Last to post wins

[Creeperopolis]

Thunderbirds is a British science fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) and distributed by ITC Entertainment. It was filmed between 1964 and 1966 using a form of electronic marionette puppetry called "Supermarionation" combined with scale model special effects sequences. Two series, totalling 32 fifty-minute episodes, were made; production ended with the sixth episode of the second series after Lew Grade, APF's financial backer, failed in his efforts to sell the programme to US network television.

Set in the 2060s, Thunderbirds was a follow-up to the earlier Supermarionation productions Four Feather Falls, Supercar, Fireball XL5 and Stingray. It concerns the exploits of International Rescue, a life-saving organisation with a secret base on an island in the Pacific Ocean. International Rescue operates a fleet of technologically-advanced rescue vehicles, headed by five craft called the Thunderbird machines. The main characters are the leader of International Rescue, ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, and his five adult sons, who pilot the Thunderbirds.

Thunderbirds premiered in September 1965 on the ITV network and has since aired in at least 66 countries. Besides tie-in merchandise, it was followed by two feature films: Thunderbirds Are Go and Thunderbird 6. Periodically repeated, it was adapted for radio in the 1990s and has influenced many TV programmes and other media. Its other adaptations include an anime reimagining (Thunderbirds 2086), a live-action film (Thunderbirds) and a part-CGI, part-live-action remake (Thunderbirds Are Go). Three supplementary episodes, based on tie-in audio plays and made using the same puppet techniques as the original, have also been produced.

Widely regarded as the Andersons' most popular and commercially successful series, Thunderbirds has been praised for its special effects, directed by Derek Meddings, and its musical score by Barry Gray.[2][3][4][5] It is also remembered for its title sequence, which begins with an oft-quoted countdown by Jeff Tracy voice actor Peter Dyneley: "5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – Thunderbirds Are Go!" A real-life search and rescue service, the International Rescue Corps, was named after the organisation featured in the series.[6]

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The fact that me and Creepe3 are trying to become the last person to post is crazy

[Creeperopolis]

Tony Hawk's Underground is a 2003 skateboarding video game and the fifth entry in the Tony Hawk's series after Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision in 2003 for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Game Boy Advance. In 2004, it was published for Microsoft Windows in Australia and New Zealand as a budget release.

Underground is built upon the skateboarding formula of previous Tony Hawk's games: the player explores levels and completes goals while performing tricks. The game features a new focus on customization; the player, instead of selecting a professional skater, creates a custom character. Underground adds the ability for players to dismount their boards and explore on foot. The plot follows the player character and their friend Eric Sparrow as the two become professionals and grow apart.

The game was developed with a theme of individuality which was manifested in the extensive character customization options, the presence of a narrative, and the product's characterization as an adventure game. Real world professional skateboarders contributed their experiences to the plot. Upon release, the game was a major critical and commercial success, with reviewers praising its wide appeal, soundtrack, customization, multiplayer, and storyline. The graphics and the controls for driving vehicles and walking were less well received. Underground's PlayStation 2 version had sold 2.11 million copies in the United States by December 2007. A sequel, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, followed in 2004.

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a

[Creeperopolis]

The Birds (Spring/Summer 1995) is the fifth collection by British designer Alexander McQueen for his eponymous fashion house. The Birds was inspired by ornithology, the study of birds, and the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds, for which it was named. Typically for McQueen in the early stages of his career, the collection centred around sharply tailored garments and emphasised female sexuality. McQueen had no financial backing, so the collection was created on a minimal budget.

The runway show for The Birds was staged on 9 October 1994, during London Fashion Week. The venue was a warehouse in the London district of King's Cross best known for hosting raves. Like his previous professional shows, The Birds was styled with imagery of violence and death; some models were covered in tyre tracks and others wore white contact lenses. Corsetier Mr. Pearl appeared in a pencil skirt and tailored jacket.

Reception was generally positive, although the extreme styling drew accusations of misogyny. Many of the people who worked on The Birds with McQueen would go on to become longtime collaborators. The success of the show allowed McQueen to secure the financial backing to stage his next show, Highland Rape (Autumn/Winter 1995), the collection which effectively made his name. Garments from The Birds appeared in both stagings of the retrospective exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. Seán McGirr heavily referenced The Birds for Autumn/Winter 2024, his debut collection as creative director for the Alexander McQueen brand.

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b

[Creeperopolis]

o Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by the American author Harper Lee. It was published in July 1960 and became instantly successful. In the United States, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. To Kill a Mockingbird has become a classic of modern American literature; a year after its release, it won the Pulitzer Prize. The plot and characters are loosely based on Lee's observations of her family, her neighbors and an event that occurred near her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, in 1936, when she was ten.

Despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality, the novel is renowned for its warmth and humor. Atticus Finch, the narrator's father, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. The historian Joseph Crespino explains, "In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its main character, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism."[1] As a Southern Gothic novel and Bildungsroman, the primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the Deep South. Lessons from the book emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice.[2] Despite its themes, To Kill a Mockingbird has been subject to campaigns for removal from public classrooms, often challenged for its use of racial epithets. In 2006, British librarians ranked the book ahead of the Bible as one "every adult should read before they die".[3]

Reaction to the novel varied widely upon publication. Despite the number of copies sold and its widespread use in education, literary analysis of it is sparse. Author Mary McDonough Murphy, who collected individual impressions of To Kill a Mockingbird by several authors and public figures, calls the book "an astonishing phenomenon".[4] It was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film in 1962 by director Robert Mulligan, with a screenplay by Horton Foote. Since 1990, a play based on the novel has been performed annually in Harper Lee's hometown.

To Kill a Mockingbird was Lee's only published book until Go Set a Watchman, an earlier draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, was published on July 14, 2015. Lee continued to respond to her work's impact until her death in February 2016, although she had refused any personal publicity for herself or the novel since 1964.

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I will win

[Creeperopolis]

Tomorrow Speculative Fiction was a science fiction magazine edited by Algis Budrys, published in print and online in the United States from 1992 to 1999. It was launched by Pulphouse Publishing as part of its attempt to move away from book publishing to magazines, but cash flow problems led Budrys to buy the magazine after the first issue and publish it himself. There were 24 issues as a print magazine from 1993 to 1997, mostly on a bimonthly schedule. The magazine was losing money, and in 1997 Budrys moved to online publishing, rebranding the magazine as tomorrowsf. Readership grew while the magazine was free to read on the web, but plummeted when Budrys began charging for subscriptions. In 1998 Budrys stopped acquiring new fiction, only publishing reprints of his own stories, and in 1999 he shut the magazine down. Nobody actually cares about it, but since this will be a featured article, we have to pretend that we do.

Tomorrow published many new writers, though few of them went on to successful careers. Well-known authors who appeared in the magazine included Gene Wolfe, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Harlan Ellison. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction lists The Mines of Behemoth, a novel by Michael Shea, and "Another Story", by Le Guin, as among the best work published in the magazine, but comments that Tomorrow was "rather less satisfying than one might have expected from Budrys: an uneven mix of the superior with the sufficient".[1] Mark R. Kelly, a reviewer for Locus, described the stories as "workmanlike".[2] Tomorrow was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine in 1994 and 1995.

[Creeperopolis]

On 12 October 1984 the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) attempted to assassinate members of the British government, including the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England. Five people were killed, including the Conservative MP Sir Anthony Berry; more than thirty people were injured. Thatcher was uninjured. The bombing was a key moment in the Troubles, the conflict in Northern Ireland between unionists and republicans over the constitutional position of Northern Ireland, which took place between the late 1960s and 1998.

The IRA decided to assassinate Thatcher during the 1981 Irish hunger strike. Her stance against the return of Special Category Status to republican prisoners—the status that meant they were treated as political prisoners, rather than as criminals—meant the strike was not quickly settled, and ten prisoners died. After two years of planning, including reconnoitering the 1982 and 1983 Conservative Party Conferences, a long-delay time bomb was planted in the hotel by the IRA member Patrick Magee over three weeks before the 1984 conference. The IRA knew the hotel would be occupied by Thatcher and many of her cabinet.

The bomb exploded at 2:54 am when most guests were in bed. The force of the explosion was upwards and broke through the roof, dislodging one of the hotel's chimney stacks, which weighed five long tons (5.1 t). This crashed through several floors, killing or injuring many of the occupants. Thatcher decided to continue the conference as normal, and was given a standing ovation by delegates as she entered the stage just six and a half hours after the explosion.

The investigation took eight months. Investigators said a partial palm print was found on the room registration card from when Magee checked in and police surveillance on IRA members led them to him. In 1986 he was tried, convicted, and sent to prison for eight concurrent life sentences, with the recommendation that he serve at least thirty-five years before being considered for parole, but was released under licence in June 1999 as part of the Good Friday Agreement. Negotiations between the British and Irish governments that had begun in 1980 continued despite the bombing, although the pace of the talks was slowed to ensure it did not appear that the British government was conceding to pressure because of the bomb. They resulted in the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement, which gave the Irish government an advisory role in Northern Ireland's government.