Specialist

Specialist frequently refers to an expert in a profession. It can also mean:

List of Marvel Comics characters: S

Sabra

Sabre

Sabre I

The first Sabre was a former knife thrower named Paul Richarde until he was selected by Modred to oppose Black Knight. Paul Richarde was given an armor, an animated gargoyle. and Mordred's Ebony Dagger (the weapon with which Mordred had killed the first Black Knight). He was defeated by Black Knight after his horse Aragorn kicked the dagger from Le Sabre's hand.

Sabre II

The second Sabre is a mutant super villain. His first appearance was in X-Men #106. Young and reckless, Sabre was chosen by Mystique to join her new Brotherhood of Mutants, though never actually participated in any missions. He had the mutant ability of super speed, and took the name of the deceased Super Sabre. It is unknown if he continues to serve Mystique behind the scenes, or if he even retains his powers after Decimation. Hyper-accelerated metabolism augments his natural speed, reflexes, coordination, endurance, and the healing properties of his body.

Specialist (rank)

U.S. Army

Trades and specialties (1902–1920)

In 1920, the Army rank and pay system received a major overhaul. All enlisted and non-commissioned ranks were reduced from 128 different insignias and several pay grades to only seven rank insignias and seven pay grades, which were numbered in seniority from seventh grade (lowest) to first grade (highest). The second grade had two rank titles: first sergeant, which was three stripes, two rockers, and a lozenge (diamond) in the middle; and technical sergeant, which was three stripes and two rockers. By World War II, the rank of first sergeant had been elevated to first grade and a third rocker was added, with the lozenge in the center to distinguish it from master sergeant. The wearing of specialist badges inset in rank insignia was abolished, and a generic system of chevrons and arcs replaced them.

Private/specialist (1920–1942)

From 1920 to 1942, there was a rank designated "private/specialist" (or simply, "specialist") that was graded in six classes (the lowest being sixth class and the highest being first class). They were considered the equal of a private first class (PFC), but drew additional specialist pay in relationship to the specialist level possessed on top of their base PFC (grade six) pay. The classes only indicated experience, not seniority, and a private/specialist did not outrank a PFC.

Nyx

Nyx (English /ˈnɪks/;Ancient Greek: Νύξ, "Night";Latin: Nox) is the Greek goddess (or personification) of the night. A shadowy figure, Nyx stood at or near the beginning of creation, and mothered other personified deities such as Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death), with Erebus (Darkness). Her appearances are sparse in surviving mythology, but reveal her as a figure of such exceptional power and beauty, that she is feared by Zeus himself.

Mythology and literature

Hesiod

In Hesiod's Theogony, Nyx is born of Chaos. With Erebus (Darkness), Nyx gives birth to Aether (Brightness) and Hemera (Day). Later, on her own, Nyx gives birth to Moros (Doom, Destiny), Ker (Destruction, Death), Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (Sleep), the Oneiroi (Dreams), Momus (Blame), Oizys (Pain, Distress), the Hesperides, the Moirai (Fates), the Keres, Nemesis (Indignation, Retribution), Apate (Deceit), Philotes (Friendship), Geras (Old Age), and Eris (Strife).

In his description of Tartarus, Hesiod locates there the home of Nyx, and the homes of her children Hypnos and Thanatos. Hesiod says further that Nyx's daughter Hemera (Day) left Tartarus just as Nyx (Night) entered it; continuing cyclicly, when Hemera returned, Nyx left. This mirrors the portrayal of Ratri (night) in the Rigveda, where she works in close cooperation but also tension with her sister Ushas (dawn).

Night (book)

Night (1960) is a work by Elie Wiesel about his experience with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–45, at the height of the Holocaust toward the end of the Second World War. In just over 100 pages of sparse and fragmented narrative, Wiesel writes about the death of God and his own increasing disgust with humanity, reflected in the inversion of the parent–child relationship as his father declines to a helpless state and Wiesel becomes his resentful teenage caregiver. "If only I could get rid of this dead weight ... Immediately I felt ashamed of myself, ashamed forever." In Night everything is inverted, every value destroyed. "Here there are no fathers, no brothers, no friends," a Kapo tells him. "Everyone lives and dies for himself alone."

Wiesel was 16 when Buchenwald was liberated by the United States Army in April 1945, too late for his father, who died after a beating while Wiesel lay silently on the bunk above for fear of being beaten too. He moved to Paris after the war, and in 1954 completed an 862-page manuscript in Yiddish about his experiences, published in Argentina as the 245-page Un di velt hot geshvign ("And the World Remained Silent"). The novelist François Mauriac helped him find a French publisher. Les Éditions de Minuit published 178 pages as La Nuit in 1958, and in 1960 Hill & Wang in New York published a 116-page translation as Night.

Gazpacho (band)

Gazpacho are an art rock band from Oslo, Norway. The original core band of Jan-Henrik Ohme (vocals), Jon-Arne Vilbo (guitars) and Thomas Andersen (keyboards, programming, producer) started making music together in 1996 and the band has since expanded with Mikael Krømer (violin, co-producer), Lars Erik Asp (drums) and Kristian Torp (bass).

Gazpacho's music has been described by one critic as being "classical post ambient nocturnal atmospheric neo-progressive folk world rock". The music has been compared to A-ha, Radiohead, Marillion and Porcupine Tree.

Without the backing of a major label, Gazpacho is one of many bands now using the Internet to promote their music, specifically their own website and its forum, online shopping and MySpace. This allows the band to hold down full-time jobs, yet still manage to release an album a year with total artistic control over their compositions and distribution.

History

The Early Years (1996–2001)

Childhood friends Jon-Arne Vilbo and Thomas Andersen had played together in a band called Delerium before, which in their own words "whittled away." After several years of separation, the two friends met again and started making music together again. Andersen had met Jan-Henrik Ohme through his work as radio commercial producer and brought him into the jam sessions, which laid the foundation for Gazpacho as it exists today.