Astral Media

Astral Media (branded simply as Astral since 2010) was a Canadian media corporation. It was Canada's largest radio broadcaster with 84 radio stations in eight provinces, and was a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, including The Movie Network, Super Écran, Family, Télétoon, Canal D, Canal Vie, VRAK.TV, Séries+, Ztélé and more. Astral also had numerous billboards for outdoor advertising through its Astral Out-of-Home division.

In March 2012, Astral Media announced that it had accepted a $3.38 billion bid to be acquired by Bell Canada, a merger which would give the company's Bell Media division a larger presence in the premium television and French language media sectors. However, the proposed acquisition was met with criticism from other broadcasters and television providers, who showed concerns surrounding the combined market power that Bell would have following the merger. As a result, the acquisition was blocked by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission in October 2012. A revised merger, which saw the divesture of several Astral-owned television properties and radio stations to competing companies, was approved by the CRTC on June 27, 2013, and closed on June 5, 2014. The company was dissolved in July 2014 as a result of Astral's assets being officially acquired by Bell.

Astral (band)

Astral is a shoegaze group based in San Francisco, California. Astral was formed by singer-guitarist Dave Han and drummer Shawn in 1999; bassist Amy Rosenoff joined them in 2001. Their vocals are frequently compared to those of The Cure; other influences include My Bloody Valentine and Joy Division. Their music is of an ethereal, melodic nature; this ambient sound is created largely by heavy use of distortion and feedback effects in Han's guitar. Astral are also notable for incorporating improvisation into their live performances. In 2002, Astral released a self-produced EP, "Only Sometimes". In 2003, Astral released an LP, entitled "Orchids". Two songs from that album, "Raining Down" and the title-track instrumental, were preloaded in the Rio Carbon MP3 Players. In 2008 the band released their second album Sleepwalker.

Current Lineup

Original Lineup

Astral (wrestler)

Astral is a Mexican luchador enmascarado, or masked professional wrestler, currently working for the Mexican professional wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) in their Mini-Estrella division, which does not necessarily mean that Fantasy is a dwarf as several wrestlers who are just shorter in stature work in the "Mini" division. Astral's real name is not a matter of public record, as is often the case with masked wrestlers in Mexico where their private lives are kept a secret from the wrestling fans. Astral is one of a limited number of Mini-Estrellas who's ring character is not based on the character of a wrestler from the regular division. He is the reigning CMLL World Mini-Estrella Champion.

Personal life

Astral is the nephew of Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) Mini-Estrella worker Pierrothito, who had a hand in training him for his professional wrestling career.

Professional wrestling career

Killer whale

The killer whale (Orcinus orca), also referred to as the orca whale or orca, and less commonly as the blackfish or grampus, is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. Killer whales are found in all oceans, from Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas. Killer whales have a diverse diet, although individual populations often specialize in particular types of prey. Some feed exclusively on fish, while others hunt marine mammals like pinnipeds, and even large whales. They have been known to attack baleen whale calves. Killer whales are regarded as apex predators, lacking natural predators.

Killer whales are highly social; some populations are composed of matrilineal family groups which are the most stable of any animal species. Their sophisticated hunting techniques and vocal behaviours, which are often specific to a particular group and passed across generations, have been anthropomorphically described as manifestations of culture.

Orca (novel)

Orca is the seventh book in Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series, set in the fantasy world of Dragaera. Originally published in 1996 by Ace Books, it was republished in 2003 along with Athyra in the omnibus The Book of Athyra. Following the trend of the Vlad Taltos books, it is named after one of the Great Houses and features that House as an important element to its plot.

Plot introduction

Vlad and his friend Kiera the Thief investigate a financial cover-up following the mysterious death of an Orca tycoon.

Plot summary

Reunions

Kiera the Thief sends a letter to Vlad's estranged wife Cawti, offering to meet and tell her of Vlad's most recent adventures. In return for not telling Vlad some of Cawti's secrets, Kiera insists on making some omissions from her story. The rest of the novel is Kiera's story, seemingly without the omissions she makes to Cawti.

Vlad contacts Kiera from the city of Northport and asks her a favor: break into the mansion of the late Orca businessman Fyres and take any documents she can find. She agrees if he will explain why. He tells her that he went to Northport to find a healer for Savn, a Teckla boy whose mind was damaged during the events of Athyra. A local healer, whom Vlad calls "Mother" because he cannot pronounce her name, agrees to help Savn if Vlad will help fix her problem: she's being evicted from her cottage. Vlad navigates through a labyrinth of business records to discover that Mother's land is ultimately owned by Fyres, who only a week ago died on his yacht.

Jaws (film)

Jaws is a 1975 American film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's 1974 novel of the same name. The prototypical summer blockbuster, its release is regarded as a watershed moment in motion picture history. In the story, a giant man-eating great white shark attacks beachgoers on Amity Island, a fictional New England summer resort town, prompting the local police chief to hunt it with the help of a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter. The film stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as oceanographer Matt Hooper, Robert Shaw as shark hunter Quint, Murray Hamilton as Larry Vaughn, the mayor of Amity Island, and Lorraine Gary as Brody's wife, Ellen. The screenplay is credited to both Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography.

Shot mostly on location on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, the film had a troubled production, going over budget and past schedule. As the art department's mechanical sharks suffered many malfunctions, Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the animal's presence, employing an ominous, minimalistic theme created by composer John Williams to indicate the shark's impending appearances. Spielberg and others have compared this suggestive approach to that of classic thriller director Alfred Hitchcock. Universal Pictures gave the film what was then an exceptionally wide release for a major studio picture, over 450 screens, accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign with a heavy emphasis on television spots and tie-in merchandise.