Most viewed Wikipedia articles on December 29 , 2021
John Earl Madden is an American former football coach and sportscaster. He won a Super Bowl as head coach of the Oakland Raiders, and after retiring from coaching became a well-known color commentator for NFL telecasts. In 2006, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his coaching career. He is also widely known for the long-running Madden NFL video game series he has endorsed and fronted since 1988. Madden worked as a color analyst for all four major networks: CBS (1979–1993), Fox (1994–2001), ABC (2002–2005), and NBC (2006–2008). Madden retired from broadcasting after the 2008 NFL season to spend more time with his family. He has also written several books and has served as a commercial pitchman for various products and retailers.
Don't Look Up is an upcoming American political satire disaster comedy film written and directed by Adam McKay, who produced the film with Scott Stuber.
Harry Mason Reid is a retired American attorney and politician who served as a United States Senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate's Democratic Conference from 2005 to 2017 and was the Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2015.
The Matrix Resurrections is an upcoming American science fiction action film produced, co-written, and directed by Lana Wachowski. It is the fourth installment in The Matrix film series. Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jada Pinkett Smith, Lambert Wilson, and Daniel Bernhardt reprise their roles from previous films in the series.
The Book of Boba Fett is an upcoming American television series created for the streaming service Disney+. It is part of the Star Wars franchise, a spin-off from the series The Mandalorian featuring the bounty hunter Boba Fett from that series and other Star Wars media. The series exists alongside other spin-offs Rangers of the New Republic and Ahsoka.
Ethel Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll was a British socialite, best remembered for a celebrated divorce case in 1963 from her second husband, the 11th Duke of Argyll, which featured salacious photographs and scandalous stories.
Encanto is an upcoming American animated musical fantasy comedy film by Walt Disney Pictures set in a fantasy version of Colombia. The 60th film produced by the studio, it is directed by Byron Howard and Jared Bush, co-directed by Charise Castro Smith, produced by Clark Spencer and songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Cleopatra VII Philopator was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. As a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great. After the death of Cleopatra, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, marking the end of the second to last Hellenistic state and the age that had lasted since the reign of Alexander. Her native language was Koine Greek, and she was the only Ptolemaic ruler to learn the Egyptian language.
The following deaths of notable individuals occurred in 2021. Names are reported under the date of death, in alphabetical order by surname or pseudonym. A typical entry reports information in the following sequence:
- Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent nationality, what subject was noted for, cause of death, and reference.
The Bible is a collection of religious texts or scriptures sacred to Christians, Jews, Samaritans, Rastafari and others. It appears in the form of an anthology, a compilation of texts of a variety of forms that are all linked by the belief that they are collectively revelations of God. These texts include theologically-focused historical accounts, hymns, prayers, proverbs, parables, didactic letters, erotica, poetry, and prophecies. Believers also generally consider the Bible to be a product of divine inspiration.
Ghislaine Noelle Marion Maxwell is a British socialite, known for her association with financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. She worked for her father, the publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, until his death in 1991, when she moved to the United States and became a close associate of Epstein. Maxwell founded a non-profit group for the protection of oceans, The TerraMar Project, in 2012. The organisation announced cessation of operations on 12 July 2019, a week after the sex trafficking charges brought by New York federal prosecutors against Epstein became public.
The Witcher is a Polish-American fantasy drama streaming television series produced by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich. It is based on the book series of the same name by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski.
Overall literacy in the United States has increased through increased educational accessibility and higher vocational standards. The definition of literacy has changed greatly. The ability to read a simple sentence suffices as literacy in many nations, and was the previous standard for the U.S. The country's current definition of literacy is the ability to use printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential. The United States Department of Education assesses literacy in the general population through its National Assessment of Adult Literacy. The NAAL survey defines three types of literacy:
- prose literacy: the knowledge and skills needed to perform prose tasks. Examples include editorials, news stories, brochures, and instructional materials.
- document literacy: the knowledge and skills needed to perform document tasks. Examples include job applications, payroll forms, transportation schedules, maps, tables, and drug or food labels.
- quantitative literacy: the knowledge and skills required to perform quantitative tasks. Examples include balancing a checkbook, figuring out how much to tip, completing an order form or determining an amount.
Andrew Russell Garfield is an American-British actor. An alumnus of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Tony Award, and has been nominated for Laurence Laurence Olivier Award, an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and three British Academy Film Awards.
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American actress, comedian, model, studio executive and producer. As one of Hollywood’s greatest icons, she was the star and producer of sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy, as well as comedy television specials aired under the title The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.
Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman is an American actress and singer. She began her career as a child model and backup dancer, before gaining prominence for her role as Rocky Blue on the Disney Channel sitcom Shake It Up (2010–2013).
Igor Yourievitch Bogdanoff and Grichka Yourievitch Bogdanoff are French twin brothers who are television presenters, producers and scientific essayists who, since the 1970s, have presented various subjects in science fiction, popular science and cosmology. They were involved in a number of controversies, most notably the Bogdanov affair, in which it was alleged the brothers wrote nonsensical advanced physics papers that were nonetheless published in reputable scientific journals. They have also been notable because of their personalities, family origins and physical appearances.
Thomas Stanley Holland is an English actor. A graduate of the BRIT School in London, he began his acting career on stage in the title role of Billy Elliot the Musical in the West End from 2008 to 2010. He gained further recognition for his starring role in the disaster film The Impossible (2012), receiving the London Film Critics Circle Award for Young British Performer of the Year.
George Allen "Pat" Summerall was an American football player and television sportscaster who worked for CBS, Fox, and ESPN. In addition to football, he also announced major golf and tennis events. In total, he announced 16 Super Bowls on network television, 26 Masters Tournaments, and 21 US Opens. He also contributed to 10 Super Bowl broadcasts on CBS Radio as a pregame host or analyst.
83 is an upcoming Indian sports drama film directed by Kabir Khan and jointly produced by Khan, Vishnu Vardhan Induri, Deepika Padukone and Sajid Nadiadwala. Co-distributed by Reliance Entertainment, the film stars Ranveer Singh as cricketer Kapil Dev, along with Deepika Padukone, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Saqib Saleem, Harrdy Sandhu, Ammy Virk, Jiiva, Pankaj Tripathi, Boman Irani, Nishant Dahiya, Sahil Khattar and Amrita Puri.
Jeffrey Edward Epstein was an American financier and convicted sex offender. He began his professional life as a teacher, but then switched to the banking and finance sector in various roles, working at Bear Stearns before forming his own firm. He developed an elite social circle and procured many women and children who were then sexually abused by Epstein and some of his contacts.
The 2022 PDC World Darts Championship is the upcoming 29th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event will take place at the Alexandra Palace in London from 15 December 2021 – 3 January 2022.
Madden NFL is an American football video game series developed by EA Tiburon for EA Sports. It is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden, and it has sold more than 250 million copies. It is also the only officially licensed National Football League (NFL) video game series, and it has influenced many players and coaches of the physical sport. Among the series' features are detailed playbooks and player statistics and voice commentary in the style of a real NFL television broadcast. As of 2013 the franchise has generated over $4 billion in sales.
Ian Douglas Campbell, 11th and 4th Duke of Argyll was a Scottish peer. He is chiefly remembered for his unhappy marriage to, and scandalous 1963 divorce from, Margaret Whigham.
Tobias Vincent Maguire is an American actor and film producer. He is best known for his role as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007). His other major films include Pleasantville (1998), Ride with the Devil (1999), The Cider House Rules (1999), Wonder Boys (2000), Seabiscuit (2003), The Good German (2006), Brothers (2009), and The Great Gatsby (2013).
Atrangi Re is an upcoming Indian musical romantic drama film directed by Aanand L. Rai and starring Dhanush, Sara Ali Khan, and Akshay Kumar. Music of the film is composed by A R Rahman. Produced by T-Series, Colour Yellow Productions and Cape of Good Films. It was originally scheduled for worldwide release on 14 February 2021 in theatres, coinciding with Valentine's Day. However, it was indefinitely pushed due to post-production delays owing to COVID-19 pandemic in India. A release was announced for 6 August 2021, but the film was not released. The film will be premiere on 24 December 2021 on Disney+ Hotstar.
The Matrix is a 1999 American science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis, and produced by Joel Silver. It stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano and is the first installment in the Matrix franchise. It depicts a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside a simulated reality, the Matrix, created by intelligent machines to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source. When computer programmer Thomas Anderson, under the hacker alias "Neo", uncovers the truth, he "is drawn into a rebellion against the machines" along with other people who have been freed from the Matrix.
YouTube is an American online video-sharing platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. The service, created in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—was bought by Google in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion and now operates as one of the company's subsidiaries. YouTube is the second most-visited website in the world after Google Search, according to Alexa Internet rankings.
Betty Marion White Ludden is an American actress and comedian. With a television career spanning over 80 years, White has worked longer in that medium than anyone else in the television industry. Regarded as a pioneer of television, she was one of the first women to exert control in front of and behind the camera and is recognized as the first woman to produce a sitcom, which contributed to her receiving the honorary title Mayor of Hollywood in 1955.
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor, film producer and environmentalist. He has often played unconventional roles, particularly in biopics and period films. As of 2019, his films have grossed US$7.2 billion worldwide, and he has placed eight times in annual rankings of the highest-paid actors in the world.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films are a series of American superhero films produced by Marvel Studios based on characters that appear in publications by Marvel Comics. The MCU is the shared universe in which all of the films are set. The films have been in production since 2007, and in that time Marvel Studios has produced and released 23 films, with at least 14 more in various stages of development. It is the highest-grossing film franchise of all time, having grossed over $22.5 billion at the global box office. This includes Avengers: Endgame, which is the highest-grossing film of all time.
Timothée Hal Chalamet is an American actor. He began his acting career in short films, before appearing in the television drama series Homeland in 2012. Two years later, he made his feature film debut in the drama Men, Women & Children and subsequently appeared in Christopher Nolan's science-fiction film Interstellar.
Ian Robert Maxwell was a British media proprietor, Member of Parliament (MP), suspected spy, and fraudster. Originally from Czechoslovakia, Maxwell rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire. After his death, huge discrepancies in his companies' finances were revealed, including his fraudulent misappropriation of the Mirror Group pension fund.
Pauline Collins is a British actress, who first came to prominence portraying Sarah Moffat in Upstairs, Downstairs (1971–1973) and its spin-off, Thomas & Sarah (1979). In 1992, she released her autobiography, titled Letter to Louise.
Elon Reeve Musk is a business magnate, industrial designer and engineer. He is the founder, CEO, CTO and chief designer of SpaceX; early investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink; and co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI. In 2018, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and ranked 25th on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People, and was ranked joint-first on the Forbes list of the Most Innovative Leaders of 2019. A centi-billionaire, Musk became the richest person in the world in January 2021, surpassing Jeff Bezos.
Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski are American film and television directors, writers and producers. The sisters are both trans women.
Lily Jane Collins is a British-American actress and model. The daughter of English musician Phil Collins and American actress Jill Tavelman, she was born in Surrey and moved to Los Angeles as a child.
Lina Marcela Medina de Jurado is a Peruvian woman who became the youngest confirmed mother in history when she gave birth aged five years, seven months, and 21 days. Based on the medical assessments of her pregnancy, she was less than five years old when she became pregnant. She is also the youngest documented case of precocious puberty.
A Star Is Born is a 2018 American musical romantic drama film produced and directed by Bradley Cooper and written by Cooper, Eric Roth and Will Fetters. It stars Cooper, Lady Gaga, Dave Chappelle, Andrew Dice Clay, and Sam Elliott, and follows a hard-drinking musician (Cooper) who discovers and falls in love with a young singer (Gaga). It is the fourth filmed version of the 1937 film, after the 1954 musical and the 1976 musical.
Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Born in Beirut and raised in Toronto, Reeves began acting in theatre productions and in television films before making his feature film debut in Youngblood (1986). He had his breakthrough role in the science fiction comedy Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), and he later reprised his role in its sequels. He gained praise for playing a hustler in the independent drama My Own Private Idaho (1991), and established himself as an action hero with leading roles in Point Break (1991) and Speed (1994).
Ezra Manning Meeker was an American pioneer who traveled the Oregon Trail by ox-drawn wagon as a young man, migrating from Iowa to the Pacific Coast. Later in life he worked to memorialize the Trail, repeatedly retracing the trip of his youth. Once known as the "Hop King of the World", he was the first mayor of Puyallup, Washington.
Jennifer Shrader Lawrence is an American actress. The films she has acted in have grossed over $6 billion worldwide, and she was the world's highest-paid actress in 2015 and 2016. Lawrence appeared in Time's 100 most influential people in the world list in 2013 and in the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2014 and 2016.
April Ashley was an English model, actress, and author. She was outed as a transgender woman by The Sunday People newspaper in 1961 and is one of the earliest British people known to have had sex reassignment surgery. Her marriage was annulled in a notable court case known as Corbett v Corbett.
The Matrix is an American media franchise created by writers-directors the Wachowskis and producer Joel Silver. The series primarily consists of a trilogy of superhero films beginning with The Matrix (1999) and continuing with two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, all written and directed by the Wachowskis and produced by Joel Silver. The franchise is owned by Warner Bros., which distributed the films along with Village Roadshow Pictures. The latter, along with Silver Pictures, are the two production companies that worked on all three films.
Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson is an English actress, model, and activist. She has gained recognition for her roles in both blockbusters and independent films, as well as her women's rights work. Watson has been ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses by Forbes and Vanity Fair, and was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2015.
The James Webb Space Telescope is a joint NASA-ESA-CSA space telescope that is planned to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA's flagship astrophysics mission. The JWST will provide improved infrared resolution and sensitivity over Hubble, and will enable a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology, including observing some of the most distant events and objects in the universe, such as the formation of the first galaxies.
Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill is a British actor. He is known for his portrayal of the Duke of Suffolk in Showtime’s The Tudors, DC Comics character Superman in the DC Extended Universe, Geralt of Rivia in the Netflix fantasy series The Witcher (2019–present), as well as Sherlock Holmes in the Netflix movie Enola Holmes (2020).
Adam McKay is an American film and television director, producer, screenwriter, and comedian. McKay served as head writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live for two seasons and is the co-founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade. He is the director of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), Step Brothers (2008), The Other Guys (2010), and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013), all of which he co-wrote with his creative partner Will Ferrell. Together McKay and Ferrell have co-written and produced numerous TV series and films, and produced their comedy website Funny or Die and HBO's Eastbound & Down through their company Gary Sanchez Productions.
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III, better known as Desi Arnaz, was a Cuban-American actor, musician, bandleader, comedian and film and television producer, revolutionary in the creation of modern television. He is best known for his role as the witty Ricky Ricardo on the American television sitcom I Love Lucy, in which he co-starred with his then wife Lucille Ball. Arnaz and Ball are generally credited as the innovators of the syndicated rerun, which they pioneered with the I Love Lucy series.
Hawkeye is an upcoming American television miniseries created by Jonathan Igla for the streaming service Disney+, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. The series takes place after the events of the film Avengers: Endgame (2019), and introduces new superhero Kate Bishop / Hawkeye. Hawkeye is produced by Marvel Studios, with Igla serving as head writer.
Emily in Paris is an American comedy-drama streaming television series created by Darren Star, which premiered on Netflix on October 2, 2020. The series stars Lily Collins as the eponymous Emily, an American who moves to Paris to provide an American point of view to a French marketing firm. There, she struggles to succeed in the workplace while searching for love and experiencing a culture clash with her "boring" and mundane Midwestern upbringing. It also stars Ashley Park, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, Lucas Bravo, Samuel Arnold, Camille Razat, and Bruno Gouery. In November 2020, the series was renewed for a second season by Netflix.
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her consistent image reinventions and versatility in both music and entertainment. Gaga began performing as a teenager, singing at open mic nights and acting in school plays. She studied at Collaborative Arts Project 21, through New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, before dropping out to pursue a career in music. When Def Jam Recordings canceled her contract, she worked as a songwriter for Sony/ATV Music Publishing, where she signed a joint deal with Interscope Records and Akon's label, KonLive Distribution, in 2007. Gaga rose to prominence the following year with her debut studio album, The Fame, and its chart-topping singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". The album was later reissued to include the EP, The Fame Monster (2009), which yielded the successful singles "Bad Romance", "Telephone", and "Alejandro".
Yellowstone is an American drama television series created by Taylor Sheridan and John Linson that premiered on June 20, 2018 on the Paramount Network. It stars Kevin Costner, Wes Bentley, Kelly Reilly, Luke Grimes, Cole Hauser, and Gil Birmingham. The series follows the conflicts along the shared borders of a large cattle ranch, a Native reservation, and land developers. In June 2019, Paramount Network renewed the series for a third season, which premiered on June 21, 2020. In February 2020, Paramount Network renewed the series for a fourth season, ahead of the premiere of its third season.
Jonathan David Larson was an American composer and playwright noted for exploring the social issues of multiculturalism, addiction, and homophobia in his work. Typical examples of his use of these themes are found in his works Rent and Tick, Tick... Boom! He received three posthumous Tony Awards and a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the rock musical Rent.
The King's Man is an upcoming period action spy film directed by Matthew Vaughn, who wrote the screenplay with Karl Gajdusek. The film is a spin-off prequel and the third film in the Kingsman film series, which is loosely based on the comic book series Kingsman, created by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar and published by Marvel's Icon Comics imprint.
Films generate income from several revenue streams, including theatrical exhibition, home video, television broadcast rights, and merchandising. However, theatrical box office earnings are the primary metric for trade publications in assessing the success of a film, mostly because of the availability of the data compared to sales figures for home video and broadcast rights, but also because of historical practice. Included on the list are charts of the top box-office earners, a chart of high-grossing films by calendar year, a timeline showing the transition of the highest-grossing film record, and a chart of the highest-grossing film franchises and series. All charts are ranked by international theatrical box-office performance where possible, excluding income derived from home video, broadcasting rights, and merchandise.
The Wheel of Time is an upcoming American epic fantasy television series set to premiere on Amazon Prime Video. The series is based on Robert Jordan's novel series of the same name and is produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon Studios, with Rafe Judkins serving as showrunner.
Super Bowl XI was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Oakland Raiders and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Minnesota Vikings to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for its 1976 season. The Raiders defeated the Vikings by the score of 32–14 to win their first Super Bowl. The game was played on January 9, 1977, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. This remains the Super Bowl scheduled earliest during the calendar year.
Anya Chalotra is a British actress primarily known for her role as Yennefer of Vengerberg in the Netflix original series The Witcher. Before that she had a role in Wanderlust.
No Time to Die is a forthcoming spy film and the twenty-fifth instalment in the James Bond film series produced by Eon Productions. It stars Daniel Craig in his fifth outing as the fictional British MI6 agent James Bond; Craig said it will be his final Bond role. The film is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga from a screenplay by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Fukunaga, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Rory Kinnear, and Ralph Fiennes reprise their roles from previous films, with Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas, Dali Benssalah, Billy Magnussen, and David Dencik joining the cast as new characters.
The Silent Sea is a 2021 South Korean sci-fi mystery thriller streaming television series starring Gong Yoo, Bae Doona and Lee Joon. The series is an adaptation from the 2014 short film The Sea of Tranquility written and directed by Choi Hang-yong who will also direct the series. It premiered on Netflix on December 24, 2021 coinciding with Christmas Eve.
Succession is an American black comedy drama television series created by Jesse Armstrong. It premiered on June 3, 2018, on HBO, and has been renewed for a third season. The series centers on the Roy family, the dysfunctional owners of Waystar RoyCo, a global media and hospitality empire, who are fighting for control of the company amid uncertainty about the health of the family's patriarch, Logan Roy.
Sir Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African Anglican cleric and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was the Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then the Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first black African to hold the position. Theologically, he sought to fuse ideas from black theology with African theology.
Ashley Jini Park is an American actress, dancer, and singer. She is known for her works on Broadway as Tuptim in the 2015 revival of The King and I and for originating the role of Gretchen Wieners in the 2018 Tony-nominated musical Mean Girls, for the latter of which she received Drama Desk Award and Tony Award nominations. She can be heard as Kaye Fields in As the Curtain Rises, an original podcast soap opera from the Broadway Podcast Network
Ian Campbell, 12th and 5th Duke of Argyll,, styled Marquess of Lorne between 1949 and 1973, was a Scottish Peer and Chief of Clan Campbell. He was also the 5th Duke of Argyll in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and Lord Lieutenant of Argyll and Bute.
"Let's Go Brandon" is a political slogan and internet meme used as a euphemism for "Fuck Joe Biden" in reference to Joe Biden during his first year as the President of the United States.
XXX is an American action film series created by Rich Wilkes. It consists of three full-length feature films: XXX (2002), XXX: State of the Union (2005) and XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017), and a short film: The Final Chapter: The Death of Xander Cage. The series has grossed $694 million worldwide.
Kwanzaa is an annual celebration of African-American culture that is held from December 26 to January 1, culminating in a communal feast called Karamu, usually held on the 6th day. It was created by Maulana Karenga, based on African harvest festival traditions from various parts of Africa, including West and Southeast Africa. Kwanzaa was first celebrated in 1966.
Daniel Balsam is an American lawyer best known for his lawsuits against e-mail spammers for violations of Internet spam laws. Balsam has been filing lawsuits against spammers since 2002 and has earned over $1 million in court judgments. By filing lawsuits, Balsam aims to publicize the names of the principals who are profiting from spam advertising. He aims to make spamming less profitable and to cause companies to reconsider their decision to market products through spam. Balsam describes his practice as "cleaning up the Internet," although his critics accuse him of taking advantage of the legal system.
Stewart Robert Einstein was an American actor, comedy writer and producer. He created and performed the satirical stuntman character Super Dave Osborne, played Marty Funkhouser in Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Larry Middleman on Arrested Development.
The Wheel of Time is a series of high fantasy novels written by American author James Oliver Rigney Jr., under his pen name of Robert Jordan. Originally planned as a six-book series, The Wheel of Time spanned fourteen volumes, in addition to a prequel novel and two companion books. Jordan began writing the first volume, The Eye of the World, in 1984, and it was published in January 1990.
Sir David Mark Rylance Waters is an English actor, theatre director, and playwright. He was the first artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe in London, between 1995 and 2005. After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Rylance made his professional debut at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow in 1980. He appeared in the West End productions of Much Ado About Nothing in 1994 and Jerusalem in 2010, winning the Olivier Award for Best Actor for both. He has also appeared on Broadway, winning three Tony Awards: two for Best Actor for Boeing Boeing in 2008 and Jerusalem in 2011, and one for Best Featured Actor for Twelfth Night in 2014. He received Best Actor nominations for Richard III in 2014 and Farinelli and the King in 2017. He is one of only eight actors to have won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play twice while his nominations for Richard III and Twelfth Night in 2014 make him one of only six performers to be nominated in two acting categories in the same year.
Emily Jean "Emma" Stone is an American actress. The recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award, she was the world's highest-paid actress in 2017. Stone appeared in Forbes Celebrity 100 in 2013 and in 2017, she was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Elizabeth II is Queen of the United Kingdom and 15 other Commonwealth realms.
Unit 731 , short for Manshu Detachment 731 and also known as Kamo Detachment, Ishii Unit, was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) of World War II. It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Imperial Japan. Unit 731 was based at the Pingfang district of Harbin, the largest gas chamber in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, and had active branch offices throughout China and Southeast Asia.
The Witcher is a series of fantasy novels and short stories written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The series revolves around the titular "witcher", Geralt of Rivia. In Sapkowski's works, "witchers" are beast hunters who develop supernatural abilities at a young age to battle wild beasts and monsters. The books have been adapted into a film, two television series, a trilogy of video games, and a graphic novel series. The series of novels is known as the Witcher Saga. The short stories and novels have been translated into numerous languages, including Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Lithuanian, Spanish and Ukrainian.
Minnal Murali is an upcoming Indian Malayalam-language superhero film directed by Basil Joseph starring Tovino Thomas, Aju Varghese, and Harisree Ashokan. The film is produced by Sophia Paul, under the banner of Weekend Blockbusters. The songs are composed by Shaan Rahman while Sushin Shyam composed the background score.
Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketing term for an office suite, the first version of Office contained Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Over the years, Office applications have grown substantially closer with shared features such as a common spell checker, OLE data integration and Visual Basic for Applications scripting language. Microsoft also positions Office as a development platform for line-of-business software under the Office Business Applications brand. On July 10, 2012, Softpedia reported that Office was being used by over a billion people worldwide.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a 2014 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. The film was directed by Marc Webb and produced by Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach. It is the fifth theatrical Spider-Man film produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Entertainment, the sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), and the final film in The Amazing Spider-Man series. The studio hired James Vanderbilt to write the screenplay and Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci to rewrite it. The film stars Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, alongside Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Campbell Scott, Embeth Davidtz, Colm Feore, Paul Giamatti, and Sally Field. In the film, Peter Parker deals with his relationship with Gwen Stacy as he investigates his parents' murder, while also facing the supervillain Electro, and the return of his childhood friend Harry Osborn, who is dying from a deadly genetic disease that killed his father.
RRR is an upcoming Indian Telugu-language period action drama film written and directed by S. S. Rajamouli. The film is produced by D. V. V. Danayya of DVV Entertainments. It stars N. T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan and Alia Bhatt, Olivia Morris, Ajay Devgn, Samuthirakani, Ray Stevenson, and Alison Doody play supporting roles. It is a fictional story about India's freedom fighters, Alluri Sitarama Raju (Charan) and Komaram Bheem who fought against the British Raj and Nizam of Hyderabad respectively.
The Power of the Dog is an upcoming internationally co-produced drama film written and directed by Jane Campion, based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Savage. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Thomasin McKenzie, Genevieve Lemon, Keith Carradine, and Frances Conroy.
Licorice Pizza is an upcoming American drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It follows a high school student becoming an actor in the 1970s. The film stars Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, and Benny Safdie. It is scheduled to be released on November 26, 2021.
Ansel Easton Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advocating "pure" photography which favored sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph. He and Fred Archer developed an exacting system of image-making called the Zone System, a method of achieving a desired final print through a deeply technical understanding of how tonal range is recorded and developed in exposure, negative development, and printing. The resulting clarity and depth of such images characterized his photography.
The fictional character Spider-Man, a comic book superhero created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and featured in Marvel Comics publications, has appeared as a main character in multiple theatrical and made-for-television films.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films, independently produced by Marvel Studios and based on characters that appear in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The franchise includes comic books, short films, television series, and digital series. The shared universe, much like the original Marvel Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters.
Bradley Charles Cooper is an American actor and filmmaker. He has been nominated for various awards, including eight Academy Awards and a Tony Award, and has won two Grammy Awards and a BAFTA Award. Cooper appeared on the Forbes Celebrity 100 three times and on Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2015. His films have grossed $11 billion worldwide and he has placed four times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors.
Alton Glenn Miller was an American big-band trombonist, arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was the best-selling recording artist from 1939 to 1942, leading one of the best-known big bands. Miller's recordings include "In the Mood", "Moonlight Serenade", "Pennsylvania 6-5000", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "A String of Pearls", "At Last", "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", "American Patrol", "Tuxedo Junction", "Elmer's Tune", and "Little Brown Jug". In just four years Glenn Miller scored 16 number-one records and 69 top ten hits—more than Elvis Presley and the Beatles did in their careers.
Hailee Steinfeld is an American actress, singer and model. She earned many accolades for her breakthrough role as Mattie Ross in the drama western film True Grit (2010), for which she was nominated for BAFTA Award for Best Actress as well as Screen Actors Guild Award and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, making her the ninth youngest nominee in category.
James Bond is a fictional character created by the novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. Bond is a British secret agent working for MI6 who also answers to his codename, ”007“. He has been portrayed on film by the actors Sean Connery, David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig, in twenty-seven productions. All the films but two were made by Eon Productions. Eon now holds the full adaptation rights to all of Fleming's Bond novels.
Catherine Elise Blanchett is an Australian actor, producer, and theatre director. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses of her generation, she is noted for her versatile roles in blockbusters, independent films, and in her stage work in various theatre productions. She has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and three British Academy Film Awards.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States, or America, is a country primarily located in North America, consisting of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, it is the world's third- or fourth-largest country by total area. With a population of more than 328 million people, it is the third most populous country in the world. The national capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City.
Boba Fett is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas. He is an armored Mandalorian warrior and bounty hunter featured in both the original and prequel film trilogies, but first appeared in the non-canonical Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), voiced by Don Francks. In the original trilogy, the character is a supporting antagonist and was mainly portrayed by Jeremy Bulloch and voiced by Jason Wingreen. Notable for his taciturn demeanor and for never removing his helmet, Fett appears in both The Empire Strikes Back (1980), employed by the Galactic Empire, and Return of the Jedi (1983), serving the crime lord Jabba the Hutt. While seemingly killed in Return of the Jedi after falling into a sarlacc, he has since appeared in Star Wars media set after the film, confirming his survival. Fett was retroactively added to the Special Edition of A New Hope released in 1997, making a non-speaking cameo appearance. A preteen Boba is portrayed by Daniel Logan in the prequel film Attack of the Clones (2002), which reveals the character's origins as a clone of the Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett, who raised him to be his son.
Duke of Argyll is a title, created in the Peerage of Scotland in 1701 and in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1892. The Earls, Marquesses, and Dukes of Argyll were for several centuries among the most powerful noble families in Scotland. As such, they played a major role in Scottish history throughout the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. The Duke of Argyll also holds the hereditary titles of chief of Clan Campbell and Master of the Household of Scotland.
Torquhil Ian Campbell, 13th and 6th Duke of Argyll, styled as Earl of Campbell before 1973 and as Marquess of Lorne between 1973 and 2001, is a Scottish peer.
The Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, telephony, and file sharing.
Google LLC is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, a search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware. It is considered one of the Big Five technology companies in the U.S. information technology industry, alongside Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft.
Freya Allan is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Princess Cirilla of Cintra in the Netflix series The Witcher.
The Unforgivable is an upcoming drama film directed by Nora Fingscheidt and written by Peter Craig, Hillary Seitz and Courtenay Miles, based on the 2009 British miniseries Unforgiven written by Sally Wainwright. It stars Sandra Bullock as a woman who attempts to rebuild her life after serving time in prison for committing a violent crime. The film also stars Vincent D'Onofrio, Jon Bernthal, Richard Thomas, Linda Emond, Aisling Franciosi, Rob Morgan and Viola Davis.
Spider-Man is a fictional superhero created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in the anthology comic book Amazing Fantasy #15 in the Silver Age of Comic Books. He appears in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, as well as in a number of movies, television shows, and video game adaptations set in the Marvel Universe. In the stories, Spider-Man is the alias of Peter Parker, an orphan raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben in New York City after his parents Richard and Mary Parker died in a plane crash. Lee and Ditko had the character deal with the struggles of adolescence and financial issues, and accompanied him with many supporting characters, such as J. Jonah Jameson, Harry Osborn, Max Modell, romantic interests Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson, and foes such as Doctor Octopus, the Green Goblin and Venom. His origin story has him acquiring spider-related abilities after a bite from a radioactive spider; these include clinging to surfaces, superhuman strength and agility, and detecting danger with his "spider-sense." He then builds wrist-mounted "web-shooter" devices that shoot artificial spider-webbing of his own design.