If you’re an animal lover who has ever fantasized about owning a zoo—or a fan of Cameron Crowe movies with a 66 percent Rotten Tomatoes score—we’ve got good news: your wildest dream could be about to come true. The Ocala Star Banner reports that the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge Zoological Park, a private zoo in Crestview, Florida, is looking to sell its property, including its nearly 100 exotic animals. The strange part? They’re selling it via Craigslist.
Scroll past the $10 pair of artificial trees and a $75 hat commemorating the Atlanta Braves’s ’95 World Series championship and you’ll see that, for $350,000, you can become the proud owner of a “ten acre, well maintained USDA Compliant Zoo … with over 90 happy and healthy animals including White Tiger, Bengal Tiger, African Lion, Patas monkeys, bob cats, baboons, wolves, otters, black bear, Fennec foxes, sloth, lemurs, llamas and more.” Haven’t a clue what Fennec foxes eat, or even what one looks like? No worries—the property’s current staff of zookeepers is coming along for the ride (though one assumes that their salaries won’t come out of the $350K you just forked over).
There’s also a gift shop (with inventory), a Stuff-a-Plush machine, a commissary, storage barns, and a half-acre of undeveloped property, in case you want to expand the animals’ current living quarters or even build your own home right in the zoo.
While the ad notes that this is a “Great business opportunity for someone who loves animals with a professional staff in place to care for them,” it’s worth noting that the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge only took over the property in 2013.
Bill Andersen, president and chairman of the Refuge’s board of directors, explained that they took over the property because it had fallen into a state of disrepair. The group has spent the past four years making massive improvements to the grounds and outbuildings. “While rescuing the animals initially was in keeping with their mission,” writes the Ocala Star Banner, “continuing to run a zoo is not.”
“We’ve spent an awful lot of time getting those critters happy and healthy, updating habitats, and providing them with a quality place to live,” Andersen said. “I think our zoo is in the best shape it’s ever been.”
Though Andersen has hopes that the City of Crestview and Okaloosa County might be interested in taking over the zoo, he believes the next best option would be a passionate animal lover who has the desire, and financial means, to keep the zoo running and the animals happy.
“It’s got to be a buyer who shares our concern for the welfare of these critters,” Andersen said.
Today, Google is celebrating what would have been the 98th birthday of Esther Afua Ocloo with a Google Doodle. Just who was this groundbreaking businesswoman who was known to so many as “Auntie Ocloo”? Read on for five fast facts about her life and legacy.
1. SHE STARTED HER FIRST BUSINESS WITH LESS THAN A DOLLAR.
Thanks to a scholarship and the generosity of an aunt, Esther Afua Ocloo was able to attend Achimota School, one of Ghana’s most prestigious boarding schools. But unlike so many of her classmates, Ocloo—who was born Esther Afua Nkulenu—did not come from a wealthy family. (Her father was a blacksmith and her mother was a potter and farmer.) Still, Ocloo was determined to succeed in life, and on her own terms.
After graduating from high school, her aunt gifted her with 10 shillings (less than a dollar), which she used to purchase sugar, oranges, and a dozen jars in order to make some marmalade that she could sell. “I was determined to turn that 10 shillings into two pounds at least,” Ocloo recalled in an interview years later. “With six shillings I bought the ingredients to make marmalade, and went to the street side to sell the jars of marmalade. Within an hour I had sold all my jars and turned six shillings into 12! I was so excited I treated myself to a delicious lunch.”
2. SHE WAS ENCOURAGED BY HER FORMER TEACHERS.
Though she attended school with the children of some of Ghana’s most prominent families, Ocloo didn’t concern herself with the look of things. “Ghana was taking on more of the values of our colonizer, Britain,” she said of the atmosphere in Ghana in the early 1940s. “The attitude to people doing blue-collar work was terrible. In my days, people who had received a secondary education were expected to seek jobs in offices, managerial positions. I was ridiculed by all my classmates, who saw me hawking marmalade on the street like an uneducated street vendor. I went to a school with prestige, [where] the Ghanaians trying to mimic our colonizers looked down on the old fashioned traditions. But 80 percent of our teachers were European, and they were excited when they heard what I was doing.”
They were so excited that Ocloo’s alma mater became her first big client. “They invited me to supply the school with my marmalade two times a week,” she said. “They were so impressed with how successful my business was, they began reserving a percentage of my profits to save money for me to go to England for further training.” Between that and the contract she eventually secured with the military, Ocloo was able to take out a bank loan and make her business—known as Nkulenu Industries—official. The company is still doing business today, making jams and other food items, which are exported around the world.
3. SHE WAS THE FIRST BLACK INDIVIDUAL TO RECEIVE A COOKING DIPLOMA FROM THE GOOD HOUSEKEEPING INSTITUTE.
In addition to helping her get her first business off the ground, the Achimota School also helped Ocloo further her education. Between 1949 and 1951, the school sponsored her trip to England, where she received post-graduate training. In 1951, she received a cooking diploma from the Good Housekeeping Institute in London; she was the first black individual to achieve the honor. She also took classes in food science, technology, preservation, nutrition, and agriculture at Bristol University.
4. SHE DEDICATED HER LIFE TO HELPING OTHER WOMEN SUCCEED.
When Ocloo returned to Ghana, she wasn’t about to keep all of that education to herself. Instead, she dedicated much of her time and life to empowering other women to become self-sufficient, establishing a farm-based program to help teach women about business, food production, agriculture, and craft-making.
”I have taught them to cost the things they sell and determine their profits,” Ocloo said. ”You know what we found? We found that a woman selling rice and stew on the side of the street is making more money than most women in office jobs—but they are not taken seriously.”
In a separate interview, Ocloo spoke about where her desire to empower women came from. “I came from an underprivileged family,” she told The Odyssey. “I wanted to see to it that women were equipped to help their children so they don’t suffer the same hardships. Women can contribute effectively—socially, economically, and culturally. Women are the economic backbone of West Africa. They produce over 80 percent of our food—from growing, to producing, to distributing, yet their jobs are not regarded in a high esteem.”
Over the course of her life, Ocloo helped to found eight nonprofit organizations, including the Sustainable End of Hunger Foundation and Women’s World Banking, a microlending organization that gives small loans to female business owners who are unable to secure traditional bank loans. The organization operates in more than two dozen countries.
5. SHE BECAME THE FIRST WOMAN TO RECEIVE THE AFRICA PRIZE FOR LEADERSHIP.
In 1990, Ocloo achieved yet another first when she became the first woman to receive the Africa Prize for Leadership, an award given by The Hunger Project to “outstanding leaders from every level and every sector of society. Individually, their accomplishments have improved the lives of tens of millions of people. Together, they represent a new possibility.” True to form, Ocloo reinvested much of her prize money in the women she fought so hard to empower. Following her passing in 2002, The New York Times reported that when Ocloo’s children once complained to her about how all that training was only helping her competitors, Ocloo responded that, “I don’t listen. My main goal is to help my fellow women. If they make better marmalade than me, I deserve the competition.”
While there are a number of memorable fictional movie hotels (the Grand Budapest Hotel, the Bates Motel, and the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel are a few that come to mind) there are many more that are real, working businesses that offer guests a chance to experience some of their favorite movie locations, while also offering a great night’s sleep. Here are 15 movie hotels you can book in real life.
1. PARK HYATT TOKYO // TOKYO
Located in the heart of the city, the Park Hyatt Tokyo is the five-star hotel at the center of Sofia Coppola’s Oscar-winning Lost In Translation. Along with its spectacular views of the neon lights of downtown Tokyo and Mount Fuji in the distance, you can also order a glass of Suntory Whisky at the New York Bar in the 52-story skyscraper where Bob (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) first met and began their wild adventure through Japan.
2. MOUNTAIN LAKE LODGE // PEMBROKE, VIRGINIA
Mountain Lake Lodge
Although it takes place at the fictional Kellerman’s Resort in New York’s Catskill Mountains, Dirty Dancing (1987) was actually filmed at two locations: Lake Lure in North Carolina and the Mountain Lake Hotel in Pembroke, Virginia, which is still a popular vacation spot. The hotel hosts Dirty Dancing weekends with group dance lessons, a tour of the filming locations, and a watermelon toss. The resort even features the Virginia Cottage (or “Baby’s Cabin”), where the Houseman Family stayed in the film. It’s also where “Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner!“
3. THE PLAZA HOTEL // NEW YORK
Getty Images
New York City’s Plaza Hotel is a famed shooting location for many Hollywood movies, including Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) stayed at the luxury hotel when he was separated from the rest of his family (again) in this 1992 sequel. The legendary hotel also served as the new home for Mick Dundee (Paul Hogan) when he came to New York from Australia in Crocodile Dundee (1986), as well as the location where William Miller (Patrick Fugit) finds Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), who almost overdosed at the end of Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous (2000).
Other movies that were filmed at The Plaza include North by Northwest (1959), Arthur (1981), American Hustle (2013), and The Great Gatsby (2013).
4. BEVERLY WILSHIRE // BEVERLY HILLS
Beverly Wilshire
The primary filming location for Pretty Woman (1990) was the historic Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The luxury hotel even offers guests a glamorous “Pretty Woman For The Day” package, which starts at $15,000 and features a stay in the “Pretty Woman Suite” (the hotel’s Presidential Suite), a personal shopper on Rodeo Drive, a couple’s massage, a “shoeless” picnic with cuisine inspired by the movie, and a night at the Los Angeles Opera. The Beverly Wilshire Hotel also made appearances in Clueless (1995), Sex and the City: The Movie (2008), and Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971).
5. HOTEL DEGLI ORAFI // FLORENCE
Hotel Degli Orafi
If you’d like to stay in the beautiful and romantic room from James Ivory’s A Room with a View (1985), ask for Room 414 on the fourth floor in the Hotel Degli Orafi in Florence, Italy. It’s true, the room has an amazing view of the Arno river and the Ponte Vecchio.
6. CHATEAU MARMONT // LOS ANGELES
Getty Images
Sofia Coppola shot her fourth film, 2010’s Somewhere, almost entirely on location at Los Angeles’s Chateau Marmont, a luxury hotel known for its celebrity guests and residents. In fact, the film’s star, Stephen Dorff, stayed at the hotel during production to get into the mindset of his character and to easily get to set every day.
“I was living in Paris, and I was homesick,” Coppola explained to LA Weekly of why she shot the film at the hotel. “In France, it’s so different, and I was thinking about L.A., how it seems like our whole pop culture is so interested in celebrity, and now people all know about the Chateau Marmont. There have been iconic L.A. movies that I always loved, and I thought, ‘We haven’t had one showing today, this era of L.A.’ ”
Many L.A.-based artists and writers such as Billy Wilder, Hunter S. Thompson, Annie Leibovitz, Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Tim Burton have all stayed and worked within the Chateau Marmont at one time during their careers, while The Doors’ frontman Jim Morrison took up a brief residence at the hotel. Unfortunately, John Belushi also died of a drug overdose in one of its rooms in 1982. At the end of La La Land, Oscar winner Emma Stone’s Mia Dolan finds herself at the legendary hotel.
7. CAESARS PALACE // LAS VEGAS
The Hangover (2009) was shot almost entirely on location at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas (and no, Caesar didn’t really live there). Aside from the Wolfpack’s villa—which was a sound stage in Hollywood—a majority of the hotel and casino were used for filming, including the front desk, lobby, entrance driveway, pools, corridors, elevators, and the infamous rooftop, where Doug (Justin Bartha) was found at the end of the comedy. Other movies that were filmed at Caesars Palace includeRain Man(1988), Iron Man (2008), Dreamgirls (2006), and The Big Short (2015).
8. FONTAINEBLEAU MIAMI BEACH // MIAMI BEACH
Fontainebleau Miami Beach/Facebook
The Fontainebleau Miami Beach is featured at the beginning of Goldfinger (1965) and is where James Bond (Sean Connery) first met the villainous Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe). It was also the location of the iconic scene where Bond discovers the dead body of the character Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton) after the lethal henchman Oddjob (Harold Sakata) suffocated her by painting her in gold.
In addition, the luxury hotel was also the setting for Jerry Lewis’s The Bellboy (1960) and Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach (1988).
9. PLAZA HOTEL // LAS VEGAS, NEW MEXICO
Historic Plaza Hotel/Facebook
Founded in 1882, the Plaza Hotel is an historical landmark in Las Vegas, New Mexico. The Coen brothers renamed the hotel The Eagle Pass Hotel in No Country For Old Men (2007). The hotel is where the heart-stopping shootout between Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) and Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) took place.
10. TIMBERLINE LODGE // MOUNT HOOD NATIONAL FOREST, OREGON
Just outside of Portland, Oregon and near the peak of Mount Hood rests the Timberline Lodge, which was featured in The Shining (1980). While its interiors were filmed at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England, director Stanley Kubrick used the Timberline Lodge for the exteriors of The Overlook Hotel. Although the hotel doesn’t have a Room 237, the hotel’s most requested room is number 217—the mysterious and haunted room from Stephen King’s best-selling novel, on which the film is based. King also used the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado as inspiration for the book.
Today, the Timberline Lodge is a popular vacation spot for its amazing ski slopes and snowboarding. There’s also an annual Overlook Film Festival, which showcases the strangest and brightest films in horror.
11. JUVET LANDSCAPE HOTEL // VALLDAL, NORWAY
Knut Bry/Juvet Landscape Hotel
Located in the side of a mountain in northern Norway, the modernist Juvet Landscape Hotel was the filming location for tech billionaire Nathan Bateman’s (Oscar Isaac) isolated home in 2015’s Ex Machina. While Norwegian architects Jensen & Skodvin designed the hotel with the idea of simplistic modern design in a tranquil setting, producers chose the scenic location to emphasize the character’s power and good taste.
“We wanted it to be among nature, we wanted it to be stunning, and we wanted it to be exclusive,” Ex Machina’s production designer, Mark Digby, told Vanity Fair. “We felt someone as powerful, as rich as this, and as intellectually competent as him, would have a good sense of design.”
One of the greatest comedies in American cinema history, a number of scenes from Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1958)—which follows two musicians (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) who flee town after witnessing a mob hit and later disguise themselves as women to join an all-female band—was filmed at the Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, California. The historic hotel, which appeared as the Seminole Ritz Hotel in Miami, was selected because it fit the film’s 1920s era setting with its Victorian architecture.
Fun Fact: Author L. Frank Baum wrote three books in the Wonderful Wizard of Oz series at the Hotel del Coronado during the early 20th century. He designed elements of the Emerald City based on the hotel.
In In Bruges (2008), Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) are sent to Belgium and hole up at the Relais Bourgondisch Cruyce, which is located at the intersection of two canals in Brugge, until the two hit men get further instructions from their crime boss (Ralph Fiennes). The boutique hotel is considered one of the most romantic hotels in Europe, while Lonely Planet even called the bed-and-breakfast, “The very epitome of a Bruges experience.”
14. MILLENNIUM BILTMORE HOTEL // LOS ANGELES
Millennium Biltmore Hotel
First opening its doors in 1923, Hollywood has long had a fascination with Los Angeles’s Millennium Biltmore Hotel. The historic hotel has appeared in a number of big movie productions, from The Sting (1973) and Chinatown (1974), which filmed in its Gold Room and Limousine/VIP Ramp, respectively, to Ghostbusters (1984) and Beverly Hills Cop (1984), which used its Music Room and Rendezvous Court, respectively, as filming locations. The hotel has also appeared in many other movies, including Bachelor Party (1984), Splash (1984), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), and Cruel Intentions (1999).
As legend has it, the Millennium Biltmore Hotel was also the last place Elizabeth Short (a.k.a. the Black Dahlia) was seen before her dead body was discovered bisected in a vacant lot in 1947.
The whirlwind romance between Augustus (Ansel Elgort) and Hazel (Shailene Woodley) in The Fault in Our Stars (2014) took place at the Hotel de Filosoof in Amsterdam, where author John Green wrote the novel on which the film is based. Although the couple stayed at the hotel, its interiors were actually filmed at the American Hotel across town.
Writers strikes have a major impact on TV and film production. Depending on the strike’s length, dozens of film and TV projects can be suspended, delayed, or even cancelled, and rebounding when a strike is over isn’t exactly easy, either.
Numerous TV series have had to return from strike to a kind of creative reboot, from rewriting single episodes to devising entirely new finales. With another strike potentially on the horizon, we’re looking back at eight shows that changed course due to a strike.
1. BREAKING BAD
An enduring legend about Breaking Badsprung up around the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike. According to that version of events, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) was originally set to be killed off by the show’s writers, but when the strike occurred and forced the show to cut its first season from nine to seven episodes, some hard thinking about the show’s structure led to the decision to keep Pinkman around. It turns out that’s only partially true, as creator Vince Gilligan has since noted that he’d decided not to let Paul go by the second episode of the show. The strike did fundamentally alter the show’s overall plot progression, though.
Those final two episodes in season one would have originally given us two fast-paced hours in which Walter White (Bryan Cranston) would have very quickly become the drug kingpin known as Heisenberg. With the strike standing in the way of that, Gilligan and company threw those episodes out and took a more careful approach to bringing out Heisenberg. That meant a slower pace, but an awesome three-episode arc to kick off the second season.
2. STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
The 1988 Writers Guild of America strike was the longest in the organization’s history, and its long run cut into the production of a number of series, among them the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. As a result of the strike’s duration, the season order was shortened from 26 episodes to 22, and with a shorter production window, the show went looking for script sources beyond the standard writers room. As a result, the season premiere episode “The Child” was adapted from a script originally written for the aborted Star Trek: Phase II TV series in the late 1970s. Producers also began mining the “slush pile” of submitted spec scripts from outside writers and found “The Measure of a Man,” by attorney-turned-writer Melinda M. Snodgrass. The script became the ninth episode of the season, and Snodgrass was hired as the show’s story editor.
3. HEROES
After starting off red hot with huge ratings and critical acclaim, the second season of the comic book-inspired NBC series Heroes suffered a ratings decline and attacks from fans due to new characters that took time away from the old ones, a time travel storyline that seemed to drag on too long, and romances that pulled attention way from the show’s super-powered action. It got so bad that creator Tim Kring admitted mistakes in an Entertainment Weekly interview. But the writers strike offered Kring and company a chance to rethink and restructure.
The strike limited the show’s second season to just 11 episodes, and sensing that a change needed to come, Kring reshot the ending of that season’s eventual finale, ”Powerless,” in order to scrap a planned plague storyline that would have made up season two’s second half. The planned fourth “volume” of the series, “Villains,” became the third, and the show carried on for two more seasons.
4. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
The hit sci-fi series only had one episode of its final “Season 4.5” run completed when the 2007-08 strike hit, and the situation felt so dire at the time that the cast was convinced during filming that said episode—“Sometimes A Great Notion”—would be the show’s last. The series did return to produce 10 more hours to end its run, and, like Heroes, the strike actually gave creator Ronald D. Moore a chance to rethink the planned ending of the show.
“There was a different ending that we had, it was all about Ellen aboard the Colony,” Moore told io9. “She was sort of turned by Cavil, because she found out that Tigh had impregnated Caprica Six, and that deeply embittered her. And she sort of became dedicated to the idea of destroying Galactica and the fleet out of revenge. And [she and Cavil] got Hera, and then the final confrontation became very personalized between Tigh versus Ellen, and should they forgive.”
“That was the story, generally speaking. We didn’t have a lot more than just what I spun out to you, when the writer’s strike hit. Over the course of the writer’s strike, I rethought about it and thought, ‘That’s not going to do it. It’s not epic enough. It’s not interesting enough.’ That’s when we decided to start over, and reinvent the last arc of the show.”
Moore and his writers ultimately devised a different series finale, featuring the daring rescue of Hera Agathon and the discovery of our prehistoric Earth.
5. PUSHING DAISIES
Pushing Daisies/Facebook
When it premiered in the fall of 2007, Bryan Fuller’s inventive fantasy series was hailed as one of the most original new shows on TV, and developed a rabid fan base eager to learn more about the love story between the Pie Maker (Lee Pace) and the Dead Girl (Anna Friel). Initial enthusiasm for the series led to a full season order in October 2007, just weeks before a writers strike was declared. This meant that the series had to halt production with only nine of its 22 ordered episodes completed. Fuller rewrote episode nine to serve as a season finale, leaving lots of loose ends to entice viewers back. It worked. Pushing Daisies got a second season, but unfortunately didn’t get a third.
6. SCRUBS
The 2007-08 strike interrupted production of the NBC medical sitcom, leaving it hanging in the midst of what was, at the time, expected to be its final season. Creator Bill Lawrence was offered the chance to film an alternate final episode to serve as a series finale should the strike limit the seventh season, but Lawrence declined, hoping he would eventually get to do things his way. When the strike ended, the future of Scrubs was still uncertain. Season seven ended at just 11 episodes, but the show continued to shoot episodes for season eight even as it no longer officially had a network. Ultimately, ABC picked up the series for an eighth season in the spring of 2008, and Scrubs finished its run on that network after a ninth season featuring new lead characters was also produced.
7. 30 ROCK
Tina Fey’s Emmy-winning comedy shut down production during the 2007-08 strike, but the biggest creative consequence of that break wasn’t felt until 2010. While the show was shut down in early 2008, the cast performed a live episode as a benefit at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City. When the strike ended and production resumed, creator Tina Fey and co-showrunner Robert Carlock began having serious discussions with NBC about a live episode broadcast. Though it was originally planned for season four, the episode was rescheduled for season five. Titled “Live Show,” it was finally performed (twice, once for the east coast and once for the west) on October 14, 2010.
8. DR. HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the musical webseries from Joss Whedon, wasn’t so much altered by the 2007-08 strike as it was born out of it. Whedon conceived the series, which he calls his “midlife crisis,” during the strike, and actually first mentioned it to co-star Felicia Day on the WGA picket line.
“I asked if you’d seen The Guild. You didn’t have to say anything! But you said, ‘Oh yeah, I saw it and loved it,’” Day recalled in 2015. “You said ‘I’m actually working on a supervillain musical’ and I pooped myself. Later I got an email that was just, ‘Can you sing?’ Signed, ‘J.’ Then I pooped again.”
Whedon financed the series himself, and it was produced in just five months. Today, it remains an early example of the reach and profitability of web-distributed programming.
Thousands upon thousands of films have been released in the United States since the dawn of cinema, which means it’s only natural for some to fall through the cracks, even classic ones. Today, movie studios guard their products with armies of copyright lawyers intent on preserving every possible aspect for potential commercialization, but it wasn’t always so regimented, and as a result thousands of films are in the public domain. Some are studio releases with unrenewed copyrights, others are independent productions with errors in the credits, and still more are the impetus behind some interesting legal proceedings. From horror icons to silent classics, here are 11 films and their public domain stories.
1. THE GOLD RUSH (1925)
One of Charlie Chaplin’s most acclaimed works (and a favorite of Chaplin himself), The Gold Rush actually exists in two versions, one of which is entirely public domain. The copyright renewal for the original film was never filed, meaning that version became public domain in 1953. However, in 1942 Chaplin himself reedited and re-released the film with a new score and recorded narration. While the original footage, and therefore the original film in its entirety, are still public domain, Chaplin’s additions were copyrighted, and the copyright was later renewed.
2. THE GENERAL (1926)
Perhaps the greatest of Buster Keaton’s legendary silent comedies, The General shares The Gold Rush’s slightly complex release history. The original Keaton film entered the public domain in 1956, when the original copyright expired, but another version exists. In 1953, film distributor Raymond Rohauer re-released the film with new edits, music, and an introduction. The Rohauer copyright was later renewed, but as with The Gold Rush, only the additional elements are under copyright. Keaton’s original remains public domain.
3. A STAR IS BORN (1937)
There are now three versions of A Star Is Born (with a fourth on the way in 2018), but the original is the only one in the public domain. Originally produced by the legendary David O. Selznick under his Selznick International Pictures banner, the film bounced around quite a bit in years after its release. As Selznick International Pictures dissolved, the rights to the film went to financier John Hay Whitney, who then sold them to Film Classics, Inc. in 1943. When its theatrical rerun potential declined, Film Classics put the film up for sale, and producer Edward L. Alperson bought it, hoping to remake it. Alperson then sold the rights again in 1953 to Warner Bros., which then produced a 1954 remake starring Judy Garland and James Mason. Somewhere in all that hand-changing, the film’s copyright renewal was forgotten.
4. HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940)
His Girl Friday is one of the most famous films in the public domain—but with an interesting loophole. The play on which the film is based, 1928’s The Front Page, was copyrighted and renewed, which means it’s still protected and therefore so is any work directly based on it. This makes His Girl Friday practically unusable in terms of free exhibition, because you’d need permission from the copyright owners of The Front Page, even though the film is, technically, public domain.
5. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)
The Christmas classic might be the most famous public domain movie of all time, but you may have noticed it only airs on one TV network (NBC) every holiday season, which isn’t exactly public domain treatment for such a sought-after seasonal movie. That’s because, while technically still in the public domain, it does enjoy certain copyright protections now that it didn’t in the decades when it became a constantly re-running holiday staple on public television. In 1974, the initial 28-year copyright on the film expired when owner Republic Pictures failed to renew it, and so the film entered the public domain. In 1993, though, Republic used a new Supreme Court ruling to essentially reclaim the film by asserting their copyright to the original story on which the film is based—“The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern. Using this and their copyright to the film’s music, Republic was able to reassert a degree of ownership over the film, and in 1994 they granted NBC a long-term deal to broadcast the film each Christmas, which continues today. Technically, the film itself is still public domain, so if you wanted to completely reedit it and change the music, you could … but who wants that?
6. MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS (1950)
March of the Wooden Soldiers is a particularly interesting case, because depending on who you ask, it might not actually be in the public domain. The film was originally Babes In Toyland, a 1934 Laurel and Hardy vehicle based on the Victor Herbert operetta of the same name. In 1950, after some financial juggling, the original film was licensed to distributor Lippert Pictures for a re-release. Lippert made some cuts to the original film and retitled it March of the Wooden Soldiers, believing that a title suggesting war would earn more box office bucks. In the process, though, Lippert failed to add a copyright notice for the new title. The copyright for the original Babes release was renewed, but the copyright for March never existed, leading some distributors (and now YouTubers) to continue putting that cut of the film out as a public domain release.
7. THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960)
Like many of cult movie master Roger Corman’s films, The Little Shop of Horrors was made cheap and fast (Corman apparently only shot for two days). It was also made with only the initial theatrical release earnings in mind. Since Corman didn’t see the potential for the film’s market beyond that theatrical run, he apparently didn’t copyright the film. Two decades and countless TV broadcasts later, it inspired the hit musical of the same name, which was in turn made into the hit 1986 film.
8. CHARADE (1963)
Stanley Donen’s classic thriller is still praised today for its screenplay and its Hitchcockian filmmaking, but an early error made it one of the most high-profile films to ever enter the public domain. The final version of the film bears the notice “MCMLXIII BY UNIVERSAL PICTURES COMPANY, INC. AND STANLEY DONEN FILMS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.” Somehow, no one working at the print lab or at Universal noticed the lack of the word “Copyright” or the copyright emblem, and so the film fell into the public domain immediately upon release.
9. MCLINTOCK! (1963)
McLintock!, one of five films to feature the iconic partnership of John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, is both a public domain film and the subject of an interesting public domain court case. The initial copyright, held by Wayne’s company Batjac Productions, expired in 1991. In 1996, Batjac attempted to register copyrights on two drafts of the McLintock! screenplay, and filed suit that same year against GoodTimes Home Video, a company that began releasing VHS tapes of the film as a result of its public domain status in 1993. Batjac’s argument was that, since it owned the screenplay, the screenplay drafts should be copyrighted and the film should therefore fall under the screenplay copyright. A U.S. District Court ruled that the release of the film itself “effected the publication of the unpublished screenplay to the extent that the screenplay was incorporated into the film,” and denied Batjac’s claim. The decision was later upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court in 1998.
10. MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE (1966)
Manos is famously bad, so much so that almost no one had heard of the film until the cult TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000 mercilessly mocked it in a 1993 episode. That episode vaulted the film into the public imagination, and it has since gained considerable fame among bad movie fans. The original film features no copyright notice, placing it in the public domain, but the story’s gotten more complicated in recent years.
In 2011, film school graduate and collector Ben Solovey discovered an unedited work print of the film and began raising funds to restore it. He later copyrighted his restoration, which was released on Blu-ray in 2015. Joe Warren, son of Manos writer and director Harold Warren, disputes that copyright and the film’s public domain status, based on a copyright notice filed on the original screenplay, which Warren discovered in 2013. The dispute still isn’t resolved, and Warren recently filed to trademark the title of the film, putting a number of fan projects in jeopardy. As of February 2017, a fundraising effort was underway to challenge Warren’s trademark claim.
11. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
In order to comply with copyright laws of the 1960s, a film had to display its release year, its copyright owner, and the copyright logo (or the word “Copyright”) somewhere on the final release cut. When The Walter Reade Organization agreed to distribute Night of the Living Dead, it was called Night of the Flesh Eaters. A legal dispute with another similarly named film necessitated a title change, but when the change was made, the distributor failed to include the copyright notice on the print, so the film immediately fell into the public domain.
Additional Sources The Public Domain: How to Find & Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art & More, by Stephen Fishman, J.D.
The New Poverty Row: Independent Filmmakers as Distributors, by Fred Olen Ray
Night of the Living Dead: Behind the Scenes of the Most Terrifying Zombie Movie Ever, by Joe Kane
“Forgotten Faces: Why Some of Our Cinema Heritage Is Part of the Public Domain,” by David Pierce (Film History, Vol. 19, No. 20)
As far as action (and Christmas) movies go, John McTiernan’s Die Hard is damn-near perfect. It says a lot about a Bruce Willis movie when Bruce Willis isn’t the one delivering the worst one-liners (that honor belongs to Clarence Gilyard Jr., who plays computer nerd Theo—a.k.a. “The quarterback is toast!” guy). Which isn’t to say that the movie is flawless, or without plot holes. But thanks to Steven E. De Souza, the film’s co-writer, we now know the answer to one of the questions that has been nagging us for nearly 30 years.
In one of the movie’s most memorable scenes, Willis—as NYPD detective John McClane—stumbles upon criminal mastermind Hans Gruber (played by Alan Rickman, in his feature film debut) who puts on a pretty good American accent to try and earn the trust of McClane, who is messing up the whole hostage situation Gruber has created. The two men kick back, smoke a cigarette, and chat it up like Nakatomi Plaza isn’t in the midst of a terrorist takedown. But at some point in the conversation, McClane realizes that Gruber is not good ol’ “Bill Clay” from the 29th floor.
After McClane hands Gruber a gun, it becomes clear to the audience that the wily detective knew he was being played. But what tipped him off? Gruber’s watch! What watch? Well, that’s a good question.
At a screening event for The Running Man, De Souza explained that a deleted scene would have made that clear. “There was originally a scene at the beginning of the film where Hans Gruber and his team all synchronize their watches, and the audience sees that every one of them is wearing the exact same watch,” wrote CinemaBlend’s Dirk Libbey. “As John McClane begins taking down the bad guys in the building, he notices this fact when searching the bodies, so when he sees Hans Gruber’s watch, when handing him a cigarette, he knows he’s dealing with another one.”
For total Die Hard diehards, the reason why the scene was scrapped is interesting, too: The ambulance that appears at the end of the movie as Gruber’s planned getaway vehicle was a last-minute decision on the set. Had the deleted scene played out as shot, the ambulance would be nowhere in sight—thus confusing viewers. So McTiernan opted to cut McClane’s timepiece revelation instead. Can we get a yippee–ki–yay?
Josh Schwartz—who had never run a TV show before—was only 26 years old when he brought the idea of a nighttime teen soap to Fox, making him the youngest showrunner in the history of network television. Fox picked up the pilot and ordered an unprecedented 27 episodes for the first season (the final season had only 16).
The O.C. premiered on August 5, 2003, early enough in the season that a lot of competing shows were still in reruns. It followed the lives of a group of affluent teens (and their parents) living in Newport Beach, California. But unlike predecessors like Melrose Place and Beverly Hills, 90210, The O.C. focused more on character than plot, and featured characters who were outsiders, such as Ryan Atwood, played by Ben McKenzie. The show was also self-aware in its humor.
The O.C. ran for four seasons until Fox canceled it after a low-rated third season, which ended in 2006 with the producers killing off one of its main characters. On February 22, 2007—just over 10 years ago—the series took its final bow.
Years later, The O.C. is remembered for leading to a slate of California-based reality shows (like Laguna Beach and The Real Housewives of Orange County) and other meta nighttime soaps (like Desperate Housewives), the creation of Chrismmukah, and for the show’s killer soundtrack, which helped launch indie rock music into the mainstream. Here are 14 sunny facts about the series.
1. THE PRODUCERS USED A TROJAN HORSE TECHNIQUE TO CONVINCE FOX TO DO THE SHOW.
Josh Schwartz told The New York Times that he was a fan of canceled-too-soon shows like Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, and My So-Called Life. “You can’t tell a network that’s what you want to make because they’ll just say, ‘Those shows lasted 15 episodes and they’re off the air and we don’t want them.’ But if instead you go to Fox and say, ‘This is your new 90210’—that’s something they can get excited about.”
Schwartz and fellow executive producer Stephanie Savage pitched Fox the concept of a juvenile delinquent from Chino (Ryan Atwood) infiltrating the glamour of Orange County’s gated communities. “And really what we hoped we had were these characters that were a little bit funnier and more soulful and different and specific than the kinds you usually see in that genre,” Schwartz explained. “They would be the soldiers inside our Trojan horse.”
2. INITIALLY, FOX WAS CONCERNED ABOUT SETH COHEN’S PERSONALITY.
Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) wasn’t as hunky as Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie), which concerned the network because “this was a character that might hue too closely to the Freaks and Geeks/Undeclared world of shorter-lived teen soaps, or teen shows,” Schwartz told TIME. “Then Fox had their eye on it, and I was always told, ‘If Ryan is the Luke Perry, then who is the Jason Priestley?’ I was like, ‘Welp, we’re not doing 90210.'” But Seth’s sardonic nerdiness ended up becoming a cultural touchstone for the show. “So that went away when we cast Adam Brody, who came in and was really funny and charming, but the network also felt like would be someone who girls would find appealing,” Schwartz said. “But that was a big risk at the time.”
3. THE SHOW’S TITLE CAME FROM SCHWARTZ’S COLLEGE DAYS.
Schwartz grew up in Rhode Island but attended college at the University of Southern California. “When I was in college, all these kids from Orange County, they’d be like, ‘I’m from the O.C.,’ as if they are from the L.B.C. [Long Beach County] and it was the ‘hood. And I always found that very funny even if it was unintentional on their part,” he told HitFix.
As Luke Ward (Chris Carmack) beat up Ryan, Karate Kid-style, at a bonfire on the beach during the pilot, he uttered the now-famous catchphrase, “Welcome to The O.C., bitch.” Schwartz had no idea the line would endure. “I started hearing stories from friends who were working as day traders on the floor in New York and when they would close a sale they’d be like, ‘Welcome to the O.C., bitch!’ And throw the money at each other.”
4. THE PRODUCERS WORRIED “CALIFORNIA” WAS TOO POPULAR TO USE AS A THEME SONG.
Schwartz told HitFix he thought everybody already knew the Phantom Planet song “California,” which became the show’s theme song. “It had already been on the radio. And so we thought, ‘We can’t use that song, it’s already out there,’” he said. They decided to edit the song into a “sizzle reel,” something they had to show the network before they finished the pilot. “And what we found was nobody really knew the song,” Schwartz said. “Everybody’s like, ‘What’s that song? That song is incredible.’ And we realized that just because me and [producer] Steph [Savage] and some of the writers had known that song, that song didn’t really get played that much outside of L.A. and KROQ or whatever at the time. So we’re like, ‘Okay, people don’t really know that song.’”
5. THE MUSIC BECAME ITS OWN CHARACTER.
“I always viewed it as wanting the music to feel like an extension of the emotional lives of the characters, which I guess sounds kind of pretentious,” Schwartz told TIME. “When I was sitting down to write the pilot, there was this Joseph Arthur song that plays at the end of the pilot, and when I heard that song, it was like, ‘Oh, okay, this is how I want the end of the show to feel.’ That it was less about the place and more about how our characters were feeling.” He said the music they licensed just happened to be the kind of bands and artists the cast and crew were listening to at the time, which was indie rock. “It was cheaper to license, so that was a happy accident.”
Music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas had a process for getting music on the show. “I would send out weekly [compilation CDs] with any music that I felt was in the world, which then we discussed at length,” Patsavas told MTV. “If someone responded to a certain band, I’d send Josh or Stephanie or one of the editors more music. Then, I’d pitch for scenes and moments. How are we telling the story? How do these bands and songs and lyrics support the drama?” Eventually, the show started promoting music from bigger bands like U2 and Coldplay.
6. THE CREATOR OF ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT WANTED THE CAST TO MAKE A CAMEO ON HIS SHOW.
The O.C. premiered a few months before Arrested Development, which is also set in Orange County and also aired on Fox. One of the comedy series’ running jokes is that a character will say “The O.C.” and Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) will correct them and say, “Don’t call it that.”
Schwartz told HitFix that Mitch Hurwitz, creator of Arrested Development, “asked if our actors could come on his show to play themselves as the stars of The O.C. I was worried that was one layer of meta too many, so I said no.”
7. THE SEASON 2 FINALE LED TO AN ICONIC SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE PARODY.
Spoiler alert: Season two ends with a rough and tumble fight between Ryan and his brother, Trey (played by Logan Marshall-Green). It looks as if Trey will kill his brother, so Marissa intervenes. She grabs Trey’s gun and shoots and kills Trey to protect Ryan. As the events unfurl, Imogen Heap’s melancholic “Hide and Seek” plays over the scene. Almost two years after the episode aired, SNL’s Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, Kristen Wiig, Fred Armisen, Jason Sudeikis, and guest host Shia LaBeouf took turns shooting each other in the digital short. The parody currently has more YouTube views than the finale clip.
8. SANDY COHEN WAS THE ANCHOR OF THE SHOW.
Besides highlighting the lives of teens, Schwartz also wanted to use the moral and wise Sandy Cohen (played by Peter Gallagher) to project what a good father looked like. “One of the things very early on that we realized was that the biggest wish fulfillment aspect of the show wasn’t the big houses and it wasn’t the cool cars or clothes,” Schwartz told HitFix. “It was this idea of the Cohen family and having Sandy as a father. There were so many kids out there that would love to have been adopted by a family like the Cohens, and would love to have a father figure in their life like Sandy.”
9. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MARISSA AND ALEX MADE EXECUTIVES UNCOMFORTABLE.
During the second season, Marissa dates bisexual Alex (Olivia Wilde), who runs the local music venue The Bait Shop. The “Nipplegate” Janet Jackson Super Bowl had recently occurred, which led to network conservatism. “We had a whole episode where every kiss between them was cut out, just so I could get one kiss in ‘The Rainy Day Women‘ episode,” Schwartz told ESPN. “I was literally on the phone with Broadcast Standards and Practices bartering for kisses. It was a battle, and the powers that be are part of a big corporation, and were going in front of congress at the time. Every network was. So, I understand they are all good people who were under a lot of pressure. But they wanted that story wrapped up as fast as humanly possible and Alex moving on out of The O.C.” The network got their wish—Wilde left the show mid-season. “But Olivia is a superstar,” Schwartz said. “She was great in the part. I would have her back on the show in a heartbeat.”
10. THE O.C. MADE DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE FAMOUS.
The Seattle-based indie band gained notoriety when Seth Cohen kept talking about how much he loved the band. A few of the band’s songs popped up on the show, too. In April 2005, the band appeared as themselves and performed at The Bait Shop. “If anything, it was really a point of self-awareness for us,” the band’s bassist, Nick Harmer, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “We were like, ‘You mean, there’s some credibility that the character gets for saying our band name? It’s not a laughing point? They’re not making fun of us?’” A few months later, their major-label debut, Plans, was released and ended up going platinum and being nominated for a Grammy.
11. TATE DONOVAN SAID SOME OF THE YOUNG CAST MEMBERS WERE “DIFFICULT.”
In an interview with Vulture for the show’s 10th anniversary, Tate Donovan—who played Marissa’s father, Jimmy, and directed some episodes—said that, “By the time I started to direct, the kids on the show had developed a really bad attitude. They just didn’t want to be doing the show anymore. It was pretty tough; they were very tough to work with. The adults were all fantastic, total pros. But you know how it is with young actors—and I know because I was one of them once. When you achieve a certain amount of success, you want to be doing something else. I mean, one of them turned to me and said, ‘This show is ruining my film career,’ and he had never done a film before. You just can’t help but sort of think that your life and your career are going to go straight up, up, up. So they were very difficult.”
12. TURKEY ADAPTED THE O.C. INTO A SHOW.
In 2013, Turkey created a version of The O.C. for Star TV called Med Cezir (The Tide). Like the American version, it featured attractive teens and their attractive parents ensnared in weekly melodrama.
13. THE PRODUCERS BANNED THE CHARACTERS FROM SMOKING.
In the pilot, Marissa and Ryan meet-cute in his driveway. Ryan is smoking a cigarette when Marissa saunters over to him and asks for one. “That is the last time any characters, or at least teenage characters, smoke a cigarette on broadcast television,” Schwartz told MTV. “It was such a battle to get that scene to stay in the show. We had to make sure that at the end of the scene, when Sandy comes down the driveway and breaks them up, he says, ‘No smoking in my house!’ And they put out the cigarette. That was it; you could never smoke again.”
14. TATE DONOVAN AGREES: JIMMY COOPER IS A TERRIBLE FATHER.
Donovan played the father of Marissa and Kaitlin Cooper. He divorces their mom, Julie, and becomes both an absentee and negligent father. Entertainment Weekly named Jimmy as one of TV’s worst dads, a sentiment Donovan agreed with. “We were shooting the show, and it starts to air, and my sister, who is the mother of three teenagers, calls me up and goes, ‘You know, you’re the worst dad of all time. You’re such a terrible father I can’t believe it.’ And I go, ‘Really? I am?’” Donovan told Vulture. “And so I go up to Josh [Schwartz] and Stephanie [Savage] and say, ‘I’m a really bad dad,’ and they’re like, ‘No, you’re not, you’re a great dad!’ I was not a great dad. I was letting my kid do whatever she wants. I left her drunk on the steps. What kind of parents don’t notice their daughter is drunk and passed out? I kept telling them I was a bad father and they said, ‘No, no.’ Ten years later I’m on this list [of bad TV dads] and I feel vindicated.”
Although Starbucks is a Seattle-based coffee chain in the United States, it’s grown globally since it opened its first stores outside of North America in Japan in 1996. With more than 23,000 locations all over the world, Starbucks has to cater to local and cultural tastes overseas. Here are 11 bizarre international Starbucks menu items from around the world.
1. AUSSIE BEEF PIE
Starbucks Australia serves up traditional Aussie Beef Pie made with a savory pie crust and quality minced beef. It also comes with tomato sauce for dipping. The coffee chain also offers Yo-Yo Biscuits, which are shortbread cookies with a butter vanilla cream filling and powdered sugar.
2. RED BEAN GREEN TEA FRAPPUCCINO
The Red Bean Green Tea Frappuccino is one of the most popular blended drinks at Starbucks in China and Pacific Asia locations. It’s basically a Green Tea Frappuccino with sweetened whole red beans scooped on top. Starbucks has featured the Red Bean Green Tea Frappuccino every summer since 2012, and it can even be paired with a matching muffin.
It’s Munchin’ Time! Munch on Starbucks’ Hojicha+Tea Jelly & Red Bean+Green Tea Frappuccino® at Glorietta 4, 5 & 6750 pic.twitter.com/rFvmarkb
The Red Bean Cream Frappuccino is a seasonal blended drink available at Starbucks in South Korea. It’s made from sweetened condensed milk and Starbucks Frappuccino Roast blended together with ice. The beverage is later topped off with crunchy granola and red bean paste.
4. BUTTERMILK PANCAKES
You can get breakfast with an “American twist” at Starbucks in the United Kingdom. The coffee chain offers two lightly toasted buttermilk pancakes served with your choice of very berry compote or maple honey sauce toppings. Interestingly, Starbucks in the U.S. doesn’t serve pancakes at all. So much for that American twist.
While most other green teas from around the world are simply steamed, hojicha is a Japanese green tea that is roasted over charcoal in a porcelain pot. This process gives hojicha its unique color and toasty, creamy taste. Hojicha is poured over Earl Grey tea jelly and blended together with Frappuccino Roast, milk, and ice. Introduced as a seasonal blended beverage in 2012, Hojicha Frappuccino with Earl Grey Jelly is only available at Starbucks in Japan, along with the Chocolate Brownie Matcha Green Tea Frappuccino and Tiramisu Frappuccino.
6. GRILLED PINEAPPLE & CHICKEN TURKISH BREAD
Starbucks Hong Kong offers grilled pineapple and chicken breast with Teriyaki sauce, mozzarella cheese, and caramelized onions served on Turkish bread.
7. MAPLE MACCHIATO
The Maple Macchiato is made with steamed milk, sweet vanilla syrup, and espresso. It’s topped with a criss-cross drizzle of “real Canadian Maple Syrup found from the Beauce-Appalache region of Quebec.” It’s only available at Starbucks in Canada, but some people from the U.S. are willing to make the trip up North for the Maple Macchiato.
8. DULCE DE LECHE GRANIZADO FRAPPUCCINO
Starbucks Argentina blends Dulce de Leche sauce and Frappuccino Roast with chocolate chips, milk, and ice to make a Granizado, which is a treat similar to a snow cone. It’s then topped with whipped cream and a caramel drizzle.
9. THREE MUSHROOM AND EMMENTAL CHEESE ON A VEGAN ROLL
Wake up to a portobello and shiitake mushroom breakfast sandwich at Starbucks in the Philippines. It’s served on a vegan multigrain roll, but also includes emmental cheese, which is confusing and definitely not vegan. Starbucks Philippines also offers a Spam, jalapeño, egg, and cheddar breakfast sandwich served on a rye roll or bagel.
10. ALGARROBINA FRAPPUCCINO
Introduced to Starbucks Peru in 2011, the Algarrobina Frappuccino features chocolate chips, Frappuccino Roast, Mocha, milk, ice, and algarrobina syrup, which is a local delicacy made from prosopis nigra or black carob tree. It’s an acquired taste that is described as bitter instead of sweet.
Nobody really likes fruitcake in the West, but it’s a very popular treat in the East. During the holiday season, Starbucks rolls out the Christmas Panettone Latte in various countries in the South Pacific, such as New Zealand, Singapore, China, and the Philippines. Inspired by traditional Italian fruitcake, Christmas Panettone Latte combines notes of Italian Christmas sauce with espresso and steamed milk, topped with whipped cream and mixed dried apples, oranges, and cranberries. It’s described as having bread and butter flavors mixed with coffee.
There are an estimated 400,000 types of flowering plant species in the world, and new species are discovered every day. But some species are far rarer than others, either due to their specialized growing needs or threats to their habitats (often both). Here are nine flowers that each grow in a relatively limited location, and are usually only glimpsed outside of that place with the help of botanists or special exotic gardens.
1. KOKIA COOKEI
The deciduous tree known as the Kokia cookei (pictured above) is one of the rarest plant species in the world. When it was first discovered in the 1860s, only three trees were known to exist in the world, and those were all found in the lowlands of the western Moloka’I island of the Hawaiian Islands. The flower only lives on today due to grafts with other plants.
The Gibraltar Campion is very rare. Growing up to a foot high, the pink, white, or pale violet flowers are found only in Gibraltar. It was thought to be extinct until 1994, when some specimens were discovered at the Upper Rock Nature Reserve in Gibraltar. For now, that is the only place to see them in the wild, although you can also see the cultivated plants at the Gibraltar Botanic Gardens.
Strongylodon macrobotrys, or jade vine as it is more commonly known, is a species of woody vine festooned with blue-green flowers that can only be found in the tropical forests of the Philippines (primarily on Luzon, Mindoro, and Catanduanes Islands). The destruction of rainforests has threatened its habitat, although the botanists at Kew Gardens in England have had success growing the plant.
A plant you may be familiar with, the “Corpse Flower” blooms every 2-10 years and, when it does, emits an unpleasant odor not unlike that of a rotting animal. The flower is native only to the rainforests of western Sumatra.
5. CALOCHORTUS CERNUUS
A species of plant in the lily family, this flower can only be found in the hills surrounding Tepoztlan, in the state of Morelos, Mexico. It can grow over a foot tall, and the dark brown and purple flowers hang from the very top.
Clianthus puniceus is native to New Zealand, and often referred to as “parrot’s beak” or “lobster claw” because of the distinctive shape of its showy red flowers. But it is highly endangered: Only 200 plants are known to exist, scattered around New Zealand’s North Island. Today, your best chance of seeing them is in Te Urewera National Park.
A species of orchid known only to a few sites in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, Genoplesium plumosum (more commonly known as the Tallong midge-orchid) tends to be difficult to find even in the small region where it grows because it only flowers for about a month, in late summer or autumn. In 2008 there were estimated to be only around 250 plants left, due in part due to the introduction of the European rabbit to the area. You may still be able to see a few plants at Morton National Park, however.
Erica abietina is endemic to Table Mountain, which overlooks Cape Town in South Africa. It produces masses of pink and red flowers and has seven main subspecies, some of which are critically endangered.
A parasitic plant endemic to the northern areas of the Philippines, Rafflesia leonardi was only discovered in 2005, in the northeastern region of the island of Luzon. Also called the “corpse flower” (yes, more than one flower goes by that name) because of the stink it gives off to attract pollinators, it has become a major tourist attraction and symbol of conservation for the area. It is part of the same genus as Rafflesia arnoldii, the largest flower in the world. Yet another species in the genus, Rafflesia philippensis, grows only on a single mountain in the Philippines—Mt. Banahaw.
Very short answer: It is the force that resists motion.
Medium length answer: All things have “roughness.” Friction is the force exerted by that roughness as an object passes by another, acting in the direction opposite to the motion.
Long answer: Atoms have electron clouds. The way I like to think about this is that atoms are like a black garbage bag full of very angry bees. You can’t know exactly where the bees are, but you know how many there are, and you know they’re more or less within the volume defined by the bag. Oh, and you know they’re angrily buzzing around.
So as two atoms pass one another, the farthest reaches of their electron clouds interact. Since electrons are negative, the bags repel one another, deforming and pressing back against the motion.
.jpg){kind=link}
