Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 film noir containing elements of drama,
horror, and black comedy. Directed and cowritten by Billy Wilder, it
was named for the famous boulevard that runs through Los Angeles and
Beverly Hills. William Holden plays down-on-his-luck screenwriter Joe
Gillis and Gloria Swanson is Norma Desmond, a faded movie star who
entraps the unsuspecting Gillis into her fantasy world in which she
dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen. Director Cecil B.
DeMille and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper portray themselves, and the
film includes cameo appearances by leading silent film figures Buster
Keaton, H. B. Warner and Anna Q. Nilsson. Praised by many critics
when
first released, Sunset Boulevard was nominated for eleven Academy
Awards and won three. It is widely accepted as a classic, often cited
as one of the most noteworthy films of American cinema. Deemed
"culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress in
1989, Sunset Boulevard was included in the first group of films
selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_Boulevard_%281950_film%29
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1793:
French playwright, journalist and outspoken feminist Olympe de Gouges
was guillotined for her revolutionary ideas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympe_de_Gouges)
1838:
The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language
daily broadsheet newspaper was founded.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_of_India)
1848:
A new constitution drafted by Johan Rudolf Thorbecke was proclaimed,
severely limiting the powers of the monarchy of the Netherlands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Rudolf_Thorbecke)
1957:
The Sputnik 2 spacecraft was launched, carrying Laika the Russian
space dog as the first living being to orbit the Earth.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_2)
1971:
The UNIX Programmer's Manual was first published.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix)
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Wikiquote of the day:
Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high,There's a land that I heard
of once in a lullaby.Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue,And
the dreams that you dare to dream Really do come true. -- Judy Garland
as "Dorothy Gale" in The Wizard of Oz --
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Judy_Garland)
The geology of the Grand Canyon area exposes one of the most complete
sequences of rock anywhere, representing a period of 1.4 billion years
of the Earth's history in that part of North America. The major
sedimentary rock layers exposed in the Grand Canyon and in the Grand
Canyon National Park area range in age from 2 billion to about 200
million years old. Most were deposited in warm, shallow seas and near
ancient, long-gone sea shores. Both marine and terrestrial sediments
are represented, including fossilized sand dunes from an extinct
desert. Uplift of the region started about 75 million years ago in the
Laramide orogeny, a mountain-building event that is largely
responsible for creating the Rocky Mountains to the east. The canyon
did not start to form until 5.3 million years ago when the Gulf of
California opened up and thus lowered the river's base level (its
lowest point) from that of large inland lakes to sea level. About 2
million years ago volcanic activity started to deposit ash and lava
over the area. The nearly 40 identified rock layers and 14 major
unconformities (gaps in the geologic record) of the Grand Canyon form
one of the most studied sequences of rock in the world.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_Grand_Canyon_area
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1817:
The Bank of Montreal, Canada's oldest chartered bank, opened in
Montréal, Québec.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Montreal)
1917:
Arthur Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration, proclaiming British
support for Jewish settlements in Palestine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration%2C_1917)
1936:
BBC Television Service, the oldest television station in the world,
was launched.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_One)
1947:
Howard Hughes flew Spruce Goose, the largest flying boat ever built,
on its maiden flight in Long Beach, California.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spruce_Goose)
2000:
The first crew arrived at the International Space Station.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station)
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Wikiquote of the day:
"Courage! I have shown it for years; think you I shall lose it at the
moment when my sufferings are to end?" -- Marie Antoinette
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette)
In mathematics, the eigenvalues, eigenvectors, and eigenspaces of a
transformation are important properties of this transformation. These
key concepts play a major role in mathematics and, in particular, in
linear algebra and functional analysis, as well as in numerous applied
disciplines. The prefix eigen emphasizes the fact that these
properties are important characteristics of the transformation. In
many common cases knowing all eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a
transformation is equivalent to the explicit knowledge of the
transformation. The word eigen is German for "own", "peculiar", or
"individual": the most likely translation into English mathematical
jargon would be "characteristic", and some older references do use the
expressions "characteristic value", "characteristic vector" and so
forth, or even "eigenwert" which is German for eigenvalue, but the
more distinctive term "eigenvalue" has become standard.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvalue%2C_eigenvector_and_eigenspace
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1512:
The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was re-painted in fresco by
Michelangelo.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel)
1521:
Ferdinand Magellan led the first European expedition to navigate the
Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South
America, connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Magellan)
1755:
A massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami destroyed Lisbon, and
killed over 100,000 people in Portugal and Morocco.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1755_Lisbon_earthquake)
1954:
The "Front de Libération Nationale" began the Algerian War of
Independence against French rule, with guerrilla attacks in various
parts of Algeria.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_War_of_Independence)
1963:
The Arecibo Observatory, with the world's largest radio telescope,
officially opened in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_Observatory)
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Wikiquote of the day:
I am everything — Tonight I'll be your mother — I willDo such
things to ease your pain —Free your mind and you won't feel ashamed.
-- Sophie B. Hawkins --
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sophie_B._Hawkins)