title: Sphere (novel)

text: Sphere is a 1987 novel by Michael Crichton, his sixth novel under his own name and his sixteenth overall. It was adapted into the film "Sphere" in 1998.


title: Sphere (novel)

text: The story follows Norman Johnson, a psychologist engaged by the United States Navy, who joins a team of scientists assembled to examine a spacecraft of unknown origin discovered on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The novel begins as a science fiction story but quickly transforms into a psychological thriller, developing into an exploration of the nature of the human imagination.


title: Sphere (novel)

text: A group of scientists (namely psychologist Norman Johnson, mathematician Harry Adams, zoologist Beth Halpern, astrophysicist Ted Fielding, and marine biologist Arthur Levine), along with U.S. Navy personnel, travel to a deep sea habitat at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, where an enormous spacecraft has been discovered.


title: Sphere (novel)

text: During the descent, Levine becomes claustrophobic and is returned to the surface. The other scientists arrive safely at Habitat DH-8. After their arrival and subsequent pressurization to the habitat's exotic-gas environment, the Navy sends a robot to enter the spacecraft first, which locates and opens a panel near the spacecraft door.


title: Sphere (novel)

text: As the robot's cameras focus on the opened panel, labels in English indicate the spacecraft is actually a U.S. spacecraft constructed in the future and sent through time, appearing on the seabed at least 350 years before its creation. The robot is unable to open a hatch leading further inside, forcing the team to don pressure suits and explore the spacecraft. In a large cargo hold, the team discovers a mysterious spherical object that is clearly of extra-terrestrial origin.


title: Sphere (novel)

text: Reasoning the ship's future builders were apparently unaware that it had already been found in their past, Adams becomes convinced that the team will not survive to report their discovery. Remaining behind after the rest of the team returns to the habitat, Adams succeeds in opening and entering the sphere. Meanwhile, on the surface, a Pacific cyclone forces the supporting Naval ships to evacuate, trapping and isolating the scientists on the ocean floor for five days. Adams is found and returned to the DH-8 Habitat where he awakens with a terrible headache and little-to-no memory of how he opened the sphere or what occurred while he was inside. Immediately afterwards, the team is contacted by an intelligent, seemingly friendly alien entity that calls itself "Jerry".


title: Sphere (novel)

text: At first, Jerry communicates with the scientists using a numeric code transmitted to the habitat's computer. While the team struggles to communicate with Jerry, increasingly bizarre and deadly events occur, including the appearance of impossible sea creatures that Halpern claims cannot exist (such as shrimp with no digestive organs), confirmed when Jerry informs them he is "manifesting" the creatures.


title: Sphere (novel)

text: At this point, members of the team start to die in various attacks by giant squid, and the dwindling band of survivors struggle in their dealings with the unthinkably powerful, childlike, and temperamental alien entity. Johnson realizes he must use psychology to keep the remaining survivors alive namely Johnson, Adams, Halpern.


title: Sphere (novel)

text: After re-translating the original code, Johnson realizes by transposition the entity's name is "Harry". Johnson hypothesizes that the sphere is an object which allows a person's subconscious thoughts to manifest in reality, and Harry Adams has acquired the power through entering it. This is confirmed by his childhood fear of squid, especially the giant squid in the novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", manifested in the form of a vast number of small squid and later a giant squid that attacks the DH-8 Habitat.


title: Sphere (novel)

text: Johnson and Halpern sedate Adams and wait for contact to be re-established with the surface, but the manifestations continue. Halpern accuses Johnson of having entered the sphere and gaining access to the power. While unable to recall this incident, Johnson comes close to yielding, until he watches a security video of Halpern entering the sphere herself. Rejecting the notion, Halpern decides that Johnson is an imminent threat and defends herself by planting potent explosives around the spacecraft and habitat, and then attempts to suffocate Johnson by manipulating the habitat's life-support system.


title: Sphere (novel)

text: Escaping from the habitat, Johnson goes to the spacecraft and enters the presence of the sphere, then the sphere itself. Inside the sphere, he finds a large sea of translucent "foam," and has a conversation in his thoughts with some sort of entity that speaks in cryptic riddles, who eventually tells Johnson that the greatest power humans possess is the ability to imagine things. After leaving the sphere, Johnson decides to escape using the submarine docked at Habitat DH-7, a nearby habitat for Navy personnel, but cannot abandon the other survivors. Now empowered in the same way as Adams and Halpern, Johnson returns to DH-8, and using the submarine, the trio escape before the explosives set by Halpern count down and destroy the spaceship, research habitat, and surrounding site.


title: Sphere (novel)

text: On the surface, confined to a decompression chamber, the trio ponder on what version of their story to tell the Navy. Realizing they could not control the power granted them by the sphere, they decide its knowledge to be too dangerous to be communicated, and resolve to use its power to remove it from themselves and alter their memories, replacing the fantastical experiences with more mundane memories of a technical failure, though it is hinted that Halpern did not do the same.


title: Sphere (novel)

text: Crichton began writing the novel in 1967 as a companion piece to "The Andromeda Strain". His initial storyline began with American scientists discovering a 300-year-old spaceship underwater with stenciled markings in English. However, Crichton later realized that he "didn't know where to go with it" and put off completing the book until a later date.


title: Sphere (novel)

text: The idea of doing a story about contact with superior intelligence, a time-honored theme, is that it's very hard if you stop and think about it. Most writers evade the issue by making the aliens recognizably human. It's 9 feet tall with spiky teeth and it wants to eat you. Or its 3 feet tall and it wants to hug you. In either case its humanlike... What's more likely about first contact with an extraterrestrial is that the alien wouldn't look humanlike at all. You might not even be able to see it or detect it. And its behavior would be absolutely inexplicable. Trouble is, it gets hard to dream up a story where at the center there is something inexplicable.


title: Sphere (novel)

text: The book was made into the film "Sphere" (1998), directed by Barry Levinson, with a cast including Dustin Hoffman (Norman Johnson, renamed Norman Goodman), Samuel L. Jackson (Harry Adams), Peter Coyote (Harold Barnes), Liev Schreiber (Ted Fielding), and Sharon Stone (Beth Halpern, renamed Beth Halperin).


title: Sphere (novel)

text: The film largely follows the novel, although there are differences. The film received negative reviews from critics and has been described as having "bombed" at the box office. It was rated 12% by Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus opinion: "Sphere features an A-level cast working with B-grade material, with a story seen previously in superior science-fiction films". Film critic Roger Ebert described "Sphere" as "a watered-down take on the sci-fi classic "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem, which was made into an immeasurably better film by Andrei Tarkovsky".


title: Sphere (novel)

text: Reviews were mostly positive for the novel in contrast to its film adaptation. For example, "The New York Times" Robin McKinley wrote, "Part of the fun of "Sphere" is that it keeps you going even when you're pretty sure of what will happen next."


title: Marie Newman

text: Marie Newman (née Klassen; born April 13, 1964) is an American politician and marketing consultant serving as the U.S. representative from Illinois's 3rd congressional district since 2021. The district encompasses parts of southwestern Chicago as well as many of its nearby suburbs, such as Oak Lawn, Western Springs, and Lockport. Newman was elected to the United States House of Representatives as the Democratic nominee, after her narrow defeat of incumbent Dan Lipinski in the 2020 primary election. She lost to Lipinski in the Democratic primary for the same seat in 2018.


title: Marie Newman

text: Due to redistricting as a result of the 2020 United States Census, Newman in 2022 faced a choice between running in a heavily Hispanic district she had been drawn into, or against Sean Casten in a district with the "lion's share" of her former area. Newman opted to run against Casten in the Democratic primary but was defeated.


title: Marie Newman

text: Newman was born Marie Klassen in Evergreen Park, Illinois, on April 13, 1964, at the Little Company of Mary Hospital. She attended Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park. After attending Marquette University for a year and a half, she transferred to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree.


title: Marie Newman

text: Newman worked for multiple firms as an agency executive. She began her own consulting firm in 2005. She also established her own nonprofit to combat bullying after one of her children was bullied. Governor Pat Quinn appointed her to a regional anti-bullying task force and Sears Holdings Corporation asked her to establish a national anti-bullying coalition of 70 nonprofit organizations.


title: Marie Newman

text: Newman has worked on several Democratic campaigns for public office. Between 2015 and 2017 she lobbied for gun control measures such as background checks.


title: Marie Newman

text: Newman supported Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary in Illinois and Hillary Clinton in the November general election. The day after Clinton lost, she applied to the Illinois Women's Institute for Leadership. By January 1, 2017, Newman had closed her business to turn her attention to politics full-time.


title: Marie Newman

text: On April 10, 2017, Newman declared her candidacy for Illinois's 3rd congressional district, challenging Democratic incumbent Dan Lipinski, a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, who had held the seat since 2005, succeeding his father, who held it for 22 years. Newman ran to Lipinski's left, and was endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Planned Parenthood, EMILY's List, the SEIU state council, National Nurses United, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the Feminist Majority Foundation, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Democracy for America, MoveOn, and Our Revolution, and several Democratic members of Congress, including Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Representatives Luis Gutiérrez and Jan Schakowsky, both Illinois Democrats. Lipinski defeated Newman with 51.2% of the vote to her 48.8%.


title: Marie Newman

text: Newman ran against Lipinski again in the 2020 Democratic primary. She received endorsements from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and presidential candidates Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. The race had special significance for progressive women's groups after other candidates they supported lost primary races earlier in March in Texas and the principal women candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination had ended their campaigns.


title: Marie Newman

text: On March 17, 2020, Newman narrowly defeated Lipinski in the Democratic primary with 47.26% of the vote to his 44.72%. Her victory ended the Lipinski family's 38-year hold on the district. Bill Lipinski won the seat in 1983, when it was numbered as the 5th district (it has been the 3rd since 1993), and handed it to Dan in 2005.


title: Marie Newman

text: On November 3, Newman won the general election, defeating Republican Will County Supervisor Mike Fricilone. With 88% of the vote counted, she led by about 30,000 votes, and had received about 55% of the vote.


title: Marie Newman

text: In October 2021, Democrats in the Illinois legislature passed a new congressional map that radically changed Newman's district. The map placed Newman's home into a district with Representative Jesús "Chuy" García, who represents a majority-Hispanic district. Newman announced that she would run in the redrawn 6th District, which overlaps her original district. She thus challenged incumbent Representative Sean Casten in the 2022 Democratic primary. In the redrawn 6th district, 41% of voters are from Newman's former district and 23% are from Casten's former district, according to calculations by Daily Kos. On June 28, 2022, Newman lost the primary to Casten.


title: Marie Newman

text: In November 2021, Newman voted for the Build Back Better Act, which passed the House of Representatives.


title: Marie Newman

text: In 2021, the House Ethics Committee launched an investigation into Newman after she admitted to having signed a contract promising Iymen Chehade, a pro-Palestinian activist and potential primary opponent, a job in her congressional office in exchange for Chehade's not entering the primary; the contract also stipulated that Newman adopt several policy positions with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.


title: Marie Newman

text: Federal Elections Commission filings show that Newman hired Chehade as a foreign policy advisor through her campaign, paying him $54,000 since the second half of 2021, more than twice what other employees working similar jobs were paid; Chehade was Newman's highest-paid employee. In her contract with him, Newman also agreed to adopt specific stances with respect to BDS-related legislation and aid to Israel, and to refuse to work with a number of pro-Israel organizations, such as the Jewish National Fund.


title: Marie Newman

text: On October 15, 2021, the Office of Congressional Ethics voted unanimously that there was reason to believe that Newman's agreement with Chehade constituted a de facto bribe and to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee. Newman's representatives responded that Newman "cooperate[d] completely with the review" but that the OCE had "prejudged the matter from the beginning".


title: Marie Newman

text: On February 3, 2022, FACT filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission on the grounds that Newman's continued payments to Chehade, a witness in the Congressional investigations, interfered with the investigation. Newman denied wrongdoing, calling the complaint politically motivated; CREW said that the continued payments raised "serious ethics questions".


title: Marie Newman

text: In the course of the investigation, it was revealed that Newman had made a similar contract guaranteeing a job to another person, Shadin Maali, who had previously conducted political outreach for Chehade.


title: Marie Newman

text: Newman represents what has long been the most conservative district of the eight that divide Chicago. Described as "ancestrally Democratic, culturally conservative, multiethnic and viscerally patriotic", the 3rd is the only Chicago-based district with a Cook Partisan Voting Index lower than D+15. Newman identifies as a progressive Democrat. She supports abortion rights, gun control, a $15 minimum wage, and a Green New Deal. Her campaigns were supported by Justice Democrats, an organization that funds progressive candidates, in both 2018 and 2020. The Sunrise Movement supported her campaign in 2020.


title: Marie Newman

text: Newman also supports the Equality Act, saying, "Without the Equality Act, this nation will never live up to its principles of freedom and equality." She says that she entered politics to make the world a better place for her transgender daughter. After Republican freshman Marjorie Taylor Greene attacked the bill as "disgusting, immoral, and evil" on the House floor, Newman hung a Transgender Pride flag outside her Washington office, which is directly across from Greene's.


title: Marie Newman

text: Newman was one of eight Democrats to vote against the funding of the Iron Dome in Israel. An ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation into an alleged bribe revealed that Newman had signed a contract agreeing to take specific positions with respect to foreign aid to Israel; Newman has called the investigation "politically motivated" and "completely meritless".


title: Marie Newman

text: Newman lives in La Grange, west of Chicago, with her husband, Jim. They married in 1996 and have two children.


title: Marie Newman

text: Newman's daughter is transgender, and Newman has spoken about how the lack of support for transgender people influenced her to run for office.


title: Ethiopian eunuch

text: The Ethiopian eunuch () is a figure in the New Testament of the Bible; the story of his conversion to Christianity is recounted in Acts 8.


title: Ethiopian eunuch

text: Philip the Evangelist was told by an angel to go to the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, and there he encountered the Ethiopian eunuch, the treasurer of the Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians (Ancient Greek: Κανδάκη, the "Candace" was the Meroitic language term for "queen" or possibly "royal woman"). The eunuch had been to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home. Sitting in his chariot, he was reading the Book of Isaiah, specifically . Philip asked the Ethiopian, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He said he did not ("How can I understand unless I have a teacher to teach me?"), and asked Philip to explain the text to him. Philip told him the Gospel of Jesus, and the Ethiopian asked to be baptized. They went down into a water source, traditionally thought to be the "Dhirweh fountain" near Halhul,<ref name="Conder 1879 https://archive.org/stream/tentworkinpalest02conduoft#page/76/mode/1up 76"></ref> and Philip baptized him.


title: Ethiopian eunuch

text: In the King James Version and the Catholic Douay-Rheims Version, the Ethiopian says, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" (verse 37), but this is omitted in most modern versions. D.A. Hubbard suggests that confession is "not supported in the better manuscripts [i.e. the Alexandrian text-type])", although the Ethiopian is still "one of the outstanding converts in Acts."


title: Ethiopian eunuch

text: After this, Philip was suddenly taken away by the Spirit of the Lord, and the eunuch "went on his way rejoicing" (verse 39).


title: Ethiopian eunuch

text: Church Father St. Irenaeus of Lyons in his book "Adversus haereses" ("Against the Heresies", an early anti-Gnostic theological work) 3:12:8 (180 AD), wrote regarding the Ethiopian eunuch, "This man (Simeon Bachos the Eunuch) was also sent into the regions of Ethiopia, to preach what he had himself believed, that there was one God preached by the prophets, but that the Son of this (God) had already made (His) appearance in human flesh, and had been led as a sheep to the slaughter; and all the other statements which the prophets made regarding Him." In Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo tradition he was referred to as Bachos and is known as an Ethiopian Jew with the name Simeon also called the Black, a name used in .


title: Ethiopian eunuch

text: One of the traditional sites of the baptism is the Ein Hanya Spring. Others place the traditional site of baptism at the "Dhirweh fountain", near Halhul.


title: Ethiopian eunuch

text: The Ethiopian eunuch's religion of origin is significant because of the subsequent implications of his conversion to Christianity. There are many competing theories for the eunuch's pre-conversion religious status in relation to Judaism and Christianity.


title: Ethiopian eunuch

text: Modern scholarship tends to place the Ethiopian eunuch in the "intermediate position between Jew and Gentile." Scott Shauf suggests that the "primary point of the story is about carrying the gospel to the end of the earth, not about establishing a mission to Gentiles," and thus Luke "does not bring the Gentile status of the Ethiopian into the foreground." However, "the suggestion that the eunuch is or at least might be a Gentile in the story, by both his ethnic and possibly physical description" may leave more formative possibility than if he had been explicitly categorized. Ernst Haenchen builds on Ferdinand Christian Baur's work (1792–1860) in concluding that "the author of Acts made the eunuch's religious identity ambiguous intentionally" so as to preserve the tradition that claimed Cornelius as the first Gentile convert as well as the tradition that claimed the Ethiopian Eunuch as the first Gentile convert.


title: Ethiopian eunuch

text: Commentators generally suggest that the combination of "eunuch" together with the title "court official" indicates a literal eunuch, who would have been excluded from the Temple by the restriction in Deuteronomy 23:1. Some scholars point out that eunuchs were excluded from Jewish worship and extend the New Testament's inclusion of these men to other sexual minorities; gay Catholic priest John J. McNeill, citing non-literal uses of "eunuch" in other New Testament passages such as , writes that he likes to think of the eunuch as "the first baptized gay Christian," while Jack Rogers writes that "the fact that the first Gentile convert to Christianity is from a sexual minority and a different race, ethnicity and nationality together" calls Christians to be radically inclusive and welcoming.


title: Ethiopian eunuch

text: "Candace" was the name given in Greco-Roman historiography to all the female rulers or consorts of the Kingdom of Kush (now part of Sudan). The capital city was Meroë, and the title of "Candace" derives from a Meroitic word, "kdke", that referred to any royal woman. "Ethiopian" was a Greek term for black-skinned peoples generally, often applied to Kush (which was well known to the Hebrews and often mentioned in the Hebrew Bible). The eunuch was not from the land today known as Ethiopia, which corresponds to the ancient Kingdom of Aksum, which conquered Kush in the fourth century. The first writer to call it Ethiopia was Philostorgius around 440.


title: Ethiopian eunuch

text: Some scholars, such as Frank M. Snowden, Jr., interpret the story as emphasizing that early Christian communities accepted members regardless of race: "Ethiopians were the yardstick by which antiquity measured colored peoples." Others, such as Clarice Martin, write that it is a commentary on the religion rather than on its adherents, showing Christianity's geographical extent; Gay L. Byron goes further, saying, "The Ethiopian eunuch was used by Luke to indicate that salvation could extend even to Ethiopians and Blacks." David Tuesday Adamo suggests that the word used here (Αίθίοψ, "aithiops") is best translated simply as "African."


title: Ethiopian eunuch

text: C. K. Barrett contrasts the Ethiopian eunuch's story with that of Cornelius the Centurion, another convert. He notes that while the Ethiopian continues on his journey home and passes out of the narrative, Cornelius and his followers form another church in Judea, and speculates that this reflects a desire to focus on Peter rather than Philip. Robert O'Toole argues that the way Philip is taken away parallels the way Jesus disappears after he has been talking to the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24.


title: Ethiopian eunuch

text: There are literary parallels between the story of the Ethiopian eunuch in "Acts" and that of Ebed-Melech, an Ethiopian eunuch in the "Book of Jeremiah".


title: Garden gnome

text: Garden gnomes () are lawn ornament figurines of small humanoid creatures based on the mythological creature and diminutive spirit which occur in Renaissance magic and alchemy, known as gnomes. They also draw on the German folklore of the dwarf.


title: Garden gnome

text: Traditionally, the garden figurines depict male dwarfs wearing red pointy hats. Typically, gnomes stand between . Originating as a decoration for the wealthy in Europe, garden gnomes are now prevalent in gardens and lawns throughout the Western world, among all social classes. They are regarded by some as kitsch.


title: Garden gnome

text: In ancient Rome, small stone statues depicting the Greco-Roman fertility god Priapus, also a protector of beehives, flocks, and vineyards, were frequently placed in Roman gardens. Gnomes as magical creatures were first described during the Renaissance period by Swiss alchemist Paracelsus as "diminutive figures two spans in height who did not like to mix with humans". During this period, stone "grotesques", which were typically garishly painted, figurines, were commonly placed in the gardens of the wealthy. Among the figures depicted were ' (Italian for hunchbacks). In particular, Jacques Callot produced 21 versions of ', which he engraved and printed in 1616.


title: Garden gnome

text: By the late 1700s, gnome-like statues made of wood or porcelain called "gnomes" became popular household decorations. The area surrounding town of Brienz in Switzerland was known for their production of wooden house dwarfs. In Germany, these garden figurines became conflated with their traditional stories and superstitions about the "little folk" or dwarfs that they believed helped around the mines and on the farm. The Dresden company Baehr and Maresch had small ceramic statues of dwarfs or "little folk" in stock as early as 1841, and although the claim has been contested, some credit Baehr and Maresch with the first garden dwarfs ().


title: Garden gnome

text: Within less than 10 years, statues of dwarfs had spread from the provinces of Saxony and Thuringia across Germany to France and, in 1847, Sir Charles Isham, brought 21 terracotta gnomes manufactured in Germany by Philip Griebel back to Britain where they were called "gnomes" in English and placed in the gardens of Isham's home, Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire. Nicknamed "Lampy", the only gnome of the original batch to survive is on display at Lamport Hall and insured for .


title: Garden gnome

text: The manufacture of gnomes spread across Germany, with numerous other large and small manufacturers coming in and out of the business, each having its own particular style of design. From around 1860 onwards, many statues were made in Gräfenroda, a town in Thuringia known for its ceramics.


title: Garden gnome

text: Garden gnomes spread to other countries in Europe in the 1840s and became particularly popular in France and Britain. Use of the term "garden gnome" may originate from fact that German catalogues sold ornaments of dwarfs under the name "gnomen-figuren", meaning miniature figurines.


title: Garden gnome

text: Garden gnomes were further popularized when Sir Frank Crisp, the owner of the second largest collection of garden gnomes in the UK, opened his Friar Park, Henley-on-Thames estate to the public at least once a week from 1910 to 1919. It was here where garden enthusiasts and visitors from around the world perhaps saw garden gnomes for the first time.


title: Garden gnome

text: The reputation of German gnomes declined after World War I, but they became popular again in the 1930s following Disney's animated film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", when more working-class people were able to purchase them. Tom Major-Ball (father of former British prime minister John Major) was the most notable producer at that time with his company Major's Garden Ornaments. World War II and the years following saw a decline in the industry, causing most producers to halt their manufacture.


title: Garden gnome

text: Garden gnomes saw a resurgence in popularity again in the 1970s with the creation of more humorous types of gnomes. In the 1990s travelling gnome and garden gnome pranks became popular and made national news at times, where people steal a garden gnome from an unknowing person's lawn and then send the owner photos of the gnome as a practical joke before returning it.


title: Garden gnome

text: Philip Griebel's descendants are still producing garden gnomes in Germany. , there were an estimated 25 million garden gnomes in Germany. A recent trend has introduced miniature gnomes of only a few inches in height.


title: Garden gnome

text: Garden gnomes are typically male, often bearded, usually wear red phrygian caps and often have pipes. They are often shown pursuing leisurely pastimes such as fishing or napping.


title: Garden gnome

text: Gnomes may be made from terracotta clay slip (runny clay) poured into molds. This is allowed to set up and the excess emptied from the centre, leaving a clay shell. The gnome is removed from the mold when firm, allowed to dry and then fired in a kiln until hard. Once cooled, the gnome is painted. More modern gnomes are made from resins and similar materials.


title: Garden gnome

text: Today, many different variations of garden gnomes exist, including humorous ones ranging from the lighthearted biker or barbecuing gnome, to the more dark, such as one stabbed in the back or wearing an executioner's hood.


title: Garden gnome

text: Gnomes have become controversial in serious gardening circles in the UK, and were for a time banned from the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show, as the organisers claimed that they detract from the garden designs. Gnome enthusiasts accused the organisers of snobbery, as garden gnomes are popular in the gardens of working class and suburban households. The ban was lifted during 2013 to mark the show's centenary.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. is an Italian international banking group. It is Italy's largest bank by total assets and the world's 27th largest. It was formed through the merger of Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI in 2007, but has a corporate identity stretching back to its first foundation as Istituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino in 1583.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: In 2020 the bank served approximately 14.6 million customers in Italy and 7.2 million customers in Eastern and Central Europe, the Middle East and North Africa through several brands such as CIB Bank, VÚB Banka and Bank of Alexandria.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: By 2010 its assets had grown to US$877.66 billion, ranking 26th in "Forbes Global 2000". The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI, the two banks that merged in 2007 to create Intesa Sanpaolo, were themselves the product of many mergers. Cariplo and Banco Ambrosiano Veneto merged in 1998 to form Banca Intesa. The following year Banca Commerciale Italiana joined the group. Sanpaolo IMI was born in 1998 following the merger of Istituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino, which specialized in retail banking, and IMI (Istituto Mobiliare Italiano), an investment bank.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: The oldest part of the banking group is Cariplo Sp.A. which traces its roots to the Austrian Empire household savings bank Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde which was established in 1823 in Milan. The "cassa di risparmio" was started by an Italian philanthropic group, the Central Committee of Charity; a response by the government to the hard economic times of the early 19th century. In the early 20th century the bank helped Italian companies in the North obtain capital during and after World Wars 1 and 2, chiefly under the guidance of Giordano Dell'Amore. Banking reforms in 1990 started by Giuliano Amato (Amato Law; ) led to the restructuring/reorganization of banks by forcing the government to relinquish control of them (the result was a more market-driven bank that focused less on social programs/social causes were abandoned).


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: Cariplo SpA was formed in 1991 when Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde (sold by Ente Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde ) merged with its subsidiary IBI. Banco Ambrosiano Veneto originated with Nuovo Banco Ambrosiano and Banca Cattolica del Veneto which merged in 1989. The bank increased in size during the 1990s due to numerous acquisitions (Citibank Italia, Banca Vallone di Galatina and European securities dealer Caboto among others).


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) started in 1894 as a corporate loans lender operating in the commercial industry of Northern Italy. In 1994 Mediobanca purchased an interest in BCI (ironically BCI was one of the 3 banks that formed Mediobanca almost 50 years earlier). BCI tried to acquire Banco Ambrosiano Veneto the same year but was spurned by shareholders who wouldn't accept the US$1.13 billion offer. In 1999 Italy's largest bank Unicredit Group at the time, attempted a hostile takeover of BCI but failed due to Mediobanca's interest in the company (Mediobanca wanted to merge Banca di Roma with BCI). BCI merged with the former Banca Ambrosiano and Cariplo in 1998 to form a financial institution renamed Banca Intesa in 2003.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: Sanpaolo IMI was formed in 1998 when Istituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino (founded in 1563) and Istituto Mobiliare Italiano (IMI) merged, (IMI itself was established in 1931) in a US 37.8 billion dollar deal.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: In January 2007, Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI, two of the three largest bank of Italy, officially merged.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: As part of the authorization of the merger, the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) forbid Intesa Sanpaolo to open any new branches for two years in the provinces of Udine and Gorizia (Friuli – Venezia Giulia region), provinces of Rovigo and Padua (Veneto region), Aosta Valley, provinces of Biella and Alessandria (Piedmont region), Province of Bolzano (South Tyrol), Province of Bologna (Emilia-Romagna region), Province of Pavia (Lombardy region), Province of Naples (Campania region), Province of Imperia (Liguria region), provinces of Sassari and Cagliari (Sardinia Island), Province of Rieti (Lazio region), province of Terni (Umbria region), Province of Pesaro-Urbino (Marche region), Province of Pescara (Abruzzo region) and Province of Catanzaro (Calabria region).


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: The French banking group Crédit Agricole started to spin off from Intesa Sanpaolo, by acquiring Cariparma, FriulAdria in 2007 and Carispezia in 2011, as well as branches from Intesa Sanpaolo. In 2012, Crédit Agricole sold all the shares of Intesa Sanpaolo.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: In December 2007, Cassa di Risparmio di Biella e Vercelli was also sold to Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena for €399 million.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: In 2008, Intesa Sanpaolo acquired Banca CR Firenze. In December 2008, Cassa di Risparmio di Fano was sold to Credito Valtellinese.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: In 2009, group acquisitions included a 30% interest in business info company MF Honyvem, and an increased stake in Alitalia – Compagnia Aerea Italiana up to 33.3% Even though the bank was rumoured to have been working with the government to keep Air France from acquiring a stake in Alitalia, Air France eventually acquired 25%. Alitalia – Compagnia Aerea Italiana sold part of its stake in the airline to Etihad Airways in 2015.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: From 2012 to 2013, Intesa Sanpaolo wrote down the value of the investment in Banca delle Marche (a minority interest of 5.84% share capital) for a total of €90 million (€18 + 72 million), as well as €26 million for a minority stake in Cassa di Risparmio della Provincia di Chieti in 2014. The shareholders of the banks were bail-in in the rescue plan in 2015.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: In 2014, Cassa di Risparmio di Venezia and Banca di Credito Sardo were absorbed into Intesa Sanpaolo. The 2014–17 business plan of the bank stated that the banking group would simplify their legal structure.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: In 2015, local banks Banca Monte Parma, Banca di Trento e Bolzano, Cassa di Risparmio di Civitavecchia, Cassa di Risparmio di Rieti and Cassa di Risparmio della Provincia di Viterbo were absorbed into Intesa Sanpaolo. Banca dell'Adriatico and Casse di Risparmio dell'Umbria were planned to be absorb by Intesa Sanpaolo in mid-2016. A unified website was also used for the remaining retail banks of the group in 2016.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: In 2016–17, the banking group also sold their non-core businesses, such as the 0.49% ordinary shares of Visa Europe in cash plus share deal; Intesa Sanapolo Card and subsidiary Setefi to Mercury (the parent company of Istituto Centrale delle Banche Popolari Italiane) for €1.035 billion and 4.88% shares of Bank of Italy to the bank's shareholders Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione Cariplo and the pension funds of the group for €366 million.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: On 26 June 2017, as part of a government-funded bailout of the depositors (and the bail-in of the investors of the failed banks), Intesa Sanpaolo acquired the good assets of Banca Popolare di Vicenza (BPVi) and Veneto Banca, including some of the subsidiaries such as Banca Apulia and Banca Nuova. The branches of BPVi and Veneto Banca would at first became branches of Intesa Sanpaolo, but some of them would be closed down in the near future for efficiency, as Intesa Sanpaolo was also one of the major banks in the Veneto region which the failed banks based. In October 2017, the plan to absorb Banca Nuova into Intesa Sanpaolo was also announced. In December 2017, the plan to absorb Cassa di Risparmio del Friuli Venezia Giulia was announced.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: On 6 February 2018, 10 further mergers were announced in the 2018–2021 business plan: Banco di Napoli. Banca CR Firenze, CR Pistoia e della Lucchesia, CR Veneto, Carisbo, Cariromagna, Banca Apulia, Banca IMI, Banca Prossima and Mediocredito Italiano.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: On 17 February 2020, Carlo Messina unexpectedly announced the launch of a voluntary OPS (public exchange offer) for 4.9 billion euro towards UBI Banca which provided for the delivery of 17 Intesa Sanpaolo shares for every 10 UBI Banca shares newly issued with a premium of 27.6% compared to the stock market listing on Friday 14 February. In addition, on 27 April 2020 Intesa, which has access to three million UBI customers, obtained from the extraordinary shareholders' meeting the approval of a capital increase in support of the takeover bid.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: The operation is complex as, to prevent possible problems with the Antitrust Authority, it involves other companies. UnipolSai has already reached an agreement to take over the business branches of the insurance companies Banca Assurance Popolari, Lombardia Vita and Aviva Italia, owned by UBI. The Bolognese insurance group supported the share capital increase of 802.26 million euros of BPER Banca, the Emilian bank of which it is the first shareholder with 19.9%. In turn, BPER has already signed a contract with Intesa which provides for the purchase of 532 UBI branches with approximately 1.2 million customers, of which approximately half in Lombardy. In July 2020, the antitrust authority ordered Intesa to sell as many of its own branches, in the event that the public subscription offer does not reach 67% of the shares. The transaction, which obtained the approval of the various Italian and European authorities, led to the delisting of UBI and provides for the merger between the two banks.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: The sale is scheduled for the end of 2020, with the aim of closing the financial statements in April 2021, presenting a credit institution in seventh place in Europe in terms of size, with a value of assets under management of 1.1 trillion, loans for 460 billion and profits for five. The offer ends on 30 July 2020 with the achievement of 91.0149% of the capital of UBI. Therefore, having exceeded 90% of the share capital, the delisting procedures have begun which have led Intesa Sanpaolo to become the sole shareholder of UBI Banca.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: Intesa is required to complete the sale of 500 agencies within six months of the completion of the merger.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: On 5 October 2020 was announced Intesa Sanpaolo's private bank arm has reached an agreement to buy a 69% in Swiss-based bank REYL & Cie.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: In August 2022, ISP completed the 100 percent acquisition of the Luxembourg private bank CBP Quilvest. The transaction is intended to create a second private banking hub to complement the Swiss one.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: Many shareholders of the group were the former owner (foundation) of the saving banks that were acquired by Intesa and Sanapaolo IMI through shares swap. For example, as of 31 December 2013, Fondazione Carisap (Ascoli) held 0.3537% shares, Fondazione Carisbo (Bologna) held 2.023%, Fondazione Cariparma (Parma, now part of Crédit Agricole Group) held 0.67%, Fondazione Carispezia (La Spezia, now part of Crédit Agricole Group) held 0.25%, Fondazione di Venezia (Venice) held 0.33215%.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: Intesa Sanpaolo has a single-tiered corporate governance system in which the Board of Directors alone are in charge of strategic supervision and control. The latter duty is carried out by the Management Control Committee instead of the Board of Directors itself. The bank adopted this single-tiered system in April 2016, replacing the former two-tiered structure. Previously, the supervisory board exercised control and strategic management functions, whereas the management board oversaw the management of the company's business. The supervisory board was appointed by shareholders in their annual meeting. It supervised the activities carried out by the management board and, in particular, approved the main strategic initiatives proposed by the management board. The management board appointed one of its members to be the CEO.


title: Intesa Sanpaolo

text: In addition to its strong presence in Italy, Intesa Sanpaolo has branches and representative offices around the world. The Group also directly controls many foreign banks especially in Central and Eastern Europe, with around 1,600 branches and about 8.3 million clients operating in retail and commercial banking.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: Anthony Guy Cascarino (born 1 September 1962) is a former professional footballer who played as a striker for various British and French clubs and internationally for the Republic of Ireland national team, with whom he competed in UEFA Euro 1988 and two World Cups in 1990 and 1994.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: Since retirement, he has presented on TalkSPORT radio and written for both "The Times" and Ireland's "Hot Press" magazine. He has worked for both Sky Sports in England and TV3 and Today FM in Ireland. He was a winning participant in the fourth season of the "Celebrity Bainisteoir" reality television series.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: Cascarino was born in St Paul's Cray in South-East London on 1 September 1962 to an Italian father and Irish mother. Prior to his professional football career he worked as a hairdresser and labourer.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: Cascarino joined Gillingham in 1982 from Crockenhill, and according to Cascarino Gillingham donated tracksuits and training equipment to Crockenhill in lieu of a transfer fee. He made his professional debut on 2 February 1982 in a 1–0 away league defeat to Burnley. His first goal for the Kent side came in his home debut on 13 February 1982 against Wimbledon, scoring the last goal in a 6–1 win having replaced an injured Dean White as substitute. Cascarino would later reveal that having not expected to be named in the matchday squad, he had consumed a "double Wimpey and chips and a Knickerbocker Glory" just before kick-off.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: While with the Kent side he scored 110 goals in all competitions, and was named in the PFA Third Division Team of the Year for three successive seasons.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: He went on to play for Millwall - the club he supported as a boy. Millwall had missed an opportunity to sign Cascarino as a youngster and subsequently paid the Gills £225,000 to secure his services.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: Cascarino signed for Aston Villa for £1.1m in March 1990, then a record transfer fee for the club. His time with the Birmingham club was an unhappy one, and in July 1991 he signed for Celtic for a £1.1m fee, which was also a club record. In joining Celtic he was managed by his former agent and Ireland team mate Liam Brady.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: After failing to establish himself with the Glasgow side Cascarino returned to England in February 1992 to sign for Chelsea in a swap deal involving Tom Boyd. Cascarino scored on his debut three days later, a 1–1 league draw at home to Crystal Palace. However, his time with the side was beset by injuries, with him registering only 8 goals over 40 league appearances in two years.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: Cascarino signed for Marseille as a free agent in 1994. He ended as top scorer in the 1994–95 Ligue 2 season with 31 goals as the club won the league title but were prevented from promotion to Ligue 1 due to an ongoing investigation into financial irregularities and match-fixing scandals involving then-president Bernard Tapie. Cascarino, nicknamed ""Tony Goal"" by the Marseille Ultras, repeated the feat the following season, scoring 30 goals as the club were promoted back to Ligue 1.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: In December 1996 he signed for fellow Ligue 1 side Nancy, scoring a hat-trick in his second appearance, a 1–3 away win at Le Havre. The side were relegated to Ligue 2, but Cascarino would win the title and promotion in his first full season with the club the next year. Cascarino holds the Ligue 1 record for oldest player to score a hat-trick, which he did while playing for Nancy in a 3–0 win over Stade Rennais at age 37 years and 31 days. In May 2000 he was awarded the Medaille d'Or by the city of Nancy in recognition of his contribution to the side.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: Cascarino ended his career with Red Star 93 in the third tier of French football, but terminated his contract with the club in August 2000 after just two appearances. He was offered a contract to return to Nancy but refused.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: Cascarino, who was born in England, represented the Republic of Ireland—qualifying through his adopted Irish grandfather, Michael O'Malley, who was from Westport, County Mayo. He was also eligible to play for both Scotland and Italy because of his Scottish and Italian descent.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: He made his international debut against Switzerland in September 1985, during Ireland's ill-fated qualification campaign for the 1986 World Cup. Cascarino would go on to feature for Ireland in three major tournaments: Euro 1988, the 1990 World Cup and the 1994 World Cup.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: His last international game came against Turkey in late 1999, as Ireland failed to reach UEFA Euro 2000. He got into a brawl with a Turkish defender and left the pitch showing the scars of battle. This marked the end of an international career which had spanned 14 years at the highest level.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: In October 2000, Cascarino was the subject of national newspaper headlines when extracts from his upcoming autobiography were published in the "Sunday Mirror".


title: Tony Cascarino

text: In it, he revealed that his mother told him in 1996 that she was adopted and therefore wasn't a blood relative to his Irish grandfather. Cascarino said in his autobiography: "I didn't qualify for Ireland. I was a fraud. A fake Irishman". The FAI's Chief Executive Bernard O'Byrne stated that he was shocked by the announcement and Cascarino's former international manager Jack Charlton questioned why he came forward with the information. Cascarino revealed that Republic of Ireland teammate Andy Townsend had advised him to keep quiet about the situation.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: Four days after the newspaper exclusive, in November 2000, the Football Association of Ireland issued a short statement: "The FAI are satisfied that Tony Cascarino was always eligible to become a citizen of the Republic of Ireland and was, therefore, always eligible to play for Ireland." "The Irish Independent" reported that Cascarino was given a 'passport of restricted validity' in 1985 and that his mother's name, Theresa O'Malley, was in fact entered in the Foreign Births Register in the Department of Foreign Affairs prior to Cascarino's international debut for the Republic of Ireland.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: Since retiring from football, Cascarino has become a semi-professional poker player, having appeared in the television series Celebrity Poker Club and commentating on the PartyPoker Poker Den. He has become something of a cult figure and was referenced in the song "All Your Kayfabe Friends" by Welsh band Los Campesinos! where the singer tells that "You asked if I'd be anyone from history / Fact or fiction, dead or alive / I said I'd be Tony Cascarino, circa 1995."


title: Tony Cascarino

text: Cascarino joined talkSPORT as a pundit in 2002 and presented the afternoon Drive Time show with Patrick Kinghorn between 2003-2005. He was involved in an on-air bust-up with Kinghorn after the latter remarked that the married Cascarino had been "chasing that 21-year-old around the office", which prompted Cascarino to lunge at Kinghorn and punch him. The pair had to be pulled apart by production staff. Cascarino left the station in 2005 but soon returned as a pundit and has co-presented the Weekend Sports Breakfast since 2016.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: In 2011, he was a winning participant in the "Celebrity Bainisteoir" reality series. Managing Killeshin GAA Club of County Laois, Cascarino's club won the season 4 competition, beating Paul Gogarty's Oughterard team after extra-time in the final.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: Cascarino entered into a relationship with his third wife, Jo, in 2009 and their son, Rocco, was born in 2015; they married in Mauritius in November 2019.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: The twin France women's national football team players Delphine and Estelle Cascarino are not related to Tony Cascarino, although they are often asked if they are: "I am often asked if I am from his family, that is not the case... I know that he notably played for Nancy and that he is Irish. Me, I'm not Irish at all! (laughs)"


title: Tony Cascarino

text: On 9th September 2022, it was reported that Tony Cascarino had thrown a Chinese takeaway into a rubbish bin, as a mark of respect, upon hearing the news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The news went viral, before being debunked by various media outlets as a joke originating on Twitter.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: Cascarino produced an autobiography in 2000, "Full Time: The Secret Life of Tony Cascarino", which received great critical acclaim.


title: Tony Cascarino

text: The book detailed his love of gambling, particularly playing all forms of poker, and revealed that his career had been blighted by crippling self-doubt, which he summarised as the "little voice". The book also candidly refers to his shame over his infidelities and of leaving his wife, Sarah and two sons, Michael and Teddy (who was named after Cascarino's former Millwall teammate Teddy Sheringham) and muses: "...maybe, just maybe, I was so wrapped up in my newfound celebrity that I'd become immune to the suffering I was causing".


title: Tony Cascarino

text: He also revealed that during his time at Marseille, he and many other of the club's players were injected by club president Bernard Tapie's personal physician with an unknown substance. The physiotherapist at the time insisted the substance was legal and would provide an "adrenaline boost". Cascarino claimed that most players accepted the injections and that "it definitely made a difference: I felt sharper, more energetic, hungrier for the ball". He also later admitted suffering from depression.


title: Europa (1991 film)

text: Europa (known as Zentropa in North America) is a 1991 experimental psychological drama anti-war film directed by Lars von Trier. It is von Trier's third theatrical feature film and the final film in his Europa trilogy following "The Element of Crime" (1984) and "Epidemic" (1987).


title: Europa (1991 film)

text: The film features an international ensemble cast, including Germans Barbara Sukowa and Udo Kier, expatriate American Eddie Constantine, and Swedes Max von Sydow and Ernst-Hugo Järegård. This was German-born French-American Jean-Marc Barr's first collaboration with von Trier.


title: Europa (1991 film)

text: "Europa" was influenced by Franz Kafka's "Amerika", and the title was chosen "as an echo" of that novel.


title: Europa (1991 film)

text: A young, idealistic American hopes to "show some kindness" to the German people soon after the end of World War II. In US-occupied Germany, he takes on work as a sleeping-car conductor for the Zentropa railway network, falls in love with a "femme fatale", and becomes embroiled in a pro-Nazi terrorist conspiracy.


title: Europa (1991 film)

text: "Europa" employs an experimental style of cinema, combining largely black and white visuals with occasional intrusions of colour, having actors interact with rear-projected footage, and layering different images over one another to surreal effect. The voice-over narration uses an unconventional second-person narrative imitative of a hypnotist (e.g. "On the count of ten, you will be in Europa.").


title: Europa (1991 film)

text: The film's characters, music, dialogue, and plot are self-consciously melodramatic and ironically imitative of film noir conventions.


title: Europa (1991 film)

text: The film was shot throughout Poland (Chojna Cathedral (Marienkirche) and the Chojna Roundhouse) and in Denmark (Nordisk Film studios, Copenhagen and the Copenhagen Dansk Hydraulisk Institut)


title: Europa (1991 film)

text: Von Trier's production company, Zentropa Entertainments, is named after the sinister railway network featured in this film, which is in turn named after the real-life train company Mitropa.


title: Europa (1991 film)

text: The film received largely positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an 85% score based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10.


title: Europa (1991 film)

text: The film won three awards at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival (Best Artistic Contribution, Jury Prize, and Technical Grand Prize). Upon realizing that he had not won the Palme d'Or, von Trier gave the judges the finger and stormed out of the venue.


title: Europa (1991 film)

text: The Criterion Collection released the film on DVD in 2008. The package contained several documentaries on the film and an audio commentary by von Trier.


title: CD-i

text: The Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-I, later CD-i) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was mostly developed and marketed by Dutch company Philips. It was created as an extension of CDDA and CD-ROM and specified in the "Green Book", co-developed by Philips and Sony, to combine audio, text and graphics. The two companies initially expected to impact the education/training, point of sale, and home entertainment industries, but CD-i eventually became best known for its video games.


title: CD-i

text: CD-i media physically have the same dimensions as CD, but with up to of digital data storage, including up to 72 minutes of full motion video. CD-i players were usually standalone boxes that connect to a standard television; some less common setups included integrated CD-i television sets and expansion modules for personal computers. Most players were created by Philips; the format was licensed by Philips and Microware for use by other manufacturers, notably Sony who released professional CD-i players under the "Intelligent Discman" brand. Unlike CD-ROM drives, CD-i players are complete computer systems centered around dedicated Motorola 68000-based microprocessors and its own operating system called CD-RTOS, which is an acronym for ""Compact Disc – Real Time Operating System"".


title: CD-i

text: Media released on the format included video games and "edutainment" and multimedia reference titles, such as interactive encyclopedias and museum tours – which were popular before public Internet access was widespread – as well as business software. Philips's CD-i system also implemented Internet features, including subscriptions, web browsing, downloading, e-mail, and online play. Philips's aim with its players was to introduce interactive multimedia content for the general public by combining features of a CD player and game console, but at a lower price than a personal computer with a CD-ROM drive.


title: CD-i

text: Authoring kits for the format were released first in 1988, and the first player aimed for home consumers, Philips's CDI 910/205, at the end of 1991, initially priced around , and capable of playing interactive CD-i discs, Audio CDs, CD+G (CD+Graphics), Photo CDs and Video CDs (VCDs), though the latter required an optional "Digital Video Card" to provide MPEG-1 decoding. Initially marketed to consumers as "home entertainment systems", and in later years as a "gaming platform", CD-i did not manage to find enough success in the market, and was mostly abandoned by Philips in 1996. The format continued to be supported for licensees for a few more years after.


title: CD-i

text: Development of the "Compact Disc-Interactive" format began in 1984 (two years after the launch of Compact Disc) and it was first publicly announced by Philips and Sony – two of the largest electronics companies of the time – at Microsoft's CD-ROM Conference in Seattle in March 1986. Microsoft's CEO Bill Gates had no idea beforehand that the format was under development. The "Green Book", formally known as the "CD-i Full Functional Specification", defined the format for interactive, multimedia compact discs designed for CD-i players. The "Green Book" specification also defines a whole hardware set built around the Motorola 68000 microprocessor family, and an operating system called CD-RTOS based on OS-9, a product of Microware. The standard was originally not freely available and had to be licensed from Philips. However, the 1994 version of the standard was eventually made available free by Philips.


title: CD-i

text: CD-i discs conform to the "Red Book" specification of audio CDs (CD-DA). Tracks on a CD-i's program area can be CD-DA tracks or CD-i tracks, but the first track must always be a CD-i track, and all CD-i tracks must be grouped together at the beginning of the area. CD-i tracks are structured according to the CD-ROM XA specification (using either Mode 2 Form 1 or Mode 2 Form 2 modes), and have different classes depending on their contents ("data", "video", "audio", "empty" and "message"). "Message" sectors contain audio data to warn users of CD players that the track they are trying to listen to is a CD-i track and not a CD-DA track. The CD-i specification also specifies a file system similar to (but not compatible with) ISO 9660 to be used on CD-i tracks, as well as certain specific files that are required to be present in a CD-i compatible disc. Compared to the "Yellow Book" (specification for CD-ROM), the "Green Book" CD-i standard solves synchronisation problems by interleaving audio and video information on a single track.


title: CD-i

text: The format quickly gained interest from large manufacturers, and received backing from many particularly Matsushita. Although a joint effort, Philips eventually took over the majority of CD-i development at the expense of Sony. Philips invested many millions in developing titles and players based on the CD-i specification. Initially branded "CD-I", the name was changed in 1991 to "CD-i" with a lowercase i.


title: CD-i

text: The CD-i Ready format is a type of bridge format, also designed by Philips, that defines discs compatible with CD Digital audio players and CD-i players. This format puts CD-i software and data into the pregap of Track 1.


title: CD-i

text: The CD-i Bridge format, defined in Philips' White Book, is a transitional format allowing bridge discs to be played both on CD-ROM drives and on CD-i players.


title: CD-i

text: The CD-i Digital Video format was launched in 1993 containing movies that could be played on CD-i players with a Digital Video Cartridge add-on. The format was incompatible with Video CD (VCD), although a CD-i unit with the DVC could play both formats. Only about 20 movies were released on the format and it was stopped in 1994 in favor of VCD.


title: CD-i

text: Applications were developed using authoring software produced by OptImage. This included OptImage's Balboa Runtime Libraries and MediaMogul. The second company that produced authoring software was Script Systems; they produced ABCD-I. Much of the CD-i software were promoted and/or published by American Interactive Media (AIM), a joint venture between Philips and its subsidiary PolyGram formed in Los Angeles in 1986, before its public debut, to publish CD-i based consumer software. Similarly in Europe, Philips Interactive Media was launched.


title: CD-i

text: Philips at first marketed CD-i as a family entertainment product, and avoided mentioning video games to not compete against game consoles. Early software releases focused heavily on educational, music, and self-improvement titles, with only a few games, many of them adaptations of board games such as "Connect Four". However, the system was handily beaten in the market for multimedia devices by cheap low-end PCs, and the games were the best-selling software. By 1993 Philips encouraged MS-DOS and console developers to create games, introduced a $250 peripheral with more memory and support for full-motion video, and added to new consoles a second controller port for multiplayer games.


title: CD-i

text: The attempts to develop a foothold in the games market were unsuccessful, as the system was designed strictly as a multimedia player and thus was under-powered compared to other gaming platforms on the market in most respects. Earlier CD-i games included entries in popular Nintendo franchises, although those games were not developed by Nintendo. Specifically, a "Mario" game (titled "Hotel Mario"), and three "Legend of Zelda" games that are now infamous were released: "", "" and "Zelda's Adventure". Nintendo and Philips had established an agreement to co-develop a CD-ROM enhancement for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System due to licensing disagreements with Nintendo's previous partner Sony (an agreement that produced a prototype console called the SNES-CD). While Philips and Nintendo never released such a CD-ROM add-on, Philips was still contractually allowed to continue using Nintendo characters.


title: CD-i

text: As announced at CES 1992, large number of full motion video titles such as "Dragon's Lair" and "Mad Dog McCree" appeared on the system. One of these, "", is considered one of the stronger CD-i titles and was later ported to PC. The February 1994 issue of "Electronic Gaming Monthly" remarked that the CD-i's full motion video capabilities were its strongest point, and that nearly all of its best software required the MPEG upgrade card.


title: CD-i

text: Philips also released several versions of popular TV game shows for the CD-i, including versions of "Jeopardy!" (hosted by Alex Trebek), "Name That Tune" (hosted by Bob Goen), and two versions of "The Joker's Wild" (one for adults hosted by Wink Martindale and one for kids hosted by Marc Summers). All CD-i games in North America (with the exception of "Name That Tune") had Charlie O'Donnell as announcer. The Netherlands also released its version of "Lingo" on the CD-i in 1994.


title: CD-i

text: In 1993, American musician Todd Rundgren created the first music-only fully interactive CD, "No World Order", for the CD-i. This application allows the user to completely arrange the whole album in their own personal way with over 15,000 points of customization. Dutch eurodance duo 2 Unlimited released a CD-i compilation album in 1994 called "Beyond Limits" which contains standard CD tracks as well as CD-i-exclusive media on the disc.


title: CD-i

text: CD-i has a series of learning games ("edutainment") targeted at children from infancy to adolescence. Those intended for a younger audience included "Busytown", "The Berenstain Bears" and various others which usually had vivid cartoon-like settings accompanied by music and logic puzzles.


title: CD-i

text: By mid-1996 the U.S. market for CD-i software had dried up and Philips had given up on releasing titles there, but continued to publish CD-i games in Europe, where the system still held some popularity from a video gaming perspective. With the home market exhausted, Philips tried with some success to position the technology as a solution for kiosk applications and industrial multimedia.


title: CD-i

text: Some homebrew developers have released video games on the CD-i format in later years, such as "Frog Feast" (2005), "Super Quartet" (2018), and "Nobelia" (2022).


title: CD-i

text: CD-i compatible models were released (as of April 1995) in the U.S., Canada, Benelux, France, Germany, the UK, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and former Eastern Bloc. It was reported to be released further in Brazil, India and Australia in the "coming months", with plans to also introduce it in China, South Africa, Indonesia and the Philippines.


title: CD-i

text: In addition to consumer models, professional and development players were sold by Philips Interactive Media Systems and their VARs. The first CD-i system was produced by Philips in collaboration with Kyocera in 1988 – the Philips 180/181/182 modular system. Philips marketed several CD-i player models as shown below.


title: CD-i

text: There also exist a number of hard-to-categorize models, such as the FW380i, an integrated mini-stereo and CD-i player; the 21TCDi30, a television with a built-in CD-i device; the CD-i/PC 2.0, a CD-i module with an ISA interface for IBM-compatible 486 PCs.


title: CD-i

text: In addition to Philips, several manufacturers produced CD-i players some of which were still on sale years after Philips itself abandoned the format. Manufacturers included:


title: CD-i

text: Before the actual commercial debut of the CD-i format, some other companies had interest in building players and some made prototypes, but were never released – this includes Panasonic (who were originally a major backer of the format), Pioneer, JVC, Toshiba, Epson, Ricoh, Fujitsu, Samsung and Yamaha. In addition, Sanyo showed a prototype portable CD-i player in 1992.


title: CD-i

text: Recognizing the growing need among marketers for networked multimedia, Philips partnered in 1992 with Amsterdam-based CDMATICS to develop TeleCD-i (also TeleCD). In this concept, the CD-i player is connected to a network such as PSTN or Internet, enabling data-communication and rich media presentation. Dutch grocery chain Albert Heijn and mail-order company were early adopters and introduced award-winning TeleCD-i applications for their home-shopping and home-delivery services. CDMATICS also developed the special Philips TeleCD-i Assistant and a set of software tools to help the worldwide multimedia industry to develop and implement TeleCD-i. TeleCD-i is the world's first networked multimedia application at the time of its introduction. In 1996, Philips acquired source code rights from CDMATICS.


title: CD-i

text: Internet services on the CD-i devices were facilitated by the use of an additional hardware modem and "CD-Online" disc (renamed Web-i in the US), which Philips initially released in Britain in 1995 for $150 US. This service provided the CD-i with full internet access (with a 14.4k modem), including online shopping, email, and support for networked multiplayer gaming on select CD-i games. The service required a CD-i player with DV cartridge, and an "Internet Starter Kit" which initially retailed for £99.99. It was advertised as bringing "full Internet access to the living room on TV screens". Andy Stout, a writer for the official CD-i magazine, explained CD-Online: The CD-Online service went live in the UK on October 25, 1995 and in March 1996 in the Netherlands (for 399 guilders), and also released in Belgium. The system was reportedly scheduled to launch in the US as "Web-i" in August 1996. The domain cd-online.co.uk, which was used for the British CD-Online service, went offline in 2000. The Dutch domain cd-online.nl stopped updating too but remained online until 2007.


title: CD-i

text: Only one game was released that supported CD-Online, the first-person shooter game "RAM Raid". Players from any country in the world could compete against each other as long as they had a copy of the game.


title: CD-i

text: Philips had invested heavily in the CD-i format and system, and it was often compared with the Commodore CDTV as a single combination of computer, CD, and television. The product was touted as a single machine for home entertainment connected to a standard TV and controlled by a regular remote control – although the format was noted to have various non-entertainment business opportunities too, such as travel and tourism or the military. In 1990, Peugeot used CD-i for its point of sale application promoting its then-new 605 automobile, and it was also at the time used by fellow car manufacturer Renault for staff training programmes, and in Japan by the Ministry of Trade and Industry for an exhibition there. A Philips executive, Gaston Bastiaens, quoted in 1990 "CD-I will be 'the medium' for entertainment, education and information in the 90's.". Sony introduced its three portable CD-i players in June 1990, pitching them as "picture books with sound".


title: CD-i

text: The ambitious CD-i format had initially created much interest after its 1986 announcement, both in the west and in Japan, buoyed by the success of the CD. However, after repeated delays (hardware were first intended to be ready and shipped by Christmas 1987) interest was slowly lost. Electronic Arts for instance was enthusiastic about CD-i and formed a division for the development of video game titles on the format, but it was eventually halted with the intention of resuming when CD-i players would reach the market. The company eventually never resumed CD-i software development when it was released. The delay also gave more attention to the hyped Digital Video Interactive (DVI) in 1987, which demonstrated full screen, full motion video (FMV) using a compression chip on an IBM PC/AT computer. Amid the attention around its potential rival DVI, Philips and Sony decided to find a way to add full screen FMV abilities to the CD-i standard, causing further delay. Meanwhile, the Microsoft-backed CD-ROM standard was improving and solved certain video playback issues that were present on the CD-i – CD-ROM format products were already on the market by 1987. At the end, CD-ROM standard benefited from the CD-i and DVI mishaps, and by the time CD-i players for consumers were released in 1991, CD-ROM had already become known and established. Ron Gilbert commented in early 1990 "The CD-I specifications look great, but where are the machines? If they'd come out four years ago, they'd have been hot, but now they're behind the times." Another reason that led to fading interest pre-launch was the fact CD-i players would not launch with FMV but instead receive it later through a purchasable add-on cartridge (it was originally expected to come built-in) – as well as the obsolete Motorola processor, OS-9 software, and a launch price considered high.


title: CD-i

text: Although Philips had aggressively promoted their CD-i products in the U.S., by August 1993 "Computer Gaming World" reported that "skepticism persists about its long-term prospects" compared to other platforms like IBM PC compatibles, Apple Macintosh, and Sega Genesis. The magazine stated in January 1994 that despite Philips' new emphasis on games "CD-i is still not the answer for hardcore gamers", but the console "may yet surprise us all in the future". It recommended the CD-i with video cartridge for those needing to buy a new console as "The price is right and there is more software to support it", but 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was probably better for those who could wait a few months. The "Electronic Entertainment" August 1994 issue noted that the CD-i, along with the Atari Jaguar, neither have an "effective, let alone innovative" game library to compete against the then newly released Sega CD.


title: CD-i

text: After being outsold in the market by cheaper multimedia PCs, in 1994 Philips attempted to emphasize CD-i as a game playing machine, but this did not help the situation. An early 1995 review of the system in "GamePro" stated that "inconsistent game quality puts the CD-i at a disadvantage against other high-powered game producers." A late 1995 review in "Next Generation" criticized both Philips's approach to marketing the CD-i and the hardware itself ("The unit excels at practically nothing except FMV, and then only with the addition of a $200 digital video cartridge"). The magazine noted that while Philips had not yet officially discontinued the CD-i, it was dead for all intents and purposes, citing as evidence the fact that though Philips had a large booth at the 1995 Electronic Entertainment Expo, there was no CD-i hardware or software on display. "Next Generation" scored the console one out of five stars. Another trouble for Philips in 1995 was the formation of HDCD, which promised better quality video compared to Video CD's (VCD) MPEG-1 compression method – Philips had heavily promoted the CD-i's VCD playing capabilities. Philips Media consolidated its CD-i activities from its Los Angeles office in March 1996. It was reported in October 1996 that Philips was ready to "call it quits" in the American market.


title: CD-i

text: In October 1994, Philips claimed an installed base of one million units for the CD-i worldwide. In 1996, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that total US sales amounted to 400,000 units. In the Netherlands, about 60,000 CD-i players were sold by the end of December 1994.


title: CD-i

text: Although extensively marketed by Philips, notably via infomercial, consumer interest in CD-i titles remained low. By 1994, sales of CD-i systems had begun to slow, and in 1998 the product line was dropped. Plans for a second generation CD-i system were certainly present and Argonaut Software was even designated to design chip sets for the successor to the CD-i. However, the then president Cor Boonstra saw no interest in the media area for Philips and so Philips sold everything, including the media subsidiary Polygram. The Dutch half of Philips Media was sold to Softmachine, which released "The Lost Ride" on the CD-i as the last product for the CD-i. Philips then also sold its French half of the gaming subsidiary, Philips Media BV, to French publisher Infogrames in 1997 along with the entire CD-i library. A CD-ROM add-on for the Super NES, which was announced for development with Nintendo in 1991, was never made. The last CD-i game was made by Infogrames, who released Solar Crusade in 1999.


title: CD-i

text: After its discontinuation, the CD-i was overwhelmingly panned by critics who blasted its graphics, games, and controls. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates admitted that initially he "was worried" about the CD-i due to Philips' heavy support for the device and its two-pronged attack on both the games console and PC markets, but that in retrospect, "It was a device that kind of basically got caught in the middle. It was a terrible game machine, and it was a terrible PC." The CD-i's various controllers were ranked the fifth worst video game controller by IGN editor Craig Harris. "PC World" ranked it as fourth on their list of "The 10 Worst Video Game Systems of All Time". Gamepro.com listed it as number four on their list of "The 10 Worst-Selling Consoles of All Time." In 2008, CNET listed the system on its list of the worst game console(s) ever. In 2007, GameTrailers ranked the Philips CD-i as the fourth worst console of all time in its Top 10 Worst Console lineup.


title: CD-i

text: In later retrospective years, the CD-i has become (infamously) best known for its video games, particularly those from the Nintendo-licensed "The Legend of Zelda" series, considered by many to be of poor taste. Games that were most heavily criticized include "Hotel Mario", "", "", and "Zelda's Adventure". EGM's Seanbaby rated "The Wand of Gamelon" as one of the worst video games of all time. However, "" was positively received by critics and has often been held up as the standout title for the CD-i.


title: Jamison Newlander

text: Jamison Newlander (born April 2, 1970) is an American actor. He starred in the 1987 horror film "The Lost Boys", playing vampire hunter Alan Frog.


title: Jamison Newlander

text: Newlander is best known for his role as Alan Frog, one of the two vampire-hunting Frog brothers, in "The Lost Boys" (1987), alongside Corey Feldman. He reprises his role as Alan Frog in the Lost Boys: The Thirst (2010), as he and Feldman fight side-by-side again for what's been celebrated as the return of the Frog Brothers. Newlander also makes an appearance as Alan Frog in one of the alternative endings for "Lost Boys: The Tribe" (2008). He also played alongside River Phoenix in a TV Movie, "", and Jason Bateman in "Valerie". He also appeared in the 1988 remake of "The Blob". He starred in two commercials during the 80s, for Pearle Vision and AT&T in 1984 and 1987 respectively.


title: Jamison Newlander

text: A graduate of Beverly Hills High School, he went on to get a BFA in acting at NYU, and acted on stages in New York, Vermont, Kentucky and California throughout his 20s. While doing theater, Newlander began writing and became an award-winning playwright with his 1996 play "Remember This" at Actors Theatre of Louisville. He put all of his talents together (writing, directing and acting) for his film "Rooster," which played on the film festival circuit, most notably at the Hamptons International Film Festival in 2003. In 2009, he then went on to write, produce, direct and star in a second short film titled "Room Service." He made cameo appearances in both seasons of "The Two Coreys", a reality TV show starring "Lost Boys" co-stars Corey Haim and Corey Feldman on A&E Network. Since then, he has played small roles in multiple movies, including "Bone Tomahawk", alongside Kurt Russell. Newlander created Wikisoap, the first ever user-created soap opera on the web. He is currently working on his play, "The Virtual Adventures of Riff-Cat Polito" He had a cameo appearance as a police officer in "The Tale of Two Coreys", the Lifetime movie documenting the lives of Corey Haim and Corey Feldman. In 2010, he reprised his role as Alan Frog in "".


title: Jamison Newlander

text: Newlander co-hosted a short bi-weekly podcast called "The Jamison Newlander and Some Other Guy Show" with an unidentified co-host. The podcast included regular updates on Newlander's life and career, as well as comedy sketches, celebrity guests, and casual conversation. It was released every second Sunday, but is now on extended hiatus, although previous episodes remain available. Newlander is working on an upcoming second podcast titled Current Frequencies, a collection of original 20-30 minute radio-dramas based on contemporary issues.


title: Jamison Newlander

text: Newlander was born on April 2, 1970 in New York City. He is the youngest of a Jewish family with Italian descent, with two older sisters. At the age of two his parents divorced. As a child, he was a somewhat slow reader, which later in life was attributed to mild dyslexia. He wore leg braces from ages seven to nine due to necrosis. With the leg braces, he played baseball, and had a runner who ran for him after he hit the ball. Inspired by the doctors he was surrounded with at a young age, he decided that he wanted to be an orthopaedic surgeon. His mother suggested he did commercials to get money for medical school. Ironically, this instead led him to a career in acting.


title: Jamison Newlander

text: In 2002, he married fellow actress Hanny Landau. They have two sons, Nathan Dov Newlander (born 15 August 2008) and Azi Sylvester Newlander (born 12 November 2012).


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220), also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the "Gesta Danorum", the first full history of Denmark, from which the legend of Amleth would come to inspire the story of "Hamlet" by Shakespeare.


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: The "Jutland Chronicle" gives evidence that Saxo was born in Zealand. It is unlikely he was born before 1150 and it is supposed that his death could have occurred around 1220. His name Saxo was a common name in medieval Denmark. The name "Grammaticus" ("the learned") was first given to him in the "Jutland Chronicle" and the "Sjælland Chronicle" makes reference to Saxo "cognomine Longus" ("with the byname 'the tall'").


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: He lived in a period of warfare and Danish expansion, led by Archbishop Absalon and the Valdemars. The Danes were also being threatened by the Wends who were making raids across the border and by sea. Valdemar I had also just won a civil war and later Valdemar II led an expedition across the Elbe to invade Holstein.


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: Sven Aggesen, a Danish nobleman and author of a slightly earlier history of Denmark than Saxo's, describes his contemporary, Saxo, as his "contubernalis", meaning "tent-comrade". This gives evidence that Saxo and Sven might have soldiered in the "Hird" or royal guard, since Sven used the word "contubernium" in reference to them. There is also a Saxo to be found on a list of clergy at Lund, where there was a Sven recorded as Archdeacon. Likewise there is Dean Saxo who died in 1190; however, the date does not match what is known about Saxo.


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: Both arguments, for a secular or religious Saxo, would confirm that he was well educated; as clergy, he would have received training in Latin and sons of great men were often sent to Paris. Saxo comes from a warrior family and writes that he is himself committed to being a soldier. He tells us that he follows "the ancient right of hereditary service", and that his father and grandfather "were recognized frequenters of your renowned sire's (Valdemar I) war camp".


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: Saxo's education and ability support the idea that he was educated outside Denmark. Some suggest the title "Grammaticus" refers not to his education but rather his elaborate Latin style. We know from his writing that he was in the retinue and received the patronage of Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, who was the foremost adviser to King Valdemar I. In his will Absalon forgives his clerk Saxo a small debt of two and a half marks of silver and tells him to return two borrowed books to the monastery of Sorø. The legacy of Saxo Grammaticus is the sixteen-book heroic history of the Danes called "Gesta Danorum".


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: In the preface to the work, Saxo writes that his patron Absalon (c. 1128 – 21 March 1201), Archbishop of Lund, had encouraged him to write a heroic history of the Danes. The history is thought to have been started about 1185, after Sven Aggesen wrote his history. The goal of "Gesta Danorum" was, as Saxo writes, "to glorify our fatherland", which he accomplishes on the model of Virgil's "Aeneid". Saxo also may have owed much to Plato and Cicero, a well as to more contemporary writers like Geoffrey of Monmouth.


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: Saxo's history of the Danes was compiled from sources that are of questionable historical value but were to him the only ones extant. He drew on oral tales of the Icelanders, ancient volumes, letters carved on rocks and stone, and the statements of his patron Absalon concerning the history of which the Archbishop had been a part. Saxo's work was not strictly a history or a simple record of old tales, but rather, as Friis-Jensen puts it, "a product of Saxo's own mind and times". Westergaard writes that Saxo combines the history and mythology of the heroic age of Denmark, and reworks it into his own story that exemplifies the past of the Danes.


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: The history is composed of sixteen books, and extends from the time of the founders of the Danish people, Dan I of Denmark and Angul, into about the year 1187. The first four books are concerned with the history of the Danes before Christ, the next four books with their history after Christ, and books 9–12 with Christian Denmark, and books 13–16 promote Lund and exploits before and during Saxo's own lifetime. It is assumed that the last eight books were written first, as Saxo drew heavily on the work of Absalon (who died in 1201, before the work was completed) for evidence of the age of Saint Canute and Valdemar I.


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: The first eight volumes share a likeness with the works of Saxo's contemporary Snorri Sturluson. They deal with mythical elements such as giants and the Scandinavian pantheon of gods. Saxo tells of Dan the first king of Denmark, who had a brother named Angul who gave his name to the Angles. He also tells the stories of various other Danish heroes, many of whom interact with the Scandinavian gods. Saxo's "heathen" gods, however, are not always good characters. They are sometimes treacherous, such as in the story of Harald, legendary king of the Danes, who was taught the ways of warfare by Odin and then was betrayed and killed by the god, who then brought him to Valhalla.


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: Saxo's world is seen to have had very warlike values. He glorifies the heroes that made their names in battle far more than those who made peace. His view of the period of peace under King Frode is very low and is only satisfied when King Knut brings back the ancestral customs. Saxo's chronology of kings extends up to Saint Canute and his son Valdemar I. Saxo finished the history with the Preface, which he wrote last, in c. 1216 under the patronage of Anders Sunesen, who replaced Absalon as Archbishop of Lund. Saxo included in the preface warm appreciation of both Archbishops and of the reigning King Valdemar II.


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: Of particular interest for Shakespeare scholars is the story of Amleth, the first instance of the playwright's Hamlet. Saxo based the story on an oral tale of a son taking revenge for his murdered father. Christiern Pedersen, a Canon of Lund, collaborated with Jodocus Badius Ascensius, a fellow enthusiast, to print the work of Saxo Grammaticus early in the sixteenth century. This was the first major step toward securing the historical significance of "Gesta Danorum". Starting from that point, the knowledge of it began to spread within the academic community. Oliver Elton, who was the first to translate the first nine books of "Gesta Danorum" into English, wrote that Saxo was the first writer produced by Denmark.


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: Saxo's skill as a Latinist was praised by Erasmus, who wondered how "a Dane of that age got so great power of eloquence". Later R. W. Chambers would call Saxo's writings "difficult and bombastic, but always amusing Latin". There have been many attempts to understand the type of Latin language used by Saxo, and to juxtapose it in history, to provide more information on where he was educated. Some have considered his Latin to have more in common with legal than with ecclesiastical training, and his poetry is thought to have traces of parallelism.


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: Although Saxo is commonly viewed by modern Danes as their "first national historian", two other coherent accounts of Danish history by Danish authors predate "Gesta Danorum". They are "Chronicon Roskildense" (English: "Roskilde Chronicle"), a small work written in Latin, completed in c. 1143, spanning from the introduction of Christianity in Denmark to the author's own time. The next to be published was "Brevis historia regum Dacie", written by Sven Aggesen (b. c. 1140–1150 – death unknown), thought to have been finished in 1186 or 1187 (the last event described happened in 1185), covering the years 300–1185.


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: Saxo's works were received enthusiastically by Renaissance era scholars, who were curious about the pre-Christian history and legends. Saxo's portrayals of history have been seen to differ greatly from those of his contemporaries, especially Norwegian and Icelandic, including portrayals of various historical characters as either heroes or villains. There are also differences between Saxo's work and that of the fellow Danish historian Sven Aggesen from the same era.


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: These differences have to do with Saxo's elaboration and euhemerism in his descriptions of mainly Scandinavian history and mythology, Saxo's account on the tale of Thyri, for instance, is considered to be far more fantastic than the same tale presented by Sven. Saxo's work has been criticized for this reason. Kurt Johannesson's studies expanded greatly on the comprehension of "Gesta Danorum", deviating from the approach that focuses mostly on mythology, and allowing the development of a wider understanding of Saxo's works.


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: Recently some scholars, such as Sigurd Kværndrup, inspired by Johannesson's study of the four cardinal virtues in "Gesta Danorum", have studied other elaborations and schemes in the writings of Saxo. Some of them have concluded that Saxo, instead of simply distorting allegedly true Nordic and Baltic traditions and/or beliefs, was creating something new, attuned to the approaching 13th century Danish race to strengthen institutions and engage in the Northern Crusades.


title: Saxo Grammaticus

text: Importantly, Saxo Grammaticus appears to have changed his agenda after the death of his patron Absalon in 1202. What eventually came to be the first nine books of Gesta Danorum, were actually written after the death of Absalon, and they focus largely on mythology, for which Saxo has been criticized. The contrast to the seven books written during the lifetime of Absalon is "'enormous,' leading the main core of scholars to divide the two parts into mythical (books I–IX) and historical (books X–XVI), the last of the historical books being based on Absalon's memories. Therefore, we prefer to support the composition order of Gesta Danorum as X–XVI, followed by I–IX, and ending with the preface", says Brazilian historian André Muceniecks.


title: Planet of the Dead

text: "Planet of the Dead" is the second of five special episodes of the British science fiction television series "Doctor Who" broadcast between Christmas 2008 and New Years Day 2010. It was simultaneously broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 11 April 2009. The specials served as lead actor David Tennant's denouement as the Tenth Doctor. He is joined in the episode by actress Michelle Ryan, who plays Lady Christina de Souza, a one-off companion to the Doctor. The episode was co-written by Russell T Davies and Gareth Roberts, the first writing partnership since the show's revival in 2005. "Planet of the Dead" serves as the 200th story of "Doctor Who".


title: Planet of the Dead

text: The episode depicts Christina fleeing the police from a museum robbery by boarding a bus that accidentally travels from London to the desert planet of San Helios, trapping her, the Doctor, and several passengers on board the damaged vehicle. After the bus driver dies trying to return to Earth, the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, headed by Captain Erisa Magambo (Noma Dumezweni) and scientific advisor Malcolm Taylor (Lee Evans), attempt to return the bus while preventing a race of metallic stingray aliens from posing a threat to Earth. At the end of the episode, one of the passengers delivers a warning to the Doctor that "he will knock four times", foreshadowing the remaining three specials.


title: Planet of the Dead

text: "Planet of the Dead" was the first "Doctor Who" episode to be filmed in high definition, after a positive reaction to the visual quality of spin-off series "Torchwood" and the financial viability of HDTV convinced the production team to switch formats. To ensure that the desert scenes looked as realistic as possible, the production team filmed in Dubai for three days, sending several props, including a 1980 double-decker Bristol VR bus, to the United Arab Emirates for filming. After a shipping container unintentionally damaged the bus in Dubai, Davies rewrote the script to explain the damage in the narrative.


title: Planet of the Dead

text: The gentlewoman burglar Lady Christina de Souza steals a gold chalice once belonging to King Æthelstan from a London museum and hops on a double-decker bus. The Tenth Doctor joins her and the other passengers, just before the bus passes through a wormhole and ends up on the sands of the planet San Helios. The Doctor studies the wormhole and determines that the bus protected them from its effects like a Faraday cage, but he is unable to stop the driver from stepping back through the wormhole. When the driver's burnt skeleton appears on Earth, UNIT forces are alerted, led by Captain Erisa Magambo and aided by scientific adviser Malcolm Taylor.


title: Planet of the Dead

text: While the others attempt to repair the bus, the Doctor and Christina scout ahead and spot what appears to be a sandstorm on the horizon. The Doctor contacts UNIT to get an analysis of the wormhole. The Doctor and Christina encounter two fly-themed Tritovores, named Sorvin and Praygat, who take them to their wrecked spaceship. They explain they were going to pick up supplies at San Helios, which had recently housed billions of people but now is totally desert. The Doctor has them scan the approaching sandstorm and finds that it is actually a swarm of stingray-themed aliens that are destroying the ecosystem. He suspects the swarm is generating the wormhole to travel to their next planet to feed upon, and they must hurry and close the wormhole before the aliens can reach Earth. Christina uses her burglary skills to retrieve a power crystal and its mounting from the Tritovore ship, but accidentally wakes an alien stingray, which consumes the Tritovores.


title: Planet of the Dead

text: With the swarm nearly on them, the Doctor uses the crystal's mounting, an anti-gravity device, to enable the bus to fly. To control it, he persuades Christina to give him the gold chalice, which he smashes, using it to interface the bus's controls with the mountings. They fly back through the wormhole just as Malcolm closes it, but not before three stingrays sneak through, which UNIT quickly kill with Stinger missiles. Christina asks the Doctor to take her with him, but he refuses right before she is arrested; however, he allows her to escape from the police and fly off on the bus before they can stop her. As the Doctor is about to depart in his TARDIS, Carmen, a bus passenger who has low-level psychic abilities, tells him that his "song" is ending and "he will knock four times".


title: Planet of the Dead

text: Russell T Davies co-wrote the episode with Gareth Roberts, the first credited writing partnership for the show since its 2005 revival. "Planet of the Dead" was a departure from Roberts' usual stories—Roberts had previously only written pseudo-historical stories—and instead consisted of wild science fiction elements from his literary career and teenage imagination. The episode had no clear concept—such as Shakespeare and witches in "The Shakespeare Code" or Agatha Christie and a murder mystery in "The Unicorn and the Wasp"—and instead was a deliberate "clash [of concepts] with many disparate elements". Roberts explained he was cautious to ensure that each element had to "feel precise and defined ... like we meant that", citing the serial "Arc of Infinity" as an example where such control was not enforced. The episode includes a common feature of Davies' writing in that there is no clear antagonist: the Tritovore are eventually sympathetic to the protagonists and the stingrays are only following their biological imperative.


title: Planet of the Dead

text: Unlike the Christmas specials, the theme of Easter was not emphasised in the story; the episode only contained a "fleeting mention" of the holiday instead of "robot bunnies carrying baskets full of deadly egg bombs". The episode's tone word—"joyous"—was influenced by Davies' realisation that "every story since 'The Fires of Pompeii' [had] a bittersweet quality" and his subsequent desire to avoid the recurring theme. The starting point for the story was Roberts' first novel "The Highest Science". Davies liked the image of a train on a desert planet and rewrote the train as a bus. Davies nevertheless emphasised it was not an "adaptation as such" because tangential elements were constantly being conceived and added.


title: Planet of the Dead

text: Michelle Ryan's casting as Lady Christina de Souza was confirmed by the BBC on 23 January 2009 and attracted media attention owing to Ryan's recent relatively high-profile roles in "EastEnders", "Jekyll", "Bionic Woman" and "Merlin". Ryan stated that she is "a huge fan of "Doctor Who" and [was] very excited to be joining David Tennant and the "Doctor Who" team." Davies commented that "Michelle is one of the most sought after young actors in the country" and that they were "delighted to announce that she [would] be joining the team." Ryan described her casting as a "real honour", noting that she "love[s] the character".


title: Planet of the Dead

text: Ryan was rumoured to be in line for a role as full-time companion to the incoming Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) and her casting in "Planet of the Dead", combined with her previous working history with incoming Executive Producer Steven Moffat – the two working together on "Jekyll", fuelled speculation that she might return to "Doctor Who" accompanying the Eleventh Doctor in Series 5. It had been reported that Ryan auditioned to replace Billie Piper in the companion role when her character, Rose Tyler, left in 2006, but was unsuccessful; Ryan subsequently stated that this was false.