What is "black swan"

n. 1 An Australian swan whose feathers are black. 2 An occurrence believed impossible or not to exist. 3 An occurrence believed impossible or not to exist, subsequently shown to exist.

n. large Australian swan having black plumage and a red bill [syn: Cygnus atratus]

The black swan (Cygnus atratus) is a large waterbird, a species of swan, which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. The species was hunted to extinction in New Zealand, but later reintroduced. Within Australia they are nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon climatic conditions. Black swans are large birds with mostly black plumage and red bills. They are monogamous breeders that share incubation duties and cygnet rearing between the sexes.

Black swans have been introduced to various countries as an ornamental bird in the 1800s, but have escaped and formed stable populations. A small population of Black swans exists on the River Thames at Marlow, and near the River Itchen, Hampshire. Described scientifically by English naturalist John Latham in 1790, the black swan was formerly placed into a monotypic genus, Chenopis. Black swans can be found singly, or in loose companies numbering into the hundreds or even thousands. Black swans are popular birds in zoological gardens and bird collections, and escapees are sometimes seen outside their natural range.

Black swan is the common name for Cygnus atratus, an Australasian waterfowl.

Black Swan may also refer to

"Black Swan" is a song by Radiohead vocalist Thom Yorke and is the fourth track on his 2006 album The Eraser. The song was released to American radio in July 2006 (see 2006 in music). In early August 2006, the song placed at #40 in Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart.

"Black Swan" dates back to the Kid A sessions. The song "has this tiny, shredded segment of something that was one of the library samples we had. It was Ed and Phil doing this thing, and I sliced it into bits. The sample was 2000, but the song was 2005." The 2006 Richard Linklater film A Scanner Darkly features the song over the closing credits.

Black Swan is the name of two fictional supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Black Swan is the fourth album by English rock band Athlete. released on 24 August 2009 it is their first release with Fiction Records. The album charted in the UK at number 18 on 30 August. The first single lifted from the album, "Superhuman Touch", was released on 17 August 2009 while "The Getaway" is lifted as the first single in the US. "Black Swan Song" proceeded as the second single taken off the record and a UK release of "The Getaway". It was also speculated and mentioned by the band that "Light the Way" was intended for a single release, but was yielded due to the 'Singles:01-10' compilation release.

Joel Pott explained the album title: "We read an article about Nassim Nicholas Taleb and his book The Black Swan. He was saying that our lives are made up of a handful of significant shocks, good or bad. That's exactly how our journey has been over the last six years. We've had lots of unexpected highs and lows, as a band and as people." Black Swan comes from a desire for "getting the songs across as much as we could".

The song "Don't Hold Your Breath" was featured in an episode of Ugly Betty called "Blue On Blue". "The Unknown" was used during the credits of the 2011 film "Soul Surfer".

The Black Swan was the first bucket dredge used by the Swan River Colony (now Western Australia) to make its rivers more suitable for shipping. The dredge was operational from 1872 to 1911, when it was scuttled. Initially known as the Government Dredge, it was renamed after being repaired and modified between 1887 and 1888. The dredging carried out by the Black Swan and other vessels had a significant impact on the river fauna and flora, including the black swans for which it was named.

Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis and Winona Ryder. The plot revolves around a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet by a prestigious New York City company. The production requires a ballerina to play the innocent and fragile White Swan, for which the committed dancer Nina (Portman) is a perfect fit, as well as the dark and sensual Black Swan, which are qualities better embodied by the new arrival Lily (Kunis). Nina is overwhelmed by a feeling of immense pressure when she finds herself competing for the part, causing her to lose her tenuous grip on reality and descend into a living nightmare.

Usually described as a psychological thriller, Black Swan can be also interpreted as a metaphor for achieving artistic perfection, with all the psychological and physical challenges one might encounter, i.e. "the film can be perceived as a poetic metaphor for the birth of an artist, that is, as a visual representation of Nina’s psychic odyssey toward achieving artistic perfection and of the price to be paid for it."

Aronofsky conceived the premise by connecting his viewings of a production of Swan Lake with an unrealized screenplay about understudies and the notion of being haunted by a double, similar to the folklore surrounding doppelgängers. Aronofsky cites Fyodor Dostoyevsky's " The Double" as another inspiration for the film. The director also considered Black Swan a companion piece to his 2008 film The Wrestler, with both films involving demanding performances for different kinds of art. He and Portman first discussed the project in 2000, and after a brief attachment to Universal Studios, Black Swan was produced in New York City in 2009 by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Portman and Kunis trained in ballet for several months prior to filming, and notable figures from the ballet world helped with film production to shape the ballet presentation.

The film premiered as the opening film for the 67th Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2010. It had a limited release in the United States starting December 3, 2010 and opened nationwide on December 17. Black Swan received critical praise upon its release, particularly for Portman's performance and Aronofsky's direction, and was a surprise box office success, grossing $329 million worldwide. The film received five Academy Award nominations and Portman won the Best Actress award for the film, as well as many other Best Actress awards in several guilds and festivals. In addition, Aronofsky was nominated for Best Director and the film was nominated for Best Picture. It is the fifth horror film to be nominated in the Best Picture category, after The Exorcist in 1973, Jaws in 1975, The Silence of the Lambs in 1991, and The Sixth Sense in 1999.