Sydney Pollack has died recently after a life full of successes in the world of cinema. He's been a great actor, director and producer. In the 60s he also worked on theater and television. He was the director of series like "The Fugitive" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". But with no doubts he harvested his highest successes as a director of movies. Following, here you are a selection of his best movies as a director. 1- Tootsie 2- The Firm 3- Absence Of Malice 4- Jeremiah Johnson 5- Out Of Africa 6- They Shoot Horses, Don't They? 7- The Yakuza 8- The Way We Were 9- The Interpreter 10- Sabrina Tootsie, Pollack directed this movie in 1982. It is starred by Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange (who won an Oscar for this movie), Geena Davis... Pollack himself had a part in this movie. The plot is the following. A new yorker actor doesn't find good jobs in his profession. He has a strong personality, he's too much perfectionist and nobody wants to hire him. But dressing like a woman his luck changes. But this also has its disadvantages. A film full of funny gags. The Firm, Directed by Pollack in 1993. Based on a novel by John Grisham. Starred by Tom Cruise, Gene Hackman, Holley Hunter, Ed Harris... McDeere (Tom Cruise) is a lawyer that has just graduated. For his talent, a successful future awaits him. He arrives to a law firm, and they give him many honors, presents and promises. But McDeere suspects that there's something strange. Absence Of Malice, Directed by Pollack in 1981, and starred by Paul Newman, Sally Field, Melinda Dillon... An ambitious journalist accuses a gangster's son of the disappearance of a man. The gangster's son makes a plan for demonstrating that he's innocent and getting revenge on the journalist. Jeremiah Johnson, Directed by Pollack in 1972. A brilliant performance by Robert Redford. Jeremiah Johnson (Redford), tired of the violence of the Mexican war, decides to live in the mountains. There he will have to learn to hunt and fish, and survive in very hard situations. The movie is based on a novel by Vardis Fisher. Out Of Africa, Directed by Pollack in 1985. Starred by Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. The movie is based on the novel by Isak Dinesen, and won 7 Oscars. A couple arrives to Africa to lead a coffee plantation. Africa changes the life of Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) and his way of seeing life. She falls in love with an attractive adventurer. There's a detail of the real life of Pollack that coincides with the movie. The main character dies in a plane accident like Pollack's son. They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Directed by Pollack in 1969. It is based on a novel by Horace McCoy. Starred by Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, Sussannah York, Gig Young... Gig Young won an Oscar for this movie. The story goes around a dance marathon. It's the 30s and it's the Depression era. Many see the marathon as a way of finding a solution for their personal situation. But others, who are more lucky, just enjoy watching the spectacle. The Yakuza, Directed by Pollack in 1975. It is considered as a classic of the cinema. Starred by Robert Mitchum and Ken Takakura. Kilman (Robert Mitchum) returns to Japan to help a friend. The daughter of his friend has been kidnapped by a yakuza (a very dangerous Japanese mafia). The Way We Were, Directed by Pollack in 1973. Starred by Robert Redford and Barbara Streisand. It won 2 Oscars. Two college students with a very different personality meet each other and fall in love. They marry very soon, but things don't go right. Maybe their love is not enough. The Interpreter, Directed by Pollack in 2005. It is starred by Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. Pollack himself as a part in this movie. Silvia Proome (Nicole Kidman) is an interpreter. By chance, she hears how some people threatened to kill the President of an African country. She will be in danger too, and will ask protection to a federal agent. Sabrina, Directed by Pollack in 1995. The soundtrack is by John Williams (ET, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind...). It is starred by Julia Ormond and Harrison Ford. Sabrina is the daughter of the chauffeur of a wealthy family. After a travel to Paris, Sabrina returns very different. His beauty causes conflicts between the two sons of the Larrabee family. The movie is a version of a previous movie that was directed by Billy Wilder in 1954, that was starred by Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, and William Holden.

The first informations about Atlantis were found in one of the books of the Greek philosopher Plato, in 350 B.C. In one of his books there were some dialogs between Timaeus and Critias (disciple of Socrates), in which they mentioned how the Athenians did defeat the Empire of Atlantis. The Atlanteans lived in an island called Atlantis. When the Atlanteans tried to subdue Greece and Egypt, the Athenians stopped and defeated them. After this, there was a big earthquake and a big flood, and Atlantis was sunk and disappeared forever. The mythological version is the following. The god Poseidon fell in love with a mortal called Cleito. They had ten children. Their first son was called Atlas, and was the King of the island and the ocean. Atlas gave its name to the island (Atlantis) and the sea that surrounded the isle (Atlantic Ocean). They other 9 children were given 9 fiefdoms inside Atlantis, where they ruled. In Atlantis there was an enormous temple in honor of Poseidon, with a giant statue of the god, with 6 horses, that was made of gold. The legend says that the Atlanteans became corrupt and vain beings. So the Gods punished them destroying them and their civilization. From the antiquity, the existence of Atlantis was questioned. Aristotle, disciple of Plato, denied its existence. But many wise from the antiquity affirmed it. The search for the lost city of Atlantis has lasted until today. Finding that mysterious island, that belonged to a superior culture full of treasures is a challenge for many. There are many theories about Atlantis. One of them is that the island of Atlantis may be in Thera, which is nowadays called Santorini, and the civilization that inhabited there were the Minoans. The Minoan civilization was very advanced for their times, and disappeared mysteriously. The island of Thera had a big volcano, and it had an eruption. That eruption created a tsunami that affected the nearest islands. The great power of the Minoan civilization lied in their fleet. This big wave made these ships disappear, and once they were weakened, they were defeated by the Greeks. This is one of the theories about how the Minoans disappeared, and their relationship with the legend of Atlantis There were many adventurers that searched for the lost city. With the discovery of America, they tried to find mythical places. One of them was Atlantis. Later, not only dreamers searched for the lost city. Even some countries spent funds for finding it, like the British government, that thought that the island may be near the Azores, following the book by Ignatius Donnelly. Nazis also searched for Atlantis in a mad search for the origins of the Aryan race. Recently, Robert Sarman affirmed that after 10 years of investigation, he has proofs of the existence of Atlantis. Atlantis may be at 80 Kms of the Cyprus coast, and at 1.5 Km of depth. Sarman says that he has found remains of city walls and an acropolis. The search for Atlantis still continues, because maybe as all the great mysteries, it will never be solved.

Batman is a DC Comics character. His first appearance was in 1939, in nº27 of the comic book Detective Comics. Detective Comics, with Action Comics (where Superman appeared for first time) have been the star comics of DC. As a curiosity, the name of DC Comics comes from Detective Comics. At the end of the 30s, DC Comics needed a hero that could be as captivating and popular as Superman was in those times. Batman's alter ego is Bruce Wayne. And people loved Bruce Wayne because he was not a superhero with special powers. Wayne had great physical aptitude, and intelligence. In addition, he surrounded himself with hi-tech gadgets that made the readers dream. In 1940, Batman nº1 appeared. His first creators where the writer Bill Finger, and the drawer Bob Kane. After them, there were other writers and drawers that gave more nuances to this character. And Batman became one of the most popular comic characters and a source of inspiration for later characters. The story of Batman is the following. Bruce Wayne (Batman) witnessed the death of his parents when he was a child. He inherited a big fortune and trained himself both physically and intellectually to fight against crime. For that, he uses the identity of Batman. As a curiosity, the character of Batman is strongly based on Zorro. The night in which the parents of Wayne died, they were watching the movie The Mark of Zorro. When they got out of the cinema, Wayne's parents are killed by a robber. In the same way that Zorro has as his sign the Z, the sign of Batman is the Batsignal, the silhouette of a bat. The metamorphosis of Wayne into Batman was not easy. Wayne prepared his character carefully. He studied criminology, forensic science, martial arts... Wayne changed his voice when he becomes Batman. The Batman visage appealed to primal fears and phobias. In his adventure against crime, Batman is often accompanied by a teenage called Robin. The Batman-Robin team was a great success. When Robin (Dick Grayson) grew up, he became the hero Nightwing, so the role of Robin was assumed by Jason Todd. As a curiosity, the death of Jason Todd was voted by the fans of Batman. The result was that Todd should die for 5343 against 5271. The substitute of Jason Todd was Tim Drake. During some numbers, Robin was a girl. She was Stephanie Brown, daughter of Cluemaster and girlfriend of Tim Drake. Wayne's town is Gotham City, that is inspired in New York. Batman goes through Gotham with his Batmobile. His secret place where he hides all his gadgets is the Batcave. Another ally of Wayne is, with no doubts, his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, that helps him to hide his secret identity. Batman's enemies are as special as Batman himself. Between them there is Joker, Riddler, Two-Face, Penguin... And let's not forget his enemy-friend Catwoman. The first TV series about Batman was in 1960. The series was a pop icon, and added a big sense of humor to Batman's adventures. In the cinema, Batman appeared several times, with more or less acceptance by the fans of Batman. The last movie about this character is "Batman the Dark Knight", directed by Christopher Nolan, and performed by Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Harvey Dent, and Heath Ledger. The Dark Knight name comes from a miniseries of comics by Frank Miller, drawer and scriptwriter both of Marvel and DC Comics. In The Dark Knight (the comic), Bruce Wayne is middle-aged man that still keeps his ideals of fighting crime in Gotham city. The movie "Batman the Dark Knight" is the second part of "Batman Begins", and although it takes the name from Frank Miller's comic book, the argument is different.

When Mary was born, her father bought a teddy bear. For many years, the little bear was Mary's confident and she played and slept with him. Mary grew up, but the bear kept on being witness of the secrets that Mary told to him. One day, Mary brought a friend home and she laughed at Mary when she saw the old teddy bear. She said that Mary seemed a little child. So Mary, ashamed and angered, asked her mother to throw away that old teddy bear. So the bear ended in the trash can, crying in silence and thinking in what could he have done for deserving that her owner had felt so much despise for him. He met another toy, and it said him: "Don't be sad, this is normal. I was only for one year in my owner's home and he thought I was an outmoded toy, and has thrown me away". "One year? I was for 16 years with my Mary!". Suddenly, a woman that was searching inside the trash can found these two toys, and took them with her. She brought them to a very poor shack. She gave one of the toys to a child that was playing in the courtyard, and he felt very happy. She brought the teddy bear to a little girl that was in a small bed. She was very ill, but when she saw the teddy bear, her eyes shone with a special light. Few days later, the little girl was recovered. Her name was Katie. Katie grew up, and had a child. When her daughter was 6 years old, she gave her the old teddy bear as a present. "Look, my dear daughter, this is a magical bear. My mother said me that he saved my life. Take care of him because he's really old but he will give you very much luck". And the teddy bear smiled as only teddy bears know.

Nymphs are spirits of Nature. They belong to the Greek mythology. Nymphs are depicted as young women of great beauty. Often they are depicted nude and dancing surrounded by flowers. They are the retinue of gods like Dionysus, Artemis, Apollo... Nymphs are daughters of Zeus. They are cheerful spirits that watch the actions of mortals, helping them sometimes. They are also inspiring beings. Muses are nymphs of the fountains, that inspire the artists. There are several types of nymphs, from the earth and the waters. The nymphs from rivers and fountains are called Naiads, and have the power of healing and divination. Dryads are the nymphs of the forests. They protect them, and their lives are tied to a tree. When that tree disappears, the dryad also dies. Nereids are daughters of the sea, and they protect the sailors. Other nymphs care about the mountains, the caves, the meadows... and others are defenders of the animals. In ancient wedding ceremonies, the bride was sprayed with water from a spring, so the nymph of that spring may protect her matrimony. Healing powers are attributed to water springs due to the nymphs that lived in them. One of the most popular myth about nymphs was the legend of Echo. Echo was a nymph with a beautiful voice that loved to sing. Her voice was very captivating. So the Goddess Hera felt very jealous, and stole her voice. Echo could only repeat the last word said by those who talked with her. Echo fell in love with Narcissus. But Narcissus rejected her. With her heart broken, she sheltered in a cave. Pain destroyed her, and only her voice's echo remained. The Gods felt offended by what Narcissus did. And many women prayed to the Gods asking the punishing of Narcissus. So they sent Nemesis, the God of Vengeance. Narcissus watched his own image reflected in the waters, and fell in love with his own reflection. And trying to reach it, he drowned. The legend says that in the Styx river, where the dead abode, Narcissus is still watching his own reflection.

In the beginning, icons helped us to identify an application, a file. And that's what they're for, but in addition to that, they're a good way for customizing and making our workspace more pleasant. They're also a way to express oneself. Without doubt, in this list you'll find those that match your style better. No more you'll need to search for icons, as here you'll find more than 100,000 for free. VistaIcon, 2,500 icons in Vista style in ICO and PNG format. There are many styles and all of them very neat. IconBase, More than 300 icons in 47 icon sets. In 3D, some of them are really stunning. Open Clip Art, 7,000 Public domain icons that can be used for anything and modified. NerdBusiness, An excellent list of near 6,000 high quality icons with links to the original sources. RSS Icons, 30 free RSS vector icons, with different colors and variations. IconFinder, IconFinde is an useful icon search engine that can save you a lot of time. It contains more than 5,000 free icons. Free Icons Web, 15,000 free icons for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Icons for Halloween, cartoons, fruits, developer icons... Icon Archive, 17,800 icons sorted by categories for Windows, MacOSX, and Linux. MaxPower, Many free icon sources listed by license type and updated frequently. Fast Icon, High quality and funny icons of little monsters, animals... IconsPedia, Lots of icon packs, some very original. The site can be navigated by categories, and all of them are of high quality. Mini Icons, 320 mini icons that are only 14x14 pixels. This make them very valuable for applications or web applications. Feed Icons, The standard web icon for RSS feeds, in different colors and sizes. Iconaholic, Original and neat 3D icons. XP style, near 350 icons. Iconlet, Another icon search engine that contains more than 6,000 icons. InterfaceLIFT, Thousands of icons for Macintosh, that blend perfectly with the style of MacOSX. Crystal Project Icons, 1,500 icons in PNG, that were created for Linux KDE but can be used in any other distribution or converted to another format. ASPNetIcons, 300 professional icons designed for ASPNet, but useful for any application. Parrotdise, For parrot lovers, funny parrot icons. Sphere Icons, Many icons in sphere shapes for Windows, Mac and Linux. There are many styles and topics. Vector Icons, 165 icons in vector format, very useful for printing. Free Icons Download, More than 150 quality icons, very colorful and fun. PSD Icons, More than 100 icons in different packs for ecommerce, email, folders... They all are in PSD format. They're completely free for any purpose. Can be the base for doing your own icons. Sweetie Icons, The Sweetie icon packs have 219 icons. They can be used for commercial applications and include Photoshop files to make others. Pixelgirl Icons, Icons for PC and Mac, the majority of them are cartoons, creatures and funny mosters. There are more than 2,000 icons. Vector Icons Set, A total of 135 free vector icons. This set contains all kinds of symbols in vector format. IconBuffet, This site requires registration to download their free icons, which are of good quality and rather unique. IconBulk, Hundreds of icons grouped in sets, with high detail. There are many of them that can't be found in any other place, and interesting categories like "critters" or spheres... Web Applications Icons, Buttons set in three colors (green, black, grey) for websites with the most used texts and icons (login, logout, checkout, save, accept...) Round Social Bookmarking, Buttons for the most known social bookmarking sites in circular shape and good color effects. GraphicPUSH, More than 200 icons specially designed for being used in blogs. Blog Micro-Buttons, Those small buttons to link to your social sites profiles or directories, services, etc. For example, twitter and flickr buttons, gmail, etc. Jm Art Studio, Near 500 desktop icons. Big packs of file type icons, so you can have a quality icon for each kind of file (html, ai, etc). DryIcons, More than 900 free icons for your computer. Mainly hardware icons, but there are also others like Christmas icons. Icon Factory, 315 icon packs that contain many icons each one. Smashing Magazine, Selection of Smashing Magazine that contains 35 free icon sets, all of them awesome. Rounder, 43 icons of round shapes and great visual effects. Pubic Domain Web Icons, 44 Icons in 3 sizes and different colors. They are all in the public domain so you can use them for everything without restrictions. Bullet Madness, A collection of 200 super-small icons for websites. Blogmundi, 3,700 icons listed from different sources. This list is in Spanish but it's very graphical so you don't need to understand it. MintyWhite Selections, 90 free icon sets that contain many icons and have been selected for their visual appearance that stands out by itself. MintyWhite Selections II, 100 more icon sets selected by MintyWhite and are really remarkable. MintyWhite Selections III, The third list of 100 icon sets by MitntyWhite. Antique Icons, Excellent set of icons of antique style.

Niagara Falls are a group of big waterfalls located in the Niagara River, that is between New York (USA) and Ontario (Canada). Niagara means "thunder of water" in the Iroquois language. The ancient inhabitants of this land were the Ongiara, a very peaceable tribe that was intermediary between the French conquerors and other tribes. It is though that the first European that came to these lands was Samuel De Champlain in 1604. In the XIX century, this area became very popular. In addition of being a very important tourist destination, is also a very valuable source of hydraulic resources. There are several bridges that make easy to access to the waterfall's facilities. The zone of the south of Ontario maybe the most touristic area, and was a very popular destination for honeymoons during decades. They are surrounded by big parks with gardens, numerous hotels, casinos, and touristic attractions, like a big Ferris wheel that offers a great view of Niagara Falls both at day and at night. The waterfalls are lighted at night. As an additional entertainment, there are many comedy clubs, cafes and restaurants. One of the most stunning falls is Horseshoe Falls. It can be accessed through a tunnel that goes across the rock and ends in a balcony, offering a view of the waterfall from inside. In the American zone, there's an spectacular cavern, the Cave of Winds. There are also boat tours that take you close to the falls. The origin of Niagara Falls was the end of a glaciation that happened 10,000 years ago. The strength of the melt water acted like a natural digger, demolishing everything on its way, making the river's canals deeper. Great efforts have been done to control the erosion caused by the waterfalls so they don't end disappearing. In 1969, the Niagara River was diverted during months, to take measurements against this problem. Niagara Falls have supposed a challenge for many people. In 1829, Sam Patch was the first in jumping over the Canadian waterfalls and staying alive. Many others tried it after him. In 1901, Annie Edson Taylor was the first person to go over the Falls in a barrel. When she exited the barrel, she said "No one should ever try that again". But others tried, ignoring Annie's words. There are many stories and anecdotes around Niagara Falls, one of the most famous and important waterfalls in the world.

"I see trees of green... red roses too I see them bloom... for me and you And I think to myself... what a wonderful world. I see skies of blue... and clouds of white Bright blessed days... dark sacred nights And I think to myself... what a wonderful world. The colors of the rainbow... so pretty... in the sky Are also on the faces... of people going by I see friends shaking hands... sayin'... How do you do They're really sayin'... I love you. I hear babies cry... I watch them grow They'll learn much more... than I'll never know And I think to myself... What a wonderful world Yeah... I think to myself... What a wonderful world" -lyrics of the original song- This song "What A Wonderful World", is the original of the great Louis Armstrong, was edited in 1967 and was written by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss. "What A Wonderful World" is a song full of optimism and melancholy with many versions of many artist like Joey Ramone, B.B King, Celine Dion, Rod Steward, and more. Joey Ramone made this version in 2002 included in his album "Don't worry about me". Ramone gives to the song a very funny felling and a very Ramones sound. This version of Stephen Bennett, is unplugged and without a doubt a jewel. Was played at the 3rd Annual International Harp Guitar Gathering. A good option for a Spring afternoon. I hope you like it.

Some photographers have the ability to translate us to distant lands. Sometimes they let us watch the world through their eyes and take us to natural paradises. Here's an example of this. Enjoy these photos and don't forget to visit their home pages. Click the images to go to the pages E.J. Peiker Bill Lockhart Dark Ligth Imagery Nature Ron Magill Sergey Parinov Nick Brandt Geoff Ashton Corporate Fine Art G.R. Guy Jim Zuckerman Andrej Belic Aaron Logan Animal Photos The Nature Conservancy

Stanley Martin Lieber (Stan Lee) was born in 1922 in New York. He's the creative mind behind characters like The Fantastic Four, Spiderman, Hulk, Iron Man, Daredevil, X-Men, and more. When he finished his studies, Stan Lee began to work in Marvel. He was cousin of Martin Goodman's wife, the publisher of Marvel Comics. After a year of working there, he did his first work as a writer of comic stories. It was a short story starring by Captain America. But Stan Lee dreamed of creating his own characters, and being an important fiction author. That first work was signed with the name "Stan Lee", the name with which he's known worldwide. During the following years, Stan Lee was editor, artistic director, writer-director, and made up to 5 comic books per week. Stan Lee was a big fan of Errol Flynn movies, giving that touch of arrogant and brave hero to his own characters. Other people that inspired Stan Lee were the historical figures of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill, that were leaders in times of war. For Lee, Roosevelt was the perfect President, responsible and protective. He admired the tenacity and strength of Churchill. One of the most strongest support of Stan Lee was his mother, who always had a big faith in her son's projects. Between the writers that Stan Lee admired most there were Mark Twain, H.G. Wells, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Shakespeare... These writers were another source of inspiration for Lee. Stan Lee, with the drawers Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko took Marvel Comics to a golden age, being the most best-seller comics in USA during decades. But Stan Lee not only thought up great comic heroes, but also he did scripts for radio, TV and movies. One of Lee's great ideas was to bring Spiderman to the newspapers as a comic strip. Spiderman was published as a comic strip in thousands of newspapers all over the world. In the 80s, Stan Lee moved to Los Angeles, and became the creative director of the TV series of his characters. Years later, his super-heroes will appear on movies too. His charismatic personality made him do short appearances in the movies based on his characters, reminding us the legendary director Alfred Hitchcock. The success of Lee's heroes is based in that they have weaknesses, fears, some kind of vulnerability... but strength and thirst of justice. Without doubt, Stan Lee is the Midas King of Marvel Comics, that mixes talent and inventive with a strong commercial sense.