Il Divo

Il Divo (Italian pronunciation: [il ˈdiːvo]) is a multinational classical crossover vocal group. The group originated in the UK in December 2003, and is a vocal quartet composed of four male singers; Swiss Urs Buhler, Spaniard Carlos Marin, American David Miller, and Frenchman Sébastien Izambard.

As of 2015, the group has released nine albums: Il Divo (2004), Ancora (2005), Siempre (2006), The Promise (2008), Wicked Game (2011), A Musical Affair (2013) and Amor & Pasión (2015); a compilation album The Greatest Hits (2012); special Christmas songs album The Christmas Collection (2005). Two other albums An Evening with Il Divo: Live in Barcelona (2009) and Live in Japan (2014) are live recordings of concerts. Additionally, they have collaborated with other artists, having them as guest performers.

Since its inception Il Divo has enjoyed success worldwide, selling to date of 2015, over 30 million copies worldwide discs. With 160 certified gold and platinum hits in 35 different countries, it pioneered the genre of operatic pop, or "popera", in classical crossover music.

20th century

The 20th century was a century that began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000. It was the tenth and final century of the 2nd millennium. It is distinct from the century known as the 1900s (sometimes written as 19XX), which began on January 1, 1900 and ended on December 31, 1999.

Dubbed the "short twentieth century", this century in human history was dominated by chain of events that heralded significant changes in world history as to redefine the era: World War I and World War II, nationalism and decolonization, the Cold War and Post-Cold War conflicts, cultural homogenization through developments in transportation and communications technology, world population growth, awareness of environmental degradation, ecological extinction and the birth of the Digital Revolution. It saw great advances in communication and medical technology that by the late 1980s allowed for near-instantaneous worldwide computer communication and genetic modification of life.

Overview

The century had the first global-scale total wars between world powers across continents and oceans in World War I and World War II. Nationalism became a major political issue in the world in the 20th century, acknowledged in international law along with the right of nations to self-determination, official decolonization in the mid-century, and nationalist-influenced armed regional-conflicts.

Learning curve

A learning curve is a graphical representation of the increase of learning (vertical axis) with experience (horizontal axis).

The term learning curve is used in two main ways: where the same task is repeated in a series of trials, or where a body of knowledge is learned over time. The first person to describe the learning curve was Hermann Ebbinghaus in 1885, in the field of the psychology of learning, although the name wasn't used until 1909. In 1936, Theodore Paul Wright described the effect of learning on production costs in the aircraft industry. This form, in which unit cost is plotted against total production, is sometimes called an experience curve.

The familiar expression "a steep learning curve" is intended to mean that the activity is difficult to learn, although a learning curve with a steep start actually represents rapid progress.

In psychology

The first person to describe the learning curve was Hermann Ebbinghaus in 1885. His tests involved memorizing series of nonsense syllables, and recording the success over a number of trials. The translation does not use the term learning curve—but he presents diagrams of learning against trial number. He also notes that the score can decrease, or even oscillate.

20th Century Fox

The Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (spelled as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation with hyphen used from its inception until 1985, stylized as 20th Century Fox and also known as 20th Century Fox Pictures, TCF, Fox 2000 Pictures or simply Fox) is an American film studio, distributor and one of the six major American film studios. Located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverly Hills, the studio is currently owned by 21st Century Fox and is formerly owned by News Corporation.

20th Century Fox has distributed famous film series, including the first two Star Wars trilogies, Ice Age, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Maze Runner, X-Men, Die Hard, Home Alone, Planet of the Apes, Independence Day, Night at the Museum, Power Rangers, Percy Jackson, Taken, Fantastic Four, The Omen, Alien, Predator, Rio, and Alvin and the Chipmunks. The studio is also credited for distributing James Cameron's Avatar and Titanic, the highest and second highest grossing films respectively at the box-office not adjusted for inflation (though Paramount Pictures owns the US rights to the latter). Television series produced by Fox include The Simpsons, Family Guy, M*A*S*H, The X-Files, Bob's Burgers, Bones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Futurama, American Dad!, How I Met Your Mother, Archer, Glee, Modern Family, Empire, Malcolm in the Middle, New Girl, King of the Hill, and 24. Among the most famous actresses to come out of this studio were Shirley Temple, who was 20th Century Fox's first film star, Alice Faye, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. The studio also contracted the first African-American cinema star, Dorothy Dandridge.