1.
Michael Bay
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The films he has produced and directed, which include Armageddon, Pearl Harbor and the Transformers film series, have grossed over US$7.8 billion worldwide. He is co-founder of commercial production house The Institute, a. k. a, the Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness. He co-owns Platinum Dunes, a house which has remade horror movies including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror, The Hitcher, Friday the 13th. Despite his considerable success at the box office, Bays work is generally held in low esteem by film critics. While The Rock and Transformers received moderately positive reviews, his other films, Michael Bay was born in Los Angeles. He was raised by his adoptive parents Harriet, a bookstore owner/child psychiatrist, and Jim and his cousin, Susan Bay, is the widow of Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy. He attended the exclusive Crossroads School, in Santa Monica, California, Bay often traces his interest in action films back to an incident during his childhood. As a boy, he attached some firecrackers to a toy train, the fire department was called and he was grounded. Bay got his start in the film industry interning with George Lucas when he was fifteen, filing the storyboards for Raiders of the Lost Ark, which he thought was going to be terrible. His opinion changed after seeing it in the theater and he was so impressed by the experience that he decided to become a film director and he graduated from Wesleyan University in 1986, majoring in both English and Film. He was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity and a student of film historian Jeanine Basinger. For his graduate work, he attended Art Center College of Design in Pasadena where he studied film. Michael Bay began working at Propaganda Films, directing commercials and music videos and his 90-second World War II-inspired Coca-Cola advertisement was picked up by Capitol Records. His first national commercial for the Red Cross, which won a Clio Award in 1992 and he directed Goodby, Silverstein & Partners Got Milk. Advertisement campaign for the California Milk Processors Board in 1993, Bays success in music videos gained the attention of producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, who selected him to direct his first feature-length film, Bad Boys. The film was shot in Miami in 1994 and starred Will Smith, the action film proved to be a break-out role for Smith, who was segueing from television to films at that time. Shooting in Miami was an experience for Bay who would later own a home in the city. The film was completed for $19 million and grossed a remarkable $141 million at the box office in the summer of 1995, Bays success led to a strong partnership and friendship with Jerry Bruckheimer
2.
Ian Bryce
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Ian Bryce is a Welsh film producer. Starting as an assistant on Return of the Jedi, he is now an award-winning film producer. He now lives with his two children, Alex and Mac, and his wife Taylor, Bryce has won and been nominated for many awards, including multiple Golden Globes, Academy Awards and BAFTA nominations for his work as a producer. For Steven Spielbergs World War II drama Saving Private Ryan, he won a Golden Globe Award and nominations from the Academy Awards, the film was one of the top-grossing films of 1998. Almost Famous, another Bryce production, received a BAFTA Best Film award in 2000, Bryce produced all the films of the Transformers series, one of the biggest movie franchises in recent years
3.
Alex Kurtzman
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Alex Kurtzman is an American film and television writer, producer and director. Kurtzman was born and raised to a secular Jewish family in Los Angeles, California and they moved into films after they were asked to rewrite Michael Bays The Island. The film earned $162 million at the box office, on a budget of $126 million, which was a enough of a success that they were brought to write Bays Transformers. Though The Island, Transformers and Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen were not particularly well received by critics and they wrote the 2009 film Star Trek alongside J. J. Abrams, with whom they had co-created the Fox science-fiction series Fringe. After the pilot, Kurtzman served as consulting producer on the show for the remainder of its run, the partnership also wrote People like Us, originally known as Welcome to People, which was Kurtzmans directorial debut. In April 2014, both Orci and Kurtzman confirmed to Variety that they would no longer together on film projects. In 2002, Kurtzman married Samantha Counter, the daughter of lawyer Nick Counter, Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci Discuss Trek and Transformers at AMCtv. com Alex Kurtzman at the Internet Movie Database
4.
Roberto Orci
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Roberto Gaston Orci is a Mexican-American film and television screenwriter and producer. He began his collaboration with Alex Kurtzman while at school in California. Together they have been employed on television such as Hercules, The Legendary Journeys and Xena. In 2008, together with J. J. Abrams, they created Fringe, in 2013, they created Sleepy Hollow alongside Phillip Iscove. Orci and Kurtzmans first film project was Michael Bays The Island, Orci first became a film producer with 2008s Eagle Eye and again with 2009s The Proposal. He and Kurtzman since returned to working with Abrams on Mission, Impossible III, between 2005 and 2011, Kurtzman and Orcis film projects took revenues of more than $3 billion. Orci created the television series Matador for the El Rey Network, both Kurtzman and Orci continue to work as producers on the television series Limitless and Scorpion. Orci was awarded the Norman Lear Writers Award and the Raul Julia Award for Excellence, in addition to shared awards, Orci was born in Mexico City on July 20,1973, to a Mexican father and a Cuban mother. His mother immigrated to the United States with her parents after Fidel Castro came to power, Orci grew up in Mexico, and moved with his family to the United States at the age of 10. He was raised in Texas, Los Angeles and Canada and he is the older brother of screenwriter-producer J. R. Orci. He met his friend and collaborator Alex Kurtzman when both were 17-year-old students at Crossroads, a privately funded school in Santa Monica, California. The first time they came across each other was in a class, where they discovered each others love for movies and in particular the Steven Soderbergh film Sex, Lies. The duo found that they had a number of things in common, as Kurtzman had previously lived in Mexico City, Orci later called him an honorary Hispanic. Orci went on to attend the University of Texas at Austin, the duo got together once again, and began to write scripts. The duo modeled their relationship on writers Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond and they took the approach that they were in a band together and purposely studied teams to discover why they break up. Kurtzman later explained in 2009 that One big thing that makes the start to wobble is when someone feels that the contribution isnt 50-50. We make sure we live up to the partnership, if we didnt, we wouldnt have lasted this long. Orci and Kurtzman began their collaboration on the television series Hercules, The Legendary Journeys
5.
Ewan McGregor
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Ewan Gordon McGregor OBE is a Scottish actor. His first professional role was in 1993, when he won a role in the Channel 4 series Lipstick on Your Collar. Camerlengo Father Patrick McKenna in Angels and Demons, Dr. Alfred Jones in the romantic comedy-drama Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, and Lumière in an adaptation of Beauty. He received Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy for both Moulin Rouge, and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. McGregor has also starred in productions of Guys and Dolls. He was ranked number 36 on Empire magazines The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time list in 1997, in a 2004 poll for the BBC, McGregor was named the fourth most influential person in British culture. He has been involved in charity work and has served as an ambassador for UNICEF UK since 2004, in 2016, he received the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award. McGregor was born in Perth, Scotland and brought up in Crieff and his mother, Carol Diane, is a retired teacher of Crieff High School and latterly deputy head teacher of Kingspark School in Dundee. His father, James Charles Stewart Jim McGregor, is a physical education teacher and careers master of Morrisons Academy. He has a brother, Colin, who is a former Tornado GR4 pilot in the Royal Air Force. He is the nephew of actor Denis Lawson and actress Sheila Gish, McGregor attended the independent Morrisons Academy in Crieff. In 1993, six months prior to his graduation from Guildhall, the same year, he starred in the BBC adaptation of Scarlet and Black with a young Rachel Weisz, and made his film debut in Bill Forsyths Being Human. In 1994, McGregor performed in the thriller Shallow Grave, for which he won an Empire Award, and his international breakthrough followed in 1996 with the role of heroin addict Mark Renton in Boyles Trainspotting, an adaptation of Irvine Welshs novel of the same name. McGregor played the romantic lead role in the 1998 British film Little Voice. While the prequels received criticism from Star Wars fans, McGregors performance was widely acclaimed and his uncle, Denis Lawson, had played Wedge Antilles in the original trilogy. In 2001, he starred in Moulin Rouge, as the young poet Christian, who falls in love with the terminally-ill courtesan Satine, played by Nicole Kidman. McGregor reprised his role of Obi-Wan Kenobi for the subsequent prequel Star Wars, in 2003, he starred alongside Renée Zellweger in Down With Love. He also portrayed the younger Edward Bloom in the acclaimed film Big Fish alongside Albert Finney, Jessica Lange, Alison Lohman
6.
Scarlett Johansson
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Scarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer. She made her debut in the fantasy comedy North. Johansson subsequently starred in Manny & Lo, and garnered acclaim and prominence with roles in The Horse Whisperer. She shifted to roles with her performances in Girl with a Pearl Earring and Lost in Translation. Since 2010, Johansson has also portrayed the Marvel Comics character Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in the 2010 Broadway revival of A View from the Bridge. As a singer, Johansson has released two albums, Anywhere I Lay My Head and Break Up, Johansson is considered one of Hollywoods modern sex symbols, and has frequently appeared in published lists of the sexiest women in the world. As of February 2017, she is the actress of all time in North America. In 2016, she added another $1.2 billion to that box office record and her father, Karsten Johansson, is an architect originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, and her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was an art historian, screenwriter, and director. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, a producer, comes from an Ashkenazi Jewish family from the Bronx, Sloans ancestors were Jewish immigrants from Poland and Minsk in the Russian Empire. Scarlett Johansson has a sister, Vanessa, also an actress, an older brother, Adrian, a twin brother, Hunter. She holds both United States and Danish passports and citizenship, Johansson grew up in a household with little money, and with a mother who was a film buff. She and her brother attended PS41 elementary school in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Johansson began her training by attending and graduating from Professional Childrens School in Manhattan in 2002. Johansson began acting during childhood, after her mother started taking her to auditions and she would audition for commercials but took rejection so hard her mother began limiting her to film tryouts. She made her debut at the age of 9, as John Ritters daughter in the fantasy comedy North. Following minor roles in the mystery thriller Just Cause, as the daughter of Sean Connery and Kate Capshaw, and If Lucy Fell, she played the role of Amanda in Manny & Lo. Her performance in Manny & Lo garnered a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female, after appearing in minor roles in Fall and Home Alone 3, Johansson garnered widely spread attention for her performance in the film The Horse Whisperer, directed by Robert Redford. She received a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress for the film, in 1999, she appeared in My Brother the Pig and in the neo-noir Coen brothers film The Man Who Wasnt There
7.
Djimon Hounsou
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Djimon Gaston Hounsou is a Beninese-American actor and model. Hounsou began his career appearing in music videos and he made his film debut in the Sandra Bernhard film Without You Im Nothing and gained widespread recognition for his role as Cinqué in the Steven Spielberg film Amistad. He gained further recognition for his roles in Gladiator, In America, Blood Diamond, Guardians of the Galaxy and he has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Academy Awards. Hounsou was born in Cotonou, Bénin, to Albertine and Pierre Hounsou and he emigrated to Lyon in France at the age of thirteen with his brother, Edmond. Soon after arriving in France, Hounsou dropped out of school, a chance meeting with a photographer led to Hounsou being introduced to fashion designer Thierry Mugler, who encouraged Hounsou to pursue a modeling career. In 1987, Hounsou became a model and established a career in Paris and he moved to the United States in 1990. Between 1989 and 1991, Hounsou appeared in the videos for Straight Up by Paula Abdul, Love Will Never Do by Janet Jackson. Hounsous film debut was in the 1990 Sandra Bernhard film Without You Im Nothing and he had television parts on Beverly Hills,90210 and ER and a guest starring role on Alias. Hounsou captured a larger role in the fiction film Stargate. Hounsou received wide acclaim and a Golden Globe Award nomination for his role as Cinqué in the 1997 Steven Spielberg film Amistad. He gained further notice as Juba in the 2000 film Gladiator, in 2004, Hounsou was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for In America, making him the fourth African male to be nominated for an Oscar. Hounsou also acted in a role in the 2009 science fiction film Push. In 2011, he starred as a French commando in the French film Forces spéciales, director Tim Story told IGN that if he were to do a third Fantastic Four movie, he would like to have Hounsou as the Black Panther. In November 2008, it was announced that Hounsou would be providing the voice of the Black Panther in the series of the same name. Hounsou had signed on to play Abdiel in the version of John Miltons Paradise Lost with Benjamin Walker. The film however was scrapped in early February 2012, in 2013, he appeared in the comedy film Baggage Claim alongside Paula Patton. He also voiced Drago Bludvist in How to Train Your Dragon 2 and portrayed Korath the Pursuer in the Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy, on February 17,2016, FOX reported that Hounsou would join the second season of the television series Wayward Pines. On February 24,2007, it was announced that Hounsou would be the new Calvin Klein underwear model, at the time, Hounsou was being represented by Los Angeles modeling agent, Omar Albertto
8.
Sean Bean
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Shaun Mark Bean, known professionally as Sean Bean, is an English actor. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he made his debut in a theatre production of Romeo. Retaining his distinctive Yorkshire accent, he first found success for his portrayal of Richard Sharpe in the ITV series Sharpe. His most prominent film role was Boromir in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, as a voice actor, Bean has been featured in the video games The Elder Scrolls IV, Oblivion, Sid Meiers Civilization VI, and the drama The Canterbury Tales, among several others. He has received awards during his career and won an International Emmy for Best Actor. He has also nominated for a BAFTA and Saturn Award. Bean was born in Handsworth, a suburb of Sheffield, which was part of West Riding of Yorkshire. He is the son of Rita and Brian Bean and he has a younger sister named Lorraine. His father owned a shop that employed 50 people, including Beans mother. Despite becoming relatively wealthy, the family never moved away from the estate as they preferred to remain close to friends. As a child, Bean smashed a door during an argument. This prevented him pursuing his dream of playing football professionally. In 1975, Bean left Brook Comprehensive School with O Levels in Art, after a job at a supermarket and another for the local council, he started working for his fathers firm with a day release at Rotherham College of Arts and Technology to take a welding course. While there, he stumbled into an art class and decided to pursue his interest in art. After attending courses at two colleges, one for half a day and the other for less than a week, he returned to Rotherham College. After some college plays and one at Rotherham Civic Theatre, he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Bean graduated from RADA in 1983, making his professional acting debut later that year as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury. His early career involved a mixture of stage and screen work, as an actor, he adopted the Irish spelling of his first name. His first national exposure came in an advert for non-alcoholic lager, between 1986 and 1988, he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in productions of Romeo and Juliet, The Fair Maid of the West, and A Midsummer Nights Dream
9.
Michael Clarke Duncan
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He also appeared in motion pictures such as Armageddon, The Whole Nine Yards, The Scorpion King, Daredevil and Talladega Nights, The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. His voice can be heard in such as Brother Bear, Kung Fu Panda. Duncan was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in a single-parent household with his sister, Judy and he always wanted to act, but had to drop out of the Communications program at Alcorn State University to support his family when his mother became ill. Duncans large frame—6 feet 5 inches and 315 pounds —helped him in his jobs digging ditches for the Peoples Gas Company, Duncan also played basketball at Kankakee Community College and for one season at Alcorn State. In 1979, he participated in the Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park, home of the Chicago White Sox, during the ensuing riot his silver belt buckle was stolen while he was stealing a baseball bat from the dugout. Duncan took other security jobs while in Los Angeles while trying to get acting work in commercials. During this time, he worked as a bodyguard for celebrities like Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J, when rapper Notorious B. I. G. was killed in 1997, Duncan quit the personal-protection business. When Duncan was cast as the Kingpin in 2002, he faced the challenge of portraying a typically white character. In July 2006, Duncan showed interest in returning for the role of the Kingpin, in 2009, he stopped eating meat and later appeared in a PETA ad campaign, touting the health benefits and his increased strength from a vegetarian diet. In 2005, Duncan appeared in two prominent action films, The Island and Sin City where he played Manute, a powerful mobster. Critic Roger Ebert singled out Duncan for praise for his role in The Island and his other voice acting roles include TV series such as Loonatics Unleased and Operation, Z. E. R. O. He additionally reprised his role as the Kingpin in Spider-Man, The New Animated Series, in addition to his film roles, Duncan also guest starred in numerous television shows. Among these, he appeared in an episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and a first-season episode of CSI, NY. In 2008, he appeared as Mr. Colt in the premiere of Chuck, Chuck Versus the First Date. The Bones Season 8 episode The Partners in the Divorce, which aired three weeks after his death, was dedicated to him. During the week of May 14,2012, Duncan appeared as a guest on the night talk show The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson when the show was taping for a week in Scotland. Duncan was one of the shows most frequent guests, appearing a total of 18 times, and, at the time of his death, Duncan was engaged to reality television personality Omarosa Manigault. In episode 2 of the season, Manigault won $40,000 for the charity, on July 13,2012, Duncan was taken to Cedars Sinai Medical Center after suffering a heart attack
10.
Steve Buscemi
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Steven Vincent Steve Buscemi is an American actor and film director. He is also known for his appearances in films by the Coen brothers, Millers Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo. Buscemi provides the voice of Randall Boggs in the Monsters, Inc. franchise and he made his directorial debut in 1996, with Trees Lounge, in which he also starred. Other works include Animal Factory, Lonesome Jim and Interview and he has also directed numerous episodes of TV shows, including Homicide, Life on the Street, The Sopranos, Oz,30 Rock, and Nurse Jackie. He currently hosts the Emmy Award-winning AOL On comedy talk-show Park Bench, Buscemi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to John Buscemi, a sanitation worker and Korean War veteran, and Dorothy, who worked as a host at Howard Johnsons. Buscemis father was of Italian descent, his ancestors were from the town of Menfi in Sicily, Buscemis mother was of Irish, English, and Dutch ancestry. He has three brothers, Jon, Ken, and Michael and he graduated in 1975 from Valley Stream Central High School in Nassau County, New York, a school which he attended with actress Patricia Charbonneau. In high school, Buscemi wrestled for the varsity squad and participated in the drama troupe, Buscemis 1996 film Trees Lounge, in which he starred and served as screenwriter and director, is set in and was largely shot in his childhood village of Valley Stream. Buscemi briefly attended Nassau Community College before moving to Manhattan to enroll in the Lee Strasberg Institute, in 1980, Buscemi became a firefighter in New York City, after taking a civil service test in 1976 when he was 18. For four years, Buscemi served on FDNYs Engine Co.55 in Manhattans Little Italy, after 9/11, Buscemi returned to Engine 55 and for several days worked 12-hour shifts alongside other firefighters to sift through the rubble from the World Trade Center. In 2003, he gave a speech supporting higher wages for firefighters at a union rally, in 2014, he was appointed as an Honorary Battalion Chief of the FDNY. His film debut was the 1985 No Wave Cinema film The Way it Is, other early films include Parting Glances in 1986, Slaves of New York in 1988, and Tales from the Darkside, a 1990 film with three segments. Buscemi starred in the first segment, playing Bellingham, a student who orders a mummy and unleashes it on fellow college students played by Christian Slater. In 1990, Buscemi had a couple of additional crime roles and he played the henchman of Laurence Fishburne named Test Tube in Abel Ferraras King of New York. He also played Mink in the Coen Brothers Millers Crossing, although he had to audition twice for this role, it marked the first of five of the Coen Brothers films in which Buscemi appeared. In 1991, he played the bellboy, Chet, in the Coen Brothers film and his first lead role was in 1992, when he played Adolpho Rollo in Alexandre Rockwells In the Soup. Then he came to attention for playing Mr. Pink in Quentin Tarantinos 1992 film, Reservoir Dogs. He also appeared in Tarantinos next film, Pulp Fiction, in which he acts as a waiter at the 1950s themed restaurant which Mrs. Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega attend
11.
Steve Jablonsky
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Steve Jablonsky is an American composer for film, television and video games, best known for his musical scores in the Transformers film series. Some of his frequent collaboration partners include film directors Michael Bay and Peter Berg, Jablonsky went to University of California, Berkeley for college. He studied computer science at the beginning, but switched to music composition a year later, after graduation, he became an intern at Hans Zimmers Remote Control Productions. During that time, Jablonsky met Harry Gregson-Williams, a composer of Zimmer. Later he became engaged with Zimmer and started composing for renowned works like Desperate Housewives. He was also a contributor on Team America, World Police among many others. In addition, he helped some of the music to the video game Metal Gear Solid 2, Sons of Liberty. He also has written music for the television show Desperate Housewives since the fourth episode and his track Trailblazing served as the opening theme for WrestleMania X8 and WrestleMania XIX, as well at the soundtrack to the TNA Hall of Fame induction of Sting. Jablonsky has worked for Harry Gregson-Williams at Media Ventures, the production company which was conceived and founded by Jay Rifkin and Hans Zimmer. His most recent projects include the scores for the South Korean film D-War, Gears of War 3 for the Xbox 360 gaming console, in February 2015, Jablonsky was hired to compose the score for the film The Last Witch Hunter. Steve Jablonsky at the Internet Movie Database Steve Jablonsky at SoundtrackNet Steve Jablonsky on MySpace. com Interview with Steve Jablonsky, SoundtrackNet The Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency, Inc
12.
DreamWorks Pictures
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DreamWorks Pictures is an American film production label of Amblin Partners. It was formerly distributing its own and third-party films by itself and it has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses of more than $100 million each. As of October 2016, DreamWorks films are marketed and distributed by Universal Pictures, DreamWorks began in 1994 as an attempt by media moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen to create a new Hollywood studio of which they owned 72%. Currently, DreamWorks operates out of offices at Universal Studios, in December 2005, the founders agreed to sell the studio to Viacom, parent of Paramount Pictures. The sale was completed in February 2006, in 2008, DreamWorks announced its intention to end its partnership with Paramount and signed a $1.5 billion deal to produce films with Indias Reliance ADA Group. Reliance provided $325M of equity to fund recreating DreamWorks SKG into DreamWorks Studios, after the formation of Amblin Partners in 2015, the studio entered into a distribution agreement with Universal Pictures. DreamWorks animation arm was spun off in 2004 into DreamWorks Animation SKG, which owns the DreamWorks trademarks. Spielbergs company continues to use the DreamWorks trademarks under license from Universal Studios, the original company was founded following Katzenbergs resignation from The Walt Disney Company in 1994. Katzenberg approached Spielberg and Geffen about forming a live-action and animation film studio, which had not been done in decades due to the risk and expense. They agreed on three conditions, They would make fewer than nine movies a year, they would be free to work for other studios if they chose, and they would go home in time for dinner. They officially founded DreamWorks SKG in October 1994, with backing of $33 million from each of the three partners and $500 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Their new studio was based at offices in the Universal Studios lot, despite access to sound stages and sets, DreamWorks preferred to film motion pictures on location. Usually, the company would film in a soundstage or set in a major studio, as of 2016, DreamWorks is still based in Universal. In 1995, traditional animation artists from Amblimation joined the new studio, which led to DreamWorks buying part of Pacific Data Images, both were software divisions, and would merge later on. For then, DreamWorks had the traditional animators working for their animation department. These films were distributed by DreamWorks Pictures, the same year, PDI/DreamWorks produced its first full-length animated features, Antz and The Prince of Egypt, which were also distributed by DreamWorks Pictures. DreamWorks SKG continued to distribute PDI/DreamWorks productions through their name until 2004. In 2000, DreamWorks was planning in building a studio backlot after buying 1,087 acres of land in the Playa Vista area in Los Angeles and it was to be complete with 18 sound stages, with many office buildings and a lake
13.
Warner Bros. Pictures
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Entertainment Inc. – colloquially known as Warner Bros. or Warner Bros. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios, Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The companys name originated from the four founding Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, Jack, the youngest, was born in London, Ontario. The three elder brothers began in the theater business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania. In the beginning, Sam and Albert Warner invested $150 to present Life of an American Fireman and they opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1903. When the original building was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the current building owners, the owners noted people across the country had asked them to protect it for its historical significance. In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, in 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, in 1918 they opened the first Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert, along with their auditor and now controller Chase, handled finance and distribution in New York City. During World War I their first nationally syndicated film, My Four Years in Germany, on April 4,1923, with help from money loaned to Harry by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. The first important deal was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwoods 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, however, Rin Tin Tin, a dog brought from France after World War I by an American soldier, established their reputation. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins, the movie was so successful that Jack signed the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star. Jack nicknamed him The Mortgage Lifter and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanucks career, Zanuck eventually became a top producer and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jacks right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including day-to-day film production. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director, lubitschs film The Marriage Circle was the studios most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for that year. Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners remained a lesser studio, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry signed Barrymore to a contract, like The Marriage Circle. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably Hollywoods most successful independent studio, as the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan
14.
Science fiction film
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Science fiction films have often been used to focus on political or social issues, and to explore philosophical issues like the human condition. The genre has existed since the years of silent cinema. The next major example in the genre was the film Metropolis - being the first feature length science fiction movie, from the 1930s to the 1950s, the genre consisted mainly of low-budget B movies. After Stanley Kubricks landmark 2001, A Space Odyssey, the fiction film genre was taken more seriously. This definition suggests a continuum between empiricism and transcendentalism, with science fiction film on the side of empiricism, and horror film, however, there are numerous well-known examples of science fiction horror films, epitomized by such pictures as Frankenstein and Alien. The visual style of fiction film can be characterized by a clash between alien and familiar images. This clash is implemented when alien images become familiar, as in A Clockwork Orange, as well, familiar images become alien, as in the films Repo Man and Liquid Sky. For example, in Dr. Strangelove, the, distortion of the make the familiar images seem more alien. Finally, alien and familiar images are juxtaposed, as in The Deadly Mantis, Science fiction films appeared early in the silent film era, typically as short films shot in black and white, sometimes with colour tinting. They usually had a theme and were often intended to be humorous. In 1902, Georges Méliès released Le Voyage dans la Lune, generally considered the first science fiction film, several early films merged the science fiction and horror genres. Examples of this are Frankenstein, a adaptation of Mary Shelleys novel. Taking a more adventurous tack,20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a based on Jules Verne’s famous novel of a wondrous submarine. In the 1920s, European filmmakers tended to use science fiction for prediction and social commentary, as can be seen in German films such as Metropolis and Frau im Mond. In the 1930s, there were big budget science fiction films, notably Just Imagine, King Kong, Things to Come. Starting in 1936, a number of science fiction comic strips were adapted as serials, notably Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers and these serials, and the comic strips they were based on, were very popular with the general public. Other notable science fiction films of the 1930s include Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Doctor X, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, F. P. The 1940s brought us Before I Hang, Black Friday, Dr. Cyclops, The Devil Commands, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Man Made Monster, It Happened Tomorrow, It Happens Every Spring and The Perfect Woman
15.
Thriller film
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Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a film genre that falls under the general thriller genre. The thriller films key characteristics are excitement and suspense, the suspense element, found in most films plots, is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. Tension is created by delaying what the audience sees as inevitable, a strict definition of the thriller film is that the films overarching goal is to build tension in audiences as the film approaches its climax. Tension is built through situations that are menacing or where escape seems impossible, Life is typically threatened in thriller film, such as when the protagonist does not realize entering a dangerous situation. Thriller films characters conflict with other or with an outside force. Thriller films are typically hybridized with other genres, there exist adventure thrillers, science fiction thrillers, Western thrillers, Thriller films also share a close relationship with horror films, both eliciting tension. In plots about crime, thriller films focus less on the criminal or the detective, common themes include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder. Alfred Hitchcocks first thriller was his silent film, The Lodger. His next thriller was Blackmail, his and Britains first sound film and his notable thrillers in the 1930s include The Man Who Knew Too Much and The 39 Steps. 326 —this film would be an inspiration for the future James Bond films, the German film M, directed by Fritz Lang, starred Peter Lorre as a criminal deviant who preys on children. Hitchcock continued his suspense-thrillers, directing Foreign Correspondent, the Oscar-winning Rebecca, Suspicion, Saboteur and Shadow of a Doubt, notable non-Hitchcock films of the 1940s include The Spiral Staircase and Sorry, Wrong Number. In the 1950s, Hitchcock added technicolor to his thrillers, now with exotic locales and he reached the zenith of his career with a succession of classic films such as, Strangers on a Train, Dial M For Murder with Ray Milland, Rear Window and Vertigo. Non-Hitchcock thrillers of the 1950s include The Night of the Hunter —Charles Laughtons only film as director—and Orson Welless crime thriller Touch of Evil, director Michael Powells Peeping Tom featured Carl Boehm as a psychopathic cameraman. After Hitchcocks classic films of the 1950s, he produced Psycho about a lonely, mother-fixated motel owner, J. Lee Thompsons Cape Fear, with Robert Mitchum, had a menacing ex-con seeking revenge. A famous thriller at the time of its release was Wait Until Dark by director Terence Young, john Boormans Deliverance followed the perilous fate of four Southern businessmen during a weekends trip. In Francis Ford Coppolas The Conversation, a bugging-device expert systematically uncovered a covert murder while he himself was being spied upon, Peter Hyams science fiction thriller Capricorn One proposed a government conspiracy to fake the first mission to Mars. His notable films include Sisters, Obsession, which was inspired by Vertigo, Dressed to Kill. Other films include Curtis Hansons The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and Unlawful Entry, detectives/FBI agents hunting down a serial killer was another popular motif in the 90s
16.
Pastiche
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A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, or music that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche celebrates, rather than mocks, the work it imitates, the word pastiche is a French cognate of the Italian noun pasticcio, which is a pâté or pie-filling mixed from diverse ingredients. Metaphorically, pastiche and pasticcio describe works that are composed by several authors. Pastiche is an example of eclecticism in art, a literary allusion may refer to another work, but it does not reiterate it. Moreover, allusion requires the audience to share in the cultural knowledge. Both allusion and pastiche are mechanisms of intertextuality, in literature usage, the term denotes a literary technique employing a generally light-hearted tongue-in-cheek imitation of anothers style, although jocular, it is usually respectful. For example, many stories featuring Sherlock Holmes, originally penned by Arthur Conan Doyle, have written as pastiches since the authors time. Ellery Queen and Nero Wolfe are other subjects of mystery parodies and pastiches. A similar example of pastiche is the posthumous continuations of the Robert E. Howard stories and this includes the Conan stories of L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. David Lodges novel The British Museum Is Falling Down is a pastiche of works by Joyce, Kafka, in 1991 Alexandra Ripley wrote the novel Scarlett, a pastiche of Gone with the Wind, in an unsuccessful attempt to have it recognized as a canonical sequel. Charles Rosen has characterized Mozarts various works in imitation of Baroque style as pastiche, some of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys works, such as his Variations on a Rococo Theme and Serenade for Strings, employ a poised classical form reminiscent of 18th-century composers such as Mozart. Perhaps one of the best examples of pastiche in modern music is that of George Rochberg, Rochberg turned to pastiche from serialism after the death of his son in 1963. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen is unusual as it is a pastiche in both senses of the word, as there are distinct styles imitated in the song. A similar earlier example is Happiness is a Warm Gun by The Beatles, one can find musical pastiches throughout the work of the American composer Frank Zappa. A pastiche Mass is a musical Mass where the constituent movements come from different Mass settings, most often this convention has been chosen for concert performances, particularly by early-music ensembles. Masses are composed of movements, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, for example, the Missa Solemnis by Beethoven and the Messe de Nostre Dame by Guillaume de Machaut. In a pastiche Mass, the performers may choose a Kyrie from one composer, and a Gloria from another, or choose a Kyrie from one setting of a composer. In musical theater pastiche is often a tool for evoking the sounds of a particular era for which a show is set
17.
Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)
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Fahrenheit 451 is a 1966 British Dystopian science fiction drama film directed by François Truffaut and starring Oskar Werner, Julie Christie, and Cyril Cusack. This was Truffauts first colour film as well as his only English-language film, at the 1966 Venice Film Festival, Fahrenheit 451 was nominated for the Golden Lion. In the future, a totalitarian government employs a force known as Firemen to seek out and destroy all literature, permitting them to anyone, anywhere. One of the Firemen, Guy Montag, meets one of his neighbors, Clarisse, the two have a discussion about his job, where she asks if he ever reads the books he burns. Curious, he begins to hide books in his house and read them and this leads to conflict with his wife, Linda, who is more concerned with being popular enough to be a member of The Family, an interactive television program that refers to its viewers as cousins. At the house of a collector, the captain talks with Montag at length about how books change people and make them want to be better than others. Disturbed over Montags behavior, Lindas friends try to leave but Montag stops them, by forcing them to sit and that night, Montag dreams of Clarisse as the book collector who killed herself. The same night, Clarisses house is raided but she escapes through a trapdoor in the roof, Montag breaks into the captains office looking for information about the missing Clarisse and is caught but not punished. Montag meets with Clarisse and helps her back into her house. She tells him of the people, a hidden sect of people who flout the law. Later, Montag tells the captain he is resigning but is convinced to go on one more call, Linda leaves the house, telling Montag that she couldnt live with his book obsession and leaves him to be punished by the Firemen. Angrily, he destroys the bedroom and television before setting fire to the books, the captain lectures him about the books and pulls a last book from Montags coat, for which Montag kills him. He escapes and finds the people, where he views his capture on television, staged to keep the masses entertained. Montag selects a book to memorize, Tales of Mystery & Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe, in this diary, he called Fahrenheit 451 his saddest and most difficult film making experience, mainly because of intense conflicts between Werner and himself. The film was Universal Pictures first European production, Julie Christie was originally cast as Linda Montag, not Linda and Clarisse. The part of Clarisse was offered to Jean Seberg and Jane Fonda, laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave and Sterling Hayden were considered for the role of the Captain, before Cyril Cusack was cast. The film was shot at Pinewood Studios in England, with the exterior scene taken at the French SAFEGE test track, in Châteauneuf-sur-Loire near Orléans. The film featured the Alton housing estate in Roehampton, south London and also Edgcumbe Park in Crowthorne, the final scene of the Book People was filmed in a rare and unexpected snowstorm that occurred on Julie Christies birthday, April 14,1966
18.
THX 1138
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THX1138 is a 1971 American social science fiction film directed by George Lucas in his feature film directorial debut. THX1138 was developed from Lucass student film Electronic Labyrinth, THX1138 4EB, the feature film was produced in a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Francis Ford Coppolas production company, American Zoetrope. A novelization by Ben Bova was published in 1971, emotions, coitus, and the concept of family are a taboo. Everyone is clad in uniforms and has shaven heads to emphasize equality, except the police androids. Instead of names, people have designations – reminiscent of licence plates – with three letters and four digits, shown on an identity badge worn at all times. At their jobs in central video CCTV control centers, SEN5241, LUH has a male roommate, THX1138, who works in a factory producing android police officers. On the way home, he stops at a booth in a row of many. A soothing voice greets THX, and OMM ends every confession with a salutation, You are a true believer, blessings of the State. Work hard, increase production, prevent accidents and be happy, at home, THX takes his drugs, and watches holo-broadcasts while engaging with a masturbatory device. LUH secretly substitutes pills in her possession for THXs medications, whereupon THX eventually suffers physical discomfort along with mental/emotional changes, the drug substitution also leads to LUH and THX becoming involved romantically, resulting in the two engaging in intercourse. THX later is confronted by SEN, who arranges THX as his new roommate, without drugs in his system, THX falters during a critical and hazardous phase of his job, and a control center engages a mind lock on THX which raises the level of danger. After the release of the lock, THX makes the necessary correction to that work phase. THX enjoys a reunion with LUH, disrupted shortly after she reveals her pregnancy. At THXs trial, THX is sentenced to prison, alongside SEN, most of the prisoners seem uninterested in escape, but eventually THX and SEN find an exit, they are later joined by hologram SRT5752, who starred in the holo-broadcasts. During the escape, THX and SRT are separated from SEN, SEN eventually escapes to an area reserved for the monks of OMM, where a lone monk notices that SEN has no identification badge. SEN attacks him and later wanders into an area, strikes up a conversation with children. THX and SRT steal two cars, but SRT crashes his into a concrete pillar, pursued by two police androids on motorcycles, THX flees to the limits of the city and escapes into a ventilation shaft. It is then revealed that the city is entirely underground, from the 1969 incarnation of American Zoetrope
19.
Parts: The Clonus Horror
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The production cost of the movie was $257,000. Although they did not feature in any scenes together, the following year Peter Graves, the film takes place in an isolated desert compound called Clonus, where clones are bred to be used as replacement parts for the elite, including a soon to be president-elect Jeffrey Knight. The clones are kept isolated from the world by workers of the colony. After a group of clones are chosen to go to America, they are given a party and a farewell celebration with their fellow clones. The chosen clones are then taken to a lab where they are sedated and placed in a plastic bag. The story surrounds one clone who begins to question the circumstances of his existence, pursued by compound guards, the clone enters a nearby city. He is found by a retired journalist who takes him to his sponsor, knights brother, Richard, and his son, argue over what to do with the clone. Richards son returns the clone to the colony to reunite with his newly developed love interest, only to find a waiting for him. Meanwhile, Knight, along with hired thugs of the Clonus project, arrive to interrogate Richard and his son, in June 1997, Parts, The Clonus Horror was featured as an episode of the movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000. Though hesitant about it for the first five minutes, director Robert Fiveson said that he felt honored that the film made it onto the show, the DVD release of the MST3K episode includes an interview with Fiveson, who discusses the production of Clonus and the Island lawsuit. The big-budget 2005 DreamWorks production The Island, also about a colony that breeds clones to harvest organs for the elite, the makers of Clonus filed suit, claiming copyright infringement. On August 25,2006, the court presiding over this case ruled that it could proceed to trial, according to a 2007 interview with Clonus screenwriter Bob Sullivan, DreamWorks and Clonus Associates reached a settlement, the specific terms of which are sealed. According to Sullivan, the amount settled on was in the seven-figure range
20.
Logan's Run (1976 film)
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Logans Run is a 1976 American science fiction film directed by Michael Anderson and starring Michael York, Jenny Agutter, Richard Jordan, Roscoe Lee Browne, Farrah Fawcett and Peter Ustinov. The screenplay by David Zelag Goodman is based on the book Logans Run by William F. Nolan, the story follows the actions of Logan 5, a Sandman who has terminated others who have attempted to escape death, and is now faced with termination himself. After aborted attempts to adapt the novel, story changes were made including raising the age of last day from 21 to 30 and its filming was marked by special effects challenges in depicting Carrousel and innovative use of holograms and rare wide-angle lenses. The film won a Special Academy Award for its visual effects, in 1977, a short-lived TV series aired, though only 14 episodes were produced. Since 1994, there have been unsuccessful efforts to remake Logans Run. The citizens live a life but, to maintain the city. There, they are vaporized and ostensibly renewed, to track this, each person is implanted at birth with a life-clock crystal in the palm of their hand that changes color as they get older and begins blinking as they approach their Last Day. Most residents accept this promise of rebirth, but those who do not, Logan 5 and Francis 7 are both Sandmen. After terminating a Runner, to whose presence they were alerted during a Carrousel ritual, later that evening, he meets Jessica 6, a young woman also wearing an ankh pendant. The computer instructs Logan to find Sanctuary and destroy it, a mission he has to keep secret from the other Sandmen of Deep Sleep, which it code-names Assignment 033-03. It then, by a procedure it calls retrogram, changes the color of his life-clock to flashing red, in order to escape Carrousel, Logan is now forced to become a Runner. Logan meets Jessica and explains his situation and they meet with the underground group that leads them to the periphery of the city. Logan finds that the symbol is actually a key that unlocks an exit from the city. They come out into a cave, with Francis following closely behind. In the cave, they meet Box, a designed to capture food for the city from the outside. Logan discovers to his horror that Box also captures escaped Runners, before Box can freeze Logan and Jessica, they escape, causing the cave to collapse on the robot. Once outside, Logan and Jessica notice that their life-clocks are no longer operational and they discover that the remains of human civilization have become a wilderness. They explore an old, seemingly abandoned city, which was once Washington D. C, in the ruins of the United States Senate chamber, they discover an elderly man
21.
Surrogate mother
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Surrogacy is a method or agreement whereby a woman agrees to carry a pregnancy for another person or persons, who will become the newborn childs parent after birth. Monetary compensation may or may not be involved in these arrangements, the legality and costs of surrogacy vary widely between jurisdictions, sometimes resulting in interstate or international surrogacy arrangements. There are laws in countries which restrict and regulate surrogacy. The fertilisation of the surrogate may take place in a number of ways, each of which has implications for the relationship of the resulting child with the surrogate. There are two types of surrogacy, gestational surrogacy and traditional surrogacy. In the United States, gestational surrogacy is more common than traditional surrogacy and is considered less legally complex, traditional surrogacy involves natural or artificial insemination of a surrogate. If the intended fathers sperm is used in the insemination, then the child is genetically related to the intended father. If donor sperm is used, the child is not genetically related to either intended parent but is genetically related to the surrogate. In some cases, an insemination may be performed privately by the parties without the intervention of a doctor or physician, in some jurisdictions, the commissioning parents using donor sperms need to go through an adoption process in order to have legal rights in respect to the resulting child. Many fertility centers which provide for surrogacy assist the parties through the process, gestational surrogacy was first achieved in April 1986. It takes place when a created by in vitro fertilization technology is implanted in a surrogate. The resulting child is related to both intended parents. The embryo is created using the fathers sperm and a donor egg where the donor is not the surrogate. The resulting child is related to the intended father. The embryo is created using the mothers egg and donor sperm. The resulting child is related to the intended mother. A donor embryo is implanted in a surrogate, such an embryo may be available when others undergoing IVF have embryos left over, which they donate to others. The resulting child is unrelated to the intended parent
22.
Jerry Bruckheimer
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Jerome Leon Jerry Bruckheimer is an American film and television producer. He has been active in the genres of action, drama and his best known television series are CSI, Crime Scene Investigation, CSI, Miami, CSI, NY, Without a Trace, Cold Case, and the U. S. version of The Amazing Race. At one point, three of his TV series ranked among the top 10 in the U. S. ratings—a unique feat in television and he also serves as a Director at ZeniMax Media. Many of his films have produced by Disney and Paramount, while many of his television series have been co-produced by Warner Bros. Bruckheimer was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of German Jewish immigrants and he graduated from Mumford High School in Detroit, at age 17, before moving to Arizona for college. Bruckheimer was also a member of the Stamp Collecting Club. He graduated with a degree in psychology from the University of Arizona and he was a member of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. A film buff at an age with an interest in photography. After college Bruckheimer worked in advertising in Detroit and New York City, as of 2010, Bruckheimer has produced over 40 feature films, and is regarded in the industry as one of the most successful film producers of all time. Bruckheimer started producing films in the 1970s, after leaving his job in advertising and they had worked together on the films The Culpepper Cattle Company, Farewell, My Lovely, and March or Die. Bruckheimer then worked with Paul Schrader on two films, American Gigolo and Cat People, which began to give him notice in Hollywood, during the 1980s and 1990s, he was a co-producer with Don Simpson of a string of highly successful Hollywood films for Paramount Pictures. He originally met Don at a screening of 1973s The Harder They Come at Warner Brothers, the two worked together and created Bruckheimers first big hit, 1983s Flashdance, which brought in US$95 million, an incredible sum for an R-rated film. He had a number of hits during that time period, including the Beverly Hills Cop films, Top Gun. Top Gun marked his first collaboration with English director Tony Scott, while working with Simpson, Bruckheimer became known as Mr. Outside because of his experience with film making, while Simpson became known as Mr. Inside because of his film industry contacts. The Rock was the last film in which Bruckheimer collaborated with Simpson, Bruckheimer stipulated that The Rock be dedicated to the memory of Simpson. His other hit films produced include Remember the Titans, Black Hawk Down and he has also acquired the rights to produce a film based on the popular role playing game by Palladium Books, Rifts. Early in his career, Bruckheimer produced television commercials, including one for Pepsi, since 1997 he has branched out into television, creating a number of police dramas of which CSI, Crime Scene Investigation has been the most successful. He has also produced the reality game show The Amazing Race, in May 2008 CBS announced it had picked up Bruckheimers newest series, Eleventh Hour, for the 2008–2009 broadcast television season
23.
Arizona
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Arizona is a state in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the Western United States and the Mountain West states and it is the sixth largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix, Arizona is one of the Four Corners states. It has borders with New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California, and Mexico, Arizonas border with Mexico is 389 miles long, on the northern border of the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California. Arizona is the 48th state and last of the states to be admitted to the Union. Historically part of the territory of Alta California in New Spain, after being defeated in the Mexican–American War, Mexico ceded much of this territory to the United States in 1848. The southernmost portion of the state was acquired in 1853 through the Gadsden Purchase, Southern Arizona is known for its desert climate, with very hot summers and mild winters. There are ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff, Alpine, in addition to the Grand Canyon National Park, there are several national forests, national parks, and national monuments. To the European settlers, their pronunciation sounded like Arissona, the area is still known as alĭ ṣonak in the Oodham language. Another possible origin is the Basque phrase haritz ona, as there were numerous Basque sheepherders in the area, There is a misconception that the states name originated from the Spanish term Árida Zona. See also lists of counties, islands, rivers, lakes, state parks, national parks, Arizona is in the Southwestern United States as one of the Four Corners states. Arizona is the sixth largest state by area, ranked after New Mexico, of the states 113,998 square miles, approximately 15% is privately owned. The remaining area is public forest and park land, state trust land, Arizona is well known for its desert Basin and Range region in the states southern portions, which is rich in a landscape of xerophyte plants such as the cactus. This regions topography was shaped by volcanism, followed by the cooling-off. Its climate has hot summers and mild winters. The state is well known for its pine-covered north-central portion of the high country of the Colorado Plateau. Like other states of the Southwest United States, Arizona has an abundance of mountains, despite the states aridity, 27% of Arizona is forest, a percentage comparable to modern-day France or Germany. The worlds largest stand of pine trees is in Arizona
24.
Burkina Faso
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Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in Africa around 274,200 square kilometres in size. It is surrounded by six countries, Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, in 2014 its population was estimated at just over 17.3 million. Burkina Faso is a country and French is an official language of government. Formerly called the Republic of Upper Volta, the country was renamed Burkina Faso on 4 August 1984 by then-President Thomas Sankara, residents of Burkina Faso are known as Burkinabé. Before the conquest of what is now Burkina Faso by the French, after gaining independence from France in 1960, the country underwent many governmental changes. Blaise Compaoré was the most recent president and ruled the country from 1987 until he was ousted from power by the popular youth upheaval of 31 October 2014 and this resulted in a semi-presidential republic which lasted from October 2014 to September 2015. On 17 September 2015 the provisional government was in turn toppled by an apparent military coup carried out by the Regiment of Presidential Security. On 24 September 2015, after pressure from the African Union, ECOWAS, and the forces, the military junta agreed to step down. Formerly called the Republic of Upper Volta, the country was renamed Burkina Faso on 4 August 1984 by then-President Thomas Sankara, the bé suffix added onto Burkina to form the demonym Burkinabé comes from the Fula language and means men or women. The northwestern part of todays Burkina Faso was populated by hunter-gatherers between 14,000 and 5000 BC and their tools, including scrapers, chisels and arrowheads, were discovered in 1973 through archeological excavations. Agricultural settlements were established between 3600 and 2600 BC, the Bura culture was an Iron-Age civilization centered in the southwest portion of modern-day Niger and in the southeast part of contemporary Burkina Faso. Iron industry, in smelting and forging for tools and weapons, had developed in Sub-Saharan Africa by 1200 BC, historians began to debate about the exact dates when Burkina Fasos many ethnic groups arrived to the area. During the Middle Ages the Mossi established several kingdoms including those of Tenkodogo, Yatenga, Zandoma. Sometime between 1328 and 1338 Mossi warriors raided Timbuktu but the Mossi were defeated by Sonni Ali of Songhai at the Battle of Kobi in Mali in 1483, during the early 16th century the Songhai conducted many slave raids into what is today Burkina Faso. During the 18th century the Gwiriko Empire was established at Bobo Dioulasso and ethnic groups such as the Dyan, Lobi, starting in the early 1890s a series of British, French and German military officers made attempts to claim parts of what is today Burkina Faso. At times these colonialists and their armies fought the local peoples, at times they forged alliances with them, the colonialist officers and their home governments also made treaties amongst themselves. Through a complex series of events what is Burkina Faso eventually became a French protectorate in 1896, the eastern and western regions, where a standoff against the forces of the powerful ruler Samori Ture complicated the situation, came under French occupation in 1897. By 1898, the majority of the corresponding to Burkina Faso was nominally conquered, however
25.
Mercenary
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A mercenary is a person who takes part in an armed conflict who is not a national or party to the conflict and is motivated to take part in the hostilities by desire for private gain. Mercenaries fight for money or other recompense instead of fighting for ideological interests, in the last century, and as reflected in the Geneva Convention, mercenaries have increasingly come to be seen as less entitled to protections by rules of war than non-mercenaries. However, whether or not a person is a mercenary may be a matter of degree, Protocol Additional GC1977 is a 1977 amendment protocol to the Geneva Conventions. Article 47 of the protocol provides the most widely accepted definition of a mercenary, though not endorsed by some countries. The Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, a mercenary shall not have the right to be a combatant or a prisoner of war. All the criteria must be met, according to the Geneva Convention, according to the GC III, a captured soldier must be treated as a lawful combatant and, therefore, as a protected person with prisoner-of-war status until facing a competent tribunal. That tribunal, using criteria in APGC77 or some equivalent domestic law, may decide that the soldier is a mercenary. The only possible exception to GC IV Art 5 is when he is a national of the authority imprisoning him, if, after a regular trial, a captured soldier is found to be a mercenary, then he can expect treatment as a common criminal and may face execution. As mercenary soldiers may not qualify as PoWs, they cannot expect repatriation at wars end, the four mercenaries sentenced to death were shot by a firing squad on 10 July 1976. The legal status of civilian contractors depends upon the nature of their work, on 4 December 1989, the United Nations passed resolution 44/34, the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries. It entered into force on 20 October 2001 and is known as the UN Mercenary Convention. Article 1 contains the definition of a mercenary, Article 1.1 is similar to Article 47 of Protocol I, however Article 1. – under Article 1.2 a person does not have to take a part in the hostilities in a planned coup détat to be a mercenary. Critics have argued that the convention and APGC77 Art,47 are designed to cover the activities of mercenaries in post-colonial Africa and do not address adequately the use of private military companies by sovereign states. While the United States governed Iraq, no U. S. citizen working as a guard could be classified as a mercenary because he was a national of a Party to the conflict. S. However, those who acknowledge the United States and other forces as continuing parties to the conflict might insist that U. S. armed guards cannot be called mercenaries. The laws of countries forbid their citizens to fight in foreign wars unless they are under the control of their own national armed forces. If a person is proven to have worked as a mercenary for any other country while retaining Austrian citizenship, in 2003, France criminalized mercenary activities, as defined by the protocol to the Geneva convention for French citizens, permanent residents and legal entities
26.
Cloning
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In biology, cloning is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments, cells, the term also refers to the production of multiple copies of a product such as digital media or software. The term clone, invented by J. B. S. Haldane, is derived from the Ancient Greek word κλών klōn, twig, referring to the process whereby a new plant can be created from a twig. In horticulture, the spelling clon was used until the twentieth century, since the term entered the popular lexicon in a more general context, the spelling clone has been used exclusively. In botany, the term lusus was traditionally used, Cloning is a natural form of reproduction that has allowed life forms to spread for more than 50 thousand years. It is the method used by plants, fungi, and bacteria. Examples of these organisms include blueberry plants, hazel trees, the Pando trees, the Kentucky coffeetree, Myricas, molecular cloning refers to the process of making multiple molecules. Cloning is commonly used to amplify DNA fragments containing whole genes and it is used in a wide array of biological experiments and practical applications ranging from genetic fingerprinting to large scale protein production. In practice, localization of the gene to a chromosome or genomic region does not necessarily enable one to isolate or amplify the relevant genomic sequence, initially, the DNA of interest needs to be isolated to provide a DNA segment of suitable size. Subsequently, a procedure is used where the amplified fragment is inserted into a vector. The vector is linearised using restriction enzymes, and incubated with the fragment of interest under appropriate conditions with an enzyme called DNA ligase, following ligation the vector with the insert of interest is transfected into cells. A number of techniques are available, such as chemical sensitivation of cells, electroporation, optical injection. Finally, the cells are cultured. Modern cloning vectors include selectable antibiotic resistance markers, which allow only cells in which the vector has been transfected, additionally, the cloning vectors may contain colour selection markers, which provide blue/white screening on X-gal medium. Nevertheless, these selection steps do not absolutely guarantee that the DNA insert is present in the cells obtained, further investigation of the resulting colonies must be required to confirm that cloning was successful. This may be accomplished by means of PCR, restriction fragment analysis and/or DNA sequencing, Cloning a cell means to derive a population of cells from a single cell. In the case of organisms such as bacteria and yeast. However, in the case of cell cultures from multi-cellular organisms, a useful tissue culture technique used to clone distinct lineages of cell lines involves the use of cloning rings
27.
Yucca, Arizona
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Yucca is an unincorporated community in Mohave County, Arizona, United States. Located along Interstate 40, it lies southwest of Kingman, just east of the section of the Black Mountains and west of the Hualapai. Yucca has a ZIP Code of 86438, in 2000, the population of the 86438 ZCTA was 282, students in Yucca attend schools in the Kingman Unified School District. Yucca is located about 35 miles north of Lake Havasu City, Arizona,24 miles southwest of Kingman, Arizona, Yucca has a hot desert climate with brutally hot summers and cool winters. In summer, it is normal to record temperatures above 110 °F for days on end, while in winter it is mild with practically no snowfall. The average minimum temperatures in the winter are usually 30 to 45 °F, the sun shines throughout the spring and early summer and most of the limited rain falls from extratropical lows in the cooler months. Yucca started as an office and water fill station for Atlantic and Pacific Railroad in the 1880s. It was part of a rail line commissioned by congress spanning from St. Louis, Missouri to Needles and this rail line grew to be transcontinental and is a major freight corridor to Southern California. During World War II, the United States Army Air Forces purchased 2,284 acres of land, in 1954 the air base was purchased by Ford Motor Company and along with additional land, was turned into the Arizona Proving Ground comprising nearly 4,000 acres. Chrysler purchased the grounds in November 2007 from Ford for $34.9 million. Yucca became part of Route 66 in 1952 when the highway was realigned bypassing Oatman and this was the heyday for the small town when motels, cafés, and a Whiting Brothers truck stop operated. In the early 1970s, Interstate 40 replaced the section of Route 66 going through Yucca, the motels and truck stop went out of business as people used facilities in larger Kingman, Arizona, and Needles, California. A small general store/cafe, post office, automotive center, real estate office. In 1997 a land exchange between the Santa Fe Railroad and the US Government of approximately 70,000 acres was completed just southwest of Yucca. Much of the land owned by the railroad was subdivided into typically 40-acre parcels. This land has primarily been purchased by individuals for use or long term investment. Other smaller developments opened just north of Yucca in 2006, over time these residential developments may spur renewed business growth in the area. Hualapai people Mohave people Bullhead City, Arizona Kingman, Arizona Lake Havasu City, Arizona Chloride, Arizona Santa Claus, Arizona
28.
Maglev
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Maglev is a transport method that uses magnetic levitation to move vehicles without making contact with the ground. With maglev, a vehicle travels along a guideway using magnets to create lift and propulsion, thereby reducing friction by a great extent and allowing very high speeds. In itself, maglev technology includes no moving parts, Maglev trains move more smoothly and more quietly than wheeled mass transit systems. The power needed for levitation is not a large percentage of its overall energy consumption, most goes to overcome drag. Maglev trains hold the record for trains. Compared to conventional trains, differences in construction affect the economics of maglev trains, for high-speed trains with wheels, wear and tear from friction from wheels on rails accelerates equipment wear and prevents high speeds. Conversely, maglev systems have much more expensive to construct. Despite decades of research and development, maglev systems are in operation in just three countries. In April 2004, Shanghais Transrapid system began commercial operations, in March 2005, Japan began operation of its relatively low-speed HSST Linimo line in time for the 2005 World Expo. In its first three months, the Linimo line carried over 10 million passengers, South Korea became the worlds fourth country to succeed in implementing maglev technology with the Incheon Airport Maglev beginning regular operation on February 3,2016. In Japan a new high speed line, the Chuo Shinkansen is planned to become operational in 2027. In the late 1940s, the British electrical engineer Eric Laithwaite and he became professor of heavy electrical engineering at Imperial College in 1964, where he continued his successful development of the linear motor. Since linear motors do not require physical contact between the vehicle and guideway, they became a fixture on advanced transportation systems in the 1960s and 70s. Laithwaite joined one such project, the hovercraft, although the project was cancelled in 1973. The linear motor was naturally suited to use with maglev systems as well, working at the British Rail Research Division in Derby, along with teams at several civil engineering firms, the transverse-flux system was developed into a working system. The first commercial maglev people mover was simply called MAGLEV and officially opened in 1984 near Birmingham and it operated on an elevated 600-metre section of monorail track between Birmingham Airport and Birmingham International railway station, running at speeds up to 42 km/h. The system was closed in 1995 due to reliability problems, High-speed transportation patents were granted to various inventors throughout the world. Early United States patents for a linear motor propelled train were awarded to German inventor Alfred Zehden, in 1907, another early electromagnetic transportation system was developed by F. S. Smith
29.
Holographic projector
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Holography is the science and practice of making holograms. The hologram itself is not an image and it is usually unintelligible when viewed under diffuse ambient light and it is an encoding of the light field as an interference pattern of seemingly random variations in the opacity, density, or surface profile of the photographic medium. In its pure form, holography requires the use of light for illuminating the subject. A microscopic level of detail throughout the volume of space can be reproduced. Holograms can now also be entirely computer-generated and show objects or scenes that never existed, stage illusions such as Peppers Ghost and other unusual, baffling, or seemingly magical images are also often incorrectly called holograms. The Hungarian-British physicist Dennis Gabor, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1971 for his invention and development of the holographic method. His work, done in the late 1940s, was built on pioneering work in the field of X-ray microscopy by other scientists including Mieczysław Wolfke in 1920 and William Lawrence Bragg in 1939. The discovery was a result of research into improving electron microscopes at the British Thomson-Houston Company in Rugby, England. The word holography comes from the Greek words ὅλος and γραφή, early holograms used silver halide photographic emulsions as the recording medium. They were not very efficient as the produced grating absorbed much of the incident light, various methods of converting the variation in transmission to a variation in refractive index were developed which enabled much more efficient holograms to be produced. Several types of holograms can be made, a later refinement, the rainbow transmission hologram, allows more convenient illumination by white light rather than by lasers. Rainbow holograms are used for security and authentication, for example, on credit cards. They are also capable of multicolour-image reproduction, specular holography is a related technique for making three-dimensional images by controlling the motion of specularities on a two-dimensional surface. It works by reflectively or refractively manipulating bundles of light rays, most holograms produced are of static objects but systems for displaying changing scenes on a holographic volumetric display are now being developed. Holograms can also be used to store, retrieve, and process information optically and it was thought that it would be possible to use X-rays to make holograms of very small objects and view them using visible light. Today, holograms with x-rays are generated by using synchrotrons or x-ray free-electron lasers as radiation sources, the reconstruction is then retrieved via computation. Due to the wavelength of x-rays compared to visible light. As free-electron lasers can provide ultrashort and x-ray pulses in the range of femtoseconds which are intense and coherent, in laser holography, the hologram is recorded using a source of laser light, which is very pure in its color and orderly in its composition
30.
Kim Coates
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Kim Coates is a Canadian-American actor who has worked in both Canadian and American films and television series. He has worked on Broadway portraying Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire and he is best known for his role as Alexander Tig Trager in the FX series Sons of Anarchy. Coates was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada to Fred and he had never seen a play before attending the University of Saskatchewan, where he enrolled in a drama course as an elective. Once inspired, he dove into theatre and he admits that he took drama by chance in university and, after two years, he knew he wanted to be an actor. Coates portrayed Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire and was the youngest ever to play role of Macbeth at the Stratford Festival in his native Canada. Coates made his debut in the film The Boy in Blue. Even though it was a small role, it opened up opportunities for him. Coates lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife, Diana and he is known to be good friends with actor William Fichtner, as well as Kevin Costner and Sons of Anarchy co-star Theo Rossi. Kim became a United States citizen in 2010, Kim Coates on Twitter Kim Coates at the Internet Movie Database Kim Coates at the Internet Broadway Database Kim Coates
31.
Rhyolite, Nevada
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Rhyolite is a ghost town in Nye County, in the U. S. state of Nevada. It is in the Bullfrog Hills, about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the town began in early 1905 as one of several mining camps that sprang up after a prospecting discovery in the surrounding hills. During an ensuing gold rush, thousands of gold-seekers, developers, miners, many settled in Rhyolite, which lay in a sheltered desert basin near the regions biggest producer, the Montgomery Shoshone Mine. By 1907, Rhyolite had electric lights, water mains, telephones, newspapers, a hospital, a school, a house. Published estimates of the peak population vary widely, but scholarly sources generally place it in a range between 3,500 and 5,000 in 1907–08. Rhyolite declined almost as rapidly as it rose, after the richest ore was exhausted, production fell. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the panic of 1907 made it more difficult to raise development capital. In 1908, investors in the Montgomery Shoshone Mine, concerned that it was overvalued, ordered an independent study, when the studys findings proved unfavorable, the companys stock value crashed, further restricting funding. By the end of 1910, the mine was operating at a loss, by this time, many out-of-work miners had moved elsewhere, and Rhyolites population dropped well below 1,000. By 1920, it was close to zero, after 1920, Rhyolite and its ruins became a tourist attraction and a setting for motion pictures. From 1988 to 1998, three companies operated a profitable open-pit mine at the base of Ladd Mountain, about 1 mile south of Rhyolite. The Goldwell Open Air Museum lies on private property just south of the ghost town, the town is named for rhyolite, an igneous rock composed of light-colored silicates, usually buff to pink and occasionally light gray. It belongs to the same class, felsic, as granite but is much less common. The Amargosa River, which flows through nearby Beatty, gets its name from the Spanish word for bitter, in its course, the river takes up large amounts of salts, which give it a bitter taste. Bullfrog was the name Frank Shorty Harris and Ernest Ed Cross, the Bullfrog Mining District, the Bullfrog Hills, the town of Bullfrog, and other geographical entities in the region took their name from the Bullfrog Mine. The name persisted and, decades later, was given to the short-lived Bullfrog County, Beatty is named after Old Man Montillus Murray Beatty, a Civil War veteran and miner who bought a ranch along the Amargosa River just north of what became the town of Beatty. In 1906, he sold the ranch to the Bullfrog Water, Power, Shoshone in Montgomery Shoshone Mine refers to the Western Shoshone people indigenous to the region. In about 1875, the Shoshone had six camps along the Amargosa River near Beatty, the total population of these camps was 29, and because game was scarce, they subsisted largely on seeds, bulbs and plants gathered throughout the region, including the Bullfrog Hills
32.
Detroit, Michigan
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Detroit is the most populous city in the U. S. state of Michigan, the fourth-largest city in the Midwest and the largest city on the United States–Canada border. It is the seat of Wayne County, the most populous county in the state, the municipality of Detroit had a 2015 estimated population of 677,116, making it the 21st-most populous city in the United States. Roughly one-half of Michigans population lives in Metro Detroit alone, the Detroit–Windsor area, a commercial link straddling the Canada–U. S. Border, has a population of about 5.7 million. Detroit is a port on the Detroit River, a strait that connects the Great Lakes system to the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The Detroit Metropolitan Airport is among the most important hubs in the United States, the City of Detroit anchors the second-largest economic region in the Midwest, behind Chicago, and the thirteenth-largest in the United States. Detroit and its neighboring Canadian city Windsor are connected through a tunnel and various bridges, Detroit was founded on July 24,1701 by the French explorer and adventurer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and a party of settlers. During the 19th century, it became an important industrial hub at the center of the Great Lakes region, with expansion of the American automobile industry in the early 20th century, the Detroit area emerged as a significant metropolitan region within the United States. The city became the fourth-largest in the country for a period, in the 1950s and 1960s, suburban expansion continued with construction of a regional freeway system. A great portion of Detroits public transport was abandoned in favour of becoming a city in the post-war period. Due to industrial restructuring and loss of jobs in the auto industry, between 2000 and 2010 the citys population fell by 25 percent, changing its ranking from the nations 10th-largest city to 18th. In 2010, the city had a population of 713,777 and this resulted from suburbanization, corruption, industrial restructuring and the decline of Detroits auto industry. In 2013, the state of Michigan declared an emergency for the city. Detroit has experienced urban decay as its population and jobs have shifted to its suburbs or elsewhere, conservation efforts managed to save many architectural pieces since the 2000s and allowed several large-scale revitalisations. More recently, the population of Downtown Detroit, Midtown Detroit, paleo-Indian people inhabited areas near Detroit as early as 11,000 years ago. In the 17th century, the region was inhabited by Huron, Odawa, Potawatomi, for the next hundred years, virtually no British, colonist, or French action was contemplated without consultation with, or consideration of the Iroquois likely response. When the French and Indian War evicted the Kingdom of France from Canada, the 1798 raids and resultant 1799 decisive Sullivan Expedition reopened the Ohio Country to westward emigration, which began almost immediately, and by 1800 white settlers were pouring westwards. By 1773, the population of Detroit was 1,400, by 1778, its population was up to 2,144 and it was the third-largest city in the Province of Quebec
33.
Michigan Central Station
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Michigan Central Station was the main intercity passenger rail depot for Detroit, Michigan. Formally dedicated on January 4,1914, the station remained open for business until the cessation of Amtrak service on January 6,1988, at the time of its construction, it was the tallest rail station in the world. The building is located in the Corktown district of Detroit near the Ambassador Bridge and it is located behind Roosevelt Park, and the Roosevelt Warehouse is adjacent to the east. The citys Roosevelt Park serves as an entryway to the station. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, restoration projects and plans have gone as far as the negotiation process, but none has come to fruition. Since 2011, demolition works, minor repairs, repairs of the roof structure. The basement, which was full of water, has been fully drained, and a barbed wire fence has been installed in an attempt to keep out vandals. Images of the remain a premier example of ruins photography. The building began operating as Detroits main passenger depot in 1913 after the older Michigan Central Station burned on December 26,1913 and it was originally owned and operated by Michigan Central Railroad. It was planned as part of a project that included the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel below the Detroit River for freight. The old station was located on a line, which was inconvenient for the high volume of passengers it served. The new Michigan Central placed passenger service on the main line, the growing trend toward increased automobile use was not a large concern in 1912, as is evident in the design of the building. Most passengers would arrive at and leave from Michigan Central Station by interurban service or streetcar, the station was placed away from downtown in order to stimulate related development to come in its direction. An ambitious project to connect the station to the Cultural Center via a boulevard was never realized. At the beginning of World War I, the peak of rail travel in the United States, more than 200 trains left the station each day and lines would stretch from the boarding gates to the main entrance. In the 1940s, more than 4,000 passengers a day used the station, among notable passengers arriving at MCS were Presidents Herbert Hoover, Harry S. Truman and Franklin D. Roosevelt, actor Charlie Chaplin and inventor Thomas Edison. In the 1920s Henry Ford began to buy land near the station and made construction plans, the original design included no large parking facility. Passenger volume did not decrease immediately, during World War II, the station was used heavily by military troops
34.
Coachella Valley
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It is the northernmost extent of the vast trough which includes the Salton Sea, the Imperial Valley and the Gulf of California. The San Andreas Fault crosses the valley from the Chocolate Mountains in the southeast corner, the fault is easily visible along its northern length as a strip of greenery against an otherwise bare mountain. The Chocolate Mountains are home to a United States Navy live gunnery range and are mostly off-limits to the public, in comparison to the Inland Empire, some people refer to the IEs sub-region Coachella Valley as the Desert Empire to differentiate it from the neighboring Imperial Valley. Geographers and geologists sometimes call the area, along with the Imperial Valley to the south, the valley connects with the Greater Los Angeles area to the west via the San Gorgonio Pass, a major transportation corridor that includes I-10 and the Union Pacific Railroad. The valley is part of the 13th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, the famous desert resort cities of Palm Springs and Palm Desert lie in the Coachella Valley.5 million annual conventioneers and tourists. The local population rounds up to almost 500,000 in April, declines to 200,000 in July, there is some contention as to the origin of the name. Early maps show the area as Conchilla, the Spanish word for seashell, since the area was once a part of a vast inland sea, tiny fossilized mollusk shells can be found in just about every remote area. Local lore explains the change in the name from Conchilla to Coachella as a made by the map-makers contracted to transcribe the data supplied by the Southern Pacific Railroads survey party. Rather than redraw the expensive maps, the railroad chose to begin calling the area by the misspelled name Coachella rather than its traditional name Conchilla. Some believe that the name Coachella was simply made up, cindarella Courtney was the first non-Indian child born in Indio in 1898. The first boy, David Elgin, was born in 1899, the coming in 1926 of U. S. So too did the coming of State Highway 111 in the early 1930s, the standard was refined and adopted worldwide. Doctor McCarroll is memorialized by a stretch of I-10 through Indio named in her honor, the Coachella Valley was popular among celebrities from Frank Sinatra to Dakota Fanning who came and continue to come to enjoy vacations and winter homes in the desert resort community. Also it became a real estate destination in the 1980s and 1990s no longer limited to senior citizens, winter residents. Families with young children and young adults interested in Palm Springs and surrounding communities for lower cost housing. In a 2003 Condé Nast publication review, Palm Springs was ranked one of the top 10 global vacation destinations, and the smallest one in population. The area is surrounded on the southwest by the Santa Rosa Mountains, by the San Jacinto Mountains to the west and these mountains peak at around 11,000 feet and tend to average between 5,000 and 7,000 feet. Elevations on the Valley floor range from 1600 ft above sea level at the end of the Valley to 250 ft below sea level around Mecca
35.
Touchscreen
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A touchscreen is a input and output device normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. A user can give input or control the processing system through simple or multi-touch gestures by touching the screen with a special stylus and/or one or more fingers. Some touchscreens use ordinary or specially coated gloves to work while others may only work using a special stylus/pen, the user can use the touchscreen to react to what is displayed and to control how it is displayed, for example, zooming to increase the text size. The touchscreen enables the user to interact directly with what is displayed, rather using a mouse, touchpad. Touchscreens are common in such as game consoles, personal computers, tablet computers, electronic voting machines, point of sale systems. They can also be attached to computers or, as terminals and they also play a prominent role in the design of digital appliances such as personal digital assistants and some e-readers. The popularity of smartphones, tablets, and many types of appliances is driving the demand and acceptance of common touchscreens for portable. The application of technology for air traffic control was described in an article published in 1968. Frank Beck and Bent Stumpe, engineers from CERN, developed a transparent touchscreen in the early 1970s, then manufactured by CERN, it was put to use in 1973. A resistive touchscreen was developed by American inventor George Samuel Hurst, the first version was produced in 1982. This arrangement can sense any fingertip-sized opaque object in close proximity to the screen, a similar touchscreen was used on the HP-150 starting in 1983, this was one of the worlds earliest commercial touchscreen computers. HP mounted their infrared transmitters and receivers around the bezel of a 9 Sony Cathode Ray Tube, in 1984, Fujitsu released a touch pad for the Micro 16, to deal with the complexity of kanji characters, which were stored as tiled graphics. In 1985, Sega released the Terebi Oekaki, also known as the Sega Graphic Board, for the SG-1000 video game console and it consisted of a plastic pen and a plastic board with a transparent window where the pen presses are detected. It was used primarily for a software application. A graphic touch tablet was released for the Sega AI Computer in 1986, touch-sensitive Control-Display Units were evaluated for commercial aircraft flight decks in the early 1980s. In 1985, the University of Toronto group including Bill Buxton developed a tablet that used capacitance rather than bulky camera-based optical sensing systems. In 1986, the first graphical point of sale software was demonstrated on the 16-bit Atari 520ST color computer and it featured a color touchscreen widget-driven interface. In 1987, Casio launched the Casio PB-1000 pocket computer with a touchscreen consisting of a 4x4 matrix, until 1988 touchscreens had the bad reputation of being imprecise
36.
Microsoft PixelSense
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Microsoft PixelSense is an interactive surface computing platform that allows one or more people to use and touch real-world objects, and share digital content at the same time. Microsoft Surface 1.0, the first version of PixelSense, was announced on May 29,2007 at the D5 Conference and it shipped to customers in 2008 as an end-to-end solution with Microsoft producing and selling the combined hardware/software platform. It is a 30-inch 4,3 rear projection display with integrated PC and five near-infrared cameras that can see fingers, the display is placed in a horizontal orientation, giving it a table-like appearance. The product and its applications are designed so that people can approach the display from all sides to simultaneously share. The cameras’ vision capabilities enable the product to see an image of what’s placed on the screen. The Surface platform processing identifies three types of objects touching the screen, fingers, tags, and blobs, raw vision data is also available and can be used in applications. The device is optimized to recognize 52 simultaneous multitouch points of contact, Microsoft Corporation produced the hardware and software for the Microsoft Surface 1.0 product. Sales of Microsoft Surface 1.0 were discontinued in 2011 in anticipation of the release of the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface, Microsoft and Samsung partnered to announce the current version of PixelSense, the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface, at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2011. Samsung began shipping the new SUR40 hardware with the Microsoft Surface 2.0 software platform to customers in early 2012, the Samsung SUR40 is a 40-inch 16,9 LED backlit LCD display with integrated PC and PixelSense technology, which replaces the cameras in the previous product. PixelSense technology enables Samsung and Microsoft to reduce the thickness of the product from 22 in to 4 in, Samsung produces the hardware and Microsoft produces the software platform for the SUR40. PixelSense is designed primarily for use by customers to use in public settings. People interact with the product using direct touch interactions and by placing objects on the screen, objects of a specific size and shape, or with tag patterns, can be uniquely identified to initiate a preprogrammed response by the computer. The device does not require the use of a traditional PC mouse or keyboard, additionally, the system is designed to interact with several people at the same time so that content can be shared without the limitations of a single-user device. Microsoft states that sales of PixelSense are targeted toward the following verticals, retail, media and entertainment, healthcare, financial services, education. The idea for the product was initially conceptualized in 2001 by Steven Bathiche of Microsoft Hardware, in October 2001, DJ Kurlander, Michael Kim, Joel Dehlin, Bathiche and Wilson formed a virtual team to bring the idea to the next stage of development. In 2003, the presented the idea to the Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. Later, the team was expanded and a prototype nicknamed T1 was produced within a month. The prototype was based on an IKEA table with a cut in the top
37.
MIT
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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, often cited as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. Researchers worked on computers, radar, and inertial guidance during World War II, post-war defense research contributed to the rapid expansion of the faculty and campus under James Killian. The current 168-acre campus opened in 1916 and extends over 1 mile along the bank of the Charles River basin. The Institute is traditionally known for its research and education in the sciences and engineering, and more recently in biology, economics, linguistics. Air Force and 6 Fields Medalists have been affiliated with MIT, the school has a strong entrepreneurial culture, and the aggregated revenues of companies founded by MIT alumni would rank as the eleventh-largest economy in the world. In 1859, a proposal was submitted to the Massachusetts General Court to use newly filled lands in Back Bay, Boston for a Conservatory of Art and Science, but the proposal failed. A charter for the incorporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rogers, a professor from the University of Virginia, wanted to establish an institution to address rapid scientific and technological advances. The Rogers Plan reflected the German research university model, emphasizing an independent faculty engaged in research, as well as instruction oriented around seminars, two days after the charter was issued, the first battle of the Civil War broke out. After a long delay through the war years, MITs first classes were held in the Mercantile Building in Boston in 1865, in 1863 under the same act, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts founded the Massachusetts Agricultural College, which developed as the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 1866, the proceeds from sales went toward new buildings in the Back Bay. MIT was informally called Boston Tech, the institute adopted the European polytechnic university model and emphasized laboratory instruction from an early date. Despite chronic financial problems, the institute saw growth in the last two decades of the 19th century under President Francis Amasa Walker. Programs in electrical, chemical, marine, and sanitary engineering were introduced, new buildings were built, the curriculum drifted to a vocational emphasis, with less focus on theoretical science. The fledgling school still suffered from chronic financial shortages which diverted the attention of the MIT leadership, during these Boston Tech years, MIT faculty and alumni rebuffed Harvard University president Charles W. Eliots repeated attempts to merge MIT with Harvard Colleges Lawrence Scientific School. There would be at least six attempts to absorb MIT into Harvard, in its cramped Back Bay location, MIT could not afford to expand its overcrowded facilities, driving a desperate search for a new campus and funding. Eventually the MIT Corporation approved an agreement to merge with Harvard, over the vehement objections of MIT faculty, students. However, a 1917 decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court effectively put an end to the merger scheme, the neoclassical New Technology campus was designed by William W. Bosworth and had been funded largely by anonymous donations from a mysterious Mr. Smith, starting in 1912. In January 1920, the donor was revealed to be the industrialist George Eastman of Rochester, New York, who had invented methods of production and processing
38.
Slate (magazine)
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Slate is an online liberal / progressive magazine that covers current affairs, politics and culture in the United States. It was created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, on 21 December 2004, it was purchased by The Washington Post Company, later renamed the Graham Holdings Company. Since 4 June 2008, Slate has been managed by The Slate Group, Slate is based in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, DC. A French version was launched in February 2009 by a group of four journalists, including Jean-Marie Colombani, Eric Leser, among them, the founders hold 50% in the publishing company, while The Slate Group holds 15%. In 2011, slate. fr started a separate site covering African news, Slate Afrique, in July 2014, Julia Turner replaced David Plotz, who had been editor of Slate since 2008. Plotz had been the deputy editor to Jacob Weisberg, Slates editor from 2002 until his designation as the Chairman, the Washington Post Companys John Alderman is Slates publisher. Slate, which is updated throughout the day, covers politics, arts and culture, sports, as of mid-2015, it publishes about 1500 stories per month. Slate is also known for adopting contrarian views, giving rise to the term Slate Pitches and it is ad-supported and has been available to read free of charge since 1999, but restricted access for non-US readers via a metered paywall in 2015. Slate features regular and semi-regular columns such as Explainer, Moneybox, Spectator, Transport, many of the articles are short and argument-driven. Around 2010, the magazine began running long-form journalism. Many of the stories are an outgrowth of the Fresca Fellowships. In the context of a 2014 reader discussion, it was stated that the magazine is perceived to have left-liberal leanings, in 1998, Slate introduced a paywall-based business model that attracted up 20,000 subscribers but was abandoned afterwards. A similar subscription model would later be implemented by Slates independently owned competitor, Salon. com, on November 30,2005, Slate started a daily feature ”Todays Pictures”, featuring fifteen to twenty photographs from the archive at Magnum Photos that share a common theme. The column also features two flash animated ”Interactive Essays” a month, in June 2006, on its tenth anniversary, Slate unveiled a redesigned website. In 2007, it introduced Slate V, a video magazine with content that relates to or expands upon their written articles. In 2013, the magazine was redesigned under the guidance of Design Director Vivian Selbo, in 2011, Slate was nominated for four digital National Magazine Awards and won the NMA for General Excellence. In the same year, the laid off several high-profile journalists, including co-founder Jack Shafer. At the time, it had around 40 full-time editorial staff, the following year, a dedicated ad sales team was created
39.
Rotten Tomatoes
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Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by Senh Duong and since January 2010 has been owned by Flixster, in February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcasts Fandango. Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, since 2007, the websites editor-in-chief has been Matt Atchity. The name, Rotten Tomatoes, derives from the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes when disapproving of a stage performance. From early 2008 to September 2010, Current Television aired the weekly The Rotten Tomatoes Show, featuring hosts, a shorter segment was incorporated into the weekly show, InfoMania, which ended in 2011. In September 2013, the website introduced TV Zone, a section for reviewing scripted TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes was launched on August 12,1998, as a spare-time project by Senh Duong. His goal in creating Rotten Tomatoes was to create a site where people can get access to reviews from a variety of critics in the U. S. As a fan of Jackie Chans, Duong was inspired to create the website after collecting all the reviews of Chans movies as they were being published in the United States, the first movie whose reviews were featured on Rotten Tomatoes was Your Friends & Neighbors. The website was an success, receiving mentions by Netscape, Yahoo. and USA Today within the first week of its launch. They officially launched it on April 1,2000, in June 2004, IGN Entertainment acquired rottentomatoes. com for an undisclosed sum. In September 2005, IGN was bought by News Corps Fox Interactive Media, in January 2010, IGN sold the website to Flixster. The combined reach of both companies is 30 million unique visitors a month across all different platforms, according to the companies, in May 2011, Flixster was acquired by Warner Bros. In early 2009, Current Television launched the version of the web review site. It was hosted by Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox and written by Mark Ganek, the show aired every Thursday at 10,30 EST on the Current TV network. The last episode aired on September 16,2010 and it returned as a much shorter segment of InfoMania, a satirical news show that ended in 2011. By late 2009, the website was designed to enable Rotten Tomatoes users to create, one group, The Golden Oyster Awards, accepted votes of members for different awards, as if in parallel to the better-known Oscars or Golden Globes. When Flixster bought the company, they disbanded the groups, announcing, in the meantime, please use the Forums to continue your conversations about your favorite movie topics. As of February 2011, new community features have been added, for example, users can no longer sort films by fresh ratings from rotten ratings, and vice versa
40.
Metacritic
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Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of media products, music albums, games, movies, TV shows, DVDs, and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged, Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts. The site provides an excerpt from each review and hyperlinks to its source, a color of Green, Yellow or Red summarizes the critics recommendations and therefore the general appeal of the product to reviewers and, to a lesser extent, the public. It is regarded as the game industrys foremost review aggregator. Metacritics scoring converts each review into a percentage, either mathematically from the mark given, before being averaged, the scores are weighted according to the critics fame, stature, and volume of reviews. Metacritic was launched in July 1999 by Marc Doyle, his sister Julie Doyle Roberts, rotten Tomatoes was already compiling movie reviews, but Doyle, Roberts, and Dietz saw an opportunity to cover a broader range of media. They sold Metacritic to CNET in 2005, CNET and Metacritic are now owned by the CBS Corporation. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal wrote in September 2004, Mr. Doyle,36, is now a product manager at CNET. Speaking of video games, Doyle said, A site like ours helps people cut through. unobjective promotional language and he added that the review process was not taken as seriously when unconnected magazines and websites provided reviews in isolation. In August 2010, the appearance was revamped, reaction from users was overwhelmingly negative. Certain publications are given more significance because of their stature, games Editor Marc Doyle was interviewed by Keith Stuart of The Guardian to get a look behind the metascoring process. Stuart wrote, the phenomenon, namely Metacritic and GameRankings, have become an enormously important element of online games journalism over the past few years. The ranging of metascores is, Metacritic is regarded as the foremost online review site for the video game industry. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal has written that Metacritic influence the sales of games and he explains its influence as coming from the higher cost of buying video games than music or movie tickets. Many executives say that low scores can hurt the sales potential. He claimed that a number of businesses and financial analysts use Metacritic as an early indicator of a games potential sales and, by extension. In 2004, Jason Hall of Warner Bros. began including quality metrics in contracts with partners licensing its movies for games, if a product does not at least achieve a specific score, some deals require the publisher to pay higher royalties. In 2008, Microsoft began using Metacritic averages to de-list underperforming Xbox Live Arcade games and these are the top 10 individual games with the highest scores on the site as of 2 April 2017
