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• 
  British columbia
  British Columbia ⁱ/ˌbrɪtɪʃ kəˈlʌmbiə/ (B.C. or BC) (French: la Colombie-Britannique, C.-B.) is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu ("Splendour without Diminishment"). Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858. In 1871, it became the sixth province of Canada.
  As well as being the westernmost province of Western Canada, British Columbia is also a component of the Pacific Northwest, along with the US states of Oregon and Washington. The province has strong cultural and personal ties to the Prairie Provinces and Ontario as well as to the West Coast of the United States and to Alaska and the Yukon.
  The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the 15th largest metropolitan region in Canada. The largest city is Vancouver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada, the largest in Western Canada, and the second largest in the Pacific Northwest. In 2009, British Columbia had an estimated population of 4,419,974 (about two and a half million of whom were in Greater Vancouver). The province is currently governed by the BC Liberal Party, led by Premier Christy Clark, who became leader as a result of the party election on February 26, 2011.
  
  wn.com/British_columbia
• 
  Bulgaria
  Coordinates: 42°45′N 25°30′E / 42.75°N 25.5°E / 42.75; 25.5
  Bulgaria ⁱ/bʌlˈɡɛəriə/ (Bulgarian: България, IPA: [bɤ̞ɫˈɡarijɐ]), is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and the Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south and the Black Sea to the east. With a territory of 110,994 square kilometres (42,855 sq mi), Bulgaria is Europe's 14th-largest country. Its location has made it a historical crossroad for various civilisations and as such it is the home of some of the earliest metalworking, religious and other cultural artifacts in the world.
  Prehistoric cultures began developing on Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period. Its ancient history was marked by the presence of the Thracians, and later by the Greeks and Romans. The emergence of a unified Bulgarian ethnicity and state dates back to the First Bulgarian Empire, which dominated most of the Balkans and functioned as a cultural hub for Slavic peoples during the Middle Ages. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for nearly five hundred years. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 resulted in the Third Bulgarian State, recognised in 1908. The following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both World Wars. In 1946 it became a Communist republic with a single-party system until 1989, when the Communist Party allowed multi-party elections. After 1990 Bulgaria transitioned to democracy and a market-based economy.
  
  wn.com/Bulgaria
• 
  California
  California (pronounced ⁱ/kælɨˈfɔrnjə/) is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third most extensive (after Alaska and Texas). It is home to the nation's second- and sixth-largest census statistical areas (Los Angeles Metropolitan Area and San Francisco Bay Area), and eight of the nation's fifty most populated cities (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Long Beach and Oakland). The capital city is Sacramento.
  California's diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast in the west, to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east – from the Redwood–Douglas-fir forests of the northwest, to the Mojave Desert areas in the southeast. The center of the state is dominated by Central Valley, a major agricultural area. California contains both the highest and lowest points in the contiguous United States (Mount Whitney and Death Valley), and has the third-longest coastline of all states (after Alaska and Florida). Earthquakes are a common occurrence due to the state's location along the Pacific Ring of Fire: about 37,000 are recorded annually.
  
  wn.com/California
• 
  Canada
  Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km² (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
  The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.
  
  wn.com/Canada
• 
  Cape of Good Hope
  The Cape of Good Hope (Afrikaans: die Kaap van Goeie Hoop, Dutch:  Kaap de Goede Hoop (help·info), Portuguese: Cabo da Boa Esperança) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.
  There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the southernmost point is Cape Agulhas, about 150 kilometres (90 mi) to the east-southeast. The currents of the two oceans meet at the point where the warm-water Agulhas current meets the cold water Benguela current and turns back on itself—a point that fluctuates between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point.
  When following the western side of the African coastline from the equator, however, the Cape of Good Hope marks the point where a ship begins to travel more eastward than southward. Thus, the first modern rounding of the cape in 1488 by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was a milestone in the attempts by the Portuguese to establish direct trade relations with the Far East (although in his histories Herodotus proves, disbelievingly, that some Phoenicians had done so far earlier than this).^{[citation needed]} Dias called the cape Cabo das Tormentas. "Cape of Storms" was the original name of the "Cape of Good Hope".
  
  wn.com/Cape_of_Good_Hope
• 
  China
  China (ⁱ/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
  The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
  
  wn.com/China
• 
  Denmark
  The Kingdom of Denmark (Danish: Kongeriget Danmark, pronounced [ˈkɔŋəʁiːəð ˈdanmɑɡ̊] ( listen)) is a constitutional monarchy and sovereign state consisting the country of Denmark in northern Europe and two autonomous constituent countries, the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic and Greenland in North America. The kingdom is a unitary state with some power being devolved from Denmark proper to Greenland and the Faroe Islands; this polity is referred to as the Danish Realm. Denmark proper is the hegemonial area, where judicial, executive, and legislative power resides. The Faroe Islands are defined to be a community of people within the kingdom, and the Greenlandic people are defined as a separate people with the right to self-determination.
  Denmark is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, located southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. The country consists of a large peninsula, Jutland and many islands, most notably Zealand, Funen, Lolland, Falster and Bornholm, as well as hundreds of minor islands often referred to as the Danish Archipelago.
  
  wn.com/Denmark
• 
  Greece
  Greece ⁱ/ˈɡriːs/ (Greek: Ελλάδα, Ellada, IPA: [eˈlaða] ( listen) historically in Katharevousa and Ancient Greek: Ἑλλάς, Hellas, IPA: [eˈlas] and [helːás] respectively), officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Elliniki Dimokratia, IPA: [eliniˈci ðimokraˈtia]), is a country in Southern Europe, politically considered part of Western Europe.Athens is the capital and the largest city in the country (its urban area also including Piraeus). The population of the country is around 11 million.
  Greece has land borders with Albania, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of mainland Greece, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km (8,498 mi) in length, featuring a vast number of islands (approximately 1,400, of which 227 are inhabited), including Crete, the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, and the Ionian Islands among others. Eighty percent of Greece consists of mountains, of which Mount Olympus is the highest at 2,917 m (9,570 ft).
  
  wn.com/Greece
• 
  India
  India (ⁱ/ˈɪndiə/), officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
  Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four of the world's major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.
  
  wn.com/India
• 
  Japan
  Japan ⁱ/dʒəˈpæn/ (Japanese: 日本 Nihon or Nippon; formally 日本国  Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, literally the State of Japan) is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".
  Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.
  Archaeological research indicates that people lived in Japan as early as the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other nations followed by long periods of isolation has characterized Japan's history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament called the Diet.
  
  wn.com/Japan
• 
  Kaaba
  The Kaaba (or Qaaba; Arabic: الكعبة‎ al-Kaʿbah IPA: [ʔælˈkæʕbɐ]; English: The Cube) is a cuboid-shaped building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the most sacred site in Islam. The Quran states that the Kaaba was constructed by Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic), and his son Ishmael (Ismaeel in Arabic), after the latter had settled in Arabia. The building has a mosque built around it, the Masjid al-Haram. All Muslims around the world face the Kaaba during prayers, no matter where they are. This is called facing the Qiblah.
  One of the Five Pillars of Islam requires every Muslim to perform the Hajj pilgrimage at least once in his or her lifetime if able to do so. Multiple parts of the Hajj require pilgrims to walk seven times around the Kaaba in a counter-clockwise direction (as viewed from above). This circumambulation, the Tawaf, is also performed by pilgrims during the Umrah (lesser pilgrimage). However, the most dramatic times are during the Hajj, when about 6 million pilgrims gather to circle the building on the same day.
  
  wn.com/Kaaba
• 
  Kamloops
  Kamloops is a city in south central British Columbia, at the confluence of the two branches of the Thompson River and near Kamloops Lake. It is the largest community in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District and the location of the regional district's offices. The surrounding region is more commonly referred to as the Thompson Country. It is ranked 37th on the list of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in Canada and represents the 44th largest census agglomeration nationwide, with 85,678 residents in 2011.
  The Kamloops area was not exclusively inhabited by the Secwepemc (Shuswap) nation (part of the Interior Salish language group) prior to the arrival of European settlers. The Cree-Saulteaux band led by Chief Yawassannay had migrated to this region in the early 15th century. The Yawassanay band's Kamloops settlement was the largest of their three tribal areas. The first European explorers arrived in 1811, in the person of David Stuart, sent out from Fort Astoria, then still a Pacific Fur Company post, and who spent a winter there with the Secwepemc people, with Alexander Ross establishing a post there in May 1812 - "Fort Cumcloups".
  
  wn.com/Kamloops
• 
  Las Vegas Valley
  The Las Vegas Valley is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the US state of Nevada, and is the heart of the Las Vegas–Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a 600 sq mi (1,600 km²) basin area that contains the largest concentration of people in the state. The history of the Valley significantly intertwines with the history of the city of Las Vegas and one of the two primary cities (as used by the census bureau) in the MSA, with the other being Paradise. The valley is home to the three largest incorporated cities in Nevada: Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas.
  The names Las Vegas and Vegas are used to indicate the valley, the strip, the city and are used as a brand by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and used to denominate the entire region. The metropolitan area's population was at 741,459 in 1990. The population was approximately 2 million in 2010 (estimated). The valley is an area generally defined by the Spring Mountains on the west, Sheep Mountains to the north, Muddy Mountains and Lake Mead to the east, and the Black Mountains to the south.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Las_Vegas_Valley
• 
  Los Angeles
  Los Angeles (ⁱ/lɒs ˈændʒələs/ loss-AN-jə-ləs; Spanish: [los ˈaŋxeles], which is written Los Ángeles; British pronounciation /lɒs ˈændʒəliːz/ loss-AN-jə-leez) with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in the state of California, and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of 468.67 square miles (1,213.8 km²), and is located in Southern California. Often known by its initials L.A., the city is the focal point of the larger Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metropolitan statistical area and Greater Los Angeles Area region, which contain 12,828,837 and nearly 18 million people respectively as of 2010, making it one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world and the second largest in the United States. Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the United States, while the entire Los Angeles area itself has been recognized as the most diverse of the nation's largest cities. The city's inhabitants are referred to as "Angelenos".
  
  wn.com/Los_Angeles
• 
  Malaysia
  Malaysia (ⁱ/məˈleɪʒə/ mə-LAY-zhə or ⁱ/məˈleɪsiə/ mə-LAY-see-ə) is a federal constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia. It consists of thirteen states and three federal territories and has a total landmass of 329,847 square kilometres (127,350 sq mi) separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo. Land borders are shared with Thailand, Indonesia, and Brunei, and maritime borders exist with Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. In 2010 the population exceeded 27.5 million, with over 20 million living on the Peninsula.
  Malaysia has its origins in the Malay Kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, became subject to the British Empire. The first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946. Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963, with si being added to give the new country the name Malaysia. However, less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation. Since independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with GDP growing an average 6.5% for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its natural resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce and medical tourism.
  
  wn.com/Malaysia
• 
  Mexico
  Mexico (ⁱ/ˈmɛksɨkoʊ/; Spanish: México, IPA: [ˈmexiko] ( listen)), officially the United Mexican States (Spanish:  Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States of America; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometres (over 760,000 sq mi), Mexico is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the thirteenth largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of over 113 million, it is the eleventh most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country. Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city.
  In Pre-Columbian Mexico many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory from its base in México-Tenochtitlan, which was administered as the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This territory would eventually become Mexico as the colony's independence was recognized in 1821. The post-independence period was characterized by economic instability, the Mexican-American War and territorial cession to the United States, a civil war, two empires and a domestic dictatorship. The latter led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country's current political system. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
  
  wn.com/Mexico
• 
  NASA
  Coordinates: 38°52′59″N 77°0′59″W / 38.88306°N 77.01639°W / 38.88306; -77.01639
  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research. Since February 2006, NASA's mission statement has been to "pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research." On September 14, 2011, NASA announced that it had selected the design of a new Space Launch System that it said would take the agency's astronauts farther into space than ever before and provide the cornerstone for future human space exploration efforts by the U.S.
  NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The agency became operational on October 1, 1958. U.S. space exploration efforts have since been led by NASA, including the Apollo moon-landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Commercial Crew vehicles. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program (LSP) which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches.
  
  wn.com/NASA
• 
  North Korea
  Coordinates: 40°00′N 127°00′E / 40°N 127°E / 40; 127 The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK; Chosŏn'gŭl: 조선민주주의인민공화국), commonly referred to as "North Korea" ( listen), is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea. The Amnok, or Yalu, and the Tumen rivers form the border between North Korea and China. A section of the Tumen River in the far northeast is the border with Russia.
  The peninsula was governed by the Korean Empire until it was annexed by Japan after the Russo-Japanese War in 1910. It was divided into Soviet- and American-occupied zones in 1945, after the end of World War II. North Korea refused to participate in a United Nations–supervised election held in the south in 1948, which led to the creation of separate Korean governments for the two occupation zones. North and South Korea each claimed sovereignty over the whole Korean Peninsula, which led to the Korean War of 1950. The Armistice Agreement of 1953 ended the fighting; but the two countries are officially still at war against each other, for a peace treaty was never signed. Both states were accepted into the United Nations in 1991.
  
  wn.com/North_Korea
• 
  Pacific Ocean
  The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.
  At 165.2 million square kilometres (64.1 million square miles) in area, this largest division of the World Ocean – and, in turn, the hydrosphere – covers about 46% of the Earth's water surface and about one-third of its total surface area, making it larger than all of the Earth's land area combined. The equator subdivides it into the North Pacific Ocean and South Pacific Ocean, with two exceptions: the Galápagos and Gilbert Islands, while straddling the equator, are deemed wholly within the South Pacific. The Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres (35,797 ft).
  The eastern Pacific Ocean was first sighted by Europeans early in the 16th century. Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and named it Mar del Sur (South Sea). The ocean's current name was given by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish expedition of world circumnavigation in 1521, who encountered favourable winds as he reached the ocean and called it Mar Pacifico in Portuguese, meaning "peaceful sea".
  
  wn.com/Pacific_Ocean
• 
  South Africa
  Coordinates: 30°S 25°E / 30°S 25°E / -30; 25
  South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of Africa. It is divided into nine provinces and has 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline. To the north of the country lie the neighbouring territories of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an enclave surrounded by South African territory.
  South Africa is multi-ethnic and has diverse cultures and languages. Eleven official languages are recognised in the constitution. Two of these languages are of European origin: South African English and Afrikaans, a language which originated mainly from Dutch that is spoken by the majority of white and Coloured South Africans. Though English is commonly used in public and commercial life, it is only the fifth most-spoken home language. All ethnic and language groups have political representation in the country's constitutional democracy comprising a parliamentary republic; unlike most parliamentary republics, the positions of head of state and head of government are merged in a parliament-dependent President.
  
  wn.com/South_Africa
• 
  Sweden
  Sweden (ⁱ/ˈswiːdən/ SWEE-dən; Swedish: Sverige [ˈsværjɛ] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish:  Konungariket Sverige (help·info)), is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland, and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Øresund.
  At 450,295 square kilometres (173,860 sq mi), Sweden is the third largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of about 9.4 million. Sweden has a low population density of 21 inhabitants per square kilometre (54 /sq mi) with the population mostly concentrated to the southern half of the country. About 85% of the population live in urban areas. Sweden's capital city is Stockholm, which is also the largest city.
  Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages. In the 17th century, the country expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire. The empire grew to be one of the great powers of Europe in the 17th and early 18th century. Most of the conquered territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were lost during the 18th and 19th centuries. The eastern half of Sweden, present-day Finland, was lost to Russia in 1809. The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Sweden by military means forced Norway into a personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, practicing "non-participation in military alliances during peacetime and neutrality during wartime". However, Sweden has been a member of the European Union since 1 January 1995 and is a member of the OECD.
  
  wn.com/Sweden
• 
  Taiwan
  Taiwan (ⁱ/ˌtaɪˈwɑːn/ TY-WAHN; Chinese: 臺灣 or 台灣; pinyin: Táiwān; see below), officially the Republic of China (ROC; Chinese: 中華民國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó), is a state in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China now governs the island of Taiwan (formerly known as Formosa), which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and other minor islands. Neighboring states include the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east and northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taipei is the capital city and economic and cultural centre of the country, and New Taipei is the most populous city.
  The earliest evidence of inhabitation of Taiwan dates back to the late Paleolithic era. The island of Taiwan was mainly inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before being colonized in the 17th century by the Dutch and the Spanish Empire. The first Han Chinese polity on Taiwan began when Koxinga's troops defeated Dutch forces and established the Kingdom of Tungning. The island was subsequently ruled by the Qing Dynasty after the kingdom's defeat in the Battle of Penghu in 1683, a period that lasted for over 200 years. Following Japan's victory over the Qing Dynasty in the first Sino-Japanese war, Taiwan was ceded to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895.
  
  wn.com/Taiwan
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  United States
  The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
  At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
  
  wn.com/United_States
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  Vancouver
  Vancouver (/vænˈkuːvər/) is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. The 2011 census recorded more than 603,000 people in the city, making it the eighth largest among Canadian cities. The metropolitan area, with more than 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country and the most populous in Western Canada. With 5,249 people per square kilometre (13,590 per sq mile), the City of Vancouver is the most densely populated Canadian municipality among those with 5,000 residents or more. Vancouver is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada, with 52% for whom English is not their first language.
  The original settlement, named Gastown, grew around the Hastings Mill logging sawmill and a nearby tavern, both established in 1867. Enlarging to become the townsite of Granville, with the announcement that the railhead would reach the site it was renamed "Vancouver" and incorporated as a city in 1886. By 1887, the transcontinental railway was extended to the city to take advantage of its large natural seaport, which soon became a vital link in a trade route between the Orient, Eastern Canada, and London. As of 2009, Port Metro Vancouver is the busiest and largest port in Canada, and the most diversified port in North America. While forestry remains its largest industry, Vancouver is well known as an urban centre surrounded by nature, making tourism its second-largest industry. Major film production studios in Vancouver and Burnaby have turned Metro Vancouver into the third-largest film production centre in North America after Los Angeles and New York City, earning it the film industry nickname, Hollywood North.
  
  wn.com/Vancouver
• 
  White House
  The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical style. It has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he (with architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe) expanded the building outward, creating two colonnades that were meant to conceal stables and storage.
  In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed house in October 1817. Construction continued with the addition of the South Portico in 1824 and the North in 1829. Because of crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901. Eight years later, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office which was eventually moved as the section was expanded. The third-floor attic was converted to living quarters in 1927 by augmenting the existing hip roof with long shed dormers. A newly constructed East Wing was used as a reception area for social events; Jefferson's colonnades connected the new wings. East Wing alterations were completed in 1946, creating additional office space. By 1948, the house's load-bearing exterior walls and internal wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under Harry S. Truman, the interior rooms were completely dismantled and a new internal load-bearing steel frame constructed inside the walls. Once this work was completed, the interior rooms were rebuilt.
  
  wn.com/White_House

• 
  Adam Lambert
  Adam Mitchel Lambert (born January 29, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and stage actor. Born in Indianapolis but raised in San Diego, Lambert had dreamed of becoming a performer after appearing in numerous amateur productions in his childhood and adolescence. His passion overtook him when deciding to drop out of college, pursue his career, and perform in various professional theatrical productions across the world.
  Lambert came to prominence following his appearance on the eighth season of American Idol. Although he was runner-up, Lambert launched a music career with the release of his debut studio album For Your Entertainment (2009) after signing with 19 in a joint venture with RCA. Debuting at number three on the Billboard 200, selling 198,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week, and reaching the top 10 in several countries worldwide, the album subsequently achieved international success with its singles "For Your Entertainment", "Whataya Want from Me" and "If I Had You". Soon after, he embarked on his first headlining worldwide concert tour, Glam Nation, making him the only American Idol contestant to do so in the year following his Idol season. The tour was followed by two live releases: an extended play entitled Acoustic Live! (2010), and a live CD/DVD Glam Nation Live (2011), which debuted at number one on the SoundScan Music Video chart. Lambert took executive producer credit and was a principal writer on his second studio album, Trespassing, which was released to critical acclaim on May 15, 2012.Trespassing made its debut in the number one spot on the Billboard 200 album chart, also topping the Billboard Digital Albums Chart and Canada's Digital Albums Chart.With this accomplishment, Lambert makes music history as the first openly gay artist to achieve the top charting position.
  
  wn.com/Adam_Lambert
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  Amanda Peet
  Amanda Peet (born January 11, 1972) is an American actress, who has appeared on film, stage, and television. After studying with Uta Hagen at Columbia University, Peet began her career in television commercials, and progressed to small roles on television, before making her film debut in 1995. Featured roles in films such as the 2000 comedy film The Whole Nine Yards brought her to a much wider recognition.
  She has appeared in a variety of films, including the 2003 romantic comedy Something's Gotta Give, the 2003 psychological thriller film Identity, the 2005 action-thriller Syriana, the 2006 comedy-drama remake Griffin & Phoenix, the 2007 romantic comedy The Ex, the 2008 science fiction film The X-Files: I Want to Believe and the 2009 disaster adventure drama 2012. She has also appeared in the 1999 drama series Jack & Jill and the 2006 drama series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
  Amanda Peet was born in New York City, the daughter of Penny (née Levy), a social worker, and Charles Peet, a corporate lawyer. The two are now divorced. Her father is a Quaker and her mother is Jewish. Peet attended Friends Seminary, then studied history at and graduated from Columbia University,^{[dead link]} where she auditioned for acting teacher Uta Hagen and decided to become an actress after taking Hagen's class.^{[citation needed]} During her four-year period of study with Hagen, Peet appeared in the off-Broadway revival of Clifford Odets's Awake and Sing with Stephen Lang.
  
  wn.com/Amanda_Peet
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  Beatrice Rosen
  Beatrice Rosen (born November 29, 1984, also credited as Béatrice Rosen and Béatrice Rosenblatt) is a French actress.
  She was born in New York City in the United States, although raised in Paris where she started acting at the age of 10.
  In 2004 she took her career to an international level; working in films and television in the US, and in the UK in 2008. She appeared in the 2009 film 2012 as Tamara.
  She played a role in the eighth season of the WB series Charmed as innocent Maya Holmes as Piper Halliwell's first new identity. She appeared in the fourth season of the WB series Smallville as Dawn Stiles, a girl who wanted desperately to be prom queen. She also portrayed Gabrielle la Claire, daughter of the French ambassador in the 2004 film Chasing Liberty, and Natascha in The Dark Knight opposite Christian Bale. She appeared in Sharpe's Peril, the latest installment of the popular Sharpe series, starring opposite Sean Bean in 2008.
  Rosen will appear in David E. Kelley's upcoming legal drama Harry's Law, which is expected to air on NBC during the 2010-11 television season.
  
  wn.com/Beatrice_Rosen
• Blu Mankuma
  Blu Mankuma (born July 5, 1948) is an American actor. He has appeared in numerous Canadian and American productions filmed in Canada.
  Mankuma was born in Seattle, Washington. Among Mankuma's film credits are Tin Man, The Russia House, Another Stakeout, Harmony Gate, Bird on a Wire, Harmony Cats, Cadence, Look Who's Talking, Connor's War, Shoot to Kill, Blacktop, Eureka, and 2012. Television credits include continuing roles on M.A.N.T.I.S., Forever Knight, Madison, Love on the Run (1994), Street Justice, Mom P.I., 21 Jump Street, Huckleberry Finn and His Friends, RoboCop and his role as host of the seven-part series Diversity. Individual television episodic credits include the series The X-Files, The Outer Limits, Supernatural, Kung Fu, North of 60, The Round Table, Hat Squad, Scene of The Crime, Booker, Wiseguy, MacGyver, Walt Disney's Davy Crockett, Blue's Folly, Stargate SG-1, Jack, and Fringe.
  Mankuma is widely-known as the voice of Tigatron, Tigerhawk and one of the Vok in Beast Wars. Other notable roles include Gigabyte in ReBoot, Heavy Duty in G.I. Joe: Spy Troops and G.I. Joe: Valor vs. Venom, and Anubis in the 1997 cartoon Mummies Alive!.
  
  wn.com/Blu_Mankuma
• Charles Hapgood
  Charles Hutchins Hapgood (May 17, 1904 – December 21, 1982) was an American college professor and author who became one of the best known advocates of a pseudo-historical claim of a rapid and recent pole shift with catastrophic results.
  Hapgood received a master's degree from Harvard University in 1929 in medieval and modern History. His Ph.D. work on the French Revolution was interrupted by the Great Depression. He taught for a year in Vermont and directed a community center in Provincetown, also serving as the executive secretary of Franklin Roosevelt's Crafts Commission.
  During World War II, Hapgood was employed by the Center of Information (which later became the Office of Strategic Services and then the Central Intelligence Agency) and the Red Cross, and also served as a liaison officer between the White House and the Office of the Secretary of the War. After the war, Hapgood began a twenty-year teaching career in the humanities through faculty appointments at Keystone College (1945–1947), Springfield College (1947–1952), Keene State College (1956–1966), and New England College (1966–1967), where he lectured in world and American history, anthropology, economics, and the history of science.
  
  wn.com/Charles_Hapgood
• Chin Han
  Ng Chin Han (simplified Chinese: 黄经汉; traditional Chinese: 黃經漢; pinyin: Huáng Jīnghàn, born November 27, 1969), usually credited as just Chin Han, is a Singaporean actor of stage, film and television whose career has spanned over twenty years. He starred in Masters of the Sea, Singapore television's first foray into English-language drama. In recent years he broke into the Hollywood film industry with 3 Needles. He appeared in The Dark Knight as Lau and in Roland Emmerich's 2009 film 2012 as Tenzin. Chin Han next appeared in Steven Soderbergh's film Contagion as an epidemiologist, Sun Feng. In 2012 he guest-starred in the Fringe episode "Making Angels" as Neil.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Chin_Han
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  Chiwetel Ejiofor
  Chiwetelu Umeadi "Chiwetel" Ejiofor,OBE (pronounced /ˈtʃuːwɨtɛl ˈɛdʒi.oʊfɔr/ CHEW-i-tel EJ-i-oh-for; born 10 July 1977) is a British actor of stage and screen. He has received numerous acting awards and award nominations, including the 2006 BAFTA Awards Rising Star, three Golden Globe Awards' nominations, and the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in Othello.
  Ejiofor was born in London's Forest Gate, to Nigerian parents who belonged to the Igbo ethnic group. His father, Arinze, was a doctor, and his mother, Obiajulu, was a pharmacist. In 1988, when Ejiofor was 11, tragedy occurred during a family trip to Nigeria for a wedding. After the celebrations, his father and Ejiofor were driving to Lagos, when their car was involved in a head-on crash with a lorry. His father was killed, but Ejiofor survived despite being badly injured, receiving the trademark scars on his forehead. Ejiofor began acting in school plays at the age of thirteen at Dulwich College and joined the National Youth Theatre. He played the title role in Othello at the Bloomsbury Theatre in September 1995, and again at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow in 1996 when he starred opposite Rachael Stirling, who played Desdemona.
  
  wn.com/Chiwetel_Ejiofor
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  Danny Glover
  Danny Lebern Glover (born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is well known for his roles as Mr. Albert Johnson in The Color Purple, as Michael Harrigan in Predator 2, as corrupt cop James McFee in Witness, as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise, as Detective David Tapp in Saw as George Knox in Angels in the Outfield, and for his catch phrase "I'm too old for this shit." He has also appeared in many other movies, television shows, and theatrical productions. He is an active supporter of various humanitarian and political causes. He currently stars as Professor Arthur Teller in the Fox television series Touch.
  Glover was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Carrie (née Hunley) and James Glover. His parents, postal workers, were active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), working to advance equal rights. Glover's mother, daughter of a midwife, was born in Louisville, Georgia and graduated from Paine College in Augusta, Georgia. Glover grew up with a love for sports, like his father. Glover suffered from epilepsy in his teens and as a young adult. According to his own account, he "developed a way of concentrating so that seizures wouldn't happen." Using this technique, which he describes as "a type of self-hypnosis", Glover says he has not suffered a seizure since age 34.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Danny_Glover
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  Dara Ó Briain
  Dara Ó Briain (Irish pronunciation: [ˈd̪ˠaɾˠə oː ˈbʲɾʲiənʲ], born 4 February 1972) is an Irish stand-up comedian and television presenter, noted for hosting topical panel shows such as The Panel, Mock the Week and Dara O Briain: School of Hard Sums .
  He has also featured on Don't Feed the Gondolas, Have I Got News For You, QI, The Apprentice: You're Fired! and Stargazing Live. The Irish Independent described him as "Terry Wogan's heir apparent as Britain's 'favourite Irishman'". Writing for The Evening Standard, Bruce Dessau noted that "If you don’t laugh at Ó Briain, check your pulse, you must be dead."
  Since January 2006, Ó Briain has taken part in the BBC Three Men in a Boat series, with Rory McGrath and Griff Rhys Jones. The series, broadcast in a pair of episodes around new year in 2006 and then every year since 2008, has consistently had around 3 million viewers.
  In 2007, he was voted the 42nd greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups and again in the updated 2010 list as the 16th greatest stand-up comic.
  
  wn.com/Dara_Ó_Briain
• Dean Semler
  Dean Semler, A.C.S., A.S.C. (born 1943) is an Australian cinematographer. Over his career, he has worked as a cinematographer, camera operator, director, second unit director, and assistant director.
  Semler was born in Renmark, South Australia. His first work in the production industry was as a camera operator at a local television station. Later, he began making documentary and educational films for Film Australia. In the mid-1970s, he was the cinematographer for A Steam Train Passes (1974); Moving On (1974); and Let the Balloon Go (1976). In the late 1970s, he was the cinematographer for A Good Thing Going (1978). His first film was Stepping Out, in 1980. Allmovie praised his “stunning work” on the film Hoodwink (1981) with a screen play by Ken Quinnell.
  Semler was the cinematographer for Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981). Semler’s vast panoramic shots of the Australian Outback’s deserts “...convincingly conveyed a parched, dusty, post-apocalyptic world” and led to international attention for his work. Semler also acted as cinematographer for the follow-up film to Mad Max 2, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). Semler was also a cinematographer for the acclaimed Australian miniseries Bodyline (1984). In the late 1980s, Semler was the cinematographer for several popular films, such as Cocktail (1988) and Young Guns (1988).
  
  wn.com/Dean_Semler
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  George Segal
  George Segal (born February 13, 1934) is an American film, stage and television actor.
  George Segal, Jr. was born to a Jewish family in 1934 Great Neck, Long Island, New York, the son of Fannie Blanche (née Bodkin) and George Segal, Sr. He was educated at George School, a private Quaker preparatory boarding school near Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He also attended Haverford College. He graduated in 1955 from Columbia University.
  Segal has played both drama and comedy, although he is more often seen in the latter. Originally a stage actor and musician, Segal appeared in several minor films in the early 1960s in addition to the well-known 1962 movie The Longest Day. He was signed to a Columbia Pictures contract in 1961, making his film debut in The Young Doctors and appearing in The Naked City produced for television by Columbia's Screen Gems.
  He started attracting roles in 1965 as an egocentric painter in Ship of Fools, as a P.O.W. in King Rat in a role originally meant for Frank Sinatra, and as an Algerian paratrooper captured at Dien Bien Phu, who leaves the French army to become a leader of the FLN in Lost Command. He was loaned to Warner Bros for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (as Nick, for which he was nominated for an Oscar), later appearing as a British secret service agent in The Quiller Memorandum, a Cagneyesque gangster in The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, perplexed police detective Mo Brummel in No Way to Treat a Lady, a bookworm in The Owl and the Pussycat, a war-weary platoon commander in The Bridge at Remagen, a man laying waste to his marriage in Loving, and a hairdresser turned junkie in Born to Win. In 1967, Segal released his debut LP titled The Yama Yama Man; the title track is a ragtime version of "The Yama Yama Man" (1908) with horns and banjos. Segal apparently released the album due to his popularity playing banjo on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show".
  
  wn.com/George_Segal
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  Graham Hancock
  Graham Hancock (born 2 August 1950 in Edinburgh, Scotland) is a British writer and journalist. Hancock specialises in unconventional theories involving ancient civilizations, stone monuments or megaliths, altered states of consciousness, ancient myths and astronomical/astrological data from the past. One of the main themes running through many of his books is the possible global connection with a "mother culture" from which he believes all ancient historical civilizations sprang.
  Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Hancock's formative years were spent in India, where his father worked as a surgeon. Having returned to the UK, he graduated from Durham University in 1973, receiving a First Class Honours degree in Sociology.
  As a journalist, Hancock worked for many British papers, such as The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, and The Guardian. He was co-editor of New Internationalist magazine from 1976–1979 and East Africa correspondent of The Economist from 1981-1983.
  
  wn.com/Graham_Hancock
• Harald Kloser
  Harald Kloser (born July 9, 1956) is an Austrian-born film composer and writer who has won the BMI Film Music Award in 2005 for both of his scores of Alien vs. Predator and The Day After Tomorrow.
  
  wn.com/Harald_Kloser
• Jimi Mistry
  Jimi Mistry (born 1 January 1973) is a British actor.
  Mistry, was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England to an Indian Hindu father and an Irish Roman Catholic mother. He was brought up a Roman Catholic and attended St. James' Catholic High in Cheadle Hulme (1985–88) before his family moved to Cardiff where he attended Radyr Comprehensive School. He trained at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama.
  Mistry first gained exposure playing Dr Fred Fonseca on BBC TV's EastEnders, and has since worked on film and stage. His work includes starring roles in East is East, The Guru with Heather Graham and Marisa Tomei, Blood Diamond alongside Leonardo Di Caprio, Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla, and Partition alongside Kristin Kreuk. He can be seen in the Warner Bros movie 2012 from director Roland Emmerich alongside John Cusack, Danny Glover, Amanda Peet and Thandie Newton, and the BAFTA-nominated movie Exam. In 2010 he appeared in Gurinder Chadha's new film It's a Wonderful Afterlife which premiered at the 2010 Sundance film festival; Basement, a horror movie with Danny Dyer; and West is West, the sequel to East is East. Mistry has also produced/written and starred in a music documentary about Ibiza entitled And The Beat Goes On, exploring the history of the island, the birth of House Music and the art of the DJ. DJs involved in the film include Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Nicky Holloway, David Guetta, Brandon Block, Alfredo, Pete Tong and Danny Tenaglia. He regularly DJs in clubs across UK and Europe.
  
  wn.com/Jimi_Mistry
• Johann Urb
  Johann Urb (born 24 January 1977) is an Estonian-American actor and former model.
  Johann was born in Tallinn as a son of a musician Tarmo Urb. At the age of ten Johann moved to live in Finland with his mother and her new Finnish husband. Mostly they stayed in Tampere. When Johann turned 17, he moved to the United States where his father lived. There in New York he started his career with modelling, which later led him to his current occupation acting. He studied in the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
  In 2001, Urb landed a small part in the film Zoolander. Later, he made an appearance in the short film Fear of Feathers and had a role in one episode of CSI: Miami. In 2004, Urb appeared in the short-running television series The Mountain. Following that, he appeared as a guest in several TV-shows and made smaller film roles.
  He got his first major film role in the much hated The Hottie and the Nottie in 2008. The next year, Urb made a short appearance in Roland Emmerich's disaster epic 2012 as a heroic pilot and he played a journalist in the fantasy TV-series Eastwick which brought him critical recognition.^{[citation needed]} He will play the part of Leon S. Kennedy in Resident Evil: Retribution, which is set to be released in September 2012.
  
  wn.com/Johann_Urb
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  John Cusack
  John Paul Cusack (born June 28, 1966) is an American actor, producer and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Pointe Blank, The Thin Red Line, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, and 1408.
  Cusack was born in Evanston, Illinois, to an Irish-American Catholic family. His mother, Ann Paula "Nancy" (née Carolan), is a former mathematics teacher and political activist. His father, Dick Cusack (1925–2003), was an actor, as are his siblings, Ann, Joan, Bill, and Susie. His father was also a documentary filmmaker, owned a film production company, and was a friend of activist Philip Berrigan. Cusack spent a year at New York University before dropping out, saying that he had "too much fire in [his] belly".
  Cusack gained fame in the mid-1980s after appearing in teen movies such as Better Off Dead, The Sure Thing, One Crazy Summer, and Sixteen Candles. Cusack made a cameo in the 1988 music video for "Trip At The Brain" by Suicidal Tendencies. In 1989 he starred as Lloyd Dobler in Cameron Crowe's Say Anything.... His roles broadened in the late 1980s and early 1990s with more serious-minded fare such as the politically themed True Colors and the film noir thriller The Grifters. He was later offered the role of the title character of Fred in the film Drop Dead Fred, but dropped out due to a death in his family.
  
  wn.com/John_Cusack
• Liam James
  Liam Oliver James (born August 7, 1996) is a Canadian child actor, best known for his roles as Noah Curtis in 2009 film 2012 and young Shawn Spencer on the USA Network television series Psych.
  James has one green and one blue eye.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Liam_James
• Lisa Lu
  Lisa Lu (Chinese: 盧燕, pinyin: Lú Yàn; originally 盧萍香, pinyin: Lú Píngxiāng; born January 19, 1927) is a Chinese-American actress and documentary producer.
  Lu was born in Peking, China (now Beijing, China). Beginning in her teens, she was active in Chinese opera, or Kunqu, before emigrating to the United States. Beginning in the 1950s, she enjoyed a long career in television in the United States.
  During the 1958-59 television season, she had a recurring role as Miss Mandarin on the cult western show Yancy Derringer, set in New Orleans in 1868. In 1961 she had a recurring role as "Hey Girl" on the television series Have Gun – Will Travel. She made numerous other appearances on television, with guest starring roles on Bonanza, The Big Valley, The Richard Boone Show, The Virginian, Hawaiian Eye, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and other shows.
  In 1960, she was the female lead in the antiwar film, The Mountain Road, which starred James Stewart and which was based on the novel of the same name by the China war correspondent Theodore H. White, who had since turned to reporting on U.S. politics. Her film career took off in the 1970s with supporting roles in films like Demon Seed and Peter Bogdanovich's Saint Jack. During this time, she received three Best Actress Golden Horse Awards for her Chinese-language films The Arch, The Empress Dowager, and The Fourteen Amazons.
  
  wn.com/Lisa_Lu
• Marc Weigert
  Marc Weigert (born June 3, 1970) is a film producer and film/TV visual effects artist.
  Weigert was born in Bad Harzburg, Germany. While in Christian-von-Dohm-Gymnasium, a grammar school in Goslar, Germany, he developed an interest in filmmaking. He moved on to study directing and producing from 1991-1994 at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg. There he met Volker Engel, who would later win the Academy Award for the visual effects of Independence Day and become Weigert's business partner in the production company Uncharted Territory, LLC. During his studies, Weigert was visual effects producer for Volker Engel on the television film Der Letzte Kosmonaut, directed by Nico Hofmann. The film won the "Prix Futura". He also produced several commercials and award-winning short films for German TV. Weigert moved to Los Angeles in 1994, after receiving a scholarship from a German producer's association.
  In 1995, Weigert founded the company Dreamscape Imagery Inc. with his wife Stacey. He became VFX Project Manager for the film Independence Day (1996), for which Weigert created Digital Assistant for Visual Effects, a project management software to manage, schedule and track the filming of VFX elements. In conjunction with the software, Weigert also developed a design for a visual effects production board, in conjunction with manufacturing company Hollywood Production Boards. Between 1996 and 2000, he created new software versions to include the post-production process. Digital Assistant for Visual Effects has been used for several feature films, including Stuart Little, Alien Resurrection, Flubber, Volcano, Godzilla, Wing Commander, Monkeybone, Bless the Child, and X-Men, as well as on television films and series. Dreamscape Imagery Inc. sold the source code to the Internet company Creative Planet, Inc. in 2000.
  
  wn.com/Marc_Weigert
• Mark Gordon
  Mark Gordon (October 10, 1956 - ) is an American television and film producer.
  Gordon was born in Newport News, Virginia, on October 10, 1956. He is a graduate of the New York University Film School.
  His first producing effort was the Off-Broadway production of "The Buddy System" at Circle in the Square downtown. He will produce the upcoming film adaption of the Dark Horse comic The Strange Case of Hyde.
  
  wn.com/Mark_Gordon
• Morgan Lily
  Morgan Lily (born April 11, 2000) is an American actress and fashion model. She started modeling internationally at four years old and appeared in more than 21 television commercials, and many photo shoots before her role in Henry Poole Is Here as Millie Stupek. Lily had supporting roles in He's Just Not That Into You, as Matthew Gray Gubler's daughter in Pornstar. Her most notable role has been as Lilly Curtis in the apocalyptic film 2012. She acted as young Julianna Baker in the film Flipped based on the novel with the same name by Wendelin van Draanen and as young Mystique in X-Men: First Class. Morgan recently co-starred as Missy in the Hallmark Channel's film, Love's Everlasting Courage.
  Lily was born Morgan Lily Gross in Santa Monica, California, and is a middle child of 4. She has an older brother, Jordan David, who is also an actor, a younger sister, Riley Jane, who is a child model and a baby sister, Audrey Lynn. She is the daughter of April, a homemaker, and Andy Gross, a ventriloquist and magician. Her father owns his own company called LA Magic & Toy and MindBoggling The Show and travels doing illusion shows and stand up comedy. He has performed as a magician at the world famous Magic Castle. Lily also enjoys being a ventriloquist and a magician and has been seen at the Magic Castle in Hollywood several times.
  
  wn.com/Morgan_Lily
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  Oliver Platt
  Oliver James Platt (born January 12, 1960) is a Canadian-born American actor. He is currently starring in the Showtime original series, The Big C with Laura Linney.
  Platt was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada to American parents Sheila Maynard, a clinical social worker who worked in Islamabad, and Nicholas Platt, a career diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Zambia, and the Philippines. He has an older brother, Adam Platt, a New York Magazine restaurant critic, and a younger brother, Nicholas Platt, Jr. His family moved back to the United States when Platt was three months old. Platt's paternal great-great-grandfather was diplomat and lawyer Joseph Hodges Choate. Platt's maternal great-grandparents were equestrian Arthur Scott Burden and socialite Cynthia Roche; he is a second cousin once removed of Diana, Princess of Wales, through his great-great-grandparents, MP James Roche and heiress Frances Work. When asked about Diana, Platt said, "I never met her. It's a non-story. I'd love to tell you we were confidantes. The truth is I don't know much more about it than you do."
  
  wn.com/Oliver_Platt
• Osric Chau
  Osric Chau (Chinese: 周逸之) is an actor from Vancouver, British Columbia. Amongst other roles in Cold Squad and a lead role in a Global TV docudrama, Chau co-starred with David Carradine and Daryl Hannah as "Lang Han" in Phillip Spink's Kung Fu Killer. Chau also had a role in Nickelodeon series "The Troop" and has done stunt work for the popular game company, Electronic Arts. Chau made his first feature film debut acting in a supporting role in Roland Emmerich's, "2012". He went on to work on his first Chinese film, a remake of the 2000 hit, "What Women Want", for Asian audiences, "我知女人心“。 And in 2011, he was a part of The RZA's directorial debut in "The Man with the Iron Fist" filmed in China.
  In 2000, Chau took his first martial arts class. It was a Wing Chun class where he learned theories and applications of self defense, he went on to continue studying for 8 years. Earning a gold medal in competition in 2001, he quickly became a student instructor.
  In summer of 2001 Chau found a new discipline, Wushu. He studied under Zhang Zhi Bing, a master from Harbin, China. There he learned T'ai chi as well as the more traditional forms of Wushu. After four years, Sifu Zhang went back to China, and Chau enrolled in West Coast Chinese Martial Arts in Vancouver under head instructor, Bruce Fontaine. This is where he studied and excelled in Modern Wushu, a more performance orientated martial art. Chau had a natural aptitude for acrobatics, was deemed the most improved of the club in the Spring of 2006 and soon became a student instructor and a staple in the club.
  
  wn.com/Osric_Chau
• 
  Peter Travers
  Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.
  Travers joined Rolling Stone in 1989 after a four-year stint with People. He's best known for his basic writing style that eschews a more sophisticated analysis for an easy-to-read and often very opinionated form. According to efilmcritic.com, Travers is the nation's most blurbed film critic. Some of the contemporary directors he is most receptive to based on ratings and placement in top ten lists include Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Tim Burton, Clint Eastwood, Joel and Ethan Coen, and Ang Lee.^{[citation needed]} He has also shown a great deal of disdain for certain directors, most notably Michael Bay and his films.^{[citation needed]}
  Since 1989, Travers has reviewed for Rolling Stone 2465 movies up to July, 21 2011. On April 10, 2002, Travers began using intensively a star-rating system ranging from No star to Four Star. He used such system very seldom before, and not all reviews are rated.
  
  wn.com/Peter_Travers
• 
  Roger Ebert
  Roger Joseph Ebert ( /ˈiːbərt/; born June 18, 1942) is an American journalist, film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
  Ebert is known for his film review column (appearing in the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, and later online) and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The Movies, all of which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel. After Siskel's death in 1999, Ebert teamed with Richard Roeper for the television series Ebert & Roeper & the Movies, which began airing in 2000. Although his name remained in the title, Ebert did not appear on the show after mid-2006 after he suffered post-surgical complications related to thyroid cancer, leaving him unable to speak. Ebert ended his association with the show in July 2008, but in February 2009 he stated that he and Roeper would continue their work on a new show. Ebert's current show, Ebert Presents: At the Movies, premiered on January 21, 2011, with Ebert contributing a review voiced by someone else in a brief segment called "Roger's Office".
  
  wn.com/Roger_Ebert
• 
  Roland Emmerich
  Roland Emmerich (German: [ˈʁoːlant ˈɛməʁɪç]) (born November 10, 1955) is a German film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films, most of which are Hollywood productions filmed in English, have grossed more than $3 billion worldwide, more than those of any other European directors. His films have grossed just over $1 billion in the United States, making him the country's 14th-highest grossing director of all time. He began his work in the film industry by directing the film The Noah's Ark Principle as part of his university thesis and also co-founded Centropolis Entertainment in 1985 with his sister. He is a collector of art and an active campaigner for the lesbian and gay community, himself being openly gay. He is also a campaigner for an awareness of global warming and equal rights.
  Emmerich has directed many successful films such as Stargate (1994), Independence Day (1996), The Patriot (2000), The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and 2012 (2009). Although many of his films have been successful in the box office, his films usually have the tendency of being panned by critics such as Universal Soldier (1992), Godzilla (1998) and 10,000 BC (2008) .
  
  wn.com/Roland_Emmerich
• 
  Thandie Newton
  Thandiwe Nashita "Thandie" Newton (born 6 November 1972) is a British actress. She has appeared in a number of British and American films, including The Pursuit of Happyness, Mission: Impossible II, Crash, Run, Fatboy, Run and W.
  Newton was born in London, the daughter of Nyasha, a Zimbabwean health-care worker and Nick Newton, a laboratory technician and artist. Her birthplace has been incorrectly reported to be Zambia in some biographies, but she has confirmed in interviews that she was born in London, during a two-week trip by her parents. The name "Thandiwe" means "beloved" in Ndebele, Zulu, Xhosa or Swazi, and "Thandie" is pronounced /ˈtændi/ TAN-dee in English. According to Newton, her mother is a Shona princess. Regarding her childhood, Newton remarked at a TED conference: "From about the age of 5, I was aware that I didn't fit. I was the black, atheist kid in the all-white, Catholic school run by nuns. I was an anomaly." Raised in London and Penzance, Cornwall, she studied dance at the Tring Park School for the Performing Arts and at sixteen, while recovering from a back injury, she successfully auditioned for her first film role. She then went on to study social anthropology at Downing College, Cambridge, from 1992 to 1995, where she achieved a 2:1.
  
  wn.com/Thandie_Newton
• Thomas Wanker
  Thomas Wanker, also credited as Thomas Wander, is a film and television series composer. He has won the BMI Film Music Award in 2008 for his score to 10,000 BC and in 2010 for his score to 2012.
  
  wn.com/Thomas_Wanker
• 
  Woody Harrelson
  Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor.
  Harrelson's breakout role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd. Some notable film characters include basketball hustler Billy Hoyle in White Men Can't Jump, bowler Roy Munson in Kingpin, serial killer Mickey Knox in Natural Born Killers, magazine publisher Larry Flynt in The People vs. Larry Flynt, country singer Dusty in A Prairie Home Companion, bounty hunter Carson Wells in No Country for Old Men, zombie killer Tallahassee in Zombieland, blind piano player/meat salesman Ezra Turner in Seven Pounds, conspiracy nut Charlie Frost in 2012, a delusional man who believes that he is a superhero named Defendor in Defendor and Cpt. Tony Stone in The Messenger. For The People vs. Larry Flynt and The Messenger, Harrelson earned Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively. He also appeared as Haymitch in the film The Hunger Games, which was released on March 23, 2012.
  
  wn.com/Woody_Harrelson
• Zlatko Burić
  Zlatko Burić (born 13 May 1953) is a Croat-Danish actor. He was born in Osijek, Croatia (then part of Yugoslavia), and educated at Dramski Studio in Osijek (1972). In the 1970s and early 1980s, Kićo (his famous nickname) belonged to the experimental theater group "KUGLA GLUMIŠTE" (formed in 1975) together with Zeljko Zorica–Sis and Damir Bartol–Indos.
  In 1981 he moved to Denmark. He married Sonja Hindkjaer, with whom he has three children. After divorce, he married Dragana Milutinović, on 7 October 1998. They live in Copenhagen.
  He has appeared in several successful Danish films from the 1990s and 2000s, frequently appearing in films directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, including Bleeder and The Pusher Trilogy: Pusher, Pusher II & Pusher III. For his role in Pusher, he won the Bodil Award for best supporting actor in 1997.
  In 2009, Burić had a large supporting role in the apocalyptic film 2012, as Yuri Karpov, a Russian Jewish billionaire.
  
  wn.com/Zlatko_Burić

2012 (2009)

Actors

• John Cusack
• Amanda Peet
• Chiwetel Ejiofor
• Thandie Newton
• Oliver Platt
• Tom Mccarthy
• Woody Harrelson
• Danny Glover
• Liam James
• Zlatko Buric
• Chin Han
• George Segal
• Jimi Mistry
• Morgan Lily
• Blu Mankuma

Director

• Roland Emmerich

• Symphony of My Life
• Amado
• Time Grows Long
• The Sacred Tree
• Rise
• Slow Motion Replay
• Bless Bless
• Don't Forget Yourself
• Resolution to the Last Battle
• Out of the Cage
• Dream of Freedom
• Liberta
• If by Force
• Fairytale

• timeline:
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
• 2003
• 2002
• 2001

• timeline:
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
• 2003
• 2002
• 2001