1.
Twister (1989 film)
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Twister is a 1989 American comedy film starring Suzy Amis, Crispin Glover, Harry Dean Stanton, and Dylan McDermott. It was shot in Wichita, Kansas, based on Mary Robisons 1981 novel Oh. The film relates the story of the eccentric Cleveland family during the event of a tornados hitting their rural Kansas home, the head of the family is Eugene Cleveland, who built soda pop and mini-golf empires and lives off the proceeds. His two adult children, Maureen, and Howdy, live with him in his mansion along with Maureens daughter Violet, and Lola, the housekeeper. Maureen is plagued by unwanted visits from her ex, Chris, Howdy is enrolled in a local university and pursues rolling interests in painting, music, and theater, all with an Absurdist slant. He is also trying to convince Stephanie, a young groundskeeper from the University, to marry him. Eugene, exasperated with Howdys high-brow attitude and Maureens sullen listlessness, spends his time drinking and courting Virginia, a local host of a Christian childrens TV program. The group continuously annoy each other, fight, and try to find themselves in a little world where all of the necessities of life are provided. Howdy finds an envelope with their mothers address and he and Maureen take Violet with them in an effort to track her down, the address on the envelope leads them to a farm in which they meet an unnamed character played by William Burroughs. Burroughs tells them he bought the farm from her and met her once when they were in escrow, when the kids ask if they can speak to Jim Burroughs replies Jim got kicked in the head by a horse last year. Went around killing horses for a while, until he ate the insides of a clock and he then indicates that he thinks she moved to Ireland and that becomes the focus of their drive to see her and forgive her. Eugene, frustrated with Virginias condescending attitude toward his family, breaks up with her, during a particularly heated dinner one evening, Eugene overreacts to Howdys insults and explodes, tipping over bowls of gazpacho. Howdy reveals to his father that he and Maureen have actively attempted to find their mother, Eugene informs them that she died in a mental institution and didnt even recognize him toward the end. Maureen and Chris decide to get married and Stephanie goes back to her old boyfriend, meanwhile, Eugene absconds from his immediate family and goes off to destinations unknown with Lola
2.
Twisted (1996 film)
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Twisted is a film written and directed by Seth Michael Donsky. His debut film, it was released in 1997, the film was an official selection and debuted in 1997 at the 47th Berlin International Film Festival, and was also screened as an official selection at the Seattle International Film Festival. Donskys film was made prior to Jacob Tierneys similar film Twist, william Hickey stars as Andre, the lecherous brothel owner that trades in young men. Exploiting his young charges through paternalism and drugs, Andre sets his sights on Lee, through Andre, Lee quickly becomes immersed in New Yorks sleazy underbelly of drug dealers and street hustlers. The boys only hope for survival is the aspiring songwriter Angel, himself a former hustler, Angel befriends Lee and rescues him from the wiles of Andres cohort Fine Art, who attempts to profit on Lees tender age. Eventually, Andres petty empire is vanquished by Shiniqua, a powerfully wise, bundrass, social Worker Simon Brook as Undercover Cop Erik Jensen as Punk Brenda Pressley as Mrs. Burns, Lees foster mother Eugene Byrd as Willus, Mrs
3.
Jan de Bont
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Jan de Bont is a Dutch cinematographer, director and film producer. He is widely known for directing the 1994 action film Speed starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, as a director of photography, he has shot numerous blockbusters and genre films, including Cujo, Flesh and Blood, Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October and Basic Instinct. De Bont was born to a Roman Catholic family in Eindhoven, Netherlands and his earliest work after studying at the Amsterdam Film Academy was with the Dutch avant garde director Adriaan Ditvoorst. He first came to fame in the Netherlands as the cinematographer for the 1973 film Turkish Delight, directed by Paul Verhoeven, starring Rutger Hauer, since the early 1980s, he worked frequently in Hollywood, often collaborating with directors including Verhoeven and John McTiernan. While serving as cinematographer for the 1981 film Roar, De Bont experienced one of many injuries during filming. After Roar, De Bont shot the 1983 horror film Cujo, in 1988, he was director of photography on the critically lauded action film Die Hard. The following year, de Bont shot the Ridley Scott-directed action thriller Black Rain, De Bont made his directorial debut with the action thriller Speed in 1994, which was a surprise hit. He followed this up with the more successful Twister in 1996. His output since has had mixed commercial and critical success, in 1997, he returned to direct the sequel Speed 2, Cruise Control, which was a commercial and critical failure. In 1999, he directed The Haunting remake and it was a commercial success, but was heavily panned by critics, receiving five Razzie Award nominations and being widely considered one of the worst remakes in cinema history. He was married to Dutch actress Monique van de Ven from 1973 to 1988, Monique starred in the 1973 film Turkish Delight, for which De Bont did the cinematography. De Bont has two children from his marriage with Trish Reeves, Alexander and Anneke. De Bont began pre-production on an American Godzilla film for a summer 1996 release,1997 Golden Raspberry Awards Jan de Bont at the Internet Movie Database
4.
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
5.
Michael Crichton
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John Michael Crichton was an American best-selling author, screenwriter, film director and producer best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction and thriller genres. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted into films, in 1994, Crichton became the only creative artist ever to have works simultaneously charting at No.1 in US television, film, and book sales. His literary works are usually within the genre and heavily feature technology. His novels epitomize the techno-thriller genre of literature, often exploring technology and failures of human interaction with it, many of his future history novels have medical or scientific underpinnings, reflecting his medical training and science background. John Michael Crichton was born on October 23,1942, in Chicago, Illinois, to John Henderson Crichton, a journalist, and Zula Miller Crichton. He was raised on Long Island, in Roslyn, New York, Crichton had always planned on becoming a writer and began his studies at Harvard College in 1960. During his undergraduate study in literature, he conducted an experiment to expose a professor who he believed was giving him abnormally low marks, informing another professor of his suspicions, Crichton submitted an essay by George Orwell under his own name. The paper was returned by his unwitting professor with a mark of B− and he received a Henry Russell Shaw Traveling Fellowship from 1964 to 1965 and was a visiting lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom in 1965. Crichton later enrolled at Harvard Medical School, when he began publishing work, by this time he had become exceptionally tall, by his own account he was approximately 6 feet 9 inches tall in 1997. In reference to his height, while in school, he began writing novels under the pen names John Lange. He later described his Lange books in the way, My feeling about the Lange books is that my competition is in-flight movies. One can read the books in an hour and a half, I write them fast and the reader reads them fast and I get things off my back. In Travels he recalls overhearing doctors, who were unaware that he was the author, a Case of Need, written under the Hudson pseudonym, won him his first Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1969. He also co-wrote Dealing, or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues with his younger brother Douglas, the back cover of that book carried a picture, taken by their mother, of Michael and Douglas when very young. He graduated from Harvard, obtaining an MD in 1969, and undertook a fellowship study at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. He never obtained a license to practice medicine, devoting himself to his career instead. Reflecting on his career in medicine years later, Crichton concluded that too often shunned responsibility for their own health. He experimented with astral projection, aura viewing, and clairvoyance, in 1988, Crichton was a visiting writer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6.
Kathleen Kennedy (producer)
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Kathleen Kennedy is an American film producer. In 1981, she co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg and husband Frank Marshall and she was a producer on the 1982 film E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the Jurassic Park franchise, the first two of which became two of the top ten highest-grossing films of the 1990s. Kennedy is third only to Spielberg and Stan Lee in domestic box office receipts, on October 30,2012, she became the president of Lucasfilm, and the brand manager of the Star Wars franchise, after The Walt Disney Company acquired the company for over $4 billion. Overall, Kennedys work has included over 60 films,120 Academy Award nominations, one of her most recent projects, Lincoln, also produced by Spielberg, was nominated for seven Golden Globes and twelve Academy Awards. Kennedy was born in Berkeley, California, the daughter of Dione Marie Dede, a theater actress, and Donald R. Kennedy. Her twin sister, Connie, formerly a location manager in British Columbia, Kennedy graduated from Shasta High School in Redding, California, in 1971. She continued her education at San Diego State University where she majored in telecommunications, after her employment with KCST, she went on to produce a local talk show entitled Youre On for the station for four years before moving to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, Kennedy secured her first film production job working as an assistant to John Milius, during the production of 1941, while working for screenwriter John Milius, Kennedy came to the attention of Steven Spielberg. Spielberg hired Kennedy as his secretary, but both she and he reported that she was a terrible typist who was kept on only because of her good production ideas. Kennedy was credited as associate to Mr. Spielberg on Raiders of the Lost Ark and she began receiving producer credit with Spielberg on the box-office smash E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which continued on most of his films for the next three decades. Following her work on the Indiana Jones films, she rose to one of Hollywoods leading producers. In 1981 she helped co-found and run the successful production company Amblin Entertainment, with Spielberg. She went on to collaborate with a large and important group of directors, including Martin Scorsese, Robert Zemeckis, Barry Levinson, and Clint Eastwood when they made films for Amblin. Kennedy took over a portion of the running of Amblin and served as president of the Amblin company until 1992. She became a partner with him in The Kennedy/Marshall Company, a Santa-Monica-based film-production company with a deal at DreamWorks. In 2007, she was the first recipient of Women in Films Paltrow Mentorship Award, for showing extraordinary commitment to mentoring and supporting the generation of filmmakers. In 2005 she was a producer on two of Spielbergs films, War of the Worlds and Munich, the latter of which earned her an Academy Award nomination. Marshall and Kennedy were producers for the US versions of two Studio Ghibli animated features, Ponyo released in 2009 and The Secret World of Arrietty, in May 2012, she stepped down from Kennedy/Marshall, leaving Marshall as sole principal of their eponymous film company
7.
Helen Hunt
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Helen Elizabeth Hunt is an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Some of her notable films include Twister, Cast Away, What Women Want, Pay It Forward, and The Sessions. She made her debut in 2007 with Then She Found Me. Hunt has also won four Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards. Hunt was born in Culver City, California and her mother, Jane Elizabeth, worked as a photographer, and her father, Gordon Hunt, was a film, voice and stage director and acting coach. Her uncle, Peter H. Hunt, is also a director and her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Fries, was a voice coach. Hunts paternal grandmother was from a German-Jewish family, while Hunts other grandparents were of English descent, when she was three, Hunts family moved to New York City, where her father directed theatre and Hunt attended plays as a child several times a week. Hunt studied ballet, and briefly attended UCLA, Hunt began working as a child actress in the 1970s. She appeared as a classmate on an episode of The Facts of Life. Hunt also played a woman who, while on PCP, jumps out of a second-story window. That same year, Hunt was cast on the ABC sitcom It Takes Two, for the last year of the show she and Paul Reiser became the first actors ever to be paid $1,000,000 per episode. Hunt directed several episodes of Mad About You, including the series finale and her big-screen directorial debut came with the film Then She Found Me, in which she also starred, with Colin Firth and Matthew Broderick. She starred with Bill Paxton in the 1996 disaster action film Twister, after winning the Academy Award, she took time off from movie work to play Viola in Shakespeares Twelfth Night, at Lincoln Center in New York. In 2000, Hunt starred in four films, Dr. T & the Women, with Richard Gere, Pay It Forward, with Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment, What Women Want, with Mel Gibson, and Cast Away, with Tom Hanks. In 2003, she returned to Broadway in Yasmina Rezas Life x 3, in 2006, Hunt appeared in the ensemble cast film Bobby alongside Demi Moore, Anthony Hopkins, Sharon Stone and William H. Macy. In 2011, in the movie Soul Surfer, she played the mother of the Hawaiian-born champion surfer Bethany Hamilton, on whose life the movie was based, in 2012, she starred alongside John Hawkes and William H. Macy in The Sessions as sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen-Greene. The movie and her performance were well reviewed and earned her several award nominations. The movie also gained two awards at the Sundance Film Festival and she owns a production company with Connie Tavel, Hunt/Tavel Productions under Sony Pictures Entertainment. Hunt started dating actor Hank Azaria in 1994 and they married in 1999 and she has been partnered with producer/writer/director Matthew Carnahan since 2001
8.
Bill Paxton
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William Bill Paxton was an American actor and film director. The films in which he appeared include The Terminator, Weird Science, Aliens, Predator 2, True Lies, Apollo 13, Twister, Titanic, U-571, Edge of Tomorrow, Paxton also starred in the HBO drama series Big Love. In 2013, he received an Emmy Award nomination for his performance in the miniseries Hatfields & McCoys, Paxton was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, the son of Mary Lou and John Lane Paxton. His father was a businessman, lumber wholesaler, museum executive and his mother was Roman Catholic, and he and his siblings were raised in her faith. Paxton was in the crowd when President John F. Kennedy emerged from the Hotel Texas on the morning of his assassination on November 22,1963, photographs of an 8-year-old Paxton being lifted above the crowd are on display at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, Texas. On the Marc Maron podcast, Paxton revealed at the age of 13 he contracted rheumatic fever which had damaged his heart, during his teens, Paxton worked as a paper delivery boy with Mike Muir. He directed several films, including the music video for Barnes & Barnes novelty song Fish Heads. He was cast in a video for the 1982 Pat Benatar song Shadows of the Night. In 1982, Paxton and his friend Andrew Todd Rosenthal formed a new wave band called Martini Ranch. The band released its full length album, Holy Cow. The album was produced by Devo member Bob Casale and featured guest appearances by two members of that band. The music video for the bands single Reach was directed by James Cameron, Paxton worked with director James Cameron on True Lies and Titanic, the latter of which was the highest-grossing film of all time at its release. In his other roles, Paxton played Morgan Earp in Tombstone, Fred Haise in Apollo 13, the lead in Twister, Paxton directed the feature films Frailty, in which he starred, and The Greatest Game Ever Played. Four years after appearing in Titanic, he joined Cameron on an expedition to the actual Titanic, a film about this trip, Ghosts of the Abyss, was released in 2003. He also appeared in the video for Limp Bizkits 2003 song Eat You Alive as a sheriff. His highest profile television performances received positive attention, including his lead role in HBOs Big Love. Paxton also received good reviews for his performance in the History Channels miniseries Hatfields & McCoys, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award, alongside co-star Kevin Costner. In 2014, he played the role of the villainous John Garrett in Agents of S. H. I. E. L. D. and a supporting role in Edge of Tomorrow
9.
Jami Gertz
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Jami Beth Gertz is an American actress. Gertz was born in Chicago, Illinois, and lived in the nearby suburb of Glenview. Her parents are Sharyn and Walter Gertz, who was a builder and contractor, Gertz, who is Jewish, was raised in Conservative Judaism. She graduated from Maine East High School and she was discovered in a nationwide talent search by Norman Lear and studied drama at NYU. As a child actor, Gertz was in one episode of Diffrent Strokes along with Andrew Dice Clay and she also had a recurring role on The Facts of Life as Blairs friend and fellow schoolmate Boots St. Clair. Gertz made her debut in the 1981 romance film Endless Love. After its cancellation, she appeared in the teen movie Sixteen Candles in 1984 and she gained more significant attention with a starring role in 1987s Less Than Zero, as the friend of a doomed drug addict played by Robert Downey, Jr. She also starred in the 1987 film The Lost Boys as Star, in the 1994 episode of Seinfeld, The Stall, she appeared as one of Jerrys girlfriends who works as a phone sex operator and cant spare a square of toilet paper to Elaine in the restroom. Gertz later played the recurring character Dr. Nina Pomerantz during the 1997 season of ER and she reportedly was offered, but declined, the role of Rachel Green, during pre-production of Friends. In 2000, Gertz took up a role on the Fox hit Ally McBeal as Kimmy Bishop. Gertz was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and she returned to this role in one more episode as a guest star in the shows final season in 2002. Also in 2002, she portrayed comedian Gilda Radner in the television movie Gilda Radner, gertzs character on Still Standing, Judy Miller, is named after a character Radner portrayed on Saturday Night Live. Still Standing, a sitcom in which Gertz co-starred with Mark Addy. In 2003 Gertz starred as Brandy, a wanted criminals girlfriend, in Undercover Christmas, in 2009–10 she had a recurring role as Marlo Klein, wife of Ari Golds newest business partner Andrew Klein, an agent at Miller-Gold Talent Agency, on HBOs Entourage. In 2011, she returned to broadcast television with a guest role in the Modern Family episode Slow Down Your Neighbors. From 2012 to 2014, Gertz starred in the ABC sitcom The Neighbors where she played the mother of a family that moves into a neighborhood populated by residents from another planet. Gertz and her husband Antony Ressler have three children, Gertz and her husband are members of the investment group led by Mark Attanasio that purchased the MLB franchise Milwaukee Brewers. Gertz-Ressler High Academy, a member of The Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, is named for Jami, in 2011, the Giving Back Fund named Gertz and her husband the number-one donor to charity of any celebrity in 2010
10.
Cary Elwes
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Ivan Simon Cary Elwes, known professionally as Cary Elwes, is an English actor and writer. He is best known for his roles in such as The Princess Bride, Glory, Robin Hood, Men in Tights, Days of Thunder, Bram Stokers Dracula. Twister, The Jungle Book, Liar, Liar, and Saw and he has also had recurring roles in series such as The X-Files and Psych, and currently stars in the Crackle series The Art of More. Ivan Simon Cary Elwes was born on 26 October 1962 in Westminster, London and he is the brother of artist Damian Elwes and film producer Cassian Elwes. His stepfather, Elliott Kastner, was an American film producer and his paternal grandfather was painter Simon Elwes, whose own father was the diplomat and tenor Gervase Elwes. His other great-grandfathers include the diplomat Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell, Elwes has Croatian Jewish, Irish, Serbian, and Scottish ancestry. His Croatian and Serbian roots come from his grandmother, Daška McLean, whose second husband. One of Elwes ancestors is John Elwes, who is alleged in sources to have been the inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. Elwes himself played five roles in the 2009 film adaptation of the novel and his paternal relatives include such clerics as Dudley Charles Cary-Elwes, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Northampton, Abbott Columba Cary-Elwes, and Father Luke Cary-Elwes. He discussed this in an interview while he was filming the 2005 CBS television film Pope John Paul II, Elwes parents divorced when he was four years old, and in 1975, when Elwes was 13, his father committed suicide. For his education, Elwes attended Harrow School and he then attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. In 1981, he moved to the United States to study acting at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, while living there, Elwes studied acting at both the Actors Studio and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute under the tutelage of Al Pacinos mentor, Charlie Laughton. As a teenager, he worked as a production assistant on the films Absolution, Octopussy, and Superman. When Elwes introduced himself to the actor, Brando insisted on calling him Rocky after Rocky Marciano. He went on to play Guilford Dudley in the British historical drama film Lady Jane and he was then cast as a stable boy turned swashbuckler Westley in Rob Reiners fantasy-comedy The Princess Bride, based on the novel of the same name by William Goldman. It was a modest box office success, but received critical acclaim, since being released on home video and television, however, the film has become a cult classic. Initially the studio didnt know how to market, in the end they sold it as a kids movie and it largely had to rely on word of mouth. People tell me they still have their VHS copy that has passed down from one generation to the next
11.
Eddie Van Halen
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Edward Lodewijk Eddie Van Halen is a Dutch-American musician, songwriter and producer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, occasional keyboardist and he is considered one of the most influential guitarists in the history of rock music. In 2011, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Van Halen number eight in the list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists, in 2012, he was voted number one in a Guitar World magazine readers poll for The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Born in Nijmegen, Netherlands, Edward Lodewijk van Halen is the son of Dutch father, Jan van Halen, a clarinetist, saxophonist, and pianist, Van Halens middle name, Lodewijk, is after composer Ludwig van Beethoven, Lodewijk being the Dutch equivalent of Ludwig. He continued this tradition by naming his son Wolfgang Van Halen after composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in February 1962, the Van Halen family moved to the United States, settling in Pasadena, California. Both Eddie and his brother, Alex, are naturalized U. S. citizens. The Van Halen brothers learned to play the piano as children starting at the age of six and they commuted from Pasadena to San Pedro to study with an elderly man, Stasys Kalvaitis who taught them classical piano. Although they hated the commute, they continued as their mother would discipline them if they refused to go, Van Halen revealed in an interview that he never could read the music. Instead, he learned from watching and listening, during recitals of Bach or Mozart, he would simply wing it. From 1964 through 1967, Edward won first place in the piano competition held at Long Beach City College. Afterward, the judges would comment that he had an interpretation of the classical piece. I thought I was playing it correctly, however, according to one interview, playing the piano did not prove to be challenging or interesting to him. Consequently, while Alex began playing the guitar, Eddie bought a drum kit, after Eddie heard Alexs performance of The Surfaris drum solo in the song Wipe Out, he decided to switch instruments and began learning how to play the electric guitar. According to Eddie Van Halen, as a teen, he would often practice while walking around at home with his guitar strapped on or sitting in his room for hours with the door locked. Van Halen acknowledged the importance of super group Creams Im So Glad on Goodbye Cream to be mind-blowing and he once claimed that he had learned almost all of Eric Claptons solos in the band Cream. note for note. Ive always said Eric Clapton was my influence, Van Halen said. Van Halen would later say that this was when he first felt the desire to become a professional musician, in 1972, Van Halen formed another band, originally called Genesis. The name was changed to Mammoth when Van Halen became aware of the English progressive rock band of the same name, Mammoth consisted of Van Halen on guitar and lead vocals, his brother Alex on drums and bass guitarist Mark Stone
12.
Amblin Entertainment
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Amblin Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1981. The companys headquarters are located on the backlot of Universal Studios in Universal City, Amblin is named after Spielbergs first commercially released film, Amblin, a short independent film about a man and woman hitchhiking through the desert. The film, which cost $15,000 to produce, was shown for Universal Studios, although Amblin is an independent production company, Universal distributes many Amblin productions, and Amblin operates out of a building on the Universal lot. Its logo features the silhouette of E. T. riding in the basket on Elliotts bicycle flying in front of the moon from the 1982 movie, J. Abrams, The Coen Brothers, and Simon Wells. Most of these directors are close friends of Spielberg, who has a producer or producer credit on many. Amblins most critically acclaimed production is Schindlers List, which was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, winning seven, a companion study guide for it, Facing History, was prepared through a grant from Amblin and Universal. Amblins television series credits include Amazing Stories, Tiny Toon Adventures, seaQuest DSV, Animaniacs, Earth 2, Pinky and the Brain, ER, Freakazoid. Back to the Future, Family Dog, The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, Fievels American Tails, The Land Before Time and Men in Black, the animated title Fievels American Tails and others were produced by Amblins animation division Amblimation, which was active from 1991 until 1995. Another studio which has distributed many Amblin productions is Warner Bros, dreamWorks has distributed a number of Amblin productions since 1994. Asterisked films indicate that Steven Spielberg is uncredited or uninvolved, back to the Future, The Ride, a simulator ride at Universal Studios Japan. Also existed at Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood, gremlins Invasion, a ride at Warner Bros. Jurassic Park, The Ride, a ride at Universal Studios Hollywood. Men in Black, Alien Attack, a ride at Universal Studios Florida. Roger Rabbits Car Toon Spin, a ride in Mickeys Toontown. Twister. Ride it Out, a ride at Universal Studios Florida. E. T. Adventure, a ride at Universal Studios Florida. Also existed at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Japan, Amblin Entertainment at the Internet Movie Database
13.
Warner Bros.
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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.
Universal Pictures
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Universal Pictures is an American film studio owned by Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. The company was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley and its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City. Universal Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America and is one of Hollywoods Big Six studios. Universal Studios was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, one story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons and calculating the days takings. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, Laemmle gave up dry goods to buy the first several nickelodeons, for Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Trust meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Soon, Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners decided to avoid paying Edison by producing their own pictures, in June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with partners Abe Stern and Julius Stern. Laemmle broke with Edisons custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to performers, by naming the movie stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time, contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence, formerly known as The Biograph Girl, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York on April 30,1912. Laemmle, who emerged as president in July 1912, was the figure in the partnership with Dintenfass, Baumann, Kessel, Powers, Swanson, Horsley. Eventually all would be out by Laemmle. Following the westward trend of the industry, by the end of 1912 the company was focusing its efforts in the Hollywood area. On March 15,1915, Laemmle opened the worlds largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, studio management became the third facet of Universals operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Unlike other movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists, Universal became the largest studio in Hollywood, and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in towns, producing mostly inexpensive melodramas, westerns. In its early years Universal released three brands of feature films — Red Feather, low-budget programmers, Bluebird, more ambitious productions, and Jewel, their prestige motion pictures. Directors included Jack Conway, John Ford, Rex Ingram, Robert Z. Leonard, George Marshall and Lois Weber, despite Laemmles role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox, and Marcus Loew and he also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. Character actor Lon Chaney became a card for Universal in the 1920s
15.
Epic film
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Epic film is a style of filmmaking with large scale, sweeping scope, and spectacle. The usage of the term has shifted over time, sometimes designating a film genre, like epics in the classical literary sense it is often focused on a heroic character. An epics ambitious nature helps to set it apart from other types of such as the period piece or adventure film. The most common subjects of epic films are royalty, and important figures from various periods in world history, the term epic originally came from the poetic genre exemplified by such works as the Iliad, Epic of Gilgamesh, or the Odyssey. In classical literature, epics are considered works focused on deeds or journeys of heroes upon which the fate of a number of people depend. Similarly, films described as epic typically take a historical character, common subjects of epics are royalty, gladiators, great military leaders, or leading personalities from various periods in world history. Such films usually have a setting, although fantasy or science fiction settings have become common in recent decades. The central conflict of the film is seen as having far-reaching effects. The main characters actions are often central to the resolution of the societal conflict, in its classification of films by genre, the American Film Institute limits the genre to historical films such as Ben-Hur. However, film scholars such as Constantine Santas are willing to extend the label to science-fiction films such as 2001, A Space Odyssey and Star Wars. Stylistically, films classed as epic usually employ spectacular settings and specially designed costumes, often accompanied by a musical score. Epics are usually among the most expensive of films to produce and they often use on-location filming, authentic period costumes, and action scenes on a massive scale. Biographical films may be less lavish versions of this genre, many writers may refer to any film that is long as an epic, making the definition epic a matter of dispute, and raise questions as to whether it is a genre at all. As Roger Ebert put it, in his Great Movies article on Lawrence of Arabia, what you realize watching Lawrence of Arabia is that the word epic refers not to the cost or the elaborate production, but to the size of the ideas and vision. Werner Herzogs Aguirre, The Wrath of God didnt cost as much as the catering in Pearl Harbor, but it is an epic, the comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail had the joking tagline Makes Ben Hur look like an epic. This boom period of international co-productions is generally considered to have ended with Cleopatra, The Fall of the Roman Empire, Epic films continue to be produced, although since the development of CGI they typically use computer effects instead of an actual cast of thousands. Since the 1950s, such films have regularly been shot with an aspect ratio for a more immersive. Epic films were recognized in a montage at the 2006 Academy Awards, War epics are generally focused on specific battles in a war, P. O. W camps or the personal consequences of living in an invaded/occupied country
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Storm chasing
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Storm chasing is broadly defined as the pursuit of any severe weather condition, regardless of motive, which can be curiosity, adventure, scientific investigation, or for news or media coverage. A person who chases storms is known as a storm chaser, there are also a smaller number of storm chasers who intercept tropical cyclones and waterspouts. Storm chasing is chiefly a recreational endeavor, with motives usually given toward photographing or videoing the storm, pecuniary interests and competition may also be components, in contrast, camaraderie is common. Although scientific work is cited as a goal, direct participation in such work is almost always impractical except for those collaborating in an organized university or government project. Many chasers also are storm spotters, reporting their observations of weather to relevant authorities. These reports greatly benefit real-time warnings with ground truth information as well as science by increasing the reliability of severe storm databases used in climatology, additionally, many recreational chasers submit photos and videos to researchers as well as to the National Weather Service for spotter training. An increasing number do sell storm videos and pictures and manage to make a profit, a few operate chase tour services, making storm chasing a recently developed niche tourism. Financial returns usually are relatively meager given the expenses with most chasers spending more than they take in, no degree or certification is required to be a storm chaser. Local National Weather Service offices do hold storm spotter training classes, some offices collaborate to produce severe weather workshops oriented toward operational meteorologists. Storm chasers come from a variety of occupational and socioeconomic backgrounds. A fair number are meteorologists but most are not, a large majority of chasers are male and white but a minority are female or of Asian or other descents. The average age is probably around 35 but ages range from teenagers to those in their 70s, a relatively high proportion possess college degrees and a large number live in the central and southern U. S. Many are lovers of nature with interests that also include flora, fauna, volcanoes, aurora, meteors, eclipses, the first recognized storm chaser is David Hoadley, who began chasing North Dakota storms in 1956, systematically using data from area weather offices and airports. He is widely considered the storm chaser and was the founder of Storm Track magazine. Bringing research chasing to the forefront was Neil B. Ward who in the 1950s and 1960s enlisted the help of Oklahoma Highway Patrol to study storms and his work pioneered modern storm spotting and made institutional chasing a reality. In 1972 the University of Oklahoma in cooperation with the National Severe Storms Laboratory began the Tornado Intercept Project and this was the first large scale chase activity sponsored by an institution. The project produced the first legion of veteran storm chasers, with Hoadleys Storm Track magazine bringing the community together in 1977, Storm chasing then reached popular culture in three major spurts, in 1978 with the broadcast of an episode of the television program In Search of. In 1985 with a documentary on the PBS series Nova, further early exposure to storm chasing encouraging some in the weather community resulted from several articles beginning in the late 1970s in Weatherwise magazine
17.
Tornado
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A tornado is a rapidly rotating column of air that spins while in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour, are about 250 feet across, the most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than 300 miles per hour, are more than two miles in diameter, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles. Various types of tornadoes include the multiple vortex tornado, landspout and waterspout, waterspouts are characterized by a spiraling funnel-shaped wind current, connecting to a large cumulus or cumulonimbus cloud. They are generally classified as non-supercellular tornadoes that develop over bodies of water and these spiraling columns of air frequently develop in tropical areas close to the equator, and are less common at high latitudes. Other tornado-like phenomena that exist in nature include the gustnado, dust devil, fire whirls, downbursts are frequently confused with tornadoes, though their action is dissimilar. Tornadoes have been observed and documented on every continent except Antarctica, however, the vast majority of tornadoes occur in the Tornado Alley region of the United States, although they can occur nearly anywhere in North America. There are several scales for rating the strength of tornadoes, the Fujita scale rates tornadoes by damage caused and has been replaced in some countries by the updated Enhanced Fujita Scale. An F0 or EF0 tornado, the weakest category, damages trees, an F5 or EF5 tornado, the strongest category, rips buildings off their foundations and can deform large skyscrapers. The similar TORRO scale ranges from a T0 for extremely weak tornadoes to T11 for the most powerful known tornadoes, Doppler radar data, photogrammetry, and ground swirl patterns may also be analyzed to determine intensity and assign a rating. The word tornado is a form of the Spanish word tronada. This in turn was taken from the Latin tonare, meaning to thunder and it most likely reached its present form through a combination of the Spanish tronada and tornar, however, this may be a folk etymology. A tornado is also referred to as a twister, and is also sometimes referred to by the old-fashioned colloquial term cyclone. The term cyclone is used as a synonym for tornado in the often-aired 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, the term twister is also used in that film, along with being the title of the 1996 tornado-related film Twister. A tornado is a rotating column of air, in contact with the ground, either pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud. For a vortex to be classified as a tornado, it must be in contact with both the ground and the cloud base. Scientists have not yet created a definition of the word, for example. Tornado refers to the vortex of wind, not the condensation cloud and this results in the formation of a visible funnel cloud or condensation funnel. There is some disagreement over the definition of cloud and condensation funnel
18.
Steven Spielberg
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Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE, OMRI is an American director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the pioneers of the New Hollywood era. He is also one of the co-founders of DreamWorks Studios, in a career spanning more than four decades, Spielbergs films have spanned many themes and genres. His other films include Jurassic Park, A. I, artificial Intelligence, and War of the Worlds. Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindlers List and Saving Private Ryan, three of Spielbergs films—Jaws, E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park—achieved box office records, originated and came to epitomize the blockbuster film. The unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $9 billion worldwide and his personal net worth is estimated to be more than $3 billion. Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to an Orthodox Jewish family and his mother, Leah Posner, was a restaurateur and concert pianist, and his father, Arnold Spielberg, was an electrical engineer involved in the development of computers. His paternal grandparents were immigrants from Ukraine who settled in Cincinnati in the first decade of the 1900s, in 1950, his family moved to Haddon Township, New Jersey when his father took a job with RCA. Three years later, the moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Spielberg attended Hebrew school from 1953 to 1957, in classes taught by Rabbi Albert L. Lewis, as a child, Spielberg faced difficulty reconciling being an Orthodox Jew with the perception of him by other children he played with. It isnt something I enjoy admitting, he said, but when I was seven, eight, nine years old, God forgive me. I was embarrassed by the perception of my parents Jewish practices. I was never really ashamed to be Jewish, but I was uneasy at times, Spielberg also said he suffered from acts of anti-Semitic prejudice and bullying, In high school, I got smacked and kicked around. His first home movie was of a wreck involving his toy Lionel trains. Throughout his early teens, and after entering school, Spielberg continued to make amateur 8 mm adventure films. In 1958, he became a Boy Scout and fulfilled a requirement for the merit badge by making a nine-minute 8 mm film entitled The Last Gunfight. Years later, Spielberg recalled to an interviewer, My dads still-camera was broken. He said yes, and I got an idea to do a Western, I made it and got my merit badge
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Oklahoma
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Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central United States. Oklahoma is the 20th-most extensive and the 28th-most populous of the 50 United States, the states name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning red people. The name was settled upon statehood, Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory were merged, on November 16,1907, Oklahoma became the 46th state to enter the union. Its residents are known as Oklahomans, or informally Okies, and its capital, a major producer of natural gas, oil, and agricultural products, Oklahoma relies on an economic base of aviation, energy, telecommunications, and biotechnology. In 2007, it had one of the economies in the United States, ranking among the top states in per capita income growth. Oklahoma City and Tulsa serve as Oklahomas primary economic anchors, with nearly two-thirds of Oklahomans living within their metropolitan statistical areas. With small mountain ranges, prairie, mesas, and eastern forests, most of Oklahoma lies in the Great Plains, Cross Timbers, interior Highlands—a region especially prone to severe weather. The name Oklahoma comes from the Choctaw phrase okla humma, literally meaning red people, equivalent to the English word Indian, okla humma was a phrase in the Choctaw language used to describe Native American people as a whole. Oklahoma later became the de facto name for Oklahoma Territory, and it was approved in 1890. Oklahoma is the 20th-largest state in the United States, covering an area of 69,898 square miles and it is one of six states on the Frontier Strip and lies partly in the Great Plains near the geographical center of the 48 contiguous states. It is bounded on the east by Arkansas and Missouri, on the north by Kansas, on the northwest by Colorado, on the far west by New Mexico, much of its border with Texas lies along the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen, a failed continental rift. The geologic figure defines the placement of the Red River, the Oklahoma panhandles Western edge is out of alignment with its Texas border. The Oklahoma/New Mexico border is actually 2.1 to 2.2 miles east of the Texas line, the border between Texas and New Mexico was set first as a result of a survey by Spain in 1819. It was then set along the 103rd Meridian, in the 1890s, when Oklahoma was formally surveyed using more accurate surveying equipment and techniques, it was discovered the Texas line was not set along the 103rd Meridian. Surveying techniques were not as accurate in 1819, and the actual 103rd Meridian was approximately 2.2 miles to the east and it was much easier to leave the mistake than for Texas to cede land to New Mexico to correct the surveying error. The placement of the Oklahoma/New Mexico border represents the true 103rd Meridian, cimarron County in Oklahomas panhandle is the only county in the United States that touches four other states, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Kansas. Its highest and lowest points follow this trend, with its highest peak, Black Mesa, at 4,973 feet above sea level, situated near its far northwest corner in the Oklahoma Panhandle. The states lowest point is on the Little River near its far southeastern boundary near the town of Idabel, Oklahoma, which dips to 289 feet above sea level
20.
VORTEX projects
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The Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment or VORTEX are field projects that study tornadoes. VORTEX2 utilized enhanced technology allowing scientists to improve forecasting capabilities to improve advanced warnings to residents, VORTEX2 is seeking to explain how tornadoes form, how long they last and why they last that long, and what causes them to dissipate. The field research phase of the VORTEX2 project concluded on July 6,2010, the project has also stated that it is interested in why some supercells, or mesocyclones within such storms, produce tornadoes while others do not. It also concerned itself with why some supercells form violent tornadoes versus weak tornadoes, the original project took place in 1994 and 1995, while several smaller studies, such as SUB-VORTEX and VORTEX-99, were conducted from 1996 to 2008. VORTEX1 documented the life cycle of a tornado for the first time. Severe weather warnings improved after the research collected from VORTEX1 and many believe that VORTEX1 contributed to this improvement, “An important finding from the original VORTEX experiment was that the factors responsible for causing tornadoes happen on smaller time and space scales than scientists had thought. VORTEX had the capability to fly Doppler weather radar above the tornado approximately every five minutes, VORTEX research helped the National Weather Service to provide tornado warnings to residents with a lead time of 13 minutes. A federal research meteorologist, Don Burgess, estimates that the false alarms pertaining to severe weather by the National Weather Service have declined by 10 percent, the movie Twister was at least partially inspired by the VORTEX project. VORTEX2 was an expanded second VORTEX project with field phases from 10 May until 13 June 2009 and 1 May until 15 June 2010. VORTEX2s goals were studying why some thunderstorms produce tornadoes while others do not, how to more accurate and longer lead time tornado forecasts and warnings. VORTEX2 was by far the largest and most ambitious tornado study ever with over 100 scientific participants from different universities. We still do not completely understand the processes that lead to tornado formation, then you can get first responders to be better prepared—police, fire, medical personnel, even power companies. Now, thats not even possible, said Stephan P. Nelson. Maybe they can seek a community shelter instead of just going into their bathtub, maybe they can get their family to better safety if we can give them a longer warning and a more precise warning. Over 100 scientists and crew researched tornadoes and supercell thunderstorms in the Tornado Alley region of the United States Great Plains between Texas and Minnesota, a number of institutions and countries were involved in the US$11. The project included DOW6, DOW7, Rapid-Scan DOW, SMART-RADARs, NOXP, UMASS-X, UMASS-W, the Doppler on Wheels were supplied by the Center for Severe Weather Research, and the SMART-Radars from the University of Oklahoma. National Severe Storms Laboratory supplied the NOXP radar, as well as several other units from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. NSSL and CSWR supplied mobile mesonets, Mobile radiosonde launching vehicles are provided by NSSL, NCAR, and the State University of New York at Oswego
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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is an American scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere. NOAA warns of dangerous weather, charts seas, guides the use and protection of ocean and coastal resources, and conducts research to improve understanding and stewardship of the environment. In addition to its employees, over 11,000 as of 2015, NOAA research. NOAA plays several roles in society, the benefits of which extend beyond the U. S. economy and into the larger global community. NOAA supplies information to its customers and partners pertaining to the state of the oceans and this is clearly manifest in the production of weather warnings and forecasts through the National Weather Service, but NOAAs information products extend to climate, ecosystems, and commerce as well. A Provider of Environmental Stewardship Services, NOAA is also the steward of U. S. coastal and marine environments. A Leader in Applied Scientific Research, the five fundamental activities are, Monitoring and observing Earth systems with instruments and data collection networks. Understanding and describing Earth systems through research and analysis of that data, assessing and predicting the changes of these systems over time. Engaging, advising, and informing the public and partner organizations with important information, managing resources for the betterment of society, economy and environment. NOAA formed a conglomeration of several existing agencies that were among the oldest in the federal government, NOAA was established within the Department of Commerce via the Reorganization Plan No.4 of 1970. In 2007 NOAA celebrated 200 years of service with its ties to the United States Coast, the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps is a uniformed service of men and women who operate NOAA ships and aircraft, and serve in scientific and administrative posts. And in addition more than a dozen staff offices, including the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology, the NOAA Central Library and this is done through a collection of national and regional centers,13 river forecast centers, and more than 120 local weather forecast offices. They are charged with issuing weather and river forecasts, advisories, watches and they issue more than 734,000 weather and 850,000 river forecasts, and more than 45,000 severe weather warnings annually. NOAA data is relevant to the issues of global warming. The NWS operates NEXRAD, a network of Doppler weather radars which can detect precipitation. Many of their products are broadcast on NOAA Weather Radio, a network of transmitters that broadcasts weather forecasts, severe weather statements, watches. The National Ocean Service focuses on ensuring that ocean and coastal areas are safe, healthy, in 1960 TIROS-1, NOAAs first owned and operated geostationary satellite was launched. Since 1966 NESDIS has managed polar orbiting satellites and since 1974 it has operated geosynchronous satellites, in 1979 NOAAs first polar-orbiting environmental satellite was launched
22.
TOtable Tornado Observatory
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NOAAs objective was to place the TOTO directly in the path of a tornado, where it could, theoretically, record valuable information about the tornados structure. To deploy TOTO, which weighed from 250 to 350 lbs, two men could unstrap its mooring cables and roll it out of the back of a pickup truck in about thirty seconds. TOTO would then be tipped into a position and swiveled so that a certain side faced north. The TOTO crew had to find a relatively level and firm surface, off the road, away from wind obstructions. With each deployment, there was also a lightning strike risk from handling a large metal object in an open area. TOTO was deployed several times during the 1980s, the closest deployment to a tornado was on April 29,1984 near Ardmore, Oklahoma, by Steve Smith and Lou Wicker of the National Severe Storms Laboratory. It turned out that TOTO had a center of gravity too high for extreme wind, TOTO was also deployed as a portable weather station to measure thunderstorm gust fronts and non-tornadic mesocyclones—with more success than its tornado mission. TOTO was retired after 1987 because of safety issues and the difficulty of getting such a cumbersome object in front of a tornado. TOTO is currently on display at the National Weather Center on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, TOTO was the inspiration for an instrument package named Dorothy in the 1996 Warner Bros. film, Twister, and for a research project in the TV movie Tornado. Tornado Intercept Vehicle TWISTEX VORTEX projects The curiosity corner Experts answer tornado questions
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National Severe Storms Laboratory
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The National Severe Storms Laboratory is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather research laboratory under the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. It is one of seven NOAA Research Laboratories, NSSL studies weather radar, tornadoes, flash floods, lightning, damaging winds, hail, and winter weather in an effort to improve warnings and forecasts and to save lives and reduce property damage. Researchers at NSSL developed the first Doppler weather radar, and have contributed to the development of NEXRAD, the group conducts various research experiments using mobile radar systems and continues to make advances in the field of meteorology. The Lab also works closely with the Storm Prediction Center and the National Weather Service Norman Forecast Office, the NWC houses a unique combination of University of Oklahoma, NOAA and state organizations that work together to improve understanding of weather. This radar was designed to very high wind speeds in tornadoes. In 1963, the Weather Radar Laboratory was established in Norman and, in the following year, the pulse-Doppler radar could receive data in between each transmit pulse, eliminating the need for two antennas and solving the distance problem. In 1964, the remainder of the NSSP moved to Norman, dr. Edwin Kessler became the first director. In 1969, NSSL obtained a surplus 10-cm pulse-Doppler radar from the United States Air Force and this radar was used to scan and film the complete life cycle of a tornado in 1973. By comparing the film with velocity images from the radar, the researchers found a pattern that showed the beginning to form before it could be visually detected on the film. The researchers named this phenomenon the Tornado Vortex Signature, Research using this radar led to NWS NEXRAD WSR-88D radar network during the 1970s. In 1973, the Laboratory commissioned a second Doppler weather radar, named the Cimarron radar and this enabled NSSL to perform dual Doppler experiments while scanning storms with both radars simultaneously. This move would allow for improved collaborations between NSSL and SPC, in 2000, NSSL was funded to build the National Weather Radar Testbed facility. This facility is located in Norman and is designed to develop, Phased array radar is five times faster than current radars and can scan the sky in less than one minute. This same year, the first NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed Spring Experiment took place and this would become an annual event to evaluate operational and experimental models and algorithms with the NWS. In 2006, NSSL moved into the new National Weather Center,6 miles south of its previous location, nOAAs Radar Operations Center remained at the old site. In 2014, NSSL celebrated its 50th anniversary, jack Kain serves as Division Chief for Forecast Research & Development. Mike Jain serves as Division Chief for Radar Research & Development, dave Jorgensen serves as Division Chief for Warning Research & Development. FACETS will address grid-based probabilistic threats, storm-scale observations and guidance, the forecaster, threat grid tools, useful output, effective response, the Warn-on-Forecast research project will deliver a set of enabling technologies for FACETs on a variety of space and time scales
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Fujita scale
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The Fujita scale, or Fujita–Pearson scale, is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The F-Scale was replaced with the Enhanced Fujita scale in the United States in February 2007, in April 2013, Canada adopted the EF-Scale over the Fujita scale, although tornado frequency is relatively low in the country. However, EC uses 31 Specific Damage Indicators in their ratings, the scale was introduced in 1971 by Tetsuya Fujita of the University of Chicago, in collaboration with Allen Pearson, head of the National Severe Storms Forecast Center/NSSFC. The scale was updated in 1973, taking into account path length and width, in the United States, starting in 1973, tornadoes were rated soon after occurrence. The Fujita scale was applied retroactively to tornadoes reported between 1950 and 1972 in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Tornado Database, Fujita rated tornadoes from 1916–1992 and Tom Grazulis of The Tornado Project retroactively rated all known significant tornadoes in the U. S. back to 1880. The Fujita scale was adopted in most areas outside of Great Britain, in 2007, the Fujita scale was updated, and the Enhanced Fujita Scale was introduced in the United States. The new scale more accurately matches wind speeds to the severity of damage caused by the tornado, though each damage level is associated with a wind speed, the Fujita scale is effectively a damage scale, and the wind speeds associated with the damage listed arent rigorously verified. The Enhanced Fujita Scale was formulated due to research which suggested that the speeds required to inflict damage by intense tornadoes on the Fujita scale are greatly overestimated. A process of expert elicitation with top engineers and meteorologists resulted in the EF scale wind speeds, however, the EF scale also improved damage parameter descriptions. The original scale as derived by Fujita was a theoretical 13-level scale designed to connect the Beaufort scale. F1 corresponds to the level of the Beaufort scale. F0 was placed at a position specifying no damage, in analogy to how the Beauforts zeroth level specifies little to no wind. From these wind speed numbers, qualitative descriptions of damage were made for each category of the Fujita scale, the diagram on the right illustrates the relationship between the Beaufort, Fujita, and Mach number scales. Fujita intended that only F0–F5 be used in practice, as this all possible levels of damage to frame homes as well as the expected estimated bounds of wind speeds. Furthermore, the wind speed numbers have since been found to be higher than the actual wind speeds required to incur the damage described at each category. The error manifests itself to a degree as the category increases. Precise wind speed numbers are actually guesses and have never been scientifically verified, different wind speeds may cause similar-looking damage from place to place—even from building to building. Without a thorough engineering analysis of damage in any event
25.
Alexa Vega
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Alexa Ellesse PenaVega is an American actress and singer. She is known for her role as Carmen Cortez in the Spy Kids film series, in 2009, she starred as the title character Ruby Gallagher in the ABC Family series Ruby & the Rockits. Alexa Vega was born in Miami, Florida but spent the first four years of her life on a ranch in Ocala and her father is Colombian and her mother, Gina Rue, is an American former model. Vega has six siblings which includes her sister, actress Makenzie Vega and she moved with her family to California when she was four years old. In 1996, Vega starred as young Jo Harding in Twister and she guest-starred in numerous television shows and films, including ER Follow the Stars Home, Ghost Whisperer, and The Bernie Mac Show. She became known worldwide in 2001 for her role as Carmen Cortez in Spy Kids, the first Spy Kids film was a huge success, and subsequently two sequels, Spy Kids 2, The Island of Lost Dreams and Spy Kids 3-D, Game Over were filmed. During the shooting of the three films, she performed most of her own stunts, Vega reprised the role in the 2011 sequel, Spy Kids, All the Time in the World. In 2003, she was named one of that years hottest teen celebrities in the July 2003 issue Vanity Fair, in 2004, Vega finished filming two films, Sleepover and States Evidence. Then the following year she starred in the Lifetime television film entitled Odd Girl Out as a victim of cyber-bullying and she also filmed for another made-for-TV movie, Walkout. In June 2006, she finished filming Remember the Daze, which was released in limited theaters on April 2007, the Genetic Opera, which was released in 2008. Vega was confirmed as the role in Helix, written and directed by Aram Rappaport. Vega was originally cast in the 2009 Robert Rodriguez film Shorts, however, due to her being in Australia for the filming of Broken Hill and she was replaced by Kat Dennings. She appeared on Broadway in Hairspray, as Penny, in 2009, she played Ruby Gallagher on the ABC Family television sitcom Ruby & the Rockits, which also starred Patrick and David Cassidy. Vega played Wick in the 2012 film The Devils Carnival, a film from director Darren Lynn Bousman and screenwriter Terrance Zdunich, throughout 2012, Vega starred in the independent thriller, 2br/1ba, directed by Rob Margolies and co-stars with Spencer Grammer and Kathryn Morris. Vega also starred in the Lifetime Channel movie The Pregnancy Project, vegas film The Mine which was filmed in 2010 got a limited release/screening. Vega also voiced Christina in the animated series Unsupervised and had a guest role on Royal Pains, Vega played the young heroine in Aerosmiths music video Legendary Child. Throughout 2013 and 2014, Vega appeared in the films 23 Blast, Machete Kills, Bounty Killer, Wicked Blood, The Remaining and she also had a role on the Big Time Rush series finale Big Time Dreams, playing herself. On August 27,2015, Vega was announced as one of the celebrities who will compete on the 21st season of Dancing with the Stars and her husband, Carlos PenaVega was also announced as one of the contestants who will compete against her on the show
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Meteorology
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Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences which includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics, with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century, the 19th century saw modest progress in the field after weather observation networks were formed across broad regions. Prior attempts at prediction of weather depended on historical data, Meteorological phenomena are observable weather events that are explained by the science of meteorology. Different spatial scales are used to describe and predict weather on local, regional, Meteorology, climatology, atmospheric physics, and atmospheric chemistry are sub-disciplines of the atmospheric sciences. Meteorology and hydrology compose the interdisciplinary field of hydrometeorology, the interactions between Earths atmosphere and its oceans are part of a coupled ocean-atmosphere system. Meteorology has application in diverse fields such as the military, energy production, transport, agriculture. The word meteorology is from Greek μετέωρος metéōros lofty, high and -λογία -logia -logy, varāhamihiras classical work Brihatsamhita, written about 500 AD, provides clear evidence that a deep knowledge of atmospheric processes existed even in those times. In 350 BC, Aristotle wrote Meteorology, Aristotle is considered the founder of meteorology. One of the most impressive achievements described in the Meteorology is the description of what is now known as the hydrologic cycle and they are all called swooping bolts because they swoop down upon the Earth. Lightning is sometimes smoky, and is then called smoldering lightning, sometimes it darts quickly along, at other times, it travels in crooked lines, and is called forked lightning. When it swoops down upon some object it is called swooping lightning, the Greek scientist Theophrastus compiled a book on weather forecasting, called the Book of Signs. The work of Theophrastus remained a dominant influence in the study of weather, in 25 AD, Pomponius Mela, a geographer for the Roman Empire, formalized the climatic zone system. According to Toufic Fahd, around the 9th century, Al-Dinawari wrote the Kitab al-Nabat, ptolemy wrote on the atmospheric refraction of light in the context of astronomical observations. St. Roger Bacon was the first to calculate the size of the rainbow. He stated that a rainbow summit can not appear higher than 42 degrees above the horizon, in the late 13th century and early 14th century, Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī and Theodoric of Freiberg were the first to give the correct explanations for the primary rainbow phenomenon. Theoderic went further and also explained the secondary rainbow, in 1716, Edmund Halley suggested that aurorae are caused by magnetic effluvia moving along the Earths magnetic field lines. In 1441, King Sejongs son, Prince Munjong, invented the first standardized rain gauge and these were sent throughout the Joseon Dynasty of Korea as an official tool to assess land taxes based upon a farmers potential harvest. In 1450, Leone Battista Alberti developed a swinging-plate anemometer, and was known as the first anemometer, in 1607, Galileo Galilei constructed a thermoscope
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Engagement
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An engagement, betrothal, or fiancer is a promise to wed, and also the period of time between a marriage proposal and a marriage. During this period, a couple is said to be betrothed, intended, affianced, engaged to be married, future brides and grooms may be called the betrothed, a wife-to-be or husband-to-be, fiancée or fiancé, respectively. The duration of the courtship varies vastly, and is dependent on cultural norms or upon the agreement of the parties involved. Long engagements were once common in formal arranged marriages, and it was not uncommon for parents betrothing children to arrange marriages many years before the couple were old enough. Erusin changes the couples interpersonal status, while nissuin brings about the consequences of the change of status. This was later adopted in Ancient Greece as the gamos and engeysis rituals, Betrothal is a formal state of engagement to be married. Since the Middle Ages the two ceremonies have taken place as a ceremony performed in public. The betrothal is now part of the Jewish wedding ceremony. As mentioned above, betrothal in Judaism is separate from engagement, breaking a betrothal requires a formal divorce, for adults, it may be anywhere from several hours to a period of several years. A year and a day are common in neo-pagan groups today, in the case of child marriage, betrothal might last from infancy until the age of marriage. The responsibilities and privileges of betrothal vary, in most cultures, the betrothed couple is expected to spend much time together, learning about each other. In some historical cultures, the betrothal was essentially a trial marriage, almost all cultures are loosening restrictions against physical contact between partners, even in cultures that normally had strong prohibitions against it. The betrothal period was considered to be a preparatory time, in which the groom built a house. A betrothal is considered to be a semi-binding contract, in some common law countries, including England and Wales and many US states, it was once possible for the spurned partner to sue the other for breach of promise or heart-balm. The Rite of Betrothal in the Anglican Communion is found within The Book of Common Prayer, the Anglican Communion, as well as the Methodist Church and Presbyterian Church, has questions & responses for family members in its Rite of Betrothal. In the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Rite of Betrothal is traditionally performed in the narthex of the church, the priest blesses the couple and gives them lit candles to hold. Then, after a litany, and a prayer at which everyone bows, he places the ring on the ring finger of the grooms right hand. The rings are exchanged three times, either by the priest or by the best man, after which the priest says a final prayer
28.
Alan Ruck
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Alan Douglas Ruck is an American actor. His other notable films include Bad Boys, Three Fugitives, Young Guns II, Speed, Twister, as of autumn 2016, he co-stars with Geena Davis in an updated Fox TV adaptation of William Peter Blattys best-selling novel The Exorcist. Ruck was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to a schoolteacher mother and he attended Parma Senior High School located in Parma, Ohio, and graduated from the University of Illinois with a B. F. A. in drama in 1979. He recalled, After school, I went up to Chicago, because I didnt really know anybody in New York or Los Angeles, so I went up there, and I knocked around a little bit. And I guess about a year after I was out of school, Ruck made his Broadway debut in 1985 in Neil Simons Biloxi Blues with Matthew Broderick. Early on, Ruck was a prominent stage actor at many theaters around the country, in his initial foray into film acting, Ruck appeared in Class and Hard Knocks as well as some television films. Rucks first film role was in the 1983 drama film Bad Boys, the same year he played Roger Jackson in Class, with his role as Cameron Frye, Ferris Buellers hypochondriac best friend in John Hughes Ferris Buellers Day Off coming three years later. One of his film roles was in the 1987 film Three for the Road. Ruck later appeared in the 1989 comedy film Three Fugitives, following that, he played a significant role as Hendry William French in Young Guns II, the 1990 sequel to Young Guns. Alan also played an annoying tourist named Doug Stephens on a bus in the blockbuster Speed. Another supporting role was of the storm chaser Robert Rabbit Nurick in the 1996 disaster film Twister. From 1990 to 1991, Ruck starred as Chicago ad man Charlie Davis, ABC canceled the series after one season. He appeared in the series Daddys Girls in 1994, which was canceled after three episodes, from 1996 to 2002, Alan played Stuart Bondek in the sitcom Spin City alongside Michael J. Fox and later, Charlie Sheen. In 2005, he played Leo Bloom in the Broadway version of Mel Brooks The Producers, Ruck was then cast in the pilot of the Tim Minear-created Fox Network series Drive, but did not appear in the actual series. He also starred in one episode of the Comedy Central sitcom Stella as Richard and he later starred in the season two Scrubs episode My Lucky Day as a patient, and played reporter Steve Jacobson on the ESPN miniseries The Bronx Is Burning. In 1998, Ruck guest starred in the episode of the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon as the NASA engineer Tom Dolan. In 2006, Ruck guest starred in a episode of Stargate Atlantis called The Real World and, in 2007. Ruck played the part of a ghost of a man in the 2008 film Ghost Town starring Ricky Gervais
29.
Joey Slotnick
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Joey Slotnick is an American film actor and voice actor. Slotnick was born in Chicago, Illinois and graduated from Chaparral High School in Las Vegas and his film roles include computer industry pioneer Steve Wozniak in the film Pirates of Silicon Valley, and a part in the 1996 blockbuster Twister. In 2011 he completed the suspense film Elevator, in which he one of several people trapped in a New York elevator with an evil presence. Additionally, he was on the cast of the television shows Boston Public in 2000-2001, The Single Guy from 1995–1997, in 2009, Slotnick played Groucho Marxs role of Captain Jeffrey Spaulding in The Goodman Theatres production of Animal Crackers. The performance was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for best actor, Slotnick has logged several guest appearances on a number of popular television shows. He also does work, ads for the NBA, 21st Century Insurance, Staples
30.
Jeremy Davies
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Jeremy Davies is an American film and television actor. He is known for portraying Cpl, timothy E. Upham in Saving Private Ryan and the physicist Daniel Faraday on the television series Lost. He also appeared in the FX series Justified, as Dickie Bennett, for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. Jeremy Davies was born in Traverse City, Michigan, of Scottish and Welsh descent, Davies is Jeremys mothers maiden name, which he adopted as his professional name. He has a brother, Joshua, and two half-siblings, Zachery and Katrina, from his fathers second marriage and his parents separated when he was young, leaving Davies to relocate to Kansas with his mother until the mid-1970s, when she died of lupus. He went to live with his father and his stepmother in Santa Barbara, California, before moving to Rockford, Iowa in 1986 and he attended college at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in California. In 1992, he appeared on two episodes of The Wonder Years and he appeared in small roles in the NBC TV film Shoot First, A Cops Vengeance and in the pilot for the colonial-era sitcom 1775. He played a youth in the Showtime thriller Guncrazy and had a guest appearance on Melrose Place, in 1993, Davies was cast in a TV commercial for Subaru in which his character compares the car to punk rock. Numerous casting directors and industry forces noticed the commercial, and Davies found himself being sent feature film scripts, critics embraced his performance in David O. Russells debut film, the black comedy, Spanking the Monkey. Davies performance was received, and he went on to star in several films, including CQ, Secretary. In 2004, he portrayed Charles Manson in CBSs adaptation of Helter Skelter, Davies appeared as a main cast member on Lost during its fourth and fifth seasons, playing Daniel Faraday, an amnesiac physicist who comes to the island as part of a team hired by Charles Widmore. He guest-starred in three episodes in Losts sixth season and he had a recurring role on FXs Justified as Dickie Bennett, for which he earned a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2012. He was also nominated for the award in 2011 and he also starred in History Channels 2015 miniseries Texas Rising, as Sergeant Ephraim Knowles. Jeremy Davies at the Internet Movie Database Jeremy Davies Official Website Jeremy Davies Zone Jeremy Davies Daily
31.
Todd Field
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William Todd Field is an American actor and three-time Academy Award nominated filmmaker. Field was born in Pomona, California, where his family ran a poultry farm, when Field turned two, his family moved to Portland, Oregon, where his father went to work as a salesman, and his mother became a school librarian. At an early age, he interested in performing sleight-of-hand. As a child in Portland, Field was a batboy for the Portland Mavericks, kurt Russell, Bings son and later an acclaimed Hollywood actor in his own right, also played for the Portland Mavericks during this time. Field and Maverick Pitching Coach Rob Nelson created the first batch of Big League Chew in the Field family kitchen, in 1980 Nelson and former New York Yankees all-star Jim Bouton sold the idea to the Wrigley Company. Since that time over 600 million pouches have been sold worldwide, a budding jazz musician, at the age of sixteen Field became a member of the Big Band at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon. Headed by Larry McVey, the band had become a proving-ground and regular stop for Stan Kenton and it was here Field played trombone along with his friend, trumpeter and future Grammy Award Winner, Chris Botti. During this same time he worked as a non-union projectionist at a second-run movie theater. Modica at his renowned Carnegie Hall Studio, soon after, Field began performing with the Ark Theatre Company as both an actor and musician. He received his Master of Fine Arts from the AFI Conservatory and he went on to work with some of Americas greatest film makers including Stanley Kubrick, Victor Nuñez, and Carl Franklin. It was Franklin and Nunez who encouraged Field to enroll as a Directing Fellow at the AFI, since that time he has received the Franklin J. To date, unadjusted box office receipts for the films in which Field has participated exceed a billion dollars worldwide, Field became one of Hollywoods hottest new writer/directors with the release of In the Bedroom, a film based on the short story Killings by author Andre Dubus. In the Bedroom was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Supporting Actress, and Best Screenplay. The film was shot in Rockland, Maine, a New England town in which Field resides—the house where he, his wife, Rathbun and Sissy Spacek did a portion of the set designing and Field handled the camera himself on many of the shots. The result, critics said, was stunning, David Ansen of Newsweek wrote, with one film he’s guaranteed his future as a director. He has the magnificent obsession of the natural-born filmmaker, anthony Quinn of The Independent also praised the director, Field has pulled off something here I thought no American filmmaker would ever manage again, he makes violence feel genuinely shocking. For his work on In the Bedroom, Field was named Director of the Year by the National Board of Review, and his script was awarded Best Original Screenplay. The film went on to win Best Picture of the Year by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the American Film Institute honored Field with the Franklin Schaffner Alumni Medal
32.
Philip Seymour Hoffman
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Philip Seymour Hoffman was an American actor, director, and producer of film and theater. Best known for his supporting and character roles – typically lowlifes, bullies. Drawn to theater as a teenager, Hoffman studied acting at New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts and he began his screen career in a 1991 episode of Law & Order and started to appear in films in 1992. He began to play leading roles, and for his portrayal of the author Truman Capote in Capote. The feature Jack Goes Boating marked his debut as a filmmaker, Hoffman was also an accomplished theater actor and director. He joined the off-Broadway LAByrinth Theater Company in 1995, where he directed, produced and his performances in three Broadway plays – True West, Long Days Journey into Night, and Death of a Salesman – all led to Tony Award nominations. Hoffman struggled with drug addiction as an adult, and relapsed in 2013 after many years of sobriety. Hoffman was born on July 23,1967, in the Rochester suburb of Fairport and his mother, Marilyn OConnor, came from nearby Waterloo and worked as an elementary school teacher before becoming a lawyer and eventually a family court judge. His father, Gordon Stowell Hoffman, was a native of Geneva, New York, along with one brother, Gordy, Hoffman had two sisters, Jill and Emily. Hoffman was baptized a Roman Catholic and attended Mass as a child and his parents divorced when he was nine, leaving the children to be raised primarily by their mother. Hoffmans childhood passion was sports, particularly wrestling and baseball, and he recalled in 2008, I was changed – permanently changed – by that experience. It was like a miracle to me, Hoffman developed a love for the theater, and proceeded to attend regularly with his mother, who was a lifelong enthusiast. He remembered that productions of Quilters and Alms for the Middle Class, at the age of 14, Hoffman suffered a neck injury that ended his sporting activity, and he began to consider acting. Encouraged by his mother, he joined a club. Acting gradually became a passion for Hoffman, I loved the camaraderie of it, the people, and thats when I decided it was what I wanted to do. At the age of 17, he was selected to attend the 1984 New York State Summer School of the Arts in Saratoga Springs, Miller later commented on Hoffmans popularity at the time, We were attracted to the fact that he was genuinely serious about what he was doing. Hoffman applied for several drama degree programs and was accepted to New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts, between starting on the program and graduating from Fairport High School, he continued his training at the Circle in the Square Theatres summer program. Hoffman had positive memories of his time at NYU, where he supported himself by working as an usher, with friends, he co-founded the Bullstoi Ensemble acting troupe
33.
Wakita, Oklahoma
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Wakita is a town in Grant County, Oklahoma, United States, founded in 1898. It is south from the Kansas border and this towns population was 344 at the 2010 census, a decrease of 18.1 percent from 420 at the 2000 census. Wakita is notable as a location in the 1996 motion picture film, Wakita is 12 miles northwest of Medford, Oklahoma, the county seat, on State Highway 11A. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has an area of 0.3 square miles. Before the towns founding in 1898, there was a dispute over the right to name the town, the owner of the First General Store and the towns first Post Master pushed for the town to be named Whiteville. Local Deputy U. S. Marshall Herbert John Green motioned that for the town be named after a Cherokee chief named Wakita, the name was also favored because of a battle that had occurred in the area of the town under the leadership of this Indian Chief. Citing historian George Shirk, the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture states that Wakita is a Cherokee word for water collected in a small depression, the same source states that Charles N. Gould claimed that it is probably a Creek word meaning to cry or to lament. The town began after the Cherokee Outlet was opened to non-Native American settlement September 16,1893, a post office opened November 14,1893. Population grew after the Hutchison and Southern Railroad built a line through the area in 1897, at statehood in 1907, Wakita had 388 residents. The town was featured in and selected as a location for the Hollywood blockbuster movie Twister. On May 10,2010, numerous tornadoes touched down in Grant County, however, the town itself was not destroyed. As of the census of 2010, there were 344 people,165 households, the population density was 1,275.4 people per square mile. There were 205 housing units at a density of 622.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 96. 67% White,0. 24% African American,2. 38% Native American, hispanic or Latino of any race were 0. 24% of the population. 32. 7% of all households were made up of individuals and 16. 4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 2.94. In the town, the population was out with 20. 0% under the age of 18,8. 1% from 18 to 24,21. 0% from 25 to 44,21. 7% from 45 to 64. The median age was 46 years, for every 100 females there were 85.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.7 males, the median income for a household in the town was $30,096, and the median income for a family was $34,792
34.
Kansas
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Kansas /ˈkænzəs/ is a U. S. state located in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas is named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribes name is said to mean people of the wind or people of the south wind. For thousands of years, what is now Kansas was home to numerous, tribes in the eastern part of the state generally lived in villages along the river valleys. Tribes in the part of the state were semi-nomadic and hunted large herds of bison. When it was opened to settlement by the U. S. Thus, the area was a hotbed of violence and chaos in its early days as these forces collided. The abolitionists eventually prevailed, and on January 29,1861, after the Civil War, the population of Kansas grew rapidly when waves of immigrants turned the prairie into farmland. By 2015, Kansas was one of the most productive agricultural states, producing high yields of wheat, corn, sorghum, and soybeans. Kansas, which has an area of 82,278 square miles is the 15th largest state by area and is the 34th most populous of the 50 United States with a population of 2,911,641, residents of Kansas are called Kansans, officially. Mount Sunflower is Kansass highest point at 4,041 feet, for a millennia, the land that is currently Kansas was inhabited by Native Americans. The first European to set foot in present-day Kansas was Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, in 1803, most of modern Kansas was secured by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Southwest Kansas, however, was still a part of Spain, Mexico, from 1812 to 1821, Kansas was part of the Missouri Territory. The Santa Fe Trail traversed Kansas from 1821 to 1880, transporting manufactured goods from Missouri and silver and furs from Santa Fe, wagon ruts from the trail are still visible in the prairie today. In 1827, Fort Leavenworth became the first permanent settlement of white Americans in the future state, the Kansas–Nebraska Act became law on May 30,1854, establishing the U. S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas, and opening the area to broader settlement by whites. Kansas Territory stretched all the way to the Continental Divide and included the sites of present-day Denver, Colorado Springs, Missouri and Arkansas sent settlers into Kansas all along its eastern border. These settlers attempted to sway votes in favor of slavery, the secondary settlement of Americans in Kansas Territory were abolitionists from Massachusetts and other Free-Staters, who attempted to stop the spread of slavery from neighboring Missouri. Directly presaging the American Civil War, these forces collided, entering into skirmishes that earned the territory the name of Bleeding Kansas, Kansas was admitted to the United States as a free state on January 29,1861, making it the 34th state to enter the Union. He was roundly condemned by both the conventional Confederate military and the partisan rangers commissioned by the Missouri legislature and his application to that body for a commission was flatly rejected due to his pre-war criminal record
35.
Lois Smith
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Lois Smith is an American actress. In television she has performed in series that include The Americans, True Blood, Smith is an ensemble member of Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2007 for her contributions to the theatre. In 2013 she was given a Lifetime Achievement Obie Award for excellence in Off-Broadway performance, in her career she has also taught, directed, and written for the stage. Smith was born Lois Arlene Humbert in Topeka, Kansas, the youngest of six children of Carrie and William Humbert and her father died in 1950 at age 54. Her family included her two sisters, Alice and Marvelle, and three brothers, William, Dilman, and Phillip, all of whom are now deceased and her father moved the family to Seattle when Lois was eleven years old, and he was heavily involved in the church. William would put on plays at church in which young Lois would perform and she went on to study theatre at the University of Washington but did not graduate. At age 18, in 1948, she married Wesley Dale Smith, the couple had one daughter, Moon Elizabeth Smith. Around 1951, Smith and her decided to leave Seattle. After she worked with Elia Kazan on East of Eden, he encouraged her to study with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio and she was also mentored in her early years in New York City by John Van Druten. In November 1955, she was featured on the cover of Life Magazine, Smith made her television debut in 1953 on Kraft Television Theatre. In 1954 she appeared as the daughter of Mary Astor in a Studio One production and she performed on many series through the 1950s and 60s, guest starring on Naked City, The Doctors, Dr. Kildare, and The Defenders. In 1956 she appeared with John Cassavetes in Bring Me A Dream, a teleplay by John Vlahos, in 1959 she was given the lead role of Cindy in the teleplay Cindys Fella, a modernized version of Cinderella, opposite James Stewart and directed by Gower Champion. In 1960 she performed in The Master Builder as Hilda and as Julie in Miss Julie in public television specials. Also in 1960 she appeared as Lena in a teleplay based on Victory by Joseph Conrad and she appeared on four episodes of Route 66, and in 1967 she performed in Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night on CBS Playhouse with Shirley Booth. In 1970 she performed along with Kim Stanley in a special of Tennessee Williams plays titled Dragon Country. In 1978 Smith played the role of Stacey MacAindra in a teleplay Stacey based on The Fire Dwellers by Margaret Laurence. She played supporting roles in the Emmy-nominated television films Rage of Angels, The Execution of Raymond Graham, Switched at Birth and she also guest starred on two episodes of The Equalizer and one episode of Thirtysomething in 1991
36.
Motel
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A motel is a hotel designed for motorists and usually has a parking area for motor vehicles. Motels are often owned, though motel chains do exist. Several historic motels are listed on the US National Register of Historic Places, Motels differ from hotels in their location along highways, as opposed to the urban cores favored by hotels, and their orientation to the outside. Motels almost by definition include a lot, while older hotels were not usually built with automobile parking in mind. Because of their construction, the number of rooms which would fit on any given amount of land was low compared to the high-rise urban hotels which had grown around train stations. The automobile brought mobility and the motel could appear anywhere on the vast network of two-lane highways. Motels are typically constructed in an I-, L-, or U-shaped layout that includes guest rooms, a managers office, a small reception, and in some cases, a small diner. A motel was typically single-story with rooms opening directly onto a parking lot, a second story, if present, would face onto a balcony served by multiple stairwells. U. S. Route 66 is the most popular example of the neon era, many of these signs remain in use to this day. Rooms with connecting doors also commonly appeared in hotels and motels. A few motels would offer honeymoon suites with extra amenities such as whirlpool baths, the first campgrounds for automobile tourists were constructed in the late 1910s. Before that, tourists who couldnt afford to stay in a hotel either slept in their cars or pitched their tents in fields alongside the road, the modern campgrounds of the 1920s and 1930s provided running water, picnic grounds, and restroom facilities. They also kept those pesky tin can tourists out of the farmers fields, Auto camps predated motels by a few years, established in the 1920s as primitive municipal camp sites where travelers pitched their own tents. As demand increased, for-profit commercial camps gradually displaced public camp grounds, until the first travel trailers became available in the 1930s, auto tourists adapted their cars by adding beds, makeshift kitchens and roof decks. The next step up from the trailer was the cabin camp. During the Great Depression, landholders whose property fronted onto highways built cabins to convert land to income, some opened tourist homes. The buildings for a motel or cabin court were quick and simple to construct, with plans and instructions readily available in how-to. The 1935 City Directory for San Diego, California, lists motel-type accommodations under tourist camps, one initially could stay in the Depression-era cabin camps for less than a dollar per night but small comforts were few and far between
