Time Life
The current focus of the company is music and entertainment experiences as the book division closed in 2003. Its products have sold throughout North America, Europe and Asia through television, retail, the Internet, telemarketing. Current operations are focused in the US and Canada with limited retail distribution overseas, Time Life was founded in 1961 as the book division of Time Inc. It took its name from Time Inc. s cornerstone magazines and Life, starting in 1967, Time Life combined its book offerings with music collections and packaged them as a sturdy box set. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the selection of books, when record labels stopped producing vinyl albums in 1990, Time Life switched to CD only. In the mid-1990s, Time Life acquired Heartland Music, with the Heartland Music label now appearing as a brand and this company was subsequently sold off and is no longer attached to Time Life. At the end of 2003 Time Life was acquired by Ripplewood Holdings L. L. C. Direct Holdings Americas Inc.
operates as a leader in the sale of music and video products under the Time Life brand. Since 2003, Direct Holdings US Corp is the name of Time Life. In March 2007, Ripplewood led a group that took The Readers Digest Association private and treated Time Life as a division of RDA. By 2003 onward, a disclaimer on the stated that it is not affiliated with Time Warner Inc. or Time Inc. who owns the Time. In 2013, Readers Digest Association sold Time Life to Mosaic Media Investment Partners, the Time Life company was founded by Jean, Incorporated in 1961, as a book marketing division. Its name is derived from Time and Life magazines, two of the most popular magazines of the era and it was based in the Time Life building in Rockefeller Center. Time Life gained fame as a seller of book series that would be mailed to households in monthly installments, several of these book series garnered substantial critical acclaim unusual for a mass-market mail order house. F. K. Other series of high regard covered nature and the sciences, as well as the history of world civilizations, the science books are interesting as ephemera of their time.
The content of these series was more or less encyclopedic, providing the basics of the subjects in the way it might be done in an aimed at the general public. There was a series on life in various countries of the world. The books, whatever their quality, are easy to find at low prices on the used-book market, non-specific USA topic series were habitually translated in other languages, and disseminated through local branches of Time-Life Books in the intended target markets. However, not rarely were these translated versions truncated for various reasons, Time Inc. /Time Warner, continues to publish similar material through Time Home Entertainment Inc
Douglas Edwards
Douglas Edwards was an American network news television anchor. He anchored CBSs first nightly news broadcast from 1948–1962, which was to be titled CBS Evening News, a native of Oklahoma, Edwards grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. Edwards joined CBS Radio in 1942, eventually becoming anchor for the evening newscast The World Today as well as World News Today on Sunday afternoons. Edwards came to CBS, after stints as a newscaster and announcer at WSB in Atlanta, Georgia and WXYZ in Detroit, in the mid-1940s, Edwards was host of the radio program Behind the Scenes at CBS. The term anchor would not be used until 1952, when CBS News chief Sig Mikelson would use it to describe Walter Cronkites role in the political convention coverage. At first, Edwards would be eclipsed by John Cameron Swayze of NBC Newss Camel News Caravan, by the mid-1950s, the nightly 15-minute newscast Douglas Edwards with the News was watched by nearly 30 million viewers. He received praise for his coverage, on both camera and radio, of the sinking of the SS Andrea Doria in July 1956.
But by the end of the decade, viewership levels for the Edwards broadcast weakened severely as the Huntley-Brinkley Report began to attract a larger audience, by 1962, Edwards was replaced by Walter Cronkite, and the newscasts name was changed to CBS Evening News. For several years after leaving the CBS anchor chair, Edwards headed the local evening news team on WCBS-TV, channel 2, Edwards subsequently moved back to CBS Radio, where he delivered the networks flagship evening newscasts The World Tonight for many years. He served, for a time, as a co-anchor of the CBS Morning News and his last radio newscast included a report of the death of singer Andy Gibb. Beginning June 2,1980, Douglas Edwards anchored a daily edition of Newsbreak at 11,57 a. m. In 1988, at the age of 70, Edwards retired from broadcasting work after 46 years with CBS, Edwards died of cancer at 73. Edwards was posthumously elected to the Radio Hall of Fame in 2006, in a 4 1⁄2 hour interview for the Archive of American Television, Walter Cronkite described Edwards as a true gentleman.
One of the gentlest men Ive ever known
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American mystery drama film by Orson Welles, its producer, co-screenwriter and star. The picture was Welless first feature film, nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories, it won an Academy Award for Best Writing by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Welles. It topped the American Film Institutes 100 Years,100 Movies list in 1998, as well as its 2007 update. Citizen Kane is particularly praised for its cinematography and narrative structure, upon its release, Hearst prohibited mention of the film in any of his newspapers. Kanes career in the world is born of idealistic social service. Narrated principally through flashbacks, the story is told through the research of a reporter seeking to solve the mystery of the newspaper magnates dying word. After the Broadway successes of Welless Mercury Theatre and the controversial 1938 radio broadcast The War of the Worlds on The Mercury Theatre on the Air and he signed a contract with RKO Pictures in 1939. Unusually for a director, he was given the freedom to develop his own story, to use his own cast and crew.
Following two abortive attempts to get a project off the ground, he wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane, principal photography took place in 1940 and the film received its American release in 1941. While a critical success, Citizen Kane failed to recoup its costs at the box office, the film faded from view after its release but was subsequently returned to the publics attention when it was praised by such French critics as André Bazin and given an American revival in 1956. The film was released on Blu-ray on September 13,2011, in a mansion in Xanadu, a vast palatial estate in Florida, the elderly Charles Foster Kane is on his deathbed. Holding a snow globe, he utters a word and dies, a newsreel obituary tells the life story of Kane, an enormously wealthy newspaper publisher. Kanes death becomes sensational news around the world, and the newsreels producer tasks reporter Jerry Thompson with discovering the meaning of Rosebud, Thompson sets out to interview Kanes friends and associates. He approaches Kanes second wife, Susan Alexander Kane, now an alcoholic who runs her own nightclub, Thompson goes to the private archive of the late banker Walter Parks Thatcher.
Through Thatchers written memoirs, Thompson learns that Kanes childhood began in poverty in Colorado, in 1871, after a gold mine was discovered on her property, Kanes mother Mary Kane sends Charles away to live with Thatcher so that he would be properly educated. While Thatcher and Charles parents discuss arrangements inside, the young Kane plays happily with a sled in the snow outside his parents boarding-house and protests being sent to live with Thatcher. Years later, after gaining control over his trust fund at the age of 25, Kane enters the newspaper business. He takes control of the New York Inquirer and starts publishing scandalous articles that attack Thatchers business interests, after the stock market crash in 1929, Kane is forced to sell controlling interest of his newspaper empire to Thatcher
Electronic news-gathering
The term was commonly used in the television news industry in the 1980s and 1990s, but it has since been less frequently used as the technology has become ubiquitous. The vehicle on which the equipment is fitted is called DSNG. The term ENG was created as television news departments moved from film-based news-gathering to electronic field production technology in the 1970s, Editing was done by hand on what was known as color reversal film, usually Kodak Ektachrome, meaning there were no negatives. Color reversal film had replaced black-and-white film as television itself evolved from black-and-white to color broadcasting, filmo cameras were most commonly used for silent filming, while Auricon cameras were used for filming with synchronized sound. Since editing required cutting the film segments and splicing them together. News stories were often transferred to bulky 2-inch videotape for distribution and playback, by the mid-1980s, film had all but disappeared from use in television journalism.
Coupled with live microwave and/or satellite trucks, reporters were able to live what was happening, bringing the audience into news events as they happened. CNN launched in October 1980, as ENG technologies were emerging, the technology was still in its developmental stages, and had yet to be integrated with satellites and microwave relays, which caused some problems with the networks early transmissions. However, ENG proved to be a development for all television news as news content recorded using videocassette recorders was easier to edit. Over time, as editing technology has become simpler and more accessible, video production processes have largely passed from broadcast engineers to producers and writers, initially the ENG cameras and recorders were heavier and bulkier than their film equivalents. This restricted the ability of camera operators from escaping danger or hurrying toward a news event, Editing equipment was expensive and each scene had to be searched out on the master recording.
Using technology such as multicast or RTP over UDP, these systems achieve similar performance to high end-microwave, since the video stream is already encoded for IP, the video can be used for traditional television broadcast or Internet distribution without modification. As mobile broadband has developed, broadcast devices using this technology have appeared and these devices are often more compact than previous technology and can aggregate multiple mobile data lines to deliver a high definition-quality content live. The trend is toward lighter-weight equipment that can deliver more resolution at higher speeds, there has been an evolution from Film to Standard-definition television, High-definition television and now 4K. This monitor fits on the back of a broadcast video camera, outside broadcasts are when the editing and transmission of the news story are done outside of the stations headquarters. Use of ENG has made possible the use of outside broadcasts. At some of stations, the reporters sometimes even anchor the news and introduce the packages they have shot.
Short-form news stories are local news reporters deliver to their stations
Movie theater
A movie theater or movie theatre is a venue, usually a building, that contains an auditorium for viewing films, for entertainment. Most, but not all, movie theaters are commercial operations catering to the general public, Some movie theaters, are operated by non-profit organizations or societies which charge members a membership fee to view films. The film is projected with a projector onto a large projection screen at the front of the auditorium while the dialogue, sounds. Since the 1970s, subwoofers have used for low-pitched sounds. In the 2010s, most movie theaters are equipped for digital cinema projection, removing the need to create, a great variety of films are shown at cinemas, ranging from animated films for children, blockbusters for general audiences and documentaries for patrons who are interested in non-fiction topics. The smallest movie theaters have a viewing room with a single screen. In the 2010s, most movie theaters have multiple screens, the largest theater complexes, which are called multiplexes—a design developed in the U. S. in the 1960s—have up to 25 screens.
The audience members sit on padded seats which in most theaters are set up on a sloped floor. Movie theaters typically sell soft drinks and candy and some theaters sell hot fast food, in some jurisdictions, movie theaters are licensed to sell alcoholic drinks. A movie theater may be referred to as a theatre, movie house, film house. In the US, theater has long been the preferred spelling, while in the UK, the latter terms, as well as their derivative adjectives cinematic and kinematic, ultimately derive from Greek κινῆμα, κινήματος —movement, motion. In the countries where those terms are used, the theatre is usually reserved for live performance venues. Colloquial expressions, mostly applied to motion pictures and motion picture theaters collectively, include the silver screen, specific to North American term is the movies, while specific terms in the UK are the pictures, the flicks and for the facility itself the flea pit. A screening room is a theater, often a private one. Open air place in ancient times for viewing spectacles and plays, the term theater comes from the Old French word theatre, from the 12th century and.
The use of the theatre to mean a building where plays are shown dates from the 1570s in the English language. The earliest precursors to movies were magic lantern shows, magic lanterns used a glass lens, a shutter and a powerful lamp to project images from glass slides onto a white wall or screen. The invention of the Argand lamp in the 1790s, limelight in the 1820s, the magic lantern could project rudimentary moving images, which was achieved by the use of various types of mechanical slides
Documentary film
A documentary film is a nonfictional motion picture intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education, or maintaining a historical record. Documentary has been described as a practice, a cinematic tradition. Polish writer and filmmaker Bolesław Matuszewski was among those who identified the mode of documentary film and he wrote two of the earliest texts on cinema Une nouvelle source de lhistoire and La photographie animée. Both were published in 1898 in French and among the written works to consider the historical. Matuszewski is among the first filmmakers to propose the creation of a Film Archive to collect, the American film critic Pare Lorentz defines a documentary film as a factual film which is dramatic. Others further state that a documentary stands out from the types of non-fiction films for providing an opinion. Documentary practice is the process of creating documentary projects. Documentary filmmaking can be used as a form of journalism, early film was dominated by the novelty of showing an event.
They were single-shot moments captured on film, a train entering a station and these short films were called actuality films, the term documentary was not coined until 1926. Many of the first films, such as made by Auguste and Louis Lumière, were a minute or less in length. Films showing many people were made for commercial reasons, the people being filmed were eager to see, for payment. One notable film clocked in at over an hour and a half, using pioneering film-looping technology, Enoch J. Rector presented the entirety of a famous 1897 prize-fight on cinema screens across the United States, in May 1896, Bolesław Matuszewski recorded on film few surigical operations in Warsaw and Saint Petersburg hospitals. In 1898, French surgeon Eugène-Louis Doyen invited Bolesław Matuszewski and Clément Maurice and they started in Paris a series of surgical films sometime before July 1898. Until 1906, the year of his last film, Doyen recorded more than 60 operations, Doyen said that his first films taught him how to correct professional errors he had been unaware of.
These and five other of Doyens films survive, all these short films have been preserved. I must say I forgot those works and I am thankful to you that you reminded them to me, not many scientists have followed your way. Travelogue films were popular in the early part of the 20th century
London
London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, education, fashion, healthcare, professional services and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region.
Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud.
From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
Feature film
A film, called a movie, motion picture, theatrical film or photoplay, is a series of still images which, when shown on a screen, creates the illusion of moving images due to the phi phenomenon. This optical illusion causes the audience to perceive continuous motion between separate objects viewed rapidly in succession, the process of filmmaking is both an art and an industry. The word cinema, short for cinematography, is used to refer to the industry of films. Films were originally recorded onto plastic film through a photochemical process, the adoption of CGI-based special effects led to the use of digital intermediates. Most contemporary films are now fully digital through the process of production, distribution. Films recorded in a form traditionally included an analogous optical soundtrack. It runs along a portion of the film exclusively reserved for it and is not projected, Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures. They reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them, Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment, and a powerful medium for educating—or indoctrinating—citizens.
The visual basis of film gives it a power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles to translate the dialog into the language of the viewer, some have criticized the film industrys glorification of violence and its potentially negative treatment of women. The individual images that make up a film are called frames, the perception of motion is due to a psychological effect called phi phenomenon. The name film originates from the fact that film has historically been the medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for a motion picture, including picture, picture show, moving picture, photoplay. The most common term in the United States is movie, while in Europe film is preferred. Terms for the field, in general, include the big screen, the screen, the movies, and cinema. In early years, the sheet was sometimes used instead of screen. Preceding film in origin by thousands of years, early plays and dances had elements common to film, sets, production, actors, storyboards, much terminology used in film theory and criticism apply, such as mise en scène.
Owing to the lack of any technology for doing so, the moving images, the magic lantern, probably created by Christiaan Huygens in the 1650s, could be used to project animation, which was achieved by various types of mechanical slides
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. The silent film era lasted from 1895 to 1936, in silent films for entertainment, the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures and title cards which contain a written indication of the plot or key dialogue. During silent films, a pianist, theatre organist, or, in large cities and organists would either play from sheet music or improvise, an orchestra would play from sheet music. The term silent film is therefore a retronym—that is, a term created to distinguish something retroactively, the early films with sound, starting with The Jazz Singer in 1927, were referred to as talkies, sound films, or talking pictures. A September 2013 report by the United States Library of Congress announced that a total of 70% of American silent feature films are believed to be completely lost, the earliest precursors of film began with image projection through the use of a device known as the magic lantern. This utilized a glass lens, a shutter and a persistent light source, such as a powerful lantern and these slides were originally hand-painted, but still photographs were used on after the technological advent of photography in the nineteenth century.
The invention of a practical photography apparatus preceded cinema by only fifty years, the next significant step towards film creation was the development of an understanding of image movement. Simulations of movement date as far back as to 1828 and only four years after Paul Roget discovered the phenomenon he called Persistence of Vision. This experience was further demonstrated through Rogets introduction of the thaumatrope, the first projected primary proto-movie was made by Eadweard Muybridge between 1877 and 1880. Muybridge set up a row of cameras along a racetrack and timed image exposures to capture the many stages of a horses gallop, the oldest surviving film was created by Louis Le Prince in 1888. It was a film of people walking in Oakwood streets garden. Edison made a business of selling Kinetograph and Kinetoscope equipment, due to Edisons lack of securing an international patent on his film inventions, similar devices were invented around the world. The Lumière brothers, for example, created the Cinématographe in France, the Cinématographe proved to be a more portable and practical device than both of Edisons as it combined a camera, film processor and projector in one unit.
In contrast to Edisons peepshow-style kinetoscope, which one person could watch through a viewer. Their first film, Sortie de lusine Lumière de Lyon, shot in 1894, is considered the first true motion picture, the invention of celluloid film, which was strong and flexible, greatly facilitated the making of motion pictures. This film was 35 mm wide and pulled using four sprocket holes and this doomed the cinematograph, which could only use film with just one sprocket hole. From the very beginnings of film production, the art of motion pictures grew into maturity in the silent era. Silent filmmakers pioneered the art form to the extent that virtually every style, the silent era was pioneering era from a technical point of view
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film studio based in Hollywood, that has been a subsidiary of the American media conglomerate Viacom since 1994. In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor contracted 22 actors and actresses and these fortunate few would become the first movie stars. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. Paramount is the fifth oldest surviving studio in the world after the French studios Gaumont Film Company and Pathé, followed by the Nordisk Film company. It is the last major film studio headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount Pictures dates its existence from the 1912 founding date of the Famous Players Film Company, hungarian-born founder, Adolph Zukor, who had been an early investor in nickelodeons, saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to the class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time.
By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success and its first film was Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth, which starred Sarah Bernhardt. That same year, another aspiring producer, Jesse L. Lasky, opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish, the Lasky company hired as their first employee a stage director with virtually no film experience, Cecil B. DeMille, who would find a site in Hollywood, near Los Angeles, for his first feature film. Hodkinson and actor, producer Hobart Bosworth had started production of a series of Jack London movies, Paramount was the first successful nationwide distributor, until this time, films were sold on a statewide or regional basis which had proved costly to film producers. Also, Famous Players and Lasky were privately owned while Paramount was a corporation, in 1916, Zukor maneuvered a three-way merger of his Famous Players, the Lasky Company, and Paramount. Zukor and Lasky bought Hodkinson out of Paramount, and merged the three companies into one, with only the exhibitor-owned First National as a rival, Famous Players-Lasky and its Paramount Pictures soon dominated the business.
It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, the driving force behind Paramounts rise was Zukor. In 1926, Zukor hired independent producer B. P. Schulberg and they purchased the Robert Brunton Studios, a 26-acre facility at 5451 Marathon Street for US$1 million. In 1927, Famous Players-Lasky took the name Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, three years later, because of the importance of the Publix Theatres, it became Paramount Publix Corporation. In 1928, Paramount began releasing Inkwell Imps, animated cartoons produced by Max, the Fleischers, veterans in the animation industry, were among the few animation producers capable of challenging the prominence of Walt Disney. The Paramount newsreel series Paramount News ran from 1927 to 1957, Paramount was one of the first Hollywood studios to release what were known at that time as talkies, and in 1929, released their first musical, Innocents of Paris
News
News is information about current events. Common topics for news reports include war, politics, health, the environment, business, government proclamations, concerning royal ceremonies, taxes, public health, have been dubbed news since ancient times. Humans exhibit a nearly universal desire to learn and share news and social developments, often driven by government communication and espionage networks, have increased the speed with which news can spread, as well as influenced its content. The genre of news as we know it today is closely associated with the newspaper, the English word news developed in the 14th century as a special use of the plural form of new. In Middle English, the equivalent word was newes, like the French nouvelles, jessica Garretson Finch is credited with coining the phrase current events while teaching at Barnard College in the 1890s. As its name implies, “news” typically connotes the presentation of new information, the newness of news gives it an uncertain quality which distinguishes it from the more careful investigations of history or other scholarly disciplines.
News conspicuously describes the world in the present or immediate past, to make the news, an ongoing process must have some “peg”, an event in time which anchors it to the present moment. Relatedly, news often addresses aspects of reality which seem unusual, hence the famous dictum that “Dog Bites Man” is not news, but “Man Bites Dog” is. Another corollary of the newness of news is that, as new technology enable new media to disseminate news more quickly, according to some theoretical and understandings, news is whatever the news industry sells. Journalism, broadly understood along the lines, is the act or occupation of collecting and providing news. From a commercial perspective, news is simply one input, along with paper necessary to prepare a product for distribution. A news agency supplies this resource “wholesale” and publishers enhance it for retail, most purveyors of news value impartiality and objectivity, despite the inherent difficulty of reporting without political bias. Perception of these values has changed greatly over time as sensationalized tabloid journalism has risen in popularity, News is sometimes said to portray the truth, but this relationship is elusive and qualified.
Paradoxically, another property commonly attributed to news is sensationalism, the focus on. Thus news is not unrelated to gossip, the human practice of sharing information about other humans of mutual interest. A common sensational topic is violence, hence another news dictum, “if it bleeds, newsworthiness is defined as a subject having sufficient relevance to the public or a special audience to warrant press attention or coverage. In some countries and at points in history, what news media. Many news values seem to be common across cultures, people seem to be interested in news to the extent which it has a big impact, describes conflicts, happens nearby, involves well-known people, and deviates from the norms of everyday happenings
New Zealand
New Zealand /njuːˈziːlənd/ is an island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu—and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, the countrys varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealands capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland, sometime between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that were named New Zealand and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand, in 1840, representatives of Britain and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands.
In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire, the majority of New Zealands population of 4.7 million is of European descent, the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealands culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, New Zealand is a developed country and ranks highly in international comparisons of national performance, such as health, economic freedom and quality of life. Since the 1980s, New Zealand has transformed from an agrarian, Queen Elizabeth II is the countrys head of state and is represented by a governor-general. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes, the Realm of New Zealand includes Tokelau, the Cook Islands and Niue, and the Ross Dependency, which is New Zealands territorial claim in Antarctica. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Pacific Islands Forum, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.
Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and called it Staten Landt, in 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand, Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand. It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the country before the arrival of Europeans. Māori had several names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui for the North Island and Te Waipounamu or Te Waka o Aoraki for the South Island. Early European maps labelled the islands North and South, in 1830, maps began to use North and South to distinguish the two largest islands and by 1907, this was the accepted norm. The New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised and this set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, and South Island or Te Waipounamu
