Academy Awards
The Academy Awards known as the Oscars, are a set of awards for artistic and technical merit in the film industry. Given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the awards are an international recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements as assessed by the Academy's voting membership; the various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette called the "Academy Award of Merit", although more referred to by its nickname "Oscar". The award was sculpted by George Stanley from a design sketch by Cedric Gibbons. AMPAS first presented it in 1929 at a private dinner hosted by Douglas Fairbanks in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel; the Academy Awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now seen live worldwide, its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, the Grammy Awards for music – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 91st Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2018, was held on February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, California.
The ceremony was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,072 Oscar statuettes have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 90th ceremony, it was the first ceremony since 1988 without a host. The first Academy Awards presentation was held on 16 May 1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people; the post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel. The cost of guest tickets for that night's ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists and other participants in the film-making industry of the time, for their works during the 1927–28 period; the ceremony ran for 15 minutes. Winners were announced to media three months earlier; that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11:00 pm on the night of the awards; this method was used until an occasion when the Los Angeles Times announced the winners before the ceremony began.
The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. He had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier. At that time, the winners were recognized for all of their work done in a certain category during the qualifying period. With the fourth ceremony, the system changed, professionals were honored for a specific performance in a single film. For the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on 27 March 1957, the Best Foreign Language Film category was introduced; until foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies have ended with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Traditionally, the previous year's winner for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor present the awards for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, while the previous year's winner for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress present the awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.
See § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. Made of gold-plated bronze on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in tall, weighs 8.5 lb, depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Directors and Technicians; the model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio "El Indio" Fernández. Sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons' design; the statuettes presented at the initial ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze. Within a few years the bronze was abandoned in favor of Britannia metal, a pewter-like alloy, plated in copper, nickel silver, 24-karat gold. Due to a metal shortage during World War II, Oscars were made of painted plaster for three years. Following the war, the Academy invited recipients to redeem the plaster figures for gold-plated metal ones; the only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base.
The original Oscar mold was cast in 1928 at the C. W. Shumway & Sons Foundry in Batavia, which contributed to casting the molds for the Vince Lombardi Trophy and Emmy Award's statuettes. From 1983 to 2015 50 Oscars in a tin alloy with gold plating were made each year in Chicago by Illinois manufacturer R. S. Owens & Company, it would take between four weeks to manufacture 50 statuettes. In 2016, the Academy returned to bronze as the core metal of the statuettes, handing manufacturing duties to Walden, New York-based Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry. While based on a digital scan of an original 1929 Oscar, the statuettes retain their modern-era dimensions and black pedestal. Cast in liquid bronze from 3D-printed ceramic molds and polished, they are electroplated in 24-karat gold by Brooklyn, New York–based Epner Technology; the time required to produce 50 such statuettes is three months. R. S. Owens i
Scorpion
Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs and are recognized by the pair of grasping pedipalps and the narrow, segmented tail carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back, ending with a venomous stinger. Scorpions range in size from 9 mm / 0.3 in. to 23 cm / 9 in.. The evolutionary history of scorpions goes back to the Silurian period 430 million years ago, they have adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions, they can now be found on all continents except Antarctica. Scorpions number about 1,750 described species, with 13 extant families recognised to date; the taxonomy has undergone changes and is to change further, as genetic studies are bringing forth new information. All scorpions have a venomous sting, but the vast majority of the species do not represent a serious threat to humans, in most cases, healthy adults do not need any medical treatment after being stung. Only about 25 species are known to have venom capable of killing a human.
In some parts of the world with venomous species, human fatalities occur in areas with limited access to medical treatment. The word scorpion is thought to have originated in Middle English between 1175 and 1225 AD from Old French scorpion, or from Italian scorpione, both derived from the Latin scorpius, the romanization of the Greek word σκορπίος – skorpíos. Scorpions are found on all major land masses except Antarctica. Scorpions did not occur in Great Britain, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and some of the islands in Oceania, but now have been accidentally introduced in some of these places by human trade and commerce; the greatest diversity of scorpions in the Northern Hemisphere is to be found in regions between the latitudes 23° N and 38° N. Above these latitudes, the diversity decreases with the northernmost natural occurrence of scorpions being the northern scorpion Paruroctonus boreus at Medicine Hat, Canada 50° N. Five colonies of scorpions have established themselves in Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey in the United Kingdom.
This small population has been resident since the 1860s, having arrived with imported fruit from Africa. This scorpion species is small and harmless to humans. At just over 51 ° N, this marks the northernmost limit. Today, scorpions are found in every terrestrial habitat including: high-elevation mountains and intertidal zones, with the exception of boreal ecosystems such as: the tundra, high-altitude taiga, the permanently snow-clad tops of some mountains; as regards microhabitats, scorpions may be tree-living, rock-loving or sand-loving. Some species, such as Vaejovis janssi, are versatile and are found in every type of habitat in Baja California, while others occupy specialized niches such as Euscorpius carpathicus, endemic to the littoral zone of rivers in Romania. Thirteen families and about 1,750 described species and subspecies of scorpions are known. In addition, 111 described; this classification is based on that of Soleglad and Fet, which replaced the older, unpublished classification of Stockwell.
Additional taxonomic changes are from papers by Soleglad et al.. This classification covers extant taxa to the rank of family: Order ScorpionesInfraorder Orthosterni Pocock, 1911 Parvorder Pseudochactida Soleglad et Fet, 2003 Superfamily Pseudochactoidea Gromov, 1998 Family Pseudochactidae Gromov, 1998 Parvorder Buthida Soleglad et Fet, 2003 Superfamily Buthoidea C. L. Koch, 1837 Family Buthidae C. L. Koch, 1837 Family Microcharmidae Lourenço, 1996 Parvorder Chaerilida Soleglad et Fet, 2003 Superfamily Chaeriloidea Pocock, 1893 Family Chaerilidae Pocock, 1893 Parvorder Iurida Soleglad et Fet, 2003 Superfamily Chactoidea Pocock, 1893 Family Chactidae Pocock, 1893 Family Euscorpiidae Laurie, 1896 Family Superstitioniidae Stahnke, 1940 Family Vaejovidae Thorell, 1876 Superfamily Iuroidea Thorell, 1876 Family Caraboctonidae Kraepelin, 1905 Family Iuridae Thorell, 1876 Superfamily Scorpionoidea Latreille, 1802 Family Bothriuridae Simon, 1880 Family Hemiscorpiidae Pocock, 1893 Family Scorpionidae Latreille, 1802 Scorpions have been found in many fossil records, including marine Silurian and estuarine Devonian deposits, coal deposits from the Carboniferous Period and in amber.
The oldest known scorpions lived around 430 million years ago in the Silurian period. Though once believed to have lived on the bottom of shallow tropical seas, early scorpions are now believed to have been terrestrial and to have washed into marine settings together with plant matter; these first scorpions were believed to have had gills instead of the present forms' book lungs, though this has subsequently been refuted. The oldest Gondwanan scorpions comprise the earliest known terrestrial animals from Gondwana. 111 fossil species of scorpion are known. Unusually for arachnids, there are more species of Palaeozoic scorpion than Mesozoic or Cenozoic ones. Fossil of ancestral scorpions had compound eyes, but as they adapted to a nocturnal lifestyle, their eyes became simplified; the eurypterids called "sea scorpions", were aquatic creatures that lived during the Palaeozoic era that share several physical traits with scorpions and may be related to them. Various species of Eurypterida could grow to be anywhere from 10 centimetres to 2.5 metres in length.
However, they exhibit anatomical differences marking them off as a group distinct from t
Kokoda Front Line!
Kokoda Front Line! was a full-length edition of the Australian newsreel, Cinesound Review, produced by the Australian News & Information Bureau and Cinesound Productions Limited in 1942. It was one of four winners of the 15th Academy Awards for best documentary, the first Australian film to win an Oscar, it was directed by Ken G. Hall. Damien Parer is cited as one of Australia's early Academy Award winners, however the award was made to the director, Ken G. Hall. Much of Parer's footage was used in a documentary made by a rival company, The Road to Kokoda. List of Allied propaganda films of World War II Kokoda Front Line! on IMDb Kokoda Front Line at Oz Movies Video on YouTube, posted by the Department of Veterans' Affairs Kokoda Front Line! at Australian Screen Online One of the Eyemo cameras used by Parer while filming Kokoda Front Line! can be seen at National Museum Australia, Canberra
Tarantula
Tarantulas comprise a group of large and hairy arachnids belonging to the Theraphosidae family of spiders, of which about 900 species have been identified. This article only describes members of the Theraphosidae, although some other members of the same infraorder are referred to as "tarantulas"; some species have become popular in the exotic pet trade. New World species kept as pets have urticating hairs that can cause irritation to the skin and, in extreme cases, cause damage to eyes. Like all arthropods, the tarantula is an invertebrate that relies on an exoskeleton for muscular support. Like other Arachnida, a tarantula's body comprises the prosoma and the opisthosoma; the prosoma and opisthosoma are connected by the pregenital somite. This waist-like connecting piece is part of the prosoma and gives the opisthosoma a wide range of motion relative to the prosoma. Tarantula sizes range from as small as a fingernail to as large as a dinner plate when the legs are extended. Depending on the species, the body length of tarantulas ranges from 2.5 to 10 cm, with leg spans of 8–30-centimetre.
Leg span is determined by measuring from the tip of the back leg to the tip of the front leg on the opposite side. Some of the largest species of tarantula may weigh over 85 g; the fang size of this tarantula reaches a maximum of 3.8 cm. Theraphosa apophysis was described 187 years after the goliath birdeater, so its characteristics are not as well attested. Theraphosa blondi is thought to be the heaviest tarantula, T. apophysis to have the greatest leg span. Two other species, Lasiodora parahybana and Lasiodora klugi, rival the size of the two goliath spiders. Most species of North American tarantulas are brown. Elsewhere, species have been found that variously display cobalt blue, black with white stripes, yellow leg markings, metallic blue legs with vibrant orange abdomen and green prosoma, their natural habitats include savanna, grasslands such as the pampas, deserts, scrubland and cloud forests. They are classed among the terrestrial types, they are burrowers. Tarantulas are becoming popular as pets and some species are available in captivity.
The spider bearing the name "tarantula" was Lycosa tarantula, a species of wolf spider native to Mediterranean Europe. The name derived from that of the southern Italian town of Taranto; the term "tarantula" subsequently was applied to any large, unfamiliar species of ground-dwelling spider, in particular to the Mygalomorphae and to the New World Theraphosidae. Compared to tarantulas, wolf spiders are not large or hairy, so among English speakers in particular, the usage shifted in favour of the Theraphosidae, though they are related to the wolf spiders, being in a different infraorder; when theraphosids were encountered in the Americas, they were named "tarantulas", causing usage of the term to shift to the tropical spiders. These spiders belong to the infraorder Mygalomorphae, are not related to wolf spiders; the name "tarantula" is incorrectly applied to other large-bodied spiders, including the purseweb spiders or atypical tarantulas, the funnel-webs, the "dwarf tarantulas". These spiders are classified in different families.
Huntsman spiders of the family Sparassidae have been termed "tarantulas" because of their large size. In fact, they are not related. Tarantulas of various species occur throughout the United States, Mexico, in Central America, throughout South America. Other species occur variously throughout Africa, much of Asia, all of Australia. In Europe, some species occur in Spain, Turkey, south Italy, Cyprus; some genera of tarantulas hunt prey in trees. All tarantulas can produce silk – while arboreal species reside in a silken "tube tent", terrestrial species line their burrows with silk to stabilize the burrow wall and facilitate climbing up and down. Tarantulas eat large insects and other arthropods such as centipedes and other spiders, using ambush as their primary method of prey capture. Armed with their massive, powerful chelicerae tipped with long chitinous fangs, tarantulas are well-adapted to killing other large arthropods; the biggest tarantulas sometimes kill and consume small vertebrates such as lizards, bats and small snakes.
The eight legs, the two chelicerae with their fangs, the pedipalps are attached to the prosoma. The chelicerae are two double-segmented appendages located just below the eyes and directly forward of the mouth; the chelicerae contain. The fangs are hollow extensions of the chelicerae that inject venom into prey or animals that the tarantula bites in defense, they are used to masticate; these fangs are articulated so that they can extend downward and outward in preparation to bite or can fold back toward the chelicerae as a pocket knife blade folds back into its handle. The chelicerae of a tarantula contain the venom glands and the muscles that
Tarantula hawk
A tarantula hawk is a spider wasp that hunts tarantulas. Tarantula hawks belong to any of the many species in the genera Pepsis and Hemipepsis, they are parasitoid wasps, using their sting to paralyze their prey before dragging it to a brood nest as living food. The more familiar species are up to 5 cm long, making them among the largest of wasps, have blue-black bodies and bright, rust-colored wings; the vivid coloration found on their bodies, wings, is an aposematism, advertising to potential predators the wasps' ability to deliver a powerful sting. Their long legs have hooked claws for grappling with their victims; the stinger of a female Pepsis grossa can be up to 7 mm long, the powerful sting is considered one of the most painful insect stings in the world. The female tarantula hawk wasp stings and paralyzes a tarantula drags the prey to a specially prepared brooding nest, where a single egg is laid on the spider's abdomen, the entrance is covered. Sex of the larvae is determined by fertilization.
When the wasp larva hatches, it creates a small hole in the spider's abdomen enters and feeds voraciously, avoiding vital organs for as long as possible to keep the spider alive. After several weeks, the larva pupates; the wasp becomes an adult and emerges from the spider's abdomen to continue the lifecycle. Adult tarantula hawks are nectarivorous; the consumption of fermented fruit sometimes intoxicates them to the point that flight becomes difficult. While the wasps tend to be most active in the daytime in summer, they tend to avoid high temperatures; the male tarantula hawk does not hunt. Male tarantula hawks have been observed practicing a behavior called hill-topping, in which they sit atop tall plants and watch for passing females ready to reproduce. Females are not aggressive, in that they are hesitant to sting, but the sting is extraordinarily painful. Worldwide distribution of tarantula hawks includes areas from India to Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas. Tarantula hawk species have been observed from as far north as Logan and south as far as Argentina, with at least 250 species living in South America.
Eighteen species of Pepsis and three species of Hemipepsis are found in the United States in the deserts of the southwestern United States, with Pepsis grossa and Pepsis thisbe being common. The two species are difficult to distinguish, but the majority of P. grossa has metallic blue bodies and reddish antennae, which separates them from P. thisbe. Both species have bright orange wings. Tarantula hawk wasps are docile and sting without provocation. However, the sting—particularly that of P. grossa—is among the most painful of all insects, though the intense pain only lasts about five minutes. One researcher described the pain as "...immediate, unrelenting pain that shuts down one's ability to do anything, except scream. Mental discipline does not work in these situations." In terms of scale, the wasp's sting is rated near the top of the Schmidt sting pain index, second only to that of the bullet ant, is described by Schmidt as "blinding, fierce shockingly electric". Because of their large stingers few animals are able to eat them.
Many predatory animals avoid these wasps, many different insects mimic them, including various other wasps and bees, as well as moths and beetles. Aside from the possibility of triggering an allergic reaction, the sting is not dangerous and does not require medical attention. Local redness appears in most cases after the pain, lasts for up to a week; the U. S. state of New Mexico chose a species of tarantula hawk in 1989 to become its official state insect. Its selection was prompted by a group of elementary school children from Edgewood doing research on states that had adopted state insects, they selected three insects as candidates and mailed ballots to all schools for a statewide election. The winner was the tarantula hawk wasp.'"Instantaneous, Excruciating Pain", book excerpt by entomologist Justin O. Schmidt
The Fighting Lady
The Fighting Lady is a 1944 documentary film produced by the U. S. Navy and narrated by Lt. Robert Taylor USNR; the plot of the film revolves around the life of seamen on board an anonymous aircraft carrier. Because of war time restrictions, the name of the aircraft carrier was disguised as "the Fighting Lady", although she was identified as USS Yorktown. A few shots of aircraft landing were filmed aboard the Yorktown's sister ship USS Ticonderoga. Mentioned is the adage that war is 99% waiting; the first half or so of the film is taken up with examining the mundane details of life on board the aircraft carrier as she sails through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific Ocean seeing action at Marcus Island. The film provides aerial views of a series of airstrikes at Japanese bases in the Pacific theatre. Following an attack on Kwajalein in early 1944, intelligence reports that an armada of Japanese ships is massing near Truk, a major Japanese logistical base in the Carolines; the Fighting Lady and some of her task force are sent on a "hit and run" mission to neutralize it and return to Marcus, but not to attempt a landing.
Once the ship returns from the massive, two-day Truk raid, it is sent to the waters off the Marianas and participates in the famous "Marianas Turkey Shoot". At the end some of the servicemen who appeared in the film are reintroduced to us, the narrator informs us that they have died in battle; the film uses Technicolor footage shot by "gun cameras" mounted directly on aircraft guns during combat. This gives a realistic edge to the film, while the chronological following of the ship and crew mirror the experiences of the seamen who went from green recruits through the rigours of military life, and, for some, death. In his autobiography Baa Baa Black Sheep, U. S. Marine Corps ace pilot Gregory "Pappy" Boyington claims that the film shows the small pit in which he and five other prisoners of war took cover during the Truk raid. Boyington had been captured by the Japanese and was being transported to a prison camp on the Truk islands when the raid began. Boyington writes that the prisoners and blindfolded, were thrown from their transport plane during a hurried landing, that one of their Japanese captors saved their lives by throwing them into the pit, where they survived without harm.
According to Boyington, the film shows a crater from a two-thousand pound bomb that landed just fifteen feet from the pit. Due to her fighting heritage, to honor all carrier sailors and airmen, the Yorktown is on permanent display at Patriots Point in Charleston, SC. Alfred Newman's musical theme appeared in Vigil in the Night and was reused in Hell and High Water and in many 20th Century Fox film trailers. List of Allied propaganda films of World War II The Fighting Lady is available for free download at the Internet Archive The Fighting Lady on IMDb
Desert Victory
Desert Victory is a 1943 film produced by the British Ministry of Information, documenting the Allies' North African campaign against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and the Afrika Korps. This documentary traces the struggle between General Erwin Rommel and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, from the German's defeat at El Alamein to Tripoli; the film was produced by David MacDonald and directed by Roy Boulting who directed Tunisian Victory and Burma Victory. Like the famous "Why We Fight" series of films by Frank Capra, Desert Victory relies on captured German newsreel footage. Many of the most famous sequences in the film have been excerpted and appear with frequency in History Channel and A&E productions; the film won a special Oscar in 1943 and the 1951 film The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel took sections of the film for its battle footage. The film has been criticized for emphasizing the British role in the victory, while playing down the American contribution to the battle. Mark Harris, author of the "Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War," a book about the role that five prominent Hollywood directors played in the war, has stated in an interview on Turner Classic Movies that when asked about the omission, the British war department retorted that the Americans "didn't have any good footage."
A sequel, "Tunisian Victory," was produced as a co-allied production between British and American propaganda agencies, with American film makers Frank Capra and John Huston restaging actual events, such as liberations, as well as tank and air battles to achieve high quality footage that the British couldn't refuse. The British knew that the footage was fake, but since they themselves restaged much of the footage, this uneasy collaboration continued. List of Allied Propaganda Films of World War 2 Desert Victory on IMDb Desert Victory is available for free download at the Internet Archive
