1.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Total Request Live
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Total Request Live was a television series on MTV that featured popular music videos. TRL was MTVs prime outlet for music videos as the continued to concentrate on reality-based programming. In addition to videos, TRL featured daily guests. The show was a promotion tool used by musicians, actors. TRL played the ten most requested videos of the day. The show generally aired Monday through Thursday for one hour, though the scheduling, despite the word Live in the title of the show, many episodes were actually pre-recorded. MTV announced the cancellation of TRL on September 15,2008, the special three-hour finale episode, Total Finale Live, aired on November 16,2008. An international version of TRL aired on MTV Italy until 2010, origin of TRL can be traced back to 1997 when MTV began producing MTV Live from the newly opened MTV studios in Times Square in New York City. MTV Live featured celebrity interviews, musical performances, and regular news updates, music videos were not the major focus of the program. For a time, the show more than 750,000 viewers. During the same period, MTV aired a countdown show simply called Total Request. Total Request was far more subdued, as Daly introduced music videos from an empty, as the show progressed and gained more momentum with viewers tuning in, it was soon added to the list of daytime programming during MTVs Summer Share in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. In Fall 1998, MTV producers merged the real-time aspect of MTV Live with the fan-controlled countdown power of Total Request into Total Request Live, the series made its debut from MTV Studios on September 14,1998. The show then grew to become MTVs unofficial flagship program, the original host of TRL, Carson Daly, brought popularity to the show. The widely known abbreviation of TRL was adopted as the title of the show in February 1999, after Daly. In the years following, the program was referred to by its complete title. TRL spent its first year developing a cult-type following, in the fall of 1999, a live studio audience was added to the show. By spring 2000, the countdown reached its peak, becoming a recognizable pop culture icon in its first two years of existence
5.
Times Square
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It stretches from West 42nd to West 47th Streets. One of the worlds busiest pedestrian areas, it is also the hub of the Broadway Theater District, Times Square is one of the worlds most visited tourist attractions, drawing an estimated 50 million visitors annually. Approximately 330,000 people pass through Times Square daily, many of them tourists, the southern triangle of Times Square has no specific name, but the northernmost of the two triangles is called Father Duffy Square. Since 2008, the booth has been backed by a red, sloped, triangular set of stairs, which is used by people to sit, talk, eat. When Manhattan Island was first settled by the Dutch, three small streams united near what is now 10th Avenue and 40th street and these three streams formed the Great Kill. From there the Great Kill wound through the low-lying Reed Valley, known for fish and waterfowl, the name was retained in a tiny hamlet, Great Kill, that became a center for carriage-making, as the upland to the south and east became known as Longacre. Before and after the American Revolution, the area belonged to John Morin Scott, scotts manor house was at what is currently 43rd Street, surrounded by countryside used for farming and breeding horses. By 1872, the area had become the center of New Yorks horse carriage industry, the locality had not previously been given a name, and city authorities called it Longacre Square after Long Acre in London, where the horse and carriage trade was centered in that city. William Henry Vanderbilt owned and ran the American Horse Exchange there, in 1910 it became the Winter Garden Theatre. The first theater on the square, the Olympia, was built by cigar manufacturer, by the early 1890s this once sparsely settled stretch of Broadway was ablaze with electric light and thronged by crowds of middle- and upper-class theatre, restaurant and cafe patrons. In 1904, New York Times publisher Adolph S. Ochs persuaded Mayor George B, mcClellan, Jr. to construct a subway station there, and the area was renamed Times Square on April 8,1904. Just three weeks later, the first electrified advertisement appeared on the side of a bank at the corner of 46th Street, the north end later became Duffy Square, and the former Horse Exchange became the Winter Garden Theatre. The New York Times, according to Nolan, moved to spacious offices west of the square in 1913. The old Times Building was later named the Allied Chemical Building in 1963, now known simply as One Times Square, it is famed for the Times Square Ball drop on its roof every New Years Eve. In 1913, the Lincoln Highway Association, headed by entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, chose the intersection of 42nd Street and Broadway to be the Eastern Terminus of the Lincoln Highway. This was the first road across the United States, which originally spanned 3,389 miles coast-to-coast through 13 states to its terminus in Lincoln Park in San Francisco. Times Square grew dramatically after World War I and it became a cultural hub full of theatres, music halls, and upscale hotels. Times Square quickly became New Yorks agora, a place to gather to await great tidings and to celebrate them, advertising also grew significantly in the 1920s, growing from $25 million to $85 million over the decade
6.
Midtown Manhattan
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Midtown Manhattan, or Midtown, represents the central lengthwise portion of the borough and island of Manhattan in New York City. Along Manhattans north-south long axis, Midtown Manhattan separates Lower Manhattan from Upper Manhattan, the majority of New York Citys skyscrapers, including its tallest hotels and apartment towers, lie within Midtown. Midtown spans the island of Manhattan along an east-west axis, being bounded by the East River on its east. The Encyclopedia of New York City defines Midtown as being from 34th Street to 59th Street and it is sometimes broken into Midtown East and Midtown West, or north and south as in the New York City Police Departments Midtown North and Midtown South precincts. Midtown South can refer to the part of Midtown between 23rd Street and around 42nd Street, Midtown West can refer to the area between 34th and 59th Streets, and between 5th and 12th Avenues. Midtown East can refer to the area between 42nd and 59th Streets, and between 5th Avenue and the East River, in other sources these districts are referred to as separate central business districts. Midtown Manhattan, along with Lower Manhattan, is one of the leading financial centers. Midtown Manhattan is the countrys largest central business district and it has the headquarters of major companies, including 4Kids Entertainment, Barnes & Noble, Bloomberg L. P. The New York Institute of Finance is located in Midtown Manhattan, Haier operates its United States offices in the Haier Building at 1356 Broadway, the building used to be a building of the Greenwich Savings Bank. Haier held the ceremony on March 4,2002. Sumitomo Corporation operates its New York Office, the headquarters of the corporations United States operations, el Als North American headquarters are in Midtown. The Air France USA regional headquarters are in 125 West 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan, hachette Book Group USA has its headquarters in 237 Park Avenue. In 1994 Alitalia considered moving its USA headquarters from Midtown to Lower Manhattan, global Infrastructure Partners has an office in Midtown Manhattan. Biotechnology is emerging in Midtown Manhattan, bolstered by the strength in academic scientific research and public. Aer Lingus had its United States offices in Midtown, in 1997, Aer Lingus announced that it was moving its North American headquarters to Melville, New York, in Suffolk County. New York City Department of Education public schools in Midtown Manhattan include Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School, private schools include The Beekman School, Rebecca School, and a number of private language and music centers. The La Scuola dItalia Guglielmo Marconi Italian international school will move to West Midtown in 2016, in addition to its well-known Main Branch research library—now known as the Stephen A. Pennsylvania Station and Grand Central Terminal are major railroad stations located in Midtown Manhattan, the Port Authority Bus Terminal is also in Midtown
7.
Der Scutt
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Der Scutt was an American architect and designer of a number of major and notable buildings throughout New York City and the United States. Scutt worked on Trump Tower next to Tiffany & Co. on Fifth Avenue, New York and he was the design consultant for the Grand Hyatt New York. Scutt was born Donald Clark Scutt in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania in 1934 and he attended the Wyomissing Polytechnic Institute and Penn State University. After working with Philip Johnson for a year, he transferred and received his masters degree in Architecture from Yale University, in 1961 he joined Edward Durell Stone. From 1962 to 1965, Scutt worked for Paul Rudolph and managed Rudolphs New York office, from 1965 to 1975, Scutt was an Associate with Kahn and Jacobs, where he designed One Astor Plaza. He joined Poor Swanke Hayden & Connell Architects in 1975 and was a partner in charge of there from 1976 to 1981. Der Scutt began his own practice in 1981. C. Scutt participated actively as an author, lecturer, teacher, and he was Vice-Chairman of the New York Building Congress for five years. He was the 1976 recipient of the Illuminating Engineering Societys Distinguished Service Award and was the first architect to receive that award. In 1979 he was elected to the prestigious and coveted Fellow Grade of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America Scutt was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, in 1984, two magazines Interiors and The Designer published cover stories on Scutt. In 1987 Der Scutt was selected by a group of architects to be included in the international bibliography. He has been a critic in Architectural Design at Harvard, Yale. He also served on numerous juries for the AIA, IESNA, Concrete Industry Board of New York, Progressive Architecture. In 1989, Scutt bought his first ship model at a flea market and his collection spanned four centuries, including ocean liners, warships, commercial ships, sailing ships, and paddle steamers. The models came from all over the world, articles on his collection of over six hundred models appeared in The New York Times, The Journal of Commerce, Town & Country, Nautical Collector, and other publications. In 2001 the South Street Seaport Museum acquired the Der Scutt Collection of Ocean Liner models, in 1996, the Reading Pennsylvania Public Museum featured a major retrospective exhibit of Der Scutts work and published the first comprehensive book on his work. Scutt was a trustee of the South Street Seaport Museum from 1992 to 2006, and he was formerly a trustee of the Ocean Liner Museum of New York, the Maritime Industry Museum and the National Maritime Historical Society. Der Scutt died of liver failure at his home in Manhattan on March 14,2010. W and this Architects Eyes Are Fixed Upon the Sea by Rita Reif, The New York Times September 5,1993
8.
Ely Jacques Kahn
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Ely Jacques Kahn was an American commercial architect who designed numerous skyscrapers in New York City in the twentieth century. In addition to buildings intended for use, Kahns designs ranged throughout the possibilities of architectural programs. Kahn is also known for his guidance to author Ayn Rand, Kahn was born in New York, the only son of a prosperous Austrian and French-American Jewish family. His sister Rena Rosenthal brought design wares from Europe to sell in New York, Ely Jacques Kahn traveled to Europe where he was aware of the work of architect Josef Hoffman. He attended Columbia University and later was a professor at Cornell University, Kahn was the father of noted New Yorker magazine writer Ely Jacques Kahn, Jr. and great-grandfather of Ely Jacques Kahn IV, former Director of Cybersecurity Policy at the White House. Kahns partnership with Albert Buchman lasted from 1917 until 1930, in what has become an iconic photograph, Kahn masqueraded as his own Squibb Building with other architects dressed as buildings for the Beaux Arts Ball of 1931. In 1940, he formed a partnership with Robert Allan Jacobs, an exemplary work of this period is the Universal Pictures Building of 1947 which was used by Reyner Banham to illustrate air conditioning. Another is 100 Park Avenue, and the firm later collaborated with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, for the New York Stock Exchange, Kahn & Jacobs created additional facilities in 1956 designed with their characteristic zig-zag of setbacks in the upper stories. Kahns work just after World War II had direct relevance to Judaism, in 1946, he began a renovation of Central Synagogue. In 1947, he wrote on the subject of principles for synagogues in an article entitled, Creating a Modern Synagogue Style. In 1948, with sculptor Jo Davidson, Kahn made the first public plan for a Holocaust memorial in the United States, the chosen site for this project in Riverside Park later bore other projects for memorials by Percival Goodman, and Erich Mendelsohn. Although Kahn retired some years earlier, the firm of Kahn & Jacobs lasted until 1973 and she is quoted by the editor of her posthumously published journal notes as later saying about Kahn, As a type, he was Guy Francon. He was so much the socially acceptable architect and he was abler than Francon, and he was modern—within careful limits. But his career was dominated by Francon methods. And he had that manner—very elegant and charming, although trained—like the fictional Francon—at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Kahn rejected historicist styles in skyscraper design. When The Fountainhead was nearing publication, Rand suggested to Kahn that she specifically acknowledge him in an introductory statement, notes Ely Jacques Kahn papers, 1906-1986. Held by the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. Kahn & Jacobs architectural drawings and papers, circa 1893-1965, held in the Department of Drawings & Archives Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Hohenems Genealogy Database
9.
Broadway (Manhattan)
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Broadway /ˈbrɔːdweɪ/ is a road in the U. S. state of New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in New York City, dating to the first New Amsterdam settlement, the name Broadway is the English language literal translation of the Dutch name, Brede weg. Broadway is known widely as the heart of the American theatre industry, Broadway was originally the Wickquasgeck Trail, carved into the brush of Manhattan by its Native American inhabitants. Wickquasgeck means birch-bark country in the Algonquian language and this trail originally snaked through swamps and rocks along the length of Manhattan Island. Upon the arrival of the Dutch, the trail became the main road through the island from Nieuw Amsterdam at the southern tip. The Dutch explorer and entrepreneur David Pietersz. de Vries gives the first mention of it in his journal for the year 1642, the Dutch named the road Heerestraat. Although current street signs are simply labeled as Broadway, in a 1776 map of New York City, in the mid-eighteenth century, part of Broadway in what is now lower Manhattan was known as Great George Street. An 1897 City Map shows a segment of Broadway as Kingsbridge Road in the vicinity of what is now the George Washington Bridge. In the 18th century, Broadway ended at the town north of Wall Street, where traffic continued up the East Side of the island via Eastern Post Road. The western Bloomingdale Road would be widened and paved during the 19th century, on February 14,1899, the name Broadway was extended to the entire Broadway/Bloomingdale/Boulevard road. Broadway once was a street for its entire length. The present status, in which it runs one-way southbound south of Columbus Circle, on 6 June 1954, Seventh Avenue became southbound and Eighth Avenue became northbound south of Broadway. On 3 June 1962, Broadway became one-way south of Canal Street, with Trinity Place, northbound traffic on Broadway now needs to take Amsterdam Avenue to 73rd Street, make a sharp turn on the very narrow 73rd and then right turn on Broadway. Otherwise, and effectively, the traffic on Broadway has been diverted into Amsterdam Avenue. In August 2008, two lanes from 42nd to 35th Streets were taken out of service and converted to public plazas. Additionally, bike lanes were added on Broadway from 42nd Street down to Union Square, the city decided that the experiment was successful and decided to make the change permanent in February 2010. Additionally, portions of Broadway in the Madison Square and Union Square have been dramatically narrowed, Broadway runs the length of Manhattan Island, roughly parallel to the North River, from Bowling Green at the south to Inwood at the northern tip of the island. South of Columbus Circle, it is a southbound street
10.
Viacom
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Viacom, Inc. is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in cinema and cable television. It is currently the sixth largest broadcasting and cable company in terms of revenue—behind Comcast, The Walt Disney Company, Time Warner, and CBS Corporation. Voting control of Viacom is held by National Amusements, Inc. a privately owned theater company controlled by the billionaire Sumner Redstone, Redstone also holds – via National Amusements – a controlling stake in CBS Corporation. The current incarnation of Viacom was created on December 31,2005 as a spin-off from the incarnation of Viacom. CBS Corporation currently retains control of the broadcasting, TV production, subscription pay television and publishing assets. Predecessor firms of the original Viacom included Gulf+Western and Westinghouse Electric Corporation, in addition, the company was facing issues after MTV was banned from producing any more Super Bowl halftime shows after the Super Bowl Halftime Show controversy of 2004. Redstone was set to retire in the future, and a split was seen as a creative solution to the matter of replacing him. A new company, the present Viacom, was created and was headed by Freston and it comprises BET Networks, MTV Networks, and Paramount Pictures Corporation. In June 2005, Viacom announced its purchase of Neopets, a virtual pet website, along with GameTrailers, GoCityKids and that December, Paramount announced it would acquire DreamWorks. On February 1,2006, Paramount completed its acquisition of DreamWorks. On April 24, Viacom obtained Xfire, in August, just hours before announcing its most recent quarterly earnings, Viacom announced that it had acquired Atom Entertainment for $200 million. In September, Viacom acquired game developer Harmonix for $175 million, in February 2007, Viacom ordered leaked copyrighted video clips be taken off the videosharing service YouTube for copyright reasons. On February 21, Viacom publicly announced they would be offering free access to their own material through Silicon Valleys distributor Joost thanks to a thorough content licensing deal. All future Viacom content for India and new ventures such as a Hindi entertainment channel, on December 19,2007, Viacom signed a five-year, $500 million contract with Microsoft that included content sharing and advertisement. The deal allowed Microsoft to license many shows from Viacom owned cable television and film studios for use on Xbox Live, the deal also made Viacom a preferred publisher partner for casual game development and distribution through MSN and Windows. On the advertisement side of the deal, Microsofts Atlas ad-serving division became the provider of previously unsold advertising inventory on Viacom owned web sites. Also, Microsoft purchased a large amount of advertising on Viacom owned broadcasts, finally, Microsoft will also collaborate on promotions and sponsorships for MTV and BET award shows, two Viacom owned cable networks. On December 4,2008, Viacom announced layoffs of 850 personnel, at the end of the year, Time Warner Cable and Viacoms MTV Networks could not come to terms for the renewal of any Viacom channel beyond the end of year
11.
MTV
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MTV is an American cable and satellite television channel owned by Viacom Media Networks and headquartered in New York City. Launched on August 1,1981, the originally aired music videos as guided by television personalities known as video jockeys. In its early years, MTVs main target demographic was young adults and it has received criticism towards this change of focus, both by certain segments of its audience and musicians. MTVs influence on its audience, including issues involving censorship and social activism, has also been a subject of debate for several years, in recent years, MTV had struggled with the secular decline of music-related cable media. In April 2016, MTV announced it would start to return to its original music roots with the reintroduction of the classic MTV series MTV Unplugged. It was also reported that the series MTV Cribs would be making a return on Snapchat, MTV has spawned numerous sister channels in the US and affiliated channels internationally, some of which have gone independent. As of July 2015, approximately 92,188,000 US households have received MTV, several earlier concepts for music video-based television programming had been around since the early 1960s. The Beatles had used music videos to promote their records starting in the mid-1960s, CBS rejected the idea, but Williams premiered his own musical composition Classical Gas on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, where he was head writer. The series featured clips from various popular artists, but was canceled by its distributor in 1971. The channel, which featured video disc jockeys, signed a deal with US Cable in 1978 to expand its audience from retail to cable television, the service was no longer active by the time MTV launched in 1981. The QUBE system offered many specialized channels, One of these specialized channels was Sight on Sound, a music channel that featured concert footage and music-oriented television programs. With the interactive QUBE service, viewers could vote for their favorite songs, the original programming format of MTV was created by media executive Robert W. Pittman, who later became president and chief executive officer of MTV Networks. Pittman had test-driven the music format by producing and hosting a 15-minute show, Album Tracks, the inspiration for PopClips came from a similar program on New Zealands TVNZ network named Radio with Pictures, which premiered in 1976. The concept itself had been in the works since 1966, when record companies began supplying the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation with promotional music clips to play on the air at no charge. Few artists made the trip to New Zealand to appear live. A shortened version of the shuttle launch ID ran at the top of hour in various forms. The first music video shown on MTV was The Buggles Video Killed the Radio Star and this was followed by the video for Pat Benatars You Better Run. Sporadically, the screen would go black when an employee at MTV inserted a tape into a VCR, MTVs lower third graphics that appeared near the beginning and end of music videos would eventually use the recognizable Kabel typeface for about 25 years
12.
Minskoff Theatre
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The Minskoff Theatre is a Broadway theatre, located at 1515 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan. It is currently home to the musical The Lion King, based on the Disney animated film of the same name. The 1, 621-seat venue, designed by architects Kahn and Jacobs, is on the floor of One Astor Plaza. Named after Sam Minskoff and Sons, builders and owners of the building, it opened March 13,1973. Over the years it has served as host to musicals, dance companies, in 1981, it hosted Miss Universe 1981, won by Irene Saez of Venezuela, as well as the transfer of Joseph Papps production of The Pirates of Penzance. In 1994, Sunset Boulevard was a hit at the theatre, in 2006, The Lion King transferred to the theatre, where it continues to run, as of 2017. The program returned to Los Angeles for the 2008–09 season,1973, Irene starring Debbie Reynolds 1974, Tony & Lena Sing, Charles Aznavour on Broadway 1975, Bette Midlers Clams on the Half Shell Revue, Hello, Dolly. The production cleared $2,837,158 over eight performances, authorized Official website New York Theatre Guide Minskoff Theatre at the Internet Broadway Database Minskoff Theater Tickets
13.
PlayStation Theater
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PlayStation Theater is an indoor live events venue, owned and managed by Anschutz Entertainment Group, located on 1515 Broadway, at the corner of Broadway and 44th street. It was designed by architect David Rockwell and opened in September 2005, the venue has a large standing room orchestra section, combined with a large area of seating towards the rear of the auditorium. The venue was built as the Loews Astor Plaza Theatre, a movie theater operated by Loews Theatres. It closed in August 2004, and was converted to a concert venue, the estimated total cost of the transformation was $21 million. The venue seats 2,100 and features an 85-foot-long LED high-definition screen that is one of the largest marquees on Broadway, the venue also is capable of presenting live footage from the stage or anywhere else in the theater. The theaters marquee sign is directly connected to MTV Studios and allows for live footage to be displayed there as well, the theatre lounge features interactive and downloadable content for phones and other media devices. The building itself includes two private mezzanines, several dressing rooms, and a room for up to 30 people. The theater hosts concerts, event parties, live television, web broadcasts, and award shows, including the Heisman Trophy Ceremony, which has taken place at this venue since 2005
14.
Hotel Astor (New York City)
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Hotel Astor was a hotel located in the Times Square area of Manhattan, New York City, in operation from 1904 through 1967. The former site of the hotel, the bounded by Broadway, Astor Plaza, West 44th Street. With its elaborately decorated rooms and its roof garden, the Astor Hotel was perceived as the successor to the Astor familys Waldorf-Astoria on 34th Street. Muschenheim and his brother, Frederick A. Muschenheim conceived plans for the hotel in 1900. The area was known as Longacre Square and stood beyond the fringe of metropolitan life. The Muschenheim brothers became the proprietors for absentee landlord William Waldorf Astor, the hotel opened on September 9,1904. The 35,000 square feet Hotel Astor was built in two stages, in 1905 and 1909–1910, by the architects in the same style. Upon completion, the structure occupied a city block at a reported total cost of $7 million. Architects Clinton & Russell had designed a number of Astor commissions and its eleven stories contained 1000 guest rooms, with two more levels underground for its extensive backstage functions, such as the wine cellar. The Astor was an important element in the growth of Times Square, in 1904, New York Times publisher Adolph S. Ochs moved his newspapers operations to a new tower on 42nd Street in the middle of Longacre Square, and Ochs persuaded Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr. to build a station there and rename it Times Square. The Theater District would soon occupy magnificent new auditoriums along Forty-second Street, the Large Ballroom, on the ninth floor, opened with a dinner that was part of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration. Measuring 50 by 85 feet, the Banquet Hall was decorated in the Rococo style of Louis XV and featured a high-groined arch ceiling in white and old gold. A gallery spanned the south and west sides, affording a view of the room. The smaller ballroom, seating 250, was decorated in the neoclassical Louis XVI manner, still another adjoining room, The College Hall, could also open to the ballroom so that the combined rooms could seat up 1,100 persons. The Palm Garden, or LOrangerie, located in the rear of the first floor lobby, was intended to represent an Italian garden and its ceiling, painted to represent a Mediterranean sky, was partly concealed by feigned vine-covered pergolas. Blue lighting, hanging lamps draped in vines, swaying fern baskets, in later years, the noted landscape architect Takeo Shiota redesigned the roofs North Garden on a Japanese theme. In 1947, stuntman John Ciampa scaled the exterior of the hotel as part of a publicity ploy for the Sunbrock Rodeo and Thrill Circus
15.
W. T. Grant
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W. T. Grant or Grants was a United States-based chain of mass-merchandise stores founded by William Thomas Grant that operated from 1906 until 1976. The stores were generally of the variety store format located in downtowns, in 1906 the first W. T. Grant Co.25 Cent Store opened in Lynn, Massachusetts. By the time Grant died in 1972 at age 96, his chain of W. T. Grant Stores had grown to almost 1,200, like many national chain stores and some larger department stores, Grant arranged for a low price exclusive record label, Diva. Columbia Records produced this label which consisted of titles also issued on Columbias general sale Harmony label, based on the number of copies found, it appeared to be a good selling label. Grant continued to sell records after 1930, but they no longer had their own label, Grants stores were slower than the Kresge stores to adapt to the growth of the suburb and the change in shopping habits that this entailed. The chains demise in 1975 was in due to a failure to adapt to changing times but was probably accelerated by managements refusal until it was too late to eliminate the shareholder dividend. After the company began to lose money, funds were borrowed to pay the quarterly dividend until this became impossible, a final tactic to stay in business involved requiring Grants clerks and cashiers to offer a Grants credit card application to customers to boost sales in the stores. Grants store-branded electronics and other goods were named Bradford after Bradford County, Pennsylvania, the in-store restaurants were named Bradford House, and their mascot was a pilgrim named Bucky Bradford. The largest W. T. Grant store was located in Vails Gate and it became a Caldor and several other stores, and is now a Kmart. Canadian retailer Zellers concluded a deal with the W. T. Grant Company, the Grant Company was allowed to purchase 10% of Zellers common shares, and was given options that eventually translated into a 51% effective ownership of Zellers in 1959. In return for this, the Grant Company making available to Zellers its experience on matters of merchandise, real estate, store development, and general administration. Zellers employees were sent to Grant stores and head office for training and together they made common buying trips to Asia, by 1976, the Grant Company withdrew from Zellers. Grants bankruptcy in 1976 was the then-second biggest in US history, the most apparent cause of the bankruptcy was the companys decision to extend store credit to all customers, with no attempt made to assess the customers ability to repay. Each of the stores had credit managers who authorized the opening of store credit accounts. In addition, there existed no centralized control or record-keeping of store credit accounts which resulted in noncollectable accounts and this initiative to extend credit to all customers was made in 1969, during a prosperous period in US history, when Grant was expanding into new areas of the US. W. T. Grant hoped to attract customers from rival Kresge, when the economic expansion slowed in 1970/1971 the balance shifted and the credit arrangement became more of a liability than an asset. No decision was made to change or halt this before 1974, by which time the companys collapse was a certainty
16.
Broadway theatre
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Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
17.
Real estate
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Also, the business of real estate, the profession of buying, selling, or renting land, buildings or housing. It is a term used in jurisdictions whose legal system is derived from English common law, such as India, the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Pakistan, Australia. Residential real estate may contain either a family or multifamily structure. Residences can be classified by, if, and how they are connected to neighbouring residences, different types of housing tenure can be used for the same physical type. For example, connected residents might be owned by an entity and leased out. Major categories in North America and Europe Attached / multi-unit dwellings Apartment or Flat – An individual unit in a multi-unit building, the boundaries of the apartment are generally defined by a perimeter of locked or lockable doors. Often seen in apartment buildings. Multi-family house – Often seen in multi-story detached buildings, where each floor is an apartment or unit. Terraced house – A number of single or multi-unit buildings in a row with shared walls. Condominium – Building or complex, similar to apartments, owned by individuals, common grounds and common areas within the complex are owned and shared jointly. There are townhouse or rowhouse style condominiums as well, semi-detached dwellings Duplex – Two units with one shared wall. Single-family detached house Portable dwellings Mobile homes – Potentially a full-time residence which can be movable on wheels, houseboats – A floating home Tents – Usually very temporary, with roof and walls consisting only of fabric-like material. The size of an apartment or house can be described in square feet or meters, in the United States, this includes the area of living space, excluding the garage and other non-living spaces. It can be described roughly by the number of rooms. A studio apartment has a bedroom with no living room. A one-bedroom apartment has a living or dining room separate from the bedroom, Two bedroom, three bedroom, and larger units are common. Major categories in India and the Asian Subcontinent Co-operative Housing Societies Condominiums Chawls Villas Havelis The size is measured in Gaz, Quila, Marla, Beegha, and acre. See List of house types for a listing of housing types and layouts, real estate trends for shifts in the market
18.
Arcade (architecture)
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An arcade is a succession of arches, each counter-thrusting the next, supported by columns, piers, or a covered walkway enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians, the walkway may be lined with stores. A blind arcade superimposes arcading against a solid wall, blind arcades are a feature of Romanesque architecture that was taken into Gothic architecture. European shopping malls generally resemble the bazaars and souks of Asia, the word arcade comes from French arcade from Provençal arcada or Italian arcata, based on Latin arcus, ‘bow’. One of the earliest examples of a European shopping arcade, the Covered Market, Oxford, the Covered Market was started in response to a general wish to clear untidy, messy and unsavoury stalls from the main streets of central Oxford. John Gwynn, the architect of Magdalen Bridge, drew up the plans, twenty more soon followed, and after 1773 meat was allowed to be sold only inside the market. From this nucleus the market grew, with stalls for garden produce, pig meat, dairy products, Gostiny Dvor in St Petersburg, Russia is another early shopping arcade. Throughout the following century, Gostiny Dvor was augmented, resulting in ten indoor streets, during the post-World War II reconstructions, its inner walls were demolished and a huge shopping mall came into being. This massive 18th-century structure got a recently and entered the 21st century as one of the most fashionable shopping centres in Eastern Europe. An early French arcade is the Passage du Caire created in 1798 as a tribute to the French campaign in Egypt and it was appreciated by the public for its protection from the weather, noise and filth of the streets. A year later American architect William Thayer created the Passage des Panoramas with a row of shops passing between two panorama paintings, shopping arcades increasingly were built in the second Bourbon Restoration. Upper levels of arcades often contained apartments and sometimes brothels. S. W, australia Great Gostiny Dvor St. Petersburg, Russia The Passage St
19.
Mezzanine
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A mezzanine is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below. Mezzanines may serve a variety of functions. Industrial mezzanines, such as used in warehouses, may be temporary or semi-permanent structures. A mezzanine is a floor in a building which is open to the floor below. It is placed halfway up the wall on a floor which has a ceiling at least twice as high as a floor with minimum height, a mezzanine does not count as one of the floors in a building, and generally does not count in determining maximum floorspace. The International Building Code permits a mezzanine to have as much as one-third of the space of the floor below. Local building codes may vary somewhat from this standard, a space may have more than one mezzanine, as long as the sum total of floor space of all the mezzanines is not greater than one-third the floor space of the complete floor below. Mezzanines help to make a high-ceilinged space feel more personal and less vast, mezzanines, however, may have lower-than-normal ceilings due to their location. The term mezzanine does not imply a function, as mezzanines can be used for an array of purposes. Mezzanines are commonly used in Modern architecture, which places an emphasis on light. In industrial settings, mezzanines may be installed in high-ceilinged spaces such as warehouses and these semi-permanent structures are usually free-standing, can be dismantled and relocated, and are sold commercially. Industrial mezzanine structures can be supported by steel columns and elements. Depending on the span and the run of the mezzanine, different materials may be used for the mezzanines deck, some industrial mezzanines may also include enclosed, paneled office space on their upper levels. Reports suggest that the amount of steel required can be reduced by up to 35%, an architect is sometimes hired to help determine whether the floor of the building can support a mezzanine, and to design the appropriate mezzanine. Structural Wood Design, A Practice-Oriented Approach, the Architects Studio Companion, Rules of Thumb for Preliminary Design. Coates, Michael, Brooker, Graeme, Stone, Sally, the Visual Dictionary of Interior Architecture and Design. Buildings for Industrial Storage and Distribution, the Mingqi Pottery Buildings of Han Dynasty China,206 BC-AD220, Architectural Representations and Represented Architecture. Structure of the Ordinary, Form and Control in the Built Environment, harris, Cyril M. Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Architecture
20.
Manhattan
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Manhattan is the most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and administrative center, and the citys historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, founded on November 1,1683, Manhattan is often described as the cultural and financial capital of the world and hosts the United Nations Headquarters. Many multinational media conglomerates are based in the borough and it is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders which equals US$1062 today. New York County is the United States second-smallest county by land area, on business days, the influx of commuters increases that number to over 3.9 million, or more than 170,000 people per square mile. Manhattan has the third-largest population of New York Citys five boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, the City of New York was founded at the southern tip of Manhattan, and the borough houses New York City Hall, the seat of the citys government. The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, a 1610 map depicts the name as Manna-hata, twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River. The word Manhattan has been translated as island of hills from the Lenape language. The United States Postal Service prefers that mail addressed to Manhattan use New York, NY rather than Manhattan, the area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans. In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano – sailing in service of King Francis I of France – was the first European to visit the area that would become New York City. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, a permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625, construction was started on the citadel of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam, the 1625 establishment of Fort Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island is recognized as the birth of New York City. In 1846, New York historian John Romeyn Brodhead converted the figure of Fl 60 to US$23, variable-rate myth being a contradiction in terms, the purchase price remains forever frozen at twenty-four dollars, as Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace remarked in their history of New York. Sixty guilders in 1626 was valued at approximately $1,000 in 2006, based on the price of silver, Straight Dope author Cecil Adams calculated an equivalent of $72 in 1992. In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony, New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1653. In 1664, the English conquered New Netherland and renamed it New York after the English Duke of York and Albany, the Dutch Republic regained it in August 1673 with a fleet of 21 ships, renaming the city New Orange. Manhattan was at the heart of the New York Campaign, a series of battles in the early American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army was forced to abandon Manhattan after the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16,1776. The city, greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York during the campaign, became the British political, British occupation lasted until November 25,1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as the last British forces left the city
21.
VH1
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VH1 is an American cable television network based in New York City that is owned by the Viacom Global Entertainment Group, a unit of Viacom Media Networks. The channel was first launched on January 1,1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting Systems short-lived Cable Music Channel and it was originally created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Communications and the original owner of MTV. As of February 2015, approximately 92.6 million US households receive VH1, also frequently featured in the networks early years were videos for Motown and other 60s oldies consisting of newsreel and concert footage. It was introduced on January 1,1985 with the performance of The Star-Spangled Banner by Marvin Gaye. From the start, Video Hits One was branded as a version of its sister/parent channel. It played more jazz and R&B artists than MTV and had a rotation of urban-contemporary performers. Its early on-camera personalities were New York radio veterans Don Imus, Frankie Crocker, Scott Shannon, Jon Bauman, Bobby Rivers, later VJs included Tim Byrd of WPIX-FM, a station whose eclectic ballad-and-R&B oriented format mirrored that of VH-1, and Alison Steele. Rosie ODonnell later joined the outlets veejay lineup, ODonnell would also host a comedy show featuring various comedians each episode. The format left room for occasional ad-libs by the VJ, a godsend for emcees such as Imus, in true Imus style, he used a 1985 segment of his VH-1 show to jokingly call smooth-jazz icon Sade Adu a grape for her oval-shaped head. At first many different musicians guest-hosted the program, but eventually musician/songwriter Ben Sidran became the permanent host, new-Age music videos continued to play on the channel into the 1990s. They would be seen on the Sunday morning 2-hour music video block titled Sunday Brunch, once VH1 established itself a few years later, they catered to Top 40, adult contemporary, classic rock, and 1980s mainstream pop. For a time, even music videos aired in a one-hour block during the afternoons. They started out using MTVs famous Kabel typeface font for their music video credit tags and it was later replaced in 1991 by a larger font, with the year the video was made added to the lower column that identified the label on which the album was released. In 1993, the name of the director was included at the bottom of the credits. Every week, the Top 21 Video Countdown usually had a different guest host, occasionally, they had themed countdowns as well, such as Elvira hosting scary videos for Halloween in 1991. Long blocks of videos by a particular artist or band, theme. One popular weekend program was called Video Rewind, in blocks of 1980s videos from one particular year would play for an hour. There was also a short-lived hour-long program called By Request in which viewers could call a 1–900 hotline number to request their videos, also in 1991, a popular morning program was introduced called Hits News & Weather that ran from 7 AM to 9 AM ET
22.
Big Morning Buzz Live
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Big Morning Buzz Live is a live daily morning news and pop culture talk show on VH1 that premiered on May 9,2011, and aired until its last episode on June 5,2015. Broadcast weekday mornings and hosted by Nick Lachey, the featured entertainment news, celebrity interviews. The series was hosted by Carrie Keagan, who departed the series in 2013. Lachey took over for Keagan in March 2014, Big Morning Buzz Live is a one-hour morning news and talk show that features film and TV celebrity interviews as well as live music performances from current music acts. The third season premiered at 10,00 a. m. on September 30,2013, the fifth season began on September 29,2014, at 9,00 a. m. EDT. The trio also produced the entertainment news and gossip morning show The Gossip Table, on August 25,2015, VH1 cancelled both Big Morning Buzz Live and The Gossip Table. The host of Big Morning Buzz Live was Carrie Keagan, with Jason Dundas and VH1 music expert Jim Shearer In December 2013, i’m sad to leave but I am very proud to have helped launch VH1′s first morning show and look forward to its continued success. Keagan taped her final show on December 20,2013 after nearly 400 episodes, on January 16,2014, VH1 announced that singer Nick Lachey would resume hosting the series, upon its return on March 3,2014. In September 2014, Michelle Buteau joined the show as co-host, in March 2015, WWEs Renee Young joined the show as guest host alongside Lachey and Buteau
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