1.
Salisbury
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Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England, and the only city within the county. It is the third-largest settlement in the county, after Swindon and Chippenham, with a population of 40,302, the city is located in the southeast of Wiltshire, near the edge of Salisbury Plain. Its cathedral was located to the north at Old Sarum, following its relocation. The new town received its city charter in 1227 under the name New Sarum, which continued to be its name until 2009. It sits at the confluence of five rivers, the Nadder, Ebble, Wylye, and Bourne are tributary to the Hampshire Avon, which flows to the south coast and into the sea at Christchurch in Dorset. Salisbury railway station serves the city and is a regional interchange, Stonehenge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is about 8 miles northwest of Salisbury and greatly aids the local economy. The city itself, Old Sarum, the present cathedral and the ruins of the one also attract visitors. The first part of the name is of obscure origin, the form Sarum is a Latinization of Sar, a medieval abbreviation for Sarisberie. Salisbury appeared in the Welsh Chronicle of the Britons as Caer-Caradog, Caer-Gradawc, cair-Caratauc, one of the 28 British cities listed in the History of the Britons, has also been identified with Salisbury. The hilltop at Old Sarum lies near the Neolithic sites of Stonehenge and Avebury and it commanded a salient between the River Bourne and the Hampshire Avon near a crossroads of several early trade routes. During the Iron Age, a hillfort was constructed around it sometime between 600 and 300 BC, the Romans may have occupied the site or left it in the hands of an allied tribe. Amid the Saxon invasions, Old Sarum fell to King Cynric of Wessex in 552, preferring settlements in bottomland like nearby Wilton, the Saxons largely ignored Old Sarum until the Viking invasions led King Alfred to restore its fortifications. Along with Wilton, however, it was abandoned by its residents to be sacked and burned by the Dano-Norwegian king Sweyn Forkbeard in 1003 and it subsequently became the site of Wiltons mint. Following the Norman invasion, a castle was constructed by 1070. The castle was directly by the Norman kings, its castellan was generally also the sheriff of Wiltshire. Hermann and his successor Saint Osmund began the construction of the first Salisbury cathedral, the cathedral was consecrated on 5 April 1092 but suffered extensive damage in a storm, traditionally said to have occurred only five days later. Bishop Roger was an ally of Henry I who served as his viceroy during the kings absence to Normandy and directed the royal administration. He refurbished and expanded Old Sarums cathedral in the 1110s and began work on a palace during the 1130s
2.
Mime artist
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A mime or mime artist is a person who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art, involving miming, or the acting out a story through body motions, without use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer would typically be referred to as a mummer, miming is to be distinguished from silent comedy, in which the artist is a seamless character in a film or sketch. The performance of mime originates at its earliest in Ancient Greece, in Medieval Europe, early forms of mime such as mummer plays and later dumbshows evolved. In early nineteenth century Paris, Jean-Gaspard Deburau solidified the many attributes that we have come to know in modern times—the silent figure in whiteface, Jacques Copeau, strongly influenced by Commedia dellarte and Japanese Noh theatre, used masks in the training of his actors. Jacques Lecoq contributed significantly to the development of mime and physical theatre with his training methods, however, the twentieth century also brought a new medium into widespread usage, the motion picture. The restrictions of early motion picture technology meant that stories had to be told with minimal dialogue and this often demanded a highly stylized form of physical acting largely derived from the stage. Thus, mime played an important role in films prior to advent of talkies, the mimetic style of film acting was used to great effect in German Expressionist film. Indeed, Chaplin may be the best-documented mime in history, tati, like Chaplin before him, would mime out the movements of every single character in his films and ask his actors to repeat them. Mime has been performed on stage, with Marcel Marceau and his character Bip being the most famous, Mime is also a popular art form in street theatre and busking. Traditionally, these sorts of performances involve the actor/actress wearing tight black, however, contemporary mimes often perform without whiteface. Similarly, while traditional mimes have been silent, contemporary mimes, while refraining from speaking. Mime acts are often comical, but some can be very serious, canadian author Michael Jacots first novel, The Last Butterfly, tells the story of a mime artist in Nazi-occupied Europe who is forced by his oppressors to perform for a team of Red Cross observers. Nobel laureate Heinrich Bölls The Clown relates the downfall of a mime artist, Hans Schneir, jacob Appels Pushcart short-listed story, Coulrophobia, depicts the tragedy of a landlord whose marriage slowly collapses after he rents a spare apartment to an intrusive mime artist. The first recorded mime was Telestēs in the play Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus, tragic mime was developed by Puladēs of Kilikia, comic mime was developed by Bathullos of Alexandria. The Roman emperor Trajan banished mime artists, Caligula favored them, nero himself acted as a mime. Recitation, music, and even percussive footwork sometimes accompany the performance, the Natya Shastra, an ancient treatise on theatre by Bharata Muni, mentions silent performance, or mukabhinaya. In Kathakali, stories from Indian epics are told with facial expressions, hand signals, performances are accompanied by songs narrating the story while the actors act out the scene, followed by actor detailing without background support of narrative song. Butoh, though referred to as a dance form, has been adopted by various theatre practitioners as well
3.
Star Wars
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Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise, centered on a film series created by George Lucas. It depicts the adventures of characters a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The franchise began in 1977 with the release of the film Star Wars and it was followed by the successful sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, these three films constitute the original Star Wars trilogy. A prequel trilogy was released between 1999 and 2005, which received mixed-to-negative reactions, a sequel trilogy began in 2015 with the release of Star Wars, The Force Awakens. All seven films were nominated for Academy Awards and have been successes, with a combined box office revenue of over $7.5 billion. Spin-off films include Star Wars, The Clone Wars and Rogue One, Star Wars also holds a Guinness World Records title for the Most successful film merchandising franchise. In 2015, the value of the Star Wars franchise was estimated at USD $42 billion. In 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for $4.06 billion and earned the rights to all subsequent Star Wars films. Walt Disney Studios owns digital distribution rights to all the Star Wars films, the events depicted in the Star Wars franchise take place in an unnamed fictional galaxy at an undetermined point in the distant past. Many species of creatures are depicted. Robotic droids are also commonplace and are built to serve their owners. Space travel is common, and many planets in the galaxy are members of a single galactic government. In the prequel trilogy, this is depicted in the form of the Galactic Republic, at the end of the trilogy and throughout the original trilogy. Preceding and during the trilogy, this government is the New Republic. One of the prominent elements of Star Wars is the Force and it is described in the first produced film as an energy field created by all living things surrounds us, penetrates us, binds the galaxy together. While the Force can be used for good, known as the side, it also has a dark side that, when pursued, imbues users with hatred, aggression. The sequel trilogy introduces the Knights of Ren, an order of practitioners of the side of the Force aligned with the First Order. The first film in the series, Star Wars, was released on May 25,1977 and this was followed by two sequels, The Empire Strikes Back, released on May 21,1980, and Return of the Jedi, released on May 25,1983
4.
Helen Mirren
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Dame Helen Lydia Mirren DBE is an English actor. The Audience was written by Peter Morgan, who also wrote The Queen, Tingle, Gosford Park, Calendar Girls, The Last Station, Hitchcock, and The Hundred-Foot Journey. She played Victoria Winslow in the action-comedy films Red and Red 2, in 2003, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for Services to the Performing Arts. In 2013, Mirren was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and she was born Helen Lydia Mironoff at Queen Charlottes and Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith, west London, the daughter of Kathleen Kitty Alexandrina Eva Matilda and Vasily Petrovich Mironoff. Her mother was English and her father was Russian, originally from Kuryanovo, Mirrens paternal grandfather, Colonel Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov, was in the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. He later became a diplomat, and was negotiating a deal in Britain when he. The former diplomat became a London cab driver to support his family and his son, Helen Mirrens father, anglicised the family name to Mirren in the 1950s and changed his name to Basil Mirren. He played the viola with the London Philharmonic before World War II, Mirrens mother was a working-class Londoner from West Ham, East London, and was the 13th of 14 children born to a butcher whose own father had been the butcher to Queen Victoria. Mirren considers her upbringing to have been very anti-monarchist, Mirren was the second of three children, she was born three years after her older sister, Katherine, and also had a younger brother, Peter Basil. Mirren was brought up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, aged eighteen, she auditioned for the National Youth Theatre and was accepted. By the time she was 20, she was playing Cleopatra in the NYT production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic, as a result of her work for the National Youth Theatre, Mirren was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. She also appeared in four productions, directed by Braham Murray for Century Theatre at the University Theatre in Manchester, in 1970, the director/producer John Goldschmidt made a documentary film, Doing Her Own Thing, about Mirren during her time with the Royal Shakespeare Company. The film was made for ATV and shown on the ITV Network in the UK and she then rejoined the RSC, playing Lady Macbeth at Stratford in 1974 and at the Aldwych Theatre in 1975. According to Beauman, there were no repercussions for this rebuke of the RSC. Her performance earned her the London critics Plays & Players Best Actress award, beginning in November 1975, Mirren played in West End repertory with the Lyric Theatre Company as Nina in The Seagull and Ella in Ben Travers new farce The Bed Before Yesterday. In 1981, she returned to the Royal Court for the London premiere of Brian Friels Faith Healer, – Michael Coveney, Financial Times, April 1983. On 15 February 2013, at the West Ends Gielgud Theatre she began a turn as Elizabeth II in the World Premiere of Peter Morgans The Audience, the show was directed by Stephen Daldry. In April she was named best actress at the Olivier Awards for her role, a further stage breakthrough came in 1994, in an Yvonne Arnaud Theatre production bound for the West End, when Bill Bryden cast her as Natalya Petrovna in Ivan Turgenevs A Month in the Country
5.
Carnegie Mellon University
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Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools, in 1967, the Carnegie Institute of Technology merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to form Carnegie Mellon University. The universitys 140-acre main campus is 3 miles from Downtown Pittsburgh, john Heinz III College of Information Systems and Public Policy, and the School of Computer Science. The university also has campuses in Qatar and Silicon Valley, with degree-granting programs in six continents, Carnegie Mellon consistently ranks in the top 25 in the national U. S. News & World Report rankings. It is home to the world’s first degree-granting Robotics and Drama programs, the university spent $242 million on research in 2015. Carnegie Mellon counts 13,650 students from 114 countries, over 100,000 living alumni, Carnegies vision was to open a vocational training school for the sons and daughters of working-class Pittsburghers. Carnegie was inspired for the design of his school by the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, in 1912 the institution changed its name to Carnegie Institute of Technology and began offering four-year degrees. The Mellon Institute of Industrial Research was founded in 1913 by banker and industrialist brothers Andrew, Mellon in honor of their father, Thomas Mellon, the patriarch of the Mellon family. The Institute began as an organization which performed work for government. In 1927, the Mellon Institute incorporated as an independent nonprofit, in 1938, the Mellon Institutes iconic building was completed and it moved to its new, and current, location on Fifth Avenue. In 1967, with support from Paul Mellon, Carnegie Tech merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to become Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Mellons coordinate womens college, the Margaret Morrison Carnegie College closed in 1973 and merged its academic programs with the rest of the university. The industrial research mission of the Mellon Institute survived the merger as the Carnegie Mellon Research Institute and continued doing work on contract to industry, CMRI closed in 2001 and its programs were subsumed by other parts of the university or spun off into independent entities. Carnegie Mellons 140-acre main campus is three miles from downtown Pittsburgh, between Schenley Park and the Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, and Oakland neighborhoods, Carnegie Mellon is bordered to the west by the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. Carnegie Mellon owns 81 buildings in the Oakland and Squirrel Hill neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, for decades the center of student life on campus was Skibo Hall, the Universitys student union. Built in the 1950s, Skibo Halls design was typical of Mid-Century Modern architecture, the original Skibo was razed in the summer of 1994 and replaced by a new student union that is fully wi-fi enabled. Known as University Center, the building was dedicated in 1996, in 2014, Carnegie Mellon re-dedicated the University Center as the Cohon University Center in recognition of the eighth president of the university, Jared Cohon. A large grassy area known as the Cut forms the backbone of the campus, the Cut was formed by filling in a ravine with soil from a nearby hill that was leveled to build the College of Fine Arts building. The northwestern part of the campus was acquired from the United States Bureau of Mines in the 1980s, the sculpture was controversial for its placement, the general lack of input that the campus community had, and its aesthetic appeal
6.
George Lucas
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George Walton Lucas Jr. is an American filmmaker and entrepreneur. He is best known as the creator of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as the founder of Lucasfilm and he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm, before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Upon graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967, Lucas co-founded American Zoetrope with fellow filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, Lucas wrote and directed THX1138, based on his earlier student short Electronic Labyrinth, THX1138 4EB, which was a critical success but a financial failure. His next work as a writer-director was the film, American Graffiti, inspired by his teen years in early 1960s Modesto, California, the film was critically and commercially successful, and received five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Following the first Star Wars film, Lucas produced and co-wrote the following installments in the trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, along with Steven Spielberg, Lucas co-created and wrote the Indiana Jones films Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade. Lucas also produced and/or wrote a variety of films through Lucasfilm in the 1980s and 1990s, Lucas also returned to directing with the Star Wars prequel trilogy, consisting of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. He later collaborated on the story for the Indiana Jones sequel Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, five of Lucass seven features are among the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Lucas is one of the American film industrys most financially successful filmmakers, Lucas is considered a significant figure in the New Hollywood era. Lucas was born and raised in Modesto, California, the son of Dorothy Ellinore Lucas and George Walton Lucas and he is of German, Swiss-German, English, Scottish, and distant Dutch and French descent. Growing up, Lucas had a passion for cars and motor racing, on June 12,1962, while driving his souped-up Autobianchi Bianchina, another driver broadsided him, flipping over his car, nearly killing him, causing him to lose interest in racing as a career. He attended Modesto Junior College, where he studied anthropology, sociology and he also began shooting with an 8 mm camera, including filming car races. At this time, Lucas and his friend John Plummer became interested in Canyon Cinema, screenings of underground, avant-garde 16 mm filmmakers like Jordan Belson, Stan Brakhage, and Bruce Conner. Lucas and Plummer also saw classic European films of the time, including Jean-Luc Godards Breathless, François Truffauts Jules et Jim, thats when George really started exploring, Plummer said. Through his interest in racing, Lucas met renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler, another race enthusiast. Wexler, later to work with Lucas on several occasions, was impressed by Lucas talent, George had a very good eye, and he thought visually, he recalled. Lucas then transferred to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, USC was one of the earliest universities to have a school devoted to motion picture film. During the years at USC, Lucas shared a room with Randal Kleiser. Along with classmates such as Walter Murch, Hal Barwood, and John Milius and he also became good friends with fellow acclaimed student filmmaker and future Indiana Jones collaborator, Steven Spielberg
7.
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
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2001, A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science-fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay was written by Kubrick and Arthur C, Clarke, partially inspired by Clarkes short story The Sentinel. Clarke concurrently wrote the novel 2001, A Space Odyssey, published soon after the film was released, the film follows a voyage to Jupiter with the sentient computer Hal after the discovery of a mysterious black monolith affecting human evolution. It deals with the themes of existentialism, human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence and it is noted for its scientifically accurate depiction of space flight, pioneering special effects, and ambiguous imagery. It uses sound and minimal dialogue in place of narrative techniques, the soundtrack consists of classical music such as Gayane Ballet Suite, The Blue Danube. Production was subcontracted to Kubricks production company, and care was taken that the film would be sufficiently British to qualify for subsidy from the Eady Levy, Kubrick had shot his previous two films in England and decided to settle there permanently during filming. 2001, A Space Odyssey initially received mixed reactions from critics and audiences and it was nominated for four Academy Awards and received one for its visual effects. The sequel 2010 was released in 1984, directed by Peter Hyams, Today,2001, A Space Odyssey is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. In 1991, it was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant by the United States Library of Congress, in 2010, it was named the greatest film of all time by The Moving Arts Film Journal. In an African desert millions of years ago, a tribe of ape-men is driven away from their water hole by a rival tribe and they awaken to find a featureless black monolith has appeared before them. Guided in some fashion by the monolith, they learn how to use a bone as a weapon and drive their rivals away from the water hole. Millions of years later, a Pan Am space plane carries Dr. Heywood Floyd to a station orbiting Earth for a layover on his trip to Clavius Base. After Floyd has a call with his daughter, his Soviet scientist friend. At Clavius, Floyd heads a meeting of base personnel, apologizing for the cover story. His mission is to investigate a recently found artifact buried four years ago. Floyd and others ride in a Moonbus to the artifact, an identical to the one encountered by the ape-men. Sunlight strikes the monolith and a loud high-pitched radio signal is heard, eighteen months later, the United States spacecraft Discovery One is bound for Jupiter. On board are mission pilots and scientists Dr. David Bowman and Dr. Frank Poole, most of Discoverys operations are controlled by the ships computer, HAL9000, referred to by the crew as Hal
8.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
9.
Star Wars (film)
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Star Wars is a 1977 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. The first installment in the Star Wars film series, it stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, David Prowse, James Earl Jones, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and Peter Mayhew co-star in supporting roles. The plot focuses on the Rebel Alliance, led by Princess Leia, and its attempt to destroy the Galactic Empires space station and this conflict disrupts the isolated life of farmhand Luke Skywalker, who inadvertently acquires a pair of droids that possess stolen architectural plans for the Death Star. Star Wars was released theatrically in the United States on May 25,1977 and it earned $461 million in the U. S. and $314 million overseas, totaling $775 million. It surpassed Jaws to become the film of all time until the release of E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial. When adjusted for inflation, Star Wars is the film in North America. It received ten Academy Award nominations, winning seven and it was among the first films to be selected as part of the U. S. Library of Congress National Film Registry as being culturally, historically, at the time, it was the most recent film on the registry and the only one chosen from the 1970s. Its soundtrack was added to the U. S. National Recording Registry in 2004, today, it is often regarded as one of the best films of all time, as well as one of the most important films in the history of motion pictures. It launched an industry of tie-in products, including TV series spinoffs, novels, comic books, and video games, the films success led to two critically and commercially successful sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. A prequel trilogy was released between 1999 and 2005, followed by a trilogy beginning in 2015. In 2016, Rogue One was released as a prequel to the original Star Wars film. The galaxy is in the midst of a civil war, spies for the Rebel Alliance have stolen plans to the Galactic Empires Death Star, a heavily armed space station capable of destroying an entire planet. Rebel leader Princess Leia has the plans, but her ship is captured by Imperial forces under the command of the evil Darth Vader, before she is captured, Leia hides the plans in the memory of an astromech droid, R2-D2, along with a holographic recording. R2-D2 flees to the surface of the desert planet Tatooine with C-3PO, the droids are captured by Jawa traders, who sell them to moisture farmers Owen and Beru Lars and their nephew Luke Skywalker. While cleaning R2-D2, Luke accidentally triggers part of Leias message, the next morning, Luke finds R2-D2 searching for Obi-Wan, and meets Ben Kenobi, an old hermit who lives in the hills and reveals himself to be Obi-Wan. Contrary to his uncles statements, Luke learns that his father, Anakin, Obi-Wan tells Luke that Vader was his former pupil who turned to the dark side of the Force and killed Anakin. Obi-Wan then presents to Luke his fathers weapon – a lightsaber, Obi-Wan views Leias complete message, in which she begs him to take the Death Star plans to her home planet of Alderaan and give them to her father for analysis
10.
Spandex
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Spandex, Lycra or elastane is a synthetic fiber known for its exceptional elasticity. It is stronger and more durable than natural rubber and it is a polyester-polyurethane copolymer that was invented in 1958 by chemist Joseph Shivers at DuPonts Benger Laboratory in Waynesboro, Virginia. When introduced in 1962, it revolutionized many areas of the clothing industry, the name spandex is an anagram of the word expands. Brand names for spandex include Lycra, Elaspan, Acepora, Creora, INVIYA, ROICA and Dorlastan, Linel, Spandex fibers are produced in four different ways, melt extrusion, reaction spinning, solution dry spinning, and solution wet spinning. All of these include the initial step of reacting monomers to produce a prepolymer. Once the prepolymer is formed, it is reacted further in various ways, the solution dry spinning method is used to produce over 94. 5% of the worlds spandex fibers, and the process has five steps,1. The first step is to produce the prepolymer and this is done by mixing a macroglycol with a diisocyanate monomer. The two compounds are mixed in a vessel to produce a prepolymer. A typical ratio of glycol to diisocyanate is 1,2, the prepolymer is further reacted with an equal amount of diamine. This reaction is known as chain extension reaction, the resulting solution is diluted with a solvent to produce the spinning solution. The solvent helps make the solution thinner and more easily handled, the spinning solution is pumped into a cylindrical spinning cell where it is cured and converted into fibers. In this cell, the solution is forced through a metal plate called a spinneret. This causes the solution to be aligned in strands of liquid polymer, as the strands pass through the cell, they are heated in the presence of a nitrogen and solvent gas. This process causes the polymer to react chemically and form solid strands. As the fibers exit the cell, an amount of solid strands are bundled together to produce the desired thickness, each fiber of spandex is made up of many smaller individual fibers that adhere to one another due to the natural stickiness of their surface. The resulting fibers are treated with a finishing agent which can be magnesium stearate or another polymer. This treatment prevents the fibers sticking together and aids in textile manufacture, the fibers are then transferred through a series of rollers onto a spool. Because of its elasticity and strength, spandex has been incorporated into a range of garments
11.
Sesame Street
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Sesame Street is a long-running American childrens television series, produced by Sesame Workshop and created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett. The program is known for its content, and images communicated through the use of Jim Hensons Muppets, animation, short films, humor. The show has undergone significant changes throughout its history, with the creation of Sesame Street, producers and writers of a childrens television show used, for the first time, educational goals and a curriculum to shape its content. It was also the first time a shows educational effects were studied, the show was initially funded by government and private foundations but has become somewhat self-supporting due to revenues from licensing arrangements, international sales, and other media. By 2006, there were independently produced versions, or co-productions, in 2001 there were over 120 million viewers of various international versions of Sesame Street, and by the shows 40th anniversary in 2009, it was broadcast in more than 140 countries. By its 40th anniversary in 2009, Sesame Street was the childrens television show in the United States. A1996 survey found that 95% of all American preschoolers had watched the show by the time they were three years old, in 2008, it was estimated that 77 million Americans had watched the series as children. As of 2014, Sesame Street has won 167 Emmy Awards and 8 Grammy Awards—more than any other childrens show, Sesame Street was conceived in 1966 during discussions between television producer Joan Ganz Cooney and Carnegie Foundation vice president Lloyd Morrisett. Their goal was to create a television show that would master the addictive qualities of television and do something good with them. The program premiered on television stations on November 10,1969. It was the first preschool educational television program to base its contents and production values on laboratory, initial responses to the show included adulatory reviews, some controversy, and high ratings. By its 40th anniversary in 2009, Sesame Street was broadcast in over 120 countries, Sesame Street has evolved from its initial inception. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become an American institution, the cast and crew expanded during this time, with emphasis on the hiring of women crew members and the addition of minorities to the cast. The shows success continued into the 1980s, Sesame Streets curriculum has expanded to include more affective topics such as relationships, ethics, and emotions. After the turn of the 21st century, Sesame Street made major structural changes, for example, starting in 2002, its format became more narrative and included ongoing storylines. After its thirtieth anniversary in 1999 and due to the popularity of the Muppet Elmo, upon its fortieth anniversary in 2009, the show received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy at the 36th Daytime Emmy Awards. In April 2017, Sesame Street will introduce a new puppet called Julia with Autism to the show, and will be voiced by Stacey Gordon, who started Puppet Pie and has a son on the autism spectrum. From its first episode, Sesame Street has structured its format by using a visual style, fast-moving action, humor
12.
Breakfast cereal
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Breakfast cereal is a food product made from processed grains that is often eaten as the first meal of the day. It is eaten hot or cold, usually mixed with milk, yogurt, some companies promote their products for the health benefits from eating oat-based and high-fiber cereals. In America, cereals are often fortified with vitamins, a significant proportion of cold cereals are made with high sugar content. Many breakfast cereals are produced via extrusion, the breakfast cereal industry has gross profit margins of 40-45%, 90% penetration in some markets, and steady and continued growth throughout its history. The number of different types of breakfast cereals in the U. S. has grown from 160 to 340 to 4,945, Porridge was a traditional food in much of Northern Europe and Russia back to antiquity. Barley was a common grain used, though other grains and yellow peas could be used, in many modern cultures, porridge is still eaten as a breakfast dish. North American natives had found a way to make ground corn palatable, later called grits, while this became a staple in the southern U. S. grits never gained a hold in the northern states. Food reformers in the 19th century called for cutting back on meat consumption at breakfast. Ferdinand Schumacher, a German immigrant, began the revolution in 1854 with a hand oats grinder in the back room of a small store in, Akron. His German Mills American Oatmeal Company was the nations first commercial oatmeal manufacturer and he marketed the product locally as a substitute for breakfast pork. Improved production technology, combined with an influx of German and Irish immigrants, quickly boosted sales, in 1877, Schumacher adopted the Quaker symbol, the first registered trademark for a breakfast cereal. The acceptance of food for human consumption encouraged other entrepreneurs to enter the industry. Henry Parsons Crowell started operations in 1882, and John Robert Stuart in 1885, Crowell cut costs by consolidating every step of the processing—grading, cleaning, hulling, cutting, rolling, packaging, and shipping—in one factory operating at Ravenna, Ohio. Stuart operated mills in Chicago and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Stuart and Crowell combined in 1885 and initiated a price war. After a fire at his mill in Akron, Schumacher joined Stuart, the American Cereal Company created a cereal made from oats in 1877, manufacturing the product in Akron, Ohio. Separately, in 1888, a trust or holding company combined the nations seven largest mills into the American Cereal Company using the Quaker Oats brand name. By 1900 technology, entrepreneurship, and the Man in Quaker Garb—a symbol of honesty and reliability—gave Quaker Oats a national market. Early in the 20th century, the Quaker Oats Company jumped into the world market, Schumacher, the innovator, Stuart, the manager and financial leader and Crowell, the creative merchandiser, advertiser, and promoter, doubled sales every decade
