1.
George Miller (director)
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George Miller AO is an Australian film director, screenwriter, producer, and former medical doctor. He is best known for his Mad Max franchise, with The Road Warrior, aside from the Mad Max films, Miller has been involved in a wide range of projects. These include the Academy Award-winning Babe and Happy Feet film series, Miller is co-founder of the production houses Kennedy Miller Mitchell, formerly known as Kennedy Miller, and Dr. D Studios. His younger brother Bill Miller and Doug Mitchell have been producers on almost all the films in Millers later career, in 2006, Miller won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Happy Feet. Miller was born in Brisbane, Queensland, to Greek immigrant parents, Dimitri Castrisios Miller, the couple married and settled in Chinchilla and had four sons, fraternal twins George and John, Chris, and Bill. George attended Ipswich Grammar School and later Sydney Boys High School, while in his final year at medical school, George and his younger brother Chris made a one-minute short film that won them first prize in a student competition. In 1972, Miller completed his residency at Sydneys St Vincents Hospital and that same year, Miller and Kennedy founded Kennedy Miller Productions. The pair subsequently collaborated on numerous works, after Kennedy died in 1983, Miller kept his name in the company. It was later renamed Kennedy Miller Mitchell in 2009 as a way to recognize producer Doug Mitchells role in the company, in 1979, Miller made his feature-length directorial debut with Mad Max. Based on a written by Miller and James McCausland in 1975. During the time between the second and third Mad Max films, Miller directed a remake of Nightmare at 20,000 Feet as a segment for the anthology film Twilight Zone and he also co-produced and co-directed many acclaimed miniseries for Australian television including The Dismissal and The Cowra Breakout. In 1987, Miller directed The Witches of Eastwick, starring Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Cher, the film, a black comedy, was centred around three women whose magical power is released after they meet a millionaire bachelor in a puritanical and wealthy New England town. The Witches of Eastwick proved to be an experience for Miller. I quit the film twice and Jack held me in there and he said just sit down, lose your emotion, and have a look at the work. If you think the work is good, stick with the film, I learnt more from him than anybody else I think I’d worked for – he was extraordinary. Following The Witches of Eastwick, Miller focused primarily on producing Australian projects and his role as producer of Flirting, Dead Calm and the TV miniseries Bangkok Hilton and Vietnam, all starring Nicole Kidman, was instrumental in the development of her career. Miller returned to directing with the release of Lorenzos Oil, which he co-wrote with Nick Enright, in 1993, Miller was hired to direct Contact based on the story by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan. After working on the film for over a year, Warner Bros. and Miller mutually agreed to part ways, Miller also co-wrote the comedy-drama Babe and wrote and directed its sequel Babe, Pig in the City
2.
Doug Mitchell (film producer)
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Doug Mitchell is a film producer. Mitchells career as a producer began in the mid 1980s as a member of the Kennedy Miller production house based in Sydney, Australia. In the late 1980s he was nominated with George Miller and Terry Hayes on three occasions in the AACTA Award for Best Film category at the Australian Film Institute Awards. In 1987 they won best film for The Year My Voice Broke, were nominated in 1989 for Dead Calm, in 1995 Mitchell was nominated for an Academy Award with George Miller and his brother Bill Miller in the Academy Award for Best Picture category for the film Babe. In total the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, in 2006 he was a producer with George Miller and Bill Miller of the computer-animated film Happy Feet. The film won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, the trio were nominated in the Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures category for Happy Feet at the Producers Guild of America Awards 2006. Following the release of Happy Feet Two in 2011 they were nominated for the 2012 Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Animated Feature Film, Mitchell received another Academy Award for Best Picture nomination with George Miller for Mad Max, Fury Road. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards winning in six categories, the trio won the 2015 AACTA Award for Best Film. 1987, Won Australian Film Institute Award for The Year My Voice Broke, Best Film, with George Miller,1989, Australian Film Institute Award nomination for Dead Calm, Best Film, with George Miller and Terry Hayes. 1990, Won Australian Film Institute Award for Flirting, Best Film, with George Miller,1995, Won Golden Globe Award for Babe, Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, with George Miller and Bill Miller. 1995, Academy Award nomination for Babe, Best Picture, with George Miller,1995, BAFTA Award nomination for Babe, Best Film, with George Miller, Bill Miller and Chris Noonan. 1995, Producers Guild of America Award nomination for Babe, Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, with George Miller,2007, Producers Guild of America Award nomination for Happy Feet, Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures, with George Miller and Bill Miller. 2012, Asia Pacific Screen Awards nomination for Happy Feet Two, Best Animated Feature Film, with George Miller, Bill Miller,2015, Won Australian Film Institute Award for Mad Max, Fury Road, Best Film, with P J Voeten and George Miller. 2015, Academy Award nomination for Mad Max, Fury Road, Best Picture,2015, Producers Guild of America Award nomination for Mad Max, Fury Road, Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, with George Miller. 2015, Golden Globe nomination for Mad Max, Fury Road, Best Motion Picture – Drama, with George Miller, doug Mitchell at the Internet Movie Database
3.
Paul Livingston
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He also was on Triple J Breakfast from 1994 to 1997, Doom Runners, and is on ABC Radio National. He has also acted on stage and in film and he was joint winner of the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award in 1996 for outstanding achievement in the performing arts in Australia. Livingston also wrote the play Emmas Nose about the relationship of Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Fliess, Livingston has toured Australia and internationally and appeared at festivals in Edinburgh and Montreal. In 2014, he replaced Richard Fidler as the guitarist in the reformed Doug Anthony All Stars, Flacco is a fictional character played by Paul Livingston. Livingston created the character in 1985, when he got up on stage as part of a bet, flaccos trademark curl of hair on a pale bald head was originally Livingstons actual hair, until actual baldness forced him to use hairpieces. In 2009, a portrait by Paul Jackson of Livingston in character as Flacco won the Packing Room Prize as part of the Archibald Prize, Flacco was an outsider whose observations of people took on an almost alien quality. He had a bald head with a single stylised strand of hair and was frequently seen in a suit. He made quick observations often interspersed with incorrect movie, theatre or cultural quotes, Flacco first appeared on television in 1988 on Andrew Dentons Blah Blah Blah and came to prominence the following year on The Big Gig, as an alien who engaged in observational humour. He reprised the role, also as an alien in DAAS Kapital and his appearances on Good News Week paired him with the Sandman, and the two characters appeared together frequently live and on television. A holographic video display featuring Flacco sat at the Black Mountain Tower in Canberra during the 1990s in their now-removed Making Connections exhibition, ISBN 1-74114-069-2 Absent without leave, the private war of Private Stanley Livingston, Allen & Unwin. ISBN9781743315828 DAAS, Their Part in My Downfall, Allen & Unwin, ISBN9781760290764 Paul Livingston at HLA Management Australia Paul Livingston at the Internet Movie Database Article on Flacco from 2007
4.
Elijah Wood
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Elijah Jordan Wood is an American actor, voice actor, DJ, and producer. He made his debut with a minor part in Back to the Future Part II. Landing a succession of roles, he was critically acclaimed as a child actor by age nine. As a child, he starred in the films Radio Flyer, The Good Son, North and he began to take on teenage roles in the films The Ice Storm, Deep Impact and The Faculty. He is best known for his leading role as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jacksons epic film trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Since then, he has chosen varied roles in such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sin City, Green Street, Everything Is Illuminated. Wood provided the voice of Mumble in the animated musical films Happy Feet and Happy Feet Two. In 2005, he started his own label, Simian Records. He did the voice acting for Spyro in the Legend of Spyro trilogy, from 2011-14, Wood played the role of Ryan Newman in FXs dark comedy, Wilfred. As of late autumn 2016, he co-stars in the BBC America series Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency, Wood was born on January 28,1981 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the second of three children. His parents, Debbie and Warren Wood, operated a delicatessen, Wood is of Austrian, Danish, English, German, and Polish descent. He has a brother, Zachariah, who is a video game producer at Sony, and a younger sister, Hannah. At age seven, Wood began modeling in his hometown and took piano lessons, in elementary school, he appeared in The Sound of Music, followed by the title character in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He also served as boy in a Marion Creative Council production of See How They Run. In 1989, his parents sold their delicatessen and the family–without his father–moved to Los Angeles for Wood to pursue an acting career and his parents divorced when he was 15. Wood modeled and did local commercials and he got his first break in the video for Paula Abduls Forever Your Girl, directed by David Fincher. This was followed by a role in the TV film, Child in the Night. Playing Aidan Quinns son in Avalon and Tin Men garnered professional attention for Wood, a small part in Richard Geres Internal Affairs, was followed by the role of a boy who brings estranged couple Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson back together in Paradise
5.
Robin Williams
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Robin McLaurin Williams was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Starting as a comedian in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the mid-1970s. After rising to fame as Mork in Mork & Mindy, Williams established a career in both comedy and feature film acting. He was known for his improvisational skills, Doubtfire, Jumanji, The Birdcage, Night at the Museum, and Worlds Greatest Dad. Williams won the 1997 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as teacher Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting and he also received two Emmy Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and five Grammy Awards throughout his career. On August 11,2014, Williams committed suicide by hanging at his home in Paradise Cay and his wife attributed his suicide to his struggle with Lewy body dementia. Robin McLaurin Williams was born at St. Lukes Hospital in Chicago and his father Robert Fitzgerald Williams was a senior executive in Ford Motor Companys Lincoln-Mercury Division. His mother Laurie McLaurin was a model from Jackson, Mississippi. Her paternal great-grandfather was Mississippi senator and governor Anselm J. McLaurin, Williams had two elder half-brothers named Robert and McLaurin. He had English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, German, while his mother was a practitioner of Christian Science, Williams was raised in the Episcopal Church, where his father belonged. Williams wrote a list, Top Ten Reasons to be an Episcopalian, during a TV interview on Inside the Actors Studio in 2001, Williams credited his mother as being an important early influence for his sense of humor. He also said that he tried to make her laugh to gain attention, Williams attended public elementary school in Lake Forest at Gorton Elementary School and middle school at Deer Path Junior High School. He described himself as a quiet and shy child who did not overcome his shyness until he became involved with his school drama department. His friends recall him as being very funny, in late 1963, when Williams was twelve, his father was transferred to Detroit. The family lived in a 40-room farmhouse on 20 acres in suburban Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and he excelled in school, where he was on the schools soccer team and wrestling team, and was elected as class president. As his father traveled frequently for work and his also worked, Williams was attended to by the familys maid. When Williams was 16, his father took early retirement and the moved to Tiburon. Following their move, Williams attended Redwood High School in nearby Larkspur, at the time of his graduation in 1969, he was voted Most Likely Not to Succeed and Funniest by his classmates
6.
Hank Azaria
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Henry Albert Hank Azaria is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, and producer. He is known for starring in the television sitcom The Simpsons, voicing Moe Szyslak, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Carl Carlson. He is also the star of the 2017 tv series Brockmire and he also had recurring roles on the television series Mad About You and Friends, played the title character in the drama Huff, and appeared in the popular stage musical Spamalot. Though originally known as a actor, Azaria has also taken on more dramatic roles including the TV films Tuesdays With Morrie. He has won six Emmys and a Screen Actors Guild Award, Azaria was married to actress Helen Hunt from 1999 to 2000 and has been married to actress Katie Wright since 2007. Azaria was born in Queens, New York City, the son of Eastern Sephardic Jewish parents, Ruth and his grandparents on both sides hailed from Thessaloniki, from Greeces Spanish Jewish community established there after the 1492 exile from Spain. His familys spoken language at home was the Ladino language, which Azaria described as a strange, Azarias father ran several dress-manufacturing businesses, while his mother raised him and his two older sisters, Stephanie and Elise. Before marrying his father, Azarias mother had been a publicist for Columbia Pictures, promoting films in Latin American countries, during his childhood, Azaria would often memorize and mimic the scripts of the films, shows and stand-up comedy routines that he enjoyed. Azaria attended The Kew-Forest School in Forest Hills and he decided to become an actor after performing in a school play at the age of 16, becoming, at the expense of his academic studies, obsessed with acting. Both of his parents loved all forms of business, which further spurred him to become an actor. He studied drama at Tufts University from 1981 to 1985, where he met and befriended actor Oliver Platt and noted that Oliver was an actor than I was in college. Together they both starred in college stage productions, including The Merchant of Venice, before Azaria trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Although he did not expect the endeavor to be successful, Azaria decided to become an actor, so that later in his life. Azarias first acting job was an advertisement for Italian television when he was seventeen years old and he also worked as a busboy. He decided that television was an arena and offered more opportunity so, after being offered work with talent agent Harry Gold. He made his debut with a role in the pilot episode of the 1986 ABC comedy-drama series Joe Bash. His part – a one-line role as the police officer Maldonado – was edited out before the show was broadcast, although the role secured him admission to the Screen Actors Guild. Azaria appeared in the TV film Nitti, The Enforcer, about the gangster Frank Nitti and he played Joe in an episode of the sitcom Family Ties in 1988, in which he had one line and the following year he played Steve Stevenson in an episode of Growing Pains
7.
Pink (singer)
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Alecia Beth Moore, known professionally as Pink, is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress. She was signed to her first record label with original R&B girl group Choice in 1995, the label, LaFace Records saw potential in only Pink, offering her a solo deal. Pink rose as an artist with her solo album, Cant Take Me Home. It was certified double-platinum in the United States and spawned two Billboard Hot 100 top-ten hits, There You Go and Most Girls and she gained further recognition with the Moulin Rouge. Soundtrack Lady Marmalade, which gave Pink her first Grammy Award as well as her first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, Pink took control in early 2001 insisting she wanted to work with her childhood hero, Linda Perry. Pink took more control and pursued a pop direction for her second album. It sold more than 15 million copies worldwide and yielded three United States top-ten singles, Get the Party Started, Dont Let Me Get Me, Pinks third album, Try This, generated considerably lower sales, but earned her the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Pink revived her popularity with her fourth and fifth albums, Im Not Dead and Funhouse, with the latter containing her second United States number-one hit. Pink concluded the first decade of her career with the compilation album Greatest Hits, so Far. which featured Fuckin Perfect and the chart-topping single Raise Your Glass. In 2014 Pink recorded an album, Rose Ave. with Canadian musician Dallas Green under a folk music duo named You+Me. Recognized for her signature vocals and acrobatic performances, Pink has sold over 60 million albums worldwide. Her career accolades include three Grammy Awards, a Brit Award, a Daytime Emmy Award and six MTV Video Music Awards, in 2009, Billboard named Pink the Pop Songs Artist of the Decade. Pink was also the second most-played female solo artist in the United Kingdom during the 2000s decade, vH1 ranked her number 10 on their list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music, while Billboard awarded her the Woman of the Year award in 2013. At the 63rd annual BMI Pop Awards, she received the BMI Presidents Award for her achievement in songwriting and global impact on pop culture. Alecia Beth Moore was born on September 8,1979, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, to nurse Judy and insurance salesman Jim Moore and she has described her background as Irish-German-Lithuanian-Jew. Although a healthy baby at birth, she developed asthma that plagued her through her early years. Pink attended Central Bucks High School West, when Moore was a toddler, her parents began having marital problems, and before she was 10 her parents had divorced. Pink developed her voice early in life, in high school, Pink joined her first band, Middleground, but it disbanded upon losing a battle of the bands competition
8.
Brad Pitt
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William Bradley Brad Pitt in Shawnee Oklahoma. He is an American actor and producer and he has received multiple awards and nominations including an Academy Award as producer under his own company Plan B Entertainment. Pitt first gained recognition as a hitchhiker in the road movie Thelma & Louise. His first leading roles in big-budget productions came with the dramas A River Runs Through It and Legends of the Fall, Pitt starred in the cult film Fight Club and the heist film Oceans Eleven and its sequels, Oceans Twelve and Oceans Thirteen. As a public figure, Pitt has been cited as one of the most influential and powerful people in the American entertainment industry, as well as the worlds most attractive man and his personal life is also the subject of wide publicity. Divorced from actress Jennifer Aniston, to whom he was married for five years and they have six children together, three of whom were adopted internationally. In September 2016, Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt, William Bradley Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, to William Bill Alvin Pitt, manager of a trucking company, and Jane Etta, a school counsellor. The family soon moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he lived together with his siblings, Douglas. Pitt has described Springfield as Mark Twain country, Jesse James country, having grown up with a lot of hills, Pitt attended Kickapoo High School, where he was a member of the golf, swimming and tennis teams. He participated in the schools Key and Forensics clubs, in school debates, following his graduation from high school, Pitt enrolled in the University of Missouri in 1982, majoring in journalism with a focus on advertising. As graduation approached, Pitt did not feel ready to settle down and he loved films—a portal into different worlds for me—and, since films were not made in Missouri, he decided to go to where they were made. Two weeks before earning his degree, Pitt left the university and moved to Los Angeles, while struggling to establish himself in Los Angeles, Pitt took lessons from acting coach Roy London. Pitts acting career began in 1987, with uncredited parts in the films No Way Out, No Mans Land and his television debut came in May 1987 with a two-episode role on the NBC soap opera Another World. In November of the same year Pitt had a guest appearance on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains and he appeared in four episodes of the CBS primetime series Dallas between December 1987 and February 1988 as Randy, the boyfriend of Charlie Wade. Later in 1988, Pitt made a guest appearance on the Fox police drama 21 Jump Street, in the same year, the Yugoslavian–U. S. Co-production The Dark Side of the Sun gave Pitt his first leading film role, the film was shelved at the outbreak of the Croatian War of Independence, and was not released until 1997. He made guest appearances on television series Head of the Class, Freddys Nightmares, Thirtysomething, and Growing Pains. Pitt was cast as Billy Canton, an addict who takes advantage of a young runaway in the 1990 NBC television movie Too Young to Die. the story of an abused teenager sentenced to death for a murder
9.
Matt Damon
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Matthew Paige Damon is an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter. He is ranked among Forbes magazines most bankable stars and is one of the actors of all time. Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Damon began his career by appearing in high school theater productions. Damon is also known for his roles as Jason Bourne in the Bourne franchise. The latter also won him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, Damon has received Emmy Award nominations for his portrayal of Scott Thorson in the biopic Behind the Candelabra and for producing the reality series Project Greenlight. He also received an Oscar nomination for producing Manchester by the Sea, in addition to acting in films, Damon has performed voice-over work in both animated and documentary films and has established two production companies with Affleck. He has been involved in charitable work, including the ONE Campaign, H2O Africa Foundation, Feeding America. Damon is married to Luciana Bozán Barroso, and they have three daughters together, Damon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the second son of Kent Telfer Damon, a stockbroker, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, an early childhood education professor at Lesley University. His father has English and Scottish ancestry, and his mother is of five-eighths Finnish, Damon and his family moved to Newton for two years. His parents divorced when he was two old, and Damon and his brother returned with their mother to Cambridge, where they lived in a six-family communal house. His brother Kyle is now a sculptor and artist. As a lonely teenager, Damon has said that he felt that he did not belong, due to his mothers by the book approach to child-rearing, he had a hard time defining a self identity. He attended Cambridge Alternative School and then Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, Damon performed as an actor in several high school theater productions. He credited his drama teacher, Gerry Speca, as an important artistic influence, though Ben Affleck, his friend and schoolmate, got the biggest roles. While at Harvard, he wrote a treatment of the screenplay for Good Will Hunting as an exercise for an English class. Damon was a member of the Delphic Club, one of the Universitys select Final Clubs, in 2013, he was awarded the Harvard Arts Medal. Damon received an Academy Award for the screenplay of Good Will Hunting in 1998, which was handed to him by Harvard alumnus Jack Lemmon, Damon entered Harvard in 1988, where he appeared in student theater plays, such as Burn This and A. Later, he made his debut at the age of 18
10.
Common (rapper)
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Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. better known by his stage name Common, is an American rapper, actor, film producer and poet from Chicago, Illinois. Common debuted in 1992 with the album Can I Borrow a Dollar, and maintained a significant underground following into the late 1990s, after which he gained notable mainstream success through his work with the Soulquarians. Commons first major-label album, Like Water for Chocolate, received critical acclaim. His first Grammy Award was in 2003, winning Best R&B Song for Love of My Life and its popularity was matched by May 2005s Be, which was nominated for Best Rap Album, at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Common was awarded his second Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, for Southside and his best-of album, Thisisme Then, The Best of Common, was released on November 27,2007. He also narrated the award-winning documentary Bouncing Cats, about one mans efforts to improve the lives of children in Uganda through hip-hop/b-boy culture and he starred as Elam Ferguson on the AMC western television series Hell on Wheels. Common was born on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois and he was raised in the Calumet Heights neighborhood. He is the son of educator Dr. Mahalia Ann Hines and they divorced when he was six years old, resulting in his fathers moving to Denver, Colorado. This left Common to be raised by his mother, but his father remained active in his life, while a student at Luther High School South in Chicago, Lynn with his friends, record producer and Corey Crawley formed C. D. R. A rap trio that opened for acts that included N. W. A, Common attended Florida A&M University for two years under a scholarship and majored in business administration. After being featured in the Unsigned Hype column of The Source magazine, Lynn debuted in 1992 with the single Take It EZ, with the 1994 release of Resurrection, Common achieved a much larger degree of critical acclaim, which extended beyond Chicago natives. The album sold well and received a strong positive reaction among alternative. Resurrection was Commons last album produced almost entirely by his production partner. In 1996, Common appeared on the Red Hot Organizations compilation CD, America Is Dying Slowly, alongside Biz Markie, Wu-Tang Clan, the CD, meant to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic among African American men, was heralded as a masterpiece by The Source magazine. He would later contribute to the Red Hot Organizations Fela Kuti tribute album. He collaborated with Djelimady Tounkara on a remake of Kutis track, Years of Tears, the song I Used to Love H. E. R. from Resurrection ignited a feud with West Coast rap group Westside Connection. The lyrics of the song criticized the hip hop music was taking and was interpreted by some as directing blame towards the popularity of West Coast Gangsta rap. Westside Connection first responded with the 1995 song Westside Slaughterhouse, with the lyrics Used to love H. E. R, Westside Connection recorded tracks venting their issues with rival East Coast rappers
11.
Hugo Weaving
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Hugo Wallace Weaving is a Nigerian-born English-Australian film and stage actor. Weavings first television role was in the 1984 Australian television series Bodyline, in film, he first rose to prominence for his performance as Martin in the Australian drama Proof. Weaving played Anthony Tick Belrose/Mitzi Del Bra in the comedy-drama The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and his roles as a voice actor include Rex in Babe, Noah in Happy Feet and Happy Feet Two, and Megatron in the Transformers film series. Weavings awards for acting include a Satellite Award, MTV Movie Award, while in England, he attended The Downs School, Wraxall, near Bristol, and Queen Elizabeths Hospital. His family moved back to Australia in 1976, where he attended Knox Grammar School in Sydney and he graduated from Sydneys National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1981. Weavings first television role was in the 1984 Australian television series Bodyline, Weaving appeared in the Australian miniseries The Dirtwater Dynasty in 1988 and as Geoffrey Chambers in the drama Barlow and Chambers, A Long Way From Home. He starred opposite Nicole Kidman in the 1989 film Bangkok Hilton, in 1991, Weaving received the Australian Film Institutes Best Actor award for his performance in the low-budget Proof. He appeared as Sir John in the 1993 Yahoo Serious comedy Reckless Kelly, in 1998, he received the Best Actor award from the Montreal Film Festival for his performance as a suspected serial killer in The Interview. Weaving played the enigmatic and evil–minded Agent Smith in the 1999 film The Matrix and he later reprised that role in the films 2003 sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. He was an actor in the cartoon film The Magic Pudding. He garnered additional acclaim in the role of half–elven lord Elrond in Peter Jacksons three-film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, Weaving was the main actor in Andrew Kotatkos award-winning film Everything Goes. He starred as a heroin-addicted ex-rugby league player in the 2005 Australian indie film Little Fish, opposite Cate Blanchett. Weaving played the role as V in the 2006 film V for Vendetta, in which he was reunited with the Wachowskis, creators of The Matrix trilogy. Actor James Purefoy was originally signed to play the role, but was fired six weeks into filming over creative differences, Weaving reshot most of James Purefoys scenes as V apart from a couple of minor dialogue-free scenes early in the film. Stuntman David Leitch performed all of Vs stunts, Weaving reprised his role as Elrond for the video game The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-Earth II. He regularly appears in productions by the Sydney Theatre Company, in 2006, he worked with Cate Blanchett on a reprise of the STC production of Hedda Gabler in New York City. Weaving himself was unaware of the controversy and had accepted the role based on Michael Bays personal request, in a November 2008 Sun Herald interview, though Weaving reprised his role in two sequels, he does not have much personal investment in the Transformers films. In February 2010, Weaving revealed to The Age, Director Michael Bay talks to me on the phone and we were doing the voice for the second one and I still hadnt seen the first one
12.
Magda Szubanski
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Magdalene Mary Magda Szubanski is an Australian television and film actress, comedian and writer. Szubanskis career started as a writer and performer of comedy and has since progressed to production of TV, film acting. She starred in Kath & Kim where she played Sharon Strzelecki, in 2015 she released her memoir Reckoning. She has twice been polled as Australia’s most recognized and trusted personality, Szubanski was born 12 April 1961 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Her mother Margaret is Scottish-Irish and came from a poor family and she attended high school at Siena College, Melbourne, and later studied fine arts and philosophy at the University of Melbourne. In 1976, as a year 10 student, she captained a team on the television quiz Its Academic, the character of Lynne Postlethwaite was first performed on the ABC’s The D-Generation. It was originally written by John Allsop and Andrew Knight, and her character Sharon ‘pashed’ and ‘married’ Australian cricketing legend Shane Warne. In 2006, she hosted a series on the Nine Network, called Magdas Funny Bits. Branded as no frills, it attracted insufficient ratings and did not continue and she had a similar short-lived result as host of the Network Ten clip show The Spearman Experiment in 2009. In 2009, she appeared in Who Do You Think You Are and she starred in the 1995 film Babe as Esme Hoggett. She reprised her role in the 1998 sequel, Babe, Pig in the City, goddess, alongside Mcfadden In 2015 she released her memoir Reckoning. While the book is nominally an autobiography, it is in part about her father Zbigniew Szubanski. Reckoning deals with the themes of trauma, the possible genetic inheritance of traumatic memory. Reviewer Peter craven in The Australian said it would “dazzle every kind of reader” and described it as “a riveting and it is a book about how someone might live with the idea of killing the thing they love. It is a story of love and death and redemption and a love for her father. It is a hymn to the tragic heroism at the heart of ordinary life. Every library should have it, every school should teach it, anyone who doesnt adore Magda Szubanski the clown will be awed by Szubanski the A-grade non-fiction writer. Lets hope the books keep on coming. ”Academy Award Winner and friend Geoffrey Rush launched her book and wrote in The Guardian, the classical stature of that particular father-daughter relationship didn’t go unnoticed
13.
Anthony LaPaglia
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Anthony M. LaPaglia/ləpɑːliːɑː/ born 31 January 1959 is an award-winning Australian actor. He also appeared in 8 episodes of Frasier as Daphne Moons alcoholic brother Simon, LaPaglia starred in the Australian films Looking for Alibrandi, Holding the Man, Lantana and Balibo. For the latter two films he won AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 2001 and 2009. LaPaglia was born in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of Maria Johannes, a secretary and model, and Gedio Eddie LaPaglia, laPaglias mother was Dutch, and his father immigrated from Bovalino, Calabria, Italy, at the age of eighteen. His younger brother, Jonathan LaPaglia, is also an actor, LaPaglia attended Rostrevor College & Norwood High School. LaPaglia was working in Adelaide as a salesman for Florsheim shoes in the early 1980s. He asked to be transferred to the US and continued working there whilst studying acting as he was rejected by the prestigious Sydney drama school NIDA. LaPaglia first began his venture into art in his late teens. The two and half year course was to be supplemented with a three months, which would have included a boot camp and a trial listing with SA Castings. After completing one and half years of the course, LaPaglia left Adelaide for Los Angeles, laPaglias earliest credit was a 1985 part in an episode of the television series Steven Spielbergs Amazing Stories. His first feature film was Cold Steel in 1987, followed that year by the title role of Frank Nitti in the telemovie Nitti. LaPaglia had a role as a mobster in the minor hit Betsys Wedding. LaPaglia also starred alongside Danny Aiello & Lanie Kazan in 29th Street and this was followed by roles in the vampire/Mafia story Innocent Blood, the comedy thriller So I Married an Axe Murderer, the legal thriller The Client, and the comedy Empire Records in 1995. That same year, LaPaglia appeared in the role of Jimmy Wyler, lead character in the TV series Murder One, during its second, LaPaglia also played Tito Merelli in Ken Ludwigs Lend Me a Tenor on Broadway. Before A View From the Bridge opened, LaPaglia was sent a script for the pilot of The Sopranos and met its creator, David Chase, however, various factors, including his Broadway role, prevented LaPaglia obtaining the role. The Sopranos thing didnt work out. and of course it did work out perfectly and you cant imagine that show without James Gandolfini. LaPaglia did, however, later play an actor in a Sopranos-style TV show-within-a-film, spike Lee cast LaPaglia as a New York police detective in Summer of Sam. During 2000–04, LaPaglia appeared in eight episodes of the sitcom Frasier, including the finale, the role won him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
14.
Village Roadshow Pictures
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Village Roadshow Entertainment Group is an independent global film entertainment company. Village Roadshow Entertainment Group consists principally of Village Roadshow Pictures, Village Roadshow Productions, Village Roadshow Entertainment Group s largest owner is Village Roadshow Limited, which owns 47. 6% of the company. The other shareholders are Crescent Entertainment, Tailwind Capital, Falcon Investment Advisors and Trinity Opportunities Limited
15.
Warner Bros.
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Entertainment Inc. – colloquially known as Warner Bros. or Warner Bros. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios, Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The companys name originated from the four founding Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, Jack, the youngest, was born in London, Ontario. The three elder brothers began in the theater business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania. In the beginning, Sam and Albert Warner invested $150 to present Life of an American Fireman and they opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1903. When the original building was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the current building owners, the owners noted people across the country had asked them to protect it for its historical significance. In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, in 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, in 1918 they opened the first Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert, along with their auditor and now controller Chase, handled finance and distribution in New York City. During World War I their first nationally syndicated film, My Four Years in Germany, on April 4,1923, with help from money loaned to Harry by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. The first important deal was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwoods 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, however, Rin Tin Tin, a dog brought from France after World War I by an American soldier, established their reputation. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins, the movie was so successful that Jack signed the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star. Jack nicknamed him The Mortgage Lifter and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanucks career, Zanuck eventually became a top producer and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jacks right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including day-to-day film production. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director, lubitschs film The Marriage Circle was the studios most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for that year. Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners remained a lesser studio, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry signed Barrymore to a contract, like The Marriage Circle. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably Hollywoods most successful independent studio, as the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan
16.
3D film
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A three-dimensional stereoscopic film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception, hence adding a third dimension. The most common approach to the production of 3D films is derived from stereoscopic photography, 3D films are not limited to theatrical releases, television broadcasts and direct-to-video films have also incorporated similar methods, especially since the advent of 3D television and Blu-ray 3D. 3D films became more and more throughout the 2000s, culminating in the unprecedented success of 3D presentations of Avatar in December 2009. The stereoscopic era of motion pictures began in the late 1890s when British film pioneer William Friese-Greene filed a patent for a 3D film process, in his patent, two films were projected side by side on screen. The viewer looked through a stereoscope to converge the two images, because of the obtrusive mechanics behind this method, theatrical use was not practical. Frederic Eugene Ives patented his stereo camera rig in 1900, the camera had two lenses coupled together 1¾ inches apart. On June 10,1915, Edwin S. Porter and William E. Waddell presented tests to an audience at the Astor Theater in New York City. However, according to Adolph Zukor in his 1953 autobiography The Public Is Never Wrong, My 50 Years in the Motion Picture Industry, nothing was produced in this process after these tests. The earliest confirmed 3D film shown to an audience was The Power of Love. The camera rig was a product of the producer, Harry K. Fairall. Whether Fairall used colored filters on the ports or whether he used tinted prints is unknown. After a preview for exhibitors and press in New York City, the film dropped out of sight, apparently not booked by exhibitors, and is now considered lost. Kelley then struck a deal with Samuel Roxy Rothafel to premiere the first in his series of Plasticon shorts entitled Movies of the Future at the Rivoli Theater in New York City. Also in December 1922, Laurens Hammond premiered his Teleview system, Teleview was the first alternating-frame 3D system seen by the public. Using left-eye and right-eye prints and two interlocked projectors, left and right frames were alternately projected, each pair being shown three times to suppress flicker. Viewing devices attached to the armrests of the seats had rotary shutters that operated synchronously with the projector shutters, producing a clean. The show ran for weeks, apparently doing good business as a novelty. In 1922, Frederic Eugene Ives and Jacob Leventhal began releasing their first stereoscopic shorts made over a three-year period, the first film, entitled Plastigrams, was distributed nationally by Educational Pictures in the red-and-blue anaglyph format
17.
Happy Feet
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Happy Feet is a 2006 Australian-American computer-animated musical comedy film directed, produced, and co-written by George Miller. It stars Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving and it was produced at Sydney-based visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic for Warner Bros. Village Roadshow Pictures, and Kingdom Feature Productions and was released in North American theaters on November 17,2006 and it is the first animated film produced by Kennedy Miller in association with Animal Logic. Though primarily a film, the film does incorporate motion capture of live action humans in certain scenes. The film was released in both conventional theatres and in IMAX 2D format. The studio had hinted that a future IMAX 3D release was a possibility, however, Warner Bros. the film’s production company, was on too tight a budget to release Happy Feet in IMAX digital 3D. Happy Feet received generally positive reviews critics, and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It was nominated for the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, a sequel, Happy Feet Two, was released into theaters November 18,2011 to mixed reviews. Every emperor penguin sings a song called a heartsong to attract a mate. If the male penguins heartsong matches the song, the two penguins mate. Norma Jean, a penguin, falls for Memphis, a male penguin. They lay an egg, which is left in Memphis care, while the males struggle through the harsh winter, Memphis briefly drops the egg. As a result, Mumble is unable to sing, but he can tap dance instead, nevertheless, he is enamored with Gloria, a female penguin who is regarded as the most talented of her age. One day, Mumble encounters a group of hostile skua, with a leader who is tagged with a yellow band, Mumble narrowly escapes the hungry birds by falling into a crevice. Now a young adult, Mumble is frequently ridiculed by the elders, after escaping from a leopard seal attack, Mumble befriends a group of Adelie penguins called the Amigos, who embrace Mumbles dance moves and assimilate him into their group. After seeing a hidden human excavator in an avalanche, they opt to ask Lovelace, Lovelace has the plastic rings of a six pack entangled around his neck, which he claims to have been bestowed upon him by mystic beings. For the emperor penguins, it is mating season and Gloria is the center of attention, ramón, one of the Amigos, attempts to help Mumble win her affection by singing a Spanish version of My Way, with Mumble lip syncing, but the plan fails. In desperation, Mumble begins tap dancing in synch with her song and she falls for him and the youthful penguins join in for singing and dancing to Boogie Wonderland
18.
Brittany Murphy
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Brittany Murphy-Monjack, known professionally as Brittany Murphy, was an American film and stage actress, singer, and voice artist. A native of Atlanta, Murphy moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and her breakthrough role was as Tai Frasier in Clueless, followed by supporting roles in independent films such as Freeway and Bongwater. She made her debut in a Broadway production of Arthur Millers A View from the Bridge in 1997, before appearing as Daisy Randone in Girl, Interrupted. The 2000s saw Murphy with roles in Dont Say a Word alongside Michael Douglas and her later roles included Riding in Cars with Boys, Spun, Uptown Girls, Sin City, and Happy Feet. Murphy also voiced Luanne Platter on the television series King of the Hill. Her final film, Something Wicked, was released in April 2014, in December 2009, Murphy died of pneumonia and anemia at the age of 32. The Los Angeles County Coroners Office at first ruled her death a drug overdose. In 2011, Murphys mother Sharon filed a lawsuit against the attorneys who represented her in a suit against the builders of the home where her daughter. Brittany Anne Bertolotti was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Sharon Kathleen Murphy and Angelo Joseph Bertolotti, Murphy was raised by her mother in Edison, New Jersey. Bertolotti was not named as her father on Brittanys first death certificate, prior to her enrolling at Edison High School, the family moved to Los Angeles in 1991 so that Murphy could pursue an acting career. Murphys mother is of Irish and Eastern European descent and her father is of Italian ancestry and she was raised a Baptist and later became a non-denominational Christian. She had two older half-brothers and a younger half-sister, Murphy attended Verne Fowler School of Dance and Theatre Arts in Colonia, New Jersey, in 1982. From the age of four, she trained in singing, dancing, Murphy made her Broadway debut in 1997, as Catherine, in a revival of Arthur Millers A View from the Bridge opposite veteran actors Anthony LaPaglia and Allison Janney. Murphy landed her first job in Hollywood when she was thirteen and she then went on to play Molly Morgan in the short-lived The Torkelsons spinoff Almost Home. Murphy also guest-starred on several series, including Parker Lewis Cant Lose, Blossom, seaQuest 2032, Murder One. She also had recurring roles on Sister, Sister, Party of Five, Murphys breakthrough role was in her second feature film, the teen comedy Clueless, directed by Amy Heckerling, which went on to receive cult status. She followed this with roles in Freeway, with Reese Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland, and she also voiced the character Luanne Platter on Foxs animated sitcom King of the Hill for the entirety of the shows run from 1997 to 2009, and Joseph Gribble until the fifth season. She was nominated for an Annie Award for voice acting in the King of the Hill episode Movin On Up, in 2003, she starred in the romantic comedies Just Married and Little Black Book and the critically acclaimed Sin City
19.
Fat Joe
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Joseph Antonio Cartagena, better known by his stage name Fat Joe, is an American rapper. He is also the CEO of Terror Squad Entertainment, and member of musical groups D. I. T. C. Fat Joes debut album was Represent, released in 1993, followed by Jealous Ones Envy in 1995. From 1998 to 2006, he was signed to Atlantic Records, releasing four albums under the label, Don Cartagena in 1998, Jealous Ones Still Envy in 2001, Loyalty in 2002, and All or Nothing in 2005. Around the release of All or Nothing, Fat Joe became involved in a publicized feud with another New York City-based rapper 50 Cent. His most popular song in which he performed was his Remy Ma duet Lean Back with Terror Squad, the song was a number-one hit in the summer of 2004. Starting in 2006, when his album Me, Myself, & I was released, Fat Joe was signed to Imperial Records, which distributes through Terror Squad Entertainment. His follow-up album was The Elephant in the Room, which was released in 2008, Jealous Ones Still Envy 2 and his tenth album The Darkside Vol.1 was released on July 27,2010. Fat Joe was born on August 19,1970 in the South Bronx area of New York City and he lived in public housing and began stealing at a young age to support his family. He also admits that he was a bully in his childhood and his brother introduced him to rap music. As a teenager, he was influenced by fellow Latino rapper Big Pun. Fat Joe explained the influence on him by saying Latinos before us who had the opportunity to do it just didnt know how to do it. They came in trying to do this music, waving flags. Were trying to kick in the doors for other Latinos and represent our people, under stage name Fat Joe da Gangsta and part of the rap group D. I. T. C. Cartagena was signed to Relativity Records in the early 1990s, recording material, in 1993, his debut album, Represent, was released, featuring production from The Beatnuts, Diamond D, Lord Finesse, and others. Its lead single, Flow Joe peaked at one on the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart, other minor singles from the album included Watch the Sound. In 1995, Fat Joe released his studio album, Jealous Ones Envy. The album featured a guest appearance from KRS-One and production from Diamond D, the lead single was Success, which did not chart, but his second single, Envy peaked at #8 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart. The success of this album led Fat Joe to be featured on the remix of LL Cool Js single I Shot Ya along with Foxy Brown, Keith Murray, released in 1998, Don Cartagena was Joes third album and his first for Atlantic Records
20.
Sydney
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Sydney /ˈsɪdni/ is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Located on Australias east coast, the metropolis surrounds the worlds largest natural harbour, residents of Sydney are known as Sydneysiders. The Sydney area has been inhabited by indigenous Australians for at least 30,000 years, the first British settlers, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, arrived in 1788 to found Sydney as a penal colony, the first European settlement in Australia. Since convict transportation ended in the century, the city has transformed from a colonial outpost into a major global cultural. As at June 2016 Sydneys estimated population was 5,005,358, in the 2011 census,34 percent of the population reported having been born overseas, representing many different nationalities and making Sydney one of the most multicultural cities in the world. There are more than 250 different languages spoken in Sydney and about one-third of residents speak a language other than English at home and it is classified as an Alpha+ World City by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, indicating its influence in the region and throughout the world. Ranked eleventh in the world for economic opportunity, Sydney has a market economy with strengths in finance, manufacturing. Its gross regional product was $337 billion in 2013, the largest in Australia, there is a significant concentration of foreign banks and multinational corporations in Sydney and the city is promoted as one of Asia Pacifics leading financial hubs. Its natural features include Sydney Harbour, the Royal National Park, man-made attractions such as the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Tower and the Sydney Harbour Bridge are also well known to international visitors. The first people to inhabit the now known as Sydney were indigenous Australians having migrated from northern Australia. Radiocarbon dating suggests human activity first started to occur in the Sydney area from around 30,735 years ago, the earliest British settlers called them Eora people. Eora is the term the indigenous used to explain their origins upon first contact with the British. Its literal meaning is from this place, prior to the arrival of the British there were 4,000 to 8,000 native people in Sydney from as many as 29 different clans. Sydney Cove from Port Jackson to Petersham was inhabited by the Cadigal clan, the principal language groups were Darug, Guringai, and Dharawal. The earliest Europeans to visit the area noted that the people were conducting activities such as camping and fishing, using trees for bark and food, collecting shells. Development has destroyed much of the citys history including that of the first inhabitants, there continues to be examples of rock art and engravings located in the protected Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. The first meeting between the people and the British occurred on 29 April 1770 when Lieutenant James Cook landed at Botany Bay on the Kurnell Peninsula. He noted in his journal that they were confused and somewhat hostile towards the foreign visitors, Cook was on a mission of exploration and was not commissioned to start a settlement
21.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
22.
IMAX 3D
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IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of cinema projection standards developed in Canada by Graeme Ferguson, Roman Kroitor, Robert Kerr, and William C. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size, since 2002, some feature films have been converted into IMAX format for displaying in IMAX theatres and some have also been partially shot in IMAX. IMAX is the most widely used system for special-venue film presentations, as of June 2016, there were 1,102 IMAX theatres in 69 countries. The desire to increase the impact of film has a long history. In 1929, Fox introduced Fox Grandeur, the first 70 mm film format, in the 1950s, the potential of 35 mm film to provide wider projected images was explored in the processes of CinemaScope and VistaVision, following multi-projector systems such as Cinerama. While impressive, Cinerama was difficult to install, during Expo 67 in Montreal, the National Film Board of Canadas In the Labyrinth and Fergusons Man and the Polar Regions both used multi-projector, multi-screen systems. Each encountered technical difficulties led them to found a company called Multiscreen. As it became clear that a single, large-screen image had more impact than multiple smaller ones and was a viable product direction. An IMAX 3D theatre also is in operation near the former Expo 67 site at the Montreal Science Centre in the Port of Old Montreal, tiger Child, the first IMAX film, was demonstrated at Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan. The first permanent IMAX installation was built at the Cinesphere theatre at Ontario Place in Toronto and it debuted in May 1971, showing the film North of Superior. The installation is still in place, however, Ontario Place is on hiatus for redevelopment, during Expo 74 in Spokane, Washington, an IMAX screen that measured 27 m ×20 m was featured in the US Pavilion. It became the first IMAX Theatre to not be partnered with any brand of movie theaters. About five million visitors viewed the screen, which covered the total visual field when looking directly forward. This created a sensation of motion in most viewers, and motion sickness in some, much to the dismay of the majority of Spokane and the disapproval of the IMAX Corporation itself, it will be demolished because of its inability to project films digitally. An IMAX 3D & Digital theater was built in Spokane. However, its screen-size is less than half that of the original, due to protests, the IMAX Corporation has been able to remodel the area with the city, and turn the U. S. Pavilion itself into the first permanent outdoor IMAX screen, the first permanent IMAX Dome installation, the Eugene Heikoff and Marilyn Jacobs Heikoff Dome Theatre at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, opened in San Diegos Balboa Park in 1973, the first permanent IMAX 3D theatre was built in Vancouver, British Columbia for Transitions at Expo 86, and was in use until September 30,2009
23.
Looney Tunes
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Looney Tunes is an American animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. from 1930 to 1969 during the golden age of American animation, alongside its sister series Merrie Melodies. Coyote and the Road Runner, the Tasmanian Devil, and many others and these characters themselves are commonly referred to as the Looney Tunes. From 1942 to 1964, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were the most popular animated shorts in movie theaters, many of the characters have made and continue to make cameo appearances in various other television shows, movies and advertisements. The most popular Looney Tunes character, Bugs Bunny, is regarded as an icon and has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Several Looney Tunes films are regarded as some of the greatest animated cartoons of all time, in the beginning, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies drew their storylines from Warners vast music library. From 1934 to 1943, Merrie Melodies were produced in color and Looney Tunes in black, after 1943, both series were produced in color and became virtually indistinguishable, varying only in their opening theme music and titles. Both series made use of the various Warner Bros. cartoon characters, in 1929, to compete against Walt Disneys Mickey Mouse short cartoons, WB became interested in developing a series of animated shorts to promote their music. They had recently acquired Brunswick Records along with four music publishers for US $28 million and were eager to promote this material for the sales of sheet music, Warner made a deal with Leon Schlesinger to produce cartoons for them. Schlesinger hired Rudolf Ising and Hugh Harman to produce the first series of cartoons, Schlesinger was impressed by Harmans and Isings 1929 pilot cartoon, Bosko, The Talk-Ink Kid. The first Looney Tunes short was Sinkin in the Bathtub starring Bosko, when Harman and Ising left Warner Bros. in 1933 over a budget dispute with Schlesinger, they took with them all the rights of the characters and cartoons they had created. In 1935 they debuted the first major Looney Tunes star, Porky Pig, Beans was the star of the next Porky/Beans cartoon Golddiggers of 49, but it was Porky who emerged as the star instead of Beans. The ensemble characters of I Havent Got a Hat, such as Oliver Owl, and twin dogs Ham and Ex, were given a sampling of shorts. Beans was later phased out when his popularity declined, leaving Porky as the star of the Schlesinger studio. The debuts of other memorable Looney Tunes stars followed, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Bugs initially starred in the color Merrie Melodies shorts and formally joined the Looney Tunes series with the release of Buckaroo Bugs in 1944. Schlesinger began to phase in the production of color Looney Tunes with the 1942 cartoon The Hep Cat, the final black-and-white Looney Tunes short was Puss n Booty in 1943 directed by Frank Tashlin. The inspiration for the changeover was Warners decision to only the color cartoons in the Blue Ribbon Classics series of Merrie Melodies. Schlesinger sold his interest in the studio in 1944 to Warner Bros. and went into retirement. During the mid-late 1960s, the shorts were produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, the change in the introductory title cards was possibly to reflect the switch in the animation style of the shorts themselves
24.
I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat
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I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat is a 2011 3D computer-animated short film starring the characters Sylvester, Tweety and Granny. The short is an adaptation of the 1950 song of the same name and it features the voice of June Foray as Granny, and Blancs archive recordings taken from the song for Sylvester and Tweety. The short was released theatrically with Happy Feet Two, Mel Blanc as Sylvester/Tweety June Foray as Granny The short was released theatrically with Happy Feet Two. It was attached as a feature on the Happy Feet Two DVD. It was also included as a bonus on the DVD release of Looney Tunes, I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat at the Internet Movie Database
25.
Sylvester the Cat
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The name Sylvester is a play on Felis silvestris, the scientific name for the wild cat species. The character debuted in Friz Frelengs Life With Feathers, Frelengs 1947 cartoon Tweetie Pie was the first pairing of Tweety with Sylvester, and the Bob Clampett-directed Kitty Kornered was Sylvesters first pairing with Porky Pig. Sylvester appeared in 103 cartoons in the golden age and he appeared fourth most frequently in films behind Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, and Daffy Duck respectively. Three of his cartoons won Academy Awards, the most for any starring Looney Tunes character, they are Tweetie Pie, Speedy Gonzales, Sylvester was #33 on TV Guides list of top 50 best cartoon characters, together with Tweety. Sylvesters trademark is his sloppy and yet stridulating lisp, in his autobiography, Thats Not All Folks. Voice actor Mel Blanc stated that Sylvesters voice is identical to his voice for Daffy Duck, only not sped up in post production, conventional wisdom is that Daffys lisp, and hence also Sylvesters, were based on the lisp of producer Leon Schlesinger. However, Blanc made no such claim and he said that Daffys lisp was based on him having a long beak, and that he borrowed the voice for Sylvester. He also said that Sylvesters voice was much like his own. In addition, director Bob Clampett, in a 1970 Funnyworld interview, in many cartoons, Sylvester is shown intentionally sticking out his tongue while speaking, putting emphasis that the lisp is intentional. Sylvester is also known for spraying people hes talking to with the saliva from his lisping, a common gag used for both Sylvester and Daffy is a tendency to go on a long rant, complaining about a subject and then ending it by saying sakes. Notes to You was the first prototype and it was remade in color in one of Sylvesters cartoons, Back Alley Oproar. The Hep Cat features another prototype, as well as Birdy, to emphasize the lisp, as with Daffys catchphrase Youre desthpicable, Sylvesters trademark exclamation is Sufferin succotash. Which is said to be a minced oath of Suffering Savior, before Sylvesters appearance in the cartoons, Blanc voiced a character named Sylvester on The Judy Canova Show using the voice that would eventually become associated with the cat. Sylvester shows a lot of pride in himself, and never gives up, despite his pride and persistence, Sylvester is, with rare exceptions, placed squarely on the loser side of the Looney Tunes winner/loser hierarchy. He also appears in a handful of cartoons with Elmer Fudd, in 1952s Tree for Two by Friz Freleng, Sylvester is cornered in the back alley and this would result in Spike getting mauled by a black panther that had escaped from a zoo. In the 1954 film Dr. Jerkyls Hide, Sylvester pummels Spike thanks to a potion that transforms him into a feline monster, after Spikes ordeal, Sylvester would have the courage and confidence to confront Chester, only to be beaten and tossed away by the little dog. His alternately confident and bewildered episodes bring his son to shame, the Scarlet Pumpernickel, a Chuck Jones cartoon in which Sylvester plays the Basil Rathbone-like villain to Daffy Ducks Errol Flynn-esque hero. Television specials, and in the 1980s, he appeared in the feature-film compilations, from 1979 to 1983, Sylvester was the spokescat for 9 Lives line of dry cat food
26.
Tweety
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Tweety is an animated fictional yellow canary in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated cartoons, the name Tweety is a play on words, as it originally meant sweetie, along with tweet being a typical English onomatopoeia for the sounds of birds. His characteristics are based on Red Skeltons famous Mean Widdle Kid, Tweety appeared in 47 cartoons in the golden age. Despite the perceptions that people may hold, owing to the long lashes and high pitched voice, Tweety is male, for example, in an episode called Snow Business, when Granny entered a room containing Tweety and Sylvester she said, Here I am, boys. Whereas a 1951 cartoon was entitled Aint She Tweet, nevertheless, the title song of The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries directly states that the bird is a canary. His shape more closely suggests that of a bird, which is what he was during his early appearances. The yellow feathers were added but otherwise he retained the baby-bird shape, in his early appearances in Bob Clampett cartoons, Tweety is a very aggressive character who tries anything to foil his foe, even kicking his enemy when he is down. One of his most notable moments is in the cartoon Birdy. A cat chases Tweety by flying until he remembers that cats cannot fly, Tweety says sympathetically, Awww, the poor kitty cat. He faw down and go BOOM. and then grins mischievously, a similar use of that voice is in A Tale Of Two Kitties when Tweety, wearing an air raid wardens helmet, suddenly yells, Turn out those lights. Bob Clampett created the character that would become Tweety in the 1942 short A Tale of Two Kitties, on the original model sheet, Tweety was named Orson. In the documentary Bugs Bunny, Superstar, animator Clampett stated, in a sotto voce aside to the audience, Clampett did two more shorts with the naked genius, as a Jimmy Durante-ish cat once called him in A Gruesome Twosome. The second Tweety short, Birdy and the Beast, finally bestowed the baby bird with his new name, many of Mel Blancs characters are known for speech impediments. He also has trouble with liquid consonants, as with Elmer Fudd, /l/ and /r/ come out as /w/. In Canary Row and Putty Tat Trouble, he begins the cartoon by singing a song about himself, Im a tweet wittow biwd in a cage, Tweetyth my name. I dont have to wuwy and dat is dat, Im tafe in hewe fwom dat ol putty tat. Aside from this challenge, Tweetys voice is that of Bugs Bunnys, does a speed up only. Clampett began work on a short that would pit Tweety against a then-unnamed, lisping black, however, Clampett left the studio before going into full production on the short, and Freleng took on the project
27.
Antarctica
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It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14,000,000 square kilometres, it is the fifth-largest continent, for comparison, Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages 1.9 km in thickness, Antarctica, on average, is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. Antarctica is a desert, with precipitation of only 200 mm along the coast. The temperature in Antarctica has reached −89.2 °C, though the average for the quarter is −63 °C. Anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent. Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae, bacteria, fungi, plants, protista, vegetation, where it occurs, is tundra. The continent, however, remained neglected for the rest of the 19th century because of its hostile environment, lack of easily accessible resources. In 1895, the first confirmed landing was conducted by a team of Norwegians, Antarctica is a de facto condominium, governed by parties to the Antarctic Treaty System that have consulting status. Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959, and thirty-eight have signed it since then, the treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining, prohibits nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal, supports scientific research, and protects the continents ecozone. Ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists from many nations, the name Antarctica is the romanised version of the Greek compound word ἀνταρκτική, feminine of ἀνταρκτικός, meaning opposite to the Arctic, opposite to the north. Aristotle wrote in his book Meteorology about an Antarctic region in c.350 B. C, marinus of Tyre reportedly used the name in his unpreserved world map from the 2nd century A. D. Before acquiring its present geographical connotations, the term was used for locations that could be defined as opposite to the north. For example, the short-lived French colony established in Brazil in the 16th century was called France Antarctique, the first formal use of the name Antarctica as a continental name in the 1890s is attributed to the Scottish cartographer John George Bartholomew. Antarctica has no population and there is no evidence that it was seen by humans until the 19th century. Explorer Matthew Flinders, in particular, has credited with popularising the transfer of the name Terra Australis to Australia. Cook came within about 120 km of the Antarctic coast before retreating in the face of ice in January 1773. The first confirmed sighting of Antarctica can be narrowed down to the crews of ships captained by three individuals, according to various organisations, ships captained by three men sighted Antarctica or its ice shelf in 1820, von Bellingshausen, Edward Bransfield, and Nathaniel Palmer
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Krill
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Krill are small crustaceans of the order Euphausiacea, and are found in all the worlds oceans. The name krill comes from the Norwegian word krill, meaning small fry of fish, which is also often attributed to species of fish. In the Southern Ocean, one species, the Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, makes up an estimated biomass of around 379,000,000 tonnes, making it among the species with the largest total biomass. Of this, over half is eaten by whales, seals, penguins, squid and fish each year, most krill species display large daily vertical migrations, thus providing food for predators near the surface at night and in deeper waters during the day. Krill are fished commercially in the Southern Ocean and in the waters around Japan, the total global harvest amounts to 150, 000–200,000 tonnes annually, most of this from the Scotia Sea. Most of the catch is used for aquaculture and aquarium feeds, as bait in sport fishing. In Japan, Philippines and Russia, krill are used for human consumption and are known as okiami in Japan. They are eaten as camarones in Spain, in the Philippines, it is known as alamang and it is used to make a salty paste called bagoong. Krill are also the prey of baleen whales, including the blue whale. Krill belong to the arthropod subphylum, the Crustacea. The most familiar and largest group of crustaceans, the class Malacostraca, the order Euphausiacea comprises two families. The more abundant Euphausiidae contains ten different genera with a total of 85 species, of these, the genus Euphausia is the largest, with 31 species. The lesser known family, the Bentheuphausiidae, has one species, Bentheuphausia amblyops. It is considered the most primitive extant krill species, well-known species of the Euphausiidae of commercial krill fisheries include Antarctic krill, Pacific krill and Northern krill. There have been many theories of the location of the order Euphausiacea, later, William Thomas Calman ranked the Mysidacea in the superorder Peracarida and euphausiids in the superorder Eucarida, although even up to the 1930s the order Schizopoda was advocated. It was later proposed that order Euphausiacea should be grouped with the Penaeidae in the Decapoda based on developmental similarities, as noted by Robert Gurney. The reason for debate is that krill share some morphological features of decapods. Molecular studies have not unambiguously grouped them, possibly due to the paucity of key rare species such as Bentheuphausia amblyops in krill, one study supports the monophyly of Eucarida, another groups Euphausiacea with Mysida, while yet another groups Euphausiacea with Hoplocarida
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Existentialism
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While the predominant value of existentialist thought is commonly acknowledged to be freedom, its primary virtue is authenticity. Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or academic philosophies, in style and content, as too abstract and remote from concrete human experience. Søren Kierkegaard is generally considered to have been the first existentialist philosopher and he proposed that each individual—not society or religion—is solely responsible for giving meaning to life and living it passionately and sincerely, or authentically. Existentialism became popular in the years following World War II, and strongly influenced many disciplines besides philosophy, including theology, drama, art, literature, and psychology. The term is seen as a historical convenience as it was first applied to many philosophers in hindsight. In fact, while existentialism is generally considered to have originated with Kierkegaard, Sartre posits the idea that what all existentialists have in common is the fundamental doctrine that existence precedes essence, as scholar Frederick Copleston explains. Sartre himself, in a lecture delivered in 1945, described existentialism as the attempt to draw all the consequences from a position of consistent atheism and this assertion comes from two sources. The Norwegian philosopher Erik Lundestad refers to the Danish philosopher Fredrik Christian Sibbern, Sibbern is supposed to have had two conversations in 1841, the first with Welhaven and the second with Kierkegaard. This was then brought to Kierkegaard by Sibbern, the second claim comes from the Norwegian historian Rune Slagstad, who claims to prove that Kierkegaard himself said the term existential was borrowed from the poet. He strongly believes that it was Kierkegaard himself who said that Hegelians do not study philosophy existentially, on the other hand, the Norwegian historian Anne-Lise Seip is critical of Slagstad, and believes the statement in fact stems from the Norwegian literary historian Cathrinus Bang. The actual life of the individuals is what constitutes what could be called their true essence instead of there being an arbitrarily attributed essence others use to define them, thus, human beings, through their own consciousness, create their own values and determine a meaning to their life. However, an existentialist philosopher would say such a wish constitutes an inauthentic existence - what Sartre would call bad faith, instead, the phrase should be taken to say that people are defined only insofar as they act and that they are responsible for their actions. For example, someone who acts cruelly towards other people is, by that act, furthermore, by this action of cruelty, such persons are themselves responsible for their new identity. This is as opposed to their genes, or human nature, as Sartre writes in his work Existentialism is a Humanism. Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world—and defines himself afterwards. Of course, the positive, therapeutic aspect of this is also implied, A person can choose to act in a different way. Here it is clear that since humans can choose to be either cruel or good, they are, in fact. Sartres definition of existentialism was based on Heideggers magnum opus Being and this way of living, Heidegger called average everydayness
30.
Elephant seal
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Elephant seals are large, oceangoing earless seals in the genus Mirounga. The two species, the elephant seal and the southern elephant seal, were both hunted to the brink of extinction by the end of the 19th century, but the numbers have since recovered. The northern elephant seal, somewhat smaller than its southern relative, the most northerly breeding location on the Pacific Coast is at Race Rocks, at the southern tip of Vancouver Island in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. In southern Chile, there is a colony of 120 animals at Jackson Bay, Admiralty Sound. The oldest known unambiguous elephant seal fossils are fossils of an unnamed member of the tribe Miroungini described from the late Pliocene Petane Formation of New Zealand. Elephant seals breed annually and are faithful to colonies that have established breeding areas. Elephant seals take their name from the proboscis of the adult male. The bulls proboscis is used in producing extraordinarily loud roaring noises, more importantly, however, the nose acts as a sort of rebreather, filled with cavities designed to reabsorb moisture from the animals exhalations. This is important during the season when the seals do not leave the beach to feed. Northern elephant seal bulls reach a length of 4.3 to 4.8 m, elephant seals spend upwards of 80% of their lives in the ocean. They can hold their breath for more than 100 minutes – longer than any other noncetacean mammal, elephant seals dive to 1,550 m beneath the oceans surface. Their stomachs also often contain gastroliths, while excellent swimmers, they are also capable of rapid movement on land. Elephant seals are shielded from cold by their blubber, more so than by fur. The animals hair and outer layers of skin molt in large patches, the skin has to be regrown by blood vessels reaching through the blubber. When molting occurs, the seal is susceptible to the cold, northern males and young adults haul out during June to July to molt, northern females and immature seals during April to May. Elephant seals have a large volume of blood, allowing them to hold a large amount of oxygen for use when diving. They have large sinuses in their abdomens to hold blood and can store oxygen in their muscles with increased myoglobin concentrations in muscle. In addition, they have a proportion of oxygen-carrying red blood cells
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Leopard seal
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The leopard seal, also referred to as the sea leopard, is the second largest species of seal in the Antarctic. Along with all of the earless seals, it belongs to the family Phocidae. The name hydrurga means water worker and leptonyx is the Greek for small clawed, the leopard seal is large and muscular, with a dark grey back and light grey on its stomach. Its throat is whitish with the spots that give the seal its common name. Females are slightly larger than the males, the overall length of this seal is 2. 4–3.5 m and weight is from 200 to 600 kilograms. They are about the length as the northern walrus. Its front teeth are sharp like those of other carnivores, but its molars lock together in a way allows them to sieve krill from the water. The leopard seal lives in the waters surrounding the Antarctic continent. Where most seals remain restricted within the ice throughout the year, some move further north in the austral winter to subantarctic islands. This trait of vocalizing underwater for long periods however has made available to acoustic surveys. Leopard seals are solitary and widely distributed throughout the pack ice, higher densities of leopard seals are seen in the Western Antarctic than in other regions. Leopard seals are very vocal underwater during the austral summer, the male seals produce loud calls for many hours each day. While singing the seal hangs upside down and rocks from side to side under the water and their back is bent, the neck and cranial thoracic region is inflated and as they call their chest pulses. Adult male leopard seals have only a few stylized calls, some are like bird or cricket-like trills yet others are low haunting moans, the leopard seals have age-related differences in their calling patterns, just like birds. Where the younger male seals have many different types of variable calls - the adult male seals have only a few, each male seal produces individually distinctive songs. They arrange their few call types into individually distinctive sequences, the acoustic behavior of the leopard seal is believed to be linked to their breeding behaviour. The females give birth to a single pup during the summer on the floating ice floes of the Antarctic pack ice. She protects her pup until it is able to fend for itself, the leopard seal is bold, powerful and curious
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Southern elephant seal
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The southern elephant seal is one of the two extant species of elephant seals. It is both the largest pinniped and member of the order Carnivora living today, as well as the largest Antarctic seal. The seal gets its name from its size and the large proboscis of the adult males. Rather larger at average than the northern elephant seal and male walrus. An average adult male elephant seal weighs six to seven times more than the largest terrestrial carnivorans. The southern elephant seal is distinguished from the elephant seal by its greater body mass. The southern males also appear taller when fighting, due to their tendency to bend their backs more strongly than the northern species. This seal shows extreme sexual dimorphism in size, seemingly the largest of any mammal by mass, with the males typically five to six times heavier than the females. While the female elephant seal typically weighs 400 to 900 kg and measures 2.6 to 3 m long. An adult female averages 771 kg in mass, while a mature bull averages about 3,175 kg, studies have indicated elephant seals from South Georgia are around 30% heavier and 10% longer on average than those from Macquarie Island. The record-sized bull, shot in Possession Bay, South Georgia, on 28 February 1913, measured 6.85 m long and was estimated to weigh a hulking 5,000 kg, the maximum size of a female is 1,000 kg and 3.7 m. The eyes are large, round, and black, the width of the eyes, and a high concentration of low-light pigments, suggest sight plays an important role in the capture of prey. Like all seals, elephant seals have hind limbs whose ends form the tail and tail fin, each of the feet can deploy five long, webbed fingers. This agile dual palm is used to propel water, the pectoral fins are used little while swimming. While their hind limbs are unfit for locomotion on land, elephant seals use their fins as support to propel their bodies. They are able to propel themselves quickly in this way for travel, to return to water, to catch up with a female. Pups are born with fur and are completely black and their coats are unsuited to water, but protect infants by insulating them from the cold air. After moulting, the coats may turn grey and brown, depending on the thickness, among older males, the skin takes the form of a thick leather which is often scarred
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Skua
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The skuas /ˈskjuːə/ are a group of seabirds with about seven species forming the family Stercorariidae and the genus Stercorarius. The three smaller skuas are called jaegers in the Americas, the English word skua comes from the Faroese name skúgvur for the great skua, with the island of Skúvoy renowned for its colony of that bird. The general Faroese term for skuas is kjógvi, the word jaeger is derived from the German word Jäger, meaning hunter. The genus name Stercorarius is Latin and means of dung, the food disgorged by other birds when pursued by skuas was once thought to be excrement, skuas nest on the ground in temperate and Arctic regions, and are long-distance migrants. They have even been sighted at the South Pole, outside the breeding season, skuas take fish, offal, and carrion. The larger species, such as the great skua, also kill and eat adult birds, such as puffins and gulls. On the breeding grounds, the three, more slender northern breeding species commonly eat lemmings and those species that breed in the southern oceans largely feed on fish that can be caught near their colonies. The eggs and young of birds are an important food source for most skua species during the nesting season. In the southern oceans and Antarctica region, some species will readily scavenge the carcasses at breeding colonies of penguins and pinnipeds. In these areas, skuas seem to defer to the larger giant petrels. They are medium to large birds, typically grey or brown plumage. The skuas range in size from the long-tailed skua, Stercorarius longicauda, at 310 grams, to the brown skua, Stercorarius antarcticus, on average, a skua is about 56 cm long, and 121 cm across the wings. They have longish bills with a tip, and webbed feet with sharp claws. They look like large dark gulls, but have a fleshy cere above the upper mandible, the skuas are strong, acrobatic fliers. They are generally aggressive in disposition, potential predators who go near their nest will be quickly dived at by the parent bird, which usually targets the head of the intruder – a practice known as dive bombing. Skuas are related to gulls, waders, auks, and skimmers and these characteristics are not shared by the larger species, all native to the Southern Hemisphere except for the great skua. Therefore, the skuas are often split into two genera, with only the smaller species retained in Stercorarius, and the species placed in Catharacta. However, based on genetics, behavior, and feather lice, the pomarine and great skuas mitochondrial DNA is in fact more closely related to each other than it is to either Arctic or long-tailed skuas, or to the Southern Hemisphere species
34.
Atlantic puffin
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The Atlantic puffin, also known as the common puffin, is a species of seabird in the auk family. It is the only native to the Atlantic Ocean, two related species, the tufted puffin and the horned puffin, are found in the northeastern Pacific. The Atlantic puffin breeds in Iceland, Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland and many North Atlantic islands, and as far south as Maine in the west and the British Isles in the east. Although it has a population and a wide range, the species has declined rapidly, at least in parts of its range. On land, it has the typical upright stance of an auk, at sea, it swims on the surface and feeds mainly on small fish, which it catches by diving underwater, using its wings for propulsion. This puffin has a crown and back, pale grey cheek patches. Its broad, boldly marked red and black beak and orange legs contrast with its plumage and it moults while at sea in the winter and some of the bright-coloured facial characteristics are lost. The external appearance of the male and female are identical except that the male is usually slightly larger. The juvenile has similar plumage but its cheek patches are dark grey, the juvenile does not have brightly coloured head ornamentation, its bill is less broad and is dark-grey with a yellowish-brown tip, and its legs and feet are also dark. Puffins from northern populations are larger than their counterparts in southern parts of the range. It is generally considered that these populations are different subspecies, spending the autumn and winter in the open ocean of the cold northern seas, the Atlantic puffin returns to coastal areas at the start of the breeding season in late spring. It nests in colonies, digging a burrow in which a single white egg is laid. The chick mostly feeds on fish and grows rapidly. After about six weeks it is fully fledged and makes its way at night to the sea and it swims away from the shore and does not return to land for several years. Colonies are mostly on islands where there are no terrestrial predators but adult birds and newly fledged chicks are at risk of attacks from the air by gulls and skuas. Sometimes a bird such as an Arctic skua will harass a puffin arriving with a beakful of fish, the striking appearance, large colourful bill, waddling gait and behaviour of this bird have given rise to nicknames such as clown of the sea and sea parrot. It is the bird symbol for the Canadian province of Newfoundland. The Atlantic puffin is a species of seabird in the order Charadriiformes and it is in the auk family, Alcidae, which includes the guillemots, typical auks, murrelets, auklets, puffins and the razorbill
35.
Chinstrap penguin
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The chinstrap penguin is a species of penguin which inhabits a variety of islands and shores in the Southern Pacific and the Antarctic Ocean. Its name derives from the black band under its head which makes it appear as if it were wearing a black helmet. Other common names are ringed penguin, bearded penguin, and stonecracker penguin due to its harsh call, Chinstrap penguins have an average body length of 72 centimetres and a weight of 3–5 kilograms, however their weight can drop as low as 3 kilograms depending on the breeding cycle. Males are both larger and heavier than females, the adult chinstraps flippers are black with a white edge, the inner sides of the flippers are white. The face is white extending behind the eyes, which are reddish brown, the strong legs and the webbed feet are pink. Its short stumpy legs give it a distinct waddle when it walks, the chinstrap penguins black-and-white plumage helps camouflage it in the water from predators such as seals. When seen from above, the black back blends into the dark water below. Chinstrap penguins have a circumpolar distribution and they breed in Antarctica, Argentina, Bouvet Island, Chile, the Falkland Islands, the French Southern Territories, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Vagrant individuals have found in New Zealand, the islands of Saint Helena and Tristan da Cunha. Global population is estimated at least 8 million, the diet of the chinstrap penguin consists of krill, shrimp, fish, and squid which they swim up to 80 km offshore each day to obtain. The chinstrap penguin is able to withstand swimming in freezing waters due to its tightly packed feathers, thick blubber deposits provide insulation, as well, and blood vessels in the flippers and legs have evolved intricate structures to preserve heat. On land they build nests from stones, and lay two eggs, which are incubated by both the male and the female for shifts of 6 days. The chicks hatch after about 37 days, and have fluffy gray backs, the chicks stay in the nest for 20–30 days before they go to join a crèche. At around 50–60 days old, they moult, gaining their adult feathers, the predator of adult chinstraps is the leopard seal. Eggs and chicks can fall prey to birds, such as the sheathbill, penguins by nature hatch eggs and are social creatures. The childrens book And Tango Makes Three was written based on this event, 70south. com, Info on Chinstrap penguins Chinstrap penguin images Penguin World, Chinstrap penguins Animals and Earth - photos for conservation, science, education and you - chinstrap penguin photos
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Little penguin
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The little penguin is the smallest species of penguin. It grows to an average of 33 cm in height and 43 cm in length and it is found on the coastlines of southern Australia and New Zealand, with possible records from Chile. In Australia, they are called fairy penguins because of their small size. In New Zealand, they are commonly known as little blue penguins or blue penguins owing to their slate-blue plumage. They are also known by their Māori name, kororā, the little penguin was first described by German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster in 1781. Several subspecies are known, but a precise classification of these is still a matter of dispute, the holotypes of the subspecies E. m. variabilis and Eudyptula minor chathamensis are in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. The white-flippered penguin is sometimes considered a subspecies, sometimes a distinct species, like those of all penguins, the little penguins wings have developed into flippers used for swimming. The little penguin typically grows to between 30 and 33 cm tall and usually weighs about 1.5 kg on average, the head and upper parts are blue in colour, with slate-grey ear coverts fading to white underneath, from the chin to the belly. Their flippers are blue in colour, the dark grey-black beak is 3–4 cm long, the irises pale silvery- or bluish-grey or hazel, and the feet pink above with black soles and webbing. An immature individual will have a bill and lighter upperparts. Like most seabirds, they have a long lifespan, the average for the species is 6.5 years, but flipper ringing experiments show in very exceptional cases up to 25 years in captivity. The little penguin breeds along the coastline of New Zealand, the Chatham Islands. Australian colonies exist in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Little penguins have also been reported from Chile and South Africa, but it is unclear whether these birds were vagrants. As new colonies continue to be discovered, rough estimates of the population are around 350. Overall, little penguin populations in New Zealand have been decreasing, some colonies have gone extinct and others continue to be at risk. Some new colonies have been established in urban areas, the species is not considered endangered in New Zealand, with the exception of the white-flippered subspecies found only on Banks Peninsula and nearby Motunau Island. Since the 1960s, the population has declined by 60-70%. Australian little penguin colonies primarily exist on islands, where they are protected from feral terrestrial predators
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Magellanic penguin
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It is the most numerous of the Spheniscus penguins. Its nearest relatives are the African, the Humboldt penguin and the Galápagos penguins, the Magellanic penguin was named after Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who spotted the birds in 1520. The species is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN, Magellanic penguins are medium-sized penguins which grow to be 61–76 cm tall and weigh between 2.7 and 6.5 kg. The males are larger than the females, and the weight of both drops while the parents nurture their young, adults have black backs and white abdomens. There are two bands between the head and the breast, with the lower band shaped in an inverted horseshoe. The head is black with a white border that runs from behind the eye, around the black ear-coverts and chin. Chicks and younger penguins have grey-blue backs, with a more faded grey-blue color on their chest, Magellanic penguins can live up to 25 years in the wild, but as much as 30 years in captivity. Young birds usually have a pattern on their feet, which fades as they grow up into adulthood. By the time these birds reach about ten years of age, like other species of penguins, the Magellanic penguin has very rigid wings used to swim under water. Magellanic penguins feed in the water, preying on cuttlefish, squid, krill, and other crustaceans and their salt-excreting gland rids the salt from their bodies. Adult penguins can dive to depths of between 20m to 50m deep in order to forage for prey. Magellanic penguins do not experience a shortage of food like the Galapagos penguins. The presence of the continental shelf in the Atlantic Ocean lets Magellanic penguins forage far from their breeding colony. Magellanic penguins travel in flocks when hunting for food. In the breeding season, these birds gather in large nesting colonies at the coasts of Argentina, southern Chile, and the Falkland Islands, one of the largest of these colonies is located at Punta Tombo. Nests are built under bushes or in burrows, incubation lasts 39–42 days, a task which the parents share in 10- to 15-day shifts. The chicks are cared for by parents for 29 days and are fed every two to three days. Normally, both are raised through adulthood, though only one chick is raised
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