Nylon

Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers, more specifically aliphatic or semi-aromatic polyamides. They can be melt-processed into fibers, films or shapes. The first example of nylon (nylon 66) was produced on February 28, 1935, by Wallace Carothers at DuPont's research facility at the DuPont Experimental Station. Nylon polymers have found significant commercial applications in fibers (apparel, flooring and rubber reinforcement), in shapes (molded parts for cars, electrical equipment, etc.), and in films (mostly for food packaging)

Overview

Nylon is a thermoplastic, silky material, first used commercially in a nylon-bristled toothbrush (1938), followed more famously by women's stockings ("nylons"; 1940) after being introduced as a fabric at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Nylon is made of repeating units linked by peptide bonds and is a type of polyamide and is frequently referred to as such Nylon was the first commercially successful synthetic thermoplastic polymer. Commercially, nylon polymer is made by reacting monomers which are either lactams, acid/amines or stoichiometric mixtures of diamines (-NH₂) and diacids (-COOH). Mixtures of these can be polymerized together to make copolymers. Nylon polymers can be mixed with a wide variety of additives to achieve many different property variations.

Nylon (album)

Nylon is a Greek album by singer Anna Vissi, released in Greece and Cyprus on September 28, 2005, and subsequently in select European countries and Taiwan. The album was released as a DualDisc on October 10, 2005, the first of its kind in Greece, and re-released on May 2, 2006 with the title Nylon: Euro-Edition as a tie-in to Vissi's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. The album reached Platinum status in less than 24 hours after its release.

Album information

Released in September 2005, Nylon was Anna Vissi's first studio album since the commercially successful 2003 Paraksenes Eikones. Vissi characterized Nylon as her best album so far, with Nikos Karvelas paying a lot of attention to the lyrics of the songs he had written.

Upon release, Nylon went platinum within 24 hours in Greece. In October 2005, the album was released on the DualDisc format, the first ever in Greece, with the title Nylon: DualDisc. The DualDisc version featured bonus songs and as well as special footage from the recording studio.

Nylon (band)

Nylon (now The Charlies) is an Icelandic girl group composed of members Alma Goodman (born Alma Guðmundsdóttir), Camilla Stones (born Steinunn Þóra Camilla Sigurðardóttir) and Klara Elias (born Klara Ósk Elíasdóttir). They are Iceland's most successful singer/songwriter girl-band, producing ten number one singles, three number one studio albums, one number one compilation and one number one DVD in Iceland.

History

2004-2005: 100% Nylon and Góðir Hlutir

The group was formed after auditions in Iceland, which Alma, Camilla and Klara attended. A few weeks after the auditions, Emilia was asked whether she would like to be in the band, and after meeting them, she accepted the offer. The group sings pop music in English and Icelandic. Their first single, "Lög Unga Fólksins" (which means "The Young People's Song" in English), was released in April 2004 and went straight to number one. The group have had huge success in their native country of Iceland: achieving a total of 13 Number 1 singles to date, a TV show about their first summer as a girlband, three chart topping albums, and a book entitled "100% Nylon" (which instantly became a best seller). They have also released a DVD entitled "Nylon Allstaðar", which contained their smash hit TV show as well as other bonus features.

Swimming (film)

Swimming is a 2000 film starring Lauren Ambrose in one of her early film works as Francine "Frankie" Wheeler. The movie was directed by Robert J. Siegel.

Main cast

External links

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is an individual or team sport and activity. Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic sports, with events in freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly. In addition to these individual events, Olympic swimmers also participate in relays.

History

Evidence of recreational swimming in prehistoric times has been found, with the earliest evidence dating to Stone Age paintings from around 10000 years ago. Written references date from 2000 BC, with some of the earliest references to swimming including the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible, Beowulf, the Quran and others. In 1538, Nikolaus Wynmann, a German professor of languages, wrote the first swimming book, The Swimmer or A Dialogue on the Art of Swimming (Der Schwimmer oder ein Zweigespräch über die Schwimmkunst).

Swimming emerged as a competitive recreational activity in the 1830s in England. In 1828, the first indoor swimming pool, St George's Baths was opened to the public. By 1837, the National Swimming Society was holding regular swimming competitions in six artificial swimming pools, built around London. The recreational activity grew in popularity and by 1880, when the first national governing body, the Amateur Swimming Association, was formed, there were already over 300 regional clubs in operation across the country.

Lungs (album)

Lungs is the debut studio album by English indie rock band Florence and the Machine, released on 3 July 2009 by Island Records. The album debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart for five weeks after its release. In January 2010, the album reached a new peak position of number one for two consecutive weeks. Lungs was eventually certified five-times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. The album also peaked at number two for six weeks on the Irish Albums Chart.

Upon release, Lungs received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised lead singer Florence Welch's vocals and the album's instrumentation. The album was shortlisted for the 2009 Mercury Prize, and won the MasterCard British Album award at the 2010 Brit Awards. Lungs has sold more than three million copies worldwide.

Production

Florence and the Machine recorded Lungs in the United Kingdom with five different producers—Paul Epworth, James Ford, Stephen Mackey, Eg White, and Charlie Hugall. Most of the songs on the album were mixed by Cenzo Townshend.