|
Booktrack
Booktrack is the creator of the e-reader technology that incorporates multimedia such as music, sound effects, and ambient sound. The company was founded and maintains offices in Auckland, New Zealand and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company is privately funded by a wide range of investors including Peter Thiel, founder and former CEO of PayPal, and Mark D'Arcy, Director of Global Creative Solutions at Facebook. Origin The idea for Booktrack arose in 2008 when co-founder Mark Cameron regularly commuted by ferry in Auckland. He realized that as he read, a song would regularly come up on his music player that would complement the passage, with a bright song serendipitously accompanying a lighthearted passage. As he looked around the ferry at other commuters who were also simultaneously reading and listening to music, he realized the potential for a company that could replicate this experience, melding sound with text to provide an immersive reading environment. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salman Rushdie
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, typically set on the Indian subcontinent. Rushdie's second novel, ''Midnight's Children'' (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize. After his fourth novel, ''The Satanic Verses'' (1988), Rushdie became the subject of several assassination attempts and death threats, including a '' fatwa'' calling for his death issued by Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran. Numerous killings and bombings have been carried out by extremists who cite the book as motivation, sparking a debate about censorship and religiously motivated violence. On 12 August 2022, a man stabbed Rushdie after rushing onto the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) is a symphony orchestra based in Wellington, New Zealand. The national orchestra of New Zealand, the NZSO is an autonomous Crown entity owned by the Government of New Zealand, per the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Act 2004. It is currently based in the Michael Fowler Centre and has frequently performed in the adjacent Wellington Town Hall before it was closed in 2013. It also performs in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. History A national orchestra for New Zealand was first proposed with the founding of the Radio Broadcasting Company in 1925, and broadcasting studio orchestras operated in major cities from the late 1920s. A national orchestra was formed in 1939 for New Zealand's Centennial Exhibition in 1940. The orchestra became permanent in 1946 in the aftermath of World War II as the "National Orchestra of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service" (by Oswald Cheesman and others); the inaugural concert took place on 6 March 1947. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Thiel
Peter Andreas Thiel (; born 11 October 1967) is a German-American billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. , Thiel had an estimated net worth of $7.19 billion and was ranked 297th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He worked as a securities lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell, as a speechwriter for former U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett and as a derivatives trader at Credit Suisse. He founded Thiel Capital Management in 1996. He co-founded PayPal with Max Levchin and Luke Nosek in 1998, serving as chief executive officer until its sale to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. After PayPal, he founded Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund based in San Francisco. In 2003, he launched Palantir Technologies, a big data analysis company, serving as its chairman since its inception. In 2005, he launched Founders Fund with PayPal partn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Power Of Six
''The Power of Six'' is the second book in the young adult science fiction series ''Lorien Legacies'', written by Pittacus Lore (James Frey and Jobie Hughes). It is the sequel to ''I Am Number Four'', and was released August 23, 2011 by HarperCollins Publishers. Plot The book is told by various members of the Garde: Number Four/John, who is on the run with Sam, Six, and Bernie Kosar (aka Hadley, a Lorien Chimæra); and Number Seven/Marina, who is hiding at a convent in Spain. Marina is Number Seven and her Cêpan has chosen to stay in Santa Teresa, where they have lived in the town orphanage for over 7 years. Adelina, Marina's Cêpan, has stopped believing that it is possible for them to defeat the Mogadorians and so refuses to help Marina learn about her developing 'Legacies', saying to instead concentrate on "not dying". While exploring the web searching for news of the other Garde, Marina finds the story of John Smith, and quickly realises he must be one of the Garde. In the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Am Number Four
''I Am Number Four'' is a young adult science fiction novel by Pittacus Lore (the pseudonym of James Frey and Jobie Hughes) and the first book in the ''Lorien Legacies'' series. The book was published by HarperCollins on August 3, 2010, and spent seven successive weeks at #1 on the children's chapter of the ''New York Times'' bestseller list. DreamWorks Pictures bought the rights to the film in June 2009; it was released on February 18, 2011, and was the first DreamWorks movie to be distributed by Disney's Touchstone Pictures. The novel is the first of a seven-book series. Plot The first book of the "Lorian Legacies Series" "I am Number Four", centers on the conflict between two extraterrestrial species: the ''Loric'' and the ''Mogadorians''. The Loric are classified into two factions: the overseers known as the ''Cepân'' and the guardians known as the ''Garde'', the latter of whom possess unique abilities known as ''Legacies''. The story opens with a prelude that follows ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp. The name is a combination of several publishing firm names: Harper & Row, an American publishing company acquired in 1987—whose own name was the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers (founded in 1817) and Row, Peterson & Company—together with Scottish publishing company William Collins, Sons (founded in 1819), acquired in 1989. The worldwide CEO of HarperCollins is Brian Murray. HarperCollins has publishing groups in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, India, and China. The company publishes many different imprints, both former independent publishing houses and new imprints. History Collins Harper Mergers and acquisitions Collins was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corpora ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Frey
James Frey (born September 12, 1969) is an American writer and businessman. His first two books, ''A Million Little Pieces'' (2003) and ''My Friend Leonard'' (2005), were bestsellers marketed as memoirs. Large parts of the stories were later found to be exaggerated or fabricated, sparking a media controversy. His 2008 novel '' Bright Shiny Morning'' was also a bestseller. Frey is the founder and CEO of Full Fathom Five. A transmedia production company, FFF is responsible for the young adult adventure/science fiction series "The Lorien Legacies" of seven books written by Frey and others, under the collective pen name Pittacus Lore. Frey's first book of the series, ''I Am Number Four'' (2010), was made into a feature film by DreamWorks Pictures. He is also the CEO of NYXL, an esports organization based in New York. Early life Frey was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a Denison University alumnus, a history major from the class of 1992. Career Frey wrote the screenplays to the fil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Park Road Post
Park Road Post Production is an international film and television post-production facility located in Miramar, a suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. Built out of the state-owned National Film Unit (NFU), the new facility opened upon completion in 2005. Park Road is owned by WingNut Films, the production company of Sir Peter Jackson. Its premises cover some 10,200 m2 (110,000 ft²). Post production services offered at Park Road cover full sound, picture and VFX services for feature films, television and digital and film restoration. Full details can be found on the facility's website. Although the facility was incomplete at the time, the final sound mix for '' The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'' (2003) took place there. ''King Kong'' (2005) was subsequently mixed at the facility; both films won an Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing. Park Road carried out the restoration of '' This is New Zealand'' (1970) for the 2007 New Zealand International Film Festival and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic, which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard. First appearing in print in 1887's ''A Study in Scarlet'', the character's popularity became widespread with the first series of short stories in ''The Strand Magazine'', beginning with " A Scandal in Bohemia" in 1891; additional tales appeared from then until 1927, eventually totalling four novels and 56 short stories. All but one are set in the Victorian or Edwardian eras, between about 1880 and 1914. Most are narrated by the character of Holmes's friend and biographer Dr. John H. Watson, who usually accompanies Holmes during his investigations and often shares quarters with him at the ad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IOS (Apple)
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes the system software for iPads predating iPadOS—which was introduced in 2019—as well as on the iPod Touch devices—which were discontinued in mid-2022. It is the world's second-most widely installed mobile operating system, after Android. It is the basis for three other operating systems made by Apple: iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS. It is proprietary software, although some parts of it are open source under the Apple Public Source License and other licenses. Unveiled in 2007 for the first-generation iPhone, iOS has since been extended to support other Apple devices such as the iPod Touch (September 2007) and the iPad (introduced: January 2010; availability: April 2010.) , Apple's App Store contains more than 2.1 million iOS ap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
"Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" is a short story in the 1894 anthology ''The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, ...'' by Rudyard Kipling about adventures of a valiant young Indian grey mongoose. It has often been anthologized and has been published several times as a short book. Book 5 of ''Panchatantra'', an ancient Indian collection, includes the mongoose and snake story, an inspiration for the "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" story. Plot A mongoose named Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (from his chattering vocalizations) becomes the pet of an English family residing in India after they save him from drowning. He becomes friendly with some of the other creatures inhabiting their garden and is warned of the Indian cobra, cobras Nag and Nagaina, who are angered by the human family's presence in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ugly Duckling
"The Ugly Duckling" ( da, Den grimme ælling) is a Danish literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875). It was first published on 11 November 1843 in ''New Fairy Tales. First Volume#New Fairy Tales. First Volume. First Collection, New Fairy Tales. First Volume. First Collection'', with three other tales by Andersen in Copenhagen, Denmark to great critical acclaim. The tale has been adapted to various media including opera, musical, and animated film. The tale is an original story by Andersen. Plot After a mother duck's eggs hatch, one of the ducklings is perceived by the other animals as an ugly little creature and suffers much verbal and physical abuse. He wanders from the barnyard and lives with wild ducks and geese until hunters slaughter the flocks. He finds a home with an old woman, but her cat and hen tease and taunt him mercilessly, and once again he sets off alone. The duckling sees a flock of migrating wild swans. He is deligh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_(cropped).jpg "Click for more on -> Peter Thiel")
.jpg "Click for more on -> IOS (Apple)")
