The Hugo Award is an award given each year for the best science fiction or fantasy works of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the science fiction magazine "Amazing Stories". Hugo Awards have been given out every year since 1953, except 1954. Hugo Award winners are chosen by members of the Worldcon convention each year. The ceremony where the awards are given out is a main part of the convention.
The Hugo Award trophy was co-designed by Benedict Jablonski.
The 2006 Hugo Awards ceremony was held at the 64th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) on Saturday, August 26 in Anaheim, California. The 2007 Awards were presented at the 65th World Science Fiction Convention in Yokohama, Japan on 1 September.
X-Men: The Last Stand
X-Men: The Last Stand is a 2006 movie. It is the third movie based on the Marvel Comics' X-Men superhero comic books. The story takes place after "X-Men" (2000) and "X2" (2003). Brett Ratner directed the movie. He took over when Bryan Singer decided to direct "Superman Returns". The movie is about a "mutant cure" and the resurrection of Jean Grey, who seemed to have died in "X2". The movie is partially based on two X-Men comic book stories: writer Chris Claremont's and artist John Byrne's "Dark Phoenix Saga" in "The Uncanny X-Men" (1980) and writer Joss Whedon's and artist John Cassaday's six-issue "Gifted" story in "Astonishing X-Men" (2004).
The movie was released May 26, 2006 in the United States and Canada. It was released one or two days earlier in more than 20 other countries. The movie did well at theaters. It earned $45.1 million on its first day. This is the fourth-highest opening day gross. Its opening weekend gross of $103 million is the eighth highest ever.
The movie is sometimes called X3, XIII, X-Men 3, or X-Men 3: The Last Stand.
The movie begins with a very sad Cyclops. He is still very sad because he lost his girlfriend Jean Grey at the end of the last movie. He goes out to the lake, where he sees Jean Grey, who is somehow not dead. She has a lot more powers now. She kills Cyclops and then leaves. Wolverine and Storm find Cyclops' visor in the water when they go looking for him. They also find Jean Grey and put her inside the Xavier Institute.
Meanwhile, a large company working at Alcatraz Island has found a way to erase the gene that is the cause for mutation. This discovery splits the mutants apart. Some believe that their mutation helps society and do not want a cure for it and start protesting. Other mutants do not like their mutation and begin lining up at Alcatraz Island to get the cure. At the Xavier Institute, Rogue, who longs to touch people but cannot, is interested in the cure.
Professor Xavier tracks down Jean Grey. He and Wolverine and Storm go Jean's old house to try to talk to her. Early on, he found that Jean Grey had a very powerful side called the Phoenix. To make sure that side never came out, he put up a mind barrier. During the talk, the Phoenix comes out and he and Jean Grey have a mind battle. It ends when the Phoenix overpowers the Professor and the Professor dies.
The villain Magneto has started to put his Brotherhood of Mutants together. While freeing his right-hand man Mystique from jail, a guard fires a "cure dart" at him to try to remove his mutation. Mystique jumps in the way and is cured of her mutation. Magneto leaves her. As a result, she tells the government where Magneto will be. The Brotherhood meets in a forest. Wolverine, who has gone out there, sees that the Phoenix has teamed up with the Brotherhood and will not leave when Wolverine asks her to. The government then raids the forest, but Magneto has already left and all the agents find is many copies of the mutant Multiple Man.
At the Xavier Institute, Bobby Drake (Iceman) has begun to like another girl named Kitty Pryde. One night, the two of them go out skating in the fountain. Iceman's girlfriend, Rogue, becomes very jealous when she sees him with Kitty and leaves the next day to go to Alcatraz Island. Bobby goes out there but cannot find her.
In the final battle, Magneto walks out onto the San Francisco Bridge, moving cars out of the way. He then lifts the bridge up and rips it apart and makes a bridge to Alcatraz Island. The X-Men drop down from their plane and defend the mutant cure building against attack. The X-Men's plot to stop Magneto. To do this, Wolverine runs at Magneto. Magneto easily stops Wolverine. Another mutant named Beast comes from behind him and sticks a bunch of cure darts into Magneto, curing him of the mutation.
The U.S Army comes over the top at this point and starts to fire darts. This causes Phoenix to very angry and she starts to use her powers to begin destroying everything. With great effort, Wolverine reaches Phoenix and sticks his claws into her to stop her, killing her but saving the soldiers. Back at the Xavier Institute, they mourn the Jean Grey's death. Rogue, who has been cured, touchs Bobby's hand for the first time.
The X-Men are a team of superheroes from the "Xavier Institute", a school for mutants. They protect both humans and mutants and try to prevent a war between the two.
The Brotherhood is a group of mutants who think mutants should have the same rights as the humans.
A group of mutant which are part of an underground network across the nation.
Bryan Singer, the director of the first two X-Men movies left early in the production of the movie to direct the movie "Superman Returns". Screenwriters Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty and composer John Ottman left with him. Singer has said that, at the time he left, they had partially written a story for the movie which would have been only about Jean Grey's resurrection. The story would also have a new villain Emma Frost, played by Sigourney Weaver.
Simon Kinberg was hired as writer soon after Singer left. There were rumors about Joss Whedon directing the movie. Rob Bowman and Alex Proyas were also rumoured. Zack Snyder was also asked to be the director, but he turned it down because he was directing "300". Even with Singer leaving, the cast and producers wante to return to make the third movie. Matthew Vaughn was hired as the new director for the project. He cast Kelsey Grammer as Beast and Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut. Family problems were said to cause him to withdraw before shooting began. Vaughn was replaced by Singer's friend Brett Ratner, who was among the people considered to direct the first movie. He was also considered by Warner Brothers to direct the 2006 "Superman" project before it changed into "Superman Returns".
"X-Men: The Last Stand" began shooting in August 2005 and ended in January 2006. Much of "X-Men: The Last Stand" was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Associate producer Dave Gordon said, "This is the biggest production ever filmed in Canada. It used to be "X2", now it's "X3"."
Firewall (disambiguation)
Firewall may refer to:
Schlenkerla
Schlenkerla is a famous old brewery and tavern in Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany. It is known for its smoked beer which is called "Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier" ("real Schlenkerla smoked beer"). It is a strong, darkish beer with a slightly smokey taste which is rather like bacon. The alcohol content is 5.1%. There is another speciality which is called "Urbock" ("Ur" means "original" and "Bock" is actually a male goat). The Urbock is stronger: 6.5% alcohol and is only served in the season known as the "Starkbierzeit" ("Strong beer time") which is from October to 6 January. The beer is served from oak barrels. This is a very old tradition which is not often found nowadays.
It is said that the invention of smoked beer came about because one day the brewery caught fire and, after the fire was put out, the beer had a smokey taste. People liked it and decided to make it like that. No one knows whether this story is true.