Hawaii

Byōdō-in is a Buddhist temple in the city of Uji in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. It is jointly a temple of the Jōdo-shū and... Tendai-shū sects. This temple was originally built in 998 in the Heian period as a rural villa of Fujiwara no Michinaga, one of the most powerful members of the Fujiwara clan. This villa was changed to a Buddhist temple by Fujiwara no Yorimichi in 1052. The most famous building in the temple is the Phoenix Hall or the Amida Hall, constructed in 1053. It is the only remaining original building, surrounded by a scenic pond; additional buildings making up the compound were burnt down during a civil war in 1336. The main building in Byōdō-in, the Phoenix Hall consists of a central hall, flanked by twin wing corridors on both sides of the central hall, and a tail corridor. The central hall houses an image of Amida Buddha. The roof of the hall displays statues of the Chinese phoenix, called hōō in Japanese. The Phoenix Hall, completed in 1053, is the exemplar of Fujiwara Amida halls. It consists of a main rectangular structure flanked by two L-shaped wing corridors and a tail corridor, set at the edge of a large artificial pond.
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Aliʻiōlani Hale is a building located in downtown Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, currently used as the home of the Hawaiʻi State Supreme... Court. It is the former seat of government of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the Republic of Hawaiʻi. Located in the building's courtyard is the famed gold-leaf statue of Kamehameha the Great. The Aliʻiōlani Hale was designed by Australian Thomas Rowe in an Italian Renaissance Revival as the royal palace for King Kamehameha V. In the Hawaiian language, Aliʻiōlani Hale means "House of the heavenly King"; also, the name "Aliʻiōlani" was one of the given names of Kamehameha V. Although the building was designed to be a palace, Kamehameha V realized that the Hawaiian government desperately needed a government building. At that time, the several buildings in Honolulu used by the government were very small and cramped, clearly inadequate for the growing Hawaiian government. Thus, when Kamehameha V ordered construction of Aliʻiōlani Hale, he commissioned it as a government office building instead of a palace. Kamehameha V laid the cornerstone for the building on February 19, 1872.
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The Aloha Tower is a lighthouse that is considered one of the landmarks of the state of Hawaii in the United States. Opened on September 11, 1926,... the Aloha Tower is located at Pier 9 of Honolulu Harbor. It has and continues to be a guiding beacon welcoming vessels to the City and County of Honolulu. Just as the Statue of Liberty greeted hundreds of thousands of immigrants each year to New York City, the Aloha Tower greeted hundreds of thousands of immigrants to Honolulu. At 10 stories and 184 feet of height topped with 40 feet of flag mast, for four decades the Aloha Tower was the tallest structure in Hawaii. It was built in the Hawaiian Gothic architectural style. When the attack on Pearl Harbor came on December 7, 1941, Coast Guardsmen from the USCGC Taney  were ordered to take up defensive positions around Aloha Tower and protect it from being occupied. The Aloha Tower was painted in camouflage so as to disappear at night. In 1981, the Governor of Hawaii and the Hawaii State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism established the Aloha Tower Development Corporation.
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Kaniakapupu is the now dilapidated summer palace of king Kamehameha III and his queen Kalama on Oahu in Hawaii. The palace was completed in 1845 and... was a place for entertaining foreign celebrities, chiefs, and commoners. On Hawaiian Restoration Day in 1847, a luau attended by an estimated ten thousand people gathered at the palace.
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Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor. Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd. Some notable film characters include basketball hustler Billy Hoyle in White Men Can't Jump, bowler Roy Munson in Kingpin, serial killer Mickey Knox in... Natural Born Killers, magazine publisher Larry Flynt in The People vs. Larry Flynt, country singer Dusty in A Prairie Home Companion, bounty hunter Carson Wells in No Country for Old Men, zombie killer Tallahassee in Zombieland, blind piano player/meat salesman Ezra Turner in Seven Pounds, conspiracy nut Charlie Frost in 2012, a delusional man who believes that he is a superhero named Defendor in Defendor and Cpt. Tony Stone in The Messenger. For The People vs. Larry Flynt and The Messenger, Harrelson earned Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively. Harrelson was born in Midland, Texas, the son of Diane Lou and Charles Voyde Harrelson, who divorced in 1964; he has two brothers, Jordan and Brett. Harrelson's father, who was a contract killer, was arrested for the killing of Federal Judge John H. Wood, Jr.
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Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years. Following a stage acting career he rose to popularity in the television... series Remington Steele . After Remington Steele, Brosnan took the lead in many films such as Dante's Peak and The Thomas Crown Affair. In 1995, he became the fifth actor to portray secret agent James Bond in the official film series, starring in four films between 1995 and 2002. He also provided his voice and likeness to Bond in the 2004 video game James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing. Since playing Bond, he has starred in such successes as The Matador , Mamma Mia! , and The Ghost Writer . In 1996, along with Beau St. Clair, Brosnan formed Irish DreamTime, a Los Angeles-based production company. In later years, he has become known for his charitable work and environmental activism. He was married to Australian actress Cassandra Harris from 1980 until her death in 1991.
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Duane Lee "Dog" Chapman, Sr. is an American bounty hunter and a former bail bondsman. He stars in Dog the Bounty Hunter, a weekly reality television program which is broadcast on the A&E Network , FOX8 and GO! , OLN and A&E Network , Sky1 and Sky2 , MAX and RTL II . Chapman claims he has... made more than 6,000 captures in his 27-year career. As an ex-con, he says: “I am what rehabilitation stands for.” Duane Lee Chapman was born on February 2, 1953 to Wesley Chapman and Barbara Chapman. He is the eldest of four children, having two younger sisters and one brother. According to Chapman, he is of Native American Chiricahua ancestry, on his mother's side. While a member of the Devils Diciples , an outlaw motorcycle club, Chapman reportedly gained the nickname "Dog" from another gang member, because of his relationship with God. His mother was a minister for the First Assembly of God church and passed her faith onto her son. He quit school after seventh grade.
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Jeri Lynn Zimmermann Ryan is an American actress best known for her roles as the liberated Borg, Seven of Nine, on Star Trek: Voyager; Tara Cole on Leverage; and Veronica "Ronnie" Cooke on Boston Public. She was also a regular on the science fiction show Dark Skies and the legal drama series... Shark. She is currently starring as Dr. Kate Murphy on the ABC drama series Body of Proof. Ryan was born Jeri Lynn Zimmermann in Munich, West Germany, the daughter of Gerhard Florian "Jerry" Zimmermann, a Master Sergeant in the United States Army, and his wife Sharon, a social worker. She has one older brother, Mark. As a "military brat", Ryan grew up on Army posts in Kansas, Maryland, Hawaii, Georgia, and Texas. When she was eleven, her father retired from the Army, and the family settled in Paducah, Kentucky. She graduated from Lone Oak High School in 1986 , and then attended Northwestern University, where she was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority. In 1989, Ryan was chosen Miss Illinois. She was the third runner-up in the 1990 Miss America Pageant, winning the preliminary swimsuit competition.
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