'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000016-QINU`"'













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Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967–2014) was an American actor, director, and producer who made his screen debut on the police procedural Law & Order in 1991. He made his film debut later in the same year by appearing in a minor role in Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole. Hoffman followed this with supporting roles as a student in Scent of a Woman (1992), and a storm chaser in Twister (1996) before his breakthrough role as a gay boom operator in Paul Thomas Anderson's drama Boogie Nights (1997), for which he received critical acclaim. In the same year, he appeared in the Revolutionary War documentary series Liberty! (1997). Two years later, he played a kind nurse in Anderson's Magnolia and an arrogant playboy in The Talented Mr. Ripley, for which he received the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor. Hoffman made his Broadway debut the following year with his lead role in True West which garnered him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.

Hoffman received the Academy Award for Best Actor, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for his portrayal of writer Truman Capote in the 2005 biographical film Capote. He followed this by playing a ruthless arms dealer in the action spy film Mission: Impossible III (2006) and CIA agent Gust Avrakotos in the Mike Nichols-directed Charlie Wilson's War (2007). Hoffman's performance as a priest suspected of child abuse in the period drama Doubt (2008) with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams received critical acclaim and multiple award nominations in the Best Supporting Actor category. In the same year, he played a troubled theatre director in Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York. (Full article...)

Black Lagoon is an anime television series adapted from the titular manga series by Rei Hiroe. Directed by Sunao Katabuchi and produced by Madhouse, it consists of two seasons produced for television, and one in original video animation format. The two seasons, each twelve episodes in length, are titled Black Lagoon— which was co-produced by Shogakukan—and Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage. The OVA, titled Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail, consists of only five episodes. The series takes place during the mid-1990s and follows the adventures of Rokuro "Rock" Okajima, a Japanese businessman who is abducted by, and eventually joins a group of outlaws known as the "Lagoon Company".

The first season premiered on Chiba TV from April 8 through June 24, 2006, the second from October 2 through December 18 on Sendai Television and Kyushu Asahi Broadcasting. All twenty-four episodes were then released in Japan on DVD across 12 volumes from July 26, 2006, through June 27, 2007. Blu-ray Disc releases—eight volumes in total—followed from December 23, 2009, through March 25, 2010. In North America, these seasons were first released across six DVD volumes with English and Japanese audio tracks and English subtitles from May 22, 2007, through October 28, 2008. The first three of these were distributed by Geneon Entertainment USA before Funimation took over distribution of the series in mid 2008, and released a hybrid DVD and Blu-ray Disc collection of both seasons on December 4, 2012. In Europe, MVM Entertainment released them across six DVD volumes from March 10, 2008, through January 5, 2009, and across two Blu-ray Disc collections on July 30, 2012. In Australia and New Zealand, Madman Entertainment released them across six DVD volumes from March 19 through September 17, 2008. The OVA was released in Japan simultaneously on DVD and Blu-ray Disc volumes containing one episode each between July 17, 2010, and June 22, 2011. For the North American market, Funimation announced a hybrid release of the OVA for August 6, 2013. (Full article...)

The British documentary television programme Meerkat Manor (September 2005 – August 2008), produced by Oxford Scientific Films for Animal Planet International, documented the antics of various meerkats being studied by the Kalahari Meerkat Project. The meerkats live in matriarchal groups led by a dominant couple, who have exclusive mating and breeding rights. The remainder of the group is usually the offspring and relatives of the dominant couple.

In the first three series of the four-series programme, five major groups of meerkats were regularly shown, however, its primary focus was on a group called the Whiskers, one of the largest and oldest of the research groups. Other groups featured were neighbouring rival groups of the Whiskers and groups formed by former Whiskers members. During the first series, a group called the Lazuli were depicted as the Whiskers' main rivals, with occasional appearances by the smaller Gattaca group. In the second series, the Commandoes were introduced as one of the toughest rivals the Whiskers had ever faced, and by the third, the Commandoes had forced the Whiskers to move. The Whiskers then acquired two new neighbouring groups, the Zappa, with whom they had frequent confrontations, and the short-lived Starsky group formed by a trio of evicted Whiskers females. In the fourth and final series, one of the Whiskers' females formed a new group, the Aztecs. (Full article...)