TOM AND JERRY

Tom and Jerry is an American animated series of theatrical shorts, television shows and specials, feature film, home films created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that centered on a never-ending rivalry between a cat (Tom) and a mouse (Jerry) whose chases and battles often involved comic violence. Hanna and Barbera ultimately wrote and directed one hundred and fourteen Tom and Jerry cartoons at the MGM cartoon studio in Hollywood, California between 1940 and 1957, when the animation unit was closed. The original series is notable for having won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film seven times, tying it with Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies as the theatrical animated series with the most Oscars. Tom and Jerry has a worldwide audience that consists of children, teenagers and adults, and has also been recognized as one of the most famous and longest-lived rivalries in American cinema. In 2000, TIME named the series one of the greatest television shows of all time.

Beginning in 1960, in addition to the original 114 H-B cartoons, MGM had new shorts produced by Rembrandt Films, led by Gene Deitch in Eastern Europe. Production of Tom and Jerry shorts returned to Hollywood under Chuck Jones's Sib-Tower 12 Productions in 1963; this series lasted until 1967, making it a total of 161 shorts. The cat and mouse stars later resurfaced in television cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera and Filmation Studios during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s; a feature film, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, in 1992 (released domestically in 1993); and in 2000, their first made-for TV short, Tom and Jerry: The Mansion Cat for Cartoon Network. The most recent Tom and Jerry theatrical short, The Karate Guard, was written and co-directed by Barbera and debuted in Los Angeles cinemas on September 27, 2005.

Today, Time Warner (via its Turner Entertainment division) owns the rights to Tom and Jerry (with Warner Bros. handling distribution). Since the merger, Turner has produced the series, Tom and Jerry Tales for The CW's Saturday morning "The CW4Kids" lineup, as well as the recent Tom and Jerry short, The Karate Guard, in 2005 and a string of Tom and Jerry direct-to-video films - all in collaboration with Warner Bros. Animation. In February 2010, the cartoon celebrated its 70th anniversary and a DVD collection of 30 shorts, Tom and Jerry Deluxe Anniversary Collection, was released in late June 2010 to celebrate the animated duo's seventh decade. It then had a rerun on Cartoon Network.

EA SPORTS is a brand of Electronic Arts that creates and develops sports video games. Formerly a gimmick of Electronic Arts sports games, which tried to mimic real-life sports networks by calling themselves "EA SPORTS Network" (EASN) with pictures or endorsements of real commentators such as John Madden, it soon grew up to become a sub-label on its own, releasing game series such as NBA Live, FIFA, NHL, Madden NFL, and NASCAR. Most games under this brand are developed by EA Canada, the studio of Electronic Arts in Burnaby, British Columbia, as well as at EA Black box, Vancouver, British Columbia and EA Tiburon in Maitland, Florida.

EA SPORTS early motto was If it's in the game, it's in the game, later changed to "It's in the game!" This tag line, strategized by Don Transeth, written by Jeff Odiorne, and delivered by the voice of EA SPORTS, Andrew Anthony, has become a cultural rallying cry throughout the sports universe. Unlike some other companies, EA SPORTS has no special ties to a single platform, which means that all games are released for the best-selling active platforms, sometimes long after most other companies abandon them. For example, FIFA 98, Madden NFL 98, NBA Live 98, and NHL 98 were released for the Sega Genesis and the Super NES throughout 1997; Madden NFL 2005 and FIFA 2005 had PlayStation releases in 2004 (FIFA 2005 was also the last PlayStation title to be released); and NCAA Football 08 had an Xbox release in 2007. Madden NFL 08 also had Xbox and GameCube releases in 2007, and was the final title released for the GameCube, with Madden NFL 09 following as the final Xbox title. Additionally, NASCAR Thunder 2003 and NASCAR Thunder 2004 were released not only for the PlayStation 2, but for the original PlayStation as well. The EA SPORTS brand name is used to sponsor English Football League One team Swindon Town for the 2009-10 season and the EA SPORTS Cup in the Republic of Ireland.

Swiss Bank Corporation

Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC) (German: Schweizerischer Bankverein (SBV), French:Societe de Banque Swiss(SBS), Italian:Societa di Banca Svizzera) was a large intergrated financial services company located in Switzerland. Prior to its merger, the bank was the 3^rd largest in Switzerland with over 300 billion CHF of assets and 11.7 billion CHF of equity.

Throughout the 1990s, SBC engaged in large growth initiative, shifting its focus from traditional commercial banking into investment banking in an effort to match its larger Swiss rival credit issue. As part of this strategy, SBC acquired US based investment bank Dillion Read & Co. as well as London based merchant bank S.G.Warburg in the mid 1990s. SBC also acquired Chicago based Brinson Partners and O’Connor & Associates. These acquisitions formed the basis for a global investment banking business.

In 1998, SBC merged with Union Bank of Switzerland to form UBS, the largest bank in Europe and second largest bank in the world. The Company’s logo, which featured three keys, symbolizing “confidence, security, and discretion”, was adopted by UBS after the 1988 merger. Although the combination of two banks was billed as the merger of equals, it quickly became evident that from a management perspective, it was SBC that was buying UBS as nearly 80% top management positions were filled by legacy Swiss bank professionals. Today, what was SBC forms the core of many of UBS’s businesses, particularly UBS Investment Bank.

History:

Swiss Bank Corporation traces its history to 1854. In that year, six private banking firms in Basel, Switzerland, pooled their resources to form the Bankverein, a consortium that acted as an underwriting for its member banks. Among the original member banks were Bischoff zu St Alban, Ehinger & Cie; J.Merian Forcart, Passavant & Cie; J.Riggenbach and Von Speyr & Cie. The establishment of joint stock banks in swirzerland such as Swiss Bank’s earliest predecessors (often structured as a Swiss Verein) was driven by the industrialization of the country and the construction of railroads in the mid 19^th century.

Academy Award informally known as Oscars

Academy Award (Oscar)

An Academy Award statuette

The Academy Award (informally know as the Oscar) is an accolade by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is one of the most prominent award ceremonies in the world and is televised live in more than 200 countries annually. It is also the oldest award ceremony in the media; its equivalent, The Grammy Awards (For music), Emmy Awards (For television), and Tony Awards (For Theatre) are modeled after the academy. The AMPAS itself was conceived by Metro Goldwyn Mayer studio boss Louis B Mayer.

The 1^st Academy Awards ceremony was held May 16, 1929, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood to honor outstanding film achievements of the 1927-1928 film seasons. It was hosted by actor Douglas Fairbanks and director William C de Mille. The 82^nd Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best in film for 2009, was held on March 7, 2010 at the Kodak theatre in Hollywood with actors Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin hosting the ceremony.

History:

The first awards were presented on May 16, 1929 at a private brunch at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post Awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel. The cost of guest tickets for that night’s ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other personalities of the filmmaking industry of the time for their works during the 1927-28 periods.

The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performance in The Last Command and the Way of All Flesh. He had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give the prize earlier; this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. The honored professionals were awarded for all the work done in certain category for the qualifying period; for example, Emil Jannings received the award for two movies in which he started during that period. Since the fourth ceremony, the system changed, and the Professionals were honored for a specific performance in a single film. As of the 82^nd Academy ceremony held in 2010, a total of 2,789 Oscars have been given for 1.825 awards. A total of 302 actors have won Oscars in competitive acting categories or been awarded Honorary or Juvenile Awards.

At the 29^th ceremony, held on March 27, 1957, the Best Foreign Language Film category was introduced; until then, foreign language were honored with the Special Achievement Award.