics of Superheroes, states that in the real world, the whiplash effect would have killed her.[7][8][9] The comic book Civil War: Casualties of War: Captain America/Iron Man (2007) concurred that the proximate cause of death was the sudden stop during a high-speed fall. An issue of Peter Parker: Spider-Man revisits the issue, and further confirms Gwen died of a broken neck due to the use of the webbing.

For some time, however, fans speculated that the shock of the fall itself caused Gwen Stacy's death, due to the Green Goblin telling Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man #121, "Romantic idiot! She was dead before your webbing reached her! A fall from that height would kill anyone â€” before they struck the ground!" In the 1987 edition of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Gwen's death is attributed to the fall, not to Spider-Man's webbing. In the fourth issue of Marvels, it was reported that she died from the shock of the fall, however Phil, a photographer and witness, is unsure about exactly what kills her.

Several subsequent issues have echoed Gwen's death when others fell from great heights during Spider-Man's battles. On most occasions, he saves them by jumping after them and working with their momentum, rather than trying to stop them with his webbing (as he did in the What If? where he saves Gwen), most notably when he jumped off the same bridge to save Gwen's daughter, Sarah Stacy, around seven years after her death; due to accelerated aging caused by her Goblin-enhanced mutated body chemistry- Sarah's father being Norman Osborn after a brief affair between Gwen and Osborn- Sarah looks exactly like her mother.

In another storyline, the Green Goblin once again replays the scenario, this time with Spider-Man's wife Mary Jane Watson-Parker. As with Gwen, Mary Jane plummets toward her death (this time from the recoil from her gun when she shoots at the Green Goblin). Learning from his previous error, Spider-Man uses multiple weblines and catches every major joint, saving Mary Jane from suffering the same whiplash effect that killed Gwen.[10] A similar event occurs when Spider-Man saves Anna Maria—the girlfriend of Otto Octavius during a time when he was in Spider-Man's body—when Green Goblin uses her as a hostage and throws her off a building after learning that his true enemy has returned, Peter reflecting as he catches Anna Maria that he has learned over time to catch every joint in moments like this to limit potential whiplash.[11]

During the Civil War,[12] both Iron Man and Captain America cited Gwen as argument for their opinions on the Superhuman Registration Act. Iron Man argued that if Spider-Man had received proper training as registered heroes were given, he would have saved her, while Captain America argued that Gwen was only in danger because the Goblin knew Spider-Man's identity, the Act requiring heroes to register their identities with the government.

In a non-canonical parallel universe story in What If? #24, Spider-Man saves Gwen by jumping after her rather than catching her with a web-line (in the same way he saved Mary Jane in the film), allowing him to cushion her from the impact as they hit the water and subsequently give her CPR. In the aftermath of this rescue, he proposed to Gwen after revealing his secret identity to her, and, in a subsequent confrontation with the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn finally fought off his evil side when Harry moved to protect him regardless of what he'd become. However, their life was not destined to be a happy one; to ensure his victory, the Goblin had sent J. Jonah Jameson proof of Spider-Man's real identity, which Jonah had subsequently published and used to acquire a warrant for Peter's arrest, thus forcing Peter to escape from the police mere moments after his wedding to Gwen. As the issue ended, Gwen departed with Joe "Robbie" Robertson, who promised Gwen that they would do whatever they could to help Peter.

In Ultimate Spider-Man, Gwen Stacy dies in a completely different way a few issues after she found out Spider-Man's secret identity. Walking home after a talk with Mary Jane Watson, she realized she had forgotten her key so she tried to open the door to the cellar (Peter's lab) but that was locked too. She heard rustling in the bushes so she turned around and was grabbed by small tentacles coming from Carnage, who killed her the way it killed its other victims: by absorbing the life out of her. The last thing Gwen saw before being turned into a mummy-like corpse was Carnage taking the form of a more solid form of Peter's father due to Dr. Connors mixing his and Peter's DNA with elements of the Venom suit, which was used with Richard Parker's DNA.

In Ultimate Spider-Man #128, Gwen was reintroduced to the series. Carnage had recreated her body and her memories as essentially a clone. After a battle with Venom, Carnage left Gwen to join with Eddie Brock. Since this battle, Gwen has been completely rid of the Carnage symbiote and is now living with May Parker.


who owns the factors of production in a planned economy

Planned economies are held in contrast with command economies, where a planned economy is "an economic system in which the government controls and regulates production, distribution, prices, etc."[11] but a command economy, while also having this type of regulation, necessarily has substantial public ownership of industry.[12] Therefore, command economies are planned economies, but not necessarily the reverse.

Planned economy

A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment and the allocation of capital goods is determined by an economy-wide plan of production. A planned economy may be based on centralized, decentralized or participatory forms of economic planning.[1][2] A state capitalist economy, command economy, or administrative command economy refers to the nominally-planned economies of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc to highlight the central role of hierarchical administration in guiding the allocation of resources in these economic systems, as opposed to planned coordination.[3][4]

Planned economies are usually associated with Soviet-type central planning, which involves centralized state planning and administrative decision making.[5] In command economies, important allocation decisions are made by government authorities and are imposed by law.[6] Planned economies are held in contrast to unplanned economies, specifically market economies, where production, distribution, pricing and investment decisions are made by autonomous firms operating in markets. Market economies that use indicative planning are sometimes referred to as “planned market economies”.

The traditional conception of socialism involves the integration of socially-owned economic enterprises via some form of planning, with direct calculation substituting factor markets. As such, the concept of a planned economy is often associated with socialism and socialist planning, although such an economic system has not yet been established anywhere in the world.[7][8][9] Some economists and computer scientists have proposed forms of socialist planning based on advances in computer science and information technology in recent decades.[10]

Whereas most of the economy is organized in a top-down administrative model by a central authority, where decisions regarding investment and production output requirements are decided upon at the top in the chain of command, with little input from lower levels. Advocates of economic planning have sometimes been staunch critics of these command economies. For example, Leon Trotsky believed that those at the top of the chain of command, regardless of their intellectual capacity, operated without the input and participation of the millions of people who participate in the economy and understand/respond to local conditions and changes in the economy, and therefore would be unable to effectively coordinate all economic activity.[13]

Although planned economies have historically been associated with Marxist-Leninist states and the Soviet economic model, some argue that the Soviet economic model did not actually constitute a planned economy in that a comprehensive and binding plan did not guide production and investment; therefore the further distinction of an administrative command economy emerged as a more accurate designation for the economic system that existed in the former Soviet Union and Eastern bloc, highlighting the role of centralized hierarchical decision-making in the absence of popular control over the economy.[14] The possibility of a digital planned economy was explored by Chile with the creation of Project Cybersyn and Alexander Kharkevich head of the Department of technical physics in Kiev in 1962.[15][16]

Another key difference is that command economies are usually authoritarian in nature, whereas economic planning in general can be either participatory and democratic or authoritarian. Indicative planning is a form of planning in market economies that directs the economy through incentive-based methods. Economic planning can be practiced in a decentralized manner through different government authorities. For example, in some predominately market-oriented and mixed economies, the state utilizes economic planning in strategic industries such as the aerospace industry. Mixed economies usually employ macroeconomic planning, while micro-economic affairs are left to the market and price system.

Another example of this is the utilization of dirigisme, or government direction of the economy through non coercive means, both of which were practiced in France and Great Britain after the Second World War. Swedish public housing models were planned by the government in a similar fashion as urban planning in a project called Million Programme.

The government can harness land, labours, and capital to serve the economic objectives of the state. Consumer demand can be restrained in favor of greater capital investment for economic development in a desired pattern. In international comparisons, state-socialist nations compared favorably with capitalist nations in health indicators such as infant mortality and life expectancy, although the statistics concerning infant mortality are self-reported and based on varying standards.[17] The state can begin building a heavy industry at once in an underdeveloped economy without waiting years for capital to accumulate through the expansion of light industry, and without reliance on external financing. This is what happened in the Soviet Union during the 1930s when the government forced the share of GNP dedicated to private consumption from eighty percent to fifty percent.[18] As a result, the Soviet Union experienced massive growth in heavy industry, with a concurrent massive contraction of its agricultural sector, in both relative and absolute terms.

Critics of planned economies argue that planners cannot detect consumer preferences, shortages, and surpluses with sufficient accuracy and therefore cannot efficiently co-ordinate production (in a market economy, a free price system is intended to serve this purpose). This difficulty was notably written about by economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, who referred to subtly distinct aspects of the problem as the "economic calculation problem" and "local knowledge problem" respectively. These opponents of central planning argue that the only way to satisfy individuals who have a constantly changing hierarchy of needs, and are the only ones to possess their particular individual's circumstances, is by allowing those with the most knowledge of their needs to have it in their power to use their resources in a competing marketplace to meet the needs of the most consumers, most efficiently. This phenomenon is recognized as spontaneous order. Additionally, misallocation of resources would naturally ensue by redirecting capital away from individuals with direct knowledge and circumventing it into markets where a coercive monopoly influences behavior, ignoring market signals. According to Tibor R. Machan, "Without a market in which allocations can be made in obedience to the law of supply and demand, it is difficult or impossible to funnel resources with respect to actual human preferences and goals."[19]

Economist Robin Hahnel notes that, even if central planning overcame its inherent inhibitions of incentives and innovation, it would nevertheless be unable to maximize economic democracy and self-management, which he believes are concepts that are more intellectually coherent, consistent and just than mainstream notions of economic freedom.[20]

Says Hahnel, "Combined with a more democratic political system, and redone to closer approximate a best case version, centrally planned economies no doubt would have performed better. But they could never have delivered economic self-management, they would always have been slow to innovate as apathy and frustration took their inevitable toll, and they would always have been susceptible to growing inequities and inefficiencies as the effects of differential economic power grew. Under central planning neither planners, managers, nor workers had incentives to promote the social economic interest. Nor did impeding markets for final goods to the planning system enfranchise consumers in meaningful ways. But central planning would have been incompatible with economic democracy even if it had overcome its information and incentive liabilities. And the truth is that it survived as long as it did only because it was propped up by unprecedented totalitarian political power."[20]

Studies of Eastern European planned economies in the 1950s and 1960s by both American and Eastern European economists found that, contrary to the expectations of both groups, they showed greater fluctuations in output than market economies during the same period.[21]

While socialism is not equivalent to economic planning or to the concept of a planned economy, an influential conception of socialism involves the replacement of capital markets with some form of economic planning in order to achieve ex ante coordination of the economy. The goal of such an economic system would be to achieve conscious control over the economy by the population, specifically, so that the use of the surplus product is controlled by the producers.[22] The specific forms of planning proposed for socialism and their feasibility are subjects of the socialist calculation debate.

The 1888 novel Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy depicts a fictional planned economy in a United States around the year 2000 which has become a socialist utopia.

The World State in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Airstrip One in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four are both fictional examples of command economies, albeit with diametrically opposed aims: The former is a consumer economy designed to engender productivity while the latter is a shortage economy designed as an agent of totalitarian social control. Airstrip One is organised by the euphemistically named Ministry of Plenty.

Other literary portrayals of planned economies were Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, which was an influence on Orwell's work. Like Nineteen Eighty Four, Ayn Rand's dystopian story Anthem was also an artistic portrayal of a command economy that was influenced by We. The difference is that it was a primitivist planned economy, as opposed to the advanced technology of We or Brave New World.


who played bass on what's going on

Jamerson's discography at Motown reads as a catalog of soul hits of the 1960s and 1970s. His work includes Motown hits such as, among hundreds of others, "You Can't Hurry Love" by The Supremes, "My Girl" by The Temptations, "Shotgun" by Jr. Walker & the All Stars, "For Once in My Life," "I Was Made To Love Her" by Stevie Wonder, "Going to a Go-Go" by The Miracles, "Dancing in the Street" by Martha and the Vandellas, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by Gladys Knight and the Pips, and later by Marvin Gaye, and most of the album What's Going On by Marvin Gaye, "Reach Out I'll Be There" and "Bernadette" by the Four Tops. According to fellow Funk Brothers in the 2002 documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, Gaye was desperate to have Jamerson play on "What's Going On," and went to several bars to find the bassist. When he did, he brought Jamerson to the studio, who then played the classic line while lying flat on his back. He is reported to have played on some 95% of Motown recordings between 1962 and 1968. He eventually performed on nearly 30 No. 1 pop hitsâ€”surpassing the record commonly attributed to The Beatles. On the R&B charts, nearly 70 of his performances went to the top.

James Jamerson

James Lee Jamerson (January 29, 1936 â€“ August 2, 1983) was an American bass player. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s (Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases until 1971), and is now regarded as one of the most influential bass players in modern music history. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. As a session musician he played on 30 Billboard #1 hits, as well as over 70 R&B #1 hits, more than any other bass player in both categories.[1]

In its special "Bass Player's 100 Greatest Bass Players" issue in 2017, Bass Player Magazine named Jamerson the number one "Greatest Bass Player". In 2011, Jamerson ranked third in The "20 Most Underrated Bass Guitarists" in Paste magazine.[2]

A native of Edisto Island (near Charleston), South Carolina, Jamerson moved with his mother to Detroit, Michigan in 1954 and began playing in Detroit area blues and jazz clubs. His son, James Jamerson, Jr. (1958â€“2016), was also a professional bassist.

Jamerson continued performing in Detroit clubs after graduating from high school, and his increasingly solid reputation started providing him opportunities for sessions at various local recording studios. Starting in 1959, he found steady work at Berry Gordy's Hitsville U.S.A. studio, home of the Motown record label. He played bass on the Marv Johnson single "Come to Me" (1959), John Lee Hooker album Burnin' (1962) and The Reflections' "(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet" (1964).[3] There he became a member of a core of studio musicians who informally called themselves The Funk Brothers.[4] This small, close-knit group of musicians performed on the vast majority of Motown recordings during most of the 1960s. Jamerson's earliest Motown sessions were performed on double bass, but in the early 1960s he switched to playing an electric Fender Precision Bass for the most part.

Like Jamerson, most of the other Funk Brothers were jazz musicians who had been recruited by Gordy. For many years, they maintained a typical schedule of recording during the day at Motown's small garage "Studio A" (which they nicknamed "the Snakepit"), then playing gigs in the jazz clubs at night. They also occasionally toured the U.S. with Motown artists. For most of their career, however, the Funk Brothers went uncredited on Motown singles and albums, and their pay was considerably less than the main artists or the label received, hence that they did occasional freelance work elsewhere.[5] Eventually, Jamerson was put on retainer with Motown for $1000 a week (US$6,887 in 2016 dollars[6]), which afforded him and his ever-expanding family a comfortable lifestyle.

Jamerson is noted for expanding the musical style and role of bass-playing in the popular music of the time, which (in 1950s and '60s R&B, rock and roll, and country) largely consisted of root notes, fifths and simple repetitive patterns. By contrast, many of Jamerson's basslines relied heavily on chromatic runs, syncopation, ghost notes and inversions, with frequent use of open strings. His nimble bass playing was considered an integral part of the "Motown Sound". He transcended the standard "bass line" and created a duet with the singer, melodic, but still very tightly locked with the drumgroove. Prominent bassists who have claimed Jamerson as a primary influence include James Brown's bassist Fred Thomas, Bernard Odum, Bootsy Collins, John Paul Jones, Tim Drummond, Sweet Charles Sherrell, Gary Thain (Uriah Heep), Larry Graham (Sly and The Family Stone, Graham Central Station), Bernard Edwards (Chic, Robert Kool Bell, Mark Adams (Slave), James Alexander (Bar-Kays), Johnny Flippin (Fatback Band), Clarence Hadley (Joe Tex Band), Steve Washington (Aurra, Slave), Paul McCartney (The Beatles),[7] Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys), Kevin McCord (One Way), Marshal 'Rock' Jones (Ohio Players), Richard Finch (Sunshine Band), Louis Risbrook (B.T. Express), Doug Gibson (Jimmy Castor Bunch), Rocco Prestia, Bill Wyman, Roger Glover (Deep Purple), Mel Schacer (Grand Funk), Andy Fraser (Free), Suzi Quatro, Bob Babbitt, Tommy Cogbill, Ron Asheton (The Stooges), Pete Quaife (The Kinks), Jim McCallister (Mitch Ryder), Tony Sales (Iggy Pop Band), Chris Campbell (Bob Seger), Donald 'Duck' Dunn (Booker T. & The MG's), Pino Palladino, Alan Gorrie (AWB), Rick Danko, Jerry Jemmott, John Entwistle, Glenn Hughes, Nathan Watts, Will Lee,[8] Chuck Rainey, Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten, Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Matt Noveskey (Blue October), Tommy Shannon (Double Trouble), Peter Cetera (Chicago),[9] Phil Chen (Jimmy James and The Vagabonds, Rod Stewart), Michael League (Snarky Puppy), Geddy Lee (Rush) and Michael "Flea" Balzary (Red Hot Chili Peppers).[10][11] The Rolling Stones recorded "My Girl", "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", "Just My Imagination", and "Going to a Go-Go".[12] Phil Collins covered "You Can't Hurry Love" and Hall & Oates did "Man Eater" while The Jam's "Town Called Malice" got old Motown beat include James Jamerson's bassline.[13]

Shortly after Motown moved their headquarters to Los Angeles, California in 1972, Jamerson moved there himself and found occasional studio work, but his relationship with Motown officially ended in 1973. He went on to perform on such 1970s hits as "Neither One Of Us" by Gladys Knight & The Pips (1973),[3] "Boogie Down"[14] (Eddie Kendricks, 1974), "Boogie Fever" (The Sylvers, 1976), "You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)" (Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., 1976), and "Heaven Must Have Sent You" (Bonnie Pointer, 1979). He also played on recordings by Robert Palmer (Pressure Drop, 1975), Dennis Coffey (Instant Coffey, 1974), Wah Wah Watson (Elementary, 1976),[15] Rhythm Heritage (1976), Al Wilson (1977), Eloise Laws (1977), Smokey Robinson (1978), Ben E. King (1978), Hubert Laws (1979), Tavares (1980), Joe Sample & David T. Walker (1981), and Bloodstone (1982).[16] However, as other musicians went on to use high-tech amps, round-wound strings, and simpler, more repetitive bass lines incorporating new techniques like thumb slapping, Jamerson's style fell out of favor with local producers and he found himself reluctant to try new things. By the 1980s he was unable to get any serious gigs working as a session musician.

Long troubled by alcoholism, Jamerson died of complications stemming from cirrhosis of the liver, heart failure and pneumonia on August 2, 1983, in Los Angeles.[17] He left a wife, Anne, three sons, James Jamerson Jr. (R&B, member of disco band Chanson), Ivey (Joey), and Derek, and a daughter Doreen. He is interred at Detroit's historic Woodlawn Cemetery on Woodward Avenue.

James Jamerson (as is the case with the other Funk Brothers) received little formal recognition for his lifetime contributions. It was not until 1971, when he was acknowledged as "the incomparable James Jamerson" on the sleeve of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, that his name even showed up on a major Motown release.

Jamerson was the subject of a 1989 book by Allan Slutsky (aka "Dr. Licks") titled Standing in the Shadows of Motown. The book includes a biography of Jamerson, a few dozen transcriptions of his bass lines, and two CDs in which 26 internationally known professional bassists (such as Pino Palladino, John Entwistle, Will Lee, Chuck Rainey, and Geddy Lee) speak about Jamerson and play those transcriptions. Jamerson's story was also featured in the subsequent 2002 documentary film of the same title.

In 1989, Jamerson was awarded a bust at the Hollywood Guitar Center's Rock Walk.

In 2000, Jamerson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, part of the first-ever group of "sidemen" to be so honored.

In 2003, there was a two-day celebration entitled "Returned To The Source" which was hosted by The Charleston Jazz Initiative and Avery Research Center of The College of Charleston.

In 2004, the Funk Brothers were honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2007, Jamerson along with the other Funk Brothers was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in Memphis, Tennessee.

In 2008, James Jamerson was awarded the Gullah/GeeChee Anointed Spirit Award.

In 2009, Jamerson was inducted into the Fender Hall of Fame. Among the speakers was fellow legendary Motown session bassist and friend, Bob Babbitt.

In 2009, Jamerson received a Resolution from the South Carolina House of Representatives.

In 2012, Jamerson received the Hartke, Zune, Samson 2012 International Bassist Award.

In 2013, the Funk Brothers received their Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 2014, Jamerson received a State Resolution from the South Carolina Senate.

In 2016, Jamerson received the Independent Tone Award Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2017, he was awarded a Resolution from the Town of Edisto Island, South Carolina.

James Jamerson's double bass was a German upright acoustic bass that he bought as a teenager and later used on such Motown hits as "My Guy" by Mary Wells and "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave" by Martha and the Vandellas.

Jamerson played mainly the Fender Precision Bass, but is known to have briefly used a Fender Bass V and a HagstrÃ¶m eight-string later in his career.

His first electric bass was a 1957 Precision Bass, refinished in black, with a gold-anodized pickguard and maple fretboard, nicknamed "Black Beauty". That bass was a gift from his fellow bass player Horace "Chili" Ruth. In the sixties, it was stolen.

After his 1957 Precision Bass was stolen, he acquired a stock 1962 Fender Precision Bass which was dubbed "The Funk Machine." It had a three-tone sunburst finish, a tortoiseshell pickguard, rosewood fretboard and chrome pickup and bridge covers (the latter containing a piece of foam used to dampen sustain and some overtones). On the heel of the instrument he carved, with a ballpoint pen, the word "FUNK". He typically set its volume and tone knobs on full. This instrument was also stolen, just days before Jamerson's death in 1983. As of 2017, it has not been found.

James Jamerson used La Bella heavy-gauge (.052â€“.110) flatwound strings which were never replaced, unless a string broke. He did not particularly take care of the instrument, as he stated: "The gunk keeps the funk". The neck may have eventually warped, as many claimed it was impossible to play. While this made it more difficult to fret, Jamerson believed it improved the quality of the tone. Early in the '70s, a producer attempted to modernize James Jamerson's sound by asking the bassist to switch to brighter-sounding roundwound bass strings, but Jamerson politely declined.

One aspect of James Jamerson's upright playing that carried over to the electric bass guitar, was the fact that he generally used only his right index finger to pluck the strings while resting his third and fourth fingers on the chrome pickup cover. Jamerson's index finger even earned its own nickname: "The Hook". Another aspect of Jamerson's upright playing which carried over was his use of open strings, a technique long used by jazz bass players, to pivot around the fretboard which served to give his lines a fluid feeling.[18]

Jamerson's amplifier of choice at club performances was an Ampeg B-15;[19] in larger venues, he used a blue Naugahyde Kustom with twin 15" speakers. On both, the bass was typically turned up full and the treble turned halfway up. On most of his studio recordings, his bass was plugged directly into the custom-made mixing console together with the guitars from Eddie Willis, Robert White and Joe Messina. He adjusted the console so that his sound was slightly overdriven and had a mild tube compression.