by Steve Collins
If you came of age watching Disney, there’s a good chance watching Winnie the Pooh was a large part of it. Disney has turned Winnie the Pooh into one of its most popular features, with many different direct-to-video featurettes, an animated television series as well as three feature length films. Children and adults alike have enjoyed such fare as The Tigger Movie, Piglet’s Big Move and Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, but you may not be aware of the rich history behind them, and the person responsible for it all.
Winnie the Pooh was the creation of British author A. A. Milne. Named after the stuffed teddy bear owned by his son, Christopher Robin Milne, Pooh’s actual name was Edward Bear. The first chapter of what would one day be the first book of Pooh was commissioned by the London’s Evening News for its December issue in 1925. At the time, Milne was already a respected writer who had succeeded in creating several notable works. He was a playwright, a poet, and a novelist and his subsequent fame regarding the Pooh stories would constantly be a source of irritation to him.
August 1, 2008 (3 weeks ago) – 7:14 am
by Steve Collins
Walt Disney is famous for creating characters that people remember fondly long beyond the boundaries of childhood. Among these are the charming collection of characters who inhabit the Hundred Acre Wood. Disney?s numerous Winnie the Pooh tales follow the plots of stories originally created by English author A.A. Milne in the 1920s.
Interestingly, many of Milne’s characters were inspired by his son Christopher’s collection of stuffed animals. Christopher’s teddy bear, the model for Winnie the Pooh, got his name from an actual bear named Winnipeg whom the family liked to visit at the London Zoo. The “Pooh” bit came from the name of a swan. Milne’s sweet stories are charmingly written and still have great appeal to young audiences.
Winnie the Pooh and his friends have appeared in various Walt Disney animated features over the past four decades, even making it to cinemas. One of the most favorite releases-and one with particular appeal to the youngest of audiences is Piglet’s Big Movie.
This is a preview of
The Little Hero Of Piglets Big Movie Is Sure To Please
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Read the full post (370 words, 0 images, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)
July 29, 2008 (4 weeks ago) – 11:29 pm
by Steve Collins
People have always loathed being too hot, and civilized folks have consistently attempted to do something about it. The ancient Romans, for instance, found ways to employ the water in their famous aqueducts to cool their homes. The rich installed systems for water to be propelled through the walls of their houses to lower the temperature and make life more comfortable. Persians had similar success creating systems of cisterns and wind towers. When the wind was non-existent, there was always a servant around to wave a palm frond to cool you!
The idea of rotary fans started in second century China. A visionary inventor came up with a massive fan involving seven wheels, each ten feet in diameter. This contraption, astonishingly, was man-powered. An improved water-powered fan came along a few hundred years later. The first known mechanical fan did not arrive on the scene until the 1800s in the Middle East, and it still depended on a human pulling a rope to make it work.
July 29, 2008 (4 weeks ago) – 10:14 pm
by Steve Collins
Treasure Planet is a science fiction animated movie produced by Walt Disney Pictures. Released in 2002, Treasure Planet marked the 42nd animated feature in the Disney canon. It is a science fiction variation of Robert Louis Stevenson?s beloved novel Treasure Island. It employed the revolutionary technique of featuring two-dimensional animation over three-dimensional backgrounds. Indeed, this technique was used effectively on the character of John Silver, where his cybernetic arm was computer generated and the remainder of his body hand-drawn.
The plot is loosely based on Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Jim Hawkins, voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, witnesses a ship crashing near the inn, where he works. The ship?s dying pilot gives him a sphere and warns, “beware the cyborg.” Shortly thereafter, a gang of pirates raids the inn. Jim, his mother, and friend, Dr. Delbert Doppler, voiced by David Hyde Pierce, barely escape. Jim discovers the sphere is a holographic map that leads to the renowned “Treasure Planet.” Jim and Doppler commission a ship to find this planet. Among the ship?s crew is John Silver, voiced by Brian Murray, whom Jim suspects to be the cyborg. As the ship looms near Treasure Planet, a mutiny erupts, led by Silver. The planet turns out to be a space station, wherein Jim, Silver and an unscrupulous pirate named Scroop seek out the treasure.
July 29, 2008 (4 weeks ago) – 6:49 pm
by Steve Collins
A job that stirs up dust and particulates calls for respiratory protection. Most people think respirators are necessary simply for recognized hazards such as lead, asbestos, chemicals, and gases, but all classes of airborne particles can aggravate the lungs and cause breathing distress.
For instance, you are supposed to wear a respirator when welding, machining metal, quarrying stone, mixing cement, handling lime, working in a mine, bagging dusty construction waste, or cleaning under conditions where allergens or excessive dust are present. Many people, however, are reluctant to wear respirators, even for their own well being.
People often think of respirators as bulky. Today’s respirators are a far cry from the dinosaurs of the past, however. Moldex is a leader in making available safe, comfortable respiratory protection for a multitude of conditions. In fact, they consistently refine their products to offer you state of the art respirators that provide excellent filtration and such ultimate comfort that you will forget you are wearing it! To demonstrate their commitment to innovation, Moldex holds more than fifty patents on their parts and products.
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