Star Wars

Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise, centered on a film series created by George Lucas. It depicts the adventures of various characters "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away".

The first film in the series, Star Wars (later subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope), was released on May 25, 1977 by 20th Century Fox and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon. It was followed by the similarly successful sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983); these three films constitute the original Star Wars trilogy. A prequel trilogy was later released between 1999 and 2005, which received a more mixed reaction from critics and fans, compared to the original trilogy. All seven films were nominated for or won Academy Awards, and were commercial successes, with a combined box office revenue of $4.38 billion, making Star Wars the fourth highest-grossing film series. The series has spawned an extensive media franchise—the Star Wars expanded universe—including books, television series, computer and video games, and comic books, resulting in significant development of the series's fictional universe. Star Wars also holds a Guinness World Records title for the "Most successful film merchandising franchise." In 2012, the total value of the Star Wars franchise was estimated at USD $30.7 billion, including box-office receipts as well as profits from their video games and DVD sales.

Star Wars Rebels

Star Wars Rebels is an American 3D CGI animated television series produced by Lucasfilm Animation. Set fourteen years after Revenge of the Sith and five years before A New Hope, Rebels takes place during an era when the Galactic Empire is securing its grip on the galaxy. Imperial forces are hunting down the last of the Jedi Knights while a fledgling rebellion against the Empire is taking form. The visual style of Star Wars Rebels is inspired by the original Star Wars trilogy concept art by Ralph McQuarrie.

It premiered as a 44-minute film, Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion, on October 3, 2014 on Disney Channel prior to the premiere of the series on October 13 on Disney XD.Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg and Greg Weisman served as executive producers of season one. Kinberg stated that the first season would contain 16 episodes (released as four shorts, a film, and 13 episodes) and that the series will feature new characters along with ones from the original trilogy. Weisman left the show after season one.

Benoît Vermander

Benoît Vermander (born 1960), also known as Wei Mingde (Chinese: 魏明德) and Bendu (Chinese: 笨笃), is a French Jesuit, sinologist, political scientist, and painter. He is currently professor of religious sciences at Fudan University, Shanghai, as well as academic director of the Xu-Ricci Dialogue Center within the University. He has been director of the Taipei Ricci Institute from 1996 to 2009, and remains its academic advisor as well as the editor-in-chief of its electronic magazine erenlai. He is also consultor to the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue and associate researcher at the Asia Centre (Paris). He holds a M.Phil in political science from Yale University, a doctorate in the same discipline from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, a Master of Sacred Theology from Fu Jen Catholic University (Taiwan) and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Jesuit Faculties of Philosophy and Theology of Paris (Centre Sevres).

His research and publications focus on China's model of development and its role in the globalization process, as well as on contemporary Chinese religions and spiritual traditions.

Throwbacks (The Naked Brothers Band album)

Throwbacks is the final album recorded by Nat & Alex Wolff under the name "The Naked Brothers Band" and the soundtrack to the third and final season of the show of the same name. Under the working title "Songs of Season 3," due to post-production problems, it was originally cancelled, until it was announced on September 19, 2013 to be released as a Nat & Alex Wolff album instead of a Naked Brothers Band album on October 15, 2013, under the title Throwbacks. One song that was recorded for the intended Season 3 soundtrack, "Face in the Hall", which later appeared in the iCarly soundtrack, will not be in the Throwbacks album.

Background

Writing

Nat Wolff developed a lot while writing the soundtrack. He had developed a lot as a song[-writer] since the band's second album, which was released earlier the same year. Many songs from the album had a sense that the writer(s) were inspired by old artists, such as the track "The World (As We Know It Today)" was a modern version of Billy Joel's song We Didn't Start the Fire. The song "Yes We Can" (which features Natasha Bedingfield and Leon Thomas III) was inspired by the presidency of Barack Obama.

War

War is a state of armed conflict between societies. It is generally characterized by extreme collective aggression, destruction, and usually high mortality. The set of techniques and actions used to conduct war is known as warfare. An absence of war is usually called "peace". Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets, and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant casualties.

While some scholars see war as a universal and ancestral aspect of human nature, others argue that it is only a result of specific socio-cultural or ecological circumstances.

In 2013 war resulted in 31,000 deaths down from 72,000 deaths in 1990. The deadliest war in history, in terms of the cumulative number of deaths since its start, is the Second World War, from 1939 to 1945, with 60–85 million deaths, followed by the Mongol conquests which was greater than 41 million. Proportionally speaking, the most destructive war in modern history is the War of the Triple Alliance, which took the lives of over 60% of Paraguay's population, according to Steven Pinker. In 2003, Richard Smalley identified war as the sixth (of ten) biggest problem facing humanity for the next fifty years. War usually results in significant deterioration of infrastructure and the ecosystem, a decrease in social spending, famine, large-scale emigration from the war zone, and often the mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilians. Another byproduct of some wars is the prevalence of propaganda by some or all parties in the conflict, and increased revenues by weapons manufacturers.