Austin Powers may refer to: Austin Powers (film series), all films in the Austin Powers series: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, the first Austin Powers film, 1997 Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, the second Austin Powers film, 1999 Austin Powers in Goldmember, the third Austin Powers film, 2002 Austin Powers (character), the eponymous main character of the film series Austin Powers: Welcome to My Underground Lair!, a 2000 video game based on the Austin Powers series Austin Powers Pinball, a 2002 video game based on the Austin Powers series Austin Powers Collectible Card Game, collectible card game based on the Austin Powers Series

In Hinduism, an avatar /ˈævətɑr/ (Hindustani: [əʋˈt̪aːr], from Sanskrit अवतार avatāra "descent") is a deliberate descent of a deity to Earth, or a descent of the Supreme Being (e.g., Vishnu for Vaishnavites), and is mostly translated into English as "incarnation", but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation". The phenomenon of an avatar is observed in Hinduism, Ayyavazhi, and Sikhism. Avatar is regarded as one of the core principles of Hinduism. The term is most often associated with Vishnu, though it has also come to be associated with other deities. Varying lists of avatars of Vishnu appear in Hindu scriptures, including the ten Dashavatara of the Garuda Purana and the twenty-two avatars in the Bhagavata Purana, though the latter adds that the incarnations of Vishnu are innumerable. The avatars of Vishnu are a primary component of Vaishnavism. An early reference to avatar, and to avatar doctrine, is in the Bhagavad Gita. Shiva and Ganesha are also described as descending in the form of avatars. The various manifestations of Devi, the Divine Mother principal in Hinduism, are also described as avatars or incarnations by some scholars and followers of Shaktism. The avatars of Vishnu carry a greater theological prominence than those of other deities, which some scholars perceive to be imitative of the Vishnu avatar lists. In Sikhism, an avatar is a deliberate descent of a soul to earth in any form. Guru Granth Sahib believes in the existence of the Dashavatara. In Dasam Granth, Guru Gobind Singh wrote three composition on historical avatars which include Vishnu Avatar, Brahma Avatar, and Rudra Avatar.

BattleBots was an American company that hosted robot competitions. BattleBots was also the name of the television show created from the competition footage hosted by comedian Bil Dwyer. BattleBots Inc. was headquartered in Vallejo, California and held most of its competitions in the San Francisco area. In a BattleBots event the competitors are remote-controlled armed and armored machines designed to fight in an arena combat elimination tournament. If both combat robots are still operational at the end of the match, the winner is determined by a point system based on damage, aggression, and strategy. The television show BattleBots aired on the American cable network Comedy Central for five seasons, covering five BattleBots tournaments. The first season aired starting in August 2000, and the fifth season aired starting in August 2002. Hosts of BattleBots were Dwyer and Sean Salisbury (with Tim Green replacing Salisbury after the second season) and correspondents included former Baywatch actresses Donna D'Errico, Carmen Electra, and Traci Bingham, former Playboy Playmate Heidi Mark, and identical twins Randy and Jason Sklar. Bill Nye was the show's "technical expert". The show's match announcer was longtime boxing ring announcer Mark Beiro. After five seasons, Comedy Central terminated their contract with BattleBots Inc. in late 2002. As of May 2011, there are no future plans for Battlebots.

"Beauty and the Beast" (French: La Belle et la Bête) is a traditional fairy tale. The first published version was a rendition by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins in 1740. The best-known written version was an abridgement of her work published in 1756 by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, in Magasin des enfants, ou dialogues entre une sage gouvernante et plusieurs de ses élèves; an English translation appeared in 1757. Variants of the tale are known across Europe. In France, for example, Zémire et Azor is an operatic version of the story, written by Marmontel and composed by Grétry in 1771, which had enormous success well into the 19th century; it is based on the second version of the tale. Amour pour amour, by Nivelle de la Chaussée, is a 1742 play based on Villeneuve's version.

Blaster Master is a platforming and run and gun video game released by Sunsoft for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is a localized version of a Japanese Famicom game titled Chô Wakusei Senki Metafight (超惑星戦記メタファイト?, which loosely translates to "Super Planetary War Records: Metafight") (also simply called Metafight or Meta Fight), which was released on June 17, 1988 (1988-06-17). The game was released in North America in November 1988 and in Europe on April 25, 1991 (1991-04-25). The game is the first in the Blaster Master series, and it spawned two spin-off titles as well as two sequels. The game features a character named Jason who follows his pet frog Fred down a hole in the earth. There he finds a tank and uses it to battle radioactive mutants. The player controls Jason and the tank SOPHIA THE 3RD through eight levels of gameplay to find the whereabouts of Fred and to defeat the mutants and their leader, the Plutonium Boss. The game was praised for its smooth play control and level designs, detailed and clean graphics, and music, and it was criticized for its high difficulty level and lack of passwords or save points. The game was novelized by Peter Lerangis, as part of the Worlds of Power series published by Scholastic Books.