The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America which composes thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada. It is an active member of USA Basketball (USAB), which is recognized by the International Basketball Federation as the National Governing Body (NGB) for basketball in the United States. The NBA is one of the four major North American professional sports leagues, which include Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Football League (NFL), and the National Hockey League (NHL).
The league was founded in New York City on June 6, 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA).The league adopted the name National Basketball Association in 1949 after merging with the rival National Basketball League (NBL). The league's several international as well as individual team offices are directed out of its head offices located in the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in New York City. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are directed out of offices located in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Brian Wood (born January 29, 1977) (died September 16, 2010) is a writer, illustrator, and graphic designer living in Brooklyn, New York. He was known primarily as a comic book creator; Wood had both written and illustrated graphic novels and serialized monthly comic books for a variety of publishers.
During his comics career, Wood held a day job for several years as a staff designer for Rockstar Games, designing for video game franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, Midnight Club, Max Payne, Smuggler's Run, and Manhunt. He is also one of the most distinctive graphic designers in the comics industry, having created covers for Warren Ellis's Global Frequency, his own DMZ as well as many others.
Wood's illustrations have appeared in Punk Planet, Bail Magazine, The SF Bay Guardian, and short films for Nike.
Early life
Wood was in Essex Junction, Vermont. Wood moved to New York City in 1991 and went on to graduate from Parsons School of Design in 1997 with a Bachelor's Degree in Illustration.
Career
Wood's first professional work in comics was the 5-issue miniseries Channel Zero, published by Image Comics in 1997, created as part of a final project for graduation from Parsons. Channel Zero is set in a dystopian near-future New York City where the tenets of Mayor Giuliani have grown into a freedom-restricting government initiative called 'The Clean Act'. The protagonist is Jennie 2.5, a DIY media personality. Channel Zero was orphaned shortly after Image Comics sold out of the first print run of the collection, opting not to return to press. AiT/Planet Lar acquired it soon afterwards and has kept the graphic novel in print.
Wood was absent from comics for several years, working at a series of internet design jobs during the dot-com boom. In early 2000, Warren Ellis offered Wood a co-writing job on Marvel Comics' Generation X, as part of Ellis's Counter-X run (in which Ellis served as 'Plotmaster'). Wood co-wrote issues #63–70 with Ellis, and wrote #71–75 on his own. The series was canceled as part of incoming editor-in-chief Joe Quesada's attempts to simplify the X-Men franchise.
Wood returned to creator-owned comics between 2001 and 2003, producing several graphic novels and miniseries, including Couscous Express, The Couriers, and Jennie One for AIT, Pounded for Oni Press, and Fight For Tomorrow for DC's imprint Vertigo. He was employed as AIT's art director for roughly six months, creating not only their current logo and branding, but covers for many of the books they published during this time. He also found time to work again with Warren Ellis, creating 14 covers for the critically-acclaimed Wildstorm series Global Frequency.
Demo
In late 2003, Wood quit his staff job at Rockstar Games and teamed with artist Becky Cloonan to create the monthly series Demo. Each of the 12 issues told its own complete story, and included eight pages of "backmatter", bonus material that was intentionally left out of the eventual collected edition. Demo was highly successful, earning two Eisner Award nominations, many positive press mentions and multiple editions in foreign languages.
As a career milestone, Demo indicates a shift from Wood's earlier high concept action-adventure work. Demo, and much of his later work, tends towards focused human dramas with strong emotional elements.
America's Best Dance Crew, often abbreviated as ABDC, is an American competitive dance reality television series that features street dance crews from the United States. It is produced by American Idol judge Randy Jackson, who has admitted to using the show as a platform for his banner-making company, and airs on MTV.
The show is hosted by former teen actor, two-time game show host, and Dancing with the Stars runner-up Mario Lopez, and features television personality Layla Kayleigh as the backstage correspondent. For the fifth season, the current judges are hip-hop artist and dancer Lil Mama, former *NSYNC member JC Chasez, and R&B singer Omarion. Hip-hop choreographer Shane Sparks is a former judge. The series was originally developed for NBC.
Overview
America's Best Dance Crew is a reality show where dance crews from all over the U.S. showcase their talent and compete for a $100,000.00 (USD) grand prize. Each week, the crews are given a challenge. The challenge is different for each crew but has the same general concept. For example, one challenge included a set of a school gym, and each crew had to incorporate beats with the props on stage (lockers, bleachers, jump ropes, etc.). Every week there is a performance/results show. Mario Lopez reveals which crews are in the bottom two. These two then do the performances they were planning on doing if they were safe and then the judges choose which crew was better and that crew stays while the other crew is eliminated. Since the first season, the winning crews also received the Golden B-Boy Trophy, a golden statue of a B-Boy doing a freeze, with the legs moving like a bobblehead. Another unique aspect of ABDC is the crew banner. The logo on a banner represents that crew, appearing on merchandise and the background for interviews, and it is also used as a transition effect. When a crew is eliminated, its banner falls off the top of the stadium where the banners of the crews still in the running stand. They get to dance one last time on the stage as they "walk it out" to the song of the same name. If a crew is eliminated from the fifth place mark (sixth in seasons 1-4), it will have a compilation video showing its journey on the show.
On August 2, 2009, as a prologue for season four, the show premiered a special hosted by Randy Jackson called "The Top 10 Performances of All Time," where Randy showed his top 10 picks of the first three seasons:
Mayon Volcano, also known as Mount Mayon, is an active stratovolcano in the province of Albay, in the Bicol Region, on the island of Luzon, in the Philippines.
Renowned as the "perfect cone" because of its almost symmetrically conical shape, Mayon forms the northern boundary of Legazpi City. Local folklore refers to the volcano as Bulkang Magayon (Filipino: 'Magayon Volcano'), after the legendary heroine Daragang Magayon (Bikol: 'Lady Beautiful').
On October 13, 2008 it was included in New 7 Wonders of Nature Top 10 list. However, it did not make the cut to the Top 25 finalists, giving way to the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River, another site in the Philippines
Geomorphology
Mayon Volcano is an active stratovolcano. The current cone was formed through pyroclastic and lava flows from past eruptions. Mayon is the most active of the active volcanoes in the Philippines, having erupted over 49 times in the past 400 years.
It is located on the eastern side of Luzon, beside the Philippine Trench which is the convergent boundary where the Philippine Sea Plate is driven under the Philippine Mobile Belt. Where a continental plate or belt of continental fragments meets an oceanic plate, the lighter continental material overrides the oceanic plate, forcing it down into the Earth's mantle. Magma may be forced through weaknesses in the continental crust caused by the collision of the tectonic plates. One such exit point is Mayon.
Like other volcanoes located around the rim of the Pacific Ocean, Mayon is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Location and formation
Mayon Volcano is the main landmark of Albay Province, Philippines. It is 10 kilometres (6 mi) from the Gulf of Albay, in the cities and municipalities of Legazpi City, Daraga, Camalig, Guinobatan, Ligao City, Tabaco City, Malilipot, and Santo Domingo (clockwise from Legazpi). It rises 2462 m (8,077 ft) above the gulf.
Mayon Volcano is the Philippines' most active volcano and is considered to be the world's most perfectly formed volcano for its symmetrical cone. It is a basaltic-andesitic volcano. The upper slopes of the volcano are steep averaging 35-40 degrees and are capped by a small summit crater. Its sides are layers of lava and other volcanic material.
Leonard T. Weaver III (born September 23, 1982 in Melbourne, Florida) is an American football fullback for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League. He was signed by the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 2005. He played college football at Carson-Newman.
Early years
Born to Jennifer Gilmore and Leonard T. Weaver Jr. He attended Satellite High School in Satellite Beach, Florida and was a student and a letterman in football, basketball, and track. Weaver played running back and quarterback at Satellite.
College career
Weaver began his college football career in 2001 at Carson-Newman College as a linebacker, making nine tackles in two starts as a redshirt freshman. The next year he moved to tight end. In 2003, Weaver hauled in 16 receptions for 410 yards and six TDs. In the Division II Playoffs that year, he made a 67 yard touchdown reception.
In his final year, still a tight end, Weaver earned Division II All-American honors from the AP, American Football Coaches Association and others. He lead the 9-3 Carson-Newman Eagles to a conference championship and the second round of the Division II playoffs with 27 catches for 571 yards and 8 touchdowns, leading all Eagles receivers
Philadelphia Eagles
Weaver, who was an unrestricted free agent after the 2009 season, signed a one year, $1.75 million contract with the Philadelphia Eagles on March 20, 2009. There are said to be incentives in the deal that could make it worth a total of $2.5 million. He scored his first touchdown as a Philadelphia Eagle on November 1, 2009 against the New York Giants on a 41 yard run.
Weaver was selected to the 2010 Pro Bowl as a starting fullback.
As a restricted free agent heading into the offseason, Weaver signed a three-year contract worth $11 million, $6.5 million guaranteed. This deal makes him the highest paid fullback in NFL history.
A MTV Video Music Award, also called a VMA, is awarded by the cable network MTV to celebrate the top music videos of the year. First awarded at the end of the summer of 1984, and originally as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category), the MTV Video Music Awards have often been called the "Oscars for youth", an acknowledgment of the Awards ceremony's ability to draw millions of youth from teens to 20-somethings each year. By 2001, the VMA had become a coveted award.[2] They are presented annually, and broadcast live on MTV. The statue given to winners is an astronaut on the moon, one of the earliest representations of MTV.
Past broadcasts have been held in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, and Las Vegas. The 2009 Awards were held on September 13 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The 2010 Video Music Awards are scheduled to take place on September 12 at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, California.
The VMAs have been a generational pop-cultural annual award show that gathers the most popular bands and artists each year. For years, the show was noteworthy for its live crazy moments (some cut for the re-runs); it quickly gained popularity because of them, rather than the awards given.
The show starts with a pre-show that can last from 1 to 2 hours. That is followed by the main show which lasts up to two-three hours, and then the post-show.
America's Got Talent is a British-owned American reality television series on the NBC television network. It is a talent show that features singers, dancers, magicians, comedians and other performers of all ages competing for the advertised top prize of US$1 million. The show debuted in June 2006 for the summer television season. Starting in the third season, the Talent top prize included US$1 million, payable in a financial annuity over forty years (or the present cash value of such annuity), and a show as the headliner on the Las Vegas Strip.
Among its significant features were that it gave an opportunity to talented amateurs or unknown performers, with the results decided by an audience vote. The format is a popular one and has often been reworked for television in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The current incarnation was created by Simon Cowell, and was originally due to be a 2005 British series called Paul O'Grady's Got Talent but was postponed due to O'Grady's acrimonious split with broadcaster ITV. As such, the American version became the first full series of the Got Talent franchise.
Despite being heavily involved in the show's production, Simon Cowell does not appear as a judge. This is due to the conditions of his American Idol contract. However he does appear as a judge on Britain's Got Talent. America's Got Talent began airing season one in the United Kingdom on ITV1 on 22 June 2007, TV3 Ireland on July 2007 and in New Zealand on Prime Television on 9 July 2007. The third season of Talent premiered on ITV2 beginning 4 June 2009.
Pre-audition process
Beginning with Season 3, before the auditions in front of the judges are held, there are separate untelevised producers' auditions which come to various cities across the United States, some which will host the auditions held in theaters, and some which usually only host the producers' auditions. This round is held several months before the judges' audition in cities that would also host the televised second round. Acts that have made it through the producers' audition will then audition in front of the judges and a live audience.
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Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure to help you get better search results, faster. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type.
The most obvious change is that you get to the right content much faster than before because you don’t have to finish typing your full search term, or even press “search.” Another shift is that seeing results as you type helps you formulate a better search term by providing instant feedback. You can now adapt your search on the fly until the results match exactly what you want. In time, we may wonder how search ever worked in any other way.
Benefits
Faster Searches: By predicting your search and showing results before you finish typing, Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search.
Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.
Instant Results: Start typing and results appear right before your eyes. Until now, you had to type a full search term, hit return, and hope for the right results. Now results appear instantly as you type, helping you see where you’re headed, every step of the way.
The International Federation of Association Football (French: Fédération Internationale de Football Association), commonly known by the acronym FIFA (usual English pronunciation: /ˈfiːfə/), is the international governing body of association football, futsal and beach soccer. Its headquarters are located in Zürich, Switzerland, and its current president is Sepp Blatter. FIFA is responsible for the organisation and governance of football's major international tournaments, most notably the FIFA World Cup, held since 1930. Nineteen editions of the FIFA World Cup have been held so far. The next edition is to be held in Brazil in 2014.
FIFA has 208 member associations, three more than the International Olympic Committee and five fewer than the International Association of Athletics Federations
History
The need for a single body to oversee the game became apparent at the beginning of the 20th century with the increasing popularity of international fixtures. FIFA was founded in Paris on 21 May 1904; the French name and acronym remain, even outside French-speaking countries. The founding members were the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, The Netherlands, Spain (represented by Madrid Football Club, Spanish federation was created in 1913), Sweden and Switzerland. Also, that same day, the German Association declared its intention of affiliating through a telegram.
The first president of FIFA was Robert Guérin. Guérin was replaced in 1906 by Daniel Burley Woolfall from England, by then a member association. The next tournament staged, the football competition for the 1908 Olympics in London was more successful, despite the presence of professional footballers, contrary to the founding principles of FIFA.
Membership of FIFA expanded beyond Europe with the application of South Africa in 1908, Argentina and Chile in 1912, and Canada and the United States in 1913.
During World War I, with many players sent off to war and the possibility of travel for international fixtures severely limited, there were few international fixtures, and the organisation's survival was in doubt. Post-war, following the death of Woolfall, the organisation was run by Dutchman Carl Hirschmann. It was saved from extinction, but at the cost of the withdrawal of the Home Nations (of the United Kingdom), who cited an unwillingness to participate in international competitions with their recent World War enemies. The Home Nations later resumed their membership.
The FIFA collection is held by the National Football Museum in England.
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE) (NYSE: WWE) is a publicly-traded, privately-controlled integrated media (focusing in television, Internet, and live events) and sports entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales. Vince McMahon is the majority owner, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company. Together with his wife Linda McMahon, and their children, Shane McMahon and Executive Vice President of Talent and Creative Writing, Stephanie McMahon-Levesque, the McMahons hold approximately 70% of WWE's economic interest and 96% of the voting power in the company.
The company's global headquarters are located in Stamford, Connecticut with offices in Los Angeles, New York City, London, Tokyo, Toronto, and Sydney. The company was previously known as Titan Sports before changing to World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc., and then becoming World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.
WWE's business focus is on professional wrestling, a simulated sport that consists of wrestling combined with acting and theatre. It is currently the largest professional wrestling promotion in the world and holds an extensive library of videos representing a significant portion of the visual history of professional wrestling. The promotion previously existed as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, which promoted under the banner of the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), and later the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). WWE promotes under two brands known as Raw, and SmackDown.
Capitol Wrestling Corporation
Roderick James "Jess" McMahon was a boxing promoter whose achievements included co-promoting a bout in 1915 between Jess Willard and Jack Johnson. In 1926, while working with Tex Rickard (who actually despised wrestling to such a degree he prevented wrestling events from being held at the third Madison Square Garden in New York City between 1939 and 1948), he started promoting boxing at the Garden. The first match during their partnership was a light-heavyweight championship match between Jack Delaney and Paul Berlenbach.
Around the same time, professional wrestler Joseph Raymond "Toots" Mondt created a new challenge of professional wrestling that he called Slam Bang Western Style Wrestling to make the sport more appealing to spectators. He then formed a promotion with wrestling champion Ed Lewis and his manager Billy Sandow. They persuaded many wrestlers to sign contracts with their Gold Dust Trio. After much success, a disagreement over power caused the trio to dissolve and, with it, their promotion. Mondt formed partnerships with several other promoters, including Jack Curley in New York City. When Curley was dying, Mondt moved to take over New York wrestling with the aid of several bookers, one of whom was Jess McMahon.
Together, Roderick McMahon and Raymond Mondt created the Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC). The CWC joined the National Wrestling Alliance in 1953. Also in that year, Ray Fabiani, one of Mondt's associates, brought in Vincent J. McMahon to replace his father Jess in the promotion. McMahon and Mondt were a successful combination, and within a short time, they controlled approximately 70% of the NWA's booking, largely due to their dominance in the heavily populated Northeast region. Mondt taught McMahon about booking and how to work in the wrestling business. Due to the dominance in the northeast, the CWC was referred to by AWA legend Nick Bockwinkel as the "Northeast Triangle", with its territory being defined by Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., and Maine as points of the triangle.
World Wrestling Federation
In 1980, the son of Vincent J. McMahon, Vincent Kennedy McMahon, founded Titan Sports, Inc. and in 1982 purchased Capitol Wrestling Corporation from his father. The elder McMahon had long since established the northeastern territory as one of the most vibrant members of the NWA. He had long since recognized that professional wrestling was more about entertainment than actual sport. Against his father's wishes, McMahon began an expansion process that fundamentally changed the industry.
The original logo of the World Wrestling Federation; still occasionally used by WWE in reference to their history.The WWF was not the only promotion to have broken ranks with the NWA; the American Wrestling Association (AWA) had long ago ceased being an official NWA member (although like the WWF, they seldom left their own territory). However, neither of the defecting members attempted to undermine the territory system that had been the foundation of the industry for more than half a century.
Other promoters were furious when McMahon began syndicating WWF television shows to television stations across the United States, in areas outside of the WWF's traditional northeastern stronghold. McMahon also began selling videotapes of WWF events outside the Northeast through his Coliseum Video distribution company. He effectively broke the unwritten law of regionalism around which the entire industry had been based. To make matters worse, McMahon used the income generated by advertising, television deals, and tape sales to poach talent from rival promoters. Wrestling promoters nationwide were now in direct competition with the WWF.
Hulk Hogan, due to his appearance in Rocky III, had a national recognition that few other wrestlers could offer, which is what led McMahon to sign him. Roddy Piper was brought in, as well as Jesse Ventura (although Ventura rarely wrestled in the WWF at that point due to the lung disorder that caused his retirement, moving to the commentator booth alongside Gorilla Monsoon). André the Giant, Jimmy Snuka, Don Muraco, Paul Orndorff, Greg Valentine, Ricky Steamboat, and the Iron Sheik (Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri) rounded out the roster. Hogan was clearly McMahon's biggest star, causing some people to debate whether the WWF could have achieved national success without him.
The WWF would tour nationally in a venture that required huge capital investment; one that placed the WWF on the verge of financial collapse. The future of not just McMahon's experiment, but also the WWF, the NWA, and the whole industry came down to the success or failure of McMahon's groundbreaking concept, WrestleMania. WrestleMania was a pay-per-view extravaganza (in some areas; most areas of the country saw WrestleMania available on closed-circuit television) that McMahon marketed as being the Super Bowl of professional wrestling. The concept of a wrestling supercard was nothing new in North America; the NWA had been running Starrcade a few years prior to WrestleMania, and even the elder McMahon had marketed large Shea Stadium cards viewable in closed-circuit locations. However, McMahon's vision was to make the WWF and the industry itself mainstream, targeting more of the general television audience by exploiting the entertainment side of the industry. With the inaugural WrestleMania the WWF initiated a joint-promotional campaign with MTV, which featured a great deal of WWF coverage and programming, in what was termed the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection. The mainstream media attention brought on by celebrities including Muhammad Ali, Mr. T, and Cyndi Lauper at the event helped propel WrestleMania to become a staple in popular culture.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in the United States that hosts most of the top-ranked fighters in the world and produces numerous events worldwide. The UFC has five weight-divisions and enforces the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. Dana White serves as the president of the UFC; Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta control its parent company, Zuffa, LLC.
Inspired by vale tudo tournaments in Brazil, the UFC and the sport of MMA have roots in the ancient Olympic combat sport of Pankration in 648 B.C. The UFC held its first competition in Denver, Colorado in 1993. Showcasing fighters of different disciplines—including boxing, Brazilian jiu jitsu, wrestling, Muay Thai and other styles—the UFC sought to identify the most effective martial art in a real fight. After a period of political backlash, the UFC gradually underwent reform by embracing stricter rules and achieving sanctioning with State Athletic Commissions.
With a cable-television deal and expansion into Canada, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Asia and new markets within the United States, the UFC as of 2010[update] has gained in popularity, along with greater mainstream-media coverage. As of 2010 [update] viewers can access UFC programming on pay-per-view television in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and Italy. UFC programming can also be found on Spike and Versus in the U.S., in the United Kingdom and Ireland on ESPN, as well as in over 130 countries and 20 different languages worldwide.
Early competition
Businessman Art Davie met Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu pioneer Rorion Gracie in 1991 while researching martial arts for a marketing client. Gracie operated a Brazilian jiu-jitsu school in Torrance, California and the Gracie family had a long history of vale tudo matches - a precursor of modern mixed martial arts - in Brazil. Davie became Gracie's student.
In 1992, inspired by the Gracies in Action video-series produced by the Gracies and featuring Gracie jiu-jitsu defeating various martial-arts masters, Davie proposed to Rorion Gracie and John Milius an eight-man, single-elimination tournament with a title of War of the Worlds. The tournament would feature martial artists from different disciplines facing each other in no-holds-barred combat to determine the best martial art and would aim to replicate the excitement of the matches Davie had seen on the videos. Milius, a noted film director and screenwriter, as well as a Gracie student, agreed to be the event's creative director. Davie drafted the business plan and twenty-eight investors contributed the initial capital to start WOW Promotions with the intent to develop the tournament into a television franchise.
In 1993 WOW Promotions sought a television partner and approached pay-per-view producers TVKO (HBO), SET (Showtime) and the Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG). Both TVKO and SET declined, but SEG – a pioneer in pay-per-view television which had produced such off-beat events as a mixed-gender tennis match between Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova – became WOW's partner in May 1993. SEG contacted video and film art-director, Jason Cusson, in order to design the trademarked "Octagon," a signature piece for the event. Cusson remained the Production Designer through UFC 27. SEG devised the name for the show as The Ultimate Fighting Championship.
