Thumbs signal

A thumbs-up or thumbs-down is a common hand gesture achieved by a closed fist held with the thumb extended upward or downward in approval or disapproval, respectively. These gestures have become metaphors in English: "The audience gave the movie the thumbs-up" means that the audience approved of the movie, regardless of whether the gesture was actually made.

Origins

The source of the gesture is obscure, but a number of origins have been proposed.

Opposable thumbs

Carleton S. Coon, having observed Barbary apes in Gibraltar using the gesture, hypothesised in the anthropological classic The Story of Man that it is a mutual celebration of having opposable thumbs. Critics have suggested, however, that the apes may be simply imitating humans.

Ancient Rome

The Latin phrase pollice verso is used in the context of gladiatorial combat for a hand gesture used by Ancient Roman crowds to pass judgment on a defeated gladiator. However, the precise type of gesture described by the phrase pollice verso and its meaning are unclear in the historical and literary record.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons licenses free of charge to the public. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. An easy-to-understand one-page explanation of rights, with associated visual symbols, explains the specifics of each Creative Commons license. Creative Commons licenses do not replace copyright, but are based upon it. They replace individual negotiations for specific rights between copyright owner (licensor) and licensee, which are necessary under an "all rights reserved" copyright management, with a "some rights reserved" management employing standardized licenses for re-use cases where no commercial compensation is sought by the copyright owner. The result is an agile, low-overhead and low-cost copyright-management regime, profiting both copyright owners and licensees. Wikipedia uses one of these licenses.

Kevin MacLeod

Kevin MacLeod or Kevin McLeod may refer to:

See also

David Choe

David Choe (born April 21, 1976) is an American figure painter, muralist, graffiti artist and graphic novelist of Korean descent. His figure paintings, which explore themes of desire, degradation, and exaltation, are characterized by a raw, frenetic tone that he has termed "dirty style." In the graffiti world, he is identified with the bucktoothed whale he has been spray-painting on the streets since he was in his teens. David also hosts DVDASA (Double Vag Double Anal Sensitive Artist), a lifestyle, relationship and entertainment podcast with co-host Asa Akira.

Work

Choe's work appears in a wide variety of urban culture and entertainment contexts. For example, he provided the cover art for Jay-Z and Linkin Park's multi-platinum album Collision Course, and created artwork to decorate the sets of Juno and The Glass House. In 2005, internet entrepreneur Sean Parker, a longtime fan, asked him to paint graphic sexual murals in the interior of Facebook's first Silicon Valley office, and in 2007, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg commissioned him to paint somewhat tamer murals for their next office. Although he thought the Facebook business model was "ridiculous and pointless," Choe, a habitual gambler, chose to receive company stock in lieu of cash payment for the original Facebook murals. His shares were valued at approximately $200 million on the eve of Facebook's 2012 IPO. Those murals were loosely re-created by Choe's friends Rob Sato and Joe To for the set of the film The Social Network. During the 2008 presidential race, Choe painted a portrait of then-Senator Barack Obama for use in a grassroots street art campaign. The original was later displayed in the White House.

Nickelodeon (UK and Ireland)

Nickelodeon UK and Ireland is a television channel dedicated to kids' programming. In the UK and Ireland it is operated under a joint venture between Viacom International Media Networks Europe and Sky plc.

On 1 September 1993, a localised version of the US channel launched in the United Kingdom and much later in Ireland. In the United Kingdom, the channel is available on Sky, Virgin Media, and TalkTalk Plus TV. In Ireland, the channel is available on Virgin Media Ireland, eVision and Sky Ireland.

History

The channel launched on satellite (as part of British Sky Broadcasting's Sky Multichannels package) on 1 September 1993, originally airing for 12 hours and showing both cartoons and live action series. Off air the channel would air static logos, schedule information and teletext. Live presentation followed in 1994, branded as Nick Alive! From October 1995 it shared space with Paramount Channel. When Sky launched in 1998, Nickelodeon was in the original channel line-up on Astra 2A, and the channel was aired for three more hours. However, analogue satellite services continued to shut down Nickelodeon at 7 p.m. each day until analogue satellite was discontinued in 2001. Later, additional channels were added such as Nick Jr. and a timeshift version.