Great Machine

In the television series Babylon 5, The Great Machine is an enormous technological complex of networked machines beneath the surface of the planet Epsilon III. It first appears in season 1 two-part episode "A Voice in the Wilderness".

History

The Great Machine was constructed sometime around the earth year 1758, 500 years prior to the establishment of Babylon 5. The identity of the race who built it is unknown, although the race that formerly inhabited the planet did play a part in its maintenance and supervision. Eventually, the offensive potential of the machine provoked a schism in the custodial species between those who sought to use it with restraint against those who sought to use it for conquest. The violent faction was eventually expunged, and knowledge of the planet's location had been lost to them in the process.

Great (1975 film)

Great is a 28-minute animated film released in 1975, telling a humorous version of the life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It was directed by Bob Godfrey, produced by Grantstern Films and distributed by British Lion.

Great won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film at the 48th Academy Awards in March 1976.Great was the first British animated film to win an Academy Award, and also won the BAFTA award for Best Animated Film in 1976.

Background

The film recounts the life and works of the 19th century British civil engineer and architect Isambard Kingdom Brunel in a way that is affectionate while often tongue-in-cheek. The narrator, voiced by Harry Fowler, explains the triumphs and setbacks of Brunel's career, comparing him to Archimedes, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. Richard Briers provides the voice of Brunel. There are numerous songs in the film, including "Get a big top hat if you want to get ahead". Great is primarily an animated film, although it is mixed media, combining some live action sequences with the animation.

Rise

Rise or RISE may refer to:

Music

Albums

Rise (Flobots song)

"Rise" is the second single released by the alternative hip hop group Flobots from Denver, Colorado. It was released from Flobots' album Fight with Tools.

Track listing

CD

Play.com (UK Maxi) (MP3 EP)

Music video

The Flobots filmed a music video for this song on July 6, 2008, at the Gothic theater In Denver, Colorado. The video shows a rock concert intermixed with scenes of pro-American posters and people working to make the world a better place, such as planting trees and committing random acts of kindness. The video features almost everyone in some form of American Flag bandanna, much like the cover for Flobot's album "Fight with Tools." In the video, multiple references are made to the website americawillbe.org, a pro-peace website dedicated to the visions of what people want USA to be.

Chart performance

On September 13, 2008, "Rise" charted on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks at number 36. So far, the song has peaked at number 33.

Rise: Blood Hunter

Rise: Blood Hunter is a 2007 neo-noir action-horror film written and directed by Sebastian Gutierrez. The film stars Lucy Liu and Michael Chiklis; a supernatural thriller about a reporter (Liu) who wakes up in a morgue to discover she is now a vampire. She vows revenge against the vampire cult responsible for her situation and hunts them down one by one. Chiklis plays "Rawlins," a haunted police detective whose daughter is victimized by the same group and seeks answers for her gruesome death.

Plot

Reporter Sadie Blake has just published a notable article featuring a secret Gothic party scene. The very night following the publication, one of Sadie's sources, Tricia Rawlins, is invited by her friend Kaitlyn to an isolated house in which such a party is to take place. Tricia is reluctant to enter with the curfew set by her strict father, so Kaitlyn goes alone. When she does not return, Tricia becomes worried and enters the house as well. To her horror, she finds Kaitlyn in the basement with two vampires hanging onto her and drinking her blood. She tries to hide, but the vampires find her quickly. The next day, Sadie learns of the girl's death and decides to investigate the matter. She soon attracts the interest of the vampire cult, who kidnap her and bring her in for questioning. Following that, she is raped and murdered by the vampires.

Machine

A machine is a tool containing one or more parts that uses energy to perform an intended action. Machines are usually powered by mechanical, chemical, thermal, or electrical means, and are often motorized. Historically, a power tool also required moving parts to classify as a machine. However, the advent of electronics has led to the development of power tools without moving parts that are considered machines.

A simple machine is a device that simply transforms the direction or magnitude of a force, but a large number of more complex machines exist. Examples include vehicles, electronic systems, molecular machines, computers, television, and radio.

Etymology

The word machine derives from the Latin word machina, which in turn derives from the Greek (Doric μαχανά makhana, Ionic μηχανή mekhane "contrivance, machine, engine", a derivation from μῆχος mekhos "means, expedient, remedy").

A wider meaning of "fabric, structure" is found in classical Latin, but not in Greek usage.

This meaning is found in late medieval French, and is adopted from the French into English in the mid-16th century.

Machine (film)

Machine is a 2007 action movie starring James Russo and Neal McDonough.

Plot

Ex special forces mercenary and now hardened criminal Vic, (Michael Lazar) lives in a world of cons, double crosses, crooked cops, mob bosses and drug dealing crime lords. Playing by his own rules, Vic and his partner Frank (Paul Sloan) work both sides of the street, caring only about where they can score and take down the most cash. After a dangerous shootout during a drug deal gone bad, Vic finds himself working for ruthless crime boss Paul Santo (Nick Vallelonga). Santo's being indicted for murder, and he enlists Vic and Frank to kill the three witnesses that will testify against him. Watching Vic's every move is Santo's strongest soldier, Ray, (Michael Madsen) a stone cold killer, who would like nothing better than to whack Vic and Frank the moment his boss gives him the okay. As the Asian proverb says, "In the shadow of every crime is a woman" and that holds true for Vic as his grifter girlfriend Thea (Lisa Arturo) and Frank's ex, the exotic, sultry, Layla (Michele Lombardo) have their own agendas as they both try in their own way to use and manipulate their men. As Vic tries to juggle all this as well as kill the witnesses to pay off his debt to Santo, and at the same time avoid Ray's wrath, he is pursued by crooked vice cop Ford (Neal McDonough) who's relentless as he turns up the heat on Vic and Frank. On top of all this, it doesn't help that Asian crime lord, Cho (Garret Sato) and his henchman Butch (James Russo) are applying their own brand of pressure on Vic and Frank. They want to take out Santo and Ray, using Vic and Frank as pawns in their game of revenge and murder. In the end, Vic settles all scores as these competing factions come crashing together in the violent, action packed climax.