Hellboy II: The Golden Army

On Christmas Eve in 1955, the adolescent Hellboy is preparing for bed and requests a bedtime story from his father, Professor Bruttenholm (John Hurt). The professor tells Hellboy a legend about war between the humans and the people of the mystical realm. King Balor, leader of the magic elfin race, commissioned the creation of a "Golden Army," 70 times 70 magical mechanical soldiers. Balor received a crown that would allow him (or anyone with royal blood) to command the Army. The Golden Army attacked the humans with no mercy, and eventually Balor became consumed by regret. A truce was called between the warring factors; humans were given control of the cities while Balor's elves would keep to the forests. As a peace offering, Balor shattered his crown and gave one piece to the humans (still keeping two for himself). One of the few who did not agree with the truce was Balor's son, Prince Nuada. The Prince went into exile, vowing to return when his people needed him. And the Golden Army became dormant.

In the present day, a mysterious albino man (Luke Goss) is practicing swordsmanship. It is Prince Nuada, ready to return from exile. He is joined by the monster known as Mr. Wink (Brian Steele) who follows his commands.

A prestigious auction house is selling off several rare artifacts, including the humans' fragment of the Golden crown. Nuada arrives, takes the crown fragment and dispatches several mysterious creatures to dispose of the humans.

At the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, Agent Tom Manning (Jeffery Tambor) has a meeting with Abe Sapien (Doug Jones). Manning is still mad at Hellboy; the B.P.R.D. is still an undercover organization yet Hellboy continues to let himself be seen in public. Abe explains that Hellboy's relationship with Liz Sherman is "tense" at the moment, which may be causing Hellboy's erratic behavior. At that moment, Hellboy (Ron Pearlman) is blasted through the wall of his room; his pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair) has become extremely angry and used her fire powers to send him flying.

Hellboy's team is called to investigate the incident at the auction house. Manning gives Hellboy a pack of Cuban cigars as a bribe in one last attempt to persuade Hellboy to be discreet in his work.

At the auction house Hellboy & the others learn that there are no survivors from the 70+ guests reported to be there. Abe searches through texts to find what might have caused such an attack. He finds boxes marked with a Royal Seal and uncovers an example of what the boxes might have contained: small, winged creatures known as "tooth fairies" because they feed on calcium. While using his psychic talents to try and find the creatures, Abe brings his hand close to Liz and senses that she is pregnant.

Hellboy and his fellow agents are suddenly swarmed by the ravenous tooth fairies. Liz activates her fire powers in a desperate attempt to burn out the creatures. The resulting battle sends Hellboy outside and in full view of news reporters. The BPRD is officially exposed to the world.

Meanwhile, Prince Nuada and MR. Wink come to speak with King Balor. Balor is content to let the truce between humans stand, and his daughter Nuala (Nuada's twin sister, Anna Walton) is in agreement. But Prince Nuada feels that humans are insatiably greedy and will soon force the mystical creatures into extinction.

Hellboy watches news reports about himself and the other agents on the evening news. Hellboy is delighted by all of it but Liz (secretly taking a pregnancy test) is furious about Hellboy making them public because she hates people "staring at her." Tom Manning tells Hellboy that Washington is sending down a new BPRD agent as a result of Hellboy's latest actions. Hellboy is less than thrilled.

Balor and Nuada continue their argument. Nuada refuses to back down; he will do whatever is necessary to make the magical world safe from humans. Nuada kills his father and takes the second piece of the crown. Nuala flees from her brother with the third and final piece.

Everyone at BPRD is awaiting the arrival of their new agent, Johann Krauss (voice of Seth MacFarlane). Krauss turns out to be a very strange entity; a containment suit proportioned like a man holding pure ectoplasmic energy.

Krauss inspects the remains of one tooth fairy. He injects it with a sample of ectoplasmic energy to temporarily return the creature to life so they might learn more. Krauss translates the creature's speak; it remembers troll languages and other commerce sounds. Johann realizes that the creatures came from the legendary Troll Market, a gathering place for magical creatures. Rumors suggest that the Troll Market might be located under the Brooklyn Bridge so Krauss takes the team to search for it.

Johann Krauss outfits the team with special time-dilation glasses that allow them to see through illusions put out by magical entities. They end up spotting a creature called a "fragglewump" who leads them right to the door of the Troll Market. Upon entering, Hellboy is delighted- he can walk at ease among the Market's creatures and be totally at ease.

Abe spots a hooded figure walking away and wearing the same sort of Royal Seal he found with the tooth fairies, so he goes to investigate on his own. The figure is Princess Nuala, who arrives at the Market's library to receive a cylinder hidden by her father. Abe follows her in and she confronts him. Nuala is revealed to have the same sort of psychic powers as Abe. They both learn about one another through hand gestures.

At that moment, Mr. Wink comes in and attacks Nuala. Abe encourages her to flee while Hellboy fights Wink. After an intense fight, Hellboy proves victorious. They speak with Princess Nuala, who explains that she has the last piece of her fathers' crown and the cylinder from the library which contains a map to the location of the Golden Army. Krauss is worried about bringing the princess back to BPRD because of regulations, but Hellboy argues against him.

Prince Nuada arrives soon after, furious at the loss of his companion. He releases a small seed, which Hellboy scoffs at. It suddenly and rapidly grows into a multi-tentacled creature; a forest elemental. Upon seeing the gigantic creature, Hellboy trades in his trademark "Samaritan" pistol for a gigantic six-barreled minigun nicknamed "Big Baby."

During the fight with the elemental, Hellboy saves a human infant from certain doom. But when the fight ends, Hellboy is taunted and jeered by the crowd for bringing danger to a child. The humans call "Hellboy" a freak.

Later on, Liz patches up Hellboy- who doesn't understand the humans' reaction. Liz tells Hellboy that she is leaving to "think." Hellboy automatically assumes that he has doomed their relationship and begs her to stay. Liz asks Hellboy to decide what he really wants- the world's approval or HER approval.

Abe has a conversation with Nuala, who explains that she is connected to her brother in a psychic link and now that Abe has shown her the BPRD location, Nuada knows where she is. Nuala hides the 3rd crown fragment in one of Abe's books.

In the locker room, Hellboy is confronted by Johann Krauss. Krauss wants Hellboy to start following orders, and warns Hellboy that if the 2 had to fight then Krauss would probably win. Hellboy, undaunted, asks why. Johann explains that Hellboy's temper is his worst flaw; he allows it to get out of control and get the best of him. Hellboy, proving Johann's point, smashes the helmet of the containment suit. Krauss' ectoplasmic energy takes control of the locker doors, smashing Hellboy several times before wandering off.

Hellboy meets with Abe, who is in the middle of listening to a collection of popular love songs. Hellboy realizes that Abe has fallen in love with the princess. The two best friends get drunk and begin contemplating their relationships. Abe is on the verge of revealing to Hellboy why Liz has been acting so different lately when Liz storms in on them, furious.

Nuada breaks into the BPRD, steals the map to the Golden Army and abducts Nuala. He also leaves a psychic message to Abe stating that if they bring the 3rd crown piece to the Army's location, he will spare their lives and release Nuala. Nuada finishes by stabbing Hellboy with an enchanted spear.

Despite the best medical efforts, the spearhead cannot be removed from Hellboy's chest (any attempt to pull it out forces the spearhead to move closer to Hellboy's heart). Hellboy, in pain, admits to Liz that she is more important than anything else in his life. Meanwhile, Abe finds the 3rd crown piece in his book.

Analyzing the remains of King Balor's map tells the BPRD that the Golden Army is located in northern Ireland. Liz wants to take Hellboy there to heal him, but Manning & Krauss are willing to let Hellboy die to keep the Golden Army from awakening. Liz berates Johann for his attitude, storming off.

Abe & Liz decide to take Hellboy without approval, desperate to heal their friend. Johann confronts them on their way out and to everyone's surprise he volunteers to help.

In Ireland, the group encounters a goblin who offers to lead them to the Golden Army for "something shiny." The goblin spots the spearhead shining beneath Hellboy's bandages and offers to help remove it if they give him the spearhead as payment.

The goblin brings them before a mysterious winged creature. It is the Angel of Death. The Angel knows Liz and Hellboy (calling him by his true name, Anung Un Rama) and has been waiting for them. The Angel cares not whether Hellboy lives or dies; but Liz begs for Hellboy to live. Despite the Angel's warning that Hellboy's survival will eventually bring about the destruction of Earth (and that Liz will suffer most of all because of that), Liz still asks for Hellboy to live. The Angel removes the spearhead and instructs Liz to give Hellboy a "reason to live." Liz kneels down and tells Hellboy that he is to be a father. Hellboy stands up, fully recovered but awestruck upon hearing Liz' news.

Their goblin guide leads the group to the central chamber of the Golden Army, where Prince Nuada waits with his hostage. Abe gives Nuada the last crown piece in hope of freeing Nuala, but the Prince betrays them and awakens the Golden Army.

Despite a valiant effort by Hellboy and the others, the 4900 Golden soldiers appear unstoppable. Hellboy then comes up with an idea; he challenges Prince Nuada for the right to command the Army. Nuala realizes that Hellboy (or Anung Un Rama) is born of royal blood and thus the challenge must be answered.

Hellboy fights against the prince across the entire chamber, at one point finally gaining the upper hand. But he refuses to take the Prince's life. As they fight, Nuala feels the wounds that Hellboy inflicts upon her brother. Nuada prepares to stab Hellboy in the back, but suddenly collapses from pain in his chest. Nuala is revealed to have stabbed herself in the heart in a final attempt to stop her brother. Abe goes to Nuala's side and confesses his feelings to her before she dies.

With Nuada dead, Hellboy is considered the winner of the challenge by default. He picks up the completed crown and hands it to Liz, who burns it-sending the Golden Army back into hibernation forever.

By this point, Manning and the other BPRD agents have caught up to Hellboy. Manning demands an explanation but instead Hellboy, Abe and Liz all hand in their belts, resigning from the BPRD (Hellboy hesitates only a moment to reclaim his "Samaritan" gun). Manning requests help from Krauss, but Johann merely tells him off and goes to join the others.

Hellboy suggests that he and Liz get a place of their own to raise the new baby. Liz stops him and says "Babies," holding up two fingers- a sign that she is carrying twins. Hellboy can only look on in shock and wonder.

Superman Returns

Superman Returns is a 2006 Academy Award-nominated superhero film based on the fictional DC Comics character Superman. It was directed by Bryan Singer and stars Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth and Kevin Spacey. The screenplay was written by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, based on a story by Singer, Harris and Dougherty.

The film is a relaunch of the Superman franchise that took more than a decade to get off the ground, and is the first Superman film since Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, made nineteen years earlier. Superman Returns revolves around Superman's return to Earth after a five-year absence. Director Bryan Singer has said that the continuity is "branching off from" elements of "the first two Superman films with Christopher Reeve," which serve as, as he puts it, a "vague history." The film received overall positive reviews and earned $391 million worldwide.

For five years, Superman (Brandon Routh) has been away from Earth, coaxed into space by a belief that Krypton may still exist. Finding nothing, he comes back to a changed world--not only has terrorism become rampant, but Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has married, started a family, and won the... For five years, Superman (Brandon Routh) has been away from Earth, coaxed into space by a belief that Krypton may still exist. Finding nothing, he comes back to a changed world--not only has terrorism become rampant, but Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has married, started a family, and won the Pulitzer for her piece "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." After a stop in Smallville to see his adopted mother (Eva Marie Saint), Superman is back in Metropolis, and Clark Kent has his old job back at the Daily Planet, with everyone still incredibly oblivious to his alter ego. But where there's Superman, there's Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey), and he is likely to be planning something dastardly--in this case, using a piece of pilfered kryptonite to grow an entirely new continent that he will control. Bryan Singer (X-MEN 1 and 2), armed with a script by Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty, approaches the red cape with reverence for the lore of the character, and respect for Richard Donner's SUPERMAN (1980) and Richard Lester's 1980 sequel, films that ushered in the era of the modern superhero film. Singer's SUPERMAN is filled with melancholy, and not so subtly suggests the notion of Superman as a Christ figure, sacrificing himself to save mankind. But there are still laughs, mostly courtesy of Spacey (clearly having a blast) and Parker Posey as his moll, Kitty Kowalski, as well as plenty of gasp-inducing set pieces, including a spectacular and terrifying almost-plane crash and a sinking boat. While modern visual effects have allowed Superman to go to entirely new realms, Singer keeps them from becoming the film's raison d'être, thus keeping the Man of Steel's gigantic heart intact--heavy though it may be

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight is a 2008 American superhero film co-written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins. Christian Bale reprises the lead role. The plot of the film focuses on Batman's fight against a new villain, the Joker (Heath Ledger) and his relationships with district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and his old friend and love interest assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaa).

For his conception of the film, Nolan was inspired by the Joker's first two appearances in the comics and Batman: The Long Halloween. The Dark Knight was filmed primarily in Chicago, as well as in several other locations in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong. He used an IMAX camera to film some sequences, including the Joker's first appearance in the film.

Warner Bros. created a viral marketing campaign for The Dark Knight, developing promotional websites and trailers highlighting screenshots of Ledger as the Joker. After Ledger's death in January 2008, however, the studio refocused its promotional campaign.[2][3] The film was released on July 16, 2008 in Australia, on July 18, 2008 in North America, and on July 24, 2008 in the United Kingdom. Prior to its box office debut in North America, record numbers of advance tickets were sold for The Dark Knight. It was greeted by positive reviews upon release, and became only the second movie ever to earn more than $500 million at the North American box office, setting numerous other records in the process.

james watt

James Watt was born in Greenock in 1736, the son of a ship's chandler (trader in canvas, etc). Watt had little formal education due to poor health in his youth, but pottering about in his father's shop he developed an interest in trying to make things "work like clockwork".

In his late teens he went to London to learn to be a "mathematical and philosophical instrument maker", and when he returned to Glasgow he got a job making instruments with Glasgow University, who gave him accomodation and a workshop.

In 1763 John Anderson asked him to repair an early steam engine he had acquired. This early model, known as a Newcomen engine, was very inefficient. The cylinder (where the piston was) had to be heated when steam was admitted, and then gradually cooled again to condense the steam. This wasted a lot of time and fuel. Two years later, while wandering aimlessly through Glasgow Green, Watt hit upon the idea of condensing the steam in a separate vessel. This removed the need for heating and cooling, making the engine faster, safer, and more fuel-efficient. A stone in Glasgow Green marks this spot, where the industrial revolution really began. (Later, in 1778 Watt presented Anderson with a micrometer he had designed and made, as a gesture of thanks.)

Watt went into business with Matthew Boulton, a Birmingham engineer, producing engines based on this new approach. Engineers from all the industrialised countries flocked to see their factories.

Watt's engines were initially used for pumping water from cornish tin and copper mines. Later, the new cotton mills, which had been built near fast-flowing rivers to take advantage of water power, almost all switched to steam. Gradually, mills began to move toward the centres of population. At first, steam power was used mainly for spinning, but eventually weaving was also powered by steam engine. By 1819, the year of Watt's death, there were 18 steam weaving factories in Glasgow, with 2800 looms. (This was excellent news for factory owners, but hundreds of unemployed handloom weavers were not so enthused.) The increased power-to-weight ratio of the new engines also permitted their use for marine propulsion - in 1788 a steam-powered catamaran was taken across Dalswinton loch by William Symington.

Despite his success, Watt was a rather insecure and jealous man, who did not like others having their own ideas. When one employee of the company, a man named William Murdoch, experimented with high pressure steam engines, Watt discouraged him from patenting and continuing his work, even though his engines were potentially much better and smaller than the ones Watt himself had invented. Murdoch never patented his design, and returned to fixing Watt's own engines. (However, Murdoch did make another important contribution, to gas lighting.)

Apart from his steam research, which he originally carried out in the grounds of Kinneil House near Linlithgow, Watt was involved in many other projects. He solved the problem of how to convert the up-and-down piston movement to rotary movement (so that engines could power looms, bellows, and other mechanical devices), he created the term "horsepower", and he also invented the rev. counter, a machine for copying sculpture, and a letter copying press (a very early photocopier!).

When Watt retired in 1800, he had become a very rich man.

In 1882, 63 years after Watt's death, the British Association gave his name to the unit of electrical power - and today James Watt's name is to be found written on almost every lightbulb in the world.

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Valentine's Story

Let me introduce myself. My name is Valentine. I lived in Rome during the third century. That was long, long ago! At that time, Rome was ruled by an emperor named Claudius. I didn't like Emperor Claudius, and I wasn't the only one! A lot of people shared my feelings.

Saint Valentine is said to have lived in Rome during the third century. That was a long time ago. During this time Rome was ruled by an emperor named Claudius. Many people did not like the ruler.

Claudius was having trouble getting men to serve in his army. He felt many men would not volunteer to join because they did not want to leave their wives and families. He thought that if men were not married, they would join the army. So Claudius passed a new law which did not allow any more marriages. Most people thought this law was cruel. Valentine, who was a minister, did not support the new law.

Even after Emperor Claudius passed the law, he kept performing marriage ceremonies secretly. One night he was caught and thrown in jail and told he would be put to death.

Many young people came to visit Valentine. One was the daughter of the prison guard. On the day of his death Valentine wrote a note to the daughter signed "Love from your Valentine". This was on February 14, 269 A. D.

Some say this started the custom of exchanging love messages on Valentine's Day.

Claudius wanted to have a big army. He expected men to volunteer to join. Many men just did not want to fight in wars. They did not want to leave their wives and families. As you might have guessed, not many men signed up. This made Claudius furious. So what happened? He had a crazy idea. He thought that if men were not married, they would not mind joining the army. So Claudius decided not to allow any more marriages. Young people thought his new law was cruel. I thought it was preposterous! I certainly wasn't going to support that law!

Did I mention that I was a priest? One of my favorite activities was to marry couples. Even after Emperor Claudius passed his law, I kept on performing marriage ceremonies -- secretly, of course. It was really quite exciting. Imagine a small candlelit room with only the bride and groom and myself. We would whisper the words of the ceremony, listening all the while for the steps of soldiers.

One night, we did hear footsteps. It was scary! Thank goodness the couple I was marrying escaped in time. I was caught. (Not quite as light on my feet as I used to be, I guess.) I was thrown in jail and told that my punishment was death.

I tried to stay cheerful. And do you know what? Wonderful things happened. Many young people came to the jail to visit me. They threw flowers and notes up to my window. They wanted me to know that they, too, believed in love.

One of these young people was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed her to visit me in the cell. Sometimes we would sit and talk for hours. She helped me to keep my spirits up. She agreed that I did the right thing by ignoring the Emperor and going ahead with the secret marriages. On the day I was to die, I left my friend a little note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. I signed it, "Love from your Valentine."

I believe that note started the custom of exchanging love messages on Valentine's Day. It was written on the day I died, February 14, 269 A.D. Now, every year on this day, people remember. But most importantly, they think about love and friendship. And when they think of Emperor Claudius, they remember how he tried to stand in the way of love, and they laugh -- because they know that love can't be beaten!