Essay Information

America 5: Scandals
The Iran-Contra Affair On July 8, 1985, President Ronald Reagan told the American Bar Association that Iran was part of a "confederation of terrorist states." He failed to mention that members of his administration were secretly planning to sell weapons to Iran to facilitate the release of U.S. hostages held in Lebanon by pro-Iranian terrorist groups. Profits from the arms sales were secretly sent to Nicaragua to aid rebel forces, known as the contras, in their attempt to overthrow the country's democratically elected government. The incident became known as the Iran-Contra Affair and was the biggest scandal of Reagan's administration. The weapons sale to Iran was authorized by Robert McFarlane, head of the National Security Council (NSC), in violation of U.S. government policies regarding terrorists and military aid to Iran. NSC staff member Oliver North arranged for a portion of the $48 million paid by Iran to be sent to the contras, which violated a 1984 law banning this type of aid. North and his secretary Fawn Hall also shredded critical documents. President Reagan repeatedly denied rumors that the United States had exchanged arms for hostages but later stated that he'd been misinformed. He created a Special Review Board to investigate. In February 1987, the board found the president not guilty. Others involved were found guilty but either had their sentences overturned on appeal or were later pardoned by President George H. W. Bush.

The Keating Five After the U.S. banking industry was deregulated in the 1980s, savings and loan banks were allowed to invest deposits in commercial, not just residential, real estate. Many savings banks began making risky investments, and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) tried to stop them, against the wishes of the Reagan administration, which was against government interference with business. In 1989, when the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, Calif., collapsed, its chairman, Charles H. Keating Jr., accused the FHLBB and its former head Edwin J. Gray of conspiring against him. Gray testified that five senators had asked him to back off on the Lincoln investigation. These senators -- Alan Cranston of California, Dennis DeConcini of Arizona, John Glenn of Ohio, Donald Riegle of Michigan and John McCain of Arizona -- became known as the Keating Five, after it was revealed that they received a total of $1.3 million in campaign contributions from Keating. While an investigation determined that all five acted improperly, they all claimed this was a standard campaign funding practice.

In August 1991, the Senate Ethics Committee recommended censure for Cranston and criticized the other four for "questionable conduct." Cranston had already decided not to run for reelection in 1992. DeConcini and Riegle served out their terms but did not run for reelection in 1994. John Glenn was reelected in 1992 and served until he retired in 1999. John McCain continued his work in the Senate, and ran unsuccessfully for president in 2008.

Water Gate Scandal Watergate is the name of the scandal that caused Richard Nixon to become the only U.S. president to resign from office. On May 27, 1972, concerned that Nixon's bid for reelection was in jeopardy, former CIA agent E. Howard Hunt Jr., former New York assistant district attorney G. Gordon Liddy, former CIA operative James W. McCord Jr., and six other men broke into the Democratic headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. They wiretapped phones, stole some documents and photographed others. When they broke in again on June 17 to fix a bug that wasn't working, a suspicious security guard called the Washington police, who arrested McCord and four other burglars. A cover-up began to destroy incriminating evidence, obstruct investigations and halt any spread of scandal that might lead to the president. On Aug. 29, Nixon announced that the break-in had been investigated and that no one in the White House was involved. Despite his efforts to hide his involvement, Nixon was done in by his own tape recordings, one of which revealed that he had authorized hush money paid to Hunt. To avoid impeachment, Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974. His successor, President Gerald Ford, granted him a blanket pardon on Sept. 8, 1974, eliminating any possibility that Nixon would be indicted and tried. Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein helped expose the scandal using information leaked by someone identified as Deep Throat, a source whose identity was kept hidden until 2005, when it was revealed that Deep Throat was former Nixon administration member William Mark Felt.

Lance Armstrongs Doping After admitting to Oprah in January that his career had been one big lie and that he had, in fact, doped up before races, the worlds most decorated cyclistand an inspiration to thousands of cancer survivorslost his endorsements, had to give back all his medals, and was banned from cycling for life. Lance Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired Thursday night. Did he use EPO? Testosterone? Cortisone? Human growth hormone? Illegal blood transfusions and other blood doping? Armstrong answered "yes" on all counts.

In October, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency released more than 1,000 pages of evidence in doping allegations against Armstrong and his teammates. He was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles in the scandal. On Thursday, the International Olympic Committee demanded that he give back the bronze medal he won in 2000. The charges against Armstrong are all too common in the cycling world. Cyclist Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after failing a drug test. Eighty percent of the Tour de France medalists between 1996 and 2010 have been "similarly tainted by doping," according to the USADA report on Armstrong.

Charlie Sheens Public Meltdown Even when celebrities go truly off the rails, a publicist usually intervenes for heavy-duty damage control before they begin talking about, say, tiger blood. Not so with Charlie Sheen, who in 2011 offered up a series of vindictive, fantastical and allegedly drug-fueled rants to the media -- the beginning of a supernova of shocking tirades he would later refer to as his "violent torpedo of truth". Son of actor Martin Sheen, Charlie starred on the popular comedy series and CBS cash cow "Two and a Half Men." However, in early 2011, rumors began to swirl that Sheen was heavily abusing drugs, making him incoherent and incapable of working. Sheen ignored the rules of Hollywood tact and lashed out against the show's executive producer, Chuck Lorre, calling him a "piece of s---," a "troll" and a "stupid little man. This spurred a media hurricane that followed Sheen's progressively erratic behavior. Sheen claimed that he was sober, but his seemingly crazed assertions that he was a "wizard" with veins of "tiger blood" called that claim into question. After CBS fired Sheen in late February, he set out on a comedy and speaking tour. However, the tour garnered appalling critical reviews and boos from audiences. Within a few months, as Sheen's mania died down, so did the public's appetite for it. As of January 2012, Sheen seems to have taken his tiger blood into relative hibernation.

America 5: Movies
Django Unchained Lee hadn't seen the film, but he had a point. Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino's action fantasy about a freed slave (Jamie Foxx) enacting bloody revenge on plantation owners across the southern states, does make pre-civil war America look cool. It's loaded with style, plugged into a killer soundtrack, shot with a confidence that we hadn't seen from Tarantino since Jackie Brown. The script for which Tarantino won an Oscar is funny, the story is exciting, the performances particularly Christoph Waltz's turn as the dentist-cum-bounty-hunter Dr King Schultz (another Oscar) are vital. And then, in among all the crash zooms and gunplay and snappy rejoinders, there's the devastating brutality of the slave trade.

Django Unchained is a hip, flashy film that dares to tackle the slave trade. It takes the cartoonish stereotypes of the martial arts, western and blaxploitation genres and uses them to confront a modern audience with the grey areas of contemporary racial politics. Schultz hates the slave trade, but he bought Django, and he is make no mistake using him. He's both emancipator and captor. He's also a wealthy, white gun-for-hire who risks his life for the cause of a former slave (for free). In that he's more unrealistic than Calvin Candie, the moustache-twirling villain (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), or Stephen (Samuel L Jackson), the "house slave" overseer at Candie's ranch. Schultz is the moral centre of the film. And he is absolute fantasy. A stab at crude fictional reparation. A symbol for a much more modern sense of white guilt. And yet, by presenting a rare and meaningful analysis of a period that many are still too wary of talking about, Tarantino compels us to take Django Unchained seriously. The slaves wearing branks in the trader town in Mississippi, the introduction of Django's wife Broomhilda whipped first, dragged naked from a sweatbox later: these practices happened, the images are horrifically real. And still you watch them recognising that you are experiencing an entertainment product. It's this quandary that makes Django powerful: the same quandary that has made most of Tarantino's films, from the depiction of extreme violence in Reservoir Dogs to the crass racial epithets of Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, so startling.

Pshyo Marion Crane and her boyfriend meet for a secret romantic rendezvous during lunch hour at a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. They then talk about how they can barely afford to get married. Upon Marion's return to work at a realtor's office, a client comes in with $40,000 in cash to purchase a house for his daughter. The money is entrusted to Marion, who decides to steal it and skip town. On the road, she pulls over to sleep and is awoken by a policeman who can tell something is wrong. The policeman lets her go, but upon arriving in another town, Marion pulls into a used car dealership and hastily exchanges her car for another one. Driving during a rainy night, Marion pulls up to the Bates Motel, a remote lodging that has recently lost business due to a diversion of the main highway. The proprietor, youthful but nervous Norman Bates, invites her to a light dinner in the parlor. Norman discloses that his mother is mentally ill, but he becomes irate and bristles when Marion suggests that she should be institutionalized. The conversation induces Marion to decide to return to Phoenix and return the stolen money. Marion later takes a shower in her room, during which a shadowy figure comes and stabs her to death. Norman bursts into the bathroom and discovers Marion's dead body. He wraps the body in the shower curtain and cleans up the bathroom. He puts Marion's body in the trunk of her car and sinks it in a nearby swamp. In Phoenix, Marion's sister Lila and boyfriend Sam Loomis are concerned about her disappearance. A detective named Arbogast confirms Marion is suspected of having stolen $40,000 from her employer. Arbogast eventually finds the Bates Motel, where Norman's evasiveness and stammering arouse his

suspicions. Arbogast later enters the Bates' residence, looking for Norman's mother. A figure emerges from her room and murders Arbogast. Fearing something has happened to Arbogast, Sam and Lila go to the town of Fairvale and talk with the local sheriff. He is puzzled by the detective's claim that he was planning to talk to Norman's mother, stating that Mrs. Bates died years ago, along with her lover, in a murder-suicide. Norman, seen from above, carries his mother down to the cellar of their house as she verbally protests the arrangement. Sam and Lila rent a room at the Bates Motel and search the cabin that Marion stayed in. Lila finds a scrap of paper with "$40,000" written on it while Sam notes that the bathtub has no shower curtain. Sam distracts Norman while Lila sneaks into the house, looking for Mrs. Bates. Norman subdues Sam and chases Lila. Seeing Norman approaching, Lila hides in the cellar and discovers Mrs. Bates sitting in a rocking chair. The chair rotates to reveal a desiccated corpse, the preserved body of Mrs. Bates. A figure enters the basement, wearing a dress and wig while wielding a large knife, revealing Norman to be the murderer all along. Sam enters and saves Lila. After Norman's arrest, a psychiatrist who interviewed Norman reveals that Norman had murdered his mother and her lover years ago, and later developed a split personality to erase the crime from his memory. At times, he is able to function as Norman, but other times the mother personality completely dominates him. Norman is now locked into his mother's identity permanently. Mrs. Bates, in a voiceover, talks about how harmless she is, and how it was really Norman, not she, who committed the murders. The final scene shows Marion's car being recovered from the swamp.

Forrest Gump Forrest Gump is a 1994 American epic romantic comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and starred Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise and Sally Field. The story depicts several decades in the life of Forrest Gump, a nave and slow-witted yet athletically prodigious native of Alabama who witnesses, and in some cases influences, some of the defining events of the latter half of the 20th century in the United States; more specifically, the period between Forrest's birth in 1944 and 1982. The film differs substantially from Winston Groom's novel on which it is based, including Gump's personality and several events that were depicted. Filming took place in late 1993, mainly in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Extensive visual effects were used to incorporate the protagonist into archived footage and to develop other scenes. A comprehensive soundtrack was featured in the film, using music intended to pinpoint specific time periods portrayed on screen. Its commercial release made it a top-selling soundtrack, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. Released in the United States on July 6, 1994, Forrest Gump received critical acclaim and became a commercial success as the top grossing film in North America released that year, being the first major success for Paramount Pictures since the studio's sale to Viacom earlier in the year. The film earned over $677 million worldwide during its theatrical run. The film won the Academy Awards for Best Picture,

Best Director for Robert Zemeckis, Best Actor for Tom Hanks, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects and Best Film Editing. It also garnered multiple other awards and nominations, including Golden Globe Awards, People's Choice Awards and Young Artist Awards, among others. Since the film's release, varying interpretations have been made of the film's protagonist and its political symbolism. In 1996, a themed restaurant, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, opened based on the film, and has since expanded to multiple locations worldwide. The scene of Gump running across the country is often referred to when real-life people attempt the feat. In 2011, the Library of Congress selected Forrest Gump for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Schindlers List In 1939, the Germans move Polish Jews into the Krakw Ghetto as World War II begins. Oskar Schindler, an ethnic German, arrives in the city hoping to make his fortune. A member of the Nazi Party, Schindler lavishes bribes on Wehrmacht (German armed forces) and SS officials and acquires a factory to produce enamelware. To help him run the business, Schindler enlists the aid of Itzhak Stern, a local Jewish official who has contacts with black marketeers and the Jewish business community. Stern helps Schindler arrange loans to finance the factory. Schindler maintains friendly relations with the Nazis and enjoys wealth and status as "Herr Direktor", and Stern handles administration. Schindler hires Jewish workers because they cost less, while Stern ensures that as many people as possible are deemed essential to the German war effort, which saves them from being transported to concentration camps or killed. SS-Untersturmfhrer (second lieutenant) Amon Goeth arrives in Krakw to oversee construction of Paszw concentration camp. When the camp is completed, he orders the ghetto liquidated. Many people are shot and killed in the process of emptying the ghetto. Schindler witnesses the massacre and is profoundly affected. He particularly notices a tiny girl in a red coat one of the few splashes of color in the black-and-white film as she hides from the Nazis. When he later sees the red coat on a wagon loaded with bodies being taken away to be burned, he knows the girl is dead. Schindler is careful to maintain his friendship with Goeth and, through bribery and lavish gifts, continues to enjoy SS support. Goeth brutally mistreats his maid and randomly shoots people from the balcony of his villa, and the prisoners are in constant daily fear for their lives. As time passes, Schindler's focus shifts from making money to trying to save as many lives as possible. He bribes Goeth into allowing him to build a sub-camp for his workers so that he can better protect them. As the Germans begin to lose the war, Goeth is ordered to ship the remaining Jews at Paszw to Auschwitz concentration camp. Schindler asks Goeth to allow him to move his workers to a new munitions factory he plans to build in his home town of Zwittau-Brinnlitz. Goeth agrees, but charges a huge bribe. Schindler and Stern create "Schindler's List" a list of people to be transferred to Brinnlitz and thus saved from transport to Auschwitz. As Schindler's workers begin to arrive at the new site, the train carrying the women is accidentally redirected to Auschwitz. Schindler bribes the commandant of Auschwitz with a bag of diamonds to win

their release. At the new factory, Schindler forbids the SS guards to enter the production areas and encourages the Jews to observe Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath). To keep his workers alive, he spends much of his fortune bribing Nazi officials and buying shell casings from other companies; his factory does not produce any usable armaments during its seven months of operation. Schindler runs out of money just as Germany surrenders, ending the war in Europe. As a Nazi Party member and war profiteer, Schindler must flee the advancing Red Army to avoid capture. The SS guards have been ordered to kill the Jews, but Schindler persuades them to return to their families as men, not murderers. He bids farewell to his workers and prepares to head west, hoping to surrender to the Americans. The workers give Schindler a signed statement attesting to his role saving Jewish lives, together with a ring engraved with a Talmudic quotation: "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire." Schindler is touched but is also deeply ashamed, as he feels he should have done even more. As the Schindlerjuden (Schindler Jews) awaken the next morning, a Soviet soldier announces that they have been liberated. The Jews leave the factory and walk to a nearby town.

Wolf of Wall Street In 1987, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) takes a stockbroker job at an established Wall Street firm. His boss, Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey), advises him to adopt a lifestyle of sex and cocaine in order to succeed. Barely in the job, the firm fails after Black Monday. Out of work and with a poor job market for stockbrokers, Belfort's wife Teresa (Cristin Milioti) pushes him to take a job with a Long Island boiler room which deals in penny stocks. His aggressive pitching style soon earns him a small fortune. He befriends Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill), a salesman who lives in the same apartment complex as him, and they decide to open their own firm together. They recruit several of Belfort's friends, some of them experienced marijuana dealers, and his accountant parents and form Stratton Oakmont. Despite the respectable name, it is essentially a pump and dump scam. An expos in Forbes dubs Belfort the "Wolf of Wall Street", and soon hundreds of ambitious young financiers flock to his company. Belfort and his employees lead a lifestyle of total debauchery with lavish parties, sex and drugs both in the workplace and in their personal lives. He begins cheating on his wife with several prostitutes, and becomes addicted to cocaine and Quaaludes. FBI Agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler) begins investigating Belfort's company. At one of his parties, Belfort meets Naomi Lapaglia (Margot Robbie) and begins an affair with her that leads to him divorcing his wife. Belfort falls in love with and proposes to Lapaglia. They wed, and a few months later, have a daughter, Skylar. The FBI investigation continues, with the Securities and Exchange Commission joining in. To hide his money, Belfort opens a Swiss bank account with the corrupt banker Jean-Jacques Saurel (Jean Dujardin) in the name of Naomi's aunt Emma (Joanna Lumley). He uses her and several other friends with European passports to smuggle cash to Switzerland. The scheme is nearly exposed by an incident where Azoff gets into a public fight with Brad Bodnick (Jon Bernthal), one of their money couriers, which ends in Brad getting arrested.

Azoff offers Belfort a powerful brand of Qualuudes, hoping to ease the sting of the bad news. The pills are old and seem to have lost their potency, so they take huge doses to compensate. Belfort then receives a call from his private investigator, who insists Belfort call him back from a payphone. Belfort drives to a country club to phone the investigator, who warns Belfort of Brad's arrest and that his house phone has been wiretapped. At this point, the Qualuudes finally kick in with overwhelming effect. Severely debilitated, Belfort drives back home to prevent Azoff from using his phone. When Belfort arrives home he tries to make Azoff (who is also now high) hang up the phone and tells him he found out what happened between him and Brad Bodnick. Azoff starts choking on ham and nearly suffocates. Belfort snorts cocaine to counteract the affect of the Quaaludes in order to help save Azoff's life. The next morning, Belfort is arrested for reckless driving the previous night, but is released due to a technicality. With the shadow of law enforcement hovering over them, Jordan's father Max attempts to convince his son to step down from Stratton Oakmont and escape the large amount of legal penalties. However, during his farewell ceremony at the office, Belfort relents. Belfort and Azoff take their wives on a yacht trip to Italy, where they learn that Emma has died of a heart attack. Over his grieving wife's objections, Belfort orders the boat to Monaco so they can drive to Switzerland without getting their passports stamped at the border and settle the bank account, but it is capsized by a violent storm. After their rescue, the plane sent to take them to Geneva is destroyed by lightning. Belfort considers this a sign from God and decides to sober up. Two years later, Denham arrests Belfort during the filming of an infomercial. Saurel, arrested in Florida over an unrelated affair, has told the FBI everything. Since the evidence against him is overwhelming, Belfort agrees to gather evidence on his colleagues in exchange for leniency.

America 5: Heros
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 April 4, 1968) was an American pastor, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs. Born Michael King, his father changed his name in honor of German reformer Martin Luther. A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomer Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia, in 1962, and organized nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama, that attracted national attention following television news coverage of the brutal police response. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history. He also established his reputation as a radical, and became an object of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's COINTELPRO for the rest of his

life. FBI agents investigated him for possible communist ties, recorded his extramarital liaisons and reported on them to government officials, and on one occasion, mailed King a threatening anonymous letter that he interpreted as an attempt to make him commit suicide. On October 14, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence. In 1965, he and the SCLC helped to organize the Selma to Montgomery marches and the following year, he took the movement north to Chicago. In the final years of his life, King expanded his focus to include poverty and the Vietnam War, alienating many of his liberal allies with a 1967 speech titled "Beyond Vietnam". In 1968 King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People's Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4, in Memphis, Tennessee. His death was followed by riots in many U.S. cities. Allegations that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of killing King, had been framed or acted in concert with government agents persisted for decades after the shooting, and the jury of a 1999 civil trial found Loyd Jowers to be complicit in a conspiracy against King.

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American computer specialist, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee, and former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who disclosed classified NSA documents to several media outlets, initiating the NSA leaks, which reveal operational details of a global surveillance apparatus run by the NSA, its Five Eyes partners, and numerous commercial and international partners. Snowden's release of classified material was called the most significant leak in US history by Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg. A series of exposs beginning June 5, 2013 revealed Internet surveillance programs such as PRISM, XKeyscore and Tempora, as well as the interception of US and European telephone metadata. The reports were based on documents Snowden leaked to The Guardian and The Washington Post while employed by NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. By November 2013, The Guardian had published one percent of the documents, with "the worst yet to come". A subject of controversy, Snowden has been variously called a hero, a whistleblower, a dissident, a traitor, and a patriot. According to Snowden, his "sole motive" for leaking the documents was "to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them." The disclosures have fueled debates over mass surveillance, government secrecy, and the balance between national security and information privacy. Seven months after the NSA revelations began, Snowden declared his mission accomplished, citing the international debate sparked by his leaks. A federal judge in December 2013 ruled that the government had "almost certainly" violated the US Constitution by collecting metadata on nearly every phone call within or to the United States. Ten days later, a different federal judge ruled the surveillance program was legal, raising the likelihood that the constitutionality of the program would ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. In early 2014, numerous media outlets and politicians issued calls for leniency in the form of clemency, amnesty or pardon, while others called for him to be imprisoned.

Thomas Edison Thomas Edison (February 11, 1847 October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park", he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention, and because of that, he is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory. Edison was a prolific inventor, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. More significant than the number of Edison's patents, are the impacts of his inventions, because Edison not only invented things, his inventions established major new industries world-wide, notably, electric light and power utilities, sound recording and motion pictures. Edison's inventions contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications. These included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early career as a telegraph operator. Edison developed a system of electric-power generation and distribution to homes, businesses, and factories a crucial development in the modern industrialized world. His first power station was on Pearl Street in Manhattan, New York.

Steve Jobs Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs was an American entrepreneur, marketer, and inventor, who was the cofounder (along with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne), chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc. Through Apple, he is widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields, transforming "one industry after another, from computers and smartphones to music and movies". Jobs also co-founded and served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, when Disney acquired Pixar. Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Apple Lisa and, a year later, theMacintosh. He also played a role in introducing the LaserWriter, one of the first widely available laser printers, to the market. After a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs left Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher-education and business markets. In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm, which was spun off as Pixar. He was credited in Toy Story (1995) as an executive producer. He served as CEO and majority shareholder until Disney's purchase of Pixar in 2006. In 1996, after Apple had failed to deliver its operating system, Copland, Gil Amelio turned to NeXT Computer, and the NeXTSTEP platform became the foundation for

the Mac OS X. Jobs returned to Apple as an advisor, and took control of the company as an interim CEO. Jobs brought Apple from near bankruptcy to profitability by 1998. As the new CEO of the company, Jobs oversaw the development of the iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, and iPad, and on the services side, the company's Apple Retail Stores, iTunes Store and the App Store. The success of these products and services provided several years of stable financial returns, and propelled Apple to become the world's most valuable publicly traded company in 2011.[ The reinvigoration of the company is regarded by many commentators as one of the greatest turnarounds in business history. In 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with a pancreas neuroendocrine tumor. Though it was initially treated, he reported a hormone imbalance, underwent a liver transplant in 2009, and appeared progressively thinner as his health declined. On medical leave for most of 2011, Jobs resigned in August that year, and was elected Chairman of the Board. He died of respiratory arrest related to his tumor on October 5, 2011. Jobs received a number of honors and public recognition for his influence in the technology and music industries. He has been referred to as "legendary", a "futurist" or simply "visionary", and has been described as the "Father of the Digital Revolution", a "master of innovation", "the master evangelist of the digital age"] and a "design perfectionist".

America 5: Sports Personalities

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer who is among the most successful golfers of all time. Currently the World No. 1, he has been one of the highest-paid athletes in the world for several years. Woods turned professional in 1996, and by April 1997 he had already won his first major, the 1997 Masters in a record-breaking performance, winning the tournament by 12 strokes. He first reached the number one position in the world rankings in June 1997. Through the 2000s, Woods was the dominant force in golf, spending 264 weeks from August 1999 to September 2004 and 281 weeks from June 2005 to October 2010 as world number one. From December 2009 to early April 2010, Woods took leave from professional golf to focus on his marriage after he admitted infidelity. His multiple infidelities were revealed by several different women, through many worldwide media sources. This was followed by a loss of golf form, and his ranking gradually fell to a low of No. 58 in November 2011. He ended a careerlong winless streak of 107 weeks when he captured the Chevron World Challenge in December 2011. After winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational on March 25, 2013, he ascended to the No.1 Ranking once again. Woods has broken numerous golf records. He has been world number one for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks of any other golfer. He has been awarded PGA Player

of the Year a record eleven times, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has the record of leading the money list in ten different seasons. He has won 14 professional major golf championships, the second highest of any player (Jack Nicklaus leads with 18), and 79 PGA Tour events, second all time behind Sam Snead. He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer. He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour. Additionally, Woods is only the second golfer, after Jack Nicklaus, to have achieved a career Grand Slam three times. Woods has won 18 World Golf Championships, and won at least one of those events in each of the first 11 years after they began in 1999. Woods is the only golfer to win both The Silver Medal and The Gold Medal at The Open Championship.

Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American professional tennis player who is currently ranked No. 1 in women's singles tennis. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her World No. 1 in singles on six separate occasions. She became the World No. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002, and regained this ranking for the sixth time on February 18, 2013, becoming the oldest world no. 1 player in WTA's history. She is the only female player to have won over $50 million in prize money. Williams is the reigning French Open, US Open, WTA Tour Championships and Olympic ladies singles champion. Williams holds the most Major singles, doubles, and mixed doubles titles combined amongst active players, male or female. Her record of 32 Major titles puts her seventh on the all-time list: 17 in singles, 13 in women's doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. She is the most recent player, male or female, to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously ('02'03) and only the fifth woman ever to do so. Her total of 17 Grand Slam singles titles is sixth on the all-time list, and fourth in the Open Era, behind Steffi Graf (22 titles) and Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (18 titles each). She has won 13 Grand Slam doubles titles with her sister Venus Williams and the pair are unbeaten in Grand Slam finals. Serena Williams is also a four-time winner of the WTA Tour Championships. Williams is only one of five tennis players all-time to win a multiple slam set in two disciplines, matching Margaret Court, Roy Emerson, Martina Navratilova and Frank Sedgman. The arrival of Venus and Serena Williams has been credited with launching a new era of power and athleticism in women's tennis. Williams has won four Olympic gold medals, one in women's singles and three in women's doubles, an all-time record shared with her sister Venus.

Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant (born August 23, 1978), nicknamed the "Black Mamba", is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He entered the NBA directly from high school, and has played for the Lakers his entire career, winning five NBA championships. Bryant is a 15-time All-Star, 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, and 12-time

member of the All-Defensive team. As of March 2013, he ranks third and fourth on the league'sall-time postseason scoring and all-time regular season scoring lists, respectively. Bryant enjoyed a successful high school basketball career at Lower Merion High School, where he was recognized as the top high school basketball player in the country. He declared his eligibility for the NBA Draft upon graduation, and was selected with the 13th overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets, then traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. As a rookie, Bryant earned himself a reputation as a high-flyer and a fan favorite by winning the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest. Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal led the Lakers to three consecutive championships from 2000 to 2002. A heated feud between the duo and a loss in the 2004 NBA Finals was followed by O'Neal's trade from the Lakers after the 200304 season. Following O'Neal's departure Bryant became the cornerstone of the Los Angeles Lakers franchise. He led the NBA in scoring during the200506 and 200607 seasons, setting numerous scoring records in the process. In 2006, Bryant scored a career-high 81 points against the Toronto Raptors, the second most points scored in a single game in NBA history, second only to Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game in 1962. He was awarded the regular season's Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) in 2008. After losing in the 2008 NBA Finals, Bryant led the Lakers to two consecutive championships in 2009 and 2010, earning the NBA Finals MVP Award on both occasions. At 34 years and 104 days of age, Bryant became the youngest player in league history to reach 30,000 career points. He is also the all-time leading scorer in Lakers franchise history. Since his second year in the league, Bryant has been selected to start every All-Star Game. He has won the All-Star MVP Award four times (2002, 2007, 2009, and 2011), tying him for the most All Star MVP Awards in NBA history. At the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics, he won gold medals as a member of the USA national team. Sporting News and TNT named Bryant the top NBA player of the 2000s. In 2003, Bryant was accused of sexual assault after having sex with a hotel employee in Edwards, Colorado. In September 2004, prosecutors dropped the case after his accuser refused to testify. A civil suit was later filed and settled out of court.

David Beckham David Robert Joseph Beckham (born 2 May 1975) is an English former footballer. He has played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, Milan, Los Angeles Galaxy, Paris Saint-Germain, and the England national team for which he holds the appearance record for an outfield player. He was the first English player to win league titles in four countries. He announced his intention to retire at the end of the 201213 Ligue 1 season on 16 May 2013 and, on 18 May 2013, played his final game of his storied 20-year career. Beckham's professional career began with Manchester United, where he made his first-team debut in 1992 aged 17. With United, Beckham won the Premier League title six times, the FA Cup twice, and the UEFA Champions League in 1999. He then played four seasons with Real Madrid, winning the La Liga championship in his final season with the club. In July 2007 Beckham signed a five-year contract

with Major League Soccer club Los Angeles Galaxy. While a Galaxy player, he spent two loan spells in Italy with AC Milan in 2009 and 2010. Beckham was the first British footballer to play 100 Champions League matches. In international football, Beckham made his England debut on 1 September 1996, at the age of 21. He was captain for six years during which he played 58 times. He has 115 career appearances to date. Beckham has twice been runner-up for FIFA World Player of the Year, and in 2004 he was named as one of the Top 125 greatest living footballers as part of FIFA's 100th anniversary celebration. In 2004 he was the world's highest-paid footballer when taking into account salary and advertising deals. When joining MLS in 2007 he was given the highest player salary in the league's history of US$6.5m per year. He has been married to Victoria Beckham since 1999, and they have four children. In 2009, the couple's joint wealth was estimated at 125 million.

America 5: Celebrities

America 5: Novels
The Things They Carried by Tim OBrian The Things They Carried is a collection of related stories by Tim O'Brien, about a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War, originally published in hardcover by Houghton Mifflin in 1990. The Things They Carried depicts a dramatic recount of O'Brien's experiences of the Vietnam War. Many of the characters are semi-autobiographical, and readers of O'Brien's work will notice that some of the characters share similarities with characters from his memoir If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home. O'Brien dedicated The Things They Carried to the men of the Alpha Company with whom he fought during the war.

A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson The book starts with Bryson explaining his curiosity about the Appalachian Trail near his house. He and his old friend Stephen Katz start hiking the trail from the state of Georgia in the south, and stumble in the beginning with the difficulties of getting used to their equipment; Bryson also soon realizes how difficult it is to travel with his friend, who is a crude, overweight recovering alcoholic, and even less prepared for the ordeal than he is. Overburdened, they soon discard much extra food and equipment to lighten their loads. After hiking for what seemed to him a large distance, they realize they have still barely begun while in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and that the whole endeavor is simply too much for them. They skip a huge section of the trail, beginning again in Roanoke, Virginia. The book recounts Bryson's desire to seek easier terrain as well as "a powerful urge not to be this far south any longer." This section of the hike finally ends (after nearly 800 miles (1,300 km) of hiking) with Bryson going on a book tour and Katz returning to Des Moines to work. In the following months Bryson continues to hike several smaller parts of the trail, including a visit to Centralia, an environmentally poisoned mining town in Pennsylvania, and eventually reunites with Katz to hike the Hundred Mile Wilderness in Maine, which again proves too daunting. The fact that Bryson did not complete the trail is not surprising since fewer than 25% of thru-hike attempts are successful; he quotes the older figure of 10%.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen Brian Robeson is a thirteen-year-old son of divorced parents. As he travels on a Cessna 406 bush plane to visit his father in the oil fields in northern Canada for the summer, the pilot suffers a heart attack and dies; Brian tries to land the plane, but ends up crash-landing into a lake in the forest, saving nothing but his hatcheta gift his mother gave him shortly before his plane departedand his own life. Throughout the summer, Brian attempts to survive in the endless wilderness with only his hatchet. He discovers how to make fire with the hatchet and eats whatever food he can find, such as rabbits, birds, turtle eggs, fish, and various berries and fruit. He deals with threats from animals such as a porcupine, bear, skunk, moose and wolves, eventually becoming a fine woodsman. He later crafts a bow, arrows, and a fishing spear to aid in his hunting, and fashions a shelter out of the underside of a rock overhang. During his time alone, Brian struggles with memories of home and the bittersweet memory of his mother, whom Brian had caught cheating on his father prior to their divorce. When a sudden tornado hits the area, it draws the tail of the plane toward the shore of the lake. Brian makes a raft from a few broken off tree tops to get to the plane. When Brian is cutting his way into the tail of the plane, he drops his hatchet in the lake and dives in to get it. Once inside the plane, Brian finds a survival pack that includes additional food and an emergency transmitter, and a .22 rifle. Back on shore, Brian activates the transmitter, but not knowing how to use it, he thinks it is broken and throws it aside. However, Brian is later discovered by a fur trader who received the transmitter's signal.

To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee The book opens with the Finch family's ancestor, Simon Finch, a Cornish Methodit fleeing religious intolerance in England, settling in Alabama, becoming wealthy and, contrary to his religious beliefs, buying several slaves. The main story takes place during three years of the Great Depression in the fictional "tired old town" of Maycomb, Alabama. It focuses on six-year-old Scout Finch, who lives with her older brother Jem and their widowed father Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer. Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill who visits Maycomb to stay with his aunt each summer. The three children are terrified of, and fascinated by, their neighbor, the reclusive "Boo" Radley. The adults of Maycomb are hesitant to talk about Boo and, for many years, few have seen him. The children feed each other's imagination with rumors about his appearance and reasons for remaining hidden, and they fantasize about how to get him out of his house. Following two summers of friendship with Dill, Scout and Jem find that someone is leaving them small gifts in a tree outside the Radley place. Several times, the mysterious Boo makes gestures of affection to the children, but, to their disappointment, never appears in person. Atticus is appointed by the court to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. Although many of Maycomb's citizens disapprove, Atticus agrees to defend Tom. Other children taunt Jem and Scout for Atticus' actions, calling him a "nigger-lover". Scout is tempted to stand up for her father's honor by fighting, even though he has told her not to. For his part, Atticus faces a group of men intent on lynching Tom. This danger is averted when Scout, Jem, and Dill shame the mob into dispersing by forcing them to view the situation from Atticus' and Tom's points of view. Because Atticus does not want them to be present at Tom Robinson's trial, Scout, Jem and Dill watch in secret from the colored balcony. Atticus establishes that the accusersMayella and her father, Bob Ewell, the town drunkare lying. It also becomes clear that the friendless Mayella was making sexual advances towards Tom and her father caught her and beat her. Despite significant evidence of Tom's innocence, the jury convicts him. Jem's faith in justice is badly shaken, as is Atticus', when a hapless Tom is shot and killed while trying to escape from prison. Despite winning the case, Bob Ewell's reputation is further ruined and he vows revenge. He spits in Atticus' face on the street, tries to break into the presiding judge's house and menaces Tom Robinson's widow. Finally, he attacks the defenseless Jem and Scout as they walk home on a dark night from the school Halloween pageant. Jem's arm is broken in the struggle, but amid the confusion, someone comes to the children's rescue. The mysterious man carries Jem home, where Scout realizes that he is Boo Radley. Maycomb's sheriff arrives and discovers that Bob Ewell has been killed in the struggle. The sheriff argues with Atticus about the prudence and ethics of holding Jem or Boo responsible. Atticus eventually accepts the sheriff's story that Ewell simply fell on his own knife. Boo asks Scout to walk him home, and after she says goodbye to him at his front door, he disappears again. While standing on the Radley

porch, Scout imagines life from Boo's perspective and regrets that they never repaid him for the gifts he had given them.