Amazing (Inna song)

"Amazing" is a song by Romanian dance/pop vocalist Inna extracted from her debut studio album Hot 2009. It debuted on Radio 21 FM on August 6, 2009 and was released digitally in October 2009. "Amazing" acts as the second release from Inna's full-length record and brought her the first number-one in Romania.

The official music video for the track was shot in Portugal and portrays Inna falling in love with a lifeguard on a beach. Lyrically, "Amazing" speaks about a good-looking man Inna is in love with. The song was initially written and composed by Play & Win for Romanian singer Anca Baidu, but was then given to Inna for recording a re-mixed version of it.

The single was a commercial success in Europe as it reached the top-twenty in most of the country it peaked. Furthermore, it became (together with "Diggy Down") her most successful record in her home country as it stationed atop the Romanian Top 100. "Amazing" sold 40,600 registered copies in France as of 2010.

Background

Amazing (Vanessa Amorosi song)

"Amazing" is the second single from Vanessa Amorosi's unreleased fifth studio album V. It was digitally released on 9 September 2011.

Amorosi said that "Amazing" is an empowering and feelgood kind of track, and allows her to keep loved ones top of mind. "The story behind it is I have lost a few family members over the last five years through cancer but you still carry them with you."

The accompanying video for "Amazing" was filmed at Half Moon Bay in Victoria (Australia) and was directed and produced by Stuart Gosling.

On 29 September 2011, Vanessa Amorosi performed with Simple Plan the song "Jet Lag" and her own song "Amazing" live on the AFL Grand Final Footy Show, which was held at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. On 6 October 2011, Amorosi appeared on Sunrise and on The Morning Show to perform the song. For the Today Network she also did an acoustic version of her song "Amazing" and a cover of Alanis Morissette's song "Ironic". She also performed the song live on the X Factor results show on 11 October 2011.

Amazing (Kanye West song)

"Amazing" is a song by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released as the third single for his fourth studio album, 808s & Heartbreak. Co-produced with Victor Alexander, the song features hip hop artist Young Jeezy and contains additional vocals provided by Mr Hudson and Tony Williams. This song was used in the NBA during the 2009 Playoffs, and is featured on the NBA 2K10 and NBA 2K13 soundtracks. UFC Fighter Frank Mir walks out to this song before his fights. The song was nominated at the 52nd Grammy Awards in the Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group category. The song also marks the second collaboration with Kanye West and Young Jeezy, the first being Young Jeezy's 2008 single "Put On". The song also marks the two rappers' second time to do a song to be nominated for a Grammy award.

Background and release

Co-writer Jeff Bhasker discussed the song's conception: "That was actually the first song [we did for the album.] I brought the beat and the music. I started the idea and [West] was like, 'That's hot.' [...] So I brought that music and he brought his editorial to it and then wrote the melody, and said we're gonna get Jeezy on it. We were searching for sort of a tribal-ish drum sounds and that just came out. It's a very simple and dark sounding piano figure.

Bombardier Talent

The Talent is a multiple unit railcar manufactured by Bombardier that was developed by Waggonfabrik Talbot in Aachen shortly before the company was acquired by Bombardier in 1995. The name Talent is an acronym in German for TALbot LEichter Nahverkehrs Triebwagen (in English, Talbot light suburban motor-coach).

It comes in a number of variants, including high-floor, low-floor, diesel-mechanical, diesel-hydraulic, diesel-electric, electric, and tilting, and in lengths of two, three, or four carriages. As with most multiple-unit trains, Talent units can run individually, or be coupled together to form longer trains.

The Talent is an articulated railcar with Jacobs bogies. Partially as a result of this, the interior of an entire unit is essentially a single, long cabin; it is possible to see or walk from end to end without opening doors or passing through narrower gangways. The sharing of bogies also means that a Talent unit cannot be easily disassembled or rearranged without the assistance of a railway yard. In those variants whose floor is 590 mm (23.2 in) above the rails, this means that the articulation floor is raised, but with ramp access, since it needs to be higher than the wheel diameter, above rail level. In the variants with 800 and 960 mm (31.5 and 37.8 in) floor height, the floor is flat from the first door to the last. The endsections have a raised floor in all variants, because the traction equipment installed underneath requires more space than unpowered bogies.

Attic talent

The Attic talent (a talent of the Attic standard), also known as the Athenian talent or Greek talent (Greek: τάλαντον, talanton), is an ancient unit of mass equal to 26 kg, as well as a unit of value equal to this amount of pure silver. A talent was originally intended to be the mass of water required to fill an amphora (one cubic foot) At the 2012 price of $1001/kg, a silver talent is worth $26,030. It was equivalent to 60 minae, 6,000 drachmae or 36,000 oboloi.

During the Peloponnesian War, a trireme crew of 200 rowers was paid a talent for a month's worth of work, one drachma, or 4.3 grams of silver per rower per day. According to wage rates from 377 BC, a talent was the value of nine man-years of skilled work. This corresponds to 2340 work days or 11.1 grams of silver per worker per workday. A modern carpenter gets about $25,060/year or $226,000 for nine years of work.

In 1800, a building craftsman in urban Europe got an average wage of 11.9 grams of silver a day, or about $0.49 a day. Adjusted for inflation, this corresponds to $6 a day in 2007 money. Assuming a European worker in 1800 to be as productive as a worker in ancient Greece, the purchasing power of a talent in ancient times was about $20,000 of early 21st century money. The plausibility of this calculation is confirmed by the fact that a talent of silver was worth $1081 in 1800, equivalent to $13,000 after adjusting for inflation.

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster that began transmission on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public body established in 1990, coming into operation in 1993. With the conversion of the Wenvoe transmitter group in Wales to digital on 31 March 2010, Channel 4 became a UK-wide TV channel for the first time.

The channel was established to provide a fourth television service to the United Kingdom in addition to the television licence-funded BBC's two services and the single commercial broadcasting network, ITV.

History

Conception

Before Channel 4 and S4C, Britain had three terrestrial television services: BBC1, BBC2, and ITV. The Broadcasting Act 1980 began the process of adding a fourth, and Channel 4, along with its Welsh counterpart, was formally created by an Act of Parliament in 1982. After some months of test broadcasts, it began scheduled transmissions on 2 November 1982.