Category Archives: Celebrities and Entertainment

Shrek

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Shrek

‘The greatest fairy tale never told.” – The tagline of Shrek.

  • Shrek is a animated film of a comedy and fantasy genre, produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by DreamWorks Pictures .
  • Shrek is about an ogre, ‘Shrek’, who wants fairy tale creatures out of his swamp, and includes two other main characters, ‘Donkey,’ the ogre’s sidekick, and ‘Princess Fiona,’ an ogre/princess.
  • Shrek is somewhat based on a children’s picture book, named ‘Shrek!’, by William Steig, published in 1990.
  • Shrek was originally going to be voiced by Chris Farley, who died just before the full recording, leading to a full script change for the replacement of Mike Myers.
  • During the 90 minute film, 36 different scenes or places were featured in the world of Shrek, and work on the movie began in November 1995.

Shrek, Green, Orge, Video cassette, one, first, home, Ten Random Facts

  • Shrek was released on 18 May 2001, and ended with three sequels, one spin-off (a prequel), and two specials released between 2004 and 2011.
  • Shrek was produced on a budget of $60 million, and earned nearly $484.5 million at the box office internationally, ranking it fourth of all film releases in 2001.
  • Shrek won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for 2001, as well as eight Annies and six BAFTA Awards.
  • By the end of 2001, more than 5.5 million copies of Shrek DVDs and videos had been sold, which, at the time, was the ‘biggest selling DVD of all time’.
  • Mike Myers originally used a Canadian accent for the Shrek character, but during the production process he approached the company about letting him re-record his lines in a Scottish accent, which they consented to, but it cost the company millions of dollars.

 

Bibliography:
History, 2011, Shrek, http://www.shrek.com/
Shrek, 2013, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrek

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Mother Teresa

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Mother Teresa

“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” – Mother Teresa

  • ‘Mother Teresa’ is also known as ‘Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, M.C’, MC being for ‘Missionaries of Charity’.
  • Mother Teresa was a Roman-catholic nun, whose real name was ‘Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu’.
  • Mother Teresa started a a charity, named Missionaries of Charity, in 1950, which helped the dejected and ‘poorest of the poor’, and can now be found in numerous countries throughout the world.
  • Mother Teresa was known for her work amongst poverty, receiving over 120 awards including the Noble Peace Prize in 1979.
  • Mother Teresa was born on 26 August, 1910, in what is now called the Republic of Macedonia, Europe, to Albanian parents, but spent most of her life in India.
Mother Teresa, Collage, Holding kid, Nun, White, Old, Pray, Books, Colour, Black and white, Ten Random Facts, FlickrBlessed Teresa
Image courtesy of Peta de Aztlan/Flickr
  • Mother Teresa suffered a number of heart attacks from 1983, before her death, caused by an attack, on 5 September 1997.
  • Mother Teresa left her family home at 18 years of age, and became a nun in 1931, choosing the name ‘Thérèse’, or ‘Teresa’ in Spanish after the patron saint of missionaries, Thérèse de Lisieux and became known as ‘Mother Teresa’ on the 24 May 1937, when she took her final vows.
  • Mother Teresa could clearly and confidently speak five languages, being English, Hindi, Albanian, Bengali and Serbon-Croatian.
  • Mother Teresa has a public holiday in Albania named after herself, celebrated on 19 October and known as ‘Mother Teresa Day’.
  • Mother Teresa was involved in a convent school in Calcutta for nearly 20 years, until 1948, being a teacher and later the principal at the school.
Bibliography:
Mother Teresa, 2013, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa
Short Biography, n.d, Mother Teresa of Calcutta Center, http://www.motherteresa.org/layout.html

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Google

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Google

“Don’t be evil.” – Google Inc.

  • Google is an online, public, international search engine that also owns many other companies, programs and utilities.
  • Google was created in 1996 at Stanford University in Stanford, United States by Larry Page and Sergey Brin as part of their PHD project.
  • Google was incorporated in 1998, when a check was sent to a nonexistent company ‘Google Inc.’, with the ‘office’ being located in the garage of a friend.
  • Google originally existed at the domain ‘google.stratford.edu’, and the current domain was purchased in 1997.
  • ‘Google’ is a commonly spelled version of the mathematical word for 10100, ‘googol’, but the search engine was originally named ‘BackRub’.
Google Logo, Internet, Screenshot, Ten Random FactsLogo
Image courtesy of Google
  • Google was used by 1 billion people in one month, for the first time in May 2011, and in 2012, Google earned $50 billion, which was $12 billion more than 2011.
  • Google moved its offices to California, United States in 2003, calling the complex ‘Googleplex’, which came from the mathematical term ‘googolplex’, 10googol.
  • Google owns YouTube, Blogger and Android and has created programs including Gmail, Maps, Drive, social network (Google+), Earth, News, Chrome (browser), Translate, Apps and Adwords.
  • ‘Google’ became an official word in 2006, meaning ‘to search on Google’.
  • The Google logo is typically the name in blue, red, yellow and green, which sometimes changes appearance for certain days and these special logos are called ‘doodles’.

 

Bibliography:
Company, 2013, Google, http://www.google.com/about/company/
Google, 2013, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google

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William Shakespeare

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William Shakespeare

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” – William Shakespeare.

  • William Shakespeare has no known birth date, but was baptised on 26 April, 1564, and died on 23 April, 1616, and spent most of his life at Stratford-upon-Avon in England.
  • William Shakespeare was a tragic and romantic genre playwright and poet, most active in 1589 to 1613, and is commonly said to be one of the best English writers of all time.
  • ‘William Shakespeare’ is also known as the ‘Bard of Avon’, the ‘Swan of Avon’ and ‘England’s native poet’.
  • William Shakespeare married at the age of 18 to 26 year old Anne Hathaway, and later had three children (one died young), who all had children that didn’t have any offspring.
  • William Shakespeare officially wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets and many poems, and took part in writing many other works.

William Shakespeare, Portrait, Painting, Art, Playwrite, Ten Random Facts, Flickr

Shakespeare
Image courtesy of Books18/Flickr
  • William Shakespeare’s birth date is celebrated on Saint George’s Day, 23 April, coincidentally the same day he died, due to a scholar’s mistake in the 1700s.
  • According to William Shakespeare’s will, most of Shakespeare’s property was given to his eldest child.
  • William Shakespeare’s works have influenced many authors, including Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, and Shakespeare’s language has influenced the modern English language.
  • Famous works of William Shakespeare include Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet.
  • William Shakespeare’s works grew in significant popularity in the 1800s, although the work was popular in his time.
Bibliography:
William Shakespeare, 2013, Bio, http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323?page=1
William Shakespeare, 2013, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

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Abraham Lincoln

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Abraham Lincoln

“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” – Abraham Lincoln.

  • Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer and politician born on 12 February, 1809 and was assassinated by an actor, John Wilkes Booth, on 15 April 1865.
  • Abraham Lincoln was the 16th United States President, during 1861 to 1865, being responsible for taking major action in the American Civil war, ending US slavery and improving the US economy.
  • Abraham Lincoln was self-educated and came from an uneducated family, and is commonly ranked the greatest United States president of all time.
  • In 1840, Abraham Lincoln was engaged to his future wife, Mary Todd, however they broke up and did not marry as planned in 1841, but later came back together eventually marrying in late 1842.
  • Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary had four children, although only one survived till adulthood, and the last descendant of Abraham died in 1985.

Abraham Lincoln, Print, Bank Note, Face, US, $5, Ten Random Facts, Free Digital Photos

Lincoln
Image courtesy of Gualberto107/Free Digital Photos
  • A portrait of Abraham Lincoln can be seen on the American penny and $5 note, and he received a patent in 1849, for a boat floating device.
  • Abraham Lincoln has his face sculpted on Mount Rushmore, and has a memorial and a museum dedicated to him.
  • Abraham Lincoln was a well known wrestler in his younger age, and is said to have defeated nearly all of the 300 wrestlers he wrestled against, and he also served in war as a captain and a private during a three month period.
  • Abraham Lincoln was originally a member of the Illinois House of Representatives and later became the Illinois member for the US House of Representatives.
  • Lincoln’s assassins’ brother, Edwin Thomas Booth, saved Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln, from a train accident, a few months before Lincoln was assassinated.
Bibliography:
Abraham Lincoln, 2013, Bio, <http://www.biography.com/people/abraham-lincoln-9382540>
Abraham Lincoln, 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln>

 

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Burr Puzzle

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Burr Puzzle

Is the Burr puzzle too puzzling?

  • Burr puzzles are interlocking puzzles, assembled by placing notched wood, plastic or metal  sticks together strategically, to make a type of open cube or rectangular prism.
  • A burr puzzle most commonly has 6 pieces and quality burrs are made very accurately allowing pieces to fit together snugly while easily sliding on each other.
  • The term ‘burr puzzle’ is probably reference to the shape of the puzzle being similar to a burr from certain plants, and has been adapted for use with other puzzles without sticks.
  • Although the origin of burr puzzles is unknown, one is depicted in the 1968 engraving by Sébastien Leclerc entitled L’Académie des sciences et des beaux-arts meaning ‘The Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts’.
  • It is said that there are 837 different pieces that could be made for a 6 piece burr puzzle, and there are almost 6 billion possible ways to fit these together to make a puzzle.

Burr Puzzle, Wood, Two, Notches, Skeleton, Light, Dark, Ten Random Facts

  • Some suggest that burr puzzles are of Chinese origin, like many other puzzles, such as tangrams, and reference to traditional Chinese yarn winders, furniture and other items that are constructed in a similar style point to that theory.
  • There are many types of burr puzzles, ranging from 3 to at least 12 pieces, diagonal burrs and holey burrs, and other varieties are also available.
  • With some burr puzzles, pieces are turned or twirled to move them into the correct position, however this is not the case with traditional burrs.
  • The first accepted patent for the burr puzzle was in 1916 by O W Brown, an American, although an earlier patent by J W Keiser was filed.
  • A burr puzzle is known by many other names including ‘six-piece interlocking cube’, ‘puzzle knot’, ‘six wooden sticks’, ‘Devil’s knot’, ‘Lu Ban locks’, ‘Kong Ming locks’ and ‘Chinese Cross’.
Bibliography:
Burr Puzzle, 2013 Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burr_puzzle>
Traditional 6-Piece Burrs, n.d, Rob’s Puzzle Page, <http://home.comcast.net/~stegmann/interlocking.htm>

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