amazing pictures: Amazing Pictures 2012

Amazing Pictures 2012 Definition

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A 'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA's most recently launched Earth-observing satellite - Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NPP satellite was renamed 'Suomi NPP' on January 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin.

Suomi NPP is NASA's next Earth-observing research satellite. It is the first of a new generation of satellites that will observe many facets of our changing Earth.

Suomi NPP is carrying five instruments on board. The biggest and most important instrument is The Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite or VIIRS.
"the different view from this satellite might be because it has a lower orbit and the view it provides is more like that of a wide angle lens, which will show what is directly below it at a seemingly larger scale than if it was viewed from much farther back. Info at the Suomi NPP site indicates it has an orbit of 824 km.
the GOES-13 satellite, which orbits at 42,000 km, offers a different ( full disk ) view of the Earth."
The Amazing Spider-Man is a 2012 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. It is the fourth installment of the Spider-Man film series, serving as a reboot. The film was directed by Marc Webb, written by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves, and stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, Martin Sheen and Sally Field. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film tells the story of Peter Parker, a high school student from New York City who transforms himself into Spider-Man after being bitten by a spider. Parker must stop Dr. Curt Connors from testing a mutation serum on human subjects.

Development of the film began with the cancellation of Spider-Man 4 in 2010, ending director Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film series that had starred Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco. Opting to reboot the franchise with the same production team, Sony Pictures Entertainment announced a July 2012 release date for The Amazing Spider-Man. James Vanderbilt was hired to write the script while Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves helped fine-tune it. During pre-production, the main characters were cast in 2010. New designs were introduced from the comics such as artificial web-shooters. Using Red Digital Cinema Camera Company's RED Epic camera, principal photography started in December 2010 in Los Angeles before moving to New York City. The film entered post-production in April 2011. 3ality Technica provided 3D image processing, Sony Imageworks handled CGI and James Horner composed the film score.

Sony Entertainment built a promotional website, released three trailers and launched a viral marketing campaign, among other moves. Tie-ins included a video game by Beenox. The film premiered on June 30 in Tokyo and was released in the United States on July 3 in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D and released in home media in November 2012. Critical reaction was mostly positive, according to review aggregators Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, and the film was also nominated for some awards. The film was also a box office success, becoming the 47th-highest-grossing film of all time and the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2012. The first of at least two projected sequels, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, is scheduled for release in 2014, with director Marc Webb and most of the first film's main cast set to return.
Argo is a 2012 historical drama thriller film directed by Ben Affleck. This dramatization is adapted from the book The Master of Disguise by CIA operative Tony Mendez, and Joshuah Bearman's 2007 Wired article The Great Escape about the "Canadian Caper",[3] in which Mendez led the rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran, Iran, during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.[4]

The film stars Affleck as Mendez with Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman in supporting roles, and was released in North America to critical and commercial success on October 12, 2012. The film was produced by Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, and George Clooney. The story of this rescue was also told in the 1981 television movie Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper, directed by Lamont Johnson.[5][6]

Upon release, Argo received widespread acclaim and seven nominations for the 85th Academy Awards and won three, for Best Film Editing,[7] Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture. The film also earned five Golden Globe nominations, winning Best Picture – Drama and Best Director,[8] while being nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Arkin.[9] It won the award for the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the 19th Screen Actors Guild Awards with Alan Arkin being nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role. It also won Best Film, Best Editing, and Best Director at the 66th British Academy Film Awards.
Argo is based on the "Canadian Caper" that took place during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 and 1980. Chris Terrio wrote the screenplay based on Joshuah Bearman's 2007 article in Wired: "How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran".[3] The article was written after the records were declassified.

In 2007, the producers George Clooney, Grant Heslov and David Klawans set up a project based on the article. Affleck's participation was announced in February 2011.[10] The following June, Alan Arkin was the first person cast in the film.[11] After the rest of the roles were cast, filming began in Los Angeles[12] in August 2011. Additional filming took place in McLean, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; and Istanbul.[13]

As a historical piece, the film made use of archival news footage from ABC, CBS and NBC; and included popular songs from the era such as "Little T&A" by The Rolling Stones, "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits, "Dance the Night Away" by Van Halen and "When the Levee Breaks" by Led Zeppelin.[14] For its part, Warner Bros. used its 1972–1984 title featuring the "Big W" logo designed by Saul Bass for Warner Communications to open the film and painted on its studio lot's famed water tower the logo of The Burbank Studios (the facility's name during the 1970s and 1980s when Warner shared it with Columbia Pictures).[15]

The real life screenplay that the CIA used to create their cover story came from an adaptation of Roger Zelazny's 1967 novel Lord of Light. Producer Barry Gellar had spearheaded an earlier, sincere attempt to produce the movie with the book's original title. After that production attempt had failed, it was utilized by the CIA, and the title was changed to Argo.