Red panda

The red panda (Ailurus fulgens), also called lesser panda, red bear-cat, and red cat-bear, is a small arboreal mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China that has been classified as endangered by the IUCN as its wild population is estimated at less than 10,000 mature individuals. The population continues to decline and is threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and inbreeding depression, although red pandas are protected by national laws in their range countries.

The red panda is slightly larger than a domestic cat. It has reddish-brown fur, a long, shaggy tail, and a waddling gait due to its shorter front legs. It feeds mainly on bamboo, but is omnivorous, and also eats eggs, birds, insects, and small mammals. It is a solitary animal, mainly active from dusk to dawn, and is largely sedentary during the day.

The red panda is the only living species of the genus Ailurus and the family Ailuridae. It has been previously placed in the raccoon and bear families, but results of phylogenetic research indicate strong support for its taxonomic classification in its own family Ailuridae, which along with the weasel, raccoon and skunk families is part of the superfamily Musteloidea. Two subspecies are recognized. It is not closely related to the giant panda.

Firefox (novel)

Firefox is a thriller novel written by Craig Thomas and published in 1977. The Cold War plot involves an attempt by the CIA and MI6 to steal a highly advanced experimental Soviet fighter aircraft. The chief protagonist is fighter pilot turned spy Mitchell Gant. The book was subject to a 1982 film adaptation produced and directed by Clint Eastwood who also played the role of Gant in the film.

Plot summary

The book focuses on a fictional MiG-31 aircraft developed by the USSR during the Cold War. The highly advanced fighter aircraft (given the NATO code name "Firefox") includes a form of stealth technology that makes it completely undetectable to radar and is capable of attaining hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 or more with a range in excess of 3,000 miles. Its weapons are controlled by the thought impulses of the pilot, allowing them to be very rapidly aimed and fired.

Faced with an aircraft which will give the Soviet Union the ability to completely dominate the skies, the CIA and MI6 launch a mission to steal one of the two Firefox prototype aircraft. The first section of the book details how fighter pilot Mitchell Gant covertly travels to Russia. Gant is ideally trained to steal Firefox, having already trained to fly in captured Russian planes. But he is also scarred by his experiences in Vietnam, including his capture by Viet Cong after being shot down, an ordeal exacerbated when the enemy guerrillas are wiped out almost immediately by napalm from an American air strike.

Firefox (video game)

Firefox is a single player arcade laserdisc game based on the 1982 Clint Eastwood movie of the same name. It was produced by Atari, Inc. in 1984 and was Atari's only laserdisc game. Like Atari's previous first-person games Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back, Firefox came as both an upright and sit down cabinet, and featured a yoke style controller.

To develop the laserdisc footage, two developers, Mike Hally and Moe Shore, sifted through miles of footage from the film, amounting to 20 to 30 hours' worth. Most of the resulting footage was first-person shots filmed from helicopters flying over Greenland and Scandinavia.

The title was the second laserdisc game to be added to MAME, with intermediate version 0.128u4.

See also

References

External links

Twisted

Twisted may refer to:

Music

Industry

Works

Twisted (Usher and Pharrel song)

Film and television

Laurie Halse Anderson

Laurie Halse Anderson (born October 23, 1961) is an American writer best known for children's and young adult novels. She received the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2009 for her contribution to young adult literature.

She was first recognized for her novel Speak, published in 1999.

Early life

Laurie Beth Halse was born to Rev. Frank A. Halse Jr. and Joyce Holcomb Halse in Potsdam, New York. She grew up there with her younger sister, Lisa. As a student, she showed an early interest in writing, specifically during the second grade. Anderson enjoyed reading—especially science fiction and fantasy—as a teenager, but never envisioned herself becoming a writer.

Anderson attended Fayetteville-Manlius High School, in Manlius, New York, a suburb of Syracuse.

During Anderson’s senior year, she moved out of her parents' house at the age of sixteen and lived as an exchange student for thirteen months on a pig farm in Denmark. After her experience in Denmark, Anderson moved back home to work at a clothing store, earning the minimum wage. This motivated her to attend college.

Twisted (1986 film)

Twisted is a 1986 horror and psychological thriller starring Christian Slater, Lois Smith, and Tandy Cronyn.

Plot

One evening, the Collins family discovers their maid, Mrs. Murdock, dead at the end of their steps; her neck is broken. Evidently, she had an accident; now they need a new babysitter for an upcoming party. The sensible Helen meets little Susan Collins at the discount market and likes her, so she offers to do the job. She does not know Susan's teenage brother Mark: technically skilled and good in school, but restive and cunning. Mark also listens regularly to German marching music from the Third Reich. As soon as the parents have left, he psychologically terrorizes Helen and his sister with electronic tricks. Williams (Karl Taylor), a school jock whom Mark burned earlier in science class, is out for revenge; Mark murders him with a fencing sword.

Ultimately, Mark himself is killed when Helen knocks him onto a spiked German helmet. Mark's parents come home to find the house in shambles; they blame Helen and have her arrested, unaware that Mark lies dead upstairs. Secretly, Susan dons her late brother's glasses and proceeds to listen to his Nazi music and the cycle begins anew.