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Short Story
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= = = The Other Guys = = =
The Other Guys is a 2010 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Adam McKay, who co-wrote it with Chris Henchy. It stars Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Keaton, Eva Mendes, Steve Coogan, Ray Stevenson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Dwayne Johnson.
This film is the fourth of five collaborations between Ferrell and McKay, following "" (2004), "" (2006), and "Step Brothers" (2008), and followed by "" (2013). "The Other Guys" is the only one not to be co-written by Ferrell. It is also the first of three collaborations between Ferrell and Wahlberg, who later reunited in "Daddy's Home" (2015) and "Daddy's Home 2" (2017).
The film was released on August 6, 2010. It has a 78% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes and grossed over $170 million.
Allen Gamble and Terry "Yankee Clipper" Hoitz are both detectives of the New York City Police Department (NYPD). Allen is a mild-mannered forensic accountant while Terry is a hot-tempered detective who has been partnered with Allen ever since he mistakenly shot Derek Jeter during the World Series. They receive no respect from the other officers, particularly detectives Martin and Fosse. All but Terry idolize cocky detectives Chris Danson and P. K. Highsmith, who are considered New York City's best policemen even though they frequently cause millions of dollars in property damage catching petty criminals. During a pursuit, Danson and Highsmith leap to their deaths after attempting to "aim for the bushes", which causes the precinct to wonder why they did it and who will take their place.
Allen and Terry investigate a scaffolding permit violation by multi-billionaire Sir David Ershon but wind up uncovering a much bigger plot by Ershon to cover the losses incurred by his client Lendl Global. Lendl CEO Pamela Boardman has hired a team of mercenaries led by Roger Wesley to make sure Ershon pays her back.
During their investigation, Allen confides in Terry about how he ran a college dating service in his past, though he denies that he was ever a pimp. When they both get to Allen's house, Terry develops a slight crush on Allen's wife Sheila, while not believing she is truly with Allen because of her beauty. When they visit Allen's ex-girlfriend, Christinith, to gain their police evidence, she and her husband wants him to have sex with her. When Sheila tells Allen that she is pregnant, he reverts to his dark personality, which has her kick him out of their house. Meanwhile, Terry unsuccessfully attempts to reconnect with his ex-fiancée Francine, who had walked out on him due to his furious attitude.
Their investigation comes to a halt when Ershon's attorney, Don Beaman, learns of Ershon's plan to cover his losses, leading Wesley to kill him and make it look like a suicide. Angered at their lack of progress, Capt. Gene Mauch splits up Allen and Terry, sending Terry to traffic duty and Allen to beat patrol. Despite Terry's anger, Allen still works the case on his own. After Allen learns that Danson and Highsmith died investigating a staged theft during which Wesley broke into an accounting firm next door, he finds credible evidence and earns his gun back from Mauch. Allen then convinces Terry to rejoin him. They meet Capt. Mauch at Bed Bath & Beyond, his second job, where the police captain admits he has been holding off on the case because Ershon has high-profile connections that could ruin him, and he allows them to finish the case off-the-books.
They go to an investment meeting Ershon is having and realize that the $32 billion Ershon seeks is really coming from the NYPD pension fund. They escape with Ershon to his private apartment, and Ershon tells them that the money for the pension fund is already in his account, ready to be transferred. Later that night, Allen and Terry finally reconcile with their loved ones. Allen apologizes to Sheila with her mother as a secret communication system and so she welcomes her husband back in. Terry also apologizes to Francine for letting his anger rule his life.
The next morning, they drive to the bank to stop the transfer, evading Wesley's team, groups of Chechen and Nigerian investors to whom Ershon owes money, and police officers who are told Allen and Terry have gone rogue. They reach the bank and halt the transfer. Wesley arrives, and as a delaying tactic, shoots both officers and Ershon in their arms. Mauch finally arrives with police backup, rescuing the two and arresting Ershon for his embezzlement, and Wesley for multiple counts of murder. Ershon's arrest leads to a stock market crash and the subsequent federal bailout of Lendl Global. Terry marries Francine, and Allen reunites with his wife. The narrator finishes off by stating that the true heroes are the everyday people who work to make a difference, not the ones who appear in the newspaper or on TV.
McKay described the genesis as an "accident, in a way", stemming from a dinner he and Ferrell had with Wahlberg. After noticing the actors' chemistry, McKay wrote producer Kevin Messick an email hypothesizing a possible film starring the two, giving a cop film as an example of what he thought would work. Messik suggested developing that idea into a film.
Principal photography for the film began on September 23, 2009, in New York City. Additional scenes were filmed in Albany and Staten Island, New York.
Practical visual effects work, including the helicopter crash scene, was done by KernerFX.
Stunt coordinator Brad Martin said in a "Wall Street Journal" interview that for Gamble's car they used three Priuses, including one with a racing engine so large it had to go in the back seat.
In July 2010, Wahlberg and Ferrell appeared at the San Diego Comic-Con International to promote the film.
During an episode of "Big Brother", the house guests competed in a luxury challenge to see an advance screening of the film. Although they weren't actually in the house, both Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg made an on-screen video appearance.
During the August 4, 2010 episode of "America's Got Talent", the week's contestants saw an advance screening of the film and got to meet both Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg.
Ferrell and Wahlberg also made a cameo appearance on an episode of "WWE Raw" to promote the film.
During the week leading up to the release date, the film was promoted on TruTV programs, specifically "". During the Season 2 premier for the MTV reality series "Jersey Shore" on July 29, 2010, special segments were shown during the commercial breaks of the show's cast broken down on a highway, discussing several movies, as part of a promotional tie-in; with "The Other Guys" being one of them.
They appeared in on screen advertising on broadcast sports events like MLB and NASCAR.
In its first day of release, "The Other Guys" grossed $13,124,233, placing first for Friday. It had a large opening weekend take of $35,543,162, placing it at #1 for the weekend of August 6–8, 2010, unseating "Inception". The film ended up grossing $119,219,978 in North America and $51,212,949 in other territories, making for a worldwide total of $170,432,927.
"The Other Guys" received a 78% approval rating from 202 surveyed critics on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes; the site's critical consensus reads: "A clever parody of cop-buddy action-comedies, "The Other Guys" delivers several impressive action set pieces and lots of big laughs, thanks to the assured comic chemistry between Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg." It has been called "a highly entertaining movie filled with witty dialogue and over-the-top action." Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" praised the film, saying, "Don't let anyone spoil the wildly hilarious surprises. Ferrell and Wahlberg will double your fun. Guaranteed." Some critics praised "The Other Guys" as the best police film of the year, comparing the film to the critically panned "Cop Out", with Richard Roeper stating, "Note to Kevin Smith: THIS is how you do a spoof of the buddy-cop genre," and Stephen Whitty of "The Star-Ledger" said in his mixed review, "Measured against this year's other police farce—remember "Cop Out"?—it looks absolutely heroic."
"The Other Guys" also received the "Best Comedy Film" award for 2010 at the first annual Comedy Awards.
= = = Birds of the West Indies = = =
Birds of the West Indies () is a book containing exhaustive coverage of the 400+ species of birds found in the Caribbean Sea, excluding the ABC islands, and Trinidad and Tobago, which are considered bio-geographically as part of South America.
Written by ornithologist James Bond, the book was first published as "A Field Guide to the Birds of the West Indies" in 1936 by the Academy of Natural Sciences as part of the "International Series". It has been reprinted several times since then, including as one of the Peterson Field Guides series (PFG 18), a September 1, 1999, edition from Houghton Mifflin and a March 4, 2002 edition from Collins. The book contains approximately 256 pages.
The book was the only text exclusively devoted to the avifauna of the region for many decades until "A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies" (), by Herbert Raffaele et al.., was published in 1998.
"Birds of the West Indies" was a book owned by novelist Ian Fleming, who used the ornithologist's name for his own fictional British secret agent character, Commander James Bond. Fleming, a keen bird watcher while living at his estate in Jamaica, owned this book. He later explained that the author's name was "brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon, and yet very masculine – just what I needed." Fleming once said in a "Reader's Digest" interview: "I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, and 'James Bond' was much better than something more interesting, like 'Peregrine Carruthers.' Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure — an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department." The book has since become a collector's item amongst Bond fans and was featured as an homage in the twentieth James Bond film, "Die Another Day", when Bond poses as an ornithologist while in Cuba. The final shot of the miniseries "" is of a copy of "Birds of the West Indies" next to Ian Fleming's typewriter.
= = = Large format lens = = =
Large format lenses are photographic optics that provide an image circle large enough to cover large format film or plates. Large format lenses are typically used in large format cameras and view cameras.
Photographic optics generally project a circular image behind the lens. On smaller format cameras the image circle generally covers only the intended film size with little room to spare. Large format lenses are an exception. For large format use the circular patch of image light usually extends beyond the minimum size circle needed to fully cover the rectangle of the film. The extra image offers room to spare to make use of camera movements that re-align the lens away from dead center on the film.
Lenses of the same general construction are often given a name implying this design. For example, a Tessar always has four elements in three groups as described below, although Tessars have been produced with different focal lengths and maximum apertures for many decades. Sometimes a name does not identify a specific design; Kodak's Ektar lens brand name encompasses many different types. Sometimes different manufacturers use different names for lenses of the same type; for example the Voigtländer Skopar is of Tessar design. And sometimes identical lenses are sold under different names and at different prices; for example, lenses branded as Rodenstock and Caltar.
Early lenses suffered from flare and low contrast, worsening as the number of lens-air interfaces increased. The introduction of and improvements in anti-reflective coatings vastly reduced flare; some many-element lens designs which had been abandoned due to low contrast in spite of otherwise excellent performance became practical.
Lenses designed for use with monochromatic film, first orthochromatic, then panchromatic, had less exacting requirements regarding chromatic aberrations than when colour film is used. When using older lenses today one should check that chromatic aberrations and flare are acceptable for the application.
The Tessar design is suitable for front-element focussing, but unit focussing is used on large format cameras.
A true telephoto lens is designed to require less bellows extension than a long-focus lens of the same focal length.
= = = Brian Chase = = =
Brian Chase (born February 12, 1978) is an American drummer and drone musician who plays in the New York rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He was ranked at #50 in Gigwise's list of "The Greatest Drummers of All Time". He plays drums with traditional grip.
Chase met Karen O at Ohio's Oberlin College, and he joined the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in 2000 after the original drummer left the trio.
Starting at college, Chase played for the rock band The Seconds. Chase has been described by the New York Times as "a consummate music nerd, a conservatory-trained jazz drummer who still plays in the city’s experimental scene."
Outside of his rock work with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Chase has performed in a number of experimental duos with other musicians such as Stefan Tcherepnin and Seth Misterka, with whom he released a CD "Duo" on the Australian Heathen Skulls label in 2007. Other musicians he has played with include Jessica Pavone, Mary Halvorson, Yonatan Gat, Moppa Elliott, and groups Oakley Hall, Blarvuster, and klezmer-fusionists The Sway Machinery
In May 2010 the Chase/Misterka Duo performed at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival and then a month-long Australian tour. A second record "The Shape of Sound" was released to coincide.
In 2013, Chase released the album "Drums & Drones". A follow-up, "Drums & Drones II", was released in 2018 by Canadian label ICM. Chase's drone work has been inspired by his time working at La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela's Dream House, NYC.
= = = Cordoba Fighting Dog = = =
The Cordoba Fighting Dog is an extinct breed of fighting dog. The Cordoba was a crossbreed of the Alano Español, English Mastiff, Bull Terrier, Bulldog and Boxer. Its temperament includes being very fierce, very aggressive, strong, vigorous, and relentless (high stamina).
The Cordoba Fighting Dog originated in Córdoba, Argentina. It was noted for its willingness to fight to the death and its high pain tolerance. In addition, many members of this breed died in the dog fighting pits, contributing to the breed's extinction. The Cordoba was capable of hunting in a small pack of a male and female; otherwise it was likely to turn on its packmates.
The Dogo Argentino is directly derived from this breed. In the 1920s, breeders developed the Dogo Argentino by crossing the Cordoba Fighting Dog with other breeds such as the Great Dane, Great Pyrenees, Bulldog, Bull Terrier and Dogue de Bordeaux.
= = = Tadeusz Stefan Zieliński = = =
Tadeusz Stefan Zieliński (; ; near Uman, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire, September 14, 1859 – May 8, 1944, Schondorf, Upper Bavaria) was a prominent Polish classical philologist, historian, translator of Sophocles, Euripides and other classical authors into Russian.
He was author of works on the history of ancient Greek culture and religion, classical education, and popularization of classical studies (published largely in Russian and German).
He was professor at the University of St. Petersburg (1890–1922), then at Warsaw University for 17 years (1922–1939) in the interwar Poland, and recipient of honorary doctorates from the Jagiellonian University, Kraków (1930), and twelve western European universities. Between 1933–1939 Zieliński was a member of the prestigious Polish Academy of Literature.
Although Zieliński was active in many areas of classical scholarship, one of the studies for which he is best known in the west is his investigation of the prose rhythm of Cicero, published in 1904 and which is still often referred to today. (See Clausula (rhetoric)).
His daughter became wife of Prof. Vladimir Beneshevich executed by the Soviet regime in 1938. Adrian Piotrovsky was his natural son.
= = = Melbourne School Bands Festival = = =
The Melbourne School Bands/Strings Festival was a two-week program where school bands mainly from metropolitan Melbourne, Australia, as well as country Victoria and interstate, gather to perform, listen and participate in tutorials. The Festival has an education focus. All ensembles receive either a Gold, Silver, Bronze, Merit or Participation shield. The Melbourne School Band festival is the brain child of Barry Croll and Douglas Heywood who created the idea and event under the Music Junction Blackburn Banner in 1989 to support the ongoing development of music education in schools. The festival was produced and sponsored by Billy Hyde Music Foundation, until their parent company Billy Hyde went into liquidation in 2012.
In 2008, the Festival's 20th anniversary, over 300 concert bands, jazz ensembles and string ensembles performed at the Robert Blackwood Concert Hall and School of Music Auditorium, Monash University. Since the inception of the festival in 1989 the number of students electing to learn an instrument through their school music program has increased substantially. The festival is now one of Australia's most prestigious musical events for school musicians.
The festival is designed to support and develop instrumental music education. Not only do students have the opportunity to perform at Australia's finest venues (acoustic-wise), but they receive adjudication from an outstanding panel of adjudicators.
The festival runs for two weeks until the Festival Finale on the last Saturday of August. The Finale showcases the most outstanding ensembles from the Festival and features the distribution of the awards.
In late 2012, Allans Billy Hyde music stores went into liquidation and the Billy Hyde Foundation now ceases to exist. While select Allans Billy Hyde stores live on through a new owner the Melbourne School Bands Festival's fate is unknown.
= = = 1954 Palanca Awards = = =
The Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature winners in the year 1954 (rank, title of winning entry, name of author).
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= = = Sledmere = = =
Sledmere is a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, about north-west of Driffield on the B1253 road.
The village lies in a civil parish which is also officially called "Sledmere" by the Office for National Statistics, although the county council and parish council refer to it as Sledmere and Croome, as the parish also includes the nearby hamlet of Croome. According to the 2011 UK census, the parish had a population of 377, an increase on the 2001 UK census figure of 197; the parish covers an area of .
Local points of interest include Sledmere House, a Georgian country house. Built in 1751 by Richard Sykes, the house has remained in the Sykes family since then. It is now the home of Sir Tatton Sykes, 8th baronet.
The Sledmere Monument is about south-east of the village, along the B1252 road, on top of Garton Hill. It is tall and is a tribute to Sir Tatton Sykes, 4th Baronet, built by his friends in 1865.
The Wagoners' Memorial in the village, designed by Sir Mark Sykes, 6th Baronet, is dedicated to the Wolds Wagoners Reserve, a corps that Sir Mark raised from the local population to fight in the First World War. It is noted for its unusual shape and its graphic scenes of war and country life.
The memorial was designated a Grade II listed building in September 1966, but upgraded to Grade I in March 2016.
Sledmere is also the site of the Eleanor Cross, Sledmere, a replica Eleanor cross designated a Grade II listed building in September 1966, but upgraded to Grade I in March 2016.
The 'Sledmere Cross' takes the form of an Eleanor Cross and is a true 'folly' that was 'converted' in 1919 to a War Memorial by Sir Mark Sykes (of the Sykes–Picot Agreement) who added a series of brass portraits in commemoration of his friends and the local men who fell in the war and also notably himself in crusader armour with the inscription “Laetare Jerusalem (Rejoice Jerusalem)”.
East of the village is Sledmere Castle, a folly built around 1790 by John Carr for Sir Christopher Sykes, the 2nd baronet, to enhance the view from Sledmere House.
The church of St Mary is one of the churches on the Sykes Churches Trail. In 1966 the church was designated a Grade II* listed building.
Sledmere was served by Sledmere and Fimber railway station on the Malton and Driffield Railway between 1853 and 1950.
= = = Biscotasing, Ontario = = =