Halo

In Christian sacred art (Eastern and Western churches), holy persons (saints) are depicted with a halo, a golden, yellow or white circular glow, around the head. It is sometimes called a nimbus as well. See iconography.

The halo appears in the art of ancient Greece and Rome, and was incorporated into Christian art sometime in the 4th century. Round halos are used to signify saints. A cross within a halo is used to represent Christ. Triangular halos are used for representations of the Trinity. Square halo are used to depict unusually saintly living personages.

In popular piety, this practice has led to the belief that saints during their earthly life actually walked around with a halo around their head. Of the many wonderful stories about saints, some report that a saint was literally glowing. This is called the aureole, a lemon-drop-shaped item that appears to radiate from the entire body of the holy being. Finally, there is also "glory," a glowing effusion used to cover up depictions of genitalia.

The halo underwent an interesting transformation during the Renaissance. Originally, the halo represented a glow of sanctity emanating from the head. Since it was conventionally drawn as a circle, during the Renaissance, when perspective[?] became more important in art, the halo was changed from an aura surrounding the head to a golden ring that appeared in perspective, mysteriously floating above the heads of the saints.

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Halo (full title "Halo: Combat Evolved") is a highly popular first-person shooter game by Bungie Studios for Microsoft's Xbox game console. Many consider Halo to be one of the best first-person shooters released in 2001 for any platform. Bungie originally began production as an independent company, and was later acquired by Microsoft. Halo was first demoed at MacWorld New York in 1999.

The next episode in this very popular game shall be released in the coming year.

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Halos are optical phenomena which appear in the sky near or around the Sun or Moon, for example "sun-dogs" or the parahelia, or a paraselene or "mock-moon." There are many other types of halos.

Picture from the NOAA Photo Library (http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/)

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Halo name given to every Nine Inch Nails official release (singles, remixes and/or EPs) whereas the number of it indicates as well the order in which they were released. The current halo list continue as it follows:

• Halo 1 - Down in It[?] (single, 1989)
• Halo 2 - Pretty Hate Machine (first full LP, 3x Platinum according to Billboard, 1989)
• Halo 3 - Head Like a Hole[?] (maxi-single, 1990)
• Halo 4 - Sin (single, 1990)
• Halo 5 - Broken[?] (EP, 1992)
• Halo 6 - Fixed[?] (remixes from broken, 1992)
• Halo 7 - March of the Pigs[?] (single, 1994)
• Halo 8 - The Downward Spiral (second LP, 4x Platinum, 1994 )
• Halo 9 - Closer to God[?] (single, 1994)
• Halo 10 - Further Down the Spiral (US release)[?] (remixes from TDS, 1995)
• Halo 10 v2 - Further Down the Spiral (UK release)[?] (remixes from TDS, 1995)
• Halo 11 - The Perfect Drug[?] (single from David Linch's "Lost Highway" soundtrack song "The Perfect Drug", composed by Trent Reznor, 1997)
• Halo 12 - Closure (double video set which contains every official Nine Inch Nails video as well as a live performance from the TDS era, 1997)
• Halo 13 - The Day the World Went Away[?] (single, 1999)
• Halo 14 - The Fragile (Double-Disc LP which debuted at #1 on Billboard, 1999)
• Halo 15 - We're in This Together[?] (single, divided into 3 parts and available as import only, 1999)

 NOTE: Into the Void[?] is an official Nine Inch Nails release, but not a Halo

• Halo 16 - Things Falling Apart[?] (remixes from The Fragile, 2000)
• Halo 17 - And All That Could Have Been (cd 1) / Still[?] (cd 2) (live performance from the Fragility V2.0 tour available as single and double album, as well as concert documents on VHS and DVD (Dolby Digital or DTS versions for 5.1 Surround are available, yet both contain a Stereo mix, 2002)