title: Bewitched

text: When Screen Gems head John Mitchell and ABC chief programmer Barry Diller noticed that "The New Temperatures Rising Show" was failing, they contacted William Asher and asked him to come back and salvage the series. As a result, the show was resurrected on July 18, 1974, after a six-month hiatus with its original title "Temperatures Rising". Joining Lynde and Little in the cast was "Bewitched" alum Alice Ghostley. Despite the changes in cast and format, the attempt to resuscitate the series failed and ABC finally cancelled it permanently. The final episode of "Temperatures Rising" aired on August 29, 1974, which ended William Asher's original contract with "Bewitched" and ABC.


title: Bewitched

text: In February 1964, feminist Betty Friedan's two-part essay "Television and the Feminine Mystique" for "TV Guide" criticized the portrayal of women in television shows as simplistic, manipulative, and insecure household drudges whose time was spent dreaming of love and plotting revenge on their husbands. Samantha's character differed from this stereotype and Endora used Friedan-like language to criticize the boring drudgery of household life. Others have looked how the series 'play[ed] into and subvert[ed] a rich load of cultural stereotypes and allusions' regarding witches, gender roles, advertising and consumerism. In the episode "Eat at Mario's" (May 27, 1965), Samantha and Endora use their powers to defend and promote a quality Italian restaurant. They take delight in an active, aggressive role in the public space, breaking new ground in the depiction of women in television.


title: Bewitched

text: In a 1992 interview, Elizabeth Montgomery was asked if the show was an allegory about closeted homosexuality. She answered, "Don't think that didn't enter our minds at the time. We talked about it on the set—certainly not in production meetings—that this was about people not being allowed to be what they really are. If you think about it, "Bewitched" is about repression in general and all the frustration and trouble it can cause."


title: Bewitched

text: Walter Metz attributes the success of the series to its snappy writing, the charm of Elizabeth Montgomery, and the talents of its large supporting cast. The show also made use of respected film techniques for its special effects. The soundtrack was unique, notably where it concerned the synthesized sound of nose twitching.


title: Bewitched

text: The first episodes featured a voice-over narrator "performing comic sociological analyses" of the role of a witch in middle class suburbia. The style was reminiscent of Hollywood films such as "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" (1957).


title: Bewitched

text: In a 1991 audio interview with film historian Ronald Haver, Elizabeth Montgomery revealed that her father Robert Montgomery was originally approached and asked to narrate these episodes but he refused. Instead, the narration was done by Academy Award-winning actor José Ferrer, who did not receive credit.


title: Bewitched

text: The series inspired the rival show "I Dream of Jeannie" (1965–1970) on NBC, which was produced by the same studio as "Bewitched" (Screen Gems).


title: Bewitched

text: The 1965 episode of "The Flintstones" titled "Samantha" (1965) featured Dick York and Elizabeth Montgomery as Darrin and Samantha Stephens, who have just moved into the neighborhood. This crossover was facilitated by both series being broadcast on ABC.


title: Bewitched

text: An animated TV special made in 1972 by Hanna-Barbera Productions for "The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie", this featured teenage versions of Tabitha and Adam visiting their aunt and her family who travel with a circus. The show aired on December 2, 1972.


title: Bewitched

text: In 1977, a short-lived spin-off titled "Tabitha" aired on ABC. Lisa Hartman played Tabitha, now an adult working with her brother Adam at television station KXLA. There were several continuity differences with the original series. Adam and Tabitha had both aged far more than the intervening five years between the two series would have allowed. Adam also had become Tabitha's older mortal brother, rather than her younger warlock brother, as he was in "Bewitched". Supporting character Aunt Minerva (Karen Morrow) says she has been close to Tabitha since childhood, though she had never been mentioned once in the original series. Tabitha's parents are mentioned but never appear. However Bernard Fox, Sandra Gould, George Tobias and Dick Wilson reprised their roles as Dr. Bombay, Gladys Kravitz, Abner Kravitz, and "various drunks."


title: Bewitched

text: The 1999-2008 NBC soap opera "Passions" featured several appearances by Bernard Fox, playing Dr. Bombay. In another echo of "Bewitched", the resident witch on "Passions", Tabitha Lenox (Juliet Mills), named her daughter "Endora."


title: Bewitched

text: "Bewitched" inspired a 2005 film starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell. This film was distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film, departing from the show's family-oriented tone, is not a remake but takes a metafictional approach, with the action focused on arrogant, failing Hollywood actor Jack Wyatt (Ferrell) who is offered a career comeback playing Darrin in a remake of "Bewitched". The role is contingent upon him finding the perfect woman to play Samantha. He chooses an unknown named Isabel Bigelow (Kidman), who is an actual witch. The film was written, directed, and produced by Nora Ephron, and was poorly received by most critics and was a financial failure. It earned $22 million less than the production cost domestically. However it earned an additional $68 million internationally. "The New York Times" called the film "an unmitigated disaster."


title: Bewitched

text: Dell Comics adapted the series into a comic book series in 1964. The art work was provided by Henry Scarpelli.


title: Bewitched

text: In 1966, the series was adapted as a strip in "Lady Penelope", beginning from issue 12 and lasting until the comic's demise in 1969.


title: Bewitched

text: In August 2011, it was reported that CBS ordered a script to be written by Marc Lawrence for a rebooted series of "Bewitched".


title: Bewitched

text: On October 22, 2014, Sony Pictures Television announced that it sold a pilot of "Bewitched" to NBC as a possible entry for the 2015—2016 US television season. This show would have concerned Tabitha's daughter Daphne, a single woman who despite having the same magical powers as her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, is determined not to use her special abilities to find a soul mate. The new version of the proposed series, written by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, had been on the radar of several major networks, including ABC, after Sony began shopping the project to interested parties.


title: Bewitched

text: On August 23, 2018, ABC announced that it had bought a pilot for a single camera "Bewitched" remake from "Black-ish" creator Kenya Barris. This is Barris's last new project for the network before his exclusive contract with Netflix goes into effect.


title: Bewitched

text: The second episode of drama-mystery television miniseries "WandaVision", titled "Don't Touch That Dial", heavily references the series through an animated title sequence and the premise of Wanda Maximoff and Vision living an idyllic suburban life trying to conceal their true natures. Exteriors of the neighborhood were filmed at the now Warner Ranch Backlot with Maximoff's nosy neighbor Agnes living in the Stephens house.


title: Bewitched

text: After completing its original run, ABC Daytime and ABC Saturday Morning continued to air the series until 1973. Since then, "Bewitched" has been syndicated on many local US broadcast stations, first from 1973 to 1982 and then since 1993, including Columbia TriStar Television as part of the "Screen Gems Network" syndication package from 1999 to 2001, which featured bonus wraparound content during episode airings in 1999.


title: Bewitched

text: From 1973 to 1982, the entire series was syndicated by Screen Gems/Columbia Pictures. By the late '70s, many local stations skipped the black and white episodes or they only ran them in the summer due to the perception that black-and-white shows usually had less appeal than shows which were filmed in color. From 1981 to about 1991, only the color episodes were syndicated in barter syndication by DFS Program Exchange. The first two seasons, which were in black and white, were not included because Columbia retained the rights to them. Beginning in 1989, Nick at Nite only aired the black-and-white episodes, which were originally unedited. The edited versions of the episodes continued in barter syndication until 1992. Columbia syndicated the entire series beginning in 1991. The remaining six color seasons were added to Nick at Nite's lineup in March 1998 in a week-long Dueling Darrins Marathon. Later, seasons 1–2 were colorized and made available for syndication. Eventually, they were made available for DVD sales. The cable television channel WTBS carried seasons 3–8 throughout the 1980s and 1990s from DFS on a barter basis like most local stations that carried the show.


title: Bewitched

text: The Hallmark Channel aired the show from 2001 to 2003; TV Land then aired the show from 2003 to 2006, and it returned to TV Land in March 2010, but left the schedule in 2012.


title: Bewitched

text: In October 2008, the show began to air on WGN America, and in October 2012, it began to air on Logo, limited to the middle seasons.


title: Bewitched

text: MeTV aired the show in conjunction with "I Dream of Jeannie" from December 31, 2012, to September 1, 2013. The cable and satellite network FETV also airs the show together with "I Dream of Jeannie". The show now airs on Antenna TV and GAC Family.


title: Bewitched

text: In Australia, this series aired on the Nine Network's digital channel GO! later it moved to the Seven Network's digital channels 7TWO later 7flix. Prior to this, the show aired in reruns on Network Ten in 1995 before moving to the Seven Network a year later.


title: Bewitched

text: In Italy, the series aired on Raiuno, Telemontecarlo, Italia 1, Rai 3, Canale 5, Retequattro, Boing & Paramount Network under the name "" ("Life as a Witch") from 1967 until 1979.


title: Bewitched

text: Selected episodes may be viewed on iTunes, YouTube, IMDb, Hulu, The Minisode Network, Crackle, and Amazon.com. The show also airs on free streaming TV station Pluto TV.


title: Bewitched

text: Beginning in 2005, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released all eight seasons of "Bewitched". In regions 1 and 4, seasons 1 and 2 were each released in two versions—one as originally broadcast in black-and-white, and one colorized. The complete series set only contains the colorized versions of Seasons 1–2. Only the colorized editions were released in regions 2 and 4.


title: Bewitched

text: On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library including "Bewitched". They have subsequently re-released the first six seasons, with seasons 1 & 2 available only in their black and white versions.


title: Bewitched

text: On October 6, 2015, Mill Creek Entertainment re-released "Bewitched- The Complete Series" on DVD in Region 1. Special features were stripped from the release. The first two seasons are in black and white only.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin is a fluoroquinolone antibiotic used to treat a number of bacterial infections. This includes bone and joint infections, intra abdominal infections, certain types of infectious diarrhea, respiratory tract infections, skin infections, typhoid fever, and urinary tract infections, among others. For some infections it is used in addition to other antibiotics. It can be taken by mouth, as eye drops, as ear drops, or intravenously.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Common side effects include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Severe side effects include an increased risk of tendon rupture, hallucinations, and nerve damage. In people with myasthenia gravis, there is worsening muscle weakness. Rates of side effects appear to be higher than some groups of antibiotics such as cephalosporins but lower than others such as clindamycin. Studies in other animals raise concerns regarding use in pregnancy. No problems were identified, however, in the children of a small number of women who took the medication. It appears to be safe during breastfeeding. It is a second-generation fluoroquinolone with a broad spectrum of activity that usually results in the death of the bacteria.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin was patented in 1980 and introduced in 1987. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. The World Health Organization classifies ciprofloxacin as critically important for human medicine. It is available as a generic medication. In 2020, it was the 132nd most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 4million prescriptions.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin is used to treat a wide variety of infections, including infections of bones and joints, endocarditis, gastroenteritis, malignant otitis externa, respiratory tract infections, cellulitis, urinary tract infections, prostatitis, anthrax, and chancroid.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin only treats bacterial infections; it does not treat viral infections such as the common cold. For certain uses including acute sinusitis, lower respiratory tract infections and uncomplicated gonorrhea, ciprofloxacin is not considered a first-line agent.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin occupies an important role in treatment guidelines issued by major medical societies for the treatment of serious infections, especially those likely to be caused by Gram-negative bacteria, including "Pseudomonas aeruginosa". For example, ciprofloxacin in combination with metronidazole is one of several first-line antibiotic regimens recommended by the Infectious Diseases Society of America for the treatment of community-acquired abdominal infections in adults. It also features prominently in treatment guidelines for acute pyelonephritis, complicated or hospital-acquired urinary tract infection, acute or chronic prostatitis, certain types of endocarditis, certain skin infections, and prosthetic joint infections.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: In other cases, treatment guidelines are more restrictive, recommending in most cases that older, narrower-spectrum drugs be used as first-line therapy for less severe infections to minimize fluoroquinolone-resistance development. For example, the Infectious Diseases Society of America recommends the use of ciprofloxacin and other fluoroquinolones in urinary tract infections be reserved to cases of proven or expected resistance to narrower-spectrum drugs such as nitrofurantoin or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. The European Association of Urology recommends ciprofloxacin as an alternative regimen for the treatment of uncomplicated urinary tract infections, but cautions that the potential for "adverse events have to be considered".


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Although approved by regulatory authorities for the treatment of respiratory infections, ciprofloxacin is not recommended for respiratory infections by most treatment guidelines due in part to its modest activity against the common respiratory pathogen "Streptococcus pneumoniae". "Respiratory quinolones" such as levofloxacin, having greater activity against this pathogen, are recommended as first line agents for the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia in patients with important co-morbidities and in patients requiring hospitalization (Infectious Diseases Society of America 2007). Similarly, ciprofloxacin is not recommended as a first-line treatment for acute sinusitis.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin is approved for the treatment of gonorrhea in many countries, but this recommendation is widely regarded as obsolete due to resistance development.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: In the United States ciprofloxacin is pregnancy category C. This category includes drugs for which no adequate and well-controlled studies in human pregnancy exist, and for which animal studies have suggested the potential for harm to the fetus, but potential benefits may warrant use of the drug in pregnant women


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: despite potential risks. An expert review of published data on experiences with ciprofloxacin use during pregnancy by the Teratogen Information System concluded therapeutic doses during


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: pregnancy are unlikely to pose a substantial teratogenic risk (quantity and quality of data=fair), but the data are insufficient to state no risk exists. Exposure to quinolones, including levofloxacin, during the first-trimester is not associated with an increased risk of stillbirths, premature births, birth defects, or low birth weight.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Two small post-marketing epidemiology studies of mostly short-term, first-trimester exposure found that fluoroquinolones did not increase risk of major malformations, spontaneous abortions, premature birth, or low birth weight. The label notes, however, that these studies are insufficient to reliably evaluate the definitive safety or risk of less common defects by ciprofloxacin in pregnant women and their developing fetuses.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Fluoroquinolones have been reported as present in a mother's milk and thus passed on to the nursing child. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends that because of the risk of serious adverse reactions (including articular damage) in infants nursing from mothers taking ciprofloxacin, a decision should be made whether to discontinue nursing or discontinue the drug, taking into account the importance of the drug to the mother.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Oral and intravenous ciprofloxacin are approved by the FDA for use in children for only two indications due to the risk of permanent injury to the musculoskeletal system:


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Current recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics note the systemic use of ciprofloxacin in children should be restricted to infections caused by multidrug-resistant pathogens or when no safe or effective alternatives are available.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Its spectrum of activity includes most strains of bacterial pathogens responsible for community-acquired pneumonias, bronchitis, urinary tract infections, and gastroenteritis. Ciprofloxacin is particularly effective against Gram-negative bacteria (such as "Escherichia coli", "Haemophilus influenzae", "Klebsiella pneumoniae", "Legionella pneumophila", "Moraxella catarrhalis", "Proteus mirabilis", and "Pseudomonas aeruginosa"), but is less effective against Gram-positive bacteria (such as methicillin-sensitive "Staphylococcus aureus", "Streptococcus pneumoniae", and "Enterococcus faecalis") than newer fluoroquinolones.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: As a result of its widespread use to treat minor infections readily treatable with older, narrower spectrum antibiotics, many bacteria have developed resistance to this drug in recent years, leaving it significantly less effective than it would have been otherwise.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Resistance to ciprofloxacin and other fluoroquinolones may evolve rapidly, even during a course of treatment. Numerous pathogens, including enterococci, "Streptococcus pyogenes" and "Klebsiella pneumoniae" (quinolone-resistant) now exhibit resistance. Widespread veterinary usage of the fluoroquinolones, particularly in Europe, has been implicated. Meanwhile, some "Burkholderia cepacia", "Clostridium innocuum" and "Enterococcus faecium" strains have developed resistance to ciprofloxacin to varying degrees.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Fluoroquinolones had become the class of antibiotics most commonly prescribed to adults in 2002. Nearly half (42%) of those prescriptions in the U.S. were for conditions not approved by the FDA, such as acute bronchitis, otitis media, and acute upper respiratory tract infection, according to a study supported in part by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Additionally, they were commonly prescribed for medical conditions that were not even bacterial to begin with, such as viral infections, or those to which no proven benefit existed.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin is also considered to be contraindicated in children (except for the indications outlined above), in pregnancy, to nursing mothers, and in people with epilepsy or other seizure disorders.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Rates of adverse effects appear to be higher than with some groups of antibiotics such as cephalosporins but lower than with others such as clindamycin. Compared to other antibiotics some studies find a higher rate of adverse effects while others find no difference.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: In clinical trials most of the adverse events were described as mild or moderate in severity, abated soon after the drug was discontinued, and required no treatment. Some adverse effects may be permanent. Ciprofloxacin was stopped because of an adverse event in 1% of people treated with the medication by mouth. The most frequently reported drug-related events, from trials of all formulations, all dosages, all drug-therapy durations, and for all indications, were nausea (2.5%), diarrhea (1.6%), abnormal liver function tests (1.3%), vomiting (1%), and rash (1%). Other adverse events occurred at rates of <1%.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin includes a boxed warning in the United States due to an increased risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture, especially in people who are older than 60 years, people who also use corticosteroids, and people with kidney, lung, or heart transplants. Tendon rupture can occur during therapy or even months after discontinuation of the medication. One study found that fluoroquinolone use was associated with a 1.9-fold increase in tendon problems. The risk increased to 3.2 in those over 60 years of age and to 6.2 in those over the age of 60 who were also taking corticosteroids. Among the 46,766 quinolone users in the study, 38 (0.08%) cases of Achilles tendon rupture were identified. Applying ice behind the neck in the evenings before bed and heat in the morning may assist with tendon and nerve pain and repair. Magnesium and drinking water along with moderate exercise has been found effective in the repair of the mitochondria.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: The fluoroquinolones, including ciprofloxacin, are associated with an increased risk of cardiac toxicity, including QT interval prolongation, "torsades de pointes", ventricular arrhythmia, and sudden death.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Because Ciprofloxacin is lipophilic, it has the ability to cross the blood–brain barrier. The 2013 FDA label warns of nervous system effects. Ciprofloxacin, like other fluoroquinolones, is known to trigger seizures or lower the seizure threshold, and may cause other central nervous system adverse effects. Headache, dizziness, and insomnia have been reported as occurring fairly commonly in postapproval review articles, along with a much lower incidence of serious CNS adverse effects such as tremors, psychosis, anxiety, hallucinations, paranoia, and suicide attempts, especially at higher doses. Like other fluoroquinolones, it is also known to cause peripheral neuropathy that may be irreversible, such as weakness, burning pain, tingling or numbness.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin is active in six of eight "in vitro" assays used as rapid screens for the detection of genotoxic effects, but is not active in "in vivo" assays of genotoxicity. Long-term carcinogenicity studies in rats and mice resulted in no carcinogenic or tumorigenic effects due to ciprofloxacin at daily oral dose levels up to 250 and 750 mg/kg to rats and mice, respectively (about 1.7 and 2.5 times the highest recommended therapeutic dose based upon mg/m). Results from photo co-carcinogenicity testing indicate ciprofloxacin does not reduce the time to appearance of UV-induced skin tumors as compared to vehicle control.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: The other black box warning is that ciprofloxacin should not be used in people with myasthenia gravis due to possible exacerbation of muscle weakness which may lead to breathing problems resulting in death or ventilator support. Fluoroquinolones are known to block neuromuscular transmission. There are concerns that fluoroquinolones including ciprofloxacin can affect cartilage in young children.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: "Clostridium difficile"-associated diarrhea is a serious adverse effect of ciprofloxacin and other fluoroquinolones; it is unclear whether the risk is higher than with other broad-spectrum antibiotics.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: A wide range of rare but potentially fatal adverse effects reported to the U.S. FDA or the subject of case reports includes aortic dissection, toxic epidermal necrolysis, Stevens–Johnson syndrome, low blood pressure, allergic pneumonitis, bone marrow suppression, hepatitis or liver failure, and sensitivity to light. The medication should be discontinued if a rash, jaundice, or other sign of hypersensitivity occurs.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Overdose of ciprofloxacin may result in reversible renal toxicity. Treatment of overdose includes emptying of the stomach by induced vomiting or gastric lavage, as well as administration of antacids containing magnesium, aluminium, or calcium to reduce drug absorption. Renal function and urinary pH should be monitored. Important support includes adequate hydration and urine acidification if necessary to prevent crystalluria. Hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis can only remove less than 10% of ciprofloxacin. Ciprofloxacin may be quantified in plasma or serum to monitor for drug accumulation in patients with hepatic dysfunction or to confirm a diagnosis of poisoning in acute overdose victims.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin interacts with certain foods and several other drugs leading to undesirable increases or decreases in the serum levels or distribution of one or both drugs.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin should not be taken with antacids containing magnesium or aluminum, highly buffered drugs (sevelamer, lanthanum carbonate, sucralfate, didanosine), or with supplements containing calcium, iron, or zinc. It should be taken two hours before or six hours after these products. Magnesium or aluminum antacids turn ciprofloxacin into insoluble salts that are not readily absorbed by the intestinal tract, reducing peak serum concentrations by 90% or more, leading to therapeutic failure. Additionally, it should not be taken with dairy products or calcium-fortified juices alone, as peak serum concentration and the area under the serum concentration-time curve can be reduced up to 40%. However, ciprofloxacin may be taken with dairy products or calcium-fortified juices as part of a meal.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin inhibits the drug-metabolizing enzyme CYP1A2 and thereby can reduce the clearance of drugs metabolized by that enzyme. CYP1A2 substrates that exhibit increased serum levels in ciprofloxacin-treated patients include tizanidine, theophylline, caffeine, methylxanthines, clozapine, olanzapine, and ropinirole. Co-administration of ciprofloxacin with the CYP1A2 substrate tizanidine (Zanaflex) is contraindicated due to a 583% increase in the peak serum concentrations of tizanidine when administered with ciprofloxacin as compared to administration of tizanidine alone. Use of ciprofloxacin is cautioned in patients on theophylline due to its narrow therapeutic index. The authors of one review recommended that patients being treated with ciprofloxacin reduce their caffeine intake. Evidence for significant interactions with several other CYP1A2 substrates such as cyclosporine is equivocal or conflicting.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: The Committee on Safety of Medicines and the FDA warn that central nervous system adverse effects, including seizure risk, may be increased when NSAIDs are combined with quinolones. The mechanism for this interaction may involve a synergistic increased antagonism of GABA neurotransmission.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Altered serum levels of the antiepileptic drugs phenytoin and carbamazepine (increased and decreased) have been reported in patients receiving concomitant ciprofloxacin.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin is a broad-spectrum antibiotic of the fluoroquinolone class. It is active against some Gram-positive and many Gram-negative bacteria. It functions by inhibiting a type II topoisomerase (DNA gyrase) and topoisomerase IV, necessary to separate bacterial DNA, thereby inhibiting cell division. Bacterial DNA fragmentation will occur as a result of inhibition of the enzymes.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin for systemic administration is available as immediate-release tablets, extended-release tablets, an oral suspension, and as a solution for intravenous administration. When administered over one hour as an intravenous infusion, ciprofloxacin rapidly distributes into the tissues, with levels in some tissues exceeding those in the serum. Penetration into the central nervous system is relatively modest, with cerebrospinal fluid levels normally less than 10% of peak serum concentrations. The serum half-life of ciprofloxacin is about 4–6 hours, with 50–70% of an administered dose being excreted in the urine as unmetabolized drug. An additional 10% is excreted in urine as metabolites. Urinary excretion is virtually complete 24 hours after administration. Dose adjustment is required in the elderly and in those with renal impairment.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin is weakly bound to serum proteins (20–40%). It is an inhibitor of the drug-metabolizing enzyme cytochrome P450 1A2, which leads to the potential for clinically important drug interactions with drugs metabolized by that enzyme.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin is about 70% orally available when administered orally, so a slightly higher dose is needed to achieve the same exposure when switching from IV to oral administration


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: The extended release oral tablets allow once-daily administration by releasing the drug more slowly in the gastrointestinal tract. These tablets contain 35% of the administered dose in an immediate-release form and 65% in a slow-release matrix. Maximum serum concentrations are achieved between 1 and 4 hours after administration. Compared to the 250- and 500-mg immediate-release tablets, the 500-mg and 1000-mg XR tablets provide higher C, but the 24‑hour AUCs are equivalent.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin immediate-release tablets contain ciprofloxacin as the hydrochloride salt, and the XR tablets contain a mixture of the hydrochloride salt as the free base.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin is 1-cyclopropyl-6-fluoro-1,4-dihydro-4-oxo-7-(1-piperazinyl)-3-quinolinecarboxylic acid. Its empirical formula is CHFNO and its molecular weight is 331.4 g/mol. It is a faintly yellowish to light yellow crystalline substance.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin hydrochloride (USP) is the monohydrochloride monohydrate salt of ciprofloxacin. It is a faintly yellowish to light yellow crystalline substance with a molecular weight of 385.8 g/mol. Its empirical formula is CHFNOHCl•HO.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin is the most widely used of the second-generation quinolones. In 2010, over 20 million prescriptions were written, making it the 35th-most commonly prescribed generic drug and the 5th-most commonly prescribed antibacterial in the U.S.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: The first members of the quinolone antibacterial class were relatively low-potency drugs such as nalidixic acid, used mainly in the treatment of urinary tract infections owing to their renal excretion and propensity to be concentrated in urine. In 1979, the publication of a patent filed by the pharmaceutical arm of Kyorin Seiyaku Kabushiki Kaisha disclosed the discovery of norfloxacin, and the demonstration that certain structural modifications including the attachment of a fluorine atom to the quinolone ring leads to dramatically enhanced antibacterial potency. In the aftermath of this disclosure, several other pharmaceutical companies initiated research and development programs with the goal of discovering additional antibacterial agents of the fluoroquinolone class.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: The fluoroquinolone program at Bayer focused on examining the effects of very minor changes to the norfloxacin structure. In 1983, the company published "in vitro" potency data for ciprofloxacin, a fluoroquinolone antibacterial having a chemical structure differing from that of norfloxacin by the presence of a single carbon atom. This small change led to a two- to 10-fold increase in potency against most strains of Gram-negative bacteria. Importantly, this structural change led to a four-fold improvement in activity against the important Gram-negative pathogen "Pseudomonas aeruginosa", making ciprofloxacin one of the most potent known drugs for the treatment of this intrinsically antibiotic-resistant pathogen.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: The oral tablet form of ciprofloxacin was approved in October 1987, just one year after the approval of norfloxacin. In 1991, the intravenous formulation was introduced. Ciprofloxacin sales reached a peak of about 2 billion euros in 2001, before Bayer's patent expired in 2004, after which annual sales have averaged around €200 million.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: The name probably originates from the International Scientific Nomenclature: ci- (alteration of cycl-) + propyl + fluor- + ox- + az- + -mycin.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: It is available as a generic medication and not very expensive. At least one company, Turtle Pharma Private Limited provides industrial-size amounts


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: On 24 October 2001, the Prescription Access Litigation (PAL) project filed suit to dissolve an agreement between Bayer and three of its competitors which produced generic versions of drugs (Barr Laboratories, Rugby Laboratories, and Hoechst-Marion-Roussel) that PAL claimed was blocking access to adequate supplies and cheaper, generic versions of ciprofloxacin. The plaintiffs charged that Bayer Corporation, a unit of Bayer AG, had unlawfully paid the three competing companies a total of $200 million to prevent cheaper, generic versions of ciprofloxacin from being brought to the market, as well as manipulating its price and supply. Numerous other consumer advocacy groups joined the lawsuit. On 15 October 2008, five years after Bayer's patent had expired, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York granted Bayer's and the other defendants' motion for summary judgment, holding that any anticompetitive effects caused by the settlement agreements between Bayer and its codefendants were within the exclusionary zone of the patent and thus could not be redressed by federal antitrust law, in effect upholding Bayer's agreement with its competitors.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: Ciprofloxacin for systemic administration is available as immediate-release tablets, as extended-release tablets, as an oral suspension, and as a solution for intravenous infusion. It is also available for local administration as eye drops and ear drops.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: A class action was filed against Bayer AG on behalf of employees of the Brentwood Post Office in Washington, D.C., and workers at the U.S. Capitol, along with employees of American Media, Inc. in Florida and postal workers in general who alleged they developed serious adverse effects from taking ciprofloxacin in the aftermath of the anthrax attacks in 2001. The action alleged Bayer failed to warn class members of the potential side effects of the drug, thereby violating the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Laws. The class action was defeated and the litigation abandoned by the plaintiffs. A similar action was filed in 2003 in New Jersey by four New Jersey postal workers but was withdrawn for lack of grounds, as workers had been informed of the risks of ciprofloxacin when they were given the option of taking the drug.


title: Ciprofloxacin

text: As resistance to ciprofloxacin has grown since its introduction, research has been conducted to discover and develop analogs that can be effective against resistant bacteria; some have been looked at in antiviral models as well.


title: A Bug's Life

text: A Bug's Life is a 1998 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It was the second feature-length film produced by Pixar. Directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Andrew Stanton, the film involves a misfit ant, Flik, who is looking for "tough warriors" to save his colony from a protection racket run by a gang of grasshoppers. Unfortunately, the "warriors" he brings back turn out to be an inept troupe of Circus Bugs.


title: A Bug's Life

text: The film was initially inspired by Aesop's fable "The Ant and the Grasshopper". Production began shortly after the release of "Toy Story" in 1995. The screenplay was penned by Stanton and comedy writers Donald McEnery and Bob Shaw from a story by Lasseter, Stanton, and Joe Ranft. The ants in the film were redesigned to be more appealing, and Pixar's animation unit employed technical innovations in computer animation. Randy Newman composed the music for the film. During production, a controversial public feud erupted between Steve Jobs and Lasseter of Pixar and DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg due to the parallel production of his similar film "Antz", which was released the same year.


title: A Bug's Life

text: The film was released on November 20, 1998, received positive reviews and grossed $363 million at the box office. It was the first film to be digitally transferred frame-by-frame and released on DVD, and has been released multiple times on home video.


title: A Bug's Life

text: A colony of ants, led by the elderly Queen and her daughter Princess Atta, lives in the middle of a seasonally dry creekbed on a small hill known as "Ant Island". Every summer, they are forced to give food to a gang of domineering grasshoppers, led by Hopper. One day, an accident-prone inventor ant named Flik accidentally knocks the offering into the water with his latest invention, a grain harvester. Discovering this, Hopper demands twice as much food as compensation. When Flik earnestly suggests the ants enlist the help of bigger bugs to fight the grasshoppers, Atta sees it as a way to get rid of Flik and sends him off.


title: A Bug's Life

text: Flik travels to "the city", a heap of trash under a trailer. Happening upon the aftermath of a chaotic bar fight, Flik mistakes a troupe of jobless Circus Bugs for the warrior bugs he seeks. The bugs, in turn, mistake Flik for a talent agent, and agree to travel with him back to Ant Island. During a welcome ceremony upon their arrival, the Circus Bugs and Flik discover their mutual misunderstandings. The Circus Bugs attempt to leave, but are pursued by a nearby bird; while fleeing, they rescue Atta's younger sister Dot from the bird, gaining the ants' respect. At Flik's request, the Circus Bugs continue the ruse of being "warriors", thus enabling them to continue enjoying the ants' hospitality. Learning that Hopper fears birds inspires Flik to create a false bird to scare away the grasshoppers. Meanwhile, Hopper reminds his gang of the ants' superior numbers, and suspects that the ants will eventually rebel if not kept in line.


title: A Bug's Life

text: The ants finish constructing the fake bird. During the subsequent celebration, the Circus Bugs' old boss P.T. Flea arrives, wanting to rehire them. This inadvertently reveals Flik's lies; outraged, the ants exile him and the Circus Bugs, and desperately attempt to gather food for a new offering. Hopper returns and sees the mediocre offering; he takes over the island, and demands the ants' own winter food supply, planning to execute the Queen afterwards. Overhearing the plan, Dot persuades Flik and the Circus Bugs to return to Ant Island.


title: A Bug's Life

text: After the Circus Bugs distract the grasshoppers long enough to rescue the Queen, Flik deploys the bird. It initially fools the grasshoppers, but P.T., who is also fooled, sets the bird on fire. Realizing the deception, Hopper retaliates by having Flik beaten, proclaiming that the ants are lowly life forms who live to serve the grasshoppers. Flik asserts that Hopper actually fears the colony, because he has always known what they are capable of. This inspires the ants and the Circus Bugs to fight back against the grasshoppers, driving all but Hopper away.


title: A Bug's Life

text: The ants shove Hopper into the circus cannon to shoot him off of the island, but rain suddenly begins to fall. In the ensuing chaos, Hopper frees himself from the cannon and abducts Flik. The Circus Bugs and Atta pursue, with the latter catching up to Hopper and rescuing Flik. Flik lures Hopper to the real bird's nest; believing the bird is another fake, Hopper taunts it, until it grabs him and feeds him to its chicks.


title: A Bug's Life

text: With the grasshoppers gone, Flik improves his inventions to help gather food for the island. He and Atta become a couple, and they send a few ants and Hopper's friendly brother Molt to help P.T. and the Circus Bugs on their new tour. Atta and Dot become the new Queen and Princess, respectively. The ants congratulate Flik as a hero, and bid a fond farewell to the circus troupe.


title: A Bug's Life

text: During the summer of 1994, Pixar's story department began turning their thoughts to their next film. The storyline for "A Bug's Life" originated from a lunchtime conversation between John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft, the studio's head story team; other films such as "Monsters, Inc.", "Finding Nemo" and "WALL-E" were also conceived at this lunch. Lasseter and his story team had already been drawn to the idea of insects serving as characters. Like toys, insects were within the reach of computer animation back then, due to their relatively simple surfaces. Stanton and Ranft wondered whether they could find a starting point in Aesop's fable "The Ant and the Grasshopper". Walt Disney had produced his own version with a cheerier ending decades earlier in the 1934 short film "The Grasshopper and the Ants". In addition, Walt Disney Feature Animation had considered producing a film in the late-1980s entitled "Army Ants", that centered around a pacifist ant living in a militaristic colony, but this never fully materialized.


title: A Bug's Life

text: As Stanton and Ranft discussed the adaptation, they rattled off scenarios and storylines springing from their premise. Lasseter liked the idea and offered some suggestions. The concept simmered until early 1995, when the story team began work on the second film in earnest. During an early test screening for "Toy Story" in San Rafael in June 1995, they pitched the film to Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Eisner thought the idea was fine and they submitted a treatment to Disney in early July under the title "Bugs". Disney approved the treatment and gave notice on July 7 that it was exercising the option of a second film under the original 1991 agreement between Disney and Pixar. Lasseter assigned the co-director job to Stanton; both worked well together and had similar sensibilities. Lasseter had realized that working on a computer-animated feature as a sole director was dangerous while the production of "Toy Story" was in process. In addition, Lasseter believed that it would relieve stress and that the role would groom Stanton for having his own position as a lead director.


title: A Bug's Life

text: In "The Ant and the Grasshopper", a grasshopper squanders the spring and summer months on singing while the ants put food away for the winter; when winter comes, the hungry grasshopper begs the ants for food, but the ants turn him away. Andrew Stanton and Joe Ranft hit on the notion that the grasshopper could just take the food. After Stanton had completed a draft of the script, he came to doubt one of the story's main pillars – that the Circus Bugs that had come to the colony to cheat the ants would instead stay and fight. He thought the Circus Bugs were unlikable characters as liars and that it was unrealistic for them to undergo a complete personality change. Also, no particularly good reason existed for Circus Bugs to stay with the ant colony during the second act. Although the film was already far along, Stanton concluded that the story needed a different approach.


title: A Bug's Life

text: Stanton took one of the early circus bug characters, Red the red ant, and changed him into the character Flik. The Circus Bugs, no longer out to cheat the colony, would be embroiled in a comic misunderstanding as to why Flik was recruiting them. Lasseter agreed with this new approach, and comedy writers Donald McEnery and Bob Shaw spent a few months working on further polishing with Stanton. The characters "Tuck and Roll" were inspired by a drawing that Stanton did of two bugs fighting when he was in the second grade. Lasseter had come to envision the film as an epic in the tradition of David Lean's 1962 film "Lawrence of Arabia".


title: A Bug's Life

text: The voice cast was heavy with television sitcom stars of the time: Flik was voiced by Dave Foley (from "NewsRadio"), Princess Atta was voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus (from "Seinfeld"), Molt was voiced by Richard Kind (from "Spin City"), Slim was voiced by David Hyde Pierce (from "Frasier") and Dim was voiced by Brad Garrett (from "Everybody Loves Raymond"). Joe Ranft, member of Pixar's story team, played Heimlich the caterpillar at the suggestion of Lasseter's wife, Nancy, who had heard him playing the character on a scratch vocal track.


title: A Bug's Life

text: The casting of Hopper, the film's villain, proved problematic. Lasseter's top choice was Robert De Niro, who repeatedly turned the part down, as did a succession of other actors. Kevin Spacey met John Lasseter at the 1995 Academy Awards and Lasseter asked Spacey if he would be interested in doing the voice of Hopper. Spacey was delighted and signed on immediately.


title: A Bug's Life

text: "A Bug's Life" was the final film appearance of actor Roddy McDowall, who played Mr. Soil, before dying shortly before the film's theatrical release.


title: A Bug's Life

text: It was more difficult for animators during the production of "A Bug's Life" than that of "Toy Story", as computers ran sluggishly due to the complexity of the character models. Lasseter and Stanton had two supervising animators to assist with directing and reviewing the animation: Rich Quade and Glenn McQueen. The first sequence to be animated and rendered was the circus sequence that culminated with P.T. Flea's "Flaming Wall of Death". Lasseter placed this scene first in the pipeline because he believed it was "less likely to change". Lasseter thought it would be useful to look at a view of the world from an insect's perspective. Two technicians obliged by creating a miniature video camera on Lego wheels, which they dubbed as the "Bugcam". Fastened to the end of a stick, the Bugcam could roll through grass and other terrain and send back an insect's-eye outlook. Lasseter was intrigued by the way grass, leaves, and flower petals formed a translucent canopy, as if the insects were living under a stained-glass ceiling. The team also later sought inspiration from "Microcosmos" (1996), a French documentary on love and violence in the insect world.


title: A Bug's Life

text: The transition from treatment to storyboards took on an extra layer of complexity due to the profusion of storylines. Where "Toy Story" focused heavily on Woody and Buzz, with the other toys serving mostly as sidekicks, "A Bug's Life" required in-depth storytelling for several major groups of characters. Character design also presented a new challenge, in that the designers had to make ants appear likable. Although the animators and the art department studied insects more closely, natural realism would give way to the film's larger needs. The team took out mandibles and designed the ants to stand upright, replacing their normal six legs with two arms and two legs. The grasshoppers, in contrast, received a pair of extra appendages to appear less attractive. The story's scale also required software engineers to accommodate new demands. Among these was the need to handle shots with crowds of ants. The film would include more than 400 such shots in the ant colony, some with as many as 800. It was impractical for animators to control them individually, but neither could the ants remain static for even a moment without appearing lifeless, or move identically. Bill Reeves, one of the film's two supervising technical directors, dealt with the quandary by leading the development of software for autonomous ants. The animators would only animate four or five groups of about eight individual "universal ants". Each one of these "universal ants" would later be randomly distributed throughout the digital set. The program also allowed each ant to be automatically modified in subtle ways (e.g. different color of eye or skin, different heights, different weights, etc.). This ensured that no two ants were the same. It was partly based on Reeves's invention of particle systems a decade and a half earlier, which had let animators use masses of self-guided particles to create effects like swirling dust and snow.


title: A Bug's Life

text: The animators also employed subsurface scattering—developed by Pixar co-founder Edwin Catmull during his graduate student days at the University of Utah in the 1970s—to render surfaces in a more lifelike way. This would be the first time that subsurface scattering would be used in a Pixar film, and a small team at Pixar worked out the practical problems that kept it from working in animation. Catmull asked for a short film to test and showcase subsurface scattering and the result, "Geri's Game" (1997), was attached alongside "A Bug's Life" in its theatrical release.


title: A Bug's Life

text: During the production of "A Bug's Life", a public feud erupted between DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Pixar's Steve Jobs and John Lasseter. Katzenberg, former chairman of Disney's film division, had left the company in a bitter feud with CEO Michael Eisner. In response, he formed DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen and planned to rival Disney in animation. After DreamWorks' acquisition of Pacific Data Images (PDI)—long Pixar's contemporary in computer animation—Lasseter and others at Pixar were dismayed to learn from the trade papers that PDI's first project at DreamWorks would be another ant film, to be called "Antz". By this time, Pixar's project was well known within the animation community. Both "Antz" and "A Bug's Life" center on a young male ant, a drone with oddball tendencies that struggles to win a princess's hand by saving their society. Whereas "A Bug's Life" relied chiefly on visual gags, "Antz" was more verbal and revolved more around satire. The script of "Antz" was also heavy with adult references, whereas Pixar's film was more accessible to children.


title: A Bug's Life

text: It was clear that Lasseter and Jobs believed that the idea was stolen by Katzenberg. Katzenberg had stayed in touch with Lasseter after the acrimonious Disney split, often calling to check up. In October 1995, when Lasseter was overseeing postproduction work on "Toy Story" at the Universal lot's Technicolor facility in Universal City, where DreamWorks was also located, he called Katzenberg and dropped by with Stanton. When Katzenberg asked what they were doing next, Lasseter described what would become "A Bug's Life" in detail. Lasseter respected Katzenberg's judgment and felt comfortable using him as a sounding board for creative ideas. Lasseter had high hopes for "Toy Story", and he was telling friends throughout the tight-knit computer-animation business to get cracking on their own films. "If this hits, it's going to be like space movies after "Star Wars"" for computer animation companies, he told various friends. "I should have been wary," Lasseter later recalled. "Jeffrey kept asking questions about when it would be released."


title: A Bug's Life

text: When the trades indicated production on "Antz", Lasseter, feeling betrayed, called Katzenberg and asked him bluntly if it were true, who in turn asked him where he had heard the rumor. Lasseter asked again, and Katzenberg admitted it was true. Lasseter raised his voice and would not believe Katzenberg's story that a development director had pitched him the idea long ago. Katzenberg claimed "Antz" came from a 1991 story pitch by Tim Johnson that was related to Katzenberg in October 1994. Another source gives Nina Jacobson, one of Katzenberg's executives, as the person responsible for the "Antz" pitch. Lasseter, who normally did not use profane language, cursed at Katzenberg and hung up the phone. Lasseter recalled that Katzenberg began explaining that Disney was "out to get him" and that he realized that he was just cannon fodder in Katzenberg's fight with Disney. For his part, Katzenberg believed he was the victim of a conspiracy: Eisner had decided not to pay him his contract-required bonus, convincing Disney's board not to give him anything. Katzenberg was further angered by the fact that Eisner scheduled "Bugs" to open the same week as "The Prince of Egypt", which was then intended to be DreamWorks' first animated release. Lasseter grimly relayed the news to Pixar employees but kept morale high. Privately, Lasseter told other Pixar executives that he and Stanton felt terribly let down by Katzenberg.


title: A Bug's Life

text: Katzenberg moved the opening of "Antz" from spring 1999 to October 1998 to compete with Pixar's release. David Price writes in his 2008 book "The Pixar Touch" that a rumor, "never confirmed", was that Katzenberg had given PDI "rich financial incentives to induce them to whatever it would take to have "Antz" ready first, despite Pixar's head start". Jobs was furious and called Katzenberg and began yelling. Katzenberg made an offer: He would delay production of "Antz" if Jobs and Disney would move "A Bug's Life" so that it did not compete with "The Prince of Egypt". Jobs believed it "a blatant extortion attempt" and would not go for it, explaining that there was nothing he could do to convince Disney to change the date. Katzenberg casually responded that Jobs himself had taught him how to conduct similar business long ago, explaining that Jobs had come to Pixar's rescue by making the deal for "Toy Story", as Pixar was near bankruptcy at that time. "I was the one guy there for you back then, and now you're allowing them to use you to screw me," Katzenberg said. He suggested that if Jobs wanted to, he could simply slow down production on "A Bug's Life" without telling Disney. If he did, Katzenberg said, he would put "Antz" on hold. Lasseter also claimed Katzenberg had phoned him with the proposition, but Katzenberg denied these charges later.


title: A Bug's Life

text: As the release dates for both films approached, Disney executives concluded that Pixar should keep silent on the DreamWorks battle. Regardless, Lasseter publicly dismissed "Antz" as a "schlock version" of "A Bug's Life". Lasseter, who claimed to have never seen "Antz", told others that if DreamWorks and PDI had made the film about anything other than insects, he would have closed Pixar for the day so the entire company could go see it. Jobs and Katzenberg would not back down and the rivaling ant films provoked a press frenzy. "The bad guys rarely win," Jobs told the "Los Angeles Times". In response, DreamWorks' head of marketing Terry Press suggested, "Steve Jobs should take a pill." Despite the successful box office performance of both "Antz" and "A Bug's Life", tensions would remain high between Jobs and Katzenberg for many years. According to Jobs, Katzenberg came to Jobs after the success of "Shrek" (2001) and insisted he had never heard the pitch for "A Bug's Life", reasoning that his settlement with Disney would have given him a share of the profits if that were so. Although the contention left all parties estranged, Pixar and PDI employees kept up the old friendships that had arisen from spending a long time together in computer animation.


title: A Bug's Life

text: The film's score was composed and conducted by Randy Newman. Walt Disney Records released the soundtrack on October 27, 1998. The album's first track is a song called "The Time of Your Life" written and performed by Newman, while all the other 19 tracks are orchestral cues. Although the album was out of print physically in the United States during the 2000s, in June 2018 Universal Music Japan announced that a re-mastered edition would be released on October 3, 2018, along with other soundtrack albums from the Walt Disney Records pre-2018 catalogue. The album is also available for purchase on iTunes. The time duration is 47 minutes and 32 seconds. Out of five stars, "AllMusic", "Empire Online", and "Film Tracks" rated the album three stars. "Movie Wave" rated it four and a half. The score won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition.


title: A Bug's Life

text: A few weeks into the film's theatrical release, new outtakes were added to the theatrical prints. Because the film is animated, no actual outtakes exist; they are animated specifically for the outtakes sequence.


title: A Bug's Life

text: A few days before world premiere, the film was screened at Camp David. A day after the screening, the crew visited Oval Office in the White House.


title: A Bug's Life

text: "A Bug's Life" was the first home video release to be entirely created using a digital transfer. Every frame of animation was converted from the film's computer data, as opposed to the standard analog film-to-videotape transfer process. This allowed for the film's DVD release to retain its original 2.35:1 widescreen format. The DVD was released on April 20, 1999, alongside a VHS release which was presented in a standard 1.33:1 "fullscreen" format. The film's fullscreen transfer was performed by entirely "reframing" the film shot by shot; more than half of the film's footage was modified by Pixar animators to fit within the film's aspect ratio. Several characters and objects were moved closer together to avoid being cut out of frame. The film's VHS release was the best-selling VHS in the United Kingdom, with 1.76 million units sold by the end of the year. On August 1, 2000, these editions were re-released on VHS and DVD under the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection banner.


title: A Bug's Life

text: On November 23, 1999, a 2-disc Collector's Edition DVD was released. It was fully remastered in anamorphic widescreen and has substantial bonus features. The edition was re-released on May 27, 2003, to coincide with the release of "Finding Nemo". This THX-certified DVD released once again gives the option of viewing the film in Widescreen or Full Frame. The second disc features numerous bonus features, such as a set-top game and a "Finding Nemo" featurette.


title: A Bug's Life

text: On May 19, 2009, the film was released on Blu-ray. The film was released on 4K Blu-ray on March 3, 2020.


title: A Bug's Life

text: "A Bug's Life" grossed approximately $33.3 million on its opening weekend, ranking first at the box office. It managed to retain its spot for two weeks until it was taken by "". The film had also earned $46.5 million during the five-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend, surpassing the previous record holder "101 Dalmatians". In 1999, this record was surpassed by "Toy Story 2", which would have the third biggest five-day Wednesday opening, just after "Independence Day" and "".


title: A Bug's Life

text: By late December 1998, "A Bug's Life" had earned over $100 million. Altogether, several in-year 1998 films combined with "Titanic" pulled $7 billion in North America, propelling the film industry to a record year at the box office. At the end of its theatrical run, the film grossed $162.8 million in the United States and Canada and $200.4 million in foreign countries, pushing its worldwide gross to $363.3 million, surpassing the competition from DreamWorks Animation's "Antz".


title: A Bug's Life

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of based on reviews and an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, ""A Bug's Life" is a rousing adventure that blends animated thrills with witty dialogue and memorable characters – and another smashing early success for Pixar." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, gave the film a score of 77 out of 100 based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: A Bug's Life

text: Todd McCarthy of "Variety" wrote, "Lasseter and Pixar broke new technical and aesthetic ground in the animation field with "Toy Story", and here they surpass it in both scope and complexity of movement while telling a story that overlaps "Antz" in numerous ways." James Berardinelli of "ReelViews" gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying ""A Bug's Life", like "Toy Story", develops protagonists we can root for, and places them in the midst of a fast-moving, energetic adventure." Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three and a half stars out of four, writing "Will "A Bug's Life" suffer by coming out so soon after "Antz"? Not any more than one thriller hurts the chances for the next one. "Antz" may even help business for "A Bug's Life" by demonstrating how many dramatic and comedic possibilities can be found in an anthill." Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" gave the film four out of five stars, writing "What "A Bug's Life" demonstrates is that when it comes to bugs, the most fun ones to hang out with hang exclusively with the gang at Pixar." Peter Stack of the "San Francisco Chronicle" gave the film four out of four stars, stating ""A Bug's Life" is one of the great movies – a triumph of storytelling and character development, and a whole new ballgame for computer animation. Pixar Animation Studios has raised the genre to an astonishing new level".


title: A Bug's Life

text: Richard Corliss of "Time" magazine wrote, "The plot matures handsomely; the characters neatly converge and combust; the gags pay off with emotional resonance." Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a B, saying ""A Bug's Life" may be the single most amazing film I've ever seen that I couldn't fall in love with." Paul Clinton of "CNN" wrote, ""A Bug's Life" is a perfect movie for the holidays. It contains a great upbeat message ... it's wonderful to look at ... it's wildly inventive ... and it's entertaining for both adults and kids." Michael Wilmington of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film three and a half stars out of four, and compared the movie to "Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" (with a little of another art-film legend, Federico Fellini, tossed in)." where "As in "Samurai", the colony here is plagued every year by the arrival of bandits." On the contrary, Stephen Hunter of "The Washington Post" wrote, "Clever as it is, the film lacks charm. One problem: too many bugs. Second, bigger world for two purposes: to feed birds and to irk humans."


title: A Bug's Life

text: "A Bug's Life" won a number of awards and numerous nominations. The film won the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards for Best Animated Film (tied with "The Prince of Egypt") and Best Family Film, the Satellite Award for Best Animated Film and the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition by Randy Newman. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the BAFTA Award for Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects. In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated this film for its Top 10 Animation Films list.


title: A Bug's Life

text: In the years since its release, "A Bug's Life" has been regarded by critics and fans to be a Pixar film that, in contrast to its successors, has become largely forgotten by audiences. While recognised as solidifying Pixar's success, the film has been seen as the studio's sophomore slump in the wake of the critically successful "Toy Story", and inhibited by being released directly before the equally revered "Toy Story 2". Pixar's feud with DreamWorks as a result of "Antz" has also been regarded as a factor in "A Bug's Life"s legacy.


title: A Bug's Life

text: Critics have generally ranked "A Bug's Life" to be one of Pixar's weaker releases; while it has been seen as a "charming" and "ambitious" film with pioneering animation for its time, others have described it as "adequate" and appealing more to a younger demographic. However, the film's characters, voice acting, and humor have received lasting praise.


title: A Bug's Life

text: The film's theatrical and video releases include "Geri's Game", an Academy Award winning Pixar short made in 1997, a year before this film was released.


title: A Bug's Life

text: A game, based on the film, was developed by Traveller's Tales and Tiertex Design Studios and released by Sony Computer Entertainment, Disney Interactive, THQ and Activision for various systems. The game's storyline was similar to the film's, with a few changes. However, unlike the film, the game received mixed reviews. Aggregating review website GameRankings gave the Nintendo 64 version 54.40%, the PlayStation version 51.90% and the Game Boy Color version 36.63%. GameSpot gave the PlayStation version a 2.7/10, concluding that it was "obvious that Disney was more interested in producing a $40 advertisement for its movie than in developing a playable game." IGN gave the Nintendo 64 version a 6.8/10, praising the presentation and sound by stating "It was upbeat, cheery look and feel very much like the movie of the same name with cheery, happy tunes and strong sound effects but again criticised the gameplay by saying the controls were sluggish with stuttering framerate and tired gameplay mechanics". while they gave the PlayStation version a 4/10, criticizing the gameplay as slow and awkward but praising the presentation as cinematic.


title: A Bug's Life

text: Disney's Animal Kingdom includes the 3D show "It's Tough to Be a Bug!", which also existed at Disney California Adventure from 2001 to 2018.


title: A Bug's Life

text: The Disney California Adventure nighttime show "World of Color" features a segment that includes Heimlich, the caterpillar from the film.


title: A Bug's Life

text: From 2002 to 2018, A Bug's Land was a section of Disney California Adventure that was inspired by the film.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 10°E to 30°E longitude. A marginal sea of the Atlantic, with limited water exchange between the two water bodies, the Baltic Sea drains through the Danish Straits into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, Great Belt and Little Belt. It includes the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga and the Bay of Gdańsk.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The "Baltic Proper" is bordered on its northern edge, at latitude 60°N, by Åland and the Gulf of Bothnia, on its northeastern edge by the Gulf of Finland, on its eastern edge by the Gulf of Riga, and in the west by the Swedish part of the southern Scandinavian Peninsula.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The Baltic Sea is connected by artificial waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea–Baltic Canal and to the German Bight of the North Sea via the Kiel Canal.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The Helsinki Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area includes the Baltic Sea and the Kattegat, without calling Kattegat a part of the Baltic Sea, "For the purposes of this Convention the 'Baltic Sea Area' shall be the Baltic Sea and the Entrance to the Baltic Sea, bounded by the parallel of the Skaw in the Skagerrak at 57°44.43'N."


title: Baltic Sea

text: Historically, the Kingdom of Denmark collected Sound Dues from ships at the border between the ocean and the land-locked Baltic Sea, in tandem: in the Øresund at Kronborg castle near Helsingør; in the Great Belt at Nyborg; and in the Little Belt at its narrowest part then Fredericia, after that stronghold was built. The narrowest part of Little Belt is the "Middelfart Sund" near Middelfart.


title: Baltic Sea

text: Geographers widely agree that the preferred physical border of the Baltic is a line drawn through the southern Danish islands, Drogden-Sill and Langeland. The Drogden Sill is situated north of Køge Bugt and connects Dragør in the south of Copenhagen to Malmö; it is used by the Øresund Bridge, including the "Drogden Tunnel". By this definition, the Danish Straits is part of the entrance, but the Bay of Mecklenburg and the Bay of Kiel are parts of the Baltic Sea.


title: Baltic Sea

text: Another usual border is the line between Falsterbo, Sweden, and Stevns Klint, Denmark, as this is the southern border of Øresund. It's also the border between the shallow southern Øresund (with a typical depth of 5–10 meters only) and notably deeper water.


title: Baltic Sea

text: Drogden Sill (depth of ) sets a limit to Øresund and Darss Sill (depth of ), and a limit to the Belt Sea. The shallow sills are obstacles to the flow of heavy salt water from the Kattegat into the basins around Bornholm and Gotland.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The Kattegat and the southwestern Baltic Sea are well oxygenated and have a rich biology. The remainder of the Sea is brackish, poor in oxygen, and in species. Thus, statistically, the more of the entrance that is included in its definition, the healthier the Baltic appears; conversely, the more narrowly it is defined, the more endangered its biology appears.


title: Baltic Sea

text: Tacitus called it "Mare Suebicum" after the Germanic people of the Suebi, and Ptolemy "Sarmatian Ocean" after the Sarmatians, but the first to name it the "Baltic Sea" () was the eleventh-century German chronicler Adam of Bremen. The origin of the latter name is speculative and it was adopted into Slavic and Finnic languages spoken around the sea, very likely due to the role of Medieval Latin in cartography. It might be connected to the Germanic word "belt", a name used for two of the Danish straits, the Belts, while others claim it to be directly derived from the source of the Germanic word, Latin "balteus" "belt". Adam of Bremen himself compared the sea with a belt, stating that it is so named because it stretches through the land as a belt ("Balticus, eo quod in modum baltei longo tractu per Scithicas regiones tendatur usque in Greciam").


title: Baltic Sea

text: He might also have been influenced by the name of a legendary island mentioned in the "Natural History" of Pliny the Elder. Pliny mentions an island named "Baltia" (or "Balcia") with reference to accounts of Pytheas and Xenophon. It is possible that Pliny refers to an island named Basilia ("the royal") in "On the Ocean" by Pytheas. "Baltia" also might be derived from "belt", and therein mean "near belt of sea, strait".


title: Baltic Sea

text: Others have suggested that the name of the island originates from the Proto-Indo-European root "*bʰel" meaning "white, fair", which may echo the naming of seas after colours relating to the cardinal points (as per Black Sea and Red Sea). This '*bʰel' root and basic meaning were retained in Lithuanian (as "baltas"), Latvian (as "balts") and Slavic (as "bely"). On this basis, a related hypothesis holds that the name originated from this Indo-European root via a Baltic language such as Lithuanian. Another explanation is that, while derived from the aforementioned root, the name of the sea is related to names for various forms of water and related substances in several European languages, that might have been originally associated with colors found in swamps (compare Proto-Slavic "*bolto" "swamp"). Yet another explanation is that the name originally meant "enclosed sea, bay" as opposed to open sea.


title: Baltic Sea

text: In the Middle Ages the sea was known by a variety of names. The name Baltic Sea became dominant only after 1600. Usage of "Baltic" and similar terms to denote the region east of the sea started only in the 19th century.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The Baltic Sea was known in ancient Latin language sources as "Mare Suebicum" or even "Mare Germanicum". Older native names in languages that used to be spoken on the shores of the sea or near it usually indicate the geographical location of the sea (in Germanic languages), or its size in relation to smaller gulfs (in Old Latvian), or tribes associated with it (in Old Russian the sea was known as the Varanghian Sea). In modern languages, it is known by the equivalents of "East Sea", "West Sea", or "Baltic Sea" in different languages:


title: Baltic Sea

text: At the time of the Roman Empire, the Baltic Sea was known as the "Mare Suebicum" or "Mare Sarmaticum". Tacitus in his AD 98 "Agricola" and "Germania" described the Mare Suebicum, named for the Suebi tribe, during the spring months, as a brackish sea where the ice broke apart and chunks floated about. The Suebi eventually migrated southwest to temporarily reside in the Rhineland area of modern Germany, where their name survives in the historic region known as Swabia. Jordanes called it the "Germanic Sea" in his work, the "Getica".


title: Baltic Sea

text: In the early Middle Ages, Norse (Scandinavian) merchants built a trade empire all around the Baltic. Later, the Norse fought for control of the Baltic against Wendish tribes dwelling on the southern shore. The Norse also used the rivers of Russia for trade routes, finding their way eventually to the Black Sea and southern Russia. This Norse-dominated period is referred to as the Viking Age.


title: Baltic Sea

text: Since the Viking Age, the Scandinavians have referred to the Baltic Sea as "Austmarr" ("Eastern Lake"). "Eastern Sea", appears in the "Heimskringla" and "Eystra salt" appears in "Sörla þáttr". Saxo Grammaticus recorded in "Gesta Danorum" an older name, "Gandvik", "-vik" being Old Norse for "bay", which implies that the Vikings correctly regarded it as an inlet of the sea. Another form of the name, "Grandvik", attested in at least one English translation of "Gesta Danorum", is likely to be a misspelling.


title: Baltic Sea

text: In addition to fish the sea also provides amber, especially from its southern shores within today's borders of Poland, Russia and Lithuania. First mentions of amber deposits on the South Coast of the Baltic Sea date back to the 12th century. The bordering countries have also traditionally exported lumber, wood tar, flax, hemp and furs by ship across the Baltic. Sweden had from early medieval times exported iron and silver mined there, while Poland had and still has extensive salt mines. Thus, the Baltic Sea has long been crossed by much merchant shipping.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The lands on the Baltic's eastern shore were among the last in Europe to be converted to Christianity. This finally happened during the Northern Crusades: Finland in the twelfth century by Swedes, and what are now Estonia and Latvia in the early thirteenth century by Danes and Germans (Livonian Brothers of the Sword). The Teutonic Order gained control over parts of the southern and eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, where they set up their monastic state. Lithuania was the last European state to convert to Christianity.


title: Baltic Sea

text: In the period between the 8th and 14th centuries, there was much piracy in the Baltic from the coasts of Pomerania and Prussia, and the Victual Brothers held Gotland.


title: Baltic Sea

text: Starting in the 11th century, the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic were settled by migrants mainly from Germany, a movement called the "Ostsiedlung" ("east settling"). Other settlers were from the Netherlands, Denmark, and Scotland. The Polabian Slavs were gradually assimilated by the Germans. Denmark gradually gained control over most of the Baltic coast, until she lost much of her possessions after being defeated in the 1227 Battle of Bornhöved.


title: Baltic Sea

text: In the 13th to 16th centuries, the strongest economic force in Northern Europe was the Hanseatic League, a federation of merchant cities around the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. In the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Poland, Denmark, and Sweden fought wars for "Dominium maris baltici" ("Lordship over the Baltic Sea"). Eventually, it was Sweden that virtually encompassed the Baltic Sea. In Sweden, the sea was then referred to as "Mare Nostrum Balticum" ("Our Baltic Sea"). The goal of Swedish warfare during the 17th century was to make the Baltic Sea an all-Swedish sea ("Ett Svenskt innanhav"), something that was accomplished except the part between Riga in Latvia and Stettin in Pomerania. However, the Dutch dominated the Baltic trade in the seventeenth century.


title: Baltic Sea

text: In the eighteenth century, Russia and Prussia became the leading powers over the sea. Sweden's defeat in the Great Northern War brought Russia to the eastern coast. Russia became and remained a dominating power in the Baltic. Russia's Peter the Great saw the strategic importance of the Baltic and decided to found his new capital, Saint Petersburg, at the mouth of the Neva river at the east end of the Gulf of Finland. There was much trading not just within the Baltic region but also with the North Sea region, especially eastern England and the Netherlands: their fleets needed the Baltic timber, tar, flax, and hemp.


title: Baltic Sea

text: During the Crimean War, a joint British and French fleet attacked the Russian fortresses in the Baltic; the case is also known as the Åland War. They bombarded Sveaborg, which guards Helsinki; and Kronstadt, which guards Saint Petersburg; and they destroyed Bomarsund in Åland. After the unification of Germany in 1871, the whole southern coast became German. World War I was partly fought in the Baltic Sea. After 1920 Poland was granted access to the Baltic Sea at the expense of Germany by the Polish Corridor and enlarged the port of Gdynia in rivalry with the port of the Free City of Danzig.


title: Baltic Sea

text: After the Nazis' rise to power, Germany reclaimed the Memelland and after the outbreak of the Eastern Front (World War II) occupied the Baltic states. In 1945, the Baltic Sea became a mass grave for retreating soldiers and refugees on torpedoed troop transports. The sinking of the "Wilhelm Gustloff" remains the worst maritime disaster in history, killing (very roughly) 9,000 people. In 2005, a Russian group of scientists found over five thousand airplane wrecks, sunken warships, and other material, mainly from World War II, on the bottom of the sea.


title: Baltic Sea

text: Since the end of World War II, various nations, including the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States have disposed of chemical weapons in the Baltic Sea, raising concerns of environmental contamination. Today, fishermen occasionally find some of these materials: the most recent available report from the Helsinki Commission notes that four small scale catches of chemical munitions representing approximately of material were reported in 2005. This is a reduction from the 25 incidents representing of material in 2003. Until now, the U.S. Government refuses to disclose the exact coordinates of the wreck sites. Deteriorating bottles leak mustard gas and other substances, thus slowly poisoning a substantial part of the Baltic Sea.


title: Baltic Sea

text: After 1945, the German population was expelled from all areas east of the Oder-Neisse line, making room for new Polish and Russian settlement. Poland gained most of the southern shore. The Soviet Union gained another access to the Baltic with the Kaliningrad Oblast, that had been part of German-settled East Prussia. The Baltic states on the eastern shore were annexed by the Soviet Union. The Baltic then separated opposing military blocs: NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Neutral Sweden developed incident weapons to defend its territorial waters after the Swedish submarine incidents. This border status restricted trade and travel. It ended only after the collapse of the Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s.


title: Baltic Sea

text: Since May 2004, with the accession of the Baltic states and Poland, the Baltic Sea has been almost entirely surrounded by countries of the European Union (EU). The remaining non-EU shore areas are Russian: the Saint Petersburg area and the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave.


title: Baltic Sea

text: Winter storms begin arriving in the region during October. These have caused numerous shipwrecks, and contributed to the extreme difficulties of rescuing passengers of the ferry "M/S Estonia" en route from Tallinn, Estonia, to Stockholm, Sweden, in September 1994, which claimed the lives of 852 people. Older, wood-based shipwrecks such as the "Vasa" tend to remain well-preserved, as the Baltic's cold and brackish water does not suit the shipworm.


title: Baltic Sea

text: Storm surge floods are generally taken to occur when the water level is more than one metre above normal. In Warnemünde about 110 floods occurred from 1950 to 2000, an average of just over two per year.


title: Baltic Sea

text: Historic flood events were the All Saints' Flood of 1304 and other floods in the years 1320, 1449, 1625, 1694, 1784 and 1825. Little is known of their extent. From 1872, there exist regular and reliable records of water levels in the Baltic Sea. The highest was the flood of 1872 when the water was an average of above sea level at Warnemünde and a maximum of above sea level in Warnemünde. In the last very heavy floods the average water levels reached above sea level in 1904, in 1913, in January 1954, on 2–4 November 1995 and on 21 February 2002.


title: Baltic Sea

text: An arm of the North Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic Sea is enclosed by Sweden and Denmark to the west, Finland to the northeast, and the Baltic countries to the southeast.


title: Baltic Sea

text: It is about long, an average of wide, and an average of deep. The maximum depth is which is on the Swedish side of the center. The surface area is about and the volume is about . The periphery amounts to about of coastline.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The Baltic Sea is one of the largest brackish inland seas by area, and occupies a basin (a "Zungenbecken") formed by glacial erosion during the last few ice ages.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The northern part of the Baltic Sea is known as the Gulf of Bothnia, of which the northernmost part is the Bay of Bothnia or Bothnian Bay. The more rounded southern basin of the gulf is called Bothnian Sea and immediately to the south of it lies the Sea of Åland. The Gulf of Finland connects the Baltic Sea with Saint Petersburg. The Gulf of Riga lies between the Latvian capital city of Riga and the Estonian island of Saaremaa.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The Northern Baltic Sea lies between the Stockholm area, southwestern Finland, and Estonia. The Western and Eastern Gotland basins form the major parts of the Central Baltic Sea or Baltic proper. The Bornholm Basin is the area east of Bornholm, and the shallower Arkona Basin extends from Bornholm to the Danish isles of Falster and Zealand.


title: Baltic Sea

text: In the south, the Bay of Gdańsk lies east of the Hel Peninsula on the Polish coast and west of the Sambia Peninsula in Kaliningrad Oblast. The Bay of Pomerania lies north of the islands of Usedom/Uznam and Wolin, east of Rügen. Between Falster and the German coast lie the Bay of Mecklenburg and Bay of Lübeck. The westernmost part of the Baltic Sea is the Bay of Kiel. The three Danish straits, the Great Belt, the Little Belt and The Sound ("Öresund"/"Øresund"), connect the Baltic Sea with the Kattegat and Skagerrak strait in the North Sea.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The water temperature of the Baltic Sea varies significantly depending on exact location, season and depth. At the Bornholm Basin, which is located directly east of the island of the same name, the surface temperature typically falls to during the peak of the winter and rises to during the peak of the summer, with an annual average of around . A similar pattern can be seen in the Gotland Basin, which is located between the island of Gotland and Latvia. In the deep of these basins the temperature variations are smaller. At the bottom of the Bornholm Basin, deeper than , the temperature typically is , and at the bottom of the Gotland Basin, at depths greater than , the temperature typically is . Generally, offshore locations, lower latitudes and islands maintain maritime climates, but adjacent to the water continental climates are common, especially on the Gulf of Finland. In the northern tributaries the climates transition from moderate continental to subarctic on the northernmost coastlines.


title: Baltic Sea

text: On the long-term average, the Baltic Sea is ice-covered at the annual maximum for about 45% of its surface area. The ice-covered area during such a typical winter includes the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga, the archipelago west of Estonia, the Stockholm archipelago, and the Archipelago Sea southwest of Finland. The remainder of the Baltic does not freeze during a normal winter, except sheltered bays and shallow lagoons such as the Curonian Lagoon. The ice reaches its maximum extent in February or March; typical ice thickness in the northernmost areas in the Bothnian Bay, the northern basin of the Gulf of Bothnia, is about for landfast sea ice. The thickness decreases farther south.


title: Baltic Sea

text: Freezing begins in the northern extremities of the Gulf of Bothnia typically in the middle of November, reaching the open waters of the Bothnian Bay in early January. The Bothnian Sea, the basin south of Kvarken, freezes on average in late February. The Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga freeze typically in late January. In 2011, the Gulf of Finland was completely frozen on 15 February.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The ice extent depends on whether the winter is mild, moderate, or severe. In severe winters ice can form around southern Sweden and even in the Danish straits. According to the 18th-century natural historian William Derham, during the severe winters of 1703 and 1708, the ice cover reached as far as the Danish straits. Frequently, parts of the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland are frozen, in addition to coastal fringes in more southerly locations such as the Gulf of Riga. This description meant that the whole of the Baltic Sea was covered with ice.


title: Baltic Sea

text: Since 1720, the Baltic Sea has frozen over entirely 20 times, most recently in early 1987, which was the most severe winter in Scandinavia since 1720. The ice then covered . During the winter of 2010–11, which was quite severe compared to those of the last decades, the maximum ice cover was , which was reached on 25 February 2011. The ice then extended from the north down to the northern tip of Gotland, with small ice-free areas on either side, and the east coast of the Baltic Sea was covered by an ice sheet about wide all the way to Gdańsk. This was brought about by a stagnant high-pressure area that lingered over central and northern Scandinavia from around 10 to 24 February. After this, strong southern winds pushed the ice further into the north, and much of the waters north of Gotland were again free of ice, which had then packed against the shores of southern Finland. The effects of the afore-mentioned high-pressure area did not reach the southern parts of the Baltic Sea, and thus the entire sea did not freeze over. However, floating ice was additionally observed near Świnoujście harbor in January 2010.


title: Baltic Sea

text: In recent years before 2011, the Bothnian Bay and the Bothnian Sea were frozen with solid ice near the Baltic coast and dense floating ice far from it. In 2008, almost no ice formed except for a short period in March.


title: Baltic Sea

text: During winter, fast ice, which is attached to the shoreline, develops first, rendering ports unusable without the services of icebreakers. Level ice, ice sludge, pancake ice, and rafter ice form in the more open regions. The gleaming expanse of ice is similar to the Arctic, with wind-driven pack ice and ridges up to . Offshore of the landfast ice, the ice remains very dynamic all year, and it is relatively easily moved around by winds and therefore forms pack ice, made up of large piles and ridges pushed against the landfast ice and shores.


title: Baltic Sea

text: In spring, the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Bothnia normally thaw in late April, with some ice ridges persisting until May in the eastern extremities of the Gulf of Finland. In the northernmost reaches of the Bothnian Bay, ice usually stays until late May; by early June it is practically always gone. However, in the famine year of 1867 remnants of ice were observed as late as 17 July near Uddskär. Even as far south as Øresund, remnants of ice have been observed in May on several occasions; near Taarbaek on 15 May 1942 and near Copenhagen on 11 May 1771. Drift ice was also observed on 11 May 1799.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The ice cover is the main habitat for two large mammals, the grey seal ("Halichoerus grypus") and the Baltic ringed seal ("Pusa hispida botnica"), both of which feed underneath the ice and breed on its surface. Of these two seals, only the Baltic ringed seal suffers when there is not adequate ice in the Baltic Sea, as it feeds its young only while on ice. The grey seal is adapted to reproducing also with no ice in the sea. The sea ice also harbors several species of algae that live in the bottom and inside unfrozen brine pockets in the ice.


title: Baltic Sea

text: Due to the often fluctuating winter temperatures between above and below freezing, the saltwater ice of the Baltic Sea can be treacherous and hazardous to walk on, in particular in comparison to the more stable fresh water-ice sheets in the interior lakes.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The Baltic Sea flows out through the Danish straits; however, the flow is complex. A surface layer of brackish water discharges per year into the North Sea. Due to the difference in salinity, by salinity permeation principle, a sub-surface layer of more saline water moving in the opposite direction brings in per year. It mixes very slowly with the upper waters, resulting in a salinity gradient from top to bottom, with most of the saltwater remaining below deep. The general circulation is anti-clockwise: northwards along its eastern boundary, and south along with the western one .


title: Baltic Sea

text: The difference between the outflow and the inflow comes entirely from fresh water. More than 250 streams drain a basin of about , contributing a volume of per year to the Baltic. They include the major rivers of north Europe, such as the Oder, the Vistula, the Neman, the Daugava and the Neva. Additional fresh water comes from the difference of precipitation less evaporation, which is positive.


title: Baltic Sea

text: An important source of salty water is infrequent inflows of North Sea water into the Baltic. Such inflows, important to the Baltic ecosystem because of the oxygen they transport into the Baltic deeps, used to happen regularly until the 1980s. In recent decades they have become less frequent. The latest four occurred in 1983, 1993, 2003, and 2014 suggesting a new inter-inflow period of about ten years.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The water level is generally far more dependent on the regional wind situation than on tidal effects. However, tidal currents occur in narrow passages in the western parts of the Baltic Sea. Tides can reach 17 to 19 cm in the Gulf of Finland.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The significant wave height is generally much lower than that of the North Sea. Quite violent, sudden storms sweep the surface ten or more times a year, due to large transient temperature differences and a long reach of the wind. Seasonal winds also cause small changes in sea level, of the order of . According to the media, during a storm in January 2017, an extreme wave above 14m has been measured and significant wave height of around 8m has been measured by the FMI. A numerical study has shown the presence of events with 8 to 10m significant wave heights. Those extreme waves events can play an important role in the coastal zone on erosion and sea dynamics.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The Baltic Sea is the world's largest inland brackish sea. Only two other brackish waters are larger according to some measurements: The Black Sea is larger in both surface area and water volume, but most of it is located outside the continental shelf (only a small fraction is inland). The Caspian Sea is larger in water volume, but—despite its name—it is a lake rather than a sea.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The Baltic Sea's salinity is much lower than that of ocean water (which averages 3.5%), as a result of abundant freshwater runoff from the surrounding land (rivers, streams and alike), combined with the shallowness of the sea itself; runoff contributes roughly one-fortieth its total volume per year, as the volume of the basin is about and yearly runoff is about .


title: Baltic Sea

text: The open surface waters of the Baltic Sea "proper" generally have a salinity of 0.3 to 0.9%, which is border-line freshwater. The flow of freshwater into the sea from approximately two hundred rivers and the introduction of salt from the southwest builds up a gradient of salinity in the Baltic Sea. The highest surface salinities, generally 0.7–0.9%, are in the southwesternmost part of the Baltic, in the Arkona and Bornholm basins (the former located roughly between southeast Zealand and Bornholm, and the latter directly east of Bornholm). It gradually falls further east and north, reaching the lowest in the Bothnian Bay at around 0.3%. Drinking the surface water of the Baltic as a means of survival would actually hydrate the body instead of dehydrating, as is the case with ocean water.


title: Baltic Sea

text: As saltwater is denser than freshwater, the bottom of the Baltic Sea is saltier than the surface. This creates a vertical stratification of the water column, a halocline, that represents a barrier to the exchange of oxygen and nutrients, and fosters completely separate maritime environments. The difference between the bottom and surface salinities varies depending on location. Overall it follows the same southwest to east and north pattern as the surface. At the bottom of the Arkona Basin (equalling depths greater than ) and Bornholm Basin (depths greater than ) it is typically 1.4–1.8%. Further east and north the salinity at the bottom is consistently lower, being the lowest in Bothnian Bay (depths greater than ) where it is slightly below 0.4%, or only marginally higher than the surface in the same region.


title: Baltic Sea

text: In contrast, the salinity of the Danish straits, which connect the Baltic Sea and Kattegat, tends to be significantly higher, but with major variations from year to year. For example, the surface and bottom salinity in the Great Belt is typically around 2.0% and 2.8% respectively, which is only somewhat below that of the Kattegat. The water surplus caused by the continuous inflow of rivers and streams to the Baltic Sea means that there generally is a flow of brackish water out through the Danish Straits to the Kattegat (and eventually the Atlantic). Significant flows in the opposite direction, salt water from the Kattegat through the Danish Straits to the Baltic Sea, are less regular. From 1880 to 1980 inflows occurred on average six to seven times per decade. Since 1980 it has been much less frequent, although a very large inflow occurred in 2014.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The rating of mean discharges differs from the ranking of hydrological lengths (from the most distant source to the sea) and the rating of the nominal lengths. Göta älv, a tributary of the Kattegat, is not listed, as due to the northward upper low-salinity-flow in the sea, its water hardly reaches the Baltic proper:


title: Baltic Sea

text: Countries that border the sea: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The Baltic Sea drainage basin is roughly four times the surface area of the sea itself. About 48% of the region is forested, with Sweden and Finland containing the majority of the forest, especially around the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland.


title: Baltic Sea

text: About 20% of the land is used for agriculture and pasture, mainly in Poland and around the edge of the Baltic Proper, in Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. About 17% of the basin is unused open land with another 8% of wetlands. Most of the latter are in the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The rest of the land is heavily populated. About 85 million people live in the Baltic drainage basin, 15 million within of the coast and 29 million within of the coast. Around 22 million live in population centers of over 250,000. 90% of these are concentrated in the band around the coast. Of the nations containing all or part of the basin, Poland includes 45% of the 85 million, Russia 12%, Sweden 10% and the others less than 6% each.


title: Baltic Sea

text: The Baltic Sea somewhat resembles a riverbed, with two tributaries, the Gulf of Finland and Gulf of Bothnia. Geological surveys show that before the Pleistocene, instead of the Baltic Sea, there was a wide plain around a great river that paleontologists call the Eridanos. Several Pleistocene glacial episodes scooped out the river bed into the sea basin. By the time of the last, or Eemian Stage (MIS 5e), the Eemian Sea was in place. Instead of a true sea, the Baltic can even today also be understood as the common estuary of all rivers flowing into it.


title: Baltic Sea

text: From that time the waters underwent a geologic history summarized under the names listed below. Many of the stages are named after marine animals (e.g. the Littorina mollusk) that are clear markers of changing water temperatures and salinity.