Small Gods
''Small Gods'' is the thirteenth of Terry Pratchett's ''Discworld'' novels, published in 1992. It tells the origin of the god Om, and his relations with his prophet, the reformer Brutha. In the process, it satirises philosophy, religious institutions, people, and practices, and the role of religion in political life. Plot background Omnia is a theocracy based on the Seven Books of the Prophets of Om, collectively known as the ''Septateuch''. The Discworld is flat and is orbited by its sun, but Omnian doctrine says that the world is round and orbits the sun. Omnians believe in a single god, Om, though the Discworld has many gods, including the billions of Small Gods who exist as points of desire searching for believers. Om was once a Small God, but managed to speak to a shepherd, gained believers (despite the shepherd being stoned to death) and took over from Ur-Gilash as the God of what became Omnia. In Omnian tradition there is a new Prophet every two hundred years. Plot T ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English author, humorist, and Satire, satirist, best known for the ''Discworld'' series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983 and 2015, and for the Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, apocalyptic comedy novel ''Good Omens'' (1990), which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman. Pratchett's first novel, ''The Carpet People'', was published in 1971. The first ''Discworld'' novel, ''The Colour of Magic'', was published in 1983, after which Pratchett wrote an average of two books a year. The final ''Discworld'' novel, ''The Shepherd's Crown'', was published in August 2015, five months after his death. With more than 100 million books sold worldwide in 43 languages, Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was Knight Bachelor, knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours. In 2 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Anchorite
In Christianity, an anchorite or anchoret (female: anchoress); () is someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, Asceticism , ascetic, or Eucharist-focused life. Anchorites are frequently considered to be a type of hermit, but unlike hermits, they were required to take a vow of stability of place, opting for permanent enclosure in cells often attached to churches. Also unlike hermits, anchorites were subject to a religious rite of consecration that closely resembled the funeral rite, following which they would be considered dead to the world and a type of living saint. Anchorites had a certain autonomy, as they did not answer to any ecclesiastical authority apart from bishops. The anchoritic life is one of the earliest forms of Christian monasticism. In the Catholic Church, heremitic life is one of the forms of consecrated life. In England in the Middle Ages, medieval England, the earliest recorded anchor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Patrick Barlow
Evan George Patrick Barlow (born 18 March 1947) is an English actor, comedian and playwright. His comedic alter ego, ''Desmond Olivier Dingle'', is the founder, artistic director and chief executive of the two-man National Theatre of Brent, which has performed on stage, on television and on radio. Barlow was born in Leicester. Career Radio Barlow is the scriptwriter, as well as lead performer, in many National Theatre of Brent productions, in particular ''All the World's a Globe'' (1987), ''Desmond Olivier Dingle's Compleat Life and Works of William Shakespeare'' (1995) and ''The Arts and How They Was Done'' (2007). In non-Theatre of Brent performances, he wrote and played in the four-part situation comedy for radio called '' The Patrick and Maureen Maybe Music Experience'' which ran for four weeks from January 1999. He played the part of Om in the radio adaptation of Terry Pratchett's '' Small Gods'' (2006), which was adapted by Robin Brooks. Television In '' Is It Legal?'' ( ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasting House, London. Since 2019, the station controller has been Mohit Bakaya. He replaced Gwyneth Williams, who had been the station controller since 2010. Broadcasting throughout the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands on FM broadcast band, FM, Longwave, LW and Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, and on BBC Sounds, it can be received in the eastern counties of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, northern France and Northern Europe. It is available on Freeview (UK), Freeview, Freesat, Sky (UK & Ireland), Sky, and Virgin Media. Radio 4 currently reaches over 10 million listeners, making it List of most-listened-to radio programs#Top stations in the United Kingdom, the UK's second most-popular radio station after BBC Radio 2. BBC ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more than List of NPR stations, 1,000 public radio stations in the United States. Funding for NPR comes from dues and fees paid by member stations, Underwriting spot, underwriting from corporate sponsors, and annual grants from the publicly funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Most of its member stations are owned by non-profit organizations, including public school districts, colleges, and universities. NPR operates independently of any government or corporation, and has full control of its content. NPR produces and distributes both news and cultural programming. The organization's flagship shows are two drive time, drive-time news broadcasts: ''Morning Edition'' and the afternoon ''All Things Considered'', both carried by most NPR me ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jack Heath
Jack Heath is an Australian writer of fiction for children and adults who is best known for the Danger, Scream, Liars and Timothy Blake series. He has been shortlisted for the ACT Book of the Year Award, CBCA Notable Book Award, Nottinghamshire Brilliant Book Award,Money Run's listing on the list of finalists for the 2013 Nottinghamshire Brilliant Book Award . ''brilliantbookaward.nottinghamshire.gov.uk''. Retrieved 19 November 2012. the Aurealis Sci-Fi book of the Year, ". ''Aurealisawards.com''. Retrieved 20 April 2008. the National Year of Reading "Our Stor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Newt
A newt is a salamander in the subfamily Pleurodelinae. The terrestrial juvenile phase is called an eft. Unlike other members of the family Salamandridae, newts are semiaquatic, alternating between aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Not all aquatic salamanders are considered newts, however. More than 100 known species of newts are found in North America, Europe, North Africa and Asia. Newts metamorphose through three distinct developmental life stages: aquatic larva, terrestrial juvenile (eft), and adult. Adult newts have lizard-like bodies and return to the water every year to breed, otherwise living in humid, cover-rich land habitats. Newts are threatened by habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, fragmentation and pollution. Several species are endangered, and at least one species, the Yunnan lake newt, has become extinct recently. Etymology The Old English name of the animal was , (of unknown origin), resulting in Middle English ; this word was transformed irregularly into , ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Death (Discworld)
Death is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's ''Discworld'' series and a parody of several other Personifications of death, depictions of the Grim Reaper across Europe. He is a black-robed skeleton who usually carries a scythe and on occasion a sword for dispatching monarch, royalty. His jurisdiction is specifically the Discworld itself; he being only a minion of Azrael, the Death of all things across the Universes – in much the same way as #The Death of Rats, the Death of Rats is an infinitesimally small part of Death himself. Pratchett explores human existence through his depiction of death, which becomes more sympathetic throughout the series as it progresses. Death almost never ''homicide, kills'' anyone or anything, but — acting in the form of a psychopomp — he merely ensures that when lives come to an end, they move on to afterlife, where they believe they should go if they are sentient, which often involves a desert to be crossed. Works Death appears in ever ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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List Of Discworld Characters
This article contains brief biographies for prominent characters from Terry Pratchett's '' Discworld'' series. More central characters' biographies are also listed in articles relating to the organisations they belong to, main characters have their own articles. Characters are listed alphabetically by name. ''71-Hour'' Ahmed A Klatchian warrior and bodyguard who accompanies his Prince, Khufurah, an envoy on a diplomatic mission from Klatch to Ankh-Morpork in the 21st ''Discworld'' novel, '' Jingo''. Ahmed belongs to a formidable but honourable warrior clan called the D'regs. Speaking purposefully with a heavy accent and chewing cloves he is suspected of killing the Watch's prime suspect in a botched assassination attempt on the prince; provoking Vimes and the Watch to pursue Ahmed back to Klatch. Ahmed got his nickname by killing a man guilty of poisoning a well, one hour before the cultural D'reg three days of unwavering hospitality allowed; a time during which even great ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Misotheism
Misotheism is the "hatred of God" or "hatred of the Deity, gods" (from the Ancient Greek, Greek adjective () "hating the gods" or "God-hating" – a compound of, , "hatred" and, , "god"). A related concept is dystheism (, "bad god"), the belief that a god is not wholly good and evil, good, and is evil. Trickster gods found in polytheistic belief systems often have a dystheistic nature. One example is Eshu, a trickster god from Yoruba religion who deliberately fostered violence between groups of people for his own deeds, saying that "causing ire is my greatest happiness." Many polytheism, polytheistic deities since prehistoric times have been assumed to be neither good nor evil (or to have both qualities). Likewise, the concept of the demiurge in some versions of ancient Gnosticism is often portrayed as a generally evil entity. In conceptions of God as the summum bonum (the highest good), the proposition of God not being wholly good would be an oxymoron. Nevertheless, in monotheism ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Steam Power
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be transformed by a connecting rod and crank into rotational force for work. The term "steam engine" is most commonly applied to reciprocating engines as just described, although some authorities have also referred to the steam turbine and devices such as Hero's aeolipile as "steam engines". The essential feature of steam engines is that they are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separated from the combustion products. The ideal thermodynamic cycle used to analyze this process is called the Rankine cycle. In general usage, the term ''steam engine'' can refer to either complete steam plants (including boilers etc.), such as railway steam locomotives and portable engines, or may refer to the piston or turbine machinery alone, a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lu-Tze
This article contains brief biographies for prominent characters from Terry Pratchett's ''Discworld'' series. More central characters' biographies are also listed in articles relating to the organisations they belong to, main characters have their own articles. Characters are listed alphabetically by name. ''71-Hour'' Ahmed A Klatchian warrior and bodyguard who accompanies his Prince, Khufurah, an envoy on a diplomatic mission from Klatch to Ankh-Morpork in the 21st ''Discworld'' novel, '' Jingo''. Ahmed belongs to a formidable but honourable warrior clan called the D'regs. Speaking purposefully with a heavy accent and chewing cloves he is suspected of killing the Watch's prime suspect in a botched assassination attempt on the prince; provoking Vimes and the Watch to pursue Ahmed back to Klatch. Ahmed got his nickname by killing a man guilty of poisoning a well, one hour before the cultural D'reg three days of unwavering hospitality allowed; a time during which even great ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |