title: Alastair Cook

text: Having been a member of the Essex Academy since the age of 16, Cook was given his first-class debut for Essex against Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club on leaving school at the end of the 2003 season; put in to field he aided the first dismissal with a catch before scoring just 13 runs in his first innings but pushing Essex to a nine wicket victory with 69 not out in the second. Despite Essex's relegation being assured, Cook still battled away with an opening stand of 122 opposite Will Jefferson in the second innings of his second match, against Warwickshire. In the six innings in which he participated he quickly racked up three half centuries at an average of 47.80. Having secured his place as opener in the county team, he made his maiden first-class century against Leicestershire in May 2004 with 126 opposite Jefferson's 128 for a 265 opening stand, Essex's third-highest but the team failed to secure promotion.


title: Alastair Cook

text: His exploits in his single season gained enough attention for him to be brought in as opening batsman for the MCC in 2005 season's opener against County Champions Warwickshire. With a century in the first innings and 97 in the second, Cook helped secure victory in a match destined for a draw. The season opener would not be Cook's only highlight for the year: as the Ashes approached, Australia were touring the counties and in a two-day match (which did not count towards his first-class statistics) Cook scored a double century and went on to take the first wicket of Justin Langer with a catch in the drawn match days after being awarded PCA Young Cricketer of the Year. A further highlight of the season saw Cook help Essex to achieve one of Durham's two defeats of the season, scoring 107 of Essex's 245 before taking his maiden first-class wicket, followed by another two, with his off-spin. Cook played in every first-class match for Essex and also helped them clinch the Totesport League Title for the first time in 20 years. The end of the season saw Cook finish with an average of 48.03 in the County Championship, hitting four centuries.


title: Alastair Cook

text: After his England call up, Cook's appearances at Essex significantly reduced. In the County Championship he appeared in only three matches, making two hundreds and another two fifties in his five innings, topping the season averages with an inflated 141.3. Similarly in the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy he appeared only three times and again topped the batting averages, only being out once with a top score of 91 and average of 148. He scored less favourably in his one Twenty20 Cup appearance, scoring only nine runs. In the 2007 season, for Essex alone his first-class average was only 58.8 from three appearances, making two hundreds but countering this with one duck and he made a similar century/duck appearance in the (formerly C&G) Friends Provident Trophy during his 5 matches averaging 38.4.


title: Alastair Cook

text: The back to back Totesport/Pro40 champions saw Cook make only one appearance in that competition, scoring 81 not out, before being relegated. They won Division Two and were promoted the following season, though Cook only provided 11 runs in one innings during the tournament. Despite his international commitments Cook managed to participate in at least one match of each tournament averaging 36.16 in three County Championship matches and 15 in his one Twenty20 match. Given time off the South Africa One-Day series, Cook fared better in the FP Trophy with 45.3 from 3 matches including contributing the second-highest in the final at Lord's to seal the trophy.


title: Alastair Cook

text: The 2009 English season featured an early Test series against the West Indies where, despite being in the Test team, Cook joined Essex in a tour match. He scored 76 not out in the second innings before the match was rained off, stopping Essex pressing for victory. Before the Test series he helped Essex force the follow on against Kent in the County Championship but faltered with his team, scoring only 4 in the second innings to lose by 192 runs. After the Test series, Cook was omitted from the one day side leaving him free to play for Essex. He joined them in their bid to defend their Friends Provident Trophy matching Varun Chopra's 65 in a 124 run partnership against Lancashire to gain a place in the semi-final. He and his team could not recreate the same form for the semi-final, at the same location against the same team three days later, after being caught from a running catch by Sajid Mahmood, seeing the team lose by 67 runs. Having been knocked out of the FP Trophy, the team turned to the Twenty20 Cup. Making only his fourth appearance in the tournament since 2005, Cook hit 80 off 56 balls in a match against Kent that was rained off. While his England partner Bopara scored 45 against Sussex, Cook only scored one but made up for this with a 60 run partnership with Bopara days later to put Essex top of the table. Despite averaging 49 from these four games, Cook felt he was a long way from the international squad. In his last performance before joining the Ashes squad, Cook scored a 57 ball century, and batted throughout the whole innings as they beat Surrey, but without Cook and Bopara, the team were knocked out after two successive losses.


title: Alastair Cook

text: When Cook retired from international cricket in 2018, he stated that he would continue to play for Essex, signing a three-year contract with them. In the 2019 County Championship season Cook helped Essex to win the title In August 2020, during the 2020 Bob Willis Trophy, Cook scored his 24,000th run in first-class cricket. In April 2022, on the opening day of the 2022 County Championship, Cook scored his 70th century in first-class cricket.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook had his first taste of international cricket playing the U15 World Cup in 2000. Three years later Cook was called up to the England Under-19 team for their tour of South Africa. After it was decided Samit Patel had enough responsibility batting and bowling, Cook was appointed captain of the team the following year, 2004. His first call of duty was the U19 World Cup in the West Indies where he guided England through the group stages and on past the Super League stage, including an unbeaten century-each partnership with Patel against New Zealand, and continued a 100% win record with 87 over eventual winners Pakistan before falling short in the semi-final against the West Indies. He went on from there to captain them in a U19 Test win over Bangladesh before taking the One-Day series too. His career with the Under 19 team was cut short when Kevin Pietersen was called up to replace Andrew Flintoff in the main team, leaving a spot in England A tour of Sri Lanka for Cook.


title: Alastair Cook

text: After the 2005 domestic season he was part of the intake for the ECB National Academy, but this was interrupted as he flew to Pakistan to cover the squad for Michael Vaughan's knee injury. After not being used in the first XI he travelled back with the Academy to the West Indies in the new year scoring 101 in a two-day match against Antigua before youth cricket came to an abrupt halt for Cook.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook was included in the ECB National Academy in the winter of 2005–06. The Academy's tour of the West Indies was cut short on 24 February for Cook who only appeared in the first innings, scoring only 6, before being called up, alongside James Anderson and Owais Shah, to the England tour of India to replace captain Michael Vaughan, who was suffering from a knee injury, and opener Marcus Trescothick, who was suffering from stress. Unlike Shah and Anderson, Cook was welcomed straight into the England XI and made his Test debut aged 21, days after he had flown in from the West Indies. He made an instant impact, opening with Andrew Strauss and scoring a half century in the first innings before being bowled just before tea on the first day for 60 runs from 160 balls being the second top scorer after 134 from Paul Collingwood. The second innings would prove to cement him in cricket history as he went on to score 104 not out before England declared, making him the sixteenth Englishman to score a century on his debut Test and an even more exclusive list of five to score 100 and 50 in their first Test. His hundred was also the 3,000th century in Test cricket. Despite being known for a patient style of play, an impending declaration forced Cook to play quickly to bring up the century; regardless, the match was drawn. After a mediocre outing in the losing second Test, scoring 17 and 2, he missed the Third Test due to a stomach illness and was omitted from the one-day series.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Returning home, Cook was again selected for the first XI during Sri Lanka's tour. For his debut match at Lord's, Cook was shuffled down to third to make way for the returning Trescothick. However, he still walked to the crease alongside his teammate as Strauss fell at the stroke of lunch. Cook and Trescothick put on 127 in their partnership as Trescothick made a century while Cook later stumbled just before at 89; there was no second innings as England enforced the follow-on but were one wicket away from victory, with Cook being targeted among others for two significant dropped catches. Cook's first taste of victory came in the second Test, guiding the team past the target of 78 in the second innings with an unbeaten 34 alongside Andrew Flintoff furthering the reputation of his calm, meticulous style of play against the dangerous spin of Muttiah Muralitharan who took 4–29. Although not initially selected for the one-day series, Cook made his limited overs debut in the fourth match scoring 39 from 38 balls in a bright spot of an otherwise dour England performance hampered by injuries.


title: Alastair Cook

text: At the start of the following series against Pakistan, Cook recorded his second Test century, gaining him a spot on the boards at Lord's alongside Ian Bell and Collingwood. He and Bell both recorded back to back centuries by the following Test at Old Trafford as well as Cook scoring his then-career best 127 in an innings defeat over Pakistan. In what now seemed a pattern, Cook's century came up while partnering with Collingwood as with his previous two. In the controversial forfeited Test, sometimes called Ovalgate, Cook contributed a first innings top score of 40 and second best 83 before Pakistan refused to return to the field. This score secured Cook's tally of runs, 403, as the second-highest scorer for England and third overall in the series. Once again Cook was overlooked in the one day series. At the end of the season he was again awarded the Young Player of the Year award as well as being shortlisted for ICC Emerging Player of the Year.


title: Alastair Cook

text: As well as the one day series against Pakistan, Cook was overlooked for the 2006 Champions Trophy squad. However, he was named for the 2006–07 Ashes series touring party and when Trescothick pulled out once again due to stress, Cook re-earned a spot as an opener for the foreseeable future. In the disastrous 5 Test whitewash, Cook failed to impress in the first two Tests, but during a two-day warm-up he retired with a century and afterwards remained adamant that he and England would make a turn around in the series. With England desperately chasing 577 runs, or a draw to not lose the Ashes, Cook stayed at the crease for over six hours, lasting almost all of the fourth day to earn his maiden Ashes century (119) before being caught behind off Glenn McGrath just shy of three overs before the close of play. This was his fourth Test century before turning 22, no England player had scored more than two by the same age. With only three other batsmen scoring double figures, England lost the Test and the Ashes and despite only having an average of 27.6 runs, Cook scored one of only three English centuries on the tour and also on 28 December 2006 in Melbourne, Cook scored his thousandth Test run, the second cricketer to do this in their maiden year, after Mark Taylor.


title: Alastair Cook

text: After being omitted for the Twenty20 International against Australia and the 2007 World Cup, Cook found himself once again in favour for the home series against West Indies. Starting at Lord's, Cook found himself among four centurions in the opening innings with Collingwood opposite him once again, being one of only five Englishmen to hit as many centuries in 15 Tests and recorded another half century in the following innings to win his first Man of The Match award. After another half century in the second Test, Cook recorded another half century/century combination in the two innings at Old Trafford, his first innings sixty equating to the team's win margin. Cook was selected for his first Twenty20 International against the West Indies, in a losing effort where he scored 15 runs from 16 balls. This was followed by a disappointing one-day series for Cook, and England, who averaged 22 in 3 matches.


title: Alastair Cook

text: The following home series against India saw Cook continue his fine Test form despite England not winning a Test. He was the third-highest scoring Englishman with an average of 37. In the first Test, Cook made scores of 36 and 17 as the match ended in a draw. During the first day of the second Test at Trent Bridge, Cook became the youngest English player to rack up 1,500 Test runs eclipsing the record held by David Gower. In the first innings of the third Test, Cook made his biggest score of the series, 61 and followed this up with 43 in the second innings to help England secure a draw. Cook played in six of the seven ensuing one-day matches, scoring his maiden ODI century in the first match alongside Ian Bell's 126 not out guiding England to a 104 win victory that propped up England's first one-day series victory since 2005. After two ducks, Cook was dropped in the final, decisive match.


title: Alastair Cook

text: After being omitted from the World Twenty20 Cook rejoined England in Sri Lanka making an outstanding contribution in both forms of the game. Starting with another ODI series victory, Cook battled with a stomach virus to top score 47 in a losing match and went on to be the second-highest scoring batsmen in the series behind Chamara Silva with 155. Cook also picked up his first ODI Man of The Match award in the fourth game after scoring 80 to help England win by five wickets. After an unsuccessful first Test, Cook went on to be the top scoring Test batsmen for England too, scoring two half centuries in the second Test and 118 in the third match, at an average of 46. Up until this tour, Cook had held a strange record of having more Test centuries than half centuries but this century marked his last until March 2009 and Cook came under increasing criticism for his lack of ability to convert fifties to hundreds at the top of the order, yet maintained an average in the low forties.


title: Alastair Cook

text: England's tour of the antipodes continued with the tour of New Zealand and Cook made a great start in the warm up matches, making a half century followed by an unbeaten 138 the following day in limited overs matches. His style was still considered too slow for the following two Twenty20 Internationals and he failed to continue his form in the first ODI where he fell for 11 as part of an England collapse. The second match saw a similar collapse by England where Cook's 52 was the only real contribution until he was run out by fellow Essexian Ravi Bopara. The fourth one-day match saw Cook and Phil Mustard prop up the innings with an opening stand of 158 before both being dismissed in successive balls, leading to a tied match.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Although normally known for his slow but focussed repose with the bat, the first Test against New Zealand gave Cook a chance making three sharp catches in the first innings and mirroring his efforts with three even more spectacular catches in the second innings, the first two off Ryan Sidebottom who then went on to make a hat-trick with a final LBW, the match itself saw England collapse in the second innings for 110 with Cook being the only other player besides Ian Bell to make it into double figures. Incidentally, Cook's other catch in the second innings was also off Sidebottom to dismiss New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori, a feat the pair reproduced in the second innings of the second Test and again in the first innings of the third Test. His batting meanwhile began its long road of decline scoring no more than sixty in the two Tests and falling for only two runs in the final match, though in the second Test he did secure another English record being the youngest Englishman at just over 23 years, to score 2,000 Test runs – again eclipsing Gower; two days later he recorded his first Test six after 2047 runs, including 233 boundaries, after an accidental top edge and ruined his chances of beating Vijay Manjrekar's 2,308 record.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Back home in England Cook failed to reproduce his legacy of Lord's centuries. Scoring 61 in the only England innings of the first Test which was his only score over fifty from the four innings in England's successful series.


title: Alastair Cook

text: His poor form in the long format led to him being omitted for the Twenty20 series and all but the final one-day match.


title: Alastair Cook

text: With a year to go before the 2009 Ashes, it was imperative for Cook to cement his position as opener in the home series against South Africa. Again, at Lord's, Cook made his way comfortably to a half-century before being dismissed for 60. A high team score, together with a benevolent wicket, saw the fifth day bring Cook's first Test over as a bowler: he conceded just one run. Cook fell in one innings of each Test between fifty and a hundred, amassing the considerable average of 47 for the series.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Once again Cook found himself omitted from the Twenty20 and one-day team both for the home series against South Africa as well as the majority of the away series in India, where a string of poor England performances saw him called up for the fifth and ultimately the final match after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. When the Tests arrived, Cook continued to notch a half-century in one innings of each match, but was outshone by opening partner Strauss's centuries.


title: Alastair Cook

text: After India, England toured the West Indies under the new captaincy of Andrew Strauss after Pietersen's brief tenure ended in controversy. Cook was shown still to have the selectors' confidence despite his lack of centuries when he was given the unofficial vice-captaincy before the tour began. The title gave him a boost: he went on to score two fifties in the first warm-up match, retiring out in the second innings but contrasted that with a duck in the next tour match. Similarly, in the First Test he scored four and another duck. After the third Test was abandoned due to the poor quality of the surface, Cook was again beleaguered by his perennial problem: he scored two half centuries against opening partner Strauss's 169. He seemed to have put it behind him in the first innings of the next Test, however, as he and Strauss put on a record opening stand of 229. Strauss was bowled first for 169 as Cook reached the nineties but fell shortly thereafter for 94. After two days' batting on a benign pitch, the West Indies declared on 749 for nine in response to England's 600 for six. Put back in with one day to spare, Strauss fell for 33, but, after 38 innings' and fifteen months' waiting, Cook finally arrived at his eighth Test century, and went on to pass his highest score with an unbeaten 139 before play ended in a draw. During this innings, Cook also became the youngest Englishman to pass 3,000 Test runs.


title: Alastair Cook

text: England returned home, only to face the West Indies once more. The Second Test took the sides to the Riverside in Durham where, on a benign surface, Cook battled through the first day. After Strauss fell in the morning session, Cook began a partnership with Ravi Bopara, who had recently been promoted to third in the batting order. Over the first day, the two navigated a slow partnership, both strike rates remaining under 55, but, once Cook reached his ninth Test century, Bopara matched it with his own, culminating in a 213-run partnership at Bopara's fall in the closing overs of the day; Cook ended unbeaten on 126. After the second day of play was completely washed out, Cook recorded his first Test 150 and subsequently his then-highest score of 160.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Omitted from the World Twenty20 competition, Cook returned to Essex for two moderate county matches but impressive Twenty20 games. Despite being the only Englishman to score a century, or even more than 50, in the first innings of England's warm up match against Warwickshire, in the first Ashes Test at Cardiff, Cook was the lowest scoring recognised batsman, scoring 10 and 6 – caught in the gully in the first innings, and trapped LBW by Mitchell Johnson in the second. Cook bounced back in the second Test at Lord's, batting through to the afternoon session, as he and his captain Andrew Strauss (who scored 161) set the record for the highest opening English partnership at Lord's with 196, Cook initially scored faster than Strauss but fell short of another Lord's century, trapped again by Johnson for 95. This partnership, along with Strauss' anchoring throughout the innings, led England to a total of 425 and enabled them to gain a 210-run first-innings lead, aided by three catches from Cook off James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Batting quickly in the second innings to force victory, Cook scored 32 from 54 balls before again falling LBW but providing enough for England to cement their first victory over Australia at Lord's since 1934 and second since 1896.


title: Alastair Cook

text: After this high, the series took a severe downturn for Cook as his only appearance in the third Test was a duck. With no second innings to redeem himself, pressure began to mount on Cook for the fourth Test at Headingley where he anchored himself through half the team before being dismissed half-way through the first innings for only 30, a score which would only be topped by wicket-keeper Matt Prior as England collapsed to Australia's seam attack, bowled out for 102. Though the team batted better in the second innings Cook again was the fifth man out for another 30 as England succumbed to an innings defeat, with Australia levelling the series needing only to draw at the Oval to retain the Ashes. During the fortnight break Cook was among a quintet of players released into the County Championship to increase their form alongside. In the first-class match against Middlesex both he and Bopara failed in the first innings, with scores of 4 and 1, but Cook top scored in the second innings with 64 to push Essex towards victory. Of the five released, Cook was among three picked for the final and decisive Oval Test and didn't start well being dismissed with only 12 runs on the board, ten of them his. However, in the field Cook was part of Australia's first innings collapse, taking two catches off Graeme Swann to dismiss the top scoring opener Simon Katich and the penultimate wicket of Stuart Clark. Working with a 172 run lead on the second evening, Strauss and Cook's steady partnership was ended prematurely with Cook dismissed for 9 in his final innings of the series. Despite this Cook ended the series on something of a high in his fielding position at short leg, taking a catch off Steve Harmison's second wicket in two balls for the penultimate wicket and then taking the winning catch of a leading edge from the defiant Michael Hussey for 121 off Swann to seal the Ashes victory.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook made his return to international Twenty20 cricket during the tour of South Africa in 2009–10. After scoring 11 runs in the first match, Cook was handed the captaincy after Paul Collingwood picked up an injury prior to the second match but led them to an 84 run loss after posting only 26. In the second Test he scored a patient 118 after being saved by a third umpire referral at 64. This, along with a century from Ian Bell, gave England their only Test win of the drawn series with an innings margin. Despite a meagre performance in the rest of the series, it was quickly announced that England's 2010 tour against Bangladesh would see Strauss rested, with Cook taking on the captaincy role in the Test and One-Day teams as, what national selector Geoff Miller, "an audition for future engagements".


title: Alastair Cook

text: In his first Test as captain in Chittagong, Cook led the team to a win, despite a strong rearguard from Bangladesh, with the top score in both innings. Scoring a century in the first, in the second innings he accumulated 4,000 Test which coincided with teammate Collingwood achieving the same. At 25 years, 79 days Cook became the youngest Englishman to reach this amount and the second youngest worldwide after Indian veteran Sachin Tendulkar who was 24 years, 224 days old. In the second Test, Cook scored the winning runs in a nine wicket win, having scored another century. By virtue of being captain, Cook returned to England's ODI squad for the first time since 2008 and led the team as an opening batsmen to a three win whitewash with respectable scores.


title: Alastair Cook

text: After England's successful tour of Bangladesh, Bangladesh came to tour England with Strauss returning as captain and Cook being omitted once more for the short format. Cook was unable to reproduce the good from he showed as captain, making scores of seven and 23 in the first Test before being dismissed for 29 in the second Test between the two sides.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Later in the summer Pakistan toured England also. In the first Test Cook was unimpressive, making scores of 8 and twelve, although England went on to win the match by 354 runs. Cook's form did not improve in the next match where he made scores of 17 and four. It took until the fifth Test of the summer and the third Test against Pakistan for Cook to pass 50, scoring 110 in a losing cause against Pakistan. Before then, he had come in for much scrutiny, especially regarding his technique outside off-stump, and many considered his place to be under-threat. His timely century secured his place for the last Test, although he only scored 10 in an innings win by England, further putting his place into question heading into the winter tour of Australia.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Although there were still concerns about Cook's form and technique ahead of the 2010–11 Ashes series, Cook answered his critics in the best way possible. Following a century in one of the warm-up games, Cook opened his series account with 67 as England won the toss and batted at the Gabba in Brisbane. After surrendering a first-innings deficit of 221, Cook fought back with fellow-opener Strauss and Jonathan Trott. Strauss scored 110 as England scored 188 for the first wicket. With this partnership, Cook and Strauss became England's highest scoring opening partners across their four years together, beating an eighty-year-old record set by Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe; albeit taking 44 more innings to do so. Cook was joined by Trott and they scored an unbeaten partnership of 329; Cook recorded his first double-century in first-class cricket, finishing on 235 not out, and Trott scored 135 not out before England declared on 517–1. Cook's 235* overtook Don Bradman's record score at the ground and several other records were set in that innings.


title: Alastair Cook

text: In the second Test at Adelaide, Cook scored another century, his 15th, which saw him match Bradman in scoring 15 centuries before his 26th birthday. Cook broke Wally Hammond's record of runs scored without being out and Nasser Hussain's record of most minutes at the crease without being out, before being caught behind off an inside edge for 148 after over 1,000 minutes of being at the crease.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook, along with his teammates in a losing effort, performed poorly in the third Test but contributed to an innings victory in the fourth, becoming the series' leading run scorer after scoring 82. In the fifth and final Test, Cook twice survived being given out by debutant Michael Beer, the first from a no ball and the second (at 99 runs) after the third umpire confirmed the onfield decision that the ball had not carried. Eventually caught by Michael Hussey, his score of 189 saw him reach 5,000 Test runs in his career while in the series alone he amounted over 36 hours at the crease, a world record in a five Test series and an English record even including six Test series, as well as scoring 766 runs to become England's second-highest series scorer behind 906 by Wally Hammond 80 years previous. At the end of the final Test, Cook was presented with both the Man of the Match and Man of the Series awards.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Following England's quarter-final departure from the 2011 World Cup, Andrew Strauss resigned the ODI captaincy and Cook was named his successor, despite not having featured in an ODI since leading the side in Bangladesh. In addition to Cook's promotion, seam bowler Stuart Broad was named captain of the Twenty20 side and England went into the home series with Sri Lanka with different captains for each format of the game.


title: Alastair Cook

text: In the Test series against Sri Lanka Cook made 133 in the first Test of the series to help England take a 1–0 lead. His good form continues into the next match where he made scores of 96 and 106. In the final match of the series Cook made 55 in his only innings of the match, meaning he had scored two centuries and two half centuries in his four innings. Cook's first game as full-time captain against Sri Lanka at the Oval saw England victorious by 110 runs. England went on to win the series 3–2, with Cook top scoring for England in the series with 298 runs in five matches. This performance also led to an ODI player of the series award.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook was expected to be a key player when England met India, with the series winners taking over the world number one spot. Although Cook failed to make a significant score in the first game, England won the match to go 1–0 up. Cook only scored seven runs in the entire match in the next game, although England again won to go 2–0 up. In the third match of the series Cook hit a brilliant 294 to help England win the game by an innings and clinch the World's number one spot. In the final match of the series he made 34 as England won the series 4–0. In the second ODI Cook made an unbeaten 80 to help guide England to victory. After making scores of 23 and 12 in the next two matches, Cook finished off the series in good form, making 50 in the final game as England won by six wickets.


title: Alastair Cook

text: England then travelled to India for a limited overs series overseas. Cook scored 60 in the first match but England lost by 126 runs. He scored just 13 runs in the next three games, which included being dismissed for a duck. In the final match of the series he returned to form, making 60. However, England again lost and suffered a 5–0 series defeat.


title: Alastair Cook

text: In the winter of 2012, England struggled in Test matches in the sub continent. They were beaten by Pakistan in the first match of the series, with Cook being dismissed for single figures in both innings. He made 94 in the next game, the only time he passed 50 in the tour, but it was not enough to prevent England losing the match and going 2–0 down. Cook was out cheaply in the first innings as England were again bowled out for less than 200, and although he made 49 in the next innings it wasn't enough to prevent another England defeat.


title: Alastair Cook

text: In the first Test against Sri Lanka England's form showed no sign of improving and they lost the first match of the series, with Cook being dismissed for a duck in the first innings. With the pressure on England going into the final match of the two Test series, Cook returned to his best, making 94 in the first innings before hitting an unbeaten 49 to help England level the series at 1–1.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Back at home against the West Indies, Cook continued to perform well, hitting a half century in the first match of the series. England went on to win the match by five wickets. They also won the next match of the series, with Cook performing well and making an unbeaten 43 in England's second innings to help guide them to victory. The final match of the series ended in a draw. After being dismissed for a duck in the first ODI, Cook made a superb 112 in the second to help England win the match by 8 wickets.


title: Alastair Cook

text: England struggled in the three match series against South Africa, eventually losing the series 2–0. Cook started the series well, making yet another century in the first innings of the first match between the two sides. However, he was dismissed for a duck in the second innings as South Africa took a 1–0 lead. The next match ended in a draw, with Cook making decent contributions, despite failing to pass fifty. The third match was over shadowed when Kevin Pietersen was dropped following an argument with senior England players. Cook scored just ten runs in the match as England lost to lose the series 2–0 and lose their spot at the top of the Test rankings. Cook had an unsuccessful ODI series, the only 50 he made coming in the final match of the series. England lost the match and series finished 2–2.


title: Alastair Cook

text: On 29 August 2012, Cook became England's Test captain after previous Test captain Andrew Strauss retired from all forms of cricket.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook, who captained England in Bangladesh for two Tests in a previous series, took charge of England for the Test series against India in the winter of 2012. In each of the first three Tests – the first a defeat and the second a ten-wicket victory – he scored a century. This, together with a century in each of the aforementioned two Tests in Bangladesh, gave Cook five centuries in five Tests as captain, a record number. His scores on the tour also included 119 and 97 in the warm-up matches. The ten-wicket victory in the second Test was lauded by the media as one of England's greatest victories, and Cook's run of hundreds brought him level with the English Test record for most centuries. On 6 December 2012, Cook became England's leading scorer of centuries after making a hundred against India in Kolkata.


title: Alastair Cook

text: On 7 December 2012 he captained England to its first Test series victory on Indian soil since 1984–85, as well as overtaking Mike Gatting as England's highest ever run scorer in India For his performances in 2012, he was named both in the World Test XI and ODI XI by the ICC. He was also named in the World Test XI by the Cricinfo.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook continued his impressive form in the ODI series, scoring 75 in the first match, which helped England win the game. Cook was less impressive in the next two games as India took a lead in the series after winning both games. Cook made 74 in the fourth game but England still lost and India took an unassailable 3–1 series lead. England won the last game meaning the series had finished 3–2 to India, meaning the tour was seen as a success and the transition from Strauss to Cook was seen as a smooth one.


title: Alastair Cook

text: After the tour of India, Cook led England in New Zealand. In the second ODI, Cook hit 78 to guide England to victory and level the series 1–1. England clinched the series by winning the decider, in which Cook made 46 to secure the series for England. In the first Test match, Cook made a century to help England battle to a draw after a poor showing in the first innings. Cook was not at his best in the final two games of the two, although the nature of the wickets meant that the batsmen found it easy to score runs, and so the series ended 0–0. Despite the pitches, many had expected England to win the series and the draw was seen as a disappointment.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook led England in the 2013 Champions trophy, and they won their first game against Australia. It was also Cook's first game as captain against Australia. Cook made 59 against Sri Lanka, but England lost the game meaning they were not assured of their place in the next round. Cook top scored with 64 as England narrowly beat New Zealand to book their place in the semi final. After beating South Africa in the semi finals, England played India in the final in what turned out to be a rain-affected match. Despite restricting India to 129 in 20 overs, England lost the match by 5 runs, leaving them as runners-up. Cook was named as part of the 'Team of the Tournament' by Cricinfo.


title: Alastair Cook

text: In the first Test against New Zealand on home soil, Cook got made good starts in both innings but was unable to convert these scores past fifty. Despite this England won the Test match. In the second match, Cook returned to form, making 130 and leading England to a 2–0 series win. This meant that England remained undefeated in Test series under Cook, winning two and drawing one. Cook played in the ODI series, despite calls for him to be rested ahead of the Ashes. He made scores of 30, 34 and 0 in the three match series, with England losing 2–1.


title: Alastair Cook

text: The 2013 home Ashes series marked Cook's first Ashes series as captain. England went into the series as strong favourites, with Australia recently having parted company with their coach. England won the first Test, with Cook making 50 in England's second innings to help them set Australia a competitive target to win the game. They were bowled out for 296, meaning England won the match by 14 runs. Although Cook only managed 20 runs in the next match, England cruised to victory, winning by 347 runs. The third match ended in a draw, with Cook scoring 62 in the first innings, but being dismissed for a duck in the second. The fourth Test saw England win the series after winning the match and taking a 3–0 series lead. The final match ended in a draw, with Cook failing to pass fifty in either of his innings. Despite this, Cook was generally praised for the way he had led the side. In the ODI series, Cook and Flower decided to rest several of England's Test players to ensure they were fit for the series in Australia. Cook himself played no part in the series, being replaced in the side by Michael Carberry.


title: Alastair Cook

text: England and Cook suffered a complete whitewash when they travelled to Australia for the 2013–14 Ashes series. They were heavily defeated in the first Test, losing by 381 runs. Cook top-scored in England's second innings with 65 but it wasn't enough as England slumped to defeat. The second match saw a similar humiliation as England lost by 218 runs. England surrendered the urn after losing the third Test, giving Australia a 3–0 series lead. Cook made 72 in the first innings but was dismissed for a platinum duck in the second as England lost their third straight match by over 100 runs. The fourth Test saw Cook make another 50, but it wasn't enough to prevent another heavy defeat. England lost the final match and the series 5–0, with questions being asked of Cook's captaincy. Cook captained England in the ODI series but was unable to make a big contribution as England went 3–0 down. Cook scored 44 in the fourth match as England finally won their first game of the tour. However, they went on to lose the series 4–1. Upon returning from Australia, Andy Flower resigned but Cook vowed to continue as captain and was later backed by the ECB to help to mould a new England team.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook continued in his role as captain for the home series against Sri Lanka. In the first ODI of the series he made just 11 runs. He followed this up with an unbeaten 30 in the third match and guided England to a ten wicket victory. He was out for just one in the next match as Sri Lanka levelled the series at 2–2. In the deciding match Cook made 56, his first half century of the summer, although it was not enough to prevent England losing the series 3–2. Cook continued to struggle for form in the Test series against Sri Lanka, scoring 17 and 28 as England drew the game. Cook was also criticised for not declaring earlier and not giving his bowlers enough time to win the game. England lost the next match, with Cook again failing to pass fifty in either innings, with his high score in the match being 33 in the second innings.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook went into the Test series against India under pressure following the defeat to Sri Lanka. In the first Test he scored just five runs. However, as the match edged towards a draw, he collected his maiden Test wicket of Ishant Sharma when he was bowling medium pace. Cook's poor form continued in the second Test when he made scores of 10 and 22 as England lost the game to go 1–0 down in the series. On 27 July, in the third Test against India at the Rose Bowl, Cook scored 95 in the first innings which showed that he was getting back in form with confidence before getting out to Ravindra Jadeja. He then went on to score 70 not out in second innings before declaring as England won the match to level the series. Although he only made 17 in the next match, his captaincy was praised as England won the game by an innings to take a 2–1 series lead. Cook made 79 in the final match of the series, which England again won to seal the series 3–1. Following the win, Cook revealed he had considered his position as captain but was convinced by his wife to continue. After the first match of the ODI series was rained off, Cook made 19 in the second ODI as England suffered a defeat. They went 2–0 down in the series after losing the next game, although Cook batted well, making 44. He made just 9 in the next match as India clinched the series 3–0. Following the defeat questions were asked over Cook's role in the ODI team. However, the team bounced back to win the final game of the series in convincing fashion, with Cook making 46.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook captained England for the ODI tour of Sri Lanka. However, he did not perform well in the first two matches, making scores of 10 and 22 as England lost both games. England won the third match, with Cook making 34, although he was later banned for the next game due to a slow over rate. In the fifth match he scored 20, as England won to keep the series alive. However, they lost the last two games, with Cook making scores of 1 and 32. The 5–2 series defeat lead to questions over Cook's leadership of the team.


title: Alastair Cook

text: On 19 December 2014, Cook was removed as one-day captain, and replaced by Eoin Morgan. This was primarily due to his poor form in ODI cricket.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook continued his captaincy of the Test team, having not scored a century since May 2013. In the first Test of the three-Test series, Cook registered scores of only 11 and 13, in an otherwise strong performance from England. The match finished in a draw. Cook took advantage of favourable batting conditions in the following Test, making 76 in an opening partnership of 125 in England's first innings with Jonathan Trott. It was England's first century opening partnership since March 2013, and Cook's innings took him past Alec Stewart to become England's second-highest run-scorer in Tests. In the second innings, Cook made 59* in a comfortable run chase to win the Test by nine wickets and help England to secure 1–0 lead in the three match series. In the third Test in Barbados, Cook scored 105 in England's first innings, his first Test century in almost two years. However he made only 4 in the second innings, as England slumped to 123 all out. West Indies comfortably chased the runs they needed to gain a victory, making the final result for the series 1–1.


title: Alastair Cook

text: The English team then welcomed the Black Caps in May, with the first Test of the two-match series at Lord's. In the first Test, Cook continued his resurgence with his 27th century in Tests, scoring 162 in the second innings as England ultimately made 478 all out. England went on to win the game by 124 runs to go 1–0 up in the series. Cook continued his good form in the second Test. He made 75 in England's first innings as they posted 350 to equal New Zealand's first innings score. New Zealand were able to build up a big lead in their second innings, and although Cook made 56 in the final innings in the match, England lost the match by 199 runs and the series finished tied at 1–1. During the second Test, he became England's leading run scorer in Test matches, as well as the first England player to score 9,000 runs in Tests and the first to score 1,000 Test runs against five different nations.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook captained England in the 2015 Ashes series, and although England won the first game, Cook could only manage scores of 20 in the first innings and 12 in the second. England lost the second Test by 405 runs, but Cook was one of the few England batsman to show any resistance, scoring 96 in England's first innings. With the series level Cook made 34 in England's first innings of the third Test and England went on to win the game by eight wickets. England won the fourth Test by an innings and 78 runs, meaning Cook only needed to bat once, scoring 43 in England's first innings. With the Ashes won, Cook was praised for his captaincy and he gave an emotional interview following the victory. England lost the final match of the series, but Cook was again one of few England batsmen to show any resistance with the bat as he scored 85 in their second innings. Despite the loss, England won the series 3–2 and Cook celebrated his second Ashes win as captain.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook scored his third double-century and 28th Test ton (263) against Pakistan in first Test at Abu Dhabi in October 2015 in 836 minutes: the longest innings by an Englishman and 3rd longest of all time, facing 528 balls. In doing so he also became the all-time highest non-Asian run-scorer in Asia, overtaking Jacques Kallis' 2,039 runs. Despite Cook's brilliant innings, England were unable to force a victory, running out of time after bad light stopped play. In the second Test Cook scored 65 in the first innings as England posted 242. With England chasing down a big target to win in the second innings, Cook could only manage 10 and Pakistan won the match by 127 runs. England need to win the third Test to have any chance of drawing the series and despite taking a first innings lead which Cook contributed 49 to, Pakistan batted well in the second innings and England were dismissed for 256 in their second innings, meaning the lost the series 2–0, despite Cook scoring 63.


title: Alastair Cook

text: For his performances in 2015, he was named as captain of the World Test XI by the ICC. He was also named in the Test XI by ESPNCricinfo and Cricbuzz.


title: Alastair Cook

text: In the Test series against South Africa, Cook made a duck in the first innings of the first Test, but England recovered to post 303. England went on to win the game by 241 runs thanks to a strong bowling performance. In the second Test Cook again failed to make a major impression, scoring just 35 runs in the entire match in what proved to be a high scoring draw. Cook started to show some form in the third Test. He scored 43 in England's second innings total of 74–3, as England won the game by seven wickets after dismissing South Africa for just 83 in their second innings. In the final Test of the series, which England had already won, Cook made 76 in the first innings. However, England collapsed in the second innings and only made 101, with Cook being dismissed for five. Despite this, England won the series 2–1 with Cook captaining England to the historic victory.


title: Alastair Cook

text: In the first Test against Sri Lanka, Cook could only make 16 but England went on to win the match by an innings and 88 runs. In the second Test, left-handed batsman created history on 30 May 2016 in the second Test against Sri Lanka to become the youngest batsman to score 10000 Test runs beating Sachin Tendulkar's 11-year-old record. The 31-year-old broke the record on the fourth day of the second Test match against Sri Lanka at Chester Le Street. He became the 12th international cricketer to reach the landmark and the first Englishman. He scored 47 in England's second innings to help England to a convincing nine wicket victory. In the first innings of the third Test, he scored 85 to help England to 416. He came in down the order for England's second innings after being injured in the field and made an unbeaten 49. Rain on the final day meant the match finished in a draw, with England winning the series 2–0.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook broke India great Sunil Gavaskar’s record of 9,607 for the most runs as a Test opener while making 81 against Pakistan in the first Test at Lord's. However, Cook could only make eight in the second innings and England lost the opening Test by 75 runs. On 22 July 2016, Alastair Cook equalled Don Bradman's record of having hit 29 Test centuries when he scored 105 on the opening day of the 2nd Test against Pakistan at Old Trafford. He chose not to enforce the follow-on when England were far ahead in the second Test – but was vindicated by an England victory, with Cook scoring an unbeaten 76 in England's second innings. In the third Test he made scores of 45 and 66 and England won by 141 runs to go 2–1 up in the series. However, England lost the final match, with Cook scoring 35 in the first innings before making seven in the second innings as England lost by 10 wickets and the series ended in a 2–2 tie.


title: Alastair Cook

text: In the first Test against Bangladesh, Cook scored 4 in the first innings and then made 12 in the second. Despite his low scores, England won by 21 runs. In the second Test Cook made 14 in the first innings, and although he made 59 in the second, England were bowled out for 164 to lose the match by 108 runs and draw the series 1–1.


title: Alastair Cook

text: In the first Test against India Cook made 21 in the first innings before making 130 in England's second innings total of 260/3, although England were unable to force a victory, with the match ending in a draw. In the second Test he made 2 in the first innings, before going on to score 54 in England's second innings total of 158, as England lost by 246 runs. In the third Test, Cook made 27 in the first innings before making 12 in the second innings, as England lost the match by eight wickets. In the fourth Test Cook made 46 in England's first innings total of 400, but was out for 18 in the second innings as England were bowled out for 195 and lost the match by an innings and 36 runs. In the final Test, Cook made 10 in the first innings as England scored 477, but India gained a first innings lead after scoring 759/7. Cook made 49 in England's second innings as they were dismissed for 207 to lose by an innings and 75 runs. A month and half after the end of the series, Cook stood down as Test captain, having captained the team in an English record of 59 Tests.


title: Alastair Cook

text: The first Test at Lord's was Cook's first under the new captain, Joe Root. Cook didn't score a century in the series but was reliable with three 50s. England won the 4 Test series 3–1 with the only loss at Trent Bridge. Cook's top scored in the second innings there with 42, with no other England batsmen offering much resistance.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook's form slump that had continued through the 2017–18 Ashes, where he had not scored a half-century in 10 innings, finally came to an end with 104* from 166 balls by the end of day two of the Boxing Day Ashes Test in Melbourne. He went on to carry his bat with a double century and put England into a lead of over 100, finishing with 244 not out, the highest Test score by an opener who has carried the bat. In December 2018 this record was bettered by New Zealand's Tom Latham, in his score of 264* vs Sri Lanka.


title: Alastair Cook

text: After a score of 70 of the first match of the home series against Pakistan, Cook had another slump in form, scoring a total of 155 more runs in 5 further matches Pakistan and India. On 3 September 2018, after the conclusion of the fourth Test, Cook announced that his twelve-year international career would end at the conclusion of the series against India. On the fourth day of the fifth Test (after resuming on an overnight score of 46*), Cook made a score of 147 and in doing so became the fifth batsman to score a century in his first and last Test match and the second batsman to score twin fifties in his first and last Test. When he reached 76 during the innings, he overtook Kumar Sangakkara to become the fifth-highest run-scorer and the highest-scoring left-hander in Test history.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook has written a column in "The Daily Telegraph" and "Metro". He used his skill with the saxophone to contribute to Freefonix, a CBBC animated series with music-based adventures. Cook has donated his time to various charities including taking part in The Great City Race for Breakthrough Breast Cancer and modelled naked alongside fellow cricketers James Anderson and Stuart Broad to help raise awareness for testicular cancer on behalf of the Everyman Campaign. He is also an active patron of the David Randall Foundation, a charity that carries the name of his childhood friend and opening partner at Maldon CC & Essex age group sides. Much of the proceeds from his 2014 Benefit Year went to this charity.


title: Alastair Cook

text: In December 2011, Cook married Alice Hunt, whom he had known since childhood. The couple have two daughters and one son. He was allowed to miss two tour games in Bangladesh to be present at the birth of the second child in October 2016.


title: Alastair Cook

text: Cook helps maintain a farm near inner urban Leighton Buzzard, and has described farming and cricket as the two passions in his life, stating that "They are both my passions and not many people can say what they do for their job or their life is what they love doing all the time". Cook is a fan of hunting and deer stalking.


title: Yebba

text: Abigail Elizabeth Smith, (born January 16, 1995) known professionally as Yebba, is an American singer and songwriter from West Memphis, Arkansas. She first became known for her backing vocal performance on Chance the Rapper's SNL performance of the song "Same Drugs" in 2016 and releasing her debut single "Evergreen" in 2017. She has collaborated with a number of artists, including PJ Morton, Sam Smith, Mark Ronson, Stormzy, Ed Sheeran, A$AP Rocky, and Drake.


title: Yebba

text: In 2017, Yebba revealed that she was co-signed by Ed Sheeran's record label Gingerbread Man Records when she performed a song called "My Mind", which was written and performed about a week before her mother died. Sheeran described how the Sofar Sounds performance of the song was so powerful, it made him cry. Shortly after followed the official release of her debut single "Evergreen". About the song, she said "I grew up doing music in my dad's church from a baby, so I've spent about a seventh of my life on the front row, beside my momma, and right behind my dad's organ. Church has always been a place of honesty, questioning, and family. So after we saw mom's suicide, and that sense of family seemingly dissolved, a building I had become entirely estranged to seemed like the only place I could go." Later that year, she collaborated with Sam Smith on the song "No Peace", which was released through Smith's 2017 album "The Thrill of It All".


title: Yebba

text: In 2018, she collaborated with Zane Lowe to release her debut music video for her debut single "Evergreen", which was done so with support from Apple Music and Beats 1. Lowe stated about the music video, "YEBBA is an artist in every sense of the word, and working together to bring her vision to light was truly remarkable. She has one of the more powerful and exciting voices to come along in years, and we are excited to introduce her to the world". She also appeared as a featured artist, alongside Maverick Sabre on Rudimental's promotional single "They Don't Care About Us", which served as a track from their 2019 album "Toast to Our Differences". Additionally, she was a backing vocalist on the recent projects from Jess Glynne and Mumford & Sons.


title: Yebba

text: In 2019, Yebba was nominated and won her first ever Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance of the song "How Deep Is Your Love", alongside PJ Morton at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. She also appeared on three songs from Mark Ronson's album "Late Night Feelings". In April, she appeared as a guest vocalist alongside The Staves for Mumford & Sons' live performance of the song "Beloved" on "The Jonathan Ross Show". In June, she was revealed to have a featured appearance on Ed Sheeran's collaborative effort "No.6 Collaborations Project" on a song entitled "Best Part of Me", which was eventually released as a promotional single. The song became her first charted release, peaking at 99 in the US Charts. In August, she released her follow up single to "Evergreen", entitled "Where Do You Go". The song was produced by BJ Burton and The Picard Brothers.


title: Yebba

text: In May 2020, Yebba signed to RCA Records and released her first single, the Mark Ronson produced "Distance".


title: Yebba

text: In September 2021, Yebba appeared on the highly anticipated album Certified Lover Boy by Drake on a song entitled "Yebba's Heartbreak". The song serves as the album's interlude.


title: Yebba

text: Yebba has been spoken advocate for mental health awareness and support. Her mother died by suicide about a week after Yebba sang her first original song, causing "My Mind" to take on new meaning representing mental health. She says her artist name was chosen to honor her mother, who she said "always called her by the nickname" (her name Abbey written backwards) as a child. In memory of her mother, Yebba gave the song away free through her website. Smith attended Belmont University in Nashville, TN.


title: Yebba

text: Yebba cites The Clark Sisters as her heroes and number one influences. She wrote on Instagram: "This family's music made me come to know Jesus. Anything I've learned about singing has been from trying to mimic them." Records like "Nothing to Lose," "Jesus Lifted Me," "You Brought the Sunshine," "The Darkest Hour is Just Before the Day" and "Jesus is a Love Song" are some of her favorites.


title: 1994 in film

text: This is a list of films released in 1994. The top worldwide grosser was "The Lion King", becoming the highest-grossing animated film of all-time, although it was slightly overtaken at the North American domestic box office by "Forrest Gump", which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: HyperNormalisation is a 2016 BBC documentary by British filmmaker Adam Curtis. It argues that governments, financiers, and technological utopians have, since the 1970s, given up on the complex "real world" and built a simpler "fake world" run by corporations and kept stable by politicians. The film was released on 16 October 2016 on BBC iPlayer.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: The word "hypernormalization" was coined by Alexei Yurchak, a professor of anthropology who was born in Leningrad and later went to teach in the United States. He introduced the word in his book "Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation" (2006), which describes paradoxes of Soviet life during the 1970s and 1980s. He says that everyone in the Soviet Union knew the system was failing, but no one could imagine an alternative to the status quo, and politicians and citizens alike were resigned to maintaining the pretense of a functioning society. Over time, this delusion became a self-fulfilling prophecy and the fakeness was accepted by everyone as real, an effect that Yurchak termed "hypernormalisation".


title: HyperNormalisation

text: The fiscal crisis in New York City and the emergent idea that financial systems could run society; shuttle diplomacy between then-US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Middle Eastern leaders in the Arab-Israeli dispute and the subsequent retreat by Hafez al-Assad of Syria; and the onset of hypernormalisation in the Soviet Union.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: Following the United States' involvement in the 1982 Lebanon War, a vengeful al-Assad made an alliance with Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran. They planned to force the US out of the Middle East by encouraging civilians to carry out suicide bombings on American targets in the region, thereby avoiding reprisals. In February 1984, the US withdrew all its troops from Lebanon because, in the words of then-US Secretary of State George P. Shultz, "we became paralysed by the complexity that we faced".


title: HyperNormalisation

text: By the mid-1980s, banks and corporations were connecting through computer networks to create a hidden system of power, and technological utopians whose roots lay in the counterculture of the 1960s also saw the internet as an opportunity to make an alternative world that was free of political and legal restraints.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: John Perry Barlow's vision of cyberspace as the 1990s equivalent of the Acid Tests. Barlow had been part of the LSD (also known as "acid") counterculture in the 1960s and founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He wrote a manifesto called A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace. Addressed to politicians, it declared "the global social space we are building to be naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose upon us". Two computer hackers—Phiber Optik and Acid Phreak—knew that in reality corporations were using the internet to exert more control over the lives of people than governments had done in the past, and they demonstrated that hierarchies did exist online by obtaining Barlow's credit record from TRW Inc. and posting it on the internet.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: This chapter describes the Reagan administration using Muammar Gaddafi as a pawn in their public relations (PR) strategy of creating a simplified, morally unambiguous foreign policy by blaming him for the 1985 Rome and Vienna airport attacks and the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing that killed US soldiers, both of which European security services attributed to Syrian intelligence agencies. Gaddafi is described as playing along for the sake of increasing his profile in the Arab world as a revolutionary. The 1986 United States bombing of Libya, 10 days after the disco bombing, is described as an operation carried out mainly for PR reasons, because attacking Syria would have been too risky.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: This chapter begins with a montage of unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings recorded by members of the public in the United States. It argues that the phenomenon surrounding UFOs in the 1990s was born out of a counter-intelligence operation designed to make the public believe that secret airborne high-technology weapons systems tested by the US military during and after the Cold War were alien visitations. Top secret memos forged by the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations were allegedly leaked to ufologists who spread the manufactured conspiracy theory of a government cover-up to the wider public. The method, called perception management, aimed to distract people from the complexities of the real world. American politics are described as having become increasingly detached from reality. Curtis uses the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s as an example of an event that took the West by surprise because reality had become less and less important. A Jane Fonda workout video is shown to illustrate that socialists had given up trying to change the real world and were instead focusing on the self and encouraging others to do the same. The video is intercut with footage of Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena, being executed by firing squad and buried following the Romanian Revolution in 1989.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: Ulrich Beck is identified as a left-wing German political theorist. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he saw the world as too complex to change, and Beck asserted that politicians should merely keep the West stable by predicting and avoiding risks. Curtis looks at Aladdin, a computer that manages about 7% of the world's financial assets, analysing the past to anticipate what may happen in the future; and how anti-depressant drugs and social media both stabilise the emotions of individuals.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: The start of this chapter is about the flaws of trying to predict the future by using data from the past. Curtis tells the story of how a card counter was recruited by Donald Trump to analyse the gambling habits of Akio Kashiwagi at his casino, the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, after Trump had lost millions of dollars to Kashiwagi. In an effort to avert the impending bankruptcy of the casino, a model was devised that predicted a way of recouping the money from Kashiwagi, who lost US$10 million. However, before he could pay, he was killed by yakuza gangsters and the casino went bankrupt, with Trump having to sell many of his assets to the banks.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: Attention turns back to the Middle East and the Lockerbie Bombing in 1988. Curtis says that immediately after the bombing, journalists and investigators blamed Syria for carrying out the attack on behalf of Iran in revenge for the shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 by the United States Navy. It was generally accepted as true until US security agencies announced that Libya was behind the attack. Some journalists and politicians believed that the West had made the volte-face to appease Syria's leader, who the US and the United Kingdom required as an ally in the coming Gulf War.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: He focuses on the spread of suicide bombing tactics from Shia to Sunni Islam and the targeting of civilians in Israel by Hamas during the 1990s. The resulting political paralysis led to a stalling of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. It is described as an unintended consequence of Israel's response to the 1992 killing of an Israeli border guard.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: A montage is shown of clips from pre-9/11 disaster films in which New York City landmarks are variously destroyed by alien invaders, meteorites, and a tsunami. Curtis argues that such films were characteristic of a mood of uncertainty that pervaded the United States at the end of the 20th century.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: The effect of the Iraq war wreaks havoc on the American psyche and people retreat into cyberspace. Judea Pearl creates Bayesian networks that mimic human behaviour. Judea's son, Daniel Pearl is the first American to be beheaded on a video uploaded to YouTube.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: Meanwhile, social media algorithms show information that is pleasing to their users and hence does nothing to challenge their beliefs. Despite this, Occupy Wall Street emerges in an attempt to disrupt the system by imitating the leaderless system that the internet was once imagined to become. Using a similar method, the Egyptian revolution of 2011 commenced.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: Britain, France and the US turn their backs on Muammar Gaddafi once Libyans rise up against him. The US drops bombs using drones, and then footage is shown of Gaddafi being captured by rebels.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: In Russia, Vladimir Putin and his cabinet of political technologists create mass confusion. Vladislav Surkov uses ideas from art to turn Russian politics into a bewildering piece of theatre. Donald Trump used the same techniques in his presidential campaign by using language from Occupy Wall Street. Curtis asserts that Trump "defeated journalism" by rendering its fact-checking abilities irrelevant.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: The American Left's attempt to resist Trump on the internet had no effect. In fact, they were just feeding the social media corporations who valued their many additional clicks.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: Syria's revolution becomes more vicious and violent. The technique of suicide bombing that Curtis argues Hafez al-Assad introduced in order to unite the Middle East has instead torn it apart. Russia uses Surkov's concept of "non-linear warfare" to fight against the Syrian rebels. Russia claims to leave Syria, but doesn't.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: Abu Musab al-Suri in Syria suggests that terrorists should not carry out large-scale attacks such as Osama Bin Laden's, but instead carry out "random" small-scale attacks throughout the West to create fear and chaos, against which it would be more difficult to retaliate.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: Destabilisation of the West's psyche leads to the vote for Brexit and the popularity of Donald Trump.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: "HyperNormalisation" makes extensive use of footage from the BBC Archives and includes material shot specially for the documentary.


title: HyperNormalisation

text: "The Independent" described it as "A rare documentary that respects the viewer's intelligence". "The New Yorker" described it as "a searching and essential document of our times...". In "The Guardian", reviewer Charlie Lyne writes, "[this] 165-minute opus makes a feature of its sheer unwieldiness, as Curtis veers from social history to conspiracy theory via the odd rambling bar-room anecdote, like a man who’s two-dozen browser tabs into a major Wikipedia binge". For "The Hollywood Reporter", Stephen Dalton writes, "A rich gumbo of occult conspiracy theory, dystopian science-fiction thriller and Noam Chomsky-style Marxist critique, "Hypernormalisation" is highly compelling even when its arguments are not wholly convincing... This fascinating assemblage of half-explored ideas should inspire curious viewers to conduct further research of their own, which is an entirely healthy and positive response". Phil Harrison, in a review for "The Quietus", wrote "it could be argued that Curtis himself is just another master manipulator". In "Little White Lies", David Jenkins wrote that the film "reveals [Curtis's] limited range as a filmmaker".


title: Magdeburg

text: Magdeburg (; ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river.


title: Magdeburg

text: Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdeburg, was buried in the city's cathedral after his death. Magdeburg's version of German town law, known as Magdeburg rights, spread throughout Central and Eastern Europe. In the Late Middle Ages, Magdeburg was one of the largest and most prosperous German cities and a notable member of the Hanseatic League. One of the most notable people from the city is Otto von Guericke, famous for his experiments with the Magdeburg hemispheres.


title: Magdeburg

text: Magdeburg has been destroyed twice in its history. The Catholic League sacked Magdeburg in 1631, resulting in the death of 25,000 non-combatants, the largest loss of the Thirty Years' War. During the World War II the Allies bombed the city in 1945 and destroying much of it. After World War II the city belonged to the German Democratic Republic from 1949 to 1990. Since then many new construction projects were implemented and old buildings have been restored.


title: Magdeburg

text: Magdeburg is situated on Autobahn 2 and Autobahn 14, and hence is at the connection point of the East (Berlin and beyond) with the West of Europe, as well as the North and South of Germany. For the modern city, the most significant industries are: the Machine industry, Healthcare industry, Mechanical engineering, Environmental technology, Circular economy, Logistics, Culture industry, Wood industry and the Information and communications technology.


title: Magdeburg

text: The city is the location of two universities, the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences.


title: Magdeburg

text: Founded by Charlemagne in 805 as Magadoburg (probably from Old High German "magado" for "big", "mighty" and "burga" for "fortress"), the town was fortified in 919 by King Henry the Fowler against the Magyars and Slavs. In 929 King Otto I granted the city to his English-born wife Edith as dower. Queen Edith loved the town and often resided there; at her death she was buried in the crypt of the Benedictine abbey of Saint Maurice, later rebuilt as the cathedral. In 937, Magdeburg was the seat of a royal assembly. Otto I repeatedly visited Magdeburg, establishing a convent here about 937 and was later buried in the cathedral. He granted the abbey the right to income from various tithes and to corvée labour from the surrounding countryside.


title: Magdeburg

text: The Archbishopric of Magdeburg was founded in 968 at the synod of Ravenna; Adalbert of Magdeburg was consecrated as its first archbishop. The archbishopric under Adalbert included the bishoprics of Havelberg, Brandenburg, Merseburg, Meissen and Naumburg-Zeitz. The archbishops played a prominent role in the German colonisation of the Slavic lands east of the Elbe river.


title: Magdeburg

text: In 1035 Magdeburg received a patent giving the city the right to hold trade exhibitions and conventions. This formed the basis of German town law to become known as the Magdeburg rights. These laws were adopted and modified throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Visitors from many countries began to trade with Magdeburg. The town was burnt down in 1188.


title: Magdeburg

text: In the 13th century, Magdeburg became a member of the Hanseatic League. With more than 20,000 inhabitants Magdeburg was one of the largest cities in the Holy Roman Empire. The town had active maritime commerce on the west (towards Flanders), with the countries of the North Sea, and maintained traffic and communication with the interior (for example Brunswick).


title: Magdeburg

text: The citizens constantly struggled against the archbishop, becoming nearly independent from him by the end of the 15th century. Around Easter 1497, the then twelve-year-old Martin Luther attended school in Magdeburg, where he was exposed to the teachings of the Brethren of the Common Life. In 1524, he was called to Magdeburg, where he preached and caused the city's defection from Roman Catholicism. The Protestant Reformation had quickly found adherents in the city, where Luther had been a schoolboy. Emperor Charles V repeatedly outlawed the unruly town, which had joined the League of Torgau and the Schmalkaldic League.


title: Magdeburg

text: As it had not accepted the Augsburg Interim decree (1548), the city, by the emperor's commands, was besieged (1550–1551) by Maurice, Elector of Saxony, but it retained its independence. The rule of the archbishop was replaced by that of various administrators belonging to Protestant dynasties. In the following years, Magdeburg gained a reputation as a stronghold of Protestantism and became the first major city to publish the writings of Martin Luther. In Magdeburg, Matthias Flacius and his companions wrote their anti-Catholic pamphlets and the "Magdeburg Centuries", in which they argued that the Roman Catholic Church had become the kingdom of the Antichrist.


title: Magdeburg

text: In 1629 the city withstood its first siege during the Thirty Years' War, by Albrecht von Wallenstein, a Protestant convert to Catholicism. However, in 1631, imperial troops under Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, stormed the city and massacred the inhabitants, killing about 20,000 and burning the city.


title: Magdeburg

text: After the war, a population of only 4,000 remained. Under the Peace of Westphalia (1648), Magdeburg was to be assigned to Brandenburg-Prussia after the death of the administrator August of Saxe-Weissenfels, as the semi-autonomous Duchy of Magdeburg. This occurred in 1680.


title: Magdeburg

text: The city made an astonishingly quick recovery, due especially to the energy and dedication of its mayor Otto von Guericke, who was also a noted scientist. Just six years after the end of the terribly destructive war, Magdeburg was the scene of the famous scientific experiment known as The "Magdeburg hemispheres" by which the existence of vacuum - hitherto hotly debated - was empirically proven, with enormous implications for the later developments of physics.


title: Magdeburg

text: In the course of the Napoleonic Wars, the fortress surrendered to French troops in 1806. The city was annexed to the French-controlled Kingdom of Westphalia in the 1807 Treaty of Tilsit. King Jérôme appointed Count Heinrich von Blumenthal as mayor. In 1815, after the Napoleonic Wars, Magdeburg was made the capital of the new Prussian Province of Saxony. In 1912, the old fortress was dismantled, and in 1908, the municipality Rothensee became part of Magdeburg.


title: Magdeburg

text: In 1912, the old fortress was dismantled, and in 1908, the municipality Rothensee became part of Magdeburg.


title: Magdeburg

text: Magdeburg was heavily bombed by British and American air forces during the Second World War. The RAF bombing raid on the night of 16 January 1945 destroyed much of the city. The death toll is estimated at 2,000–2,500. Near the end of World War II, the city of about 340,000 became capital of the Province of Magdeburg. Brabag's Magdeburg/Rothensee plant that produced synthetic oil from lignite coal was a target of the Oil Campaign of World War II. The impressive "Gründerzeit" suburbs north of the city, called the Nordfront, were destroyed as well as the city's main street with its Baroque buildings. It was occupied by 9th US Army troops on 18 April 1945 and was left to the Red Army on 1 July 1945. Post-war the area was part of the Soviet Zone of Occupation and many of the remaining pre-World War II city buildings were destroyed, with only a few buildings near the cathedral and in the southern part of the old city being restored to their pre-war state. Before the reunification of Germany, many surviving "Gründerzeit" buildings were left uninhabited and, after years of degradation, waiting for demolition. From 1949 until German reunification on 3 October 1990, Magdeburg belonged to the German Democratic Republic.


title: Magdeburg

text: In 1990 Magdeburg became the capital of the new state of Saxony-Anhalt within reunified Germany. Huge parts of the city and its centre were also rebuilt in a modern style. Its economy is one of the fastest-growing in the former East German states.


title: Magdeburg

text: The city was hit by 2013 European floods. Authorities declared a state of emergency and said they expected the Elbe river to rise higher than in 2002. In Magdeburg, with water levels of above normal, about 23,000 residents had to leave their homes on 9 June.


title: Magdeburg

text: The city of Magdeburg is divided into 40 "Stadtteile" (districts). Three of these, the former municipalities Beyendorf-Sohlen, Pechau and Randau-Calenberge, have a special status as "Ortschaften". The "Stadtteile" of Magdeburg are:


title: Magdeburg

text: Magdeburg has a Humid continental climate (Dfb) bordering on an oceanic climate (Cfb) according to Köppen climate classification.


title: Magdeburg

text: The current mayor of Magdeburg is independent politician Simone Borris since 2022. The most recent mayoral election was held on 24 April 2022, with a runoff held on 8 May, and the results were as follows:


title: Magdeburg

text: The Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg (German: Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg) was founded in 1993 and is one of the newest universities in Germany. The university in Magdeburg has about 13,000 students in nine faculties. There are 11,700 papers published in international journals from this institute.


title: Magdeburg

text: The Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences was founded in 1991. There are 30 direct study programs in five departments in Magdeburg and two departments in Stendal. The university has more than 130 professors and approximately 4,500 students at Magdeburg and 1,900 at Stendal.


title: Magdeburg

text: Magdeburg is well known for its Christmas market, which is an attraction for 1.5 million visitors every year. Other events are the "Stadtfest", "Christopher Street Day", "Elbe in Flames", and the "Europafest Magdeburg". The autumn fair (formerly men's fair) of Magdeburg goes back to Germany's oldest folk festival. The tradition dates back to September 1010, when the holy feast of the Theban Legion was celebrated in Magdeburg (then called Magathaburg).


title: Magdeburg

text: One of Magdeburg's most impressive buildings is the Lutheran Cathedral of Saints Catherine and Maurice with a height of , making it the tallest church building of eastern Germany. It is notable for its beautiful and unique sculptures, especially the "Twelve Virgins" at the Northern Gate, the depictions of Otto I the Great and his wife Editha as well as the statues of St Maurice and St Catherine.


title: Magdeburg

text: The predecessor of the cathedral was a church built in 937 within an abbey, called St. Maurice. Emperor Otto I the Great was buried here beside his wife in 973. St. Maurice burnt to ashes in 1207. The exact location of that church remained unknown for a long time. The foundations were rediscovered in May 2003, revealing a building long and wide.


title: Magdeburg

text: The construction of the new church lasted 300 years. The cathedral of Saints Catherine and Maurice was the first Gothic church building in Germany. The building of the steeples was completed as late as 1520.


title: Magdeburg

text: While the cathedral was virtually the only building to survive the massacres of the Thirty Years' War, it suffered damage in World War II. It was soon rebuilt and completed in 1955.


title: Magdeburg

text: The square in front of the cathedral (also called the "Neuer Markt", or "new marketplace") was occupied by an imperial palace ("Kaiserpfalz"), which was destroyed in the fire of 1207. The stones from the ruin were used for the building of the cathedral. The presumed remains of the palace were excavated in the 1960s.


title: Magdeburg

text: Magdeburg has a proud history of sports teams, with Association Football proving the most popular. 1. FC Magdeburg currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second division of German football. They are the only East German football club to have won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. The now-defunct clubs SV Victoria 96 Magdeburg and Cricket Viktoria Magdeburg were among the first football clubs in Germany.


title: Magdeburg

text: There is also the very successful handball team, SC Magdeburg. They won multiple times the Handball-Bundesliga (HBL), DHB-Pokal, DHB-Supercup, EHF European League, EHF Champions League, EHF Men's Champions Trophy and the IHF Men's Super Globe.


title: Magdeburg

text: The discus was re-discovered in Magdeburg in the 1870s by Christian Georg Kohlrausch, a gymnastics teacher.


title: Tooth fairy

text: The Tooth Fairy is a fantasy figure of early childhood in Western and Western-influenced cultures. The folklore states that when children lose one of their baby teeth, they should place it underneath their pillow or on their bedside table and the Tooth Fairy will visit while they sleep, replacing the lost tooth with a small payment.


title: Tooth fairy

text: In Northern Europe, there was a tradition of "tand-fé" or tooth fee, which was paid when a child lost their first tooth. This tradition is recorded in writings as early as the Eddas (c. 1200), which are the earliest written record of Norse and Northern European traditions. In the Norse culture, children's teeth and other articles belonging to children were said to bring good luck in battle, and Scandinavian warriors hung children's teeth on a string around their necks.


title: Tooth fairy

text: During the Middle Ages, other superstitions arose surrounding children's teeth. In England, for example, children were instructed to burn their baby teeth to save the child from hardship in the afterlife. Children who did not consign their baby teeth to the fire would spend eternity searching for them in the afterlife. The Vikings paid children for their teeth. Fear of witches was another reason to bury or burn teeth. In medieval Europe, it was thought that if a witch were to get hold of one's teeth, it could lead to total power over them.


title: Tooth fairy

text: Another modern incarnation of these traditions into an actual Tooth Fairy has been traced to a 1908 "Household Hints" item in the "Chicago Daily Tribune":


title: Tooth fairy

text: Unlike Father Christmas and, to a lesser extent, the Easter Bunny, there are few details of the Tooth Fairy's appearance that are consistent in various versions of the myth. A 1984 study conducted by Rosemary Wells revealed that most, 74 percent of those surveyed, believed the Tooth Fairy to be female, while 12 percent believed the Tooth Fairy to be neither male nor female and 8 percent believed the Tooth Fairy could be either male or female. When asked about her findings regarding the Tooth Fairy's appearance, Wells explained: "You've got your basic Tinkerbell-type Tooth Fairy with the wings, wand, a little older and whatnot. Then you have some people who think of the tooth fairy as a man, a bunny rabbit, or a mouse." One review of published children's books and popular artwork found the Tooth Fairy also to be depicted as a child with wings, a pixie, a dragon, a blue mother-figure, a flying ballerina, two little older men, a dental hygienist, a potbellied flying man smoking a cigar, a bat, a bear, and others. Unlike the well-established imagining of Santa Claus, differences in renderings of the Tooth Fairy are not as upsetting to children.


title: Tooth fairy

text: Starting in 2011, the Royal Canadian Mint began selling special sets for newborn babies, birthdays, wedding anniversaries, "Oh Canada" and the Tooth Fairy. The Tooth Fairy quarters, which were issued only in 2011 and 2012, were packaged separately.


title: Tooth fairy

text: In 2020, the Royal Australian Mint began issuing "Tooth Fairy kits" that included commemorative $2 coins.


title: Tooth fairy

text: The reward left varies by country, the family's economic status, amounts the child's peers report receiving, and other factors. A 2013 survey by Visa Inc. found that American children receive $3.70 per tooth on average. According to the same survey, only 3% of children find a dollar or less and 8% find a five-dollar bill or more under their pillow.


title: Tooth fairy

text: Belief in the Tooth Fairy is viewed in two very different ways. On the one hand, children believing is seen as part of the trusting nature of childhood. Conversely, belief in the Tooth Fairy is frequently used to label adults as being too trusting and ready to believe anything.


title: Tooth fairy

text: Parents tend to view the myth as providing comfort for children in the loss of their tooth. Research finds that belief in the Tooth Fairy may provide such comfort to a child experiencing fear or pain resulting from the loss of a tooth. Mothers especially seem to value a child's belief as a sign that their "baby" is still a child and is not "growing up too soon". By encouraging belief in a fictional character, parents allow themselves to be comforted that their child still believes in fantasy and is not yet "grown up".


title: Tooth fairy

text: Children often discover the Tooth Fairy is imaginary as part of the 5- to 7-year shift, often connecting this to other gift-bearing imaginary figures (such as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny).


title: Tooth fairy

text: Author Vicki Lansky advises parents to tell their children early that the tooth fairy pays a whole lot more for a perfect tooth than for a decayed one. According to Lansky, some families leave a note with the payment, praising the child for good dental habits.


title: Tooth fairy

text: Research findings suggest a possible relationship between a child's continued belief in the Tooth Fairy (and other fictional characters) and false memory syndrome.


title: Tooth fairy

text: El Ratoncito Pérez or Ratón Pérez ( "Perez the Little Mouse" or "Perez Mouse") is the Spanish and Hispanic American equivalent to the Tooth Fairy. He first appeared in a 1894 tale written by Luis Coloma for King Alfonso XIII, who had just lost a milk tooth at the age of eight. As is traditional in other cultures, when a child loses a tooth it is customary for the child to place it under the pillow, so that El Ratoncito Pérez will exchange it for a small payment or gift. The tradition is almost universal in Spanish cultures, with some slight differences. He is generally known as "El Ratoncito Pérez", with the exception of some regions of Mexico, Peru and Chile, where he is called "El Ratón de los Dientes" ( "The Tooth Mouse"), and in Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay and Colombia, where he is known simply as "El Ratón Pérez". He was used by Colgate marketing in Venezuela and Spain.


title: Tooth fairy

text: In Italy, the Tooth Fairy ("Fatina dei denti") is also often replaced by a small mouse, named "Topolino". In some areas the same role is held by Saint Apollonia, known as "Santa Polonia" in Veneto. (Saint Apollonia's legendary martyrdom involved having her teeth broken; she is frequently depicted artistically holding a tooth and is considered the patron saint of dentistry and those with toothache and dental problems.)


title: Tooth fairy

text: In France and French-speaking Belgium, this character is called "La Petite Souris" ("The Little Mouse"). From parts of Lowland Scotland comes a tradition similar to the fairy mouse: a white fairy rat who purchases children's teeth with coins.


title: Tooth fairy

text: In Catalonia, the most popular would be "" (little angels) and also "Les animetes" (little souls) and as in the other countries, the tooth is placed under the pillow in exchange of a coin or a little token.


title: Tooth fairy

text: In the Basque Country, and specially in Biscay, there is "Mari Teilatukoa" (Mary from the roof), who lives in the roof of the baserri and catches the teeth thrown by the children.


title: Tooth fairy

text: In Japan, a different variation calls for lost upper teeth to be thrown straight down to the ground and lower teeth straight up into the air; the idea is that incoming teeth will grow in straight.


title: Tooth fairy

text: In Korea, a common practice was to throw both upper and lower teeth on the roof. The practice is rooted around the Korean national bird, the magpie. It is said that if the magpie finds a tooth on the roof, it will bring good luck. Some scholars think the myth derived from the word 까치(Ka-chi) which was a middle Korean word for magpies that sounds similar to "new teeth", or because of the significance of magpies in Korean mythology as a messenger between gods and humans.


title: Tooth fairy

text: In Middle Eastern countries (including Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and Sudan), there is a tradition of throwing a baby tooth up into the sky to the sun or to Allah. This tradition may originate in a pre-Islamic offering, and dates back to at least the 13th century. It is also mentioned by Izz bin Hibat Allah Al Hadid in the 13th century.


title: Tooth fairy

text: In Mali, children throw baby teeth into the chicken coop in order to receive a chicken the following day.


title: Tooth fairy

text: In the 2010 film "Tooth Fairy", Dwayne Johnson plays as the titular character. The 2012 sequel stars Larry the Cable Guy.


title: Tooth fairy

text: A killer nicknamed "The Tooth Fairy" (because of his habit of leaving bite marks on his victims) is featured in "Red Dragon", part of the Hannibal Lecter franchise by Thomas Harris. He appears in the 1981 novel and the 1986 and 2002 film adaptations.


title: Tooth fairy

text: William Joyce's book series "The Guardians of Childhood" features Toothiana, a half-human tooth fairy resembling a Kinnari operating out of South Asia. She and a vast legion of mini fairies (depicted in the books as being an ability to split herself into smaller copies, while the film has them as separate entities) collect children's teeth to safeguard the childhood memories held within, with the film also including a brief appearance by the Tooth Mouse. In its 2012 film adaptation "Rise of the Guardians", she is voiced by Isla Fisher.


title: Tooth fairy

text: In episode 2 of "The Irregulars," a 2021 series on Netflix, the myth of the tooth fairy is an integral part of the plot.


title: Tooth fairy

text: In "The Legend of Toof", by P.S. Featherston, a story originally told in 2006 and published in 2021 by TF Press, we learn of the dangerous adventures of a small woodland sprite named Toof. Toof is the original tooth fairy born with the ability to know when a child has lost a tooth and how to find him/her. The story identifies why fairies need a child's tooth, how it keeps them safe from gremlins and why it is important for children to help them in this endeavor. In "The" "Legend of Toof" we meet all of the original Tooth Fairies, two human children that help him defeat hidden world's most despicable villains: Colsore, Deekay and Plaak, their army of Drolls, and the original Tooth Mouse of Spain, Ratoncito Pérez and learn his story. Because of Toof, we discover how fairies can fly at the speed of light, the importance of their friendship with children, where they get the special coins they leave as gifts, and much more as it relates to Tooth Fairy lore.


title: Sales taxes in the United States

text: Sales taxes in the United States are taxes placed on the sale or lease of goods and services in the United States. Sales tax is governed at the state level and no national general sales tax exists. 45 states, the District of Columbia, the territories of Puerto Rico, and Guam impose general sales taxes that apply to the sale or lease of most goods and some services, and states also may levy selective sales taxes on the sale or lease of particular goods or services. States may grant local governments the authority to impose additional general or selective sales taxes.


title: Sales taxes in the United States

text: As of 2017, 5 states (Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon) do not levy a statewide sales tax. California has the highest base sales tax rate, 7.25%. Including county and city sales taxes, the highest total sales tax is in Arab, Alabama, 13.50%.


title: Sales taxes in the United States

text: Sales tax is calculated by multiplying the purchase price by the applicable tax rate. The seller collects it at the time of the sale. Use tax is self-assessed by a buyer who has not paid sales tax on a taxable purchase. Unlike the value added tax, a sales tax is imposed only at the retail level. In cases where items are sold at retail more than once, such as used cars, the sales tax can be charged on the same item indefinitely.


title: Sales taxes in the United States

text: The definitions of retail sales and taxable items vary among the states. Nearly all jurisdictions provide numerous categories of goods and services that are exempt from sales tax, or taxed at reduced rates. The purchase of goods for further manufacture or for resale is uniformly exempt from sales tax. Most jurisdictions exempt food sold in grocery stores, prescription medications, and many agricultural supplies.


title: Sales taxes in the United States

text: Sales taxes, including those imposed by local governments, are generally administered at the state level. States imposing sales tax either impose the tax on retail sellers, such as with Transaction Privilege Tax in Arizona, or impose it on retail buyers and require sellers to collect it. In either case, the seller files returns and remits the tax to the state. In states where the tax is on the seller, it is customary for the seller to demand reimbursement from the buyer. Procedural rules vary widely. Sellers generally must collect tax from in-state purchasers unless the purchaser provides an exemption certificate. Most states allow or require electronic remittance.


title: Sales taxes in the United States

text: Sales taxes are imposed only on "taxable" transfers of goods or services. The tax is computed as the tax rate times the taxable transaction value. Rates vary by state, and by locality within a state. Not all types of transfers are taxable. The tax may be imposed on sales to consumers and to businesses.


title: Sales taxes in the United States

text: Transfers of tangible personal property for cash or the promise to pay cash (sales) are often subject to sales tax, with exceptions. Sales tax does not apply to transfers of real property, though some states impose a real estate transfer or documentary tax on such transfers. All states provide some exemptions from sales tax for wholesale sales, that is, sales for resale. However, some states tax sales for resale through vending machines.


title: Sales taxes in the United States

text: Purchases of gift cards are not subject to sales tax in all states. These purchases are considered to be similar to exchange of cash. The sales tax will be charged when gift cards are used as a method of payment for taxable goods or services. There was a proposal in New York State to impose a sales tax when a gift card is purchased instead of imposing it when the card is used, but it failed.


title: Sales taxes in the United States

text: Most states also exempt bulk sales, such as sales of an entire business. Most states exempt from sales tax goods purchased for use as ingredients or parts in further manufacturing. Buyers in exempt sales must follow certain procedures or face tax.


title: Sales taxes in the United States

text: Sales to businesses and to consumers are generally taxed the same, except as noted in the preceding paragraph. Businesses receive no offset to sales tax collection and payment obligations for their own purchases. This differs significantly from value added taxes.


title: Sales taxes in the United States

text: The place and manner of sale may affect whether a sale of particular goods is taxable. Many states tax food for consumption on premises but not food sold for off premises consumption. The use to which goods are put may also affect whether the sale is subject to tax. Goods used as ingredients in manufacturing may avoid tax, where the same goods used as supplies may not.