The series has received many positive reviews, with many people liking the tension and the action. "The Guardian" newspaper said that "SilverFin" is "a well-crafted page-turner with substance".
G. L. Pridgen
Gaston Layton Pridgen, known as G. L. Pridgen (born ca. 1944), is a Republican member of the North Carolina General Assembly and the North Carolina House of Representatives. In the House of Representatives, he represents the 46th District, including constituents in Hoke, Robeson and Scotland counties. A retired telecommunications technician from Laurinburg, North Carolina, Pridgen also has experience in the United States Military.
Pridgen was born in Robeson County, where he graduated from Littlefield High School and studied at Robeson Community College. His career with Southern Bell Telephone Company, which later became BellSouth Telecommunications and then AT&T, was interrupted by two years of service in the United States Army. Drafted into the army, he served as a communication lineman in Vietnam with the rank of Specialist-5, and was awarded the Bronze Star.
In 1994, he started his own telecommunications company, The Communications Company, Inc., providing telecommunications to local businesses. In 2009 he began working in the IT Department at Southeastern Regional Medical Center.
Pridgen is currently serving his first term as Representative for District 46 of North Carolina. In the House of Representatives he is active on seven committees. These are the Agriculture committee, the Appropriations committee (both Appropriations and Appropriations of Education, for which he is Vice-Chair) and the committees on Education, Judiciary (and Judiciary subcommittee B), and Public Utilities.
Pridgen has been the primary sponsor of eleven bills and has co-sponsored twenty-eight other bills, including H475 which authorizes a referendum on whether to make English the official language of North Carolina. He was also a primary sponsor of bill H219 which aimed to keep stricter records of registered sex offenders in the state. Pridgen nominated Dick Taylor to serve on the University of North Carolina Board of Governors. Pridgen also served as Vice-Chairman of the Appropriations Committee for Education. In this role, he supported a motion that would allow extra tax revenue to help fund the University of North Carolina system schools. This came less than a week after the committee proposed a budget for the UNC-system of schools that would have reduced funding by $483 million, or 17.4 percent. The cuts were described as potentially causing the school system to lose 3,200 jobs and cut 9,000 classes.
Pridgen has four children with his wife, Wendy.
Foreigner (band)
Foreigner is a British-American rock band, originally formed in 1976 by veteran English musicians Mick Jones, ex-King Crimson member Ian McDonald along with American vocalist Lou Gramm. Foreigner have sold more than 70 million albums worldwide, (including over 37.5 million in the United States alone).
Stonewall riots
The Stonewall riots were a series of riots in New York City from 28 June to 6 July in 1969. They happened after the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. After this, many LGBT+ people protested being persecuted by the police. They are seen as the start of the Gay Rights Movement.
Glycerol
Glycerol (or glycerin, glycerine) is a simple organic molecule. It is a colorless, odorless, thick liquid that is widely used during the last step of preparing prescription drugs. Glycerol has three hydrophilic (water-loving) hydroxyl (oxygen-hydrogen) groups that are responsible for its solubility in water and its hygroscopic nature (which means it attracts water from the air). The glycerol backbone is central to all lipids known as triglycerides. It is used is in making nitroglycerin.
Arthur C. Clarke Award
The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a prize for excellent science fiction writing. It is a British award for a science fiction novel from the year before. To win, a the novel must be published first in the United Kingdom. The winner gets money as a prize. The prize amount increases each year. It is a number of pounds sterling equal to the year of the prize (£1987 for the first prize in 1987, and £2011 for the most recent prize).
The science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke gave money to start the prize. The first prize was given in 1987. A group of judges choose the winning book. Judges come from the British Science Fiction Association, the Science Fiction Foundation and a third group. Now, that third group SF Crowsnest. The Serendip Foundation manages the prize. Recently, the award has been presented on the first night of the SCI-FI-LONDON film festival.
Pat Cadigan
Pat Cadigan is an American science fiction author. Her work is part of the cyberpunk movement. Her novels and short stories all share a common theme of exploring the relationship between the human mind and technology.
She was born in Schenectady, New York, and grew up in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Cadigan was a student at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Kansas. She studied with James Gunn at Kansas and graduated in 1975. That same year Cadigan joined the convention committee for MidAmeriCon, the 34th World Science Fiction Convention being held in Kansas City, Missouri over Labor Day weekend 1976. Her job as a committee member was to help guest of honor Robert A. Heinlein.
She also worked for fantasy writer Tom Reamy at his Nickelodeon Graphics typesetting and graphic design business. Reamy died in 1977 and Cadigan went to work as a writer for Kansas City's Hallmark Cards. She went to live in England with her son Bob Fenner in 1996. She is now married there to her third husband.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she was a magazine editor. She worked on small press fantasy and science fiction magazines called "Chacal" and" Shayol" with her second husband, Arnie Fenner. Cadigan sold her first professional science fiction story in 1980. She became a full-time writer in 1987.
Cadigan's first novel was "Mindplayers". It introduced a common theme in her writing. Her stories make the human mind a real place where people can go and do things. What is real becomes unclear.
Cadigan has won several awards, including: Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 1986; the Philip K. Dick Award in 1987 for "Mindplayers"; the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1991; the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1992 and 1995 for her novels "Synners" and "Fools".
Robert A. Heinlein had become her friend after she helped him when he was a guest at the 34th Worldcon in Kansas City. He partly dedicated his novel "Friday" to her.
In the 1960s, Cadigan and a childhood girlfriend "invented a whole secret life in which we were twins from the planet Venus," she told National Public Radio. The Beatles asked "us for advice about their songs" and help being famous, Cadigan says. In this fantasy, sometimes the girls would shape-shift to become The Beatles and finish recording songs or playing concerts for them. As Venusian twins, Cadigan said they had other superpowers too. Sometimes they would help Superman, Wonder Woman and other heroes, she said.
One of her early stories appeared in "Rock On" (1981).
Iris (goddess)
Iris was known as the goddess of the rainbow and another messenger for the gods in Greek mythology.
She is depicted as a beautiful golden goddess, with wings (for flight), sandals, a staff, and a tunic. There is often much art, such as vases and murals, shown of her because she is worshiped and very beautiful. She was also seen briefly in Homer's "Legacies".
Iris is generally seen as Hera's personal servant and messenger. Iris is very swift and fast and she generally travels by rainbow. It is even said that the reason the rainbow comes and goes so fast is because Iris only uses it for travel and since she is so fast, it is only in the sky for a small amount of time.