Popcorn (play)

Popcorn is a 1998 play by English author Ben Elton adapted from his novel of the same title.

References

Further reading

Popcorn (instrumental)

"Popcorn" is an early synthpop instrumental, composed by Gershon Kingsley in 1969 and first appearing on his album Music to Moog By.

The same year it was released and recorded at Audio Fidelity Records label in New York City. The title may refer to the short staccato or sharp "popping" sound used, or to pop music and its being 'corny', i.e., kitschy. The title is generally written as one word, although some single sleeves (such as the one illustrated) present it as two words, "Pop Corn".

In 1972, Hot Butter's rerecording was a huge hit in many countries. "Popcorn" has since been covered by a great number of artists.

Original version

Background

Composer Gershon Kingsley (of Perrey and Kingsley) first recorded it for his 1969 album Music to Moog By. In 1971 the song was re-recorded by Kingsley's band First Moog Quartet. Stan Free, member of the First Moog Quartet, rerecorded the instrumental with his band Hot Butter in 1972. The record was one of a rash of Moog synthesizer-based releases that followed the 1968 Billboard pop Top 40 chart success Wendy Carlos had with Switched-On Bach and that characterized electronic music of the mid-1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.

Popcorn (novel)

Popcorn is a 1996 novel by the British writer Ben Elton. It shares themes with a number of movies from the mid-1990s, most notably Natural Born Killers by Oliver Stone and Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs by Quentin Tarantino. The play version of the novel is used by the IEB (Independent Education Board) In South Africa as one of their Postmodern set-work plays for Dramatic Arts.

Plot summary

The book takes place in different parts of Los Angeles, California. The date is never actually specified, but various clues suggest it is set in the near future. Mostly the story takes place in the centre of Hollywood. The book depicts the differences between different social groups in America, from rich people with guards like Bruce Delamitri to poorer people Wayne and Scout.

ZeroAccess botnet

ZeroAccess, also known as Max++ and/or Sirefef, is Trojan horse computer malware that affects Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is used to download other malware on an infected machine from a botnet mostly involved in bitcoin mining and click fraud, while remaining hidden on a system using rootkit techniques.

History and propagation

The ZeroAccess botnet was discovered at least around May 2011. The ZeroAccess rootkit responsible for the botnet's spread is estimated to have been present on at least 9 million systems. Estimates of the size of the botnet vary across sources; antivirus vendor Sophos estimated the botnet size at around 1 million active and infected machines in the third quarter of 2012, and security firm Kindsight estimated 2.2 million infected and active systems.

The bot itself is spread through the ZeroAccess rootkit through a variety of attack vectors. One attack vector is a form of social engineering, where a user is persuaded to execute malicious code either by disguising it as a legitimate file, or including it hidden as an additional payload in an executable which announces itself as, for example, bypassing copyright protection (a keygen). A second attack vector utilizes an advertising network in order to have the user click on an advertisement that redirects them to a site hosting the malicious software itself. A third infection vector used is an affiliate scheme where third party persons are paid for installing the rootkit on a system.

Max Damage

Slade Mercer (born 1987 in New Plymouth, New Zealand) is a professional wrestler, otherwise known as Max Damage or Max "The Axe" Damage. He currently wrestled for the Brisbane based promotions PWA Queensland. He is an Ex-New Zealand Heavyweight Champion and Ex-New Zealand Tag Team Champion.

Career

New Zealand Wide Pro Wrestling

Damage initially trained under Jonnie Juice before joining New Zealand Wide Pro Wrestling where he was further trained by Martin Stirling, Inferno, Island Boy Si and a myriad of other senior wrestlers with the group. He made his official debut as Max Damage on 25 March 2005 at NZWPW's Powerplay II. He lost to Island Boy Si in the semi-finals of the New Zealand Heavyweight Championship tournament, where IBS was later crowned the inaugural champion.

At the start of his tenure in NZWPW, Damage joined the heel stable, The 'Naki Phullas, wrestling alongside "The Deal" Dal Knox, "Silencer" Jean Miracle, and Gold. By the time he had joined, Dal Knox had already left to wrestle for IPW, and Gold had been ejected from the company, making it a two-man team consisting of himself and "Silencer" Jean Miracle.

Max (2015 film)

Max is a 2015 American adventure drama film directed by Boaz Yakin, and co-written with Sheldon Lettich. The film stars Josh Wiggins, Mia Xitlali, Dejon LaQuake, Thomas Haden Church, Robbie Amell, Lauren Graham, Luke Kleintank, and Jay Hernandez. The film was released by Warner Bros. on June 26, 2015.

Plot

Max, a Belgian Malinois used to help U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, is handled by Kyle Wincott. Kyle is questioned when weapons seized by his squad go missing. Realizing his friend Tyler Harne is among those involved with the shady dealings, he warns Tyler that he cannot cover for him. The two then go into the battlefield with their squad, with Max on point. While advancing on a suicide bomber, Max is injured by an explosion. In the ensuing gunfight, Kyle is shot and killed.

Kyle's younger brother Justin, who makes money pirating video games, their mother Pamela and their father Ray are informed of his death. After Kyle's body is brought home for burial, the other Marines notice that Max is only calm when he is around Justin, apparently sensing that he is Kyle's brother. The family adopts the dog, who would otherwise be euthanized for his disturbed behavior. Justin initially wants little to do with Max but eventually warms up to him. While meeting up with his friend Chuy, Justin meets Chuy's cousin Carmen, who offers to go to his house and show him some handling tricks for Max. Little by little, Max's behavior improves around other people.

S&M (Metallica album)

S&M (an abbreviation of Symphony and Metallica) is a live album by the American heavy metal band Metallica, with The San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Kamen. It was recorded on April 21–22, 1999 at The Berkeley Community Theatre. This is the final Metallica album to feature Jason Newsted as bassist.

Album information

S&M contains performances of Metallica songs with additional symphonic accompaniment, which was composed by Michael Kamen, who also conducted the orchestra during the concert. The idea to combine heavy metal with an epic classical approach, as James Hetfield has stated repeatedly, was an idea of Cliff Burton. Burton’s love of classical music, especially of Johann Sebastian Bach, can be traced back to many instrumental parts and melodic characteristics in Metallica’s songwriting including songs from Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets. The other inspiration was Deep Purple's 1969 Concerto for Group and Orchestra. Purple revived their hybrid musical performance in 1999's Live at the Royal Albert Hall after being notified that Metallica were doing theirs earlier that year.