title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: In 1929, oil was discovered south of Washington Street on the Venice Peninsula, now known as the Marina Peninsula neighborhood of Los Angeles. Within two years, 450 oil wells covered the area, and drilling waste clogged the remaining waterways. The short-lived boom provided needed income to the community, which otherwise suffered during the Great Depression. Most of the wells had been capped by the 1970s, and the last wells, near the Venice Pavilion, were capped in 1991.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: After annexation, the city of Los Angeles showed little interest in maintaining the unusual neighborhood. Most of the canals were filled in and paved over, and the former lagoon became a traffic circle. The neighborhood lacked the automobile-centric, homogeneous character that the city sought to cultivate in the post-World War II era, and was perceived as a dated, obsolete remnant of earlier decades' land speculation.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Los Angeles had neglected Venice so long that, by the 1950s the neglect had led to the area being labeled the "Slum by the Sea". With the exception of new police and fire stations in 1930, the city spent little on improvements after annexation. The city did not pave Trolleyway (Pacific Avenue) until 1954 when county and state funds became available. Low rents for run-down bungalows attracted predominantly European immigrants (including a substantial number of Holocaust survivors) and young counterculture artists, poets, and writers. The Beat Generation hung out at the Gas House on Ocean Front Walk and at Venice West Cafe on Dudley.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: The Venice Shoreline Crips and the Latino Venice 13 (V-13) were the two main gangs active in Venice. V13 dates back to the 1950s, while the Shoreline Crips were founded in the early 1970s, making them one of the first Crip sets in Los Angeles. In the early 1990s, V-13 and the Shoreline Crips were involved in a fierce battle over crack cocaine sales territories.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: By 2002, the numbers of gang members in Venice were reduced due to gentrification and increased police presence. According to a "Los Angeles City Beat" article, by 2003, many Los Angeles Westside gang members had resettled in the city of Inglewood.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Venice Beach is one of the hardest places in the United States to build new housing due to stringent zoning regulations and pervasive NIMBYism. Between 2007 and 2022, not a single new house was built in Venice Beach.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: As per a 2020 count, there were nearly 2,000 homeless people in Venice, up from 175 in 2014. Many of them take up residence in tents and tent cities. An LAPD official said that the increased homeless population has contributed to a spike in crimes in Venice in 2021, despite any statistically significant proof of correlation. In February 2020, the city opened a 154-bed transitional housing shelter at a former Metro bus yard.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: According to the City of Los Angeles, Venice is bounded on the north by the City of Santa Monica (Marine and Dewey Streets). On the west, it is bounded by the Pacific Ocean and on the east by Walgrove Avenue from the Santa Monica border to Venice Boulevard, Beethoven Street from Venice Boulevard to Zanja Street (including Venice High) and Del Rey Avenue from Zanja Street to Maxella Avenue. On the south, the boundary runs along Lincoln Boulevard to Admiralty Way, then south to Ballona Creek – including the Marina Peninsula community but excluding Marina del Rey.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: According to the Venice Neighborhood Council, Venice consists of the eight existing neighborhoods listed in the Venice Specific Plan – Silver Strand, Oxford Triangle, Marina Peninsula, Silver Triangle, North Venice, South Venice, Presidents Row, Venice Canals, Oakwood, North OFW (Ocean Front Walk), NoRo (North of Rose Avenue) and Penmar – plus the additional neighborhood of East of Venice.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: According to the Mapping L.A. project of the "Los Angeles Times", Venice is adjoined on the northwest by Santa Monica, on the northeast by Mar Vista, on the southeast by Culver City, Del Rey and Marina Del Rey, on the south by Ballona Creek and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Venice is bounded on the northwest by the Santa Monica city line. The northern apex of the Venice neighborhood is at Walgrove Avenue and Rose Avenue, abutting the Santa Monica Airport. On the east, the boundary runs north–south on Walgrove Avenue to the neighborhood's eastern apex at Zanja Street, thus including the Penmar Golf Course but excluding Venice High School. The boundary runs on Lincoln Boulevard to Admiralty Way, excluding all of Marina del Rey, south to Ballona Creek.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Abbott Kinney Boulevard is a principal attraction, with stores, restaurants, bars and art galleries lining the street. The street was described as "a derelict strip of rundown beach cottages and empty brick industrial buildings called West Washington Boulevard," and in the late 1980s community groups and property owners pushed for renaming a portion of the street to honor Abbot Kinney. The renaming was widely considered as a marketing strategy to commercialize the area and bring new high-end businesses to the area.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Founded in 1987, the farmers market operates every Friday from 7 am to 11 am on Venice Boulevard at Venice Way.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: 72 Market Street Oyster Bar and Grill was one of several historical footnotes associated with Market Street in Venice, one of the first streets designated for commerce when the city was founded in 1905. During the depression era, Upton Sinclair had an office there when he was running for governor, and the same historic building where the restaurant was located was also the site of the first Ace/Venice Gallery in the early 1970s.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: The Venice Post Office, a red-tile-roofed 1939 New Deal building designed by Louis A. Simon on Windward Circle, featured one of two remaining murals painted in 1941 by Modernist artist Edward Biberman. Developer Abbot Kinney is in the center surrounded by beachgoers in old-fashioned bathing suits, men in overalls, and a wooden roller coaster representing the Venice Pier on one side with contrasting industrial oil derricks that were once ubiquitous in the area on the other side. Senior curator of American Art at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Ilene Susan Fort, said this is one of the better New Deal post office murals both artistically and historically. Although it contains brightly colored elements with amusing details, the intrusion of the ominous oil rigs and wells was very relevant at the time.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: After the post office closed in 2012, movie producer Joel Silver unveiled plans to purchase it for 7.5 million and revamp the building as the new headquarters of his company, Silver Pictures. The sale included the stipulation that he, or any future owner, preserve the New Deal-era murals and allow public access. Restoration of the nearly pristine mural took over a year and cost about $100,000. LACMA highlighted the mural with an exhibit that displayed additional Biberman artworks, rare historical documents and Venice ephemera with the restored mural. Silver has a long-term lease on the mural that is still owned by the US Postal Service. In May 2019, according to the "Hollywood Reporter", Silver sold the building for 22.5 million to U.K. investor Alex Dellal and his real estate group founded by Jack Dellal. Status of the planned renovation remains subject to further approvals. The mural's whereabouts are unknown, putting the lessee in violation of the lease agreement's public access requirement.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Many of Venice's houses have their principal entries from pedestrian-only streets and have house numbers on these footpaths. (Automobile access is by alleys in the rear.) The inland walk streets are made up primarily of around 620 single-family homes. Like much of the rest of Los Angeles, however, Venice is known for traffic congestion. It lies away from the nearest freeway, and its unusually dense network of narrow streets was not planned for modern traffic.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Venice Beach, which receives millions of visitors a year, has been labeled as "a cultural hub known for its eccentricities" as well as a "global tourist destination". It includes the promenade that runs parallel to the beach, the Venice Beach Boardwalk, Muscle Beach, and the Venice Beach Recreation Center with handball courts, paddle tennis courts, a skate dancing plaza, and numerous beach volleyball courts. It also includes a bike trail and many businesses on Ocean Front Walk.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: The basketball courts in Venice are renowned across the country for their high level of streetball; numerous professional basketball players developed their games or have been recruited on these courts.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Along the southern portion of the beach, at the end of Washington Boulevard, is the Venice Fishing Pier. A concrete structure, it first opened in 1964, was closed in 1983 due to El Niño storm damage, and re-opened in the mid-1990s. On December 21, 2005, the pier again suffered damage when waves from a large northern swell caused part of it to fall into the ocean. The pier remained closed until May 25, 2006, when it was re-opened after an engineering study concluded that it was structurally sound.The Venice Breakwater is an acclaimed local surf spot in Venice. It is located north of the Venice Pier and lifeguard headquarters and south of the Santa Monica Pier. This spot is sheltered on the north by an artificial barrier, the breakwater, consisting of an extending sand bar, piping, and large rocks at its end.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: In late 2010, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors conducted a $1.6 million replacement of 30,000 cubic yards of sand at Venice Beach eroded by rainstorms in recent years. Although Venice Beach is located in the city of Los Angeles, the county is responsible for maintaining the beach under an agreement reached between the two governments in 1975.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Oakwood lies inland from the tourist areas and is one of the few historically African-American areas in West Los Angeles.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: East of Lincoln is separated from Oakwood by Lincoln Boulevard. It extends east to the border with Mar Vista. Aside from the commercial strip on Lincoln (including the Venice Boys and Girls Club and the Venice United Methodist Church), the area almost entirely consists of small homes and apartments as well as Penmar Park and (bordering Santa Monica) Penmar Golf Course.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: A housing project, Lincoln Place Apartment Homes, built by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, is currently undergoing a $140 million renovation to add 99 new market-rate apartment homes and to update the remaining 696 existing homes. A new pool, two-story fitness center, resident park and sustainable landscaping are being added. Aimco, which acquired the property in 2003, had previously been in a legal battle to determine whether or not Lincoln Place could be demolished and rebuilt. In 2010, Aimco settled with tenants and agreed to reopen the project and return scores of evicted residents to their homes and add hundreds of units to the Venice area.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: The streets are Marco Place, Amoroso Place and Nowita Place, located west of Lincoln Boulevard and east of Shell Avenue.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: “The walk streets, narrower than regular streets, are too small for regulation street sweepers," so the streets had a designated smaller-size street sweeper.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: According to the Venice Neighborhood Council, the area can be subdivided further into the following districts:


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Like much of the rest of coastal southern California, Venice has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, with cool, wet winters and warm, dry summers. Temperatures are moderate all year, and the neighborhood boasts over 300 sunshine days per year. As a result of seasonal lag, fall is usually warmer than spring in Venice. Because of its coastal location, morning fog is a common phenomenon in May and June, but occasionally July and August, as well. Los Angeles residents have a particular terminology for this phenomenon: the "May Gray", the "June Gloom", "No-Sky July" and "Fogust"; during these events, the fog will usually burn off by noon, but the fog may also linger all day. The all-time record high of 110 °F (43 °C) was observed on September 27, 2010, while the all-time record low is 32 °F (0 °C), recorded on January 14, 2007. Venice is in USDA plant hardiness zone 10b.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: The 2000 U.S. census counted 37,705 residents in the 3.17-square-mile Venice neighborhood—an average of 11,891 people per square mile, about the norm for Los Angeles; in 2008, the city estimated that the population had increased to 40,885. The median age for residents was 35, considered the average for Los Angeles; the percentages of residents aged 19 through 49 were among the county's highest.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: The ethnic breakdown was 64.2% Non-Hispanic White, 21.7% Latino (of any racial origin); 5.4% African American; 4.1% Asian, and 4.6% of other origins. About 22.3% of residents had been born abroad, a relatively low figure for Los Angeles; Mexico (38.4%) and the United Kingdom (8.5%) were their most common places of birth.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Forty-nine percent of Venice residents aged 25 and older had earned a four-year degree by 2000, a high figure for both the city and the county. The percentages of residents of that age with a bachelor's degree or a master's degree was considered high for the county.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: The median yearly household income in 2008 dollars was $67,647, a high figure for Los Angeles. The percentage of households earning $125,000 was considered high for the city. The average household size of 1.9 people was low for both the city and the county. Renters occupied 68.8% of the housing stock and house- or apartment owners held 31.2%. Property values have been increasing lately due to the presence of technology companies such as Google Inc. (which in 2011 began leasing 100,000 square feet of space in Venice) and Snap Inc. (which formerly leased property on Market Street and Abbot Kinney).


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: The percentages of never-married men (51.3%), never-married women (40.6%), divorced men (11.3%) and divorced women (15.9%) were among the county's highest. The percentage of veterans who had served during the Vietnam War was among the county's highest.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Venice has been known as a preferred location for creative artists. In the 1950s and 1960s, Venice became a center for the Beat generation and there was an explosion of poetry and art, which continues today. Major writers and artists throughout the decades have included Stuart Perkoff, John Thomas, Frank T. Rios, Tony Scibella, Lawrence Lipton, John Haag, Saul White, Robert Farrington, Philomene Long, and Tom Sewell.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Originally established as a planned city imitating Venice, Italy, Venice is home to a large number of early 1900s buildings built in to emulate Italian renaissance architecture. Particularly along Windward Avenue, where an arched arcade covers the sidewalks on portions of both sides of the street. Similar buildings originally formed a continuous arcade from the boardwalk to the former lagoon (now the Windward traffic circle) but these were condemned by the City of Los Angeles after annexation. Only through the efforts of local preservationists were the few buildings that remain able to be preserved, although many were substantially modified.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Designers Charles and Ray Eames had their offices at the Bay Cities Garage on Abbot Kinney Boulevard from 1943 on, when it was still part of Washington Boulevard; Eames products were also manufactured there until the 1950s. The brick building's interior was redesigned by Frank Israel in 1990 as a creative workspace, opening up the interior and creating sightlines all the way through the building.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Originally located at the Venice home of Pritzker Prize–winning architect and SCI-Arc founder Thom Mayne, the Architecture Gallery was in existence for just ten weeks in 1979 and featured new work by then-emerging architects Frank Gehry, Eric Owen Moss, and Morphosis. Constructed on a long, narrow lot in 1981, the Indiana Avenue Houses/Arnoldi Triplex was designed Frank Gehry in partnership with artists Laddie John Dill and Charles Arnoldi. Frank Gehry has designed several well-known houses in Venice, including the Jane Spiller House (completed 1979) and the Norton House (completed 1984) on Venice Beach. In 1994, sculptor Robert Graham designed a fortress-like art studio and residence for himself and his wife, actress Anjelica Huston, on Windward Avenue.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: In the 1970s, performance artist Chris Burden created some of his early, groundbreaking work in Venice. Other notable artists who maintained studios in the area include Charles Arnoldi, Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Baldessari, Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, James Georgopoulos, Dennis Hopper, and Ed Ruscha. Organized by the Hammer Museum over the course of one weekend in 2012, the open-air Venice Beach Biennial (in reference to the Venice Biennale in Italy) brought together 87 artists, including site-specific projects by established artists like Evan Holloway, Barbara Kruger as well as boardwalk veteran Arthure Moore. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Venice Beach boardwalk became a mecca for street performances, turning it into a popular tourist attraction. Chainsaw jugglers, break dancers, acrobats and comics like Michael Colyar could be seen on a daily basis. Many performers like the Jim Rose Circus got their start on the boardwalk.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: The Venice Beach boardwalk area is known for its many famous murals by local artists, including Rip Cronk, Jonas Never, and Levi Ponce. The following is a list of the most notable and iconic boardwalk murals:


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: The Venice Art Walls were built in 1961 as part of the Venice Pavilion, a recreation and performing arts facility. It was a popular hangout spot for locals owing to its proximity to the beach and large number of concrete tables. The central area of the pavilion, known as "the pit" was surrounded by flat concrete walls that made for ideal painting surfaces. The pit became a hotbed of the growing graffiti movement in Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s, with many prominent artists and graffiti crews painting elaborate pieces on the pavilions walls. The area's thriving counterculture and arts scene, along with law enforcement's general neglect of the area made it an ideal location for artists to paint. Thirty-eight years later the Venice Pavilion was torn down but some of the walls, along with two large, conical concrete structures, were maintained. They were restored in 2000 as part of a renovation of the beachfront park area at the end of Windward Avenue, and ever since artists have been allowed to paint there freely and legally.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Venice was where rock band The Doors were formed in 1965 by UCLA alumni Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison. The Doors would go on to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Morrison being considered one of the greatest rock frontmen. Venice is the birthplace of Jane's Addiction in the 1980s. Perry Farrell, frontman and founder of Lollapalooza, was a longtime Venice resident until 2010.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Venice in the 1980s also had bands playing music known as crossover thrash, a hardcore punk/thrash metal musical hybrid. The most notable of these bands is Suicidal Tendencies. Other Venice bands such as Beowülf, No Mercy, and Excel were also featured on the compilation album "Welcome to Venice".


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: The Venice Beach Recreation Center comprises a number of facilities. The installation has basketball courts (unlighted/outdoor), several children play areas with a gymnastics apparatus, chess tables, handball courts (unlighted), paddle tennis courts (unlighted), and volleyball courts (unlighted). At the south end of the area is the muscle beach outdoor gymnasium. In March 2009, the city opened a sophisticated $2 million skate park, the Venice Beach Skate Park, on the sand towards the north. The Graffiti Walls are on the beach side of the bike path in the same vicinity.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: The Oakwood Recreation Center, which also acts as a Los Angeles Police Department stop-in center, includes an auditorium, an unlighted baseball diamond, lighted indoor basketball courts, unlighted outdoor basketball courts, a children's play area, a community room, a lighted American football field, an indoor gymnasium without weights, picnic tables, and an unlighted soccer field.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Venice is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles represented by District 11 on the Los Angeles City Council. City services are provided by the city of Los Angeles. There is a Venice Neighborhood Council that advises the LA City Council on local issues.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: The United States Postal Service operates the Venice Post Office at 1601 Main Street and the Venice Carrier Annex at 313 Grand Boulevard.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: The Los Angeles Fire Department operates Station 63, which serves Venice with two engines, a truck, and an ALS rescue ambulance.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: The Los Angeles Police Department serves the area through the Pacific Community Police Station as well as a beach sub-station.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Venice Beach is the headquarters of the Los Angeles County Lifeguards of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. It is located at 2300 Ocean Front Walk. It is the nation's largest ocean lifeguard organization with over 200 full-time and 700 part-time or seasonal lifeguards. The headquarters building used to be the City of Los Angeles Lifeguard Headquarters until Los Angeles City and Santa Monica Lifeguards were merged into the County in 1975.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: The Los Angeles County Lifeguards safeguard of beach and of coastline, from San Pedro in the south, to Malibu in the north. Lifeguards also provide paramedic and rescue boat services to Catalina Island, with operations out of Avalon and the Isthmus.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Lifeguard Division employs 120 full-time and 600 seasonal lifeguards, operating out of three sectional headquarters, Hermosa, Santa Monica, and Zuma beach. Each of these headquarters staffs a 24-hour EMT-D response unit and are part of the 911 system. In addition to providing for beach safety, Los Angeles County Lifeguards have specialized training for Baywatch rescue boat operations, underwater rescue and recovery, swiftwater rescue, cliff rescue, marine mammal rescue and marine firefighting.


title: Venice, Los Angeles

text: Venice has been the location of numerous movies, TV shows, and video games. Common locations for filming include the piers, skate park, restaurant, canals, boardwalk, and the schools.


title: Misbehaviour (film)

text: Misbehaviour is a 2020 British comedy-drama film directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, from a screenplay by Gaby Chiappe and Rebecca Frayn, from a story by Frayn. The film stars Keira Knightley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jessie Buckley, Keeley Hawes, Phyllis Logan, Lesley Manville, Rhys Ifans and Greg Kinnear.


title: Misbehaviour (film)

text: "Misbehaviour" was released in the United Kingdom on 13 March 2020 by Pathé's distribution partner 20th Century Fox. It is the final film from Pathé UK to be released under the 20th Century Fox name.


title: Misbehaviour (film)

text: The 1970 Miss World competition took place in London, hosted by the American comedian Bob Hope. At that time Miss World was the most-watched TV show in the world with over 100 million viewers. Arguing that beauty competitions women, the newly formed women's liberation movement achieved overnight fame by invading the stage and disrupting the live broadcast of the competition. When the show resumed, the result caused uproar: the winner was not the Swedish favourite but Miss Grenada, the second (after Carole Crawford of Jamaica) black woman to be crowned Miss World.


title: Misbehaviour (film)

text: The film was announced in October 2018, with Keira Knightley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Jessie Buckley set to star. Philippa Lowthorpe was set to direct. In November 2018, Lesley Manville, Greg Kinnear, Keeley Hawes, Rhys Ifans and Phyllis Logan had joined the cast of the film. In September 2018 Collet Collins joined the cast, and in January 2019 Suki Waterhouse and Clara Rosager joined.


title: Misbehaviour (film)

text: Principal photography began in November 2018. Filming in the Crofton Park area of Lewisham in southeast London occurred in early January 2019.


title: Misbehaviour (film)

text: The film was released in the United Kingdom on 13 March 2020. Shout Studios was named as the distributor in the United States. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film's theatrical release was cut short, and the film was released early to video on demand in the United Kingdom on 15 April.


title: Misbehaviour (film)

text: The movie was released on DVD in the United Kingdom by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on 7 September 2020. As of 2021, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment was re-printing under licence from Pathé.


title: Misbehaviour (film)

text: The film was inspired by an edition of the BBC Radio 4 series "The Reunion", broadcast in September 2010.


title: Misbehaviour (film)

text: "Misbehaviour" grossed £347,643 in its opening weekend in the United Kingdom and a total of £455,088 locally and $2,024,073 worldwide.


title: Misbehaviour (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews from critics, with an average rating of . The site's critics consensus reads: ""Misbehaviour"s overall arc will be familiar to fans of feelgood British cinema – and so will the way it triumphs over formula to tell a thoroughly crowd-pleasing story." On Metacritic, it has a score of 62, based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews."


title: Misbehaviour (film)

text: Richard Roeper wrote, "Following the playbook of "'The Full Monty",' '"Calendar Girls",' '"Military Wives",' et al., "'Misbehaviour"' achieves just the right mix of farcical humor, dry wit and the obligatory dramatic moments when the light banter and sight gags give way to Poignant Confrontations reminding us there are serious undertones to this breezy romp."


title: Misbehaviour (film)

text: Sheila O'Malley of RogerEbert.com of the film gave a mixed review. Though O'Malley praised screenwriters Rebecca Frayn and Gaby Chiappe for focusing on the intersecting stories of both the protesters and pageant competitors, she noted "it's treated as a given that pageants are sexist and gross, [yet] the scenes of pageant rehearsals plus the camaraderie of the contestants tells a different story. The separate storyline structure runs into trouble because these ideas don't have a chance to develop or take root."


title: Hesperides

text: In Greek mythology, the Hesperides (; , ) are the nymphs of evening and golden light of sunsets, who were the "Daughters of the Evening" or "Nymphs of the West". They were also called the Atlantides () from their reputed father, the Titan Atlas.


title: Hesperides

text: The name means "originating from Hesperos" (evening). "Hesperos", or "Vesper" in Latin, is the origin of the name Hesperus, the evening star (i.e. the planet Venus) as well as having a shared root with the English word "west".


title: Hesperides

text: Ordinarily, the Hesperides number three, like the other Greek triads (the Three Graces and the Three Fates). "Since the Hesperides themselves are mere symbols of the gifts the apples embody, they cannot be actors in a human drama. Their abstract, interchangeable names are a symptom of their impersonality", classicist Evelyn Byrd Harrison has observed.


title: Hesperides

text: They are sometimes portrayed as the evening daughters of Night (Nyx) either alone, or with Darkness (Erebus), in accord with the way Eos in the farthermost east, in Colchis, is the daughter of the titan Hyperion. The Hesperides are also listed as the daughters of Atlas, and Hesperis or of Phorcys and Ceto or of Zeus and Themis. In a Roman literary source, the nymphs are simply said to be the daughters of Hesperus, embodiment of the "west".


title: Hesperides

text: Nevertheless, among the names given to them, though never all at once, there were either three, four, or seven Hesperides. Apollonius of Rhodes gives the number of three with their names as Aigle, Erytheis, and Hespere (or Hespera). Hyginus in his preface to the "Fabulae" names them as Aegle, Hesperie, and Aerica. In another source, they are named Aegle, Arethusa, and Hesperethusa, the three daughters of Hesperus.


title: Hesperides

text: Hesiod says that these "clear-voiced Hesperides", daughters of Nyx (night), guarded the golden apples beyond Ocean in the far west of the world, gives the number of the Hesperides as four, and their names as: Aigle (or Aegle, "dazzling light"), Erytheia (or Erytheis), Hesperia ("sunset glow") whose name refers to the colour of the setting sun, red, yellow, or gold; and lastly Arethusa. In addition, Hesperia, and Arethusa, the so-called "ox-eyed Hesperethusa". Apollodorus gives the number of the Hesperides also as four, namely: Aigle, Erytheia, Hesperia (or Hesperie), and Arethusa while Fulgentius named them as Aegle, Hesperie, Medusa, and Arethusa. However, the historiographer Diodorus in his account stated that they are seven in number with no information of their names. An ancient vase painting attests the following names as four: Asterope, Chrysothemis, Hygieia, and Lipara; on another seven names as Aiopis, Antheia, Donakis, Calypso, Mermesa, Nelisa, and Tara. A pyxis has Hippolyte, Mapsaura, and Thetis. Petrus Apianus attributed to these stars a mythical connection of their own. He believed that they were the seven Hesperides, nymph daughters of Atlas and Hesperis. Their names were: Aegle, Erythea, Arethusa, Hestia, Hespera, Hesperusa, and Hespereia. A certain Crete, possible eponym of the island of Crete, was also called one of the Hesperides.


title: Hesperides

text: They are sometimes called the "Western Maidens", the "Daughters of Evening", or "Erythrai", and the "Sunset Goddesses", designations all apparently tied to their imagined location in the distant west. Hesperis is appropriately the personification of the evening (as Eos is of the dawn) and the Evening Star is Hesperus.


title: Hesperides

text: In addition to their tending of the garden, they have taken great pleasure in singing. Euripides calls them "minstrel maids" as they possess the power of sweet song. The Hesperides could be hamadryad nymphs or epimeliads as suggested by a passage in which they change into trees: ""... Hespere became a poplar and Eretheis an elm, and Aegle a willow's sacred trunk ..."" and in the same account, they are described figuratively or literally to have white arms and golden heads.


title: Hesperides

text: Erytheia ("the red one") is one of the Hesperides. The name was applied to an island close to the coast of southern Hispania, which was the site of the original Punic colony of Gades (modern Cadiz). Pliny's Natural History (VI.36) records of the island of Gades:


title: Hesperides

text: The Hesperides tend a blissful garden in a far western corner of the world, located near the Atlas mountains in North Africa at the edge of the encircling Oceanus, the world-ocean. According to Pliny the Elder, the garden was located at Lixus, Morocco, which was also the location where Hercules fought against Antaeus.


title: Hesperides

text: According to the Sicilian Greek poet Stesichorus, in his poem the "Song of Geryon", and the Greek geographer Strabo, in his book "Geographika" (volume III), the garden of the Hesperides is located in Tartessos, a location placed in the south of the Iberian peninsula.


title: Hesperides

text: Euesperides (in modern-day Benghazi) which was probably founded by people from Cyrene or Barca, from both of which it lies to the west, might have mythological associations with the garden of Hesperides.


title: Hesperides

text: By Ancient Roman times, the garden of the Hesperides had lost its archaic place in religion and had dwindled to a poetic convention, in which form it was revived in Renaissance poetry, to refer both to the garden and to the nymphs that dwelt there.


title: Hesperides

text: The Garden of the Hesperides is Hera's orchard in the west, where either a single apple tree or a grove grows, producing golden apples. According to the legend, when the marriage of Zeus and Hera took place, the different deities came with nuptial presents for the latter, and among them the goddess Gaia, with branches having golden apples growing on them as a wedding gift. Hera, greatly admiring these, begged of Gaia to plant them in her gardens, which extended as far as Mount Atlas.


title: Hesperides

text: The Hesperides were given the task of tending to the grove, but occasionally picked apples from it themselves. Not trusting them, Hera also placed in the garden an immortal, never-sleeping, hundred-headed dragon named Ladon as an additional safeguard. In the myth of the Judgement of Paris, it was from the Garden that Eris, Goddess of Discord, obtained the Apple of Discord, which led to the Trojan War.


title: Hesperides

text: In later years it was thought that the "golden apples" might have actually been oranges, a fruit unknown to Europe and the Mediterranean before the Middle Ages. Under this assumption, the Greek botanical name chosen for all citrus species was "Hesperidoeidē" (Ἑσπεριδοειδῆ, "hesperidoids") and even today the Greek word for the orange fruit is πορτοκάλι (Portokáli)--after the country of Portugal in Iberia near where the Garden of the Hesperides grew.


title: Hesperides

text: After Heracles completed his first ten Labours, Eurystheus gave him two more claiming that neither the Hydra counted (because Iolaus helped Heracles) nor the Augean stables (either because he received payment for the job or because the rivers did the work). The first of these two additional Labours was to steal the apples from the garden of the Hesperides. Heracles first caught the Old Man of the Sea, the shape-shifting sea god, to learn where the Garden of the Hesperides was located. In some versions of the tale, Heracles went to the Caucasus, where Prometheus was confined. The Titan directed him concerning his course through the land of the peoples in the farthest north and the perils to be encountered on his homeward march after slaying Geryon in the farthest west.


title: Hesperides

text: Follow this straight road; and, first of all, thou shalt come to the Boreades, where do thou beware the roaring hurricane, lest unawares it twist thee up and snatch thee away in wintry whirlwind.


title: Hesperides

text: As payment, Heracles freed Prometheus from his daily torture. This tale is more usually found in the position of the Erymanthian Boar, since it is associated with Chiron choosing to forgo immortality and taking Prometheus' place.


title: Hesperides

text: Another story recounts how Heracles, either at the start or at the end of his task, meets Antaeus, who was immortal as long as he touched his mother, Gaia, the earth. Heracles killed Antaeus by holding him aloft and crushing him in a bearhug. Herodotus claims that Heracles stopped in Egypt, where King Busiris decided to make him the yearly sacrifice, but Heracles burst out of his chains.


title: Hesperides

text: Finally making his way to the Garden of the Hesperides, Heracles tricked Atlas into retrieving some of the golden apples for him, by offering to hold up the heavens for a little while (Atlas was able to take them as, in this version, he was the father or otherwise related to the Hesperides). This would have made this task – like the Hydra and Augean stables – void because he had received help. Upon his return, Atlas decided that he did not want to take the heavens back, and instead offered to deliver the apples himself, but Heracles tricked him again by agreeing to take his place on condition that Atlas relieve him temporarily so that Heracles could make his cloak more comfortable. Atlas agreed, but Heracles reneged and walked away, carrying the apples. According to an alternative version, Heracles slew Ladon instead and stole the apples.


title: Hesperides

text: There is another variation to the story where Heracles was the only person to steal the apples, other than Perseus, although Athena later returned the apples to their rightful place in the garden. They are considered by some to be the same "apples of joy" that tempted Atalanta, as opposed to the "apple of discord" used by Eris to start a beauty contest on Olympus (which caused "The Siege of Troy").


title: Hesperides

text: On Attic pottery, especially from the late fifth century, Heracles is depicted sitting in bliss in the Gardens of the Hesperides, attended by the maidens.


title: Hesperides

text: After the hero Heracles killed Ladon and stole the golden apples, the Argonauts during their journey, came to the Hesperian plain the next day. The band of heroes asked for the mercy of the Hesperides to guide them to a source of water in order to replenish their thirst. The goddesses pitying the young men, directed them to a spring created by Heracles who likewise longing for a draught while wandering the land, smote a rock near Lake Triton after which the water gushed out. The following passage recounts this meeting of the Argonauts and the nymphs:


title: Hesperides

text: Then, like raging hounds, they [i.e. Argonauts] rushed to search for a spring; for besides their suffering and anguish, a parching thirst lay upon them, and not in vain did they wander; but they came to the sacred plain where Ladon, the serpent of the land, till yesterday kept watch over the golden apples in the garden of Atlas; and all around the nymphs, the Hesperides, were busied, chanting their lovely song. But at that time, stricken by Heracles, he lay fallen by the trunk of the apple-tree; only the tip of his tail was still writhing; but from his head down his dark spine he lay lifeless; and where the arrows had left in his blood the bitter gall of the Lernaean hydra, flies withered and died over the festering wounds. And close at hand the Hesperides, their white arms flung over their golden heads, lamented shrilly; and the heroes drew near suddenly; but the maidens, at their quick approach, at once became dust and earth where they stood. Orpheus marked the divine portent, and for his comrades addressed them in prayer: "O divine ones, fair and kind, be gracious, O queens, whether ye be numbered among the heavenly goddesses, or those beneath the earth, or be called the Solitary nymphs; come, O nymphs, sacred race of Oceanus, appear manifest to our longing eyes and show us some spring of water from the rock or some sacred flow gushing from the earth, goddesses, wherewith we may quench the thirst that burns us unceasingly. And if ever again we return in our voyaging to the Achaean land, then to you among the first of goddesses with willing hearts will we bring countless gifts, libations and banquets.


title: Hesperides

text: So he spake, beseeching them with plaintive voice; and they from their station near pitied their pain; and lo! First of all they caused grass to spring from the earth; and above the grass rose up tall shoots, and then flourishing saplings grew standing upright far above the earth. Hespere became a poplar and Eretheis an elm, and Aegle a willow's sacred trunk. And forth from these trees their forms looked out, as clear as they were before, a marvel exceeding great, and Aegle spake with gentle words answering their longing looks: "Surely there has come hither a mighty succour to your toils, that most accursed man, who robbed our guardian serpent of life and plucked the golden apples of the goddesses and is gone; and has left bitter grief for us. For yesterday came a man most fell in wanton violence, most grim in form; and his eyes flashed beneath his scowling brow; a ruthless wretch; and he was clad in the skin of a monstrous lion of raw hide, untanned; and he bare a sturdy bow of olive, and a bow, wherewith he shot and killed this monster here. So he too came, as one traversing the land on foot, parched with thirst; and he rushed wildly through this spot, searching for water, but nowhere was he like to see it. Now here stood a rock near the Tritonian lake; and of his own device, or by the prompting of some god, he smote it below with his foot; and the water gushed out in full flow. And he, leaning both his hands and chest upon the ground, drank a huge draught from the rifted rock, until, stooping like a beast of the field, he had satisfied his mighty maw.


title: Hesperides

text: Thus she spake; and they gladly with joyful steps ran to the spot where Aegle had pointed out to them the spring, until they reached it. And as when earth-burrowing ants gather in swarms round a narrow cleft, or when flies lighting upon a tiny drop of sweet honey cluster round with insatiate eagerness; so at that time, huddled together, the Minyae thronged about the spring from the rock. And thus with wet lips one cried to another in his delight: "Strange! In very truth Heracles, though far away, has saved his comrades, fordone with thirst. Would that we might find him on his way as we pass through the mainland!


title: Hesperides

text: According to Diodorus' account, the Hesperides did not have the golden apples. Instead they possessed flocks of sheep which excelled in beauty and were therefore called for their beauty, as the poets might do, "golden apples", just as Aphroditê is called "golden" because of her loveliness. Others also say that it was because the sheep had a peculiar colour like gold that they got this designation. This version further states that Dracon ("dragon") was the name of the shepherd of the sheep, a man who excelled in strength of body and courage, who guarded the sheep and slew any who might dare to carry them off.


title: Hesperides

text: With the revival of classical allusions in the Renaissance, the Hesperides returned to their prominent position, and the garden itself took on the name of its nymphs: Robert Greene wrote of "The fearful Dragon... that watched the garden called Hesperides". Shakespeare inserted the comically insistent rhyme "is not Love a Hercules, Still climbing trees in the Hesperides" in "Love's Labours Lost" (iv.iii) and John Milton mentioned the "ladies of the Hesperides" in "Paradise Regained" (ii.357). "Hesperides" (published 1647) was the title of a collection of pastoral and religious verse by the Royalist poet Robert Herrick.


title: How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)

text: How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) is a German coming-of-age dark humor crime streaming television series co-created by Philipp Käßbohrer and Matthias Murmann. The first season, consisting of six episodes, was released on 31 May 2019, on Netflix. The series stars Maximilian Mundt, Anna Lena Klenke, Danilo Kamperidis, Damian Hardung, Luna Baptiste Schaller, Leonie Wesselow and Bjarne Mädel. The second season premiered on Netflix on 21 July 2020. On 28 July 2020, Netflix renewed the series for a third season. It premiered on July 27, 2021. On 12 August 2022, for dwdl.de, creators Matthias Murmann and Philipp Käßbohrer said in an interview that Netflix gave the green light for a fourth season.


title: How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)

text: "How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)" is set in fictional Rinseln, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and told from the perspective of high-school outcast and nerd Moritz Zimmermann. The series follows Moritz and his friend Lenny Sander attempting to rekindle Moritz's love for ex-girlfriend Lisa Novak, through selling ecstasy online. Starting off as a small time business, it quickly spirals out of control and Moritz and Lenny learn to deal with the consequences of large scale drug trafficking.


title: How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)

text: The series is inspired by a true story that took place in Leipzig in 2015. Maximilian Schmidt, the inspiration for the television series, was sentenced to seven years in prison.


title: How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)

text: On 25 October 2018, it was announced that Netflix had given the production a series order for a six-episode first season. The series is created by Philipp Käßbohrer and Matthias Murmann who will be credited as executive producers. Production companies involved with the series were slated to consist of bildundtonfabrik. On July 9, 2019, the series was renewed by Netflix for a second season, which was released on 21 July 2020. On 28 July 2020, Netflix renewed the series for a third season, which premiered on 27 July 2021.


title: How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)

text: Alongside the series order announcement, it was confirmed that Maximilian Mundt, Anna Lena Klenke, Danilo Kamperidis, Damian Hardung, Luna Baptiste Schaller, Leonie Wesselow and Bjarne Mädel would star in the series. In June 2020, Lena Urzendowsky was cast in the role of Kira on the second season. On 28 July 2020, Langston Uibel was announced to have joined the third season's new main cast.


title: How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)

text: On 17 December 2018, Netflix announced that filming for the first season was completed. Principal photography for the second season took place on location in Bonn, Germany in 2019. Filming for the third season took place on location in Cologne, Germany in 2020.


title: How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)

text: On 6 April 2019, the series held its official premiere with the screening of the first two episodes at the Cannes International Series Festival in Cannes, France.


title: How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)

text: On 6 April 2019, the teaser trailer for the series was released. On 17 May 2019, the official trailer for the series was released by Netflix. On 23 June 2020, the official trailer for the second season was released.


title: Booby

text: A booby is a seabird in the genus Sula, part of the family Sulidae. Boobies are closely related to the gannets ("Morus"), which were formerly included in "Sula".


title: Booby

text: The genus "Sula" was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The type species is the brown booby. The name is derived from "súla", the Old Norse and Icelandic word for the other member of the family Sulidae, the gannet.


title: Booby

text: The English name "booby" was possibly based on the Spanish slang term "bobo", meaning "stupid", as these tame birds had a habit of landing on board sailing ships, where they were easily captured and eaten. Owing to this, boobies are often mentioned as having been caught and eaten by shipwrecked sailors, notably William Bligh of the "Bounty" and his adherents during their famous voyage after being set adrift by Fletcher Christian and his followers.


title: Booby

text: Six of the ten extant Sulidae species called "boobies" are in the genus "Sula", while the three gannet species are usually placed in the genus "Morus". Abbott's booby was formerly included in "Sula" but is now placed in a monotypic genus "Papasula", which represents an ancient lineage perhaps closer to "Morus".


title: Booby

text: Some authorities consider that all ten species should be considered congeneric in "Sula". However, they are readily distinguished by means of osteology. The distinct lineages of gannets and boobies are known to have existed in such form, since at least the Middle Miocene, "c."15mya.


title: Booby

text: The fossil record of boobies is not as well documented as that of gannets, either because booby speciation was lower from the late Miocene to the Pliocene (when gannet diversity was at its highest), or because the booby fossil species record is as yet incomplete, due to most localities being in continental North America or Europe despite boobies' more tropical distribution.


title: Booby

text: Boobies hunt fish by diving from a height into the sea and pursuing their prey underwater. Facial air sacs under their skin cushion the impact with the water. Boobies are colonial breeders on islands and coasts. They normally lay one or more chalky-blue eggs on the ground or sometimes in a tree nest. Selective pressures, likely through competition for resource, have shaped the ecomorphology and foraging behaviours of the six species of boobies in the Pacific.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: Super Smash Bros. Melee is a 2001 crossover fighting video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the second installment in the "Super Smash Bros." series. It features characters from Nintendo video game franchises such as "Mario", "The Legend of Zelda", "Star Fox" and "Pokémon", among others. The stages and gameplay modes reference or take designs from these franchises as well.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: "Melee" includes all playable characters from the first game and also adds characters from additional franchises such as "Fire Emblem", of which no games had been released outside Japan at the time, in addition to new stages and gameplay modes. Like other games in the "Smash Bros." series, "Melee"s gameplay system offers an unorthodox approach to the fighting game genre, with a counter that measures damage with increasing percentages, representing the knockback the character will experience, rather than a depleting health bar seen in most fighting games.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: "Melee" was first released in Japan in November 2001, in the Americas in December 2001, and in Europe and Australia in May 2002. The game received widespread acclaim from critics, earning praise for its visuals, simple controls, gameplay, and orchestrated soundtrack, as well as several awards and acknowledgments from various publications; it is now considered one of the greatest video games ever made. It achieved strong sales upon its release, becoming the GameCube's best-selling title with over seven million copies sold by 2008. Considered one of the most competitively viable "Smash Bros." games due to its fast-paced and offensive gameplay, "Melee" has been featured in many competitive gaming tournaments, boasting a dedicated grassroots fan community which has kept its competitive scene alive well beyond the game's original lifespan. It was followed by "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" for the Wii in 2008.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: Like its predecessor, "Super Smash Bros. Melee" differs from traditional fighting games as the objective is to force their opponents beyond the boundaries of the stage. Most attacks inflict damage and can, if enough damage is dealt, knock back the enemy. Each character's health is measured by a meter that represents damage as a percentage. The higher the percentage value, the farther the player gets knocked back, and the easier they are to knock off the stage, which will result in the character's death and the loss of a stock, or life. Unlike other games of the same genre, in which moves are entered by button-input combinations, most moves in "Super Smash Bros. Melee" can be accessed via one-button presses and a joystick direction. For example, by tilting the joystick to the side and pressing the "B" button, the character will use their "side special" attack. Tilting the joystick up, down, or not tilting it at all while pressing B will use the up, down, or neutral special, respectively.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: During battles, items related to Nintendo games or merchandise fall onto the game field. These items have purposes ranging from inflicting damage on the opponent to restoring health to the player. Some items are throwable (ranged items), some do melee damage (battering items), and some have an instant effect on the player (transforming items).


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: Most stages have a theme relating to a Nintendo franchise or a specific Nintendo game and are interactive to the player. For example, the Mushroom Kingdom stage is from "Super Mario Bros", and the Temple stage is from "The Legend of Zelda". Although the stages are rendered in three dimensions, players can only move on a two-dimensional plane. Not all stages are available immediately; some stages must be "unlocked" by achieving particular requirements. Some stages feature moving elements and platforms and hazards that harm players, while others lack these elements.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: Single-player mode provides the player with a variety of side-scrolling fighting challenges. The applicable modes range from "Classic Mode", which involves the player battling multiple opponents and a boss character, to the "Home Run Contest", a minigame involving the player trying to launch a sandbag as far as possible with a Home Run Bat for ten seconds. Some of these modes are personalized for the character; for example, the "Target Test" sets out a specialized area for a character in which they aim to destroy ten targets in the least amount of time they can. These areas may include references to that particular character's past and legacy. The "Board the Platforms" minigame from the first game was not included in "Melee". "Melee" introduced "Adventure Mode", which takes the player to several predefined universes of characters in the Nintendo franchise. "All-Star Mode" is an unlockable feature that requires the player to defeat every character in the game while having only one stock and three health supplements between battles.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: In the multiplayer mode, up to four players or computer-controlled characters may fight in a free-for-all or on separate teams. The central processing unit (CPU) characters' artificial intelligence (AI) difficulty is ranked from one to nine in ascending order of difficulty. Individual players can also be handicapped; the higher the handicap, the stronger the player. Victory is determined in five ways, depending on the game type. The two most common multiplayer modes are “Time mode”, where the player or team with the most KOs and least falls wins after a predetermined amount of time, and "Stock mode", a battle in which the last player or team with lives remaining wins. This can be changed to less conventional modes like "Coin mode", which rewards the richest player as the victor. Players must collect coins created by hitting enemies and try not to lose them by falling off the stage; harder hits release higher quantities of coins. Other options are available, updating from "Super Smash Bros.", such as determining the number and type of items that appear during the battle.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: Trophies (known as "Figures" in the Japanese version) of various Nintendo characters and objects can be collected throughout the game. These trophies include figures of playable characters, accessories, and items associated with them as well as series and characters not otherwise playable in the game. The trophies range from the well-known to the obscure, and even characters or elements only released in Japan. "Super Smash Bros." had a similar system of plush dolls; however, it only included the 12 playable characters. One trophy is exclusive to the Japanese version of the game.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: "Super Smash Bros. Melee" features 25 (26 if Zelda and Sheik are considered separate) characters, 13 (14 with Zelda and Sheik separate) more than its predecessor. Fourteen are available initially, while the other 11 characters require completing specific tasks to become available. Every character featured in the game is derived from a popular Nintendo franchise. All characters have a symbol that appears behind their damage meter which represents their series, such as a Triforce symbol behind Link's damage meter and a Poké Ball behind a Pokémon species. Some characters represent popular franchises, while others were less-known at the time of the release; Marth and Roy represent the "Fire Emblem" series, which was not released outside Japan at the time. The characters' appearance in "Super Smash Bros. Melee" led to a rise in the popularity of the series, including releasing it outside of Japan. References are made throughout the game to the relationship between characters of the same universe; in one of the events from "Event mode", Mario must defeat his enemy Bowser to rescue Princess Peach. Furthermore, each character has recognizable moves from their original series, such as Samus's firearms from the "Metroid" series and Link's arsenal of weapons.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: "Super Smash Bros. Melee" was developed by HAL Laboratory, with Masahiro Sakurai as the head of production. "Mario" creator Shigeru Miyamoto served as co-producer. The game was one of the first games released on the GameCube and highlighted the advancement in graphics from the Nintendo 64. The project proposal/initial design document for the game was completed on July 5, 1999. Sakurai wanted to make an opening FMV sequence to pay homage to the debut of the GameCube. HAL and Sakurai worked with three separate graphic houses in Tokyo to make the opening sequence. On their official website, the developers posted screenshots and information highlighting and explaining the attention to physics and detail in the game, with references to changes from its predecessor. The game was in development for 13 months, beginning around autumn 2000, and Sakurai called his lifestyle during this period "destructive" with no holidays and short weekends. Unlike the experimental first "Super Smash Bros.", he felt great pressure to deliver a quality sequel, claiming it was the "biggest project I had ever led up to that point". Despite the stressful development cycle, in a 2010 interview, Sakurai proudly called "Melee" "the sharpest game in the series... it just felt really good to play", even compared to its successor, "Super Smash Bros. Brawl".


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: On the game's official Japanese website, Sakurai and the developers explained reasons for making particular characters playable and why some characters were not added. Initially, the development team wanted to replace Ness with Lucas, the main character of "Mother 3", but retained Ness in consideration of delays. Video game developer Hideo Kojima originally requested the inclusion of Solid Snake to Sakurai, and according to Yuji Naka of Sonic Team, Miyamoto requested the inclusion of Sonic the Hedgehog to Sakurai, but neither characters were added as the game was too far in development. Additional development time later enabled all three characters to be included in "Brawl". Marth and Roy were initially intended to be playable exclusively in the Japanese version of "Super Smash Bros. Melee". However, they received favorable attention during the game's North American localization, leading to the decision for the developers to include them in the Western version.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: Sakurai stated that the development team had suggested characters from four other games to represent the Famicom/NES era, until the developers eventually chose the Ice Climbers to fulfill this role. Additionally, Ayumi Tachibana from "Famicom Detective Club" was considered as a playable character, but was ultimately relegated to a cameo role as a trophy. The developers have noted characters that have very similar moves to each other on the website; such characters have been referred to as "clones" in the media.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: Nintendo presented the game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2001 as a playable demonstration. The next major exposition of the game came in August 2001 at Spaceworld, when Nintendo displayed a playable demo that updated from the previous demo displayed at E3. Nintendo offered a playable tournament of the games for fans in which a GameCube and "Super Smash Bros. Melee" were prizes for the winner. Before the game's release, the Japanese official website included weekly updates, including screenshots and character profiles. Nintendo followed this trend with "Super Smash Bros. Brawl", in which there were daily updates by the game's developer, Masahiro Sakurai. Japanese gaming magazine "Famitsu" reported that Nintendo advertised the game in between showings of "Pokémon 4Ever" across movie theaters in Japan. In January 2003, "Melee" was re-released as part of the Player's Choice program, a marketing label used by Nintendo to promote video games that have sold more than a million copies. In August 2005, Nintendo bundled the game with the GameCube for $99.99.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: "Super Smash Bros. Melee" features both new and re-arranged music from many of Nintendo's popular gaming franchises. In 2002, Enterbrain released a soundtrack in Japan titled "Dairantou Smash Brothers DX Orchestra Concert". The same soundtrack was released in 2003 as "Smashing... Live!" as a bonus for subscribing to "Nintendo Power" magazine in North America, and also as a free gift in an issue of the British "Official Nintendo Magazine". The soundtrack does not include music taken directly from the game, but features many live orchestral arrangements performed by the New Japan Philharmonic. The game contains a number of unlockable tracks that can be obtained after making certain in-game accomplishments. On the same website, the developers have posted discussions about the game's music and voice acting between Masahiro Sakurai and the game's composers.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: "Super Smash Bros. Melee" received critical acclaim from reviewers, most of whom credited "Melee"s expansion of gameplay features from "Super Smash Bros". Focusing on the additional features, GameSpy commented that "Melee really scores big in the 'we've added tons of great extra stuff' department". Reviewers compared the game favorably to "Super Smash Bros." IGN's Fran Mirabella III stated that it was "in an entirely different league than the N64 version"; GameSpot's Miguel Lopez praised the game for offering a more advanced "classic-mode" compared to its predecessor, while detailing the Adventure Mode as "really a hit-or-miss experience". Despite a mixed response to the single-player modes, many reviewers expressed the game's multiplayer mode as a strong component of the game. In their review of the game, GameSpy stated that "you'll have a pretty hard time finding a more enjoyable multiplayer experience on any other console".


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: "Melee"s visuals garnered a positive reaction. GameSpot lauded the game's character and background models, stating that "the character models are pleasantly full-bodied, and the quality of their textures is amazing". IGN's Fran Mirabella III praised the game's use of physics, animation and graphics, although his colleague Matt Casamassina thought that "some of the backgrounds lack the visual polish endowed upon the characters" when giving a second opinion about the game.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: Critics praised the game's orchestrated soundtrack; while GameSpot's Greg Kasavin commented that "it all sounds brilliant". GameSpy praised the music for its nostalgic effect, with soundtracks ranging from multiple Nintendo series.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: Reviewers have welcomed the simplistic controls, but its "hyper-responsiveness", with the characters easily dashing and precise movements being difficult to perform, was expressed as a serious flaw of the game by GameSpot. With a milder criticism of controls, Bryn Williams of GameSpy commented that "movement and navigation seems slightly too sensitive". The basis of "Melee"s gameplay system is the battles between Nintendo characters, which has been suggested as being overly hectic; N-Europe questioned whether the gameplay is "too Frantic?", even though they enjoyed the variety of modes on offer. Similarly, Nintendo Spin's Clark Nielsen stated that "Melee was too fast for its own good", and "skill was more about just being able to wrap your head around what was happening as opposed to really getting into the combat". In regards to the pace of the game, "Edge" commented that it even made gameplay features such as "blocking" redundant, as the player is not given enough time to react to an attack.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: Despite the new features added to the game, some reviews criticized "Melee" for a lack of originality and for being too similar to its predecessor, "Super Smash Bros". Caleb Hale from GameCritics.com noted that while it was "every bit as good as its Nintendo 64 predecessor" he also felt "the game doesn't expand much past that point". On a similar note, "Edge" stated that "it's not evolution; it's reproduction", in reference to a perceived lack of innovation. The nostalgic nature of the game received a positive reaction, as well as the accompanying stages and items that allude to past Nintendo games. Gaming journalists have welcomed the roster of 26 Nintendo characters, as well as the trophy system, which Nintendo Spin labeled as "a great addition to this game".


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: When released in Japan, it became the fastest selling GameCube game with 358,525 units sold in the week ending November 25, 2001. This success continued as the game sold more than a million units only two months after its release, making it the first GameCube title to reach a million copies. The game also sold well in North America, where it sold 250,000-copies in nine days. In the United States, "Super Smash Bros. Melee" was the 19th best-selling video game in 2001 according to the NPD Group. By July 2006, it had sold 3.2 million copies and earned $125 million in the United States alone. "Next Generation" ranked it as the fifth highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Approximately 4.06 million units have been sold in the country as of December 27, 2007. With a software-to-hardware ratio of 3:4 at one time, some have attributed the increasing sales of the GameCube near the launch date to "Melee". As of March 10, 2008, "Super Smash Bros. Melee" is the best-selling GameCube game, with more than seven million copies sold worldwide. It has been estimated that at one point in time 70% of all GameCube owners also owned "Melee".


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: Several publications have acknowledged "Super Smash Bros. Melee" in competitions and awards. In their "Best of 2001" awards, GameSpy chose it as Best Fighting GameCube Game, IGN's reader choice chose it as Game of the Year, "Electronic Gaming Monthly" chose it as Best Multiplayer and Best GameCube Game, and GameSpot chose it as the Best GameCube Game and tenth best game of the year. The game received a nomination for "Console Fighting Game of the Year" and "Outstanding Achievement in Animation" by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, which went to "Dead or Alive 3" and "". It also received a nomination in "GameSpot"s "Best Music" and "Best Fighting Game" categories.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: GameFAQs placed it sixth in a poll of the 100 best games ever and was in the final four of the ""Best. Game. Ever."" contest. In the 200th issue of "Electronic Gaming Monthly", the editors selected "Melee" as the 92nd most influential game in their "Top 200 Games of Their Time" list, defining "Melee" as "Billions of things to unlock, plus Yoshi pummeling Pikachu with a bat". In a similar competition, "Nintendo Power" named "Super Smash Bros. Melee" the 16th best game ever to appear on a Nintendo console, and selected it as the 2001 "Game of the Year". IGN named it the third best GameCube game of all-time in 2007 as a part of a feature reflecting on the GameCube's long lifespan, citing it as "the grand stage of fighters, much like Mario Kart is for racing fans". GameSpy chose it as fourth in a similar list, citing that it had "better graphics, better music, more characters, more gameplay modes, more secrets to discover" in comparison to its predecessor. The game was ranked 58th in Official Nintendo Magazine's "100 Greatest Nintendo Games Ever" feature. In 2019, "Game Informer" ranked it as the 2nd best fighting game of all time. Edge magazine ranked the game 91st on their 100 best Video Games in 2007.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: "Super Smash Bros. Melee" is a widely played competitive video game and has been featured in several high-profile tournaments. Many consider it to be the most competitively viable game in the series. "Melee" version NTSC was first released on the gamecube in 2001 in Japan and later North America, Nintendo ran the first ever "Melee" tournament named "Premium Fight" most likely from August 25 to August 27, 2001. That circuit launched tournaments and competitive "Melee" on the local level. For competitive "smashers," as they were soon to be called, tournaments at houses, video game stores and internet cafes would become the norm.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: The tournaments increased in popularity, and an echelon of competitively successful top players emerged in each region of the United States and Japan. Professional gaming organizations began to take more notice of "Melee" and started sponsoring players professionally. Several professional "Melee" players including Christopher "KillaOR" McKenzie, Isai Alvarado, and Ken were seen in the 2005 "I'm a Professional Gamer" episode of the MTV reality series "True Life". Tournaments became larger, more televised and more professional. The audience was bigger, the amount of competitors was bigger and the prize pool was a lot bigger. From 2004 to 2007, Major League Gaming sponsored "Melee" on its Pro Circuit. Ken Hoang, also known as "The King of Smash" was considered to be the game's best player from 2003 to 2006, and has won over $50,000 from Smash tournaments. Although dropping "Melee" from its 2007 Pro Circuit, MLG still sponsored a number of tournaments as part of the Underground Smash Series.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: "Melee" was also included in the Evolution Championship Series (Evo) in 2007, a fighting game tournament held in Las Vegas. Melee was hosted at Evo 2013 after a charity vote to decide the final game to be featured in its tournament lineup. Due to the large turnout and popularity that year, Evo again included "Melee" at their 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 events. In 2014 "Melee" was played at MLG Anaheim. Evo 2016 is the largest "Melee" tournament to date with 2,350 entrants.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: The competitive "Smash" community was featured in a 2013 crowd-funded documentary called "The Smash Brothers". The film detailed the history of the professional scene and profiled seven prominent "Melee" players including Hoang, Azen, Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Isai, PC Chris, KoreanDJ, and Evo 2013 and Evo 2014 champion, Joseph "Mang0" Marquez. Commentary footage from a "Melee" tournament is the origin of the Wombo combo internet meme.


title: Super Smash Bros. Melee

text: In 2020, Project Slippi, a fork of the Dolphin emulator for "Melee" designed to introduce quality-of-life features such as replays and online play, was updated to support rollback netcode and integrated matchmaking, allowing netplay across large distances with little latency. In the same year, an e-sports competition known as "The Big House" was sent a cease and desist by Nintendo, due to the usage of Slippi.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (; 3 September 1936 – 19 September 2019), commonly known as Ben Ali () or Ezzine (), was a Tunisian politician who served as the 2nd president of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011. In that year, during the Tunisian revolution, he fled to Saudi Arabia.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: Ben Ali was appointed Prime Minister in October 1987. He assumed the Presidency on 7 November 1987 in a bloodless coup d'état that ousted President Habib Bourguiba by declaring him incompetent. Ben Ali was subsequently reelected with enormous majorities, each time exceeding 90% of the vote; his final re-election coming on 25 October 2009. Ben Ali was the penultimate surviving leader deposed in the Arab Spring who was survived by Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, the latter dying in February 2020.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: On 14 January 2011, following a month of protests against his rule, he fled to Saudi Arabia along with his wife Leïla Ben Ali and their three children. The interim Tunisian government asked Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant, charging him with money laundering and drug trafficking. A Tunisian court sentenced Ben Ali and his wife "in absentia" to 35 years in prison on 20 June 2011 on charges of theft and unlawful possession of cash and jewelry, which was put up for auction. In June 2012, a Tunisian court sentenced him "in absentia" to life imprisonment for inciting violence and murder and another life sentence by a military court in April 2013 for violent repression of protests in Sfax. He served none of those sentences, subsequently dying in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on 19 September 2019 at the age of 83 after nearly a decade in exile.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: Ben Ali was born in 1936 to moderate-income parents as the fourth of eleven children in the family. His father worked as a guard at the port city of Sousse.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: Ben Ali joined the local resistance against French colonial forces and was imprisoned. His expulsion from secondary school was the reason why he never completed his secondary education. He studied at the Sousse Technical Institute but failed to earn a professional certificate and joined the newly formed Tunisian Army in 1958. Nevertheless, after being chosen as one of a group of young officers, he was awarded training in France at the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in Coëtquidan and the School of Applied Artillery in Châlons-sur-Marne, and also in the United States at the Senior Intelligence School in Maryland and the School for Anti-Aircraft Field Artillery in Texas. He also held a diploma in electronics engineering from a local university. Returning to Tunisia in 1964, he began his professional military career the same year as a Tunisian staff officer. During his time in military service, he established the Military Security Department and directed its operations for 10 years. He briefly served as military attaché in the Tunisian embassy of Morocco and Spain before being appointed General Director of National Security in 1977.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: In April 1980, Ben Ali was appointed ambassador to Poland, and served in that position for four years. He also served as the military intelligence chief from 1964 to 1974 and later Director General of national security between December 1977 and 1980 until he was appointed as Minister of Defense. Soon after the Tunisian bread riots in January 1984, he was reappointed director-general of national security.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: Ben Ali subsequently served as Minister of State in charge of the interior before being appointed Interior Minister on 28 April 1986 then Prime Minister by President Habib Bourguiba in October 1987.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: On the morning of 7 November 1987, doctors attending to President Bourguiba filed an official medical report declaring him medically incapacitated and unable to fulfill the duties of the presidency. Ben Ali, next in line to the presidency, removed Bourguiba from office and assumed the presidency himself. The day of his accession to power was celebrated annually in Tunisia as New Era Day. Two of the names given to Ben Ali's rise to the presidency include "the medical coup d'état" and the "Tunisian revolution". Ben Ali favoured the latter. Ben Ali’s assumption of the presidency was in conformity with Article 57 of the Tunisian Constitution. The country had faced 10% inflation, external debt accounting for 46% of GDP and a debt service ratio of 21% of GDP.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: In 1999, Fulvio Martini, former head of Italian military secret service SISMI, declared to a parliamentary committee that "from 1985 to 1987, we organized a kind of "golpe" in Tunisia, putting president Ben Ali as head of state, replacing Burghiba (the Italian spelling of the name) who wanted to flee". Bourguiba, although a symbol of anti-colonial resistance, was considered incapable of leading his country any longer, and his reaction to the rising Islamic integrism was deemed "a bit too energetic" by Martini; Bourguiba's threat to execute the suspects might have generated strong negative responses in neighbouring countries. Acting under directives from Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi and Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti, Martini claims to have brokered the accord that led to the peaceful transition of powers.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: According to Martini, the SISMI did not have an operational role in Ben Ali's rise to power, but organised a move to support his new government politically and economically, preventing Tunisia from falling into an open confrontation with fundamentalists, as happened in Algeria in the following years.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: Ben Ali initially promised a more democratic way of ruling the country than had prevailed under Bourguiba. One of his first acts upon taking office was to loosen restrictions on the press; for the first time state-controlled newspapers published statements from the opposition. In 1988, he changed the name of the ruling Destourian Socialist Party to the Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD), and pushed through constitutional amendments that limited the president to three five-year terms, with no more than two in a row.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: However, the conduct of the 1989 elections was little different from past elections. The RCD swept every seat in the legislature, and Ben Ali appeared alone on the ballot in Tunisia's first presidential election since 1974. Although opposition parties had been legal since 1981, presidential candidates were required to get endorsements from 30 political figures. Given the RCD's near-absolute dominance of the political scene, prospective opposition candidates discovered they could not get their nomination papers signed. The subsequent years saw the return of several Bourguiba-era restrictions. For many years, the press had been expected to practice self-censorship, but this increasingly gave way to official censorship. Amendments to the press code allowed the Interior Ministry to review all newspaper and magazine articles before publication. In 1992, the president's younger brother Habib Ben Ali was tried in absentia in France for laundering the proceeds of drug trafficking, in a case known as the "couscous connection".


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: At the 1994 elections, opposition parties polled 2.25% and gained 19 of 163 seats in Parliament—the first time opposition parties had actually managed to get into the chamber. Ben Ali was unopposed for a second full term, again after being the only candidate to get enough endorsements to qualify. Turnout was officially reported at 95%. However, at this and subsequent elections, opposition parties never accounted for more than 24 percent of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies. All legislation continued to originate with the president, and there was little meaningful opposition to executive decisions.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: In 1999, Ben Ali became the first Tunisian president to actually face an opponent after the 30-signature requirement was lifted a few months earlier. However, he won a third full term with an implausible 99.4 percent of the vote.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: A constitutional referendum in 2002—the first ever held in Tunisia—established a two-chambered parliament, creating the Chamber of Advisers. It also allowed the president to run for an unlimited number of five-year terms and amended the upper age limit for a presidential candidate to 75 years old (previously 70). The latter measures were clearly aimed at keeping Ben Ali in office; he faced having to give up the presidency in 2004. He was duly reelected in 2004, again by an implausibly high margin—this time 94 percent of the vote.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: Tunisia under Ben Ali had problems with human rights violations, such as freedom of the press, highlighted by the official treatment of the journalist Taoufik Ben Brik, who was harassed and imprisoned for his criticism of Ben Ali. By the dawn of the new millennium, Ben Ali was reckoned as leading one of the most repressive regimes in the world. Under his rule, Tunisia consistently ranked near the bottom of most international rankings for human rights and press freedom.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: On 25 October 2009, Ben Ali was re-elected for a fifth term with 89% of the vote. The African Union sent a team of observers to cover the election. The delegation was led by Benjamin Bounkoulou, who described the election as "free and fair". However, a spokesperson from the US State Department indicated that Tunisia had not permitted monitoring of the election by international observers, but that the U.S. was still committed to working with the Ben Ali and the Tunisian government. There also were reports of mistreatment of an opposition candidate.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: In December 2010 and January 2011, riots over unemployment escalated into a widespread popular protest movement against Ben Ali's government. On 13 January 2011, he announced he would not run for another term in 2014, and pledged steps to improve the economy and loosen restrictions on the press. The following day, however, thousands demonstrated in the center of Tunis, demanding Ben Ali's immediate resignation. On 14 January 2011, Ben Ali, his wife and children fled to Saudi Arabia, and a caretaker ruling committee headed by Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi was announced.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: As president, Ben Ali instituted economic reforms that increased Tunisia's growth rate and foreign investment. During his administration, Tunisia's per capita GDP more than tripled from $1,201 in 1986 to $3,786 in 2008. Although growth in 2002 slowed to a 15-year low of 1.9% due to drought and lackluster tourism (partly due to some tourists being nervous about flying in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in New York), better conditions after 2003 helped push growth to about 5% of GDP. For about 20 years after 1987, the GDP annual growth averaged nearly 5%. A report published in July 2010 by the Boston Consulting Group ("The African Challengers: Global Competitors Emerge from the Overlooked Continent") listed Tunisia as one of the African "Lions" and indicated the eight such countries account for 70% of the continent's gross domestic product.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: Steady increases in GDP growth continued through positive trade relations with the European Union, a revitalised tourism industry and sustained agricultural production. Privatization, increasing foreign investment, improvements in government efficiency and reduction of the trade deficit presented challenges for the future. The 2010/11 Global Competitiveness Report (Davos World Economic Forum) ranked Tunisia 1st in Africa and 32nd globally out of 139 countries but it dropped to 40th in 2011/12 as a result of political instability and was not ranked in 2012/13.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: According to the Oxford Business Group, Tunisia's economy was likely to grow from 2008 thanks to its diversified industries.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: Committed to fighting poverty at home, Ben Ali instituted reforms, including the National Solidarity Fund, which slashed the Tunisian poverty rate from 7.4% in 1990 to an estimated 3.8% in 2005. The National Solidarity Fund was part of a dual strategy to fight current and potential terrorism through economic assistance, development and the rule of law, but also increased opportunities for corruption and clientelism. The fund provided opportunities to those living in impoverished areas and are vulnerable to recruitment by terrorists. It was a critical element in the fight against terrorism.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: However, Tunisia continued to suffer from high unemployment, especially among youth. Left out of the recent prosperity were many rural and urban poor, including small businesses facing the world market. This and the blocking of free speech were the causes of the Tunisian revolution.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: During Ben Ali's presidency, Tunisia pursued a moderate foreign policy promoting peaceful settlement of conflicts. Tunisia took a middle of the road approach contributing to peacemaking, especially in the Middle East and Africa. Tunisia hosted the first-ever Palestinian American dialogue. While contributing actively to the Middle East peace process, Tunisian diplomacy has supported the Palestinian cause. As host to the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1982–1993, Ben Ali's government tried to moderate the views of that organisation. Tunisia, since the early 1990s, called for a "concerted" international effort against terrorism. It was also a key US partner in the effort to fight global terrorism through the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: Ben Ali mostly retained his predecessor's pro-western foreign policy, though he improved ties with the Arab-Muslim world. He took several initiatives to promote solidarity, dialogue and cooperation among nations. Ben Ali initiated the creation of the United Nations World Solidarity Fund to eradicate poverty and promote social development based on the successful experience of the Tunisian National Solidarity Fund. Ben Ali also played a lead role in the UN's proclaiming 2010 as the International Year of Youth.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: Ben Ali's government was considered to have one of the worst human rights records in the world, and largely bucked the trend toward greater democracy in Africa. His regime was dictatorial, and massively repressive, especially towards the conclusion of his 23-year iron grip on the country. It was deemed authoritarian and undemocratic by international human rights groups such as Amnesty International, Freedom House, and Protection International. They criticised Tunisian officials for not observing international standards of political rights and interfering with the work of local human rights organisations. In "The Economist"s 2010 Democracy Index, Tunisia was classified as an authoritarian regime, ranking 144th out of 167 countries studied. In 2008, in terms of freedom of the press, Tunisia was ranked 143 out of 173.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: In response to the protests, Ben Ali declared a state of emergency, dissolved the government on 14 January 2011, and promised new legislative elections within six months. However, events moved quickly, and it appears the armed forces and key members of the legislature had lost confidence in Ben Ali and had decided to take steps of their own. With power slipping from his grasp, Ben Ali resigned the presidency at about 16:00 and delegated prime minister Mohamed Ghannouchi to act as head of state during his "temporary" absence. With the army surrounding the Presidential Palace in Tunis, Ben Ali and close members of his family hastily left and headed to Laouina airport (annexed to the Tunis–Carthage International Airport). The military allowed Ben Ali's plane to take off, immediately after which the Tunisian airspace was closed. The presidential plane was rumoured to be headed to France. But in 2022 the BBC revealed a number of recorded conversations Ben-Ali had with his allies during the flight from Tunisia, the context of those conversations showing that Ben Ali was clearly headed to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and not France. Ben Ali and his family were accepted by King Abdullah to live there under the condition that he should keep out of politics. Ben Ali and his family went to exile in Jeddah, the same city where Idi Amin, the late dictator of Uganda, lived in exile until his death in 2003 after being removed from power in 1979 at the end of the Uganda–Tanzania War.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: Other close associates and family members who attempted to leave the country via Tunis-Carthage were prevented from doing so by the army, which had seized the airport.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: At about 18:00, Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi went on state television to say "Since the president is temporarily unable to exercise his duties, it has been decided that the prime minister will temporarily exercise the (presidential) duties."


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: However, this arrangement was very short-lived, because early the following day (15 January 2011), the Constitutional Council of Tunisia determined that Ben Ali was not "temporarily unable" to exercise his duties and that the presidency was in fact vacant. The arrangements he had made with the Prime Minister before leaving the country were found to be unconstitutional under article 57 of the constitution. The country's constitutional council, at the time the highest legal authority on constitutional matters, announced the transition saying that Fouad Mebazaa, the Speaker of Parliament, had been appointed acting president.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: Mebazaa took the oath in his office in parliament, swearing to respect the constitution in the presence of his senate counterpart, Abdallal Kallel, and representatives of both houses. It was also announced that the speaker of parliament would occupy the post of president temporarily and that elections would be held within a period of between 45 and 60 days.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: On 26 January 2011, the Tunisian government issued an international arrest warrant for Ben Ali, accusing him of taking money out of the nation illegally and illegally acquiring real estate and other assets abroad, Justice Minister Lazhar Karoui Chebbi said. Videos show that the president stashed cash and jewellery in the president's palace. The gold and jewellery will be redistributed to the people by the government. The Swiss government announced that it was freezing millions of dollars held in bank accounts by his family. On 28 January 2011, Interpol issued an arrest warrant for Ben Ali and his six family members, including his wife Leïla.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: After Ben Ali fled Tunisia following the Tunisian revolution, he and his wife were tried "in absentia" for his suspected involvement in some of the country's largest businesses during his 23-year-long reign. On 20 June 2011, Ben Ali and his wife were sentenced to 35 years in prison after being found guilty of theft and unlawful possession of cash and jewelry. The verdict also included a penalty of 91 million Tunisian dinars (approximately €50 million, and $64 million) that Ben Ali was required to pay. This verdict was dismissed as a "charade" by some Tunisians dissatisfied with the trial and as a "joke" by Ben Ali's lawyer. The sentences were to take immediate effect, although Ben Ali and his wife were living in Saudi Arabia and the Saudi government ignored Tunisia's requests to extradite them.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: In November 2016, Ben Ali made a statement via the office of his lawyer, Mounir Ben Salha, acknowledging his regime made "errors, abuses and violations". His statement came as a reaction to the public hearing sessions made by the Truth and Dignity Commission in Tunisia.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: Ben Ali and his family were accused of corruption, which was a major contribution to the 2010–2011 Tunisian protests which led to the fall of his government. Many of Ben Ali's family members subsequently also fled the country. On 20 January 2011, Tunisian television reported that 33 members of Ben Ali's family had been arrested in the past week, as they tried to flee the country.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: Leïla Ben Ali was the chair of the Basma Association, a group that promotes social integration and provides employment opportunities for the disabled. She was also the president of the Arab Women Organization, which works to empower women in Arab states. She has three children: Nesrine, Halima and Mohamed Zine El Abidine. Ben Ali has three daughters from his first marriage: Ghazwa, Dorsaf and Cyrine.


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: On 17 February 2011, it was reported that Ben Ali had suffered a stroke, and had been hospitalised for an indefinite period. Al Jazeera reported that a Saudi source had confirmed that Ben Ali had indeed sustained severe complications of a stroke and that he was in critical condition. The information has never been confirmed or denied by the Saudi government. However, on 17 June 2011, Ben Ali's attorney, Jean-Yves Leborgne, stated that Ben Ali "is not in the state that he's said to be in" and that "a meeting with his client took place under 'normal circumstances'".


title: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

text: Ben Ali died at a hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, due to prostate cancer on 19 September 2019 at the age of 83. He was buried on 21 September at the Al-Baqi Cemetery in Medina.


title: Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma

text: The Airbus Helicopters H215 (formerly Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma) is a four-bladed, twin-engine, medium-size utility helicopter developed and initially produced by the French aerospace company Aérospatiale. It has been subsequently manufactured by the successor companies Eurocopter and Airbus Helicopters. The Super Puma is a re-engined and more voluminous version of the original Aérospatiale SA 330 Puma.


title: Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma

text: Development of the Super Puma was carried out during the 1970s, based on the successful SA 330 Puma. While retaining a similar layout, the fuselage was redesigned to increase its damage tolerance and crashworthiness, while composite materials were also more extensively used. Furthermore, a pair of more powerful Turbomeca Makila turboshaft engines were also adopted along with a more streamlined nose, amongst other changes. Two distinct fuselage lengths, a shortened and stretched form, were developed from the onset. On 5 September 1977, the "SA 331" pre-production prototype performed its maiden flight; the first true Super Puma made its first flight roughly one year later. By 1980, the Super Puma had succeeded the SA 330 Puma as Aérospatiale's principal utility helicopter.


title: Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma

text: The Super Puma quickly proved itself to be a commercial success amongst both military and civil customers. The French Army were a keen early customer, using the type in its new rapid response task force, the Force d'Action Rapide, and routinely dispatching Super Pumas to support France's overseas engagements in both Africa and the Middle East. Indonesia also became a prominent nation for the Super Puma, with the state-owned aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PT DI) securing a license to produce it locally. In the civilian sector, it has been heavily used to support offshore oil rigs and aerial firefighting operations. Since 1990, Super Pumas in military service have been marketed under the AS532 Cougar designation. In civilian service, a next generation successor to the AS 332 was introduced in 2004, the further-enlarged Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma.


title: Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma

text: During 1974, Aérospatiale commenced development of a new medium transport helicopter based on its successful SA 330 Puma. The project's existence was publicly announced at the 1975 Paris Air Show. While the new design retained a similar general layout to the preceding AS 330, it was powered by a pair of Turbomeca Makila turboshaft engines, which had recently been developed and were more powerful than the preceding Turbomeca Turmo. The rotorcraft's four-bladed main rotor was redesigned to make use of composite materials. The design team paid substantial attention to increasing the new model's damage resistance; thus, a more robust fuselage structure was adopted along with a new crashworthy undercarriage, while the rotor blades are also able to withstand some battle damage, along with various other key mechanical systems across the rotorcraft.


title: Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma

text: External features than distinguish the new helicopter from the SA 330 include a ventral fin underneath the tail boom and a more streamlined nose. From the project's onset, it had been planned for the new rotorcraft to be available in two fuselage lengths, consisting of a short fuselage version that had similar capacity to the SA 330 while providing superior performance under "hot and high" conditions, and a stretched version which allowed for greater quantities of internal cargo or passengers to be carried in circumstances where overall weight was deemed to be less critical.


title: Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma

text: On 5 September 1977, a pre-production prototype, the "SA 331", modified from a SA 330 airframe via the addition of Makila engines and a new gearbox, performed its maiden flight. The first prototype of the full Super Puma made its first flight on 13 September 1978, and was quickly followed by a further five prototypes. Flight testing revealed that, in comparison with the SA 330 Puma, the AS 332 Super Puma possessed a higher cruise speed and more range, in part due to the Makila engine providing a greater power output along with a 17% reduction in fuel consumption per mile. The Super Puma also demonstrated its far superior flight stabilisation tendencies and was less reliant on automated corrective systems. The development of both military and civil variants was carried out in parallel, including at the certification stage. During 1981, the first civil Super Puma was delivered.