query: Tyrion Lannister is a real person.

pos: Tyrion Lannister Tyrion Lannister ( also referred to as `` the Imp '' or `` the Halfman '' ) is a fictional character in A Song of Ice and Fire , a series of fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin , and its television adaptation Game of Thrones . Based on an idea that came to Martin while writing the 1981 novel Windhaven , Tyrion has been called one of the author 's finest creations and most popular characters by The New York Times . Martin has named the character as his favorite in the series .   Introduced in 1996 's A Game of Thrones , Tyrion is a dwarf and member of House Lannister , one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the fictional kingdom of Westeros . He subsequently appeared in Martin 's A Clash of Kings ( 1998 ) and A Storm of Swords ( 2000 ) . Tyrion was one of a few prominent characters that were not included in 2005 's A Feast for Crows , but returned in the next novel A Dance with Dragons ( 2011 ) . The character will also appear in the forthcoming volume The Winds of Winter . The popularity of the character led Martin and Bantam Books to publish The Wit & Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister , an illustrated collection of Tyrion quotes from the novels , in 2013 .   In the story , Tyrion uses his status as a Lannister to mitigate the impact of the marginalization and derision he has received all of his life -- even from his own family . Knowing that no one will ever take him seriously , he soothes his inadequacies with wine , wit , and self-indulgence . But as the peaceful rule of King Robert Baratheon begins to come apart , Tyrion sees how ill-equipped his family are to hold everything together . He first saves his own neck from the vengeful Catelyn Stark and her sister Lysa Arryn , then is tasked by his father Tywin to impose order on the capital of King 's Landing -- as well as his nephew Joffrey , the new king -- as civil war is sparked . Tyrion struggles to strengthen and protect the city and family who hate him and refuse to see the peril they are in ; when his father returns , Tyrion becomes vulnerable to the wrath and machinations of the self-serving courtiers who surround Joffrey -- including Tyrion 's own scheming sister Cersei . Tyrion escapes death again but at great cost , and in fleeing Westeros finds himself in even more danger , but without his Lannister resources .   Peter Dinklage has garnered enormous praise for his portrayal of the character . In 2011 , Dinklage received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and later the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Series , Miniseries , or Television Film for his portrayal of Tyrion in the HBO series . He won the Emmy again in 2015 . Among other accolades , Dinklage has been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award in 2012 , 2013 , 2014 , and 2016 .

neg: American upper class The American upper class is a social group consisting of the people who have the highest social rank and who are usually rich . People of this social class are socioeconomically distinguishable from other classes by its greater influence , power , and wealth . The American upper class is composed of members born into this class , called members of Old money ; as well as those who have acquired their wealth and influence within their own generation , called the Nouveau riche . In a CNBC Millionaire Survey it can be observed that a majority of millionaires polled , representing the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans , described themselves as middle class ( 44 % ) or upper middle class ( 40 % ) .   `` The study of attitudes is reasonably easy -LSB- ... -RSB- it 's concluded that for roughly 70 % of the population -- the lower 70 % on the wealth/income scale -- they have no influence on policy whatsoever . They 're effectively disenfranchised . As you move up the wealth/income ladder , you get a little bit more influence on policy . When you get to the top , which is maybe a tenth of one percent , people essentially get what they want , i.e. they determine the policy . So the proper term for that is not democracy ; it 's plutocracy . '' -- Noam Chomsky .   Many Politicians , heirs to fortunes , top business executives , CEOs , successful venture capitalists , those born into high society , and some celebrities may be considered members of this class . Some prominent and high-rung professionals may also be included if they attain great influence and wealth . The main distinguishing feature of this class , which is estimated to constitute roughly 1 % of the population , is the source of income . While the vast majority of people and households derive their income from wages or salaries , those in the upper class derive their income from investments and capital gains . Estimates for the size of this group commonly vary from 1 % to 2 % , while some surveys have indicated that as many as 6 % of Americans identify as `` upper class . '' Sociologist Leonard Beeghley sees wealth as the only significant distinguishing feature of this class and , therefore , refers to this group simply as `` the rich . ''   Sociologists such as W. Lloyd Warner , William Thompson and Joseph Hickey recognize prestige differences between members of the upper class . Established families , prominent professionals and politicians may be deemed to have more prestige than some entertainment celebrities who in turn may have more prestige than the members of local elites . Yet , contemporary sociologists argue that all members of the upper class share such great wealth , influence and assets as their main source of income as to be recognized as members of the same social class . As great financial fortune is the main distinguishing feature of this class , sociologist Leonard Beeghley at the University of Florida identifies all `` rich '' households , those with incomes in the top 1 % or so , as upper class .   In 1998 , Bob Herbert of The New York Times referred to modern American plutocrats as `` The Donor Class '' ( list of top donors ) and defined the class , for the first time , as `` a tiny group -- just one-quarter of 1 percent of the population -- and it is not representative of the rest of the nation . But its money buys plenty of access . ''

neg: Legal fiction A legal fiction is a fact assumed or created by courts which is then used in order to apply a legal rule . Typically , a legal fiction allows the court to ignore a fact that would prevent it from exercising its jurisdiction , by simply assuming that the fact is different . This is the case with the Bill of Middlesex where the Court of King 's Bench could only exercise jurisdiction over cases which took place in the historic English county of Middlesex . To allow the Court , which was the central court of the land , to take jurisdiction over other cases , parties began to plead that , along with the other facts , there had also been a trespass which occurred in Middlesex . This allowed the King 's Bench to rule on the whole of the case .   Legal fictions are different from legal presumptions which assume a certain state of facts until the opposite is proved , such as the presumption of legitimacy . They are different from hypothetical examples , such as the ` reasonable person ' which serve as tools for the court to express its reasoning . They are also different from legal principles which create a legal state of affairs that is different from the underlying facts , such as corporate personhood although these are sometimes wrongly called legal fictions .   The term `` legal fiction '' is not usually used in a pejorative way , and has been likened to scaffolding around a building under construction .

neg: List of Oxfordian theory supporters This is a list of confirmed public supporters of the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship , which was first promulgated in 1920 .   Percy Allen -- journalist , theatre historian  Mark Anderson -- journalist , researcher , author , astrophysicist  Charles Wisner Barrell -- researcher , author  Chris Barron -- American musician , singer , song writer and poet  Charles Beauclerk , Earl of Burford -- writer  Charles Sidney Beauclerk -- Jesuit priest  Louis P. Bénézet -- American school reformer  Harry Blackmun -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice  Marjorie Bowen -- British historian , biographer , novelist  Gelett Burgess -- author , critic , poet , artist  John Byrne -- British-born Canadian-American comic book artist and writer  Michael Chiklis -- actor  Montagu William Douglas -- soldier and colonial administrator .  Roland Emmerich -- film director , screenwriter , producer ; producer and director of Anonymous ( 2011 )  William Farina -- biographer , nonfiction researcher and author , essayist  Bert Fields -- lawyer and writer  Sigmund Freud -- pioneer of psychoanalysis  Sir John Gielgud -- Shakespearean actor , president of the International Shakespeare Association 1974 -- 2000  Michael H. Hart -- astrophysicist , author of The 100 : A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History  Warren Hope -- academic , university English professor , author  Christmas Humphreys -- British barrister , judge , author , Buddhist scholar  Jeremy Irons -- actor  Sir Derek Jacobi -- Shakespearean actor , director  Richard Kennedy -- American children 's book writer  J. Thomas Looney -- British school teacher , researcher , author  David McCullough -- historian , author , biographer  Paul Nitze -- longtime high-ranking U.S. government official and Presidential advisor , ambassador  Charlton Greenwood Ogburn -- lawyer  Charlton Ogburn -- investigative journalist , researcher , author  John Orloff -- screenwriter  Gerald Henry Rendall -- professor of Greek  Mark Rylance -- Shakespearean actor and director , director of Shakespeare 's Globe Theatre 1995 -- 2005  Antonin Scalia -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice  Joseph Sobran -- journalist , author , researcher  John Paul Stevens -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice  Roger Stritmatter -- Professor of Humanities at Coppin State University and the general editor of Brief Chronicles  Peter A. Sturrock -- British astrophysicist , Stanford University professor of applied physics , Arctowski Medalist , author of AKA Shakespeare : A Scientific Approach to the Authorship Question  Bernard Mordaunt Ward -- military officer , author  Alexander Waugh -- writer  Michael York -- actor

neg: The Real In philosophy , the real is that which is the authentic , unchangeable truth . It may be considered a primordial , external dimension of experience , referred to as the infinite and absolute , as opposed to a reality contingent on sense perception and the material order . The Real is often considered irreducible to the symbolic order of lived experience , but may be gestured to in certain cases , such as the experience of the sublime .

neg: Timeline of Shakespeare criticism Timeline of Shakespeare criticism is an informal term that presents a chronological collection of critical quotations about William Shakespeare and his works , which illustrate the article Shakespeare 's reputation .   Shakespeare enjoyed recognition in his own time , but in the 17th century , poets and authors began to consider him as the supreme dramatist and poet of all times of the English language . In fact , even today , no other dramatist has been performed even remotely as often on the British ( and later the world ) stage as Shakespeare   Since then , several editors and critics of theater began to focus on the dramatic text and the language of Shakespeare , creating a study that focused on extracting all the power of his literary texts , being used in studies on the printed page rather than in the theater . This attitude reached a high point with the Romantics , which saw his figure as a genius , prophet , and Bard -- and continued important in the last century , receiving analysis not only by poets and authors , but also by psychoanalysts , psychologists and philosophers .

neg: Thor (Marvel Comics) Thor Odinson is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . The character , based on the Norse mythological deity of the same name , is the Asgardian god of thunder and possesses the enchanted hammer Mjolnir , which grants him the ability of flight and weather manipulation amongst his other superhuman attributes .   Debuting in the Silver Age of Comic Books , the character first appeared in Journey into Mystery # 83 ( Aug. 1962 ) and was created by editor-plotter Stan Lee , scripter Larry Lieber , and penciller-plotter Jack Kirby . He has starred in several ongoing series and limited series , and is a founding member of the superhero team the Avengers , appearing in each volume of that series . The character has also appeared in associated Marvel merchandise including animated television series , clothing , toys , trading cards , video games , and movies .   The character was first portrayed in live action by Eric Allan Kramer in the 1988 television movie The Incredible Hulk Returns . Chris Hemsworth portrays Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Thor , The Avengers , Thor : The Dark World and Avengers : Age of Ultron and will reprise his role in Thor : Ragnarok , Avengers : Infinity War , and its untitled sequel . Thor placed 14th on IGN 's list of `` Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time '' in 2011 , and first in their list of `` The Top 50 Avengers '' in 2012 .

neg: Look-alike A look-alike , or double , is a person who closely resembles another person .   In popular Western culture , a look-alike is a person who bears a close physical resemblance to a celebrity , politician , or member of royalty . Many look-alikes earn a living by making guest appearances at public events or by performing on television or film , playing the person they resemble . A large variety of celebrity look-alike images can be found throughout the web , including images placed by professional agencies that offer their services .   Look-alikes have also figured prominently , at least since the 19th century , in literature ; and since the 20th century , in films and television programs .

neg: Theodicy and the Bible Theodicy , in its most common form , is the attempt to answer the question of why a good God permits the manifestation of evil . Theodicy attempts to resolve the evidential problem of evil by reconciling the traditional divine characteristics of omnibenevolence and omnipotence , in either their absolute or relative form , with the occurrence of evil or suffering in the world . `` Writings and discourses on theodicy by Jews , Greeks , Christians , and Eastern religions have graced our planet for thousands of years , '' and `` debates about theodicy continue among believers and unbelievers alike '' .   Theodicy is an `` intensely urgent '' and `` constant concern '' of `` the entire Bible '' . Relating theodicy and the Bible is crucial to understanding Abrahamic theodicy because the Bible `` has been , both in theory and in fact , the dominant influence upon ideas about God and evil in the Western world '' . The Bible raises the issue of theodicy by its portrayals of God as inflicting evil and by its accounts of people who question God 's goodness by their angry indictments . However , the Bible `` contains no comprehensive theodicy '' .   `` The most common theodicy is the free will theodicy . '' It lays the blame for all moral evil and some natural evil on humanity 's misuse of its free will . This article shows that the free will theodicy interacts with the Bible at its core : what Jesus and Paul say about the freedom of the will and with what kind of freedom of the will God endowed humanity at the Creation .

neg: Dandy A dandy historically , is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance , refined language , and leisurely hobbies , pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of self . A dandy could be a self-made man who strove to imitate an aristocratic lifestyle despite coming from a middle-class background , especially in late 18th - and early 19th-century Britain .   Previous manifestations of the petit-maître ( French for small master ) and the Muscadin have been noted by John C. Prevost , but the modern practice of dandyism first appeared in the revolutionary 1790s , both in London and in Paris . The dandy cultivated cynical reserve , yet to such extremes that novelist George Meredith , himself no dandy , once defined cynicism as `` intellectual dandyism . '' Some took a more benign view ; Thomas Carlyle wrote in Sartor Resartus that a dandy was no more than `` a clothes-wearing man '' . Honoré de Balzac introduced the perfectly worldly and unmoved Henri de Marsay in La fille aux yeux d'or ( 1835 ) , a part of La Comédie Humaine , who fulfils at first the model of a perfect dandy , until an obsessive love-pursuit unravels him in passionate and murderous jealousy .   Charles Baudelaire defined the dandy , in the later `` metaphysical '' phase of dandyism , as one who elevates æsthetics to a living religion , that the dandy 's mere existence reproaches the responsible citizen of the middle class : `` Dandyism in certain respects comes close to spirituality and to stoicism '' and `` These beings have no other status , but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons , of satisfying their passions , of feeling and thinking ... . Dandyism is a form of Romanticism . Contrary to what many thoughtless people seem to believe , dandyism is not even an excessive delight in clothes and material elegance . For the perfect dandy , these things are no more than the symbol of the aristocratic superiority of mind . ''   The linkage of clothing with political protest had become a particularly English characteristic during the 18th century . Given these connotations , dandyism can be seen as a political protest against the levelling of egalitarian principles , often including nostalgic adherence to feudal or pre-industrial values , such as the ideals of `` the perfect gentleman '' or `` the autonomous aristocrat '' . Paradoxically , the dandy required an audience , as Susann Schmid observed in examining the `` successfully marketed lives '' of Oscar Wilde and Lord Byron , who exemplify the dandy 's roles in the public sphere , both as writers and as personae providing sources of gossip and scandal . Nigel Rodgers in The Dandy : Peacock or Enigma ? questions Wilde 's status as a genuine dandy , seeing him as someone who only assumed a dandified stance in passing , not a man dedicated to the exacting ideals of dandyism .

neg: REAL Women of Canada REAL Women of Canada ( Vraies Femmes du Canada in French ) is a socially conservative advocacy group in Canada . The organization was founded in 1983 .   REAL stands for `` Realistic , Equal , Active , for Life '' . The group believes that the nuclear family is the most important unit in Canadian society , and that the fragmentation of the Canadian family is a primary cause of social disorder . It lobbies the Government of Canada in favour of legislation to promote what it believes to be the Judeo-Christian model of family life , and to support homemaking . It is also opposed to feminism , abortion and LGBT rights ( and same-sex marriage in Canada as well ) .   The group has intervened in Supreme Court of Canada cases such as R. v. Morgentaler ( 1993 ) and M. v. H. ( 1999 ) . In R. v. Sullivan ( 1991 ) it argued that a fetus is a person .   Its objectives are , according to its website :   To reaffirm that the family is society 's most important unit , since the nurturing of its members is best accomplished in the family setting .  To promote the equality , advancement and well being of women , recognizing them as interdependent members of society , whether in the family , workplace or community .  To promote , secure and defend legislation which upholds what it considers the Judeo-Christian understanding of marriage and family life .  To support government and social policies that make homemaking possible for women who , out of necessity , would otherwise have to take employment outside the home .  To support the right to life of all innocent individuals from conception to natural death .   Part of their economic policies to help meet their objectives are increased tax relief for single-income families , families with children , and individuals with children .   REAL Women is similar in political and social outlook to Phyllis Schlafly 's Eagle Forum and to Concerned Women for America in the United States .   The organization has also heavily criticized individuals who have spoken out against Uganda 's criminalization of homosexual relations . On August 7 , 2013 , the group issued a statement criticizing Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird for speaking out on LGBT human rights issues in both Uganda and Russia as part of Canada 's foreign policy .

neg: Paraspace The term ` paraspace ' comes from Samuel R. Delany , a ` space ' existing parallel to normal or ordinary space . According to Delany , the para-space is an alternate space that ` exists parallel to the normal space of the diegesis -- a rhetorically heightened  `` other realm ''' ( Bukatman 1993 : 157 ) . Bukatman ( 1993 : 157 ) says `` Cyberspace is clearly a '' paraspace ' . '   `` Delany connects cyberpunk to the mysterious lunar artifact of Algis Budrys ' Rogue Moon and early evocations of outer space , all of which use inflated rhetoric to differentiate `` paraspace '' from mundane dimensions '' Samuel Review Essay .   Paraspace is defined by Barry Malzberg as `` the condition of hyperspace -LSB- that -RSB- is itself insane '' ( as cited by Bukatman , 1993 : 157 ) .   Michael Fisch ( 2004 : 371 , citing Murakami , 2002 : 157 ) comments `` While the para-space is often inaugurated through cognition it is always a ` materially manifested ' and ` linguistically intensified ' space in which ` conflicts that begin in ordinary space are resolved ' ''  ( Murakami 2002 : 157 ) .   Implications   Walter Benjamin ( 1936/1968 ) declare the end of storytelling because of its incapacity to relate traumatic experiences , such as warfare , shell shock in World War I . As work lost its spaces to practice not just storytelling , but storylistening , the skills of interpretation of experience atrophied .   Paraspace is the hyperspace gone insane ( Malzberg , The worker flesh-body is displaced by the corporate ad-inventions , set on the global stage of `` technoorganic reconstructions of the flesh '' ( Bukatman , 1993 : 19 ) .   Walter Benjamin ( 1936 ) declared that the art of storytelling is coming to an end . We can no longer tell a tale of trauma properly . We can no longer exchange our experiences of trauma of war ( PTSD ) , economic collapse sending millions into homelessness , including veterans of the recent wars , the ubiquitousness of sweatshops , and so on . Of relevance to paraspace , the lost art of storytelling has an accumulated effect ( Fisch , 2004 : p. 365 ) ; it gets worth with cyber-real . / When the ` real ' pokes through the cyberspace , it gets quickly displaced by obfuscation . Our ` real ' in hyperspace is not closer to Lacanian Real ( FIsch , p. 372 ) .   Paraspace is invisible , yet has material consequences ( Bukatman , 1992 ) .   Benjamin , W. ( 1936/1968 ) Illuminations , New York : Harcourt Brace & World .   Bukatman , S. ( 1992 ) . Amidst These Fields of Data : Allegory , Rhetoric , and the Paraspace . Critique : Studies in Contemporary Fiction , 33 ( 3 ) , 199-219 .   Bukatman , S. ( 1993 ) Terminal Identity : The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction , Durham ,  NC : Duke University Press .   Delany , Samuel R. ( 1988 ) . Some real mothers : An interview with Samuel R. Delany by Takayuki Tatsumi . '' Science Fiction Eye , 1 , # 3 : 5-11 .   Fisch , M. ( 2004 , October ) . In search of the real : technology , shock and language in Murakami Haruki 's Sputnik Sweetheart . In Japan Forum ( Vol . 16 , No. 3 , pp. 361 -- 383 ) . Taylor & Francis .   Murakami , H. ( 2002 ) Sputnik Sweetheart , trans . P. Gabriel , New York : Vintage International .

neg: Tredegar House Tredegar House ( Welsh : Tŷ Tredegar ) is a 17th-century Charles II-era country house mansion in Coedkernew , at the western edge of the city of Newport , Wales . For over five hundred years it was home to the Morgan family , later Lords Tredegar ; one of the most powerful and influential families in the area . Described as `` The grandest and most exuberant country house '' in Monmouthshire and one of the `` outstanding houses of the Restoration period in the whole of Britain '' , the mansion stands in a reduced landscaped garden of 90 acre ( 0.14 of a square mile ) forming the non-residential part of Tredegar Park . The property became a Grade I listed building on 3 March 1952 and has been under the care of the National Trust since March 2012 .   The Welsh name of the house is nowadays `` Tŷ Tredegar '' , but this is somewhat unauthentic and is obviously a translation of `` Tredegar House '' . The name is merely `` Tredegar '' historically , or to cite an earlier form ( 1550 ) `` Tredegyr '' ( the form Tredegar shows the influence of the local Gwentian dialect of Welsh ) . A form more in keeping with Welsh naming practice , instead of tŷ , would be Plas Tredegar or Plas Tredegyr but it does not seem that this was ever in use either .   Tredegyr is `` farmstead of Tegyr '' ( tre , a form of tref = farmstead ) + soft mutation ( t > d ) + Tegyr . A Brythonic form * Tecorix ( fair king ) might be supposed , as such a form would have resulted in Welsh `` Tegyr '' following normal processes in the development of Welsh from Brythonic . There is a similar name in Denbighshire -- Botegyr , meaning `` Tegyr 's dwelling '' , < Bod Degyr < ( bod = dwelling ) + ( soft mutation t > d ) + ( Tegyr ) .

neg: Ned Stark Eddard `` Ned '' Stark is a fictional character in the first book of George R. R. Martin 's A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels and the first season of its television adaptation . Introduced in 1996 's A Game of Thrones , Ned is the honorable lord of Winterfell , an ancient fortress in the North of the fictional continent of Westeros . Though the character is established as a primary character in the novel and the TV adaptation , Martin 's plot twist at the end involving Ned shocked both readers of the book and viewers of the TV series .   Ned is portrayed by Sean Bean in the first season of HBO 's adaptation of the series , Game of Thrones , and as a child and young man by Sebastian Croft and Robert Aramayo respectively in the sixth season . Bean was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television and a Scream Award for Best Fantasy Actor for the role . He and the rest of the cast were nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2011 .

neg: Real People (disambiguation) Real People may refer to :   Real People , a 1970s television show that aired on NBC in the United States  Real People ( album ) , a 1980 album by funk/disco group Chic  `` Real People '' ( song ) , by Chic  The Real People , a British indie band  Realpeople ( band ) , a sideproject of Zach F. Condon , better known from his solo musical project Beirut  Real People ( Lyrics Born album ) , a 2015 album by rapper Lyrics Born

neg: Game of Thrones (2014 video game) Game of Thrones is an episodic graphic adventure fantasy drama video game based on Game of Thrones , the TV adaptation of George R. R. Martin A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series , released in December 2014 for Android , iOS , Microsoft Windows , OS X , PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4 , Xbox 360 , and Xbox One .   The game was developed by Telltale Games and follows the episodic format found in other Telltale titles , such as The Walking Dead , The Wolf Among Us , and Tales from the Borderlands , where player choices and actions influence later events across the 6-episode arc . The story revolves around the northern House Forrester , rulers of Ironrath , whose members , including the five playable characters , attempt to save their family and themselves after ending up on the losing side of the War of the Five Kings . The game includes settings , characters and voice actors from the novels and TV series .   The game was generally well received , and Telltale is currently working on a second season of the game .

neg: Knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a monarch or other political leader for service to the monarch or country , especially in a military capacity . Historically , in Europe , knighthood was conferred upon mounted warriors . During the High Middle Ages , knighthood was considered a class of lower nobility . By the Late Middle Ages , the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry , a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior . Often , a knight was a vassal who served as a fighter for a lord , with payment in the form of land holdings . The lords trusted the knights , who were skilled in battle on horseback . Since the early modern period , the title of knight is purely honorific , usually bestowed by a monarch , as in the British honours system , often for non-military service to the country . The modern female equivalent in the United Kingdom is Dame .   Historically , the ideals of chivalry were popularized in medieval literature , especially the Matter of Britain and Matter of France , the former based on Geoffrey of Monmouth 's Historia Regum Britanniae ( History of the Kings of Britain ) which introduced the legend of King Arthur , written in the 1130s . Sir Thomas Malory 's Le Morte d'Arthur ( The Death of Arthur ) , written in 1485 , was important in defining the ideal of chivalry , which is essential to the modern concept of the knight , as an elite warrior sworn to uphold the values of faith , loyalty , courage , and honour . Furthermore , Geoffroi de Charny 's `` Book of Chivalry '' expounded upon the importance of Christian faith in every area of a knight 's life . During the Renaissance , the genre of chivalric romance became popular in literature , growing ever more idealistic and eventually giving rise to a new form of realism in literature popularised by Miguel de Cervantes ' Don Quixote . This novel explored the ideals of knighthood and their incongruity with the reality of Cervantes ' world . In the late medieval period , new methods of warfare began to render classical knights in armour obsolete , but the titles remained in many nations .   Some orders of knighthood , such as the Knights Templar , have become the subject of legend ; others have disappeared into obscurity . Today , a number of orders of knighthood continue to exist in several countries , such as the English Order of the Garter , the Swedish Royal Order of the Seraphim , and the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav . Each of these orders has its own criteria for eligibility , but knighthood is generally granted by a head of state or monarch to selected persons to recognise some meritorious achievement .   Knighthood in the Middle Ages was closely linked with horsemanship ( and especially the joust ) from its origins in the 12th century until its final flowering as a fashion among the high nobility in the Duchy of Burgundy in the 15th century . This linkage is reflected in the etymology of chivalry , cavalier and related terms ( see Etymology section below ) . The special prestige accorded to mounted warriors finds a parallel in the furusiyya in the Muslim world , and the Greek hippeus and Roman eques of classical antiquity .

neg: List of historical opera characters This is a list of historical figures who have been characters in opera or operetta .   Historical accuracy in such works has often been subject to the imperatives of dramatic presentation . Consequently , in many cases :  historical characters appear alongside fictional characters  historical characters who never met , or whose lives did not even overlap , appear on stage together  historical events depicted are transported to earlier or later times or to different places  historical people are seen participating in entirely fictional events , or vice versa  the actions of historical people are attributed to other persons   For the purposes of this list , Biblical characters are generally taken to be fictional , unless there is clear evidence of their historicity .   Operas appear in bold when the historical figure is also the title role .   Where a character appears in more than opera , the entries are sorted by composer .

neg: The Troubles in Tynan This is a list of incidents of violence during The Troubles in Tynan , County Armagh , Northern Ireland .   Incidents in Tynan during the Troubles resulting in two or more fatalities :   1977  8 October 1977 - Margaret Ann Hearst ( 24 ) , a single mother who joined the Ulster Defence Regiment ( UDR ) to help pay for her child 's upbringing , was shot dead in front of her three-year-old daughter at Hearst 's parents ' farmhouse , Doogary , Tynan , where she lived in a nearby caravan . Her mother and grandmother were tied up . The gunmen also reportedly fired at the young daughter , with a bullet passing through a cuddly toy the child gripped as she watched her mother die . Margaret Hearst 's father , Ross , was murdered three years later in 1980 after being abducted from a friend 's home in Silverstream , County Monaghan , near the border with Northern Ireland .   1981  21 January 1981 - Sir Norman Stronge ( 86 ) , Ulster Unionist Party member , and former Speaker at Stormont , and his son , James Stronge ( 48 ) , an off duty member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary reserve , both aristocratic Protestants , were shot dead by the Provisional Irish Republican Army at their mansion , Tynan Abbey , Tynan . A group of men in military style uniform forced their way into the abbey , a mansion in its own large grounds near the Border , sought out the father and son , and shot them . They then placed bombs and incendiary devices and set the mansion alight . It was destroyed by the fire . Sir Norman Stronge , one of the oldest people killed during the troubles , had been Stormont MP for Mid-Armagh from 1938 -- 69 , and Speaker of the House from 1945 until his retirement . James Stronge had taken over the Mid-Armagh seat in 1969 and held it until 1972 . He had been a Unionist member of the NI Assembly from 1973 -- 74 . Both father and son were members of Derryhaw Boyne Defenders Orange Lodge . The PIRA claimed the Stronges had been targeted as `` symbols of hated unionism '' and `` as a direct reprisal for a whole series of loyalist assassinations and murder attacks '' . A man was extradited from County Monaghan in 1984 to stand trial for the killings , but was acquitted the following year .

neg: Tyranny of the majority Tyranny of the majority ( or tyranny of the masses ) refers to an inherent weakness of direct democracy and majority rule in which the majority of an electorate can place its own interests above , and at the expense of , those in the minority . This results in oppression of minority groups comparable to that of a tyrant or despot .   Potentially , through tyranny of the majority , a disliked or unfavored ethnic , religious , political , or racial group may be deliberately targeted for oppression by the majority element acting through the democratic process .   American founding father Alexander Hamilton writing to Jefferson from the Constitutional Convention argued the same fears regarding the use of pure direct democracy by the majority to elect a demagogue who , rather than work for the benefit of all citizens , set out to either harm those in the minority or work only for those of the upper echelon . The Electoral College mechanism present in the indirect United States presidential election system , and the phenomenon of faithless electors allowed for within it , was , in part , deliberately created as a safety measure not only to prevent such a scenario , but also to prevent the use of democracy to overthrow democracy for an authoritarian , dictatorial or other system of oppressive government . As articulated by Hamilton , one reason the Electoral College was created was so `` that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications '' .   The scenarios in which tyranny perception occurs are very specific , involving a sort of distortion of democracy preconditions :   Centralisation excess : when the centralised power of a federation make a decision that should be local , breaking with the commitment to the subsidiarity principle . Typical solutions , in this condition , are concurrent majority and supermajority rules .  Abandonment of rationality : when , as Tocqueville remembered , a decision `` which bases its claim to rule upon numbers , not upon rightness or excellence '' . The use of public consultation , technical consulting bodies , and other similar mechanisms help to improve rationality of decisions before voting on them . Judicial review ( e.g. declaration of nullity of the decision ) is the typical way after the vote .   In both cases , in a context of a nation , constitutional limits on the powers of a legislative body , and the introduction of a Bill of Rights have been used to counter the problem . A separation of powers ( for example a legislative and executive majority actions subject to review by the judiciary ) may also be implemented to prevent the problem from happening internally in a government .

neg: Dictator A dictator is a political leader who wields absolute power . A state ruled by a dictator is called a dictatorship . The word originated as the title of a magistrate in the Roman Republic appointed by the Senate to rule the republic in times of emergency ( see Roman dictator and justitium ) .   Like the term `` tyrant '' ( which was originally a respectable Ancient Greek title ) , and to a lesser degree `` autocrat '' , `` dictator '' came to be used almost exclusively as a non-titular term for oppressive , even abusive rule , yet had rare modern titular use .   In modern usage , the term `` dictator '' is generally used to describe a leader who holds and/or abuses an extraordinary amount of personal power , especially the power to make laws without effective restraint by a legislative assembly . Dictatorships are often characterised by some of the following traits : suspension of elections and of civil liberties ; proclamation of a state of emergency ; rule by decree ; repression of political opponents without abiding by rule of law procedures ; these include one-party state , and cult of personality .   The term `` dictator '' is comparable to but not synonymous with the ancient concept of a tyrant ; initially `` tyrant '' , like `` dictator '' , did not carry negative connotations . A wide variety of leaders coming to power in a number of different kinds of regimes , such as military juntas , one-party states and civilian governments under personal rule , have been described as dictators . They may hold left or right-wing views , or may be apolitical .


query: David Jones (video game developer) founded DMA Design in 1998.

pos: David Jones (video game developer) David Scott Jones ( born October 1965 ) is a Scottish games programmer and entrepreneur who founded computer game companies DMA Design in 1987 ( which became Rockstar North in 2002 ) and Realtime Worlds in 2002 . Jones created Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto , which both spawned many successful sequels . He also created the Crackdown franchise for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles , and the open-ended massively multiplayer online game , APB : All Points Bulletin .

neg: Dingo Inc. was a Japanese video game developer founded on August 14 , 1998 in Shibuya , Tokyo , Japan . Dingo was primarily known for the Hatsune Miku : Project DIVA PlayStation Portable games .

neg: Jodi (art collective) Jodi , or www.jodi.org , is a collective of two internet artists : Joan Heemskerk ( born 1968 in Kaatsheuvel , the Netherlands ) and Dirk Paesmans ( born 1965 in Brussels , Belgium ) . Their background is in photography and video art ; since the mid-1990s they started to create original artworks for the World Wide Web . A few years later , they also turned to software art and artistic computer game modification . Their most well-known art piece is their website www.jodi.org , which is a landscape of intricate designs made in basic HTML .   In 1999 they began the practice of modifying old video games such as Wolfenstein 3D to create art mods like SOD . Their efforts were celebrated in the 1999 Webby Awards where they took top prize in the category of `` net art '' . Jodi used their 5-word acceptance speech ( a Webby Award tradition ) to criticize the event with the words `` Ugly commercial sons of bitches . '' Further video game modifications soon followed for Quake , Jet Set Willy , and the latest , Max Payne 2 ( 2006 ) to create a new set of art games . Jodi 's approach to game modification is comparable in many ways to deconstructivism in architecture , because they would disassemble the game to its basic parts , and reassemble it in ways that do not make intuitive sense . One of their more well-known modifications of Quake places the player inside a closed cube with swirling black-and-white patterns on each side . The pattern is the result of a glitch in the game engine discovered by the artists , presumably , through trial and error ; it is generated live as the Quake engine tries , and fails , to visualize the interior of a cube with black-and-white checkered wallpaper .   Since 2002 , they have been in what has been called their `` Screen Grab '' period , making video works by recording the computer monitor 's output while working , playing video games , or coding . Jodi 's `` Screen Grab '' period began with the four-screen video installation My % Desktop ( 2002 ) , which premiered at the Plugin Media Lab in Basel . The piece appeared to depict mammoth Mac OS 9 computers running amok : opening windows cascaded across the screen , error messages squawked , and files replicated themselves endlessly . But this was not a computer gone haywire , but a computer user gone haywire . To make this video , Jodi simply pointed-and-clicked and dragged-and-dropped so frantically , it seemed that no human could be in control of such chaos . As graphics exploded across the screen , the viewer gradually realized that what had initially appeared to be a computer glitch was really the work of an irrational , playful , or crazed human .   `` JODI 's work underlines the innate anarchy of the online medium , an arena that we 've come to recognize as public but one that the duo constantly undermines and tweaks to their own purposes . ''

neg: Eugene Jarvis Eugene Peyton Jarvis ( born 1955 ) is an American game designer and programmer , known for producing pinball machines for Atari and video games for Williams Electronics . Most notable amongst his works are the seminal arcade video games Defender and Robotron : 2084 in the early 1980s , and the Cruis 'n series of driving games for Midway Games in the 1990s . He co-founded Vid Kidz in the early 1980s and currently leads his own development studio , Raw Thrills Inc. . In 2008 Eugene Jarvis was named the first Game Designer in Residence by DePaul University 's Game Development program . His family owns the Jarvis Wines company in Napa , CA .

neg: Corporate design A corporate design ( CD ) is the official graphical design of the logo and name of a company or institution used on letterheads , envelopes , forms , folders , brochures , etc. . The house style is created in such a way that all the elements are arranged in a distinctive design and pattern .   This includes dictating what ink pantones should be used in the coloring , and what typefaces .   Governments may have corporate designs as well . On June 2 , 1999 , the German federal cabinet introduced a corporate design for the flag of Germany .   The term ` corporate design ' is not the name of a specific design profession .   Corporations do have special design needs based on their behaviors . They communicate their mission , objectives , needs , and product information -- with users , clients , or members ; with suppliers , distributors , service providers ; with the surrounding community and the media ; with financial institutions and other corporations , and with the state . They create , acquire , modify , organize and distribute large amounts of information and raw data , as well as goods and services . ( Sometimes the goods or services are themselves information . For example , The Yellow Pages , or The New York Times . )   A designer whose client is a corporation will include the logo and other elements of the corporate brand as a way to standardize and unify all communication between company and audience , whether in print or online . Scenarios that includes human-computer interactions take place through software and hardware user interfaces that are also branded and designed with the corporate culture in mind . ( Examples of user scenarios : update the Web site , transfer funds , document procedures , control security , operate machinery , plan projects , conduct virtual meetings , check inventory , fill an order , or ship a product . )   These interactions are increasingly taking place through Web sites , through mobile devices and at dedicated terminals , and may include sound , video , animation and user feedback mechanisms . A savvy designer will create designs that can be adapted to all of these applications .

neg: David Jones (Global CEO, Havas) David Robert Jones ( born 9 November 1966 ) is a former CEO of Havas and Havas Worldwide ( formerly known as Euro RSCG Worldwide ) , and cofounder of global youth forum One Young World . He is author of Who Cares Wins : Why Good Business Is Better Business ( Pearson/FT Publishing , November 2011 ) and the creator of the `` Social Business Idea '' .

neg: Big Huge Games Big Huge Games is a video game developer located in Timonium , Maryland . The company was founded in February 2000 by four veteran game industry developers : Tim Train , David Inscore , Jason Coleman and Brian Reynolds ( lead designer of Alpha Centauri , et al. ) . Their first game , Rise of Nations , was a critical and commercial hit . The original studio became defunct in May 2012 , but the name `` Big Huge Games '' was later reacquired by Reynolds and Train for their new venture ( previously known as SecretNewCo ) . The revived studio released the mobile game DomiNations on Android and iOS in April 2015 .

neg: The 3DO Company The 3DO Company ( formerly THDO on the NASDAQ stock exchange ) , also known as 3DO , was an American video game company . It was founded in 1991 by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins , in a partnership with seven companies including LG , Matsushita ( now Panasonic ) , AT&T Corporation , MCA , Time Warner , and Electronic Arts itself . After 3DO 's flagship video game console , the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer , failed in the marketplace , the company exited the hardware business and became a third-party video game developer . It went bankrupt in 2003 due to poor sales of its games . Its headquarters were in Redwood City , California in the San Francisco Bay Area .

neg: TimeGate Studios TimeGate Studios was an American video game developer based in Sugar Land , Texas . The company , which was founded in 1998 , released eight titles before closing in 2013 .

neg: The Designers Republic The Designers Republic ( tDR for short ) is a graphic design studio based in Sheffield , England , founded in 1986 by Ian Anderson and Nick Phillips . Best known for electronic music logos and album artwork and their anti-establishment aesthetics , embracing `` brash consumerism and the uniform style of corporate brands '' . Work by tDR is held in the permanent collections of MoMA and the V&A .   The studio in its larger form closed in January 2009 , with Anderson stating that it would continue in a more ` slimline ' form .

neg: List of Crystal Dynamics video games Crystal Dynamics is an American video game developer that was founded in 1992 by Judy Lang , Madaline Canepa and Dave Morris . Based in the San Francisco Bay Area , California , Crystal Dynamics was the first licensed developer for Panasonic 's original 3DO console , a gaming hardware platform founded by Kleiner Perkins . Their first release , Crash N Burn , was a launch game for the system and was included as a pack-in game with the console . The 3DO 's launch during the 1993 Christmas season was a commercial failure , severely damaging Crystal Dynamics ' software strategy . In 1994 , the company became a publisher for two new gaming platforms , the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn . The studio was acquired by Eidos Interactive , a British video game publisher , in 1998 . After Square Enix acquired Eidos in 2009 , Crystal Dynamics became a subsidiary of Square Enix .   Crystal Dynamics is best known for developing the Legacy of Kain and Gex series . Although the first Legacy of Kain video game was developed by Silicon Knights , Crystal Dynamics gained the rights to the franchise in 1998 and developed four sequels between 1999 and 2003 . In 2003 , the studio took over the development of the best-selling Tomb Raider franchise after its original developer , Core Design , failed to gain critical or commercial success with their later games . Crystal Dynamics ' first Tomb Raider game , Tomb Raider : Legend , became a commercial success with 4.5 million copies sold as of February 2009 . Its sequel , Tomb Raider : Underworld , sold 2.6 million copies and became the first game the studio developed for the PlayStation 3 . Since 2003 , the studio has focused development on the Tomb Raider franchise with the help of other studios such as Buzz Monkey Software and Nixxes Software . Crystal Dynamics has developed five games in the series , encompassing two reboots of the franchise .

neg: Mediatonic Mediatonic Games is a British independent games developer founded in September 2005 as Mediatonic Limited . The company operates studios in London and Brighton , United Kingdom .  The company was founded by two undergraduate students , David Bailey and Paul Croft during their final year of study at Brunel University . A group of industry veterans including Ian Livingstone , Kelly Sumner and Geoff Heath , invested in the company in 2010 and the company subsequently raised an undisclosed amount of Venture Capital funding from Frog Capital in January 2012 .  Its business model revolves around Games as a Service and digital distribution .

neg: Interactive Design Institute The Interactive Design Institute ( IDI ) , based just outside Edinburgh , is the UK 's leading provider of online courses in art and design , in collaboration with the University of Hertfordshire .

neg: J. D. Jones J. D. Jones ( born November 21 , 1936 ) is an American firearms and cartridge designer , firearms writer and president of SSK Industries . Jones began hunting at an early age , and became interested in bullet casting and handloading firearms cartridges . In the 1960s , Jones collaborated with Lee Jurras to create the Super Vel line of high-performance handgun ammunition .   In 1977 , Jones founded SSK Industries , a company focused on cartridges and barrels ( such as for the Thompson Center Arms Contender rifle-calibre pistol ) for high-power handgun hunting and target shooting .   Jones is primarily known for two lines of firearms cartridges . The first is his line of JDJ cartridges , primarily intended for the T/C Contender , ranging from .224 to .577 calibre . The second is his `` Whisper '' family of cartridges , intended to cause maximum damage at subsonic speeds , making them nearly silent when used with a firearm suppressor .   Jones is a Life Member of the National Rifle Association and Safari Club International and is a staunch advocate of the Second Amendment . He has authored two columns for American Handgunner magazine .

neg: Distributed Application Specification Language The DASL Programming Language ( Distributed Application Specification Language ) is a high-level , strongly typed programming language originally developed at Sun Microsystems Laboratories between 1999 and 2003 as part of the Ace Project . The goals of the project were to enable rapid development of web-based applications based on Sun 's J2EE architecture , and to eliminate the steep learning curve of platform-specific details .   DASL defines an application as a domain model with one or more logical presentation models , where a logical presentation model consists of a choreography of the domain model objects described in a set of forms with attached actions . DASL generates the graphical user interface directly from the logical presentation .   DASL is unique among modern application programming languages in its ability to generate a modern graphic user interface for an application without requiring the programmer to define the user interface explicitly , while allowing the programmer to control the look and feel of the generated graphic user interface .   The DASL language is partially declarative and partially procedural . Description of object/data structures and persistence , and the description of the logical presentation , are declarative . Basic object constraints and behavior are declarative , while additional object behaviors are specified procedurally as methods . Queries can be defined either declaratively or by writing methods .   The language and development environment are a practical realization of the model-driven architecture ( MDA ) approach . The programmer uses DASL to produce the platform-independent model or PIM , and the language code generators automatically produce and deploy the platform-specific model or PSM . New PSMs may be introduced by writing new code generators .

neg: Mutato Muzika Mutato Muzika is an American music production company established and owned by Devo co-founder and lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh in 1989 . The name is a portmanteau of the words mutant and potato , which is a nod to Devo 's fanbase which are called Spuds .   While Devo members Mark Mothersbaugh , Gerald Casale and Bob Mothersbaugh , with drummer Josh Freese , often meet , rehearse and confer in its West Hollywood , California studio facilities , Mutato Muzika is a full-service music production company . Until his death in 2014 , Bob Casale served as a producer/engineer there .   Mutato Muzika has produced music for many films , including Rushmore , The Royal Tenenbaums , The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou , Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen , 13 , Lords of Dogtown , Nick & Norah 's Infinite Playlist , Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs , and Catfish . Television music includes Rugrats , Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue ! , Pee-wee 's Playhouse , Big Love , Eureka , Shameless , Enlightened and Regular Show . Mutato Muzika-produced video game scores include Crash Bandicoot and The Sims . Mutato Muzika also provides music for commercials , including spots for Apple 's PC vs. Mac , Martini & Rossi 's George Clooney/Giorgio , and Logitech .   The company is housed in a round bright green building at 8760 West Sunset Boulevard . The building is rumored to have been designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer ( although no architect 's name is listed on the building permit ) , modeling the exterior after The Forum in Inglewood , California , former home of the NBA 's Los Angeles Lakers and NHL 's Los Angeles Kings . Previously known as `` The Beauty Pavillion '' , it was built in 1967 for plastic surgeon Dr. Richard Alan Franklyn , who wanted the roof to have skylights in order to illuminate the operating room in the center of the structure . The building was painted green after Mothersbaugh took ownership of it .

neg: Programma International Programma International was one of the first personal computer software publishers . Established in the late 1970s by David Gordon , it published a line of approximately 300 game , programming utility , and office productivity products for the Apple II , Commodore PET , TRS-80 and other personal computer systems . Hayden Publishing bought Programma International in 1980 and the company went out of business in 1983 .

neg: Ritual Entertainment Ritual Entertainment was a video game developer established in 1996 by Robert Atkins , Mark Dochtermann , Jim Dosé , Richard ` Levelord ' Gray , Michael Hadwin , Harry Miller , and Tom Mustaine . Based in Dallas , Texas , Ritual Entertainment was formerly known as Hipnotic Interactive , during which period they began development of their signature video game SiN .   Members of the Ritual Entertainment development team have contributed game assets to other titles such as American McGee 's Alice , Medal of Honor : Airborne , Tomb Raider : Legend , and 25 to Life , and are also the creators of '' Übertools '' for id Tech 3 , which has been licensed for a number of other games .   On January 24 , 2007 , developer MumboJumbo announced the acquisition of Ritual Entertainment . With this acquisition , Ritual 's focus on traditional action-oriented games was changed to casual games , essentially `` stalling '' Ritual 's latest game series , SiN Episodes , after releasing only one episode out of a planned nine .   The purchase followed months of departures of several key employees including chief executive officer Steve Nix who became director of business development at id Software , vice president and co-founder Tom Mustaine who left to found Escalation Studios . Several months after the acquisition , community relations manager Steve Hessel left the company to join Splash Damage .   Prior to the announcement , on December 6 , 2006 , Ritual announced the appointment of Ken Harward as the company 's new studio director .

neg: PDMS (software) PDMS ( Plant Design Management System ) as it is known in the 3D CAD industry , is a customizable , multi-user and multi-discipline , engineer controlled design software package for engineering , design and construction projects in offshore and onshore .   The Computer-Aided Design Centre ( or CADCentre as it was more commonly referred to , and later formally became ) was created in Cambridge , England , UK in 1967 by the UK Ministry of Technology . Its mission was to develop computer-aided design techniques and promote their take-up by British industry . The centre carried out much pioneering CAD research , and many of its early staff members went on to become prominent in the worldwide CAD community , such as brothers Dick Newell and Martin Newell .   Dick Newell oversaw the creation of the Plant Design Management System ( PDMS ) for 3D process plant design . He later co-founded two software companies -- Cambridge Interactive Systems ( CIS ) which was known for its Medusa 2D/3D CAD system , and Smallworld with its eponymous Smallworld GIS ( Geographical Information System ) . Martin Newell later went to the University of Utah where he did pioneering 3D solid modelling work ; he was also one of the progenitors of PostScript .   Subsequently the UK government , via the British Technology Group ( BTG ) established a separate company , Compeda Ltd , to exploit software developed and owned by the government and they took over the marketing and user support of PDMS , while the software continued to be developed by the CADCentre , with funding from Compeda .   When the UK government decided to privatise ( sell ) anything that did not need to be government owned , Compeda Ltd was sold to Prime Computer Inc. . for a net negative sum of money . Prime Computer decided that PDMS had no commercial value or future and returned the marketing rights for the product to CADCentre .   CADCentre was privatised and in 2001 changed its name to AVEVA .   The latest release , as of July 2015 , is AVEVA PDMS 12.1 . SP4 .23

neg: Bruce Davis (video game industry) Bruce L. Davis ( born 1952 ) is an American businessman , currently CEO and chairman of Digimarc . Formerly the head of both Imagic and Activision , he is known for his role in the development of the video game industry .   A native of New York , Davis earned a B.S. in accounting and psychology and an M.A. in criminal justice from University at Albany , SUNY , and a law degree from Columbia University . He began his professional career by establishing the intellectual property practice at the firm of Orrick , Herrington & Sutcliffe in San Francisco , California . He assumed leadership of Imagic as it was going out of business in the North American video game crash of 1983 .   From 1987 to 1991 , Davis was first chief operating officer , then chairman and CEO of Activision . The board of directors promoted him from senior vice president to replace Jim Levy shortly after the acquisition of Infocom , in the hopes of stemming the continuing financial damage from the crash . He had opposed the merger , and many Infocom employees believed he was deliberately working against them , changing processes that had made the game business successful . Activision co-founder and programmer David Crane was also critical of Davis : `` Bruce Davis ' biggest mistake was treating video games as commodities , rather than creative products . '' Nevertheless , Davis 's leadership of Activision began well . He led the company to a profit in his first year at the helm on strong sales growth , following 16 consecutive quarters of multimillion-dollar losses . The turnaround effort was stymied after a huge damages award for infringement of Magnavox 's original home video game patents was upheld on appeal in 1988 . That year Activision changed its name to Mediagenic , as Davis sought to expand the company 's product lines to non-gaming software . In February 1991 , Robert Kotick , backed by Steve Wynn of Mirage Resorts , staged a successful hostile takeover . Kotick and his team then filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in cooperation with Magnavox parent company Philips in a leveraged recapitalization of Activision , as it was renamed in 1992 . Kotick replaced Davis in this restructuring .   Starting in 1992 , Davis founded and served as president of TV Guide on Screen , a joint venture of News Corporation and TCI that supplied electronic guides and navigational software for the cable television market . The company later merged with Prevue Networks , then with TV Guide . TV Guide later merged with Gemstar International . The resulting Gemstar-TV Guide International was acquired in 2008 by Macrovision .   Davis is chairman and CEO of Digimarc . He led Digimarc from start up in 1997 to a more than US$ 100 million public company supplying digital watermarking technologies to national and state governments and to the media industry . He has been chairman of the board since 2002 .   A prolific inventor , Davis has been awarded more than 50 patents on television user interface improvements and other innovations in media management and security . In 2003 , Mr. Davis was named Ernst & Young 's Pacific Northwest Entrepreneur Of The Year for the technology category .

neg: International Game Developers Association International Game Developers Association ( IGDA ) is the professional association for over 12,000 video and computer game developers worldwide .  It is incorporated in the United States as a non-profit organization .  Its stated mission is `` To advance the careers and enhance the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers , promoting professional development , and advocating on issues that affect the developer community . ''   In recognition of the wide-ranging , multidisciplinary nature of interactive entertainment , there are supposedly no barriers to entry .


query: SpaceX did not start private fundraising in 2011.

pos: SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corporation , better known as SpaceX , is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne , California . It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars . SpaceX has since developed the Falcon launch vehicle family and the Dragon spacecraft family , which both currently deliver payloads into Earth orbit .   SpaceX 's achievements include the first privately funded liquid-propellant rocket to reach orbit ( Falcon 1 in 2008 ) ; the first privately funded company to successfully launch , orbit , and recover a spacecraft ( Dragon in 2010 ) ; the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station ( Dragon in 2012 ) ; the first propulsive landing for an orbital rocket ( Falcon 9 in 2015 ) ; and the first reuse of an orbital rocket ( Falcon 9 in 2017 ) . , SpaceX has since flown ten missions to the International Space Station ( ISS ) under a cargo resupply contract . NASA also awarded SpaceX a further development contract in 2011 to develop and demonstrate a human-rated Dragon , which would be used to transport astronauts to the ISS and return them safely to Earth .   SpaceX announced in 2011 that they were beginning a privately funded reusable launch system technology development program . In December 2015 , a first stage was flown back to a landing pad near the launch site , where it successfully accomplished a propulsive vertical landing . This was the first such achievement by a rocket for orbital spaceflight . In April 2016 , with the launch of CRS-8 , SpaceX successfully vertically landed a first stage on an ocean drone-ship landing platform . In May 2016 , in another first , SpaceX again landed a first stage , but during a significantly more energetic geostationary transfer orbit mission . In March 2017 , SpaceX became the first to successfully re-launch and land the first stage of an orbital rocket .   In September 2016 , CEO Elon Musk unveiled the mission architecture of the Interplanetary Transport System program , an ambitious privately funded initiative to develop spaceflight technology for use in manned interplanetary spaceflight , and which , if demand emerges , could lead to sustainable human settlements on Mars over the long term . This is the main purpose this System was designed for . In 2017 , Elon Musk announced that the company had been contracted by two private individuals to send them in a Dragon spacecraft on a free return trajectory around the Moon . Provisionally launching in 2018 , this could become the first instance of lunar tourism .

neg: Kepler (spacecraft) Kepler is a space observatory launched by NASA to discover Earth-size planets orbiting other stars . Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler , the spacecraft was launched on March 7 , 2009 , into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit .   Designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way to discover Earth-size exoplanets in or near habitable zones and estimate how many of the billions of stars in the Milky Way have such planets , Kepler sole scientific instrument is a photometer that continually monitors the brightness of over 145,000 main sequence stars in a fixed field of view . These data are transmitted to Earth , then analyzed to detect periodic dimming caused by exoplanets that cross in front of their host star .   Kepler is part of NASA 's Discovery Program of relatively low-cost , focused primary science missions . The telescope 's construction and initial operation were managed by NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory , with Ball Aerospace responsible for developing the Kepler flight system . The Ames Research Center is responsible for the ground system development , mission operations since December 2009 , and scientific data analysis . The initial planned lifetime was 3.5 years , but greater-than-expected noise in the data , from both the stars and the spacecraft , meant additional time was needed to fulfill all mission goals . Initially , in 2012 , the mission was expected to be extended until 2016 , but on July 14 , 2012 , one of the spacecraft 's four reaction wheels used for pointing the spacecraft stopped turning , and completing the mission would only be possible if all other reaction wheels remained reliable . Then , on May 11 , 2013 , a second reaction wheel failed , disabling the collection of science data and threatening the continuation of the mission .   On August 15 , 2013 , NASA announced that they had given up trying to fix the two failed reaction wheels . This meant the current mission needed to be modified , but it did not necessarily mean the end of planet hunting . NASA had asked the space science community to propose alternative mission plans `` potentially including an exoplanet search , using the remaining two good reaction wheels and thrusters '' . On November 18 , 2013 , the K2 `` Second Light '' proposal was reported . This would include utilizing the disabled Kepler in a way that could detect habitable planets around smaller , dimmer red dwarfs . On May 16 , 2014 , NASA announced the approval of the K2 extension .   , Kepler and its follow-up observations had found 1,013 confirmed exoplanets in about 440 star systems , along with a further 3,199 unconfirmed planet candidates . Four planets have been confirmed through Kepler K2 mission . In November 2013 , astronomers estimated , based on Kepler space mission data , that there could be as many as 40 billion rocky , Earth-size exoplanets orbiting in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars and red dwarfs within the Milky Way . It is estimated that 11 billion of these planets may be orbiting Sun-like stars . The nearest such planet may be 12 ly away , according to the scientists .   On January 6 , 2015 , NASA announced the 1,000 th confirmed exoplanet discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope . Four of the newly confirmed exoplanets were found to orbit within habitable zones of their related stars : three of the four , Kepler-438b , Kepler-442b and Kepler-452b , are almost Earth-size and likely rocky ; the fourth , Kepler-440b , is a super-Earth . On May 10 , 2016 , NASA verified 1,284 new exoplanets found by Kepler , the single largest finding of planets to date .   Since 1988 , over 3,000 exoplanets have been confirmed by all detection methods , including the Kepler mission ( specifically , planets in planetary systems , including multiple planetary systems , have been confirmed , as of ) .

neg: TSX Venture Exchange The TSX Venture Exchange is a stock exchange in Canada . It is headquartered in Calgary , Alberta and has offices in Toronto , Vancouver , and Montreal . All trading through the Exchange is done electronically , so the Exchange does not have a `` trading floor '' . It was previously known as the Canadian Venture Exchange ( CDNX ) , but in 2001 the TSX Group ( now known as the TMX Group ) purchased it and renamed it .   The TMX Group also owns the Toronto Stock Exchange ( TSX ) . The Toronto Stock Exchange is the senior equity market , while the TSX Venture Exchange is a public venture capital marketplace for emerging companies .   As of November 2010 , the TSX Venture Exchange had 2,364 listed companies with a combined market capitalization of $ 60,811,203,235 .

neg: Space Launch Initiative The Space Launch Initiative ( SLI ) was a NASA and U.S. Department of Defense joint research and technology project to determine the requirements to meet all the nation 's hypersonics , space launch and space technology needs . The program began with the award of reusable launch vehicle study contracts in 2000 . In November 2002 it was evolved into the Orbital Space Plane Program and the Next Generation Launch Technology Program .   The primary goal of this research was to increase safety and reliability and to reduce overall costs associated with building , flying and maintaining the nation 's next generation of space launch vehicles . NASA anticipated that these advances would revitalize the nation 's space transportation capabilities , and dramatically improve NASA 's ability to conduct science and exploration missions in space . | This program was ended with the cancellation of the X-33 and X-34 and the conclusion of the X-43 programs . NASA changed its focus to Constellation Program .   The Space Launch Initiative Propulsion Office , managed by NASA 's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville , Ala. , sought to advance technologies and explore new avenues of space propulsion to develop safer , more reliable and affordable propulsion solutions . Four main engine candidates for a second generation reusable launch vehicle emerged , including two hydrogen-fueled ( COBRA , RS-83 , TR-106 ) and two kerosene-fueled ( RS-84 , TR-107 ) staged combustion engines .   California Poly Pomona 's Professor Steven Dobbs was the Lead Systems Engineer on the project , making significant use of the program as an example for failed systems engineering .

neg: Commercial Crew Development Commercial Crew Development ( CCDev ) is a multiphase , space technology development program that is funded by the U.S. government and administered by NASA . The program is intended to stimulate development of privately operated crew vehicles to be launched into low Earth orbit . The program is run by NASA 's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office ( C3PO ) .   In 2010 , in the first phase of the program , NASA provided $ 50 million combined to five American companies ; the money was intended for research and development into private-sector human spaceflight concepts and technologies . NASA solicited a second set of CCdev proposals for technology development projects lasting for a maximum of 14 months in October of that year . In April 2011 , NASA announced they would award up to nearly $ 270 million to four companies as they met their CCDev 2 objectives .   NASA awarded Space Act Agreements for the third phase , named CCiCap , in August 2012 ; this would last until 2014 . CCiCap is followed by CCtCap with Federal Acquisition Regulation ( FAR ) Part 15 contracts , which formed the fourth and final phase of the program . Contracts were awarded to SpaceX and Boeing in September 2014 .

neg: SpaceDev SpaceDev , a part of the `` Space Systems Business '' of Sierra Nevada Corporation , is prominent for its spaceflight and microsatellite work . It designed and built components for the hybrid rocket motors for Paul Allen 's Tier One suborbital SpaceShipOne space program operated by Scaled Composites . It is also developing micro - and nano-satellites , a small expendable launch vehicle , the SpaceDev Streaker , and has designed a piloted suborbital and orbital spaceship of its own , the SpaceDev Dream Chaser , in collaboration with NASA .   SpaceDev is based near San Diego in Poway , California . Its objective is to make routine commercial spaceflight possible and to help open space for all of humanity .   Previously a publicly traded company ( OTCBB : SPDV ) , on 20 October 2008 SpaceDev officials announced that the company would be acquired by Sierra Nevada Corporation , a privately owned company . The announced acquisition price was 38 million dollars . The role of SpaceDev will be melded into another of Sierra Nevada 's subsidiary companies , MicroSat , to create a more complete space technology unit . On December 16 , 2008 SpaceDev announced its acquisition by Sierra Nevada Corporation had been completed .

neg: Final Frontier Design Final Frontier Design is a seed-stage startup company that builds and tests spacesuits . The company 's products both enable , and are enabled by , the more recent lower-cost access to space epitomized by NewSpace launch companies such as SpaceX , Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace .  FFD was awarded a Phase I SBIR in 2011 and developed pressure garment glove technology under this contract .   In July 2011 , Final Frontier Design won third place in the 2011 NewSpace Business Plan Competition in Silicon Valley , sponsored by the Space Frontier Foundation .   In December 2014 , Final Frontier Design obtained an official Space Act Agreement with NASA .

neg: SOAR (spaceplane) SOAR was a partially reusable air-launched spaceplane launch system concept designed to launch small satellites on a suborbital or orbital trajectory . The vehicle , derived from the Hermes spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency , was planned to be built , launched , and operated by Swiss Space Systems . The spaceplane was planned to launch from an Airbus A300 aircraft named S3 Zero Gravity Airliner . Once at altitude , the spaceplane was planned to separate from the aircraft and ignite an NK-39 engine developed by Russian Federal Space Agency . After fuel depletion at about 80 kilometers altitude , the plane was planned to release its payload before gliding back and landing on Earth .   The launch vehicle was planned to also have low Earth orbit capability when launched in conjunction with an expendable upper stage . Swiss Space Systems has contracted the Russian firm RKK Energia to develop the upper stage . With an upper stage , the spacecraft was planned to be able to launch a 250 kilogram payload into orbit .   Swiss Space Systems claimed that the spaceplane could cost about four times less than current suborbital launch costs . The spaceplane was notionally targeted to have its first test launch by 2017 . However , following financial trouble , the company was declared bankrupt in a Swiss civil court , ending operations of the company .

neg: Scientific Atlanta Scientific Atlanta , Inc. is a Georgia-based manufacturer of cable television , telecommunications , and broadband equipment . Scientific Atlanta was founded in 1951 by a group of engineers from the Georgia Institute of Technology , and was purchased by Cisco Systems in 2005 for $ 6.9 billion after Cisco received anti-trust clearance for the purchase . The Cisco acquisition of Scientific Atlanta was ranked in the top 10 of largest technology acquisitions in history and was Cisco 's largest acquisition to date . Prior to the purchase , Scientific Atlanta had been a Fortune 500 company and was one of the top 25 largest corporations in Georgia .   Scientific Atlanta was considered by many to be `` the patriarch of Atlanta 's technology industry for nearly six decades '' and is sometimes referred to as `` Atlanta 's Microsoft or Hewlett Packard '' . It was considered `` core to the development of technology in the Atlanta region '' and `` was to Atlanta what Hewlett-Packard was to Silicon Valley '' because of its legacy of spawning more than 35 substantial companies in the area .

neg: Space Shuttle Independence Space Shuttle Independence , formerly known as Explorer , is a full-scale , high-fidelity replica of the Space Shuttle . It was built by Guard-Lee in Apopka , Florida , installed at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in 1993 , and moved to Space Center Houston in 2012 . It was built using schematics , blueprints and archival documents provided by NASA and by shuttle contractors such as Rockwell International . While many of the features on the replica are simulated , some parts , including the landing gear 's Michelin tires , have been used in the Space Shuttle program . The model is 122.7 ft long , 54 ft high , has a 78 ft wingspan , and weighs 171860 lb .

neg: MacX MacX is a display server implementation supporting the X11 display server protocol that ran on System 7 , Mac OS 8 , and Mac OS 9 . It also ran under A/UX . Prior to X11R4 and the introduction of the PowerPC-based Power Macintosh , this server was developed internally by Apple Inc. for the Motorola 68000 based Macintoshes . MacX was initially developed within the Networking and Communications organization as one component of the Apple DEC Alliance suite of products , but later was moved to Apple 's A/UX group since X11 was ( and is ) an important part of UNIX user interfaces . Versions supporting X11R4 and X11R5 were developed for Apple by a small team of engineers at AGE Logic , Inc. , a San Diego , California company . AGE also OEMed the MacX software under the trade name XoftWare for Macintosh . Apple provided early versions of the Power Macintosh to AGE Logic , and the result was a binary that supported both the Power Macintosh as well as earlier , 68000-based systems .   AGE Logic was later acquired by a Silicon Valley company named NetManage in the mid-1990s . NetManage was headquartered directly across the street from Apple in Cupertino , California . XoftWare for Macintosh was merged into NetManage 's product offering for the Macintosh , which included a wide variety of standalone Internet desktop applications ( e.g. , telnet , archie search engine , gopher protocol , FTP ) , along with various software titles , mainly terminal emulators that were acquired by AGE Logic when it purchased Pacer Software earlier in the decade .   By 1998 , Apple had discontinued MacX as it transitioned from the classic Mac OS to the Unix-like Mac OS X , which had ample support for X11 ( earlier versions of Mac OS X did not directly support X11 , but as of Mac OS X v10 .3 , X11.app has been made available directly from Apple ) . NetManage disbanded its Macintosh group earlier , around 1996 , and as a result , discontinued support of XoftWare for Macintosh .

neg: Soyuz (rocket family) Soyuz ( Союз , meaning `` union '' , GRAU index 11A511 ) is a family of expendable launch systems developed by OKB-1 , and manufactured by Progress State Research and Production Rocket Space Center in Samara , Russia . The Soyuz launch vehicle is the most frequently used launch vehicle in the world .   After the U.S. Space Shuttle program ended in 2011 , Soyuz rockets became the only launch vehicle able to transport astronauts to the International Space Station .   The Soyuz vehicles are used as the launcher for the manned Soyuz spacecraft as part of the Soyuz program , as well as to launch unmanned Progress supply spacecraft to the International Space Station and for commercial launches marketed and operated by Starsem and Arianespace . All Soyuz rockets use RP-1 and liquid oxygen ( LOX ) propellant , with the exception of the Soyuz-U2 , which used Syntin , a variant of RP-1 , with LOX . In the United States , it has the Library of Congress designation A-2 . The Soyuz family is a subset of the R-7 family .

neg: THUMS Islands The THUMS Islands or Astronaut Islands are a set of four artificial islands in San Pedro Bay off the coast of Long Beach , California . They were built in 1965 to tap into the East Wilmington Oil Field . The landscaping and sound walls were designed to camouflage the operation and reduce noise , and they are the only decorated oil islands in the United States .   After a 1964 court case that gave the state of California mineral rights to the area , the islands were built at an estimated cost of $ 22 million in 1965 , the islands were operated by THUMS , a consortium named after the parent companies who bid for the island contract : Texaco , Humble ( now Exxon ) , Union Oil , Mobil , and Shell . The rim of the islands are made of 640,000 tons of boulders from Catalina Island , and the islands were then filled with 3.2 million cubic yards of dredged material from the bay . The islands contain significant landscaping , a waterfall , and tall structures concealing the drilling rigs , including one known as The Condo and mistaken for `` a ritzy hotel '' by those on land . The structures are lit in colored lights at night . The aesthetic mitigation cost $ 10 million at time of construction , and was overseen by theme park architect Joseph Linesch . They were described by a Los Angeles Times writer as `` part Disney , part Jetsons , part Swiss Family Robinson '' .   In 1975 , the state of California and the city of Long Beach sued the THUMS oil companies for artificially depressing oil prices . A federal jury cleared Exxon of all charges , and the other four oil companies settled out of court for `` hundreds of millions of dollars '' .   The islands and operation were purchased by Occidental Petroleum in 2000 .   Since 1967 , they have been known as the Astronaut Islands , having been renamed in honor of four American astronauts who lost their lives in the service of NASA . Island Freeman ( Theodore C. `` Ted '' Freeman ) is named for the first astronaut to perish in active duty ( piloting a T-38 Talon jet trainer ) . Island Grissom ( Virgil I. `` Gus '' Grissom ) , Island White ( Edward H. White II ) , and Island Chaffee ( Roger B. Chaffee ) are named after the Apollo 1 astronauts ( launch pad accident ) .   A peak of 148495 oilbbl/d were produced in 1969 . 300 Moilbbl of oil were pumped from THUMS by 1974 , the 500 millionth barrel of crude oil was pumped in 1980 . By 1992 , the pumping volume was 44444 oilbbl of oil per day through the water injection method of oil recovery , producing low-grade crude oil . By April 2002 , the 900 millionth barrel of oil was pumped . The pumped oil contained 20 % water in 1965 , and by 1994 it was 92 % water .   Island Grissom is the closest to land , containing waterfalls and more sculptured screens than the other islands . The screens and decorations also serve to deter the public from swimming to the islands ( trespassers are subject to arrest ) .   Island Freeman is the largest of the islands , at 12 acre .

neg: Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center ( GSFC ) is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1 , 1959 as NASA 's first space flight center . GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors , and is located approximately 6.5 mi northeast of Washington , D.C. in Greenbelt , Maryland , United States . GSFC , one of ten major NASA field centers , is named in recognition of Dr. Robert H. Goddard ( 1882 -- 1945 ) , the pioneer of modern rocket propulsion in the United States .   GSFC is the largest combined organization of scientists and engineers in the United States dedicated to increasing knowledge of the Earth , the Solar System , and the Universe via observations from space . GSFC is a major U.S. laboratory for developing and operating unmanned scientific spacecraft . GSFC conducts scientific investigation , development and operation of space systems , and development of related technologies . Goddard scientists can develop and support a mission , and Goddard engineers and technicians can design and build the spacecraft for that mission . Goddard scientist John C. Mather shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on COBE .   GSFC also operates two spaceflight tracking and data acquisition networks ( the Space Network and the Near Earth Network ) , develops and maintains advanced space and Earth science data information systems , and develops satellite systems for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) .   GSFC manages operations for many NASA and international missions including the Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) , the Explorer program , the Discovery Program , the Earth Observing System ( EOS ) , INTEGRAL , MAVEN , OSIRIS-REx , the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory ( SOHO ) , the Solar Dynamics Observatory ( SDO ) , and Swift . Past missions managed by GSFC include the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer ( RXTE ) , Compton Gamma Ray Observatory , SMM , COBE , IUE , and ROSAT . Typically , unmanned earth observation missions and observatories in Earth orbit are managed by GSFC , while unmanned planetary missions are managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) in Pasadena , California .

neg: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future Elon Musk : Tesla , SpaceX , and the Quest for a Fantastic Future is Ashlee Vance 's biography of Elon Musk , published in 2015 . The book traces Elon Musk 's life from his childhood up to the time he spent at Zip2 and Paypal , and then onto SpaceX , Tesla , and SolarCity . In the book , Vance managed to get regular interviews with Musk , those close to him , and those who were with him at the most important points of his life ; Musk had no control over the biography 's contents .

neg: Mars Express Mars Express is a space exploration mission being conducted by the European Space Agency ( ESA ) . The Mars Express mission is exploring the planet Mars , and is the first planetary mission attempted by the agency . `` Express '' originally referred to the speed and efficiency with which the spacecraft was designed and built . However `` Express '' also describes the spacecraft 's relatively short interplanetary voyage , a result of being launched when the orbits of Earth and Mars brought them closer than they had been in about 60,000 years .   Mars Express consists of two parts , the Mars Express Orbiter and the Beagle 2 , a lander designed to perform exobiology and geochemistry research . Although the lander failed to fully deploy after it landed on the Martian surface , the orbiter has been successfully performing scientific measurements since early 2004 , namely , high-resolution imaging and mineralogical mapping of the surface , radar sounding of the subsurface structure down to the permafrost , precise determination of the atmospheric circulation and composition , and study of the interaction of the atmosphere with the interplanetary medium .   Due to the valuable science return and the highly flexible mission profile , Mars Express has been granted six mission extensions , the latest until the end of 2016 .   Some of the instruments on the orbiter , including the camera systems and some spectrometers , reuse designs from the failed launch of the Russian Mars 96 mission in 1996 ( European countries had provided much of the instrumentation and financing for that unsuccessful mission ) . The design of Mars Express is based on ESA 's Rosetta mission , on which a considerable sum was spent on development . The same design was also used for the Venus Express mission in order to increase reliability and reduce development cost and time . Because of these redesigns and repurposings , the total cost of the project was about $ 345 million - less than half of comparable U.S. missions .   On 19 October 2014 , the ESA reported the Mars Express is healthy after the Comet Siding Spring flyby of Mars on 19 October 2014 -- as are , as well , all NASA Mars orbiters and ISRO 's orbiter , the Mars Orbiter Mission .   Arriving at Mars in 2003 , ago ( and counting ) , it is the second longest surviving , continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth , behind only NASA 's still active 2001 Mars Odyssey .

neg: United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance ( ULA ) is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing Defense , Space & Security . ULA was formed in December 2006 by combining the teams at these companies which provide spacecraft launch services to the government of the United States . U.S. government launch customers include both the Department of Defense and NASA , as well as other organizations . With ULA , Lockheed and Boeing held a monopoly on military launches for more than a decade , until the US Air Force awarded a GPS satellite contract to SpaceX in 2016 .   ULA provides launch services using three expendable launch systems -- Delta II , Delta IV and Atlas V . The Atlas and Delta launch system families have been used for more than 50 years to carry a variety of payloads including weather , telecommunications and national security satellites , as well as deep space and interplanetary exploration missions in support of scientific research . ULA also provides launch services for non-government satellites : Lockheed Martin retains the rights to market Atlas commercially .   Beginning in October 2014 , ULA announced that they intended to undertake a substantial restructuring of the company , its products and processes , in the coming years in order to decrease launch costs . ULA is planning on building a new rocket that will be a successor to the Atlas V , using a new rocket engine on the first stage . In April 2015 , they unveiled the new vehicle as the Vulcan , with the first flight of a new first stage no earlier than 2019 .

neg: Coalition for Deep Space Exploration The Coalition for Deep Space Exploration is a United States space advocacy organization for space industry businesses and non-profit groups supporting continued government investment in space exploration .

neg: Space Shuttle design process See also Space Shuttle program - Conception and development   Even before the Project Apollo moon landing in 1969 , NASA began studies of space shuttle designs as early as October 1968 . The early studies were denoted `` Phase A '' , and in June 1970 , `` Phase B '' , which were more detailed and specific . The primary intended use of the space shuttle was supporting the future space station , ferrying a minimum crew of four and about 20000 lb of cargo , and able to be rapidly turned around for future flights .   Two designs emerged as front-runners . One was designed by engineers at the Manned Spaceflight Center , and championed especially by George Mueller . This was a two-stage system with delta-winged spacecraft , and generally complex . An attempt to re-simplify was made in the form of the DC-3 , designed by Maxime Faget , who had designed the Mercury capsule among other vehicles . Numerous offerings from a variety of commercial companies were also offered , but generally fell by the wayside as each NASA lab pushed for its own version .   All of this was taking place in the midst of other NASA teams proposing a wide variety of post-Apollo missions , a number of which would cost as much as Apollo or more . As each of these projects fought for funding , the NASA budget was at the same time being severely constrained . Three were eventually presented to Vice President Agnew in 1969 . The shuttle project rose to the top , largely due to tireless campaigning by its supporters . By 1970 the shuttle had been selected as the one major project for the short-term post-Apollo time frame .   When funding for the program came into question , there were concerns that the project might be cancelled . This led to an effort to interest the US Air Force in using the shuttle for their missions as well . The Air Force was mildly interested , but demanded a much larger vehicle , far larger than the original concepts . To lower the development costs of the resulting designs , boosters were added , a throw-away fuel tank was adopted , and many other changes made that greatly lowered the reusability and greatly added to vehicle and operational costs . With the Air Force 's approval , the system emerged in its operational form .

neg: StartX StartX is a non-profit business incubator associated with Stanford University .   It was founded by Cameron Teitelman in 2011 .  it began as a spin-off of Stanford Student Enterprises , the non-profit financial arm of the Associated Students of Stanford University , which sponsored earlier events called SSE Labs in 2009 and then SSE Ventures . The StartX incubator differentiates itself from other incubators in Silicon Valley , such as Y Combinator , in that it is an educational non-profit 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) organization that takes no equity in the companies it helps start .   At least one member of each company must have some Stanford connection , but undergraduates , graduates , faculty and staff are involved in the seminars and advise program .  One of its first ventures , Alphonso Labs , developed the Pulse App .  WifiSlam was acquired by Apple Inc for about $ 20 million .   StartX 's staff is primarily composed of student volunteers from Stanford .  StartX received a $ 800,000 grant from the Kauffman Foundation in August 2012 ( which allowed Teitelman to earn a salary ) , and $ 400,000 from Silicon Valley companies in February 2012 .   In May 2012 , StartX created a specialized track , called StartX Med , for medical-related startup companies .   In September 2013 , Stanford announced a grant of $ 1.2 million every year for three years to StartX .  Along with Stanford Hospital and Clinics , it created a new Stanford-StartX fund ( of uncapped amount ) to invest in current and alumni StartX companies . To receive the investment from Stanford , StartX companies must raise at least $ 500,000 on their own from professional angel investors or venture capitalists .  Stanford-StartX approved 6 companies by 2013 .

neg: Spaceflight Industries Spaceflight Industries , Inc. is a private aerospace company that specializes in the launch of secondary payloads ranging from 1 kg up to 300 kg micro satellites from a variety of space launch vehicles , such as Antares , Dnepr , Soyuz , and Falcon 9 , as well as from the ISS .