title: Louisa May Alcott

text: In 1840, after several setbacks with the school, the Alcott family moved to a cottage on of land, situated along the Sudbury River in Concord, Massachusetts. The three years they spent at the rented Hosmer Cottage were described as . By 1843, the Alcott family moved, along with six other members of the Consociate Family, to the Utopian Fruitlands community for a brief interval in 1843–1844. After the collapse of the Utopian Fruitlands, they moved on to rented rooms and finally, with Abigail May Alcott's inheritance and financial help from Emerson, they purchased a homestead in Concord. They moved into the home they named "Hillside" on April 1, 1845, but had moved on by 1852 when it was sold to Nathaniel Hawthorne who renamed it The Wayside. Moving 22 times in 30 years, the Alcotts returned to Concord once again in 1857 and moved into Orchard House, a two-story clapboard farmhouse, in the spring of 1858.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: Alcott's early education included lessons from the naturalist Henry David Thoreau who inspired her to write "Thoreau's Flute" based on her time at Walden Pond. Most of the education she received though, came from her father who was strict and believed in "the sweetness of self-denial." She also received some instruction from writers and educators such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, and Julia Ward Howe, all of whom were family friends. She later described these early years in a newspaper sketch entitled "Transcendental Wild Oats." The sketch was reprinted in the volume "Silver Pitchers" (1876), which relates the family's experiment in "plain living and high thinking" at Fruitlands.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: Poverty made it necessary for Alcott to go to work at an early age as a teacher, seamstress, governess, domestic helper, and writer. Her sisters also supported the family, working as seamstresses, while their mother took on social work among the Irish immigrants. Only the youngest, Abigail, was able to attend public school. Due to all of these pressures, writing became a creative and emotional outlet for Alcott. Her first book was "Flower Fables" (1849), a selection of tales originally written for Ellen Emerson, daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Alcott is quoted as saying "I wish I was rich, I was good, and we were all a happy family this day" and was driven in life not to be poor.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: In 1847, she and her family served as station masters on the Underground Railroad, when they housed a fugitive slave for one week and had discussions with Frederick Douglass. Alcott read and admired the "Declaration of Sentiments", published by the Seneca Falls Convention on women's rights, advocating for women's suffrage and became the first woman to register to vote in Concord, Massachusetts in a school board election. The 1850s were hard times for the Alcotts, and in 1854 Louisa found solace at the Boston Theatre where she wrote The Rival Prima Donnas, which she later burned due to a quarrel between the actresses on who would play what role. At one point in 1857, unable to find work and filled with such despair, Alcott contemplated suicide. During that year, she read Elizabeth Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Brontë and found many parallels to her own life. In 1858, her younger sister Elizabeth died, and her older sister Anna married a man named John Pratt. This felt, to Alcott, to be a breaking up of their sisterhood.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: As an adult, Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist. In 1860, Alcott began writing for the "Atlantic Monthly". When the Civil War broke out, she served as a nurse in the Union Hospital in Georgetown, DC, for six weeks in 1862–1863. She intended to serve three months as a nurse, but halfway through she contracted typhoid fever and became deathly ill, though she eventually recovered. Her letters homerevised and published in the Boston anti-slavery paper "Commonwealth" and collected as "Hospital Sketches" (1863, republished with additions in 1869)brought her first critical recognition for her observations and humor. This was her first book and inspired by her army experience. She wrote about the mismanagement of hospitals and the indifference and callousness of some of the surgeons she encountered, and about her own passion for seeing the war first hand. Her main character, Tribulation Periwinkle, shows a passage from innocence to maturity and is a "serious and eloquent witness". Her novel "Moods" (1864), based on her own experience, was also promising.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: After her service as a nurse, Alcott's father wrote her a heartfelt poem titled "To Louisa May Alcott. From her father". The poem describes how proud her father is of her for working as a nurse and helping injured soldiers as well as bringing cheer and love into their home. He ends the poem by telling her she's in his heart for being a selfless faithful daughter. This poem was featured in the books "Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters, and Journals" (1889) and "Louisa May Alcott, the Children's Friend", which talks about her childhood and close relationship with her father.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: Between 1863 and 1872, Alcott anonymously wrote at least thirty-three "gothic thrillers" for popular magazines and papers such as "The Flag of Our Union"; they began to be rediscovered only in 1975. In the mid-1860s she wrote passionate, fiery novels and sensational stories akin to those of English authors Wilkie Collins and Mary Elizabeth Braddon under the nom de plume A. M. Barnard. Among these are "A Long Fatal Love Chase" and "Pauline's Passion and Punishment". Her protagonists for these books, like those of Collins and Braddon (who also included feminist characters in their writings), are strong, smart, and determined. She also produced stories for children, and after they became popular, she did not go back to writing for adults. Other books she wrote are the novelette "A Modern Mephistopheles" (1875), which people thought Julian Hawthorne wrote, and the semi-autobiographical novel "Work" (1873).


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: Catherine Ross Nickerson credits Alcott with creating one of the earliest works of detective fiction in American literature, second only to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and his other Auguste Dupin stories, with the 1865 thriller "V.V., or Plots and Counterplots." A short story published anonymously by Alcott, it concerns a Scottish aristocrat who tries to prove that a mysterious woman has killed his fiancée and cousin. The detective on the case, Antoine Dupres, is a parody of Poe's Dupin who is less concerned with solving the crime than in setting up a way to reveal the solution with a dramatic flourish.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: Alcott became even more successful with the first part of "Little Women: or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy" (1868), a semi-autobiographical account of her childhood with her sisters in Concord, Massachusetts, published by the Roberts Brothers. When Alcott returned to Boston following her travels in Europe, she became an editor at a magazine, "Merry's Museum". It was here where she met Thomas Niles, who encouraged the writing of Part I of the novel, asking her to create a book especially for girls. Part II, or "Part Second", also known as "Good Wives" (1869), followed the March sisters into adulthood and marriage. "Little Men" (1871) detailed Jo's life at the Plumfield School that she founded with her husband Professor Bhaer at the conclusion of Part Two of "Little Women". Lastly, "Jo's Boys" (1886) completed the "March Family Saga".


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: In "Little Women", Alcott based her heroine "Jo" on herself. But whereas Jo marries at the end of the story, Alcott remained single throughout her life. She explained her "spinsterhood" in an interview with Louise Chandler Moulton, "I am more than half-persuaded that I am a man's soul put by some freak of nature into a woman's body... because I have fallen in love with so many pretty girls and never once the least bit with any man.” However, Alcott's romance while in Europe with the young Polish man Ladislas "Laddie" Wisniewski was detailed in her journals but then deleted by Alcott herself before her death. Alcott identified Laddie as the model for Laurie in "Little Women". Likewise, every character seems to be paralleled to some extent with people from Alcott's lifefrom Beth's death mirroring Lizzie's to Jo's rivalry with the youngest, Amy, as Alcott felt a rivalry for (Abigail) May, at times. Though Alcott never married, she did take in May's daughter, Louisa, after May's untimely death in 1879, caring for little "Lulu" for the next eight years.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: In addition to drawing on her own life during the development of "Little Women," Alcott also took influence from several of her earlier works including "The Sisters' Trial," "A Modern Cinderella," and "In the Garret." The characters within these short stories and poems, in addition to Alcott's own family and personal relationships, inspired the general concepts and bases for many of the characters within "Little Women" as well as the author's subsequent novels.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: "Little Women" was well-received, with critics and audiences finding it suitable for many age groupsa fresh, natural representation of daily life. An "Eclectic Magazine" reviewer called it "the very best of books to reach the hearts of the young of any age from six to sixty". With the success of "Little Women", Alcott shied away from the attention and would sometimes act as a servant when fans would come to her house.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: Along with Elizabeth Stoddard, Rebecca Harding Davis, Anne Moncure Crane, and others, Alcott was part of a group of female authors during the Gilded Age, who addressed women's issues in a modern and candid manner. Their works were, as one newspaper columnist of the period commented, "among the decided 'signs of the times'".


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: In 1877, Alcott was one of the founders of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union in Boston. After her youngest sister May died in 1879, Louisa took over the care of her niece, Lulu, who was named after Louisa. Alcott suffered chronic health problems in her later years, including vertigo. She and her earliest biographers attributed her illness and death to mercury poisoning. During her American Civil War service, Alcott contracted typhoid fever and was treated with a compound containing mercury. Recent analysis of Alcott's illness suggests that her chronic health problems may have been associated with an autoimmune disease, not mercury exposure. However, mercury is a known trigger for autoimmune diseases as well. An 1870 portrait of Alcott does show her cheeks to be quite flushed, perhaps with the "butterfly rash" across cheeks and nose which is often characteristic of lupus, but there is no conclusive evidence available for a firm diagnosis.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: Alcott died of a stroke at age 55 in Boston, on March 6, 1888, two days after her father's death. Louisa's last known words were, "Is it not meningitis?" She is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, near Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau, on a hillside now known as "Authors' Ridge". Her niece Lulu was only eight years old when Louisa died. She was cared for by Anna Alcott Pratt, then reunited with her father in Europe and lived abroad until her death in 1976.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: Louisa frequently wrote in her journals about going on long walks and runs. She challenged prevailing social norms regarding gender by encouraging her young female readers to run as well.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: The Alcotts' Concord, MA home, Orchard House (c. 1650), where the family lived for 25 years and where "Little Women" was written and set in 1868, has been a historic house museum since 1912, and pays homage to the Alcotts by focusing on public education and historic preservation. Her Boston home is featured on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail. Harriet Reisen wrote "Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind "Little Women,"" which later became a PBS documentary directed by Nancy Porter. In 2008, John Matteson wrote "Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father", which won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Louisa May Alcott was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: "Little Women" inspired film versions in 1933, 1949, 1994, 2018, and 2019. The novel also inspired television series in 1958, 1970, 1978, and 2017, and anime versions in 1981 and 1987.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: "Little Men" inspired film versions in 1934, 1940, and 1998. This novel also was the basis for a 1998 television series.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: Other films based on Alcott novels and stories are "An Old-Fashioned Girl" (1949), "The Inheritance" (1997), and "An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving" (2008). In 2009 PBS produced an "American Masters" episode titled "Louisa May Alcott – The Woman Behind 'Little Women' ". In 2016 a Google Doodle of the author was created by Google artist Sophie Diao.


title: Louisa May Alcott

text: A dramatized version of Alcott appeared as a character in the television series "Dickinson", in the episode "There's a Certain Slant of Light," which premiered on November 1, 2019. Alcott was portrayed by Zosia Mamet.


title: Richard Sackler

text: Richard Stephen Sackler (born March 10, 1945) is an American billionaire businessman and physician who was the chairman and president of Purdue Pharma, a company best known as the developer of OxyContin, whose connection to the opioid epidemic in the United States was the subject of multiple lawsuits and fines.


title: Richard Sackler

text: He received a bachelor's degree from Columbia College, followed by an MD degree from the New York University School of Medicine.


title: Richard Sackler

text: Sackler joined Purdue Pharma in 1971, as assistant to his father, the company's president. He became head of research and development and head of marketing. Sackler was a key figure in the development of Oxycontin being the moving force behind Purdue Pharma's research around 1990 that pushed Oxycontin to replace MS Contin that was about to have generic competition. Sackler also worked to enlist Russell Portenoy and J. David Haddox into working within the medical community to push a new narrative claiming that opioids were not highly addictive. In pushing Oxycontin through to FDA approval in 1995, Sackler managed to get the FDA to approve a claim that Oxycontin was less addictive than other pain killers, although no studies on how addictive it was or how likely it was to be abused had been conducted as part of the approval process. The addictive nature of opiates has been known for several decades.


title: Richard Sackler

text: Sackler became president in 1999. In 2001, he issued an email to employees of the company urging them to push a narrative that addiction to Oxycontin was caused by the "criminal" addicts who had the addiction, and not caused by anything in the drug itself. Sackler also urged pharmaceutical representatives to urge doctors to prescribe as high doses as possible to increase the company profits.


title: Richard Sackler

text: He was made co-chairman in 2003. Sackler was in charge of the research department that developed OxyContin. As president, he approved the targeted marketing schemes to promote sales of OxyContin to doctors, pharmacists, nurses, academics, and others. Shelby Sherman, an ex-Purdue sales rep, has called these marketing schemes "graft".


title: Richard Sackler

text: In 2008, Sackler, with the knowledge of Mortimer Sackler and Jonathan Sackler, made Purdue Pharma measure its "performance" in proportion to not only the number but also the strength of the doses it sold, despite allegedly knowing that sustained high doses of OxyContin risked serious side effects, including addiction.


title: Richard Sackler

text: In 2015, Sackler was deposed by four lawyers in Louisville, Kentucky. The deposition concerned the development and marketing of OxyContin under the watch of him and his family, who were and are active board members of their private company, Purdue Pharma. The marketing and prescribing of OxyContin in Pike County, Kentucky, was of particular interest.


title: Richard Sackler

text: Before the case could go to trial and thus before the deposition could become a matter of public record, Purdue settled for $24 million, admitting no liability, sealing the deposition, and requiring the Kentucky prosecutors to destroy, or return to Purdue, millions of pages of internal documents obtained from the company during discovery. The medical news website STAT then sued to unseal Richard Sackler's deposition. A state judge ruled in its favor. Purdue appealed, but the deposition was later made public .


title: Richard Sackler

text: In 2018, the State of Massachusetts sued Richard Sackler, Purdue Pharma, and 15 other Purdue Pharma executives and Sackler family members alleging they misled doctors and patients about the risks of its opioid-based pain medications in order to boost sales and to keep patients away from safer alternatives. Richard Sackler wrote, "We have to hammer on the abusers in every way possible. They are the culprits and the problem. They are the reckless criminals," in an email regarding the Massachusetts court filing.


title: Richard Sackler

text: In January 2019, "The New York Times" confirmed that Sackler told company officials in 2008 to "measure our performance by Rx’s by strength, giving higher measures to higher strengths." This was verified again with legally obtained documents tied to a new lawsuit, which was filed in June by the Massachusetts attorney general, Maura Healey, and claims that Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family knew that putting patients on high dosages of OxyContin for long periods increased the risks of serious side effects, including addiction. Nonetheless, they promoted higher dosages because stronger pain pills brought the company and the Sacklers the most profit, the lawsuit has charged. In addition, on February 1, 2019, unredacted documents were released by AG Healey showing the Sacklers were directing doctors to over-prescribe the drug and encourage medicating strategy under the code name "Region Zero", that details a list of doctors who prescribed inordinately large amounts of Oxycontin for no true medical reason, but rather for the directly related profit of the Sackler family.


title: Richard Sackler

text: Sackler was married to Beth Sackler but is now divorced; they have three children: Rebecca, Marianna, and David. They have a charitable foundation, the Richard and Beth Sackler Foundation. He has lived outside Austin, Texas, since 2013.


title: Marcus Mumford

text: Marcus Oliver Johnstone Mumford (born 31 January 1987) is a British-American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and lead singer of the band Mumford & Sons. He also plays a number of instruments with the group, including guitar, drums and mandolin. He is married to English actress Carey Mulligan.


title: Marcus Mumford

text: Mumford was born on 31 January 1987 in Yorba Linda, California, to English parents, John and Eleanor (née Weir-Breen) Mumford, international leaders of the Vineyard Churches. As a result, he has held both UK and US citizenship from birth.


title: Marcus Mumford

text: Mumford's family moved back to the UK when Marcus was six months old. He grew up on Chatsworth Avenue in Wimbledon Chase, southwest London, and was educated at King's College School in Wimbledon, where he met future band member Ben Lovett. He returned to London to focus on his music career after his first year of study at the University of Edinburgh, where he collaborated on Mumford & Sons' debut album, "Sigh No More".


title: Marcus Mumford

text: Mumford has revealed that he was sexually abused as a child: "Not by family and not in the church, which might be some people’s assumption. But I hadn’t told anyone about it for 30 years".


title: Marcus Mumford

text: Mumford began his musical career playing drums for Laura Marling on tour, along with the other current members of Mumford & Sons. It was through touring with Marling and gaining experience playing gigs as well as experimenting with his early writing that they decided to form the band in 2007.


title: Marcus Mumford

text: Mumford was included in the "Forbes" 30 Under 30 list of music stars in December 2012 for his achievements with his band. "Forbes" commented of the list, which also included acts such as Adele and Rihanna: "In sum they represent the entrepreneurial, creative and intellectual best of their generation. Individually, they are engaging, surprising and incredibly hardworking."


title: Marcus Mumford

text: Mumford sang a cover of "Dink's Song" with Oscar Isaac for the 2013 Coen brothers film "Inside Llewyn Davis". Although he is not seen in the film, Mumford voices the protagonist's musical partner, Mike, who dies by suicide before the beginning of the film.


title: Marcus Mumford

text: Mumford is featured on the 2014 collaborative album "", with other artists including Elvis Costello, Rhiannon Giddens, Taylor Goldsmith, Jim James, Jay Bellerose, and T Bone Burnett. Mumford takes co-writing credits on tracks "Kansas City", "When I Get My Hands on You", "The Whistle Is Blowing", "Stranger", and "Lost on the River #20".


title: Marcus Mumford

text: On 23 September 2014, the video for "When I Get My Hands on You" was released and features him on lead vocals. Mumford & Sons' third album, "Wilder Mind", was released on 4 May 2015.


title: Marcus Mumford

text: Mumford & Sons' fourth album, "Delta", was released on 16 November 2018, featuring appearances from Maggie Rogers, Yebba and Gill Landry.


title: Marcus Mumford

text: On 12 July 2022, Mumford announced his debut solo album "Self-Titled" would be released in September of that year. Produced by Blake Mills, it features guests Brandi Carlile, Phoebe Bridgers, Clairo and Monica Martin and includes "Cannibal", a song Mumford wrote in January 2021 about his personal struggles. Steven Spielberg directed the music video for the song, which was shot on 3 July in a high school gym in New York.


title: Marcus Mumford

text: In 2014 Mumford produced "Hold Fast" by Christian Letts (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros), released February 2015. Mumford co-wrote four tracks from the record - "Copper Bells", "La Mer", "Emeralds" and "Matches".


title: Marcus Mumford

text: In April 2012 he married Carey Mulligan in Somerset. They were childhood pen pals who reconnected as adults. They married a few weeks after working together on the Coen brothers film "Inside Llewyn Davis". They have two children.


title: This Is the End

text: This Is the End is a 2013 American apocalyptic comedy film written, directed and produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, in their directorial debuts. It is a feature-length film adaptation of the short film "Jay and Seth Versus the Apocalypse" (2007), which was also written by Rogen and Goldberg with the short's director, Jason Stone, serving as an executive producer. Starring James Franco, Jonah Hill, Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera and Emma Watson, the film centers on fictionalized versions of its cast in the wake of a global biblical apocalypse.


title: This Is the End

text: Produced by Mandate Pictures and Rogen and Goldberg's Point Grey Pictures, "This Is the End" premiered at the Fox Village Theater on June 3, 2013, and was released theatrically in the United States on June 12, by Columbia Pictures. The film was both a critical and commercial success, receiving positive reviews from critics and grossing $126 million worldwide on a budget of $32–41.9 million.


title: This Is the End

text: Jay Baruchel arrives in Los Angeles to visit an old friend and fellow Canadian actor Seth Rogen, who invites him to a housewarming party hosted by James Franco. There, Jay is uncomfortable at the crowded party, so Seth accompanies him to a convenience store for cigarettes. When beams of blue light come down and suck numerous people into the sky, Seth and Jay flee back to James' house and find the party unharmed. An earthquake strikes, and the crowd rushes outside, witnessing a sinkhole opening up in James' yard. Several celebrities and party guests are killed as Seth, Jay, James, Jonah Hill and Craig Robinson run back inside the house, where Jay tells the remaining partygoers that the earthquake has destroyed most of Los Angeles. They take inventory of their supplies, set up a ration system, board up the house, and await help.


title: This Is the End

text: The next morning, Danny McBride, who crashed the party and fell asleep, wakes up first and wastes much of the group's food and water due to his ignorance of the crisis. He disbelieves what the others tell him of the previous night's events until an unseen creature decapitates a man outside. Tensions rise due to various conflicts, including Jay and Seth's growing estrangement and the others' skepticism of Jay's belief that the disaster might be the Apocalypse predicted in the "Book of Revelation". Emma Watson makes her way back to James' house. However, she misinterprets an overheard conversation and, believing the group intends to rape her, flees with their remaining water.


title: This Is the End

text: Craig goes for water stored in James' cellar but finds the doors locked. Outside he encounters an unknown being, causing him to believe Jay's theory. Jay and Seth dig through the floor and find water, but Danny wastes most of it out of spite, and the others kick him out of the house. Before leaving, Danny reveals that Jay was in town two months prior but stayed at a hotel instead of with Seth because of their strained friendship. Jonah annoys Jay, who then punches him in the face. That night, Jonah prays for Jay to die and is possessed by a demon. While Craig and Jay venture to a neighbor's house for to scavenge for supplies, the possessed Jonah attacks Seth and James. Jay and Craig return and help subdue Jonah, tying him to a bed. During an exorcism attempt, Jay and Seth fight and knock over a candle, starting a fire that engulfs Jonah and the house and forces the others outside.


title: This Is the End

text: James suggests driving to his home in Malibu, but finds his car guarded by a demon. Craig volunteers to sacrifice himself and is raptured into Heaven when the plan succeeds; the others realize they can save themselves by performing a selfless act. On the way to Malibu, the three encounter cannibals led by Danny and his sex slave, Channing Tatum. When James volunteers to sacrifice himself, a blue beam begins to pull him to Heaven, but when he taunts and insults Danny, the beam vanishes, and Danny and the other cannibals eat James alive while Seth and Jay escape and encounter Satan. Jay apologizes to Seth for his wrongdoings while Satan attempts to eat them. A beam strikes Jay, and he begins to ascend while Seth does not. Jay grabs Seth's hand, but his presence prevents them from ascending into Heaven; Seth forces Jay to leave him behind, after which another beam appears around Seth, inadvertently skewering Satan and castrating him.


title: This Is the End

text: The pair arrive in Heaven and are reunited with Craig, who tells them that any wish comes true. After Jay wishes for the Backstreet Boys, the band performs "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" as everyone in Heaven dances.


title: This Is the End

text: Additionally, Brian Huskey portrays a survivor who attempts to enter Franco's home and Ricky Mabe appears as one of McBride's cannibals, dressed as Santa Claus. Jason Trost makes an uncredited appearance as JTRO, a character he previously portrayed in "The FP" (2011). Carol Sutton also appears as a gas station cashier in an early scene. Jason Stone voiced Satan, possessed Jonah Hill and other demons in uncredited role.


title: This Is the End

text: Regarding why they made the film, Rogen and Goldberg told interviewers that "We always wanted to do a movie where people played themselves and something extraordinary happened; the initial version of the film was Seth Rogen and Busta Rhymes were filming a music video and a film respectively, on the Sony lot, and Antmen attacked from the center of the earth." The film is also based on "Jay and Seth versus the Apocalypse", a short film created by Rogen, Goldberg and Jason Stone in 2007.


title: This Is the End

text: In an interview with "The Guardian", Goldberg commented on influences contributing to the film, "If you drilled down to the core of what I do, it's just ripping off little bits of Charlie Kaufman. Seth and I always loved "The Larry Sanders Show" too. And the popularity of reality television now also feeds into that idea of whether what we're watching is actually real. We thought working with our friends in that situation would be awesome because they're all comedians willing to take stabs at themselves." The actors play exaggerated versions of themselves, with only James Franco having no objections to doing what the script wanted him to do.


title: This Is the End

text: While the film is set in Los Angeles, principal photography took place in New Orleans due to financial incentives from that city. Filming rolled from February to early July 2012. The film had a production budget of $42 million, with $32 million spent in Louisiana. Modus FX made over 240 visual effects for the film, such as natural disasters, set extensions for the house, computer-generated demons and the Rapture beams. After filming wrapped, Rogen and Goldberg were displeased with their ending; they considered putting Morgan Freeman in Heaven, but he declined. Since "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" already played in an earlier scene and Rogen and Goldberg wanted to close on an over-the-top note, they decided to feature the Backstreet Boys in the scene instead.


title: This Is the End

text: During filming, Emma Watson left the set due to scenes being improvised that she felt uncomfortable with, such as the progression of the graphic nature of the scenes involving Danny McBride as a cannibal and his sex slave, Channing Tatum. Rogen confirmed this, stating it was "an overall shitty situation, and it must've been hard for her to say something", elaborating "I'm very sorry and disappointed it happened, and I wish I had done more to prevent it."


title: This Is the End

text: During production, the film's working title was "The Apocalypse", which was later changed to "The End of the World". The name was then changed to "This Is the End" on December 20, 2012 upon the release of its first trailer and poster. This was done at the request of Rogen's "Paul" co-star Simon Pegg, who wrote to Rogen in concern that "The End of the World" was similar to his comedy film "The World's End", which was also released in summer 2013 and centered around an apocalypse with an ensemble cast. As "The World's End" was the name of a key location in that film, Pegg felt worried that he couldn't change the name of his film.


title: This Is the End

text: This Is the End: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack of the film. It was released on June 11, 2013 by RCA Records.


title: This Is the End

text: The score by Henry Jackman, with additional material by Dominic Lewis and Matthew Margeson and conducted by Nick Glennie-Smith, was not officially released on its own, not even as bonus tracks on the CD or digital releases on RCA's album. Despite that, a promotional album for the score does exist, according to Soundtrack.net.


title: This Is the End

text: On April 1, 2013, Sony released an April Fools' Day trailer for "Pineapple Express 2", which was actually a teaser trailer for "This Is the End". According to Rogen and Goldberg, however, the homemade "Pineapple Express 2" film in "This Is the End" depicts what they envision for the actual sequel.


title: This Is the End

text: The film was rated R for "crude and sexual content throughout, brief graphic nudity, pervasive language, drug use and some violence" by the Motion Picture Association of America; this rating shocked both Rogen and Goldberg, who expected an NC-17 rating for the film. Goldberg stated: "All the ratings stuff doesn't make sense in the first place, but this is like ludicrous," Rogen then commented: "We actually made it even a little worse than we wanted and that [original] version got approved. Insanely, [we] didn't have a ratings issue."


title: This Is the End

text: The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 1, 2013. It was the last film to be rented by Blockbuster Video before they went out of business at 11:00 PM on November 9, 2013. The Blu-ray release fully contains the original short the film was based on, "Jay and Seth Versus the Apocalypse", as a special feature.


title: This Is the End

text: "This Is the End" grossed $101.5 million in North America and $25.1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $126.5 million, against a production budget of $32 million. It made a net profit of $50 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film.


title: This Is the End

text: The film was released in North America on June 12, 2013, alongside "Man of Steel", and was projected to open to around $12 million from 3,055 theaters. The film made $7.8 million on its first day and went on to debut to $20.7 million in its opening weekend (a five-day total of $33 million), finishing second at the box office behind "Man of Steel" ($116.6 million). In its second weekend it grossed $13.3 million, dropping to 4th.


title: This Is the End

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "Energetic, self-deprecating performances and enough guffaw-inducing humor make up for the flaws in "This Is the End"'s loosely written script." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: This Is the End

text: Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a letter grade of "A", saying, "You could sit through a year's worth of Hollywood comedies and still not see anything that's genuinely knock-your-socks-off audacious. But "This Is the End" . . truly is. It's the wildest screen comedy in a long time and also the smartest, the most fearlessly inspired and the snort-out-loud funniest." Brian D. Johnson of "Maclean's" wrote, "There could be worse ways to experience the apocalypse than with a party of stoned celebrities at James Franco's house. For one thing, his epic art collection can be used to board up the cracking walls against demons and zombies. That's the screwball scenario of "This Is the End"...The film unfolds as a profanely funny showbiz parody. But with perfect timing, it also sends up a genre that has recently gone viral at the multiplex: the apoca-blockbuster."


title: This Is the End

text: Not all reviews were positive; Rick Groen of Canada's "The Globe and Mail" gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of five, comparing the film to the interminable wait for a cancelled bus and referring to the actors in the film as "the lazy, the privileged and the mirthless".


title: This Is the End

text: When Evan Goldberg was asked whether a sequel to the film was probable, he said, "If you ask me, I'd say there's a pretty good chance of a sequel. If you ask Seth Rogen, he'd say no." In June 2013, Goldberg announced some ideas for a sequel in which the apocalypse occurs at the premiere of the first film. "Seth's a cokehead in this version, Michael Cera is a calm dude with a boyfriend, Rihanna and The Backstreet Boys are back," Goldberg said in an interview. "We have a lot of ideas: a heaven and hell for example and a Garden of Eden version where Danny [McBride] is Adam." Despite this, Goldberg has also stated that it would be difficult to recreate the casting conditions from the first film due to different schedules, believing them to be a stroke of luck by saying: "I honestly don't know if we could get the guys together [again]." In May 2014, Rogen posted a status of the sequel, saying: "I don't think we'll make a sequel to "This Is the End", but if we did, it would be called "No, THIS Is the End"."


title: This Is the End

text: "This Is the End" was adapted into a 3D maze titled "This Is the End 3D" for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2015. The maze served as the event's first horror/comedy-based attraction.


title: Åland

text: Åland (: ; ; ) is an autonomous and demilitarised region of Finland since 1920 by a decision of the League of Nations. It is the smallest region of Finland by area and population, with a size of 1,580 km, and a population of 30,129, constituting 0.51% of its land area and 0.54% of its population. Its only official language is Swedish and the capital city is Mariehamn.


title: Åland

text: Åland is situated in an archipelago, called the Åland Islands, at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea belonging to Finland. It comprises Fasta Åland on which 90% of the population resides and about 6,500 skerries and islands to its east. Of Åland's thousands of islands, about 60–80 are inhabited. Fasta Åland is separated from the coast of Roslagen in Sweden by of open water to the west. In the east, the Åland archipelago is contiguous with the Finnish archipelago. Åland's only land border is located on the uninhabited skerry of Märket, which it shares with Sweden. From Mariehamn, there is a ferry distance of about to Turku, a coastal city of mainland Finland, and also to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.


title: Åland

text: Åland's autonomous status means that those provincial powers normally exercised by representatives of the central Finnish government are largely exercised by its own government. The current demilitarised, neutral position of Åland dates back to the days of the Paris Peace Treaty after the Åland War in the 1850s. 2022 marked the 100th anniversary of the autonomous status.


title: Åland

text: The autonomous status of Åland was affirmed by a decision made by the League of Nations in 1921 following the Åland Islands dispute. It was reaffirmed within the treaty admitting Finland to the European Union. By law, Åland is politically neutral and entirely demilitarised, and residents are exempt from conscription to the Finnish Defence Forces. Åland was granted extensive autonomy by the Parliament of Finland in the Act on the Autonomy of Åland of 1920, which was later replaced by new legislation by the same name in 1951 and 1991. The constitution of Finland defines a "constitution of Åland" by referring to this act. Åland remains exclusively Swedish-speaking by this act.


title: Åland

text: Although a referendum to join the European Union had been held in mainland Finland on 16 October 1994, Åland held a separate vote on 20 November as they were a separate customs jurisdiction. EU membership was approved by 73.64% of voters. In connection with Finland's admission to the European Union, a protocol was signed concerning Åland that stipulates, among other things, that provisions of the European Community Treaty shall not force a change of the existing restrictions for foreigners (i.e., persons who do not enjoy "home region rights"——in Åland) to acquire and hold real property or to provide certain services.


title: Åland

text: Åland's original name was in the Proto-Norse language which means 'land of water'. Proto-Germanic is related to the Latin word for water, . In Swedish, this first developed into and eventually into , literally 'river land'—even though rivers are not a prominent feature of Åland's geography. The Finnish and Estonian names of the area, and ('perch-land', from Finnish , for the type of fish), are seen to preserve another form of the old name.


title: Åland

text: Another theory suggests that the Finnish would be the original name of the archipelago, from which the Swedish derives.


title: Åland

text: It is worth mentioning that 'avena' is Latin for 'oats'. This might have led Pliny the Elder to write of "some islands [...] the inhabitants [...] live on [...] oats" and be an indication of their name at the time of writing: AD 77.


title: Åland

text: Members of the Neolithic Comb Ceramic culture started settling the archipelago some 7000 years ago, after the islands had begun to re-emerge from the sea after being pushed down by the weight of the continental ice of the latest ice-age. Two Neolithic cultures met on Åland: the Comb Ceramic culture and the later Pit-Comb Ware culture which spread from the west.


title: Åland

text: Stone Age and Bronze Age people obtained food by hunting seals and birds, fishing, and gathering plants. They also started agriculture early on. In the Iron Age, contacts with Scandinavia increased. From the Iron Age, Åland has six hillforts. From the Viking age there are over 380 documented burial sites.


title: Åland

text: By mistake, the coat of arms of Åland were originally granted to the Swedish island province of Öland in 1560, and display a golden red deer (that doesn't live in Åland) on a blue field. This is traditionally surmounted by a comital coronet of the elder Swedish style.


title: Åland

text: Along with Finland, Åland formed part of the territory ceded to Russia by Sweden under the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in September 1809. As a result, they became part of the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland (1809–1917). During negotiations, Sweden failed to secure a provision that the islands not be fortified. The issue was important not only for Sweden but also for the United Kingdom, which as a result of the Treaty of 1809 became concerned that a Russian military presence on the islands could threaten Britain's commercial interests in its trade passing through the Baltic.


title: Åland

text: In 1832, Russia started to fortify the islands, with the great fortress of Bomarsund. In 1854, as part of the campaign in the Baltic during the Crimean War against Russia, a combined British and French force of warships and marines captured and destroyed the fortress during the Åland War. The 1856 Treaty of Paris demilitarised the entire Åland archipelago.


title: Åland

text: During the Finnish Civil War, in 1918, Swedish troops intervened as a peacekeeping force between the Russian troops stationed on the islands and "White" and "Red" Finnish troops who came from Finland over the frozen sea. Within weeks, the Swedish troops gave way to German troops who occupied Åland at the request of the "White" (conservative) Senate of Finland.


title: Åland

text: After 1917, the residents of Åland worked towards having them ceded to Sweden. In 1919 96.4% of the voters in Åland signed a petition for secession from Finland and for integration with Sweden, with over 95% in favour. Swedish nationalist sentiments had strengthened particularly as a result of the anti-Swedish tendencies in Finland and as a result of Finnish nationalism fueled by Finland's struggle to retain its autonomy and resistance against Russification. The conflict between the Swedish-speaking minority and the Finnish-speaking majority on the Finnish mainland, prominent in Finnish politics since the 1840s, contributed to the apprehension of the Åland population about a future within Finland.


title: Åland

text: Finland, however, declined to cede the islands and instead offered the islanders an autonomous status. Nevertheless, the residents did not approve the offer, and in 1921 the dispute over the islands went before the newly formed League of Nations. The latter decided that Finland should retain sovereignty over the province, but that Åland should be made an autonomous territory. One of the important proponents of a diplomatic solution to the case was Nitobe Inazō, who was one of the Under-Secretaries General of the League and the director of the International Bureaux Section, in charge of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation. The Åland convention of 20 October 1921, signed by Sweden, Finland, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Denmark, Poland, Estonia, and Latvia, was the first international agreement achieved by the League. Thus, Finland was obliged to ensure the residents of Åland the right to maintain the Swedish language, as well as their own culture and local traditions. The convention of 1921 established the neutral status of Åland by international treaty, prohibiting the placing of military installations or forces on the islands. Åland's Regional Assembly convened for its first plenary session in Mariehamn on 9 June 1922; today, the day is celebrated as Self-Government Day of Åland.


title: Åland

text: The islanders' disappointment about insufficient support from Sweden in the League of Nations, Swedish disrespect for Åland's demilitarised status in the 1930s, and some feelings of a shared destiny with Finland during and after the Second World War, changed their perception of their relationship with Finland from "a Swedish province in Finnish possession" to "an autonomous part of Finland".


title: Åland

text: Because of the condition of neutrality under the 1921 Convention, the islanders enjoyed safety at sea during the war of 1939–1945, as their merchant fleet sailed both for the Allied countries and for Nazi Germany. Consequently, Åland shipping was not generally attacked, as the various military forces rarely knew which cargo was being carried or to whom.


title: Åland

text: Finland marked the 150th anniversary of the demilitarisation of Åland by issuing a high-value commemorative coin, the €5 150th Anniversary of Demilitarisation of Åland commemorative coin, minted in 2006. The obverse depicts a pine tree, a typical feature of Åland. The reverse features a boat's stern and rudder, with a dove perched on the tiller, a symbol of 150 years of peace.


title: Åland

text: Åland is governed according to the Act on the Autonomy of Åland and international treaties. These laws guarantee the region's autonomy from Finland, which has ultimate sovereignty over them, as well as a demilitarised status. The Government of Åland, or , answers to the Parliament of Åland, or , in accordance with the principles of parliamentarism.


title: Åland

text: Åland has its own flag and has issued its own postage stamps since 1984. It runs its own police force, and is an associate member of the Nordic Council. Åland is demilitarised, and the population is exempt from conscription. Although Åland's autonomy preceded the creation of the regions of Finland, the autonomous government of Åland also has responsibility for the functions undertaken by Finland's regional councils. Åland Post provides postal services to the islands, and is a member of the Small European Postal Administration Cooperation. Åland is considered a separate entity for amateur radio purposes and have their own call sign prefix granted by Finland, codice_1, codice_2 and codice_3 (last character is zero).


title: Åland

text: Åland is guaranteed representation in the Finnish parliament, to which they elect one representative. Åland also has a different system of political parties from the mainland.


title: Åland

text: Homeschooling, which has been effectively banned in Sweden since 2011, is allowed by the Finnish government. Due to the islands' proximity to Sweden and because they are Swedish-speaking, a number of Swedish homeschooling families have moved from the Swedish mainland to Åland, including Jonas Himmelstrand, the chairman of the Swedish association for homeschooling.


title: Åland

text: After a reform of the electoral law, Åland was to introduce internet voting in 2019 for expat voters in the parliamentary elections, considering opening the use of the same system for the next elections (2023) to all the voters. However, its use was cancelled at the last minute due to a lack of evidence of the trustability of the system.


title: Åland

text: Åland's parties include a separatist party called the Future of Åland (), whose main program includes driving autonomous Åland into a completely independent state.


title: Åland

text: Åland held its own referendum on membership of the European Union on 20 November 1994. A majority of Ålanders voted in favour of membership, and it followed Finland into the Union in 1995. A special Åland protocol regulates Åland's position within the EU. It has some important exceptions, concerning the right of non-Ålanders to own real estate and the right of non-Ålandic companies to establish themselves in the region, and concerning EU tax legislation. The last item's derogation means that Åland is considered a third country for tax purposes, which has had the most important effect of allowing the profitable sale of tax-exempt goods on ferries to and from Sweden and Finland to continue.


title: Åland

text: The State Department of Åland represents the Finnish central government and performs many administrative duties. It has a somewhat different function from the other Regional Administrative Agencies, owing to its . Before 2010, the state administration was handled by the Åland State Provincial Office.


title: Åland

text: Åland has its own postal administration but still uses the Finnish five-digit postal code system, using the number range 22000–22999, with the prefix AX. The lowest numbered postal code is for the capital Mariehamn, AX 22100, and the highest AX 22950 for Jurmo.


title: Åland

text: Åland contains 16 municipalities. Over forty percent of all inhabitants live in Mariehamn, the capital.


title: Åland

text: Åland occupies a position of strategic importance, as it commands one of the entrances to the port of Stockholm, as well as the approaches to the Gulf of Bothnia, in addition to being situated near the Gulf of Finland.


title: Åland

text: The Åland archipelago includes nearly three hundred habitable islands, of which about 60-80 are inhabited; the remainder are merely some 6,200 skerries and desolate rocks. The archipelago is connected to Åboland archipelago in the east (, )—the archipelago adjacent to the southwest coast of Finland. Together they form the Archipelago Sea. To the West from Åland is the Sea of Åland and to the North is the Bothnian Sea.


title: Åland

text: The surface of the islands is generally rocky and the soil thin due to glacial stripping at the end of the most recent ice age. The islands also contain many meadows that are home to many different kinds of insects, such as the Glanville fritillary butterfly.


title: Åland

text: Åland's landmass occupies a total area of . Ninety per cent of the population live on Fasta Åland, which is also the site of the capital town of Mariehamn. Fasta Åland is the largest island in the archipelago. Its area is difficult to estimate due to its irregular shape and coastline, but estimates range from 740 square kilometres to 879 square kilometres to over 1,010 square kilometres, depending on what is included or excluded. There are several harbours.


title: Åland

text: During the Åland Islands dispute, the parties sought support from different maps of the area. On the Swedish map, the most densely populated main island dominated, and many skerries were left out. On the Finnish map, many smaller islands or skerries were, for technical reasons, given a slightly exaggerated size. The Swedish map made the islands appear to be closer to the mainland of Sweden than to Finland; the Finnish map stressed the continuity of the archipelago between the main island and mainland Finland, while a greater gap appeared between the islands and the archipelago on the Swedish side. One consequence is the often repeated number of "over 6,000" skerries that was given authority by the outcome of the arbitration.


title: Åland

text: Many animals that live in the islands are not native. Animals such as elk and other species of deer were introduced in the 20th century.


title: Åland

text: Åland has a humid continental climate (Dfb) that is influenced by its maritime position, especially in summer. While summers are cooler than on both the Swedish and Finnish mainland, winters see little difference to the adjacent parts of Sweden and are only narrowly milder than in mainland Finland.


title: Åland

text: Åland's economy is heavily dominated by shipping, trade and tourism. Shipping represents about 40% of the economy, with several international carriers owned and operated from Åland. Most companies aside from shipping are small, with fewer than ten employees. Farming and fishing are important in combination with the food industry. A few high-profile technology companies contribute to a prosperous economy. Wind power is rapidly developing, aiming at reversing the direction in the cables to the mainland in coming years. In December 2011, wind power accounted for 31.5% of Åland's total electricity usage.


title: Åland

text: The main ports are the Western Harbour of Mariehamn (south), Berghamn (west) and Långnäs on the eastern shore of the Main Island. Fasta Åland has the only four highways in Åland: Highway 1 (from Mariehamn to Eckerö), Highway 2 (from Mariehamn to Sund), Highway 3 (from Mariehamn to Lumparland) and Highway 4 (from Finström to Geta).


title: Åland

text: Mariehamn served as the base for the last large oceanic commercial sailing-ships in the world. Their final tasks involved bringing Australian wheat to Great Britain, a trade which Åland shipowner Gustaf Erikson kept going until 1947. The ships latterly made only one round-trip from South Australia to Britain per year, (the grain race), after each marathon voyage going back to Mariehamn to lay up for a few months. The ship "Pommern", now a museum in Mariehamn, was one of these last vessels.


title: Åland

text: The abolition of tax-free sales on ferry boats travelling between destinations within the European Union made Finland demand an exception for Åland on the European Union value-added tax rules. The exception allows for maintained tax-free sales on the ferries between Sweden and Finland (provided they stop at Mariehamn or Långnäs) and at the airport, but has also made Åland a different tax-zone, meaning that tariffs must be levied on goods brought to the islands. Two million people visit Åland every year - but most of them just for a few hours before the ferry returns again, or the passengers change from one ship to another.


title: Åland

text: The Finnish State also collects taxes, duties and fees in Åland. In return, the Finnish Government places a sum of money at the disposal of the Åland Parliament. The sum is 0.5% of total Government income, excluding Government loans. If the sum paid to the Finnish state exceeds 0.5%, then any amount above goes back to the Parliament of Åland as "diligence money". In 2010 the amount of taxes paid by Åland Islanders comprised 0.7% of the total taxes paid in Finland.


title: Åland

text: According to Eurostat, Åland was the 20th-wealthiest of the EU's 268 regions, and the wealthiest in Finland, with a GDP per inhabitant 47% above the EU mean.


title: Åland

text: The euro is the sole legal tender (as with the rest of Finland), although most businesses in Åland unofficially accept the Swedish krona.


title: Åland

text: The COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharper decrease in the total volume of the economy of Åland than for the neighbouring Sweden or Finland (mainland). Since the pandemic, the economy of Åland has been on a trajectory of recovery.


title: Åland

text: Most inhabitants speak Swedish (the sole official language) as their first language: 86% in 2021, while less than 5% spoke Finnish. The language of instruction in publicly financed schools is Swedish. (In the rest of Finland, bilingual municipalities provide schooling both in Finnish and in Swedish.) For information about the dialect, see Åland Swedish.


title: Åland

text: The ethnicity of the Ålanders and the correct linguistic classification of their language remain somewhat sensitive and controversial. Ålanders may be considered either ethnic Swedes or Swedish-speaking Finns, but their language is closer to the Uppländska dialect of Sweden than to Finland Swedish. (See Languages of Sweden.)


title: Åland

text: Regional citizenship or the right of domicile () is a prerequisite for voting, standing as a candidate for the Legislative Assembly, or owning and holding real estate situated in unplanned areas of Åland.


title: Åland

text: 17.3% of Ålanders have a foreign-background, which is the highest proportion of any region in Finland. Most of them are from Sweden, with 7% of Ålanders having a Swedish-background. There are also sizable Romanian and Latvian communities.


title: Åland

text: In 2010, there were 22 primary schools in Åland. Eight of them covered both upper and lower secondary schools, two were upper secondary schools and 12 were primary schools (grades 1–6). There exists two places of post-primary studies on the islands: the traditional high school of or the Åland vocational high school, which offers a double degree in high school and vocational studies. Of these, Ålands Lyceum is a relatively large high school; according to the 2018 statistics of the education administration, as many as 432 high school students studied there. The schools on Åland also include Ålands folkhögskola and other several primary and secondary schools. Åland University of Applied Sciences teaches about 600 students in maritime, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, IT, finance, hotels, restaurants and health care. The maritime education of Åland are all part of Alandica Shipping Academy.


title: Åland

text: The education in Åland is similar to that of Finland and the Nordics, and the language of education on Åland is officially Swedish. Finnish language has been a compulsory subject in upper secondary school, but optional in primary school; however, 80 per cent of students have chosen it. In 2006, it was proposed to remove the compulsory Finnish language from upper secondary schools.


title: Åland

text: The majority of the population, 70.5%, belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Åland contains Finland's oldest Christian churches, including St. Olaf's Church, Jomala, which dating from the late 13th century is likely to be the oldest in Finland. Åland's largest church is the Church of St. John in Sund, dating from shortly after.


title: Åland

text: The most famous writers in Åland are Anni Blomqvist, known for her five-volume "Stormskärs-Maja" series, Sally Salminen, whose best-known work is the 1936 novel "Katrina", and Ulla-Lena Lundberg, who has described her native Kökar. Each of these works are set in Åland.


title: Åland

text: A 2016 historical drama film "Devil's Bride", directed by Saara Cantell, takes place in the 17th century in Åland during the witch hunts. It won the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the Toronto Female Eye Film Festival in 2017. Also, a 2013 drama film "Disciple", directed by Ulrika Bengts, is set in Åland.


title: Åland

text: In association football Åland national team competes in the biennial Island Games, which it hosted in 1991 and 2009. Åland also hosted the 1974 and 1977 Women's Nordic Football Championship. Competitions and teams are organised by the Åland Football Association which also organise the Ålands Cup for clubs.


title: Åland

text: Women's football club Åland United, founded in 2004, and men's IFK Mariehamn are Åland's leading football clubs. IFK play in the Veikkausliiga, Finland's highest football league. Both clubs play at the Wiklöf Holding Arena in Mariehamn.


title: Åland

text: Åland hosted the 2017 and 2018 Paf Masters, an annual bonspiel-women's curling tournament hosted in Eckerö.


title: Åland

text: The coat of arms of Åland features a golden red deer on a blue field. This is traditionally surmounted by a comital coronet of the elder Swedish style. The arms borne today by Åland were originally by mistake granted to the island province of Öland in 1560, displaying a golden red deer on a blue field.


title: Niue

text: Niue (, ; ) is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Zealand. Niue's land area is about and its population, predominantly Polynesian, was about 1,600 in 2016. Niue is located in a triangle between Tonga, Samoa, and the Cook Islands. It is 604 kilometres northeast of Tonga. The island is commonly referred to as "The Rock", which comes from the traditional name "Rock of Polynesia". Niue is one of the world's largest coral islands. The terrain of the island has two noticeable levels. The higher level is made up of a limestone cliff running along the coast, with a plateau in the centre of the island reaching approximately 60 metres (200 feet) above sea level. The lower level is a coastal terrace approximately 0.5 km (0.3 miles) wide and about 25–27 metres (80–90 feet) high, which slopes down and meets the sea in small cliffs. A coral reef surrounds the island, with the only major break in the reef being in the central western coast, close to the capital, Alofi.


title: Niue

text: Niue is a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand, and New Zealand conducts most diplomatic relations on its behalf. As part of the Realm of New Zealand, Niueans are citizens of New Zealand and Charles III is Niue's head of state in his capacity as King of New Zealand. Between 90% and 95% of Niuean people live in New Zealand, along with about 70% of the speakers of the Niuean language. Niue is a bilingual country, with 30% of the population speaking both Niuean and English. The percentage of monolingual English-speaking people is only 11%, while 46% are monolingual Niuean speakers.


title: Niue

text: Niue is not a member of the United Nations (UN), but UN organisations have accepted its status as a freely associated state as equivalent to independence for the purposes of international law. As such, Niue is a member of some UN specialised agencies (such as UNESCO, and the WHO), and is invited, alongside the other non-UN member state, the Cook Islands, to attend United Nations conferences open to "all states". Niue has been a member of the Pacific Community since 1980.


title: Niue

text: Niue is subdivided into 14 "villages" (municipalities). Each village has a council that elects its chairperson. The villages are at the same time electoral districts; each village sends an assemblyperson to the Parliament of Niue. A small and democratic nation, Niueans hold legislative elections every three years.


title: Niue

text: The Niue Integrated Strategic Plan (NISP), adopted in 2003, is the national development plan, setting national priorities for development in areas such as financial sustainability. Since the late 20th century Niue has become a leader in green growth; the European Union is helping the nation convert to renewable energy. In January 2004, Niue was hit by Cyclone Heta, which caused extensive damage to the island, including wiping out most of South Alofi. The disaster set the island back about two years from its planned timeline to implement the NISP since national efforts concentrated on recovery.


title: Niue

text: Polynesians from Samoa settled Niue around 900 AD. Further settlers arrived from Tonga in the 16th century.


title: Niue

text: Until the beginning of the 18th century, Niue appears to have had no national government or national leader; chiefs and heads of families exercised authority over segments of the population. A succession of "patu-iki" (kings) ruled, beginning with Puni-mata. Tui-toga, who reigned from 1875 to 1887, was the first Christian king.


title: Niue

text: The first Europeans to sight Niue sailed under Captain James Cook in 1774. Cook made three attempts to land, but the inhabitants refused to grant permission to do so. He named the island "Savage Island" because, as legend has it, the natives who "greeted" him were painted in what appeared to be blood. The substance on their teeth was hulahula, a native red fe'i banana. For the next couple of centuries, Niue was known as Savage Island until its original name, "Niue", which translates as "behold the coconut", regained use.


title: Niue

text: Whaling vessels were some of the most regular visitors to the island in the nineteenth century. The first on record was the "Fanny" in February 1824. The last known whaler to visit was the "Albatross" in November 1899.


title: Niue

text: The next notable European visitors represented the London Missionary Society; they arrived on the "Messenger of Peace". After many years of trying to land a European missionary, they abducted a Niuean named Nukai Peniamina and trained him as a pastor at the Malua Theological College in Samoa. Peniamina returned in 1846 on the "John Williams" as a missionary with the help of Toimata Fakafitifonua. He was finally allowed to land in Uluvehi Mutalau after a number of attempts in other villages had failed. The chiefs of Mutalau village allowed him to land and assigned over 60 warriors to protect him day and night at the fort in Fupiu.


title: Niue

text: Christianity was first taught to the Mutalau people before it spread to all the villages. Originally other major villages opposed the introduction of Christianity and had sought to kill Peniamina. The people from the village of Hakupu, although the last village to receive Christianity, came and asked for a "word of God"; hence, their village was renamed "Ha Kupu Atua" meaning "any word of God", or "Hakupu" for short.


title: Niue

text: In 1889 the chiefs and rulers of Niue, in a letter to Queen Victoria, asked her "to stretch out towards us your mighty hand, that Niue may hide herself in it and be safe". After expressing anxiety lest some other nation should take possession of the island, the letter continued: "We leave it with you to do as seems best to you. If you send the flag of Britain that is well; or if you send a Commissioner to reside among us, that will be well". The British did not initially take up the offer. In 1900 a petition by the Cook Islanders asking for annexation included Niue "if possible". In a document dated 19 October 1900, the "King" and Chiefs of Niue consented to "Queen Victoria taking possession of this island". A despatch to the Secretary of State for the Colonies from the Governor of New Zealand referred to the views expressed by the Chiefs in favour of "annexation" and to this document as "the deed of cession". A British Protectorate was declared, but it remained short-lived. Niue was brought within the boundaries of New Zealand on 11 June 1901 by the same Order and Proclamation as the Cook Islands. The Order limited the islands to which it related by reference to an area in the Pacific described by co-ordinates, and Niue, at 19.02 S., 169.55 W, lies within that area.


title: Niue

text: The New Zealand Parliament restored self-government in Niue with the 1974 constitution, following a referendum in 1974 in which Niueans had three options: independence, self-government or continuation as a New Zealand territory. The majority selected self-government, and Niue's written constitution


title: Niue

text: was promulgated as supreme law. Robert Rex, ethnically part European, part native, was elected by the Niue Assembly as the first premier, a position he held until his death 18 years later. Rex became the first Niuean to receive a knighthood – in 1984.


title: Niue

text: In January 2004 Cyclone Heta hit Niue, killing two people and causing extensive damage to the entire island, including wiping out most of the south of the capital, Alofi.


title: Niue

text: On March 7, 2020, the International Dark Sky Association announced that Niue had become the first Dark Sky Preserve Nation. On 29 September 2022, President Joe Biden announced that the United States would recognize Niue as a sovereign nation.


title: Niue

text: The Niue Constitution Act of 1974 vests executive authority in His Majesty the King in Right of New Zealand and in the Governor-General of New Zealand. The Constitution specifies that everyday practice involves the exercise of sovereignty by Cabinet, composed of the Premier (currently Dalton Tagelagi since 11 June 2020) and of three other ministers. The Premier and ministers are members of the Niue Legislative Assembly, the nation's parliament.


title: Niue

text: The Assembly consists of 20 members, 14 of them elected by the electors of each village constituency, and six by all registered voters in all constituencies. Electors must be New Zealand citizens, resident for at least three months, and candidates must be electors and resident for 12 months. Everyone born in Niue must register on the electoral roll.


title: Niue

text: Niue has no political parties; all Assembly members are independents. The only Niuean political party to have ever existed, the Niue People's Party (1987–2003), won once (in 2002) before disbanding the following year.


title: Niue

text: The Legislative Assembly elects a Speaker as its first official in the first sitting of the Assembly following an election. The speaker calls for nominations for premier; the candidate with the most votes from the 20 members is elected. The premier selects three other members to form a Cabinet, the executive arm of government. General elections take place every three years, most recently on 30 May 2020.


title: Niue

text: The judiciary, independent of the executive and the legislature, includes a High Court and a Court of Appeal, with appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London.


title: Niue

text: Niue has operated as a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand since 3 September 1974, when the people endorsed the Constitution in a plebiscite. Niue is fully responsible for its internal affairs. Niue's position concerning its external relations is less clear-cut. Section 6 of the Niue Constitution Act provides that: "Nothing in this Act or in the Constitution shall affect the responsibilities of Her Majesty the Queen in right of New Zealand for the external affairs and defence of Niue." Section 8 elaborates but still leaves the position unclear: Effect shall be given to the provisions of sections 6 and 7 [concerning external affairs and defence and economic and administrative assistance respectively] of this Act, and to any other aspect of the relationship between New Zealand and Niue which may from time to time call for positive co-operation between New Zealand and Niue after consultation between the Prime Minister of New Zealand and the Premier of Niue, and in accordance with the policies of their respective Governments; and, if it appears desirable that any provision be made in the law of Niue to carry out these policies, that provision may be made in the manner prescribed in the Constitution, but not otherwise."


title: Niue

text: Initially, Niue's foreign relations and defence were the responsibility of New Zealand. However, Niue gradually began to develop its own foreign relations, independent of New Zealand. It is a member of the Pacific Islands Forum and of a number of regional and international agencies. It is not a member of the United Nations, but is a state party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Ottawa Treaty and the Treaty of Rarotonga. The country became a member state of UNESCO on 26 October 1993. It established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China on 12 December 2007. The joint communique signed by Niue and China differs in its treatment of the Taiwan question from that agreed by New Zealand and China. New Zealand "acknowledged" China's position on Taiwan but has never expressly agreed with it, but Niue "recognises that there is only one China in the world, the Government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China and Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of China." Niue established diplomatic relations with India on 30 August 2012. On 10 June 2014 the Government of Niue announced that Niue had established diplomatic relations with Turkey. The Honourable Minister of Infrastructure Dalton Tagelagi formalised the agreement at the Pacific Small Island States Foreign Ministers meeting in Istanbul, Turkey.


title: Niue

text: People of Niue have fought as part of the New Zealand military. During World War I (1914-1918), Niue sent about 200 soldiers as part of the New Zealand (Māori) Pioneer Battalion in the New Zealand forces.


title: Niue

text: Niue is not a republic, but for a number of years the ISO list of country names (ISO 3166-1) listed its full name as "the Republic of Niue". In its newsletter of 14 July 2011, the ISO acknowledged that this was a mistake and the words "the Republic of" were deleted from the ISO list of country names.


title: Niue

text: Niue is a raised coral atoll in the southern Pacific Ocean, east of Tonga. There are three outlying coral reefs within the Exclusive Economic Zone, with no land area:


title: Niue

text: Besides these, Albert Meyer Reef, (almost long and wide, least depth , southwest) is not officially claimed by Niue, and the existence of Haymet Rocks ( east-southeast) is in doubt.


title: Niue

text: Niue is one of the world's largest coral islands. The terrain consists of steep limestone cliffs along the coast with a central plateau rising to about above sea level. A coral reef surrounds the island, with the only major break in the reef being in the central western coast, close to the capital, Alofi. A number of limestone caves occur near the coast.


title: Niue

text: The island is roughly oval in shape (with a diameter of about ), with two large bays indenting the western coast, Alofi Bay in the centre and Avatele Bay in the south. Between these is the promontory of Halagigie Point. A small peninsula, TePā Point (Blowhole Point), is close to the settlement of Avatele in the southwest. Most of the population resides close to the west coast, around the capital, and in the northwest.


title: Niue

text: Some of the soils are geochemically very unusual. They are extremely weathered tropical soils, with high levels of iron and aluminium oxides (oxisol) and mercury, and they contain high levels of natural radioactivity. There is almost no uranium, but the radionucleides Th-230 and Pa-231 head the decay chains. This is the same distribution of elements as found naturally on very deep seabeds, but the geochemical evidence suggests that the origin of these elements is extreme weathering of coral and brief sea submergence 120,000 years ago. Endothermal upwelling, by which mild volcanic heat draws deep seawater up through the porous coral, almost certainly contributes.


title: Niue

text: No adverse health effects from the radioactivity or the other trace elements have been demonstrated, and calculations show that the level of radioactivity is probably much too low to be detected in the population. These unusual soils are very rich in phosphate, but it is not accessible to plants, being in the very insoluble form of iron phosphate, or crandallite. It is thought that similar radioactive soils may exist on Lifou and Mare near New Caledonia, and Rennell in the Solomon Islands, but no other locations are known.


title: Niue

text: According to the World Health Organization, residents are evidently very susceptible to skin cancer. In 2002 Niue reported skin cancer deaths at a rate of 2,482 per 100,000 people – far higher than any other country.


title: Niue

text: Niue is separated from New Zealand by the International Date Line. The time difference is 23 hours during the Southern Hemisphere winter and 24 hours when New Zealand uses Daylight Saving Time.


title: Niue

text: The island has a tropical rainforest climate ("Af") according to the Köppen climate classification with high temperatures and rainfall throughout the year. Although there are no true wet or dry seasons, there is a noticeably wetter stretch from October to May.


title: Niue

text: A leader in green growth, Niue is also focusing on solar power provision, with help from the European Union. However, Niue currently deals with one of the highest rates of greenhouse gas production per capita in the world. This must be considered however in the context of the small population, and the installed generating capacity of between 833 kW to 1MW. Niue aims to become 80% renewable by 2025. The Niue Island Organic Farmers Association is currently paving way to a Multilateral Environmental Agreement (MEA) committed to making Niue the world's first fully organic nation by 2020.


title: Niue

text: In July 2009 a solar panel system was installed, injecting about 50 kW into the Niue national power grid. This is nominally 6% of the average 833 kW electricity production. The solar panels are at Niue High School (20 kW), Niue Power Corporation office, (1.7 kW) and the Niue Foou Hospital (30 kW). The EU-funded grid-connected photovoltaic systems are supplied under the REP-5 programme and were installed recently by the Niue Power Corporation on the roofs of the high school and the power station office and on ground-mounted support structures in front of the hospital. They will be monitored and maintained by the NPC. In 2014 two additional solar power installations were added to the Niue national power grid, one funded under PALM5 of Japan is located outside of the Tuila power station – so far only this has battery storage, the other under European Union funding is located opposite the Niue International Airport Terminal.


title: Niue

text: Niue is part of the Tongan tropical moist forests terrestrial ecoregion. The island is home to approximately 60 native or pre-European plants, and approximately 160 naturalised flowering plant species. Compared to other Polynesian islands, Niue has sparse documentation for what plants were traditionally found on the island (almost no records are found between the documentation by James Cook's crew in 1774, and Truman G. Yuncker's botanical survey of the island in 1940).


title: Niue

text: The Huvalu Forest Conservation Area is a 5,400 ha site on the eastern side of the island. It was established in 1992 and protects the largest area of primary forest in Niue. It has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports populations of crimson-crowned fruit doves, blue-crowned lorikeets, Polynesian trillers and Polynesian starlings.


title: Niue

text: Niue's economy is small. Its gross domestic product (GDP) was NZ$17 million in 2003, or US$10 million at purchasing power parity. Niue's GDP has increased to US$24.9 million in 2016. Niue uses the New Zealand dollar.


title: Niue

text: The Niue Integrated Strategic Plan (NISP) is the national development plan, setting national priorities for development. Cyclone Heta set the island back about two years from its planned timeline to implement the NISP, since national efforts concentrated on recovery efforts. In 2008, Niue had yet to fully recover. After Heta, the government made a major commitment to rehabilitate and develop the private sector. In 2004 the New Zealand government allocated $1 million for the private sector, and spent it on helping businesses devastated by the cyclone, and on construction of the Fonuakula Industrial Park. This industrial park is now completed and some businesses are already operating from there. The Fonuakula Industrial Park is managed by the Niue Chamber of Commerce, a not-for-profit organisation providing advisory services to businesses.


title: Niue

text: The government and the Reef Group from New Zealand started two joint ventures in 2003 and 2004 to develop fisheries and a 120-hectare noni juice operation. Noni fruit comes from "Morinda citrifolia", a small tree with edible fruit. Niue Fish Processors Ltd (NFP) is a joint venture company processing fresh fish, mainly tuna (yellowfin, big eye and albacore), for export to overseas markets. NFP operates out of a state-of-the-art fish plant in Amanau Alofi South, completed and opened in October 2004.


title: Niue

text: Niue is negotiating free trade agreements with other Pacific countries, PICTA Trade in Services (PICTA TIS), Economic Partnership Agreements with the European Union, and PACERPlus with Australia and New Zealand. The Office of the Chief Trade Adviser (OCTA) has been set up to assist Niue and other Pacific countries in the negotiation of the PACERPlus.


title: Niue

text: In August 2005, an Australian mining company, Yamarna Goldfields, suggested that Niue might have the world's largest deposit of uranium. By early September these hopes were seen as overoptimistic, and in late October the company cancelled its plans, announcing that exploratory drilling had identified nothing of commercial value. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission filed charges in January 2007 against two directors of the company, now called Mining Projects Group Ltd, alleging that their conduct had been deceptive and that they engaged in insider trading. This case was settled out of court in July 2008, both sides withdrawing their claims.


title: Niue

text: Remittances from expatriates were a major source of foreign exchange in the 1970s and early 1980s. Continuous migration to New Zealand has shifted most members of nuclear and extended families there, removing the need to send remittances back home. In the late 1990s, PFTAC conducted studies on the balance of payments, which confirmed that Niueans are receiving few remittances but are sending more money overseas.


title: Niue

text: Foreign aid is a significant source of income, accounting for approximately a third of Niue's annual government revenue. Most aid comes from New Zealand, which has a legal obligation to provide economic and administrative assistance. Other sources of revenue for the government are taxation and trading activities, such as philatelic services and the lease of phone lines.


title: Niue

text: The government briefly considered offshore banking. Under pressure from the US Treasury, Niue agreed to end its support for schemes designed to minimise tax in countries like New Zealand. Niue provides automated Companies Registration, administered by the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development. The Niue Legislative Assembly passed the Niue Consumption Tax Act in the first week of February 2009, and the 12.5% tax on goods and services was expected to take effect on 1 April 2009. Income tax has been lowered, and import tax may be reset to zero except for "sin" items like tobacco, alcohol and soft drinks. Tax on secondary income has been lowered from 35% to 10%, with the stated goal of fostering increased labour productivity.


title: Niue

text: In 1997, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), under contract with the US Department of Commerce, assigned the Internet Users Society-Niue (IUS-N), a private nonprofit, as manager of the .nu top-level domain on the Internet. IUS-N's charitable purpose was – and continues to be – to use revenue from the registration of .nu domain names to fund low-cost or free Internet services for the people of Niue. In a letter to ICANN in 2007, IUS-N's independent auditors reported IUS-N had invested US$3 million for Internet services in Niue between 1999 and 2005 from .nu domain name registration revenue during that period. In 1999, IUS-N and the Government of Niue signed an agreement whereby the Government recognised that IUS-N managed the .nu ccTLD under IANA's authority and IUS-N committed to provide free Internet services to government departments as well as to Niue's private citizens. A newly elected government later disputed that agreement and attempted to assert a claim on the domain name, including a requirement for IUS-N to make direct payments of compensation to the government. In 2005, a Government-appointed Commission of Inquiry into the dispute released its report, which found no merit in the government's claims; the government subsequently dismissed the claims in 2007. Starting in 2003, IUS-N began installing Wi-Fi connections throughout the capital village of Alofi and in several nearby villages and schools, and has been expanding Wi-Fi coverage into the outer villages since then, making Niue the first Wi-Fi nation. To assure security for government departments, IUS-N provides the government with a secure DSL connection to IUS-N's satellite Internet link, at no cost.


title: Niue

text: On Dec 16, 2020, the Government of Niue commenced an action to "redelegate" its national webspace, .nu, from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the supranational non-profit that coordinates top-level domains to ensure the stable operation of the internet, in order to assign control of the .nu domain to the Government of Niue.


title: Niue

text: Agriculture is very important to the lifestyle of Niueans and the economy, and around 204 square kilometres of the land area are available for agriculture. Subsistence agriculture is very much part of Niue's culture, where nearly all the households have plantations of taro. Taro is a staple food, and the pink taro now dominant in the taro markets in New Zealand and Australia is a product of Niue. This is one of the naturally occurring taro varieties on Niue, and has a strong resistance to pests. The Niue taro is known in Samoa as "talo Niue" and in international markets as pink taro. Niue exports taro to New Zealand.


title: Niue

text: Tapioca or cassava, yams and kumara also grow very well, as do different varieties of bananas. Coconut meat, passionfruit and limes dominated exports in the 1970s, but in 2008 vanilla, noni and taro were the main export crops.


title: Niue

text: Most families grow their own food crops for subsistence and sell their surplus at the Niue Makete in Alofi, or export to New Zealand. Coconut crab, or uga, is also part of the food chain; it lives in the forest and coastal areas.


title: Niue

text: In 2003, the government made a commitment to develop and expand vanilla production with the support of NZAID. Vanilla has grown wild on Niue for a long time. The industry was devastated by Cyclone Heta in early 2004, but has since recovered.


title: Niue

text: Tourism is one of the three priority economic sectors (the other two are fisheries and agriculture) for economic development. In 2006, estimated visitor expenditure reached (equivalent to about $M in ) making tourism a major industry for Niue. Niue will continue to receive direct support from the government and overseas donor agencies. The only airport is Niue International Airport. Air New Zealand is the sole airline, flying twice a week from Auckland. In the early 1990s Niue International Airport was served by a local airline, Niue Airlines, but it closed in 1992.


title: Niue

text: There is a tourism development strategy to increase the number of rooms available to tourists at a sustainable level. Niue is trying to attract foreign investors to invest in the tourism industry by offering import and company tax concessions as incentives. New Zealand businessman Earl Hagaman, founder of Scenic Hotel Group, was awarded a contract in 2014 to manage the Matavai Resort in Niue after he made a $101,000 political donation to the New Zealand National Party, which at that time led a minority government in New Zealand. The resort is subsidized by New Zealand, which wants to bolster tourism there. In 2015 New Zealand announced $7.5m in additional funding for expansion of the resort. The selection of the Matavai contractor was made by the Niue Tourism Property Trust, whose trustees are appointed by New Zealand Foreign Affairs minister Murray McCully. Prime Minister John Key said he did not handle campaign donations, and that Niue premier Toke Talagi has long pursued tourism as a growth strategy. McCully denied any link between the donation, the foreign aid and the contractor selection.


title: Niue

text: Niue became the world's first dark sky country in March 2020. The entire island maintains standards of light development and keeps light pollution limited. Visitors will be able to enjoy guided Astro-tours led by trained Niuean community members. Viewing sites which are used for whale-watching and accessing the sea, as well as the roads that cross the island, make ideal viewing locations.


title: Niue

text: The sailing season begins in May. Alofi Bay has many mooring buoys and yacht crews can lodge at Niue Backpackers. The anchorage in Niue is one of the least protected in the South Pacific, so much that cruise ship tenders are often unable to risk landing passengers due to weather or sea conditions, as well as the associated risk of having them stranded ashore. Other challenges of the anchorage are a primarily coral bottom and many deep spots. Mooring buoys are attached to seine floats that support the mooring lines away from seabed obstructions.


title: Niue

text: On 27 October 2016, Niue officially declared that all its national debt was paid off. The government plans to spend money saved from servicing loans on increasing pensions and offering incentives to lure expatriates back home. However, Niue is not entirely independent. New Zealand pays $14 million in aid each year and Niue still depends on New Zealand economically. Premier Toke Talagi said Niue managed to pay off US$4 million of debt and had "no interest" in borrowing again, particularly from huge powers such as China.


title: Niue

text: The first computers were Apple machines brought in by the University of the South Pacific Extension Centre around the early 1980s. The Treasury Department computerised its general ledger in 1986 using NEC personal computers that were IBM PC XT compatible. The Census of Households and Population in 1986 was the first to be processed using a personal computer with the assistance of David Marshall, FAO Adviser on Agricultural Statistics, advising UNFPA Demographer Dr Lawrence Lewis and Niue Government Statistician Bill Vakaafi Motufoou to switch from using manual tabulation cards. In 1987 Statistics Niue got its new personal computer NEC PC AT use for processing the 1986 census data; personnel were sent on training in Japan and New Zealand to use the new computer. The first Computer Policy was developed and adopted in 1988.


title: Niue

text: In 2003, Niue became the first country in the world to provide state-funded wireless internet to all inhabitants.


title: Niue

text: In August 2008 it has been reported that all school students have what is known as the OLPC XO-1, a specialised laptop by the One Laptop per Child project designed for children in the developing world. Niue was also a location of tests for the OpenBTS project, which aims to deliver low-cost GSM base stations built with open source software.


title: Niue

text: In July 2011, Telecom Niue launched pre-paid mobile services (Voice/EDGE – 2.5G) as Rokcell Mobile based on the commercial GSM product of vendor Lemko. Three BTS sites will cover the nation. International roaming is not currently available. The fibre optic cable ring is now completed around the island (FTTC), Internet/ADSL services were rolled out towards the end of 2011.


title: Niue

text: In January 2015 Telecom Niue completed the laying of the fibre optic cable around Niue connecting all the 14 villages, making land line phones and ADSL internet connection available to households.


title: Niue

text: Niue is the birthplace of New Zealand artist and writer John Pule. Author of "The Shark That Ate the Sun", he also paints tapa cloth inspired designs on canvas. In 2005, he co-wrote "Hiapo: Past and Present in Niuean Barkcloth", a study of a traditional Niuean artform, with Australian writer and anthropologist Nicholas Thomas. Matafetu Smith founded the first Niuean women's weaving group in Auckland.


title: Niue

text: Taoga Niue is a new Government Department responsible for the preservation of culture, tradition and heritage. Recognising its importance, the Government has added Taoga Niue as the sixth pillar of the Niue Integrated Strategic Plan (NISP).


title: Niue

text: Niue has two broadcast outlets, Television Niue and Radio Sunshine, managed and operated by the Broadcasting Corporation of Niue, and one newspaper, the "Niue Star".


title: Niue

text: In 2004 Cyclone Heta destroyed the Huanaki Cultural Centre & Museum. The damage resulted in the destruction of the buildings, but also the loss of over 90% of the museum's collections. In 2018 Fale Tau Tāoga Museum opened, a new national museum for Niue.


title: Niue

text: Due to the island location and the fact that the Niue produce a significant array of fruits and vegetables, natural local produce, especially coconut, features in many of the dishes of the islands as does fresh seafood.


title: Niue

text: Despite being a small country, a number of sports are popular. Rugby union is the most popular sport, played by both men and women; Niue was the 2008 FORU Oceania Cup champions. Netball is played only by women. There is a nine-hole golf course at Fonuakula. There is a lawn bowling green under construction. Association Football is a popular sport, as evidenced by the Niue Soccer Tournament, though the Niue national football team has played only two matches. Rugby league is also a popular sport. Niue Rugby League have only started making strides within the international arena since their first ever test match against Vanuatu, going down 22–20 in 2013. On 4 October 2014, the Niue rugby league team record their first ever international test match win defeating the Philippines 36–22. In May 2015, Niue Rugby League recorded their second international test match win against the South African Rugby League side, 48–4. Niue now sit 31st in the Rugby League World Rankings.


title: Quinceañera

text: A (also , , , and ) is a celebration of a girl's 15th birthday. It has pre-Columbian roots in Mexico (Aztecs) and is widely celebrated by girls throughout Latin America. The girl celebrating her 15th birthday is a (; feminine form of "15-year-old"). In Spanish, and in Hispanic America, the term is reserved solely for the honoree; in English, primarily in the United States, the term is used to refer to the celebrations and honors surrounding the occasion.


title: Quinceañera

text: This birthday is celebrated differently from any other as it marks the transition from childhood to young womanhood. Historically, in the years prior to their 15th birthdays, girls were taught cooking, weaving, and about childbearing by the elder women in their communities in preparation for their future roles as wives and during the celebration the girl's father would present her to potential suitors.


title: Quinceañera

text: In the past, parallel customs could be found in Europe. Today, the custom remains strongest in Mexico, its likely country of introduction during the viceregal or Mexican imperial periods. However, it is widely celebrated in Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas. The grandest parties are comparable to British and US debutante balls. The celebrations themselves vary significantly in different countries; for example, the festivities in some have taken on more religious overtones than in others. Nowadays, the is also celebrated by many Latino Americans in the United States, each according to their traditions.


title: Quinceañera

text: In Brazil, a Portuguese-speaking country, a similar celebration is called , or . In the French Caribbean and French Guiana, it is called .


title: Quinceañera

text: Contemporary festivities combine Spanish-Catholic traditions with those of indigenous heritages and add in a few modern twists. For example: In ancient Mexico, the Aztecs and other indigenous peoples had many different ceremonies to mark the passage through the various stages of life. The marked a young woman's transition to adulthood, as she was presented, as a virgin, to the community for probable suitors. Other origin stories attribute quinceañera history to the Duchess of Alba in Spain, who threw a ball at her palace and invited teen girls to attend in formal clothes. This tradition would continue and was reenforced when Empress Carlota of Mexico threw a similar reception for her court in Mexico City—presenting young women as eligible for marriage.


title: Quinceañera

text: In a traditional Mexican , young women and men have roles as formal and , who perform special bends at the celebration, along with the herself. There is also a "man of honor" who accompanies the young woman. Potential suitors present gifts to her family to make up a dowry or bridal wealth. Prior to her being given away, the women of the community participate by instructing the in her duties and responsibilities, urging her to follow the correct path, by remaining true to her people and their traditions throughout her life.


title: Quinceañera

text: The meaning behind the has become more refined over time and has been adapted by various Latino cultures in relation to where they are living.


title: Quinceañera

text: In rural societies, girls were considered ready for marriage once they turned 15. In the 20th century, the received certain privileges associated with womanhood: permission to attend adult parties, pluck her eyebrows and shave her legs, wear makeup, jewelry and high heels. When this tradition originated, the was a small party to celebrate the transition. Friends and family gathered in order to give the girl a chance to mingle with young men. Rich families celebrated with big parties and elaborate dresses. In Latin American countries, wealthy families announced in the newspapers to publicize their extravagant celebrations.


title: Quinceañera

text: In the 1960s, as more Latinos migrated to the United States, they brought their differing national traditions with them. Once in the United States, formerly poor immigrants with good jobs were able to have big parties such as those back in their home country. Family and friends often help put on the event, for example, by making food. From a simple food and cake celebration, it has developed among wealthier families to become an occasion for a big party. Families may use event planners, and develop a celebration with a theme, to be staged with a special entrance and dances, and captured by professional photoshoots and video. Modern celebrations also incorporate traditions from other cultures. Markets for event planners and -related products have developed.


title: Quinceañera

text: In Cuba, the party may include a choreographed group dance, in which 14 couples waltz around the , who is accompanied by one of the main dancers, a boy of her choice, or her boyfriend. The choreography often includes four or six dancers or escorts called experts, who are allowed to dance around the . They are usually inexperienced dancers whose function is to highlight the central couple. The male dancers are also allowed to wear tuxedos in different colors.