The Alamo is a 1960 American historical epic and war film about the 1836 Battle of the Alamo produced and directed by John Wayne and starring Wayne as Davy Crockett. The picture stars Richard Widmark as Jim Bowie and Laurence Harvey as William B. Travis, the supporting cast features Frankie Avalon, Patrick Wayne, Linda Cristal, Joan O'Brien, Chill Wills, Joseph Calleia, Ken Curtis, Ruben Padilla as Santa Anna, guest star Richard Boone as Sam Houston; the motion picture was photographed in 70 mm Todd-AO by William H. Clothier and released by United Artists; the film depicts the events leading up to it. Sam Houston needs time to build an army; the opposing Mexican forces, led by General Santa Anna, numerically are stronger as well as better armed and trained. The Texans have spirit and morale remains high. Lieutenant Colonel William Travis is tasked with defending the Alamo, a former mission in San Antonio. Jim Bowie comes with reinforcements and the defenders prepare. Meanwhile, Davy Crockett arrives with a group of Tennesseeans.

Santa Anna's armies surround the fort. The siege begins. An embassy from the Mexican Army approached the Alamo, as they listed the terms of surrender, Travis fired a cannon by lighting it with his cigar. In a nighttime raid, the Texans sabotage the Mexicans' biggest cannon; the Texans maintain high hopes as they are told a strong force led by Colonel James Fannin is on its way to break the siege. Crockett, sensing an imminent attack, sends one of his younger men, Smitty, to ask Houston for help. Crockett knows this will save Smitty's life; the Mexicans frontally attack the Alamo. The defenders hold out and inflict heavy losses on the Mexicans, although the Texans' own losses are not insignificant. Bowie sustains. Morale drops when Travis informs his men that Fannin's reinforcements have been ambushed, slaughtered by the Mexicans. Travis chooses to stay with his command and defend the Alamo, but he gives the other defenders the option of leaving. Crockett and their men prepare to leave, but an inspired tribute by Travis convinces them to stay and fight to the end.

The noncombatants, including most of the women and children, leave the Alamo. On the thirteenth day of the siege, Santa Anna's artillery bombards the Alamo and kills or wounds several Texans; the entire Mexican army sweeps forward. The defenders kill dozens of charging Mexicans; the Mexicans blast a hole in the Alamo wall and soldiers swarm through. Travis is shot and killed. Crockett leads the Texans in the final defense of the fort; the Mexicans overwhelm the Texans. The Texans retreat to their final defensive positions. Crockett is killed in the chaos when he is run through by a lance and blown up as he ignites the powder magazine. Bowie, in bed with his wound, kills several Mexicans but is bayoneted and dies; as the last Texan is killed, the Mexican soldiers discover the hiding place of the wife and child of Texan defender Captain Dickinson. The battle is over, the Mexicans have won. Santa Anna provides safe passage for Mrs. Dickinson and her child. Smitty returns too late, he takes off his hat in respect and escorts Mrs. Dickinson away from the battlefield.

The subplot follows the conflict existing among the strong-willed personalities of Travis and Crockett. Travis stubbornly defends his decisions as commander of the garrison against the suggestions of the other two - Bowie with whom the most bitter conflict develops - as well as trying to maintain discipline among a force made up of independently minded frontiersmen and settlers. Crockett, well liked by both Bowie and Travis becomes a mediator between the other two as Bowie threatens to withdraw his men rather than deal with Travis. Despite their personal conflicts, all three learn to subordinate their differences, in the end, bind themselves together in an act of bravery to defend the fort against inevitable defeat. John Wayne as Col. Davy Crockett, a larger-than-life legend from Tennessee who arrives at the Alamo bringing a band of fellow adventurers to the fight. Richard Widmark as Col. Jim Bowie, a legendary figure like Crockett, who shares command of the Alamo with William Travis, but bears ultimate authority only over his volunteer group.

Laurence Harvey as Col. William Barrett Travis, who shares command of the Alamo garrison with Bowie, but has ultimate authority over the regular soldiers. Frankie Avalon as Smitty, the youngest of the Alamo defenders, one of Crockett's Tennesseans. Patrick Wayne as Capt. James Butler Bonham, a Texan officer sent out with an appeal for help. Linda Cristal as Graciela Carmela Maria'Flaca' de Lopez y Vejar, a young woman whom Crockett saves from forced marriage. Joan O'Brien as Mrs. Sue Dickinson, wife of Captain Almaron Dickinson and cousin of Col. William Travis, who refuses to leave the fort with her young daughter. Chill Wills as Beekeeper, one of Crockett's colorful Tennesseans. Joseph Calleia as Juan Seguin, a San Antonio political figure who leads Mexican volunteers to help defend the Alamo. Ken Curtis as Capt. Almaron Dickinson, Travis's aide-de-camp. Carlos Arruza as Lt. Reyes, an officer of Santa Anna's army, sent to demand the surrender of the fort. Jester Hairston as Jethro, Jim Bowie's loyal slave.

Veda Ann Borg as Blind Nell Robertson, the wife of Alamo defender Jocko Robertson. John Dierkes as Jocko Robertson, Nell's husband, a Tennessean, though not one of Crockett's band, but of Bowie’s band. Denver Pyle as Thimblerig, one of Crockett's Tennessee volunteers. Aissa Wayne as Lisa Di

Super Pinball: Behind the Mask is a pinball simulator for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, released in 1994 in North America and Japan. Super Pinball: Behind the Mask features three tables: the clown-themed "Jolly Joker", the pirate-themed "Blackbeard and Ironmen", the fantasy-themed "Wizard." All tables are shown in a tilted 3D view, which fits the entire table on the screen without the need for scrolling, with marquee messages and bonuses displayed as giant overlays on the screen. The game can be played with one to four players; the game uses 3D graphics. GamePro criticized the game for emulating early pinball machines, which were "straightforward and not imaginative", rather than modern pinball video games, they elaborated that "The bumpers and bonus markers are too small, the angle of the board will give you a permanent squint." Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it a 6.4 out of 10, remarking that it "is the best looking home pinball game out there, but that's about it. The game play gets repetitious and boring..."

Nisreen Faour is a Palestinian actress from the village of Tarshiha, best known for her role as Muna in the 2009 American film, Amreeka. Faour was born in Tarshiha and moved to the United States to study theater and performance when she was 16, she came back to Israel in order to study acting at the Kibbutzim College of Education in Tel Aviv between 1991 and 1994, on directing at the University of Haifa. She has performed in a number of award-winning theatrical plays, she appeared in Israeli films such as In the Eighth Month, directed by Ali Nassar, Jamr Alhikaya and The Savior. Her television appearances include Family Deluxe, produced by the Israel Broadcasting Authority and aired by Channel 33, as well as Mishwar Al-Joma. Faour's performance as Muna Farah, a Palestinian immigrant to the United States in the 2009 independent film Amreeka, received high marks from film critics. American film critic Kenneth Turan argues that, while all of the casting choices "are excellent, it is Palestinian actress Nisreen Faour as the irrepressible Muna who owns the picture".

2009 Dubai International Film Festival - Won Muhr Award as Best Actress for Amreeka 2010 Independent Spirit Awards - Nominated Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead - Amreeka Nisreen Faour on IMDb Nisreen Faour at AllMovie

William Francis Walsh was known to all as Billy. He was a 5-goal polo soldier in the Cavalry. Billy is regarded as one of the three key figures in the post war revival of the sport of polo in the United Kingdom, he single-handedly restarted Ham Polo Club in 1946. Like so many of the pioneers of polo in the western world Billy Walsh was an Irishman, born in County Kilkenny. In the 1920s he went to the USA where he gained his initial skills and a talent, to take him to 5-goals by 1928. In 1933, Billy went to work for Major Philip Magor training the many Argentine polo ponies imported by Magor to Roehampton Polo Club. Billy became recognised throughout the polo world for his skills in making polo ponies-it has been said that his handicap could have been much higher had he spent more time playing, rather than training. In 1936, Captain Tom Brigg, owner of the Equestrian Centre at Ham Gate and member of the Swaine Adney Brigg family, invited Billy to run his stables and teach polo there. Three years he joined the Cavalry and, after his army service returned to Ham to find that Capt. Brigg had died and that the Equestrian Centre was for on the market.

Using his gratuity, he revived Ham Polo Club under HPA rules. Indeed, he may be ranked-together with the late Lord Cowdray and Authur Lucas-as being one of a trio to whom English polo will forever be indebted. Billy was on the winning team with Ham Polo Club in 1947 in the first polo tournament to be played in post war England; the team took home the prestigious Roehampton Trophy. In 1977, Billy gave up the game, it was not until 1982 though that he gave up the position of manager of Ham Polo Club to become the President. He has been succeeded as manager by two generations. Firstly his daughter Peggy Healy and secondly his grand son Tim Healy; the Billy Walsh tournament is still played at Ham Polo Club today, the finals are held in September. The HPA blue book noted in tribute to Billy that it was due to his'initiative and enthusiasm that Ham Polo Club grew and flourished under his patrician eye" In 1985, on International Day, the Queen presented Billy with a bronze of a polo player and pony, donated by his many friends in recognition of his lifelong work.

At the 2007 Audi Polo Awards, the La Martina Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Billy Walsh for his contribution to the sport. Billy was married to Ivy and had two children and Brian, their daughter Peggy married actor David Healy. They had two sons Tim, who are both polo players. Official website Hurlingham Polo Association - Governing body of the sport in the UK & Ireland Ham Polo Club Blog - News and Reviews of matches and tournaments at Ham Polo Club

Kongjian Yu is a Chinese ecological urbanist, urban planner and landscape architect, professor of landscape architecture at Peking University and the founder of the planning and design office Turenscape in Beijing. Kongjian Yu received his Doctor of Design Degree at The Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1995, with the dissertation, "Security Patterns in Landscape Planning: With a Case in South China" with Carl Steinitz，Richard Forman and Stephen Ervin as his advisors, he went back to China after worked as landscape planner and architect at SWA Group in Laguna Beach for two years in 1997. He has been a professor of urban and regional planning at Peking University since 1997, is the founder and Dean of the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture at PKU, is now the College of Architecture and Landscape Architectu, he founded Turenscape in an internationally awarded firm with about 600 professionals. Yu and Turenscape's practice covers architecture, landscape architecture, urbanism across scales.

Yu defines landscape architecture as the art of survival, tries to protect and reconstruct ecological infrastructure as holistic nature- based solution to provide ecosystems services for cities, to define a new aesthetics, the "big feet aethetic" based on environmental ethic. His pioneering research on the "ecological security patterns",Negative Planning and "sponge cities" have been adopted by the Chinese government as a guiding theory for national land use planning, eco-city campaign, urban ecological restoration. A native of China's Zhejiang Province, his guiding design principles are the appreciation of the ordinary, such as rural agricultural landscapes, a deep embracing of nature in its destructive aspects, such as urban flooding, he is a designed ecologist and he practices design as scientific experiments. He got inspirations from his farming experience and the ancient wisdom of water and waste management to design and test a series of nature-based solutions, such as constructed wetland for water cleansing, green sponge for storm water management, ecosystems services oriented design for brown field remediation, etc.

He has made these solutions to become replicable ecological engineering modules to be implemented at large scale to solve ecological problems, such as flood, draught and soil pollution and habitat rehibiliation,thorugh which landscape in deep form---as oppostite to shallow form or fake form—can be created. Yu's ecological approach to urbanism has been implemented in over 200 cities in China and abroad, he has won numerous international awards for his ecologically and culturally sensitive projects, including 12 ASLA Excellence and Honor Awards, an ULI Global Award for Excellence in 2009, 5 WAF Landscape of the year Awards at the World Architecture Festival. Yu has published over 300 articles. Sponge City, Big feet Revolution, Art of Survival, Deep Form are some of the key words that depicted his design philosophy and research, his works have been featured in publications such as Scientific American and Landscape Architecture, two published books: Letters to Chinese Leaders: Kongjian Yu and the Future of the Chinese City, Designed Ecologies: The landscape Architecture of Kongjian Yu.

He is the founder and chief editor of the internationally awarded magazine Landscape Architecture Frontier. He lectured worldwide at over 100 institutes including American Academy of Arts and Sciences，National Academy of Sciences, World Economic Forum, World Bank, Harvard University, Columbia University, UC Berkeley, many others, had delivered over 60 keynote speeches at international conferences including 5 time keynote speeches at the World Congress of the International Federation of Landscape Architects and 3 time speeches at the ASLA annual conference and expo, taught for 5 year at Harvard GSD as visiting professor, he was a juror for the 2010 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. and its Steering Committee in 2015–2016, the Super Jury for 2011 World Architecture Festival, many other international award juries. He was Changjiang Scholars Program award winner, Chinese Ministry of Education,2011, he was elected fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2012, International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016.

He received the Doctor Honoris Causa in Landscape and Environment from the Sapienza University of Rome in 2017, the Honorary Doctor in Landscape architectrure from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in 2019. Kaban Lake Waterfront: Revitalizing Kazan's Prime Waterfront, Russia Sanya Mangrove Park: Form Follows Processes, China Puyangjiang River Corridor:Building a Greenway, JInhua,China Chengtoushan Archaeological Park: Peasants and their Land, The Recovered Landscape of an ancient city, Hunan, China （WAF Landscape of The Year Award，2017 World Architecture Festival） Quzhou Luming Park: Framing Terrain and Water, China Yanweizhou Park in Jinhua City: A Flood Adaptive Landscape, China Liupanshui Minghu Wetland Park：Slow Dow, China Qunli Stormwater Park：A Green Sponge for a Water-Resilient City, China Qian'an Sanlihe Greenway：A Mother River Recovered, China Shanghai Houtan