1.
London
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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, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research 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 later 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
2.
Melbourne
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Melbourne is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in Australia and Oceania. The name Melbourne refers to an urban agglomeration spanning 9,900 km2, the metropolis is located on the large natural bay of Port Phillip and expands into the hinterlands towards the Dandenong and Macedon mountain ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. It has a population of 4,641,636 as of 2016, and its inhabitants are called Melburnians. Founded by free settlers from the British Crown colony of Van Diemens Land on 30 August 1835, in what was then the colony of New South Wales, it was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837. It was named Melbourne by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Richard Bourke, in honour of the British Prime Minister of the day, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. It was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria, to whom Lord Melbourne was close, in 1847, during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s, it was transformed into one of the worlds largest and wealthiest cities. After the federation of Australia in 1901, it served as the interim seat of government until 1927. It is a financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region. It is recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature and a centre for street art, music. It was the host city of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the main passenger airport serving the metropolis and the state is Melbourne Airport, the second busiest in Australia. The Port of Melbourne is Australias busiest seaport for containerised and general cargo, Melbourne has an extensive transport network. The main metropolitan train terminus is Flinders Street Station, and the regional train. Melbourne is also home to Australias most extensive network and has the worlds largest urban tram network. Before the arrival of settlers, humans had occupied the area for an estimated 31,000 to 40,000 years. At the time of European settlement, it was inhabited by under 2000 hunter-gatherers from three indigenous tribes, the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong. The area was an important meeting place for the clans of the Kulin nation alliance and it would be 30 years before another settlement was attempted. Batman selected a site on the bank of the Yarra River. Batman then returned to Launceston in Tasmania, in early August 1835 a different group of settlers, including John Pascoe Fawkner, left Launceston on the ship Enterprize
3.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
4.
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
5.
Cartoon Network
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Cartoon Network is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by Time Warner through the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary. It was founded by Betty Cohen and launched on October 1,1992, the channel primarily broadcasts childrens shows, mostly animated programming, ranging from action to animated comedy. It operates daily from 6,00 AM to 11,00 PM, a Spanish language audio track for select programs is accessible via second audio programing, some cable and satellite companies offer the Spanish feed as a separate channel. It is also the channel of Turner-owned Boomerang. As of January 2016, Cartoon Network is available to approximately 94.0 million pay television households in the United States, however, Turner kept much of MGMs film and television library made prior to May 1986 and formed Turner Entertainment. On October 3,1988, its cable channel Turner Network Television was launched and had gained an audience with its film library. In 1991, Turner Entertainment purchased animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions for US $320 million, on February 18,1992, Turner Broadcasting System announced its plans to launch the Cartoon Network as an outlet for Turners considerable library of animation. Initial programming on the channel consisted exclusively of reruns of classic Warner Bros. cartoons, the 1933–1957 Popeye cartoons, MGM cartoons, at first, cable providers in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D. C. and Detroit carried the channel. By the time the network launched, Cartoon Network had an 8, from its launch until 1995, the networks announcers said the networks name with the word The added before Cartoon Network, thus calling the network The Cartoon Network. By the time that the network debuted, Cartoon Network also operated a block that aired on TNT. Cartoon Network was not the first cable channel to have relied on cartoons to attract an audience, however, Turner Broadcasting System had defied conventional wisdom before by launching CNN, a channel providing 24-hour news coverage. Initially, the channel would broadcast cartoons 24 hours a day, late Night Black and White showed early black-and-white cartoons, and ToonHeads would show three shorts with a similar theme and provide trivia about the cartoons. There was also an afternoon block called High Noon Toons. The majority of the animation that was shown on Cartoon Network no longer air on a regular basis, with the exception of Tom and Jerry. A challenge for Cartoon Network was to overcome its low penetration of existing cable systems, when launched on October 1,1992, the channel was only carried by 233 cable systems. However, it benefited from package deals, New subscribers to sister channels TNT and TBS could also get access to Cartoon Network through such deals. The high ratings of Cartoon Network over the couple of years led to more cable systems including it. By the end of 1994, Cartoon Network had become the fifth most popular channel in the United States
6.
Gorillaz
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Gorillaz are a British virtual band created in 1998 by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. The band consists of four animated members, 2D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle and these members are fictional and are not personas of any real life musicians involved in the project. Their fictional universe is explored through the website and music videos, as well as a number of other media. In reality, Albarn is the only permanent musical contributor, writers and critics have described their music as alternative rock, Britpop, trip hop, hip hop, electronica, indie, dub, reggae and pop. The bands 2001 debut album Gorillaz sold over seven million copies and it was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2001, but the nomination was later withdrawn at the bands request. Their second studio album Demon Days went five times platinum in the UK, the band has won other awards, including one Grammy Award, two MTV Video Music Awards, an NME Award, three MTV Europe Music Awards, and have been nominated for nine Brit Awards. The bands third album, Plastic Beach, was released in March 2010. Their fourth studio album called The Fall was released in December 2010 as a download for fan club members. After a five-year hiatus, Gorillaz announced their fifth studio album Humanz, musician Damon Albarn and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett met in 1990 when guitarist Graham Coxon, a fan of Hewletts work, asked him to interview Blur, a band Albarn and Coxon had recently formed. The interview was published in Deadline magazine, home of Hewletts comic strip, Hewlett initially thought Albarn was arsey, a wanker, despite becoming acquaintances with the band, they often did not get on, especially after Hewlett began seeing Coxons ex-girlfriend Jane Olliver. Despite this, Albarn and Hewlett started sharing a flat on Westbourne Grove in London in 1997, Hewlett had recently broken up with Olliver and Albarn was at the end of his highly publicised relationship with Justine Frischmann of Elastica. The idea to create Gorillaz came about when Albarn and Hewlett were watching MTV, Hewlett said, If you watch MTV for too long, its a bit like hell – theres nothing of substance there. So we got this idea for a band, something that would be a comment on that. Although not released under the Gorillaz name, Albarn has said one of the first ever Gorillaz tunes was Blurs 1997 single On Your Own. The bands first release was the EP Tomorrow Comes Today, released in 2000, the bands first single was Clint Eastwood and was released on 5 March 2001, reaching No.4 in the UK. The Phi Life Cypher version of Clint Eastwood appears on the B-side album G Sides, Later that same month, their first full-length album, the self-titled Gorillaz, was released, producing four singles, Clint Eastwood, 19-2000, Tomorrow Comes Today, and Rock the House. In June 2001, 19–2000 charted at No.6 in the UK, the end of the year brought the song 911, a collaboration between Gorillaz and hip hop group D12 and Terry Hall about the September 11 attacks. Gorillaz performed at the 2002 Brit Awards in London on 22 February, the band was nominated for four Brit Awards, including Best British Group, Best British Album and Best British Newcomer, but did not win any awards
7.
Comparethemarket.com
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Comparethemarket. com is a UK price comparison website that is part of the BGL Group. The website also offers other on-line companies the ability to provide their customers with a co-branded or white labelled comparison service. It competes with other aggregators operating in the field, such as moneysupermarket. com, USwitch, Confused. com, gocompare. com, Money. co. uk, Quotall. com. In mid-2007, comparethemarket. com struck a deal, reputedly worth £5 million, the idents were created by VCCP, a subsidiary of Chime Communications plc, which comparethemarket. com had appointed in March 2007 to manage its £20 million advertising account. In 2012, Comparethemarket. com. au launched its comparison service Australia, the company operates similarly to its UK counterpart, allowing Australian customers to compare products like health insurance, power plans, and car insurance, based on their price and features. The companys television advertisements also feature the meerkat characters Aleksandr Orlov and his Head of IT, however, these ads differ from the UK’s, with one such storyline revealing the meerkats have purchased comparethemarket. com. au. Compare the Market allows customers to compare prices on a number of products including car, home, van, life, pet, travel. Comparethemeerkat. com, a website created by the agency, does indeed allow visitors to compare meerkats. According to Nielsen Online, the number of unique visitors to comparethemarket. com increased from 218,000 in February 2008 to 1.1 million in February 2009. By July 2009 it was ranked as the third-largest price comparison website in the UK, in August 2009 an opinion piece in The Guardian newspaper accused the advert series of racism for mocking Eastern European accents. However, the Advertising Standards Authority, following a complaint by the author of the article, from 1 July 2011, any customer purchasing insurance or credit card via comparethemarket. com receives a cuddly meerkat toy. Originally customers would get sent a meerkat toy from the collection, on 12 November 2012, the website started sponsoring the long-running soap opera Coronation Street on ITV in a three-year deal, costing around £30 million. In April 2015, comparethemarket. com launched Meerkat Movies, offering customers who have purchased a qualifying product 2 for 1 cinema tickets every Tuesday or Wednesday for a whole year, existing customers were gifted the tickets for the remainder of their policy, via a Golden Envelope mailer. Meerkat Movies takes over from Orange Wednesdays and is likely to be the UKs biggest cinema promotion to date, official website Meerkat Movies BGL Group History Result and review 2009 to 2010 - p11 Peterborough News Meerkat mania was born in Peterborough Compare the Market Australian Site
8.
Compare the Meerkat
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Compare the Meerkat is an advertising campaign on British and Australian commercial television for comparethemarket. com, a price comparison website, part of BGL Group. The adverts feature Aleksandr Orlov, a CGI fictional anthropomorphic Russian meerkat and his family, the campaign, launched on 5 January 2009, was created by advertising agency, VCCP and production company Passion Pictures. The adverts proved popular and became a success for comparethemarket. com. A book featuring Orlov was published in 2010, and other merchandise has been created in tandem with the ongoing campaign, the campaign, designed by ad-agency VCCP, was launched on 5 January 2009, involving a TV spot, companion website and social media links. The advert featured Alexsandr Orlov, a CGI animated fictional anthropomorphic Russian meerkat, the character explains that he has launched a TV advertising campaign to make visitors aware of the difference. The companion website, comparethemeerkat. com, was created alongside the TV advert, the TV spots, and the characters, were directed by Darren Walsh at Passion Pictures. Walsh has directed all of the television and cinema commercials to date. In the adverts, Orlov is voiced by Simon Greenall, on 11 August 2009, an opinion piece in The Guardian newspaper accused the advert series of racism for mocking Eastern European accents. However, the Advertising Standards Authority, following a complaint by the author of the article, on 12 November 2012, Compare the Market began sponsoring the ITV1s long-running soap opera Coronation Street as part of a three-year deal with producers of the series. On 3 April 2015, comparethemarket. com launched Meerkat Movies and they partnered with films such as Terminator Genisys and Ant-Man. The advertisements featured the trailer, sometimes an interview between Orlov and the cast, and a comment that the movie tickets are two-for-one with Meerkat Movies. The adverts are fronted by Aleksandr Orlov, a meerkat, according to an interview with the characters designer and director, Darren Walsh at Passion Pictures, Orlov became a billionaire in the 1970s. He is described as living in Moscow, while owning a mansion in South London. The campaign has also featured characters from amongst Orlovs friends, family. Most notably Sergei, Orlovs sidekick and technician who has featured in his own adverts. In the adverts, Sergei is Orlovs IT technician, tea-maker, before working for Aleksandr, he used to be head of the principal design group for the Soviet space programme during the 1980s. He designed the Meer Space Station, and now works with Orlov, Sergei is first seen in the ad Sergei, and later guests in Jacuzzi, Art Class and all three of the Orlov Family Trilogy advertisements. Sergei has also starred in his own adverts without Orlov, the 2011 campaign focused on a fictional Russian village named Meerkovo
9.
The Lost Thing
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The Lost Thing is a picture book written and illustrated by Shaun Tan that was also adapted into an Academy Award-winning animated short film. Set in the future, in dystopian Melbourne, Australia. One day, while collecting bottle tops near a beach, he discovers a creature, that seems to be a combination of an industrial boiler, a crab. This creature is referred to as The Lost Thing by the narrator, Shaun realizes the creature is lost and out of place. He attempts to find its owner or otherwise its source but is not able to, pete, an opinionated friend of Shauns, explains that it may not actually belong anywhere. This book was adapted into a 15-minute animated short film in 2010, directed by Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann and it won the Oscar for Best Animated Short. It was nominated for the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, the film was produced by Sophie Byrne with Passion Pictures Australia and animated by two primary artists, CG lead Tom Bryant and animator and editor Leo Baker. Tom Bryant was located in Scotland, whilst Leo Baker worked from Melbourne, the film was in development for some years, but took three years of full-time production to complete between 2007-2010. Official website The Lost Thing at the Internet Movie Database
10.
Shaun Tan
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Shaun Tan is an Australian artist, writer and film maker. He won an Academy Award for The Lost Thing, a 2011 animated film adaptation of a 2000 picture book he wrote, beside The Lost Thing, The Red Tree and The Arrival are books he has written and illustrated. Tan was born in Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1974 and grew up in the suburbs of Perth. In 2006, his wordless graphic novel The Arrival won the Book of the Year prize as part of the New South Wales Premiers Literary Awards. The same book won the Childrens Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year award in 2007. no rhetoric, no straining for effect. As a boy, Tan spent time illustrating poems and stories and drawing dinosaurs, robots, at school he was known as a talented artist. At the age of eleven, he became a fan of The Twilight Zone television series as well as books that bore similar themes, Tan cites Ray Bradbury as a favorite at this time. These stories led to Tan writing his own short stories, of his effort at writing as a youth, Tan tells, I have a small pile of rejection letters as testament to this ambition. At the age of sixteen, Tans first illustration appeared in the Australian magazine Aurealis in 1990. Tan almost studied to become a geneticist, and enjoyed chemistry, physics, history and English while in school as well as art. During his university studies, Tan decided to move from academic studies to working as an artist, Tan continued his education at the University of Western Australia where he studied Fine Arts, English Literature and History. While this was of interest to him, there was little practical work involved, in 1995, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. Initially, Tan worked in black and white because the final reproductions would be printed that way, some black and white mediums he used included pens, inks, acrylics, charcoal, scraperboard, photocopies and linocuts. Tans current colour works still begin as black and white and he uses a graphite pencil to make sketches on ordinary copy paper. The sketches are then reproduced numerous times with different versions varying with parts added or removed, sometimes scissors are used for this purpose. Tan describes himself as a worker who revises his work many times along the way. He is interested in loss and alienation, and believes that children in particular react well to issues of natural justice and he feels he is like a translator of ideas, and is happy and flattered to see his work adapted and interpreted in film and music. Tan draws from a source of inspiration and cites many influences on his work
