title: Scott Ritter

text: Ritter rejects the Western media's coverage of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and has voiced his perspective on multiple podcasts, including Andrew Napolitano's. On April 6, 2022, Ritter was suspended from Twitter for violating its rule on "harassment and abuse" after he posted a tweet falsely claiming that the National Police of Ukraine is responsible for the Bucha massacre and calling U.S. President Joe Biden a "war criminal" for "seeking to shift blame for the Bucha murders" to Russia. The following day "Newsweek" reported his Twitter account had been reinstated. Scott Ritter writes various articles critical of NATO for the Russian channel RT (formerly "Russia Today").


title: Scott Ritter

text: In July 2022, Ritter was added to a list of pro-Russia propagandists compiled by the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation.


title: Nena von Schlebrügge

text: Birgitte Caroline "Nena" von Schlebrügge (born January 8, 1941) is a Mexican-born Swedish and American fashion model from the 1950s and 1960s. She started her high-fashion modelling career in London in 1957 and continued in New York City in 1958 at the Ford Modeling Agency. In New York, she worked at "Vogue" and "Harper's Bazaar".


title: Nena von Schlebrügge

text: She was briefly married to Timothy Leary in 1964-1965. After marrying the Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman in 1967 she adopted the name Nena Thurman. The actress Uma Thurman is their daughter.


title: Nena von Schlebrügge

text: She studied to become a psychotherapist and served as Managing Director of Tibet House US. She is now the Executive Chairwoman of the Menla retreat and health spa in upstate New York.


title: Nena von Schlebrügge

text: Schlebrügge's father belonged to German nobility. Her Swedish mother Birgit Holmquist served as 's model for "Famntaget" ("The Embrace"), a 1930s statue of a nude woman that overlooks the harbor of Smygehuk in Sweden. Her paternal half-sister was the grandmother of German-Swedish football player Max von Schlebrügge. She grew up in Sweden, and is also of Danish descent.


title: Nena von Schlebrügge

text: In 1955, at the age of 14, Nena was discovered by "Vogue" photographer Norman Parkinson when he was on a tour in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1957, Nena moved to London, United Kingdom, to pursue a career in high-fashion modeling. She found immediate success and was invited to come to New York City by Eileen Ford of the Ford Modeling Agency to continue her modelling career.


title: Nena von Schlebrügge

text: In the snow storm of March 1958, at the age of 17, she arrived in New York City on the "Queen Mary". In New York City, she continued her career as a top model, working at "Vogue" and "Harper's Bazaar". She was photographed by many fashion photographers, including Gleb Derujinsky.


title: Nena von Schlebrügge

text: In 1967, she had a part in the Edie Sedgwick film "Ciao! Manhattan". The film took four years to make; and drastic changes from the original story were made, causing the filmmakers to remove many scenes, including Nena's, shot in 1967. These deleted scenes can be found on the DVD version.


title: Nena von Schlebrügge

text: From 1987 to 1989, Nena was the Program Director at the New York Open Center. From 1991 to 2002 she served as the Managing Director of Tibet House US in New York City. Tibet House US was founded in 1986 by the Thurmans, Philip Glass, and Richard Gere, at the behest of the Dalai Lama. Nena oversaw the construction of Tibet House US and the educational programming. With Philip Glass, she initiated the annual benefit concert at Carnegie Hall and the annual benefit auction at Christie's. She was executive producer of "The First 30 Years of Tibet House U.S." film, directed by John Halpern.


title: Nena von Schlebrügge

text: Since 2001, Nena has been the Managing Director of the Tibet House US-owned Menla Mountain Retreat and is now the Executive Chairwoman, where she has overseen the construction of a state-of-the-art Tibetan medicinal spa facility and business in the Catskill Mountains in Phoenicia, New York. She is also a psychotherapist.


title: Nena von Schlebrügge

text: Nena married Timothy Leary in 1964 at the Hitchcock Estate (commonly known as "Millbrook"). D. A. Pennebaker documented the event in his 12-minute film "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You". Charles Mingus played piano at the wedding ceremony. The marriage lasted a year before von Schlebrügge divorced Leary in 1965.


title: Nena von Schlebrügge

text: In 1967, she married Indo-Tibetan Buddhist scholar and ex-monk Robert Thurman, whom she had met at Millbrook. In the same year, Nena and Robert's first child, Ganden Thurman, was born. In 1970, Robert and Nena's second child, Uma Thurman, was born. They have two more sons: Dechen (b. 1973) and Mipam (b. 1978). The children grew up in Woodstock, New York in a house built by the Thurmans on nine acres of land purchased with Nena's inheritance. In addition to their four children, the pair have seven grandchildren, including the actress Maya Hawke.


title: Sophie Cookson

text: Sophie Cookson (born 1989 or 1990) is an English actress best known for portraying secret agent Roxanne "Roxy" Morton / Lancelot in the 2014 spy film "" and its 2017 sequel "", and for playing the title role of Christine Keeler in the BBC One drama series, "The Trial of Christine Keeler".


title: Sophie Cookson

text: Cookson was brought up in Sussex and later Suffolk where she attended Woodbridge School. She was involved in singing and musical theatre since childhood. After being part of a theatre company that had toured Japan, she decided to quit acting to study art history and Arabic at the University of Edinburgh. However, she soon dropped out to pursue an acting career and attended the Oxford School of Drama for three years, and graduated in 2013.


title: Sophie Cookson

text: While still attending Oxford Drama School in her senior year, she was cast as Grace Mohune in the Sky 1 miniseries "Moonfleet", based on the J. Meade Falkner novel of the same name. In early 2014, she appeared in the film adaption of the Rosamunde Pilcher novel "Unknown Heart" produced by German television network ZDF, portraying Millie Lancaster. The same year, she also landed her first big screen role, replacing Emma Watson for the part of secret agent Roxanne "Roxy" Morton / Lancelot in the spy film "", based on the comic book "The Secret Service" by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons. Also in 2014, Cookson was cast in the female main role in Lee Tamahori's action epic "Emperor", about a young woman seeking revenge for the execution of her father by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, opposite Adrien Brody as the titular Emperor. The movie was finished and screened at Cannes in 2017 but its release has been by legal challenges.


title: Sophie Cookson

text: In 2016, she appeared in the film "" in a minor role as the female huntsman Pippa. Beginning in June 2017, she appeared in the Netflix series "Gypsy" as troubled singer Sidney Pierce. However, the series was cancelled in August after just one season due to negative reviews and low ratings, even though the second season had already been in development. In July, she appeared in the horror film "The Crucifixion", playing a journalist investigating a lethal exorcism performed on a nun, and in September of the same year, she reprised her role as Roxy Morton in the sequel to "The Secret Service", "", while also appearing in a musical short for the song "Pleader" by British indie rock group alt-J.


title: Sophie Cookson

text: In 2018, she played Dottie in the Trafalgar Studios production of the play "Killer Joe", alongside Orlando Bloom.


title: Sophie Cookson

text: In 2017, she met actor Stephen Campbell Moore on the set of "Red Joan". Cookson and Moore reportedly began dating in November 2018. They have one child together, born in 2020.


title: Locust

text: Locusts (derived from the Vulgar Latin "locusta", meaning grasshopper) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstances they become more abundant and change their behaviour and habits, becoming gregarious. No taxonomic distinction is made between locust and grasshopper species; the basis for the definition is whether a species forms swarms under intermittently suitable conditions; this has evolved independently in multiple lineages, comprising at least 18 genera in 5 different acridid subfamilies.


title: Locust

text: Normally, these grasshoppers are innocuous, their numbers are low, and they do not pose a major economic threat to agriculture. However, under suitable conditions of drought followed by rapid vegetation growth, serotonin in their brains triggers dramatic changes: they start to breed abundantly, becoming gregarious and nomadic (loosely described as migratory) when their populations become dense enough. They form bands of wingless nymphs that later become swarms of winged adults. Both the bands and the swarms move around, rapidly strip fields, and damage crops. The adults are powerful fliers; they can travel great distances, consuming most of the green vegetation wherever the swarm settles.


title: Locust

text: Locusts have formed plagues since prehistory. The ancient Egyptians carved them on their tombs and the insects are mentioned in the "Iliad", the Mahabharata, and the Bible. Swarms have devastated crops and have caused famines and human migrations. More recently, changes in agricultural practices and better surveillance of locust breeding grounds have allowed control measures at an early stage. Traditional locust control uses insecticides from the ground or air, but newer biological control methods are proving effective.


title: Locust

text: Swarming behaviour decreased in the 20th century, but despite modern surveillance and control methods, swarms can still form; when suitable weather conditions occur and vigilance lapses, plagues can occur.


title: Locust

text: Locusts are large insects and convenient for research and classroom study of zoology. They are edible by humans. They have been eaten throughout history and are considered a delicacy in many countries.


title: Locust

text: Locusts are the swarming phase of certain species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstances become more abundant and change their behaviour and habits, becoming gregarious.


title: Locust

text: No taxonomic distinction is made between locust and grasshopper species; the basis for the definition is whether a species forms swarms under intermittently suitable conditions. In English, the term "locust" is used for grasshopper species that change morphologically and behaviourally on crowding, forming swarms that develop from bands of immature stages called hoppers. The change is referred to in the technical literature as "density-dependent phenotypic plasticity".


title: Locust

text: These changes are examples of phase polyphenism; they were first analysed and described by Boris Uvarov, who was instrumental in setting up the Anti-Locust Research Centre. He made his discoveries during his studies of the migratory locust in the Caucasus, whose solitary and gregarious phases had previously been thought to be separate species ("Locusta migratoria" and "L. danica" L.). He designated the two phases as "solitaria" and "gregaria". These are also referred to as statary and migratory morphs, though strictly speaking, their swarms are nomadic rather than migratory. Charles Valentine Riley and Norman Criddle were also involved in achieving the understanding and control of locusts.


title: Locust

text: Swarming behaviour is a response to overcrowding. Increased tactile stimulation of the hind legs causes an increase in levels of serotonin. This causes the locust to change colour, eat much more, and breed much more easily. The transformation of the locust to the swarming form is induced by several contacts per minute over a four-hour period. A large swarm can consist of billions of locusts spread out over an area of thousands of square kilometres, with a population of up to 80 million per square kilometre (200 million per square mile). When desert locusts meet, their nervous systems release serotonin, which causes them to become mutually attracted, a prerequisite for swarming.


title: Locust

text: The initial bands of gregarious hoppers are known as "outbreaks", and when these join together into larger groups, the event is known as an "upsurge". Continuing agglomerations of upsurges on a regional level originating from a number of entirely separate breeding locations are known as "plagues". During outbreaks and the early stages of upsurges, only part of the locust population becomes gregarious, with scattered bands of hoppers spread out over a large area. As time goes by, the insects become more cohesive and the bands become concentrated in a smaller area. In the desert locust plague in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia that lasted from 1966 to 1969, the number of locusts increased from two to 30 billion over two generations, but the area covered decreased from over to .


title: Locust

text: One of the greatest differences between the solitary and gregarious phases is behavioural. The "gregaria" nymphs are attracted to each other, this being seen as early as the second instar. They soon form bands of many thousands of individuals. These groups behave like cohesive units and move across the landscape, mostly downhill, but making their way around barriers and merging with other bands. The attraction between the insects involves visual and olfactory cues. The bands seem to navigate using the sun. They pause to feed at intervals before continuing on, and may cover tens of kilometres over a few weeks.


title: Locust

text: Also, differences in morphology and development are seen. In the desert locust and the migratory locust, for example, the "gregaria" nymphs become darker with strongly contrasting yellow and black markings, they grow larger, and have a longer nymphal period; the adults are larger with different body proportions, less sexual dimorphism, and higher metabolic rates; they mature more rapidly and start reproducing earlier, but have lower levels of fecundity.


title: Locust

text: The mutual attraction between individual insects continues into adulthood, and they continue to act as a cohesive group. Individuals that get detached from a swarm fly back into the mass. Others that get left behind after feeding take off to rejoin the swarm when it passes overhead. When individuals at the front of the swarm settle to feed, others fly past overhead and settle in their turn, the whole swarm acting like a rolling unit with an ever-changing leading edge. The locusts spend much time on the ground feeding and resting, moving on when the vegetation is exhausted. They may then fly a considerable distance before settling in a location where transitory rainfall has caused a green flush of new growth.


title: Locust

text: Several species of grasshoppers swarm as locusts in different parts of the world, on all continents except Antarctica: For example, the Australian plague locust ("Chortoicetes terminifera") swarms across Australia.


title: Locust

text: The desert locust ("Schistocerca gregaria") is probably the best known species owing to its wide distribution (North Africa, Middle East, and Indian subcontinent) and its ability to migrate over long distances. A major infestation covered much of western Africa from 2003 to 2005, after unusually heavy rain set up favourable ecological conditions for swarming. The first outbreaks occurred in Mauritania, Mali, Niger, and Sudan in 2003. The rain allowed swarms to develop and move north to Morocco and Algeria, threatening croplands. Swarms crossed Africa, appearing in Egypt, Jordan and Israel, the first time in those countries for 50 years. The cost of handling the infestation was put at US$122 million, and the damage to crops at up to $2.5 billion.


title: Locust

text: The migratory locust ("Locusta migratoria"), sometimes classified into up to 10 subspecies, swarms in Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, but has become rare in Europe. In 2013, the Madagascan form of the migratory locust formed many swarms of over a billion insects, reaching "plague" status and covering about half the country by March 2013.


title: Locust

text: Species such as the Senegalese grasshopper ("Oedaleus senegalensis") and the African rice grasshopper ("Hieroglyphus daganensis"), both from the Sahel, often display locust-like behaviour and change morphologically on crowding.


title: Locust

text: North America is currently the only sub-continent besides Antarctica without a native locust species. The Rocky Mountain locust was formerly one of the most significant insect pests there, but it became extinct in 1902. In the 1930s, during the Dust Bowl, a second species of North American locust, the High Plains locust ("Dissosteira longipennis") reached plague proportions in the American Midwest. Today, the High Plains locust is a rare species, leaving North America with no regularly swarming locusts.


title: Locust

text: Study of literature shows how pervasive plagues of locusts were over the course of history. The insects arrived unexpectedly, often after a change of wind direction or weather, and the consequences were devastating. The Ancient Egyptians carved locusts on tombs in the period 2470 to 2220 BC. A devastating plague in Egypt is also mentioned in the Book of Exodus in the Bible. The "Iliad" mentions locusts taking to the wing to escape fire. Plagues of locusts are also mentioned in the Quran. In the ninth century BC, the Chinese authorities appointed anti-locust officers. In the New Testament, John the Baptist was said to survive in the wilderness on locusts and wild honey; and human-headed locusts appear in the Book of Revelation.


title: Locust

text: Aristotle studied locusts and their breeding habits and Livy recorded a devastating plague in Capua in 203 BC. He mentioned human epidemics following locust plagues which he associated with the stench from the putrifying corpses; the linking of human disease outbreaks to locust plagues was widespread. A pestilence in the northwestern provinces of China in 311 AD that killed 98% of the population locally was blamed on locusts, and may have been caused by an increase in numbers of rats (and their fleas) that devoured the locust carcasses.


title: Locust

text: During the last two millennia, desert locust plagues have appeared sporadically in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Other species of locusts caused havoc in North and South America, Asia, and Australasia; in China, 173 outbreaks over 1924 years. The Bombay locust ("Nomadacris succincta") was a major pest in India and southeastern Asia in the 18th and 19th centuries, but has seldom swarmed since the last plague in 1908.


title: Locust

text: In the spring of 1747 locusts arrived outside Damascus eating the majority of the crops and vegetation of the surrounding countryside. One local barber, Ahmad al-Budayri, recalled the locusts "came like a black cloud. They covered everything: the trees and the crops. May God Almighty save us!"


title: Locust

text: The extinction of the Rocky Mountain locust has been a source of puzzlement. It had swarmed throughout the west of the United States and parts of Canada in the 19th century. Albert's swarm of 1875 was estimated to cover (greater than the area of California) and to weigh 27.5 million tons, with some 12.5 trillion insects. The last specimen was seen alive in Canada in 1902. Recent research suggests the breeding grounds of this insect in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains came under sustained agricultural development during the large influx of gold miners, destroying the underground eggs of the locust.


title: Locust

text: The 1915 infestation across Palestine and Syria was one of the main contributors to famine in Lebanon which lasted from 1915 to 1918 during which around 200,000 people died.


title: Locust

text: Early intervention to prevent large locust swarms is more successful than later action once swarms have built up. The means to control locust populations is now available, but organisational, financial, and political problems may be difficult to overcome. Monitoring is the key to early detection and eradication. Ideally, a sufficient proportion of nomadic bands can be killed with insecticide before their swarming phase. This may be possible in richer countries like Morocco and Saudi Arabia, but neighbouring poorer countries such as Mauritania and Yemen lack the resources and may breed locust swarms that threaten the whole region.


title: Locust

text: Several organisations around the world monitor the threat from locusts. They provide forecasts detailing regions likely to suffer from locust plagues in the near future. In Australia, this service is provided by the Australian Plague Locust Commission. It has been very successful in dealing with developing outbreaks, but has the great advantage of having a defined area to monitor and defend without locust invasions from elsewhere. In Central and Southern Africa, the service is provided by the International Locust Control Organization for Central and Southern Africa. In West and Northwest Africa, the service is co-ordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organization's Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Western Region, and executed by locust control agencies belonging to each country concerned. The FAO also monitors the situation in the Caucasus and Central Asia, where over 25 million hectares of cultivated land are under threat. In February 2020, in an effort to end massive locust outbreaks, India decided to use drones and special equipment to monitor locusts and spray insecticides.


title: Locust

text: Historically, people could do little to protect their crops from locusts, although eating the insects may have been some compensation. By the early 20th century, efforts were made to disrupt the development of the insects by cultivating the soil where eggs were laid, collecting hoppers with catching machines, killing them with flamethrowers, trapping them in ditches, and crushing them with rollers and other mechanical methods. By the 1950s, the organochloride dieldrin was found to be an extremely effective insecticide, but it was later banned in most countries because of its persistence in the environment and its accumulation in the food chain.


title: Locust

text: In years when locust control is needed, the hoppers are targeted early by applying water-based contact pesticides from tractor-based sprayers. This is effective but slow and labour-intensive; a preferable method is spraying concentrated insecticide from aircraft over the insects or vegetation. The use of ultralow-volume spraying of contact pesticides from aircraft in overlapping swathes is effective against nomadic bands and can be used to treat large areas of land swiftly. Other modern technologies for planning locust control include GPS, GIS tools, and satellite imagery with rapid computer data management and analysis.


title: Locust

text: A biological pesticide to control locusts was tested across Africa by a multinational team in 1997. Dried fungal spores of a "Metarhizium acridum" sprayed in breeding areas pierce the locust exoskeleton on germination and invade the body cavity, causing death. The fungus is passed from insect to insect and persists in the area, making repeated treatments unnecessary. This approach to locust control was used in Tanzania in 2009 to treat around 10,000 hectares in the Iku-Katavi National Park infested with adult locusts. The outbreak was contained without harm to the local elephants, hippopotamuses, and giraffes.


title: Locust

text: The ideal in locust control is preventive and proactive methods that disrupt the environment as little as possible, to make agricultural production more secure.


title: Locust

text: The locust is large and easy to breed and rear, and is used as an experimental model in research studies. It has been used in evolutionary biology research and to test the generalizability of conclusions reached about test organisms such as the fruit fly ("Drosophila") and the housefly ("Musca"). It is a suitable school laboratory animal because of its robustness and ease of breeding and handling.


title: Locust

text: Locusts have been used as food throughout history. They are considered meat. Several cultures throughout the world consume insects, and locusts are considered a delicacy in many African, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries.


title: Locust

text: The Bible records that John the Baptist ate locusts and wild honey () while living in the wilderness. Attempts have been made to explain the text to mean ascetic vegetarian food such as carob beans, but the plain meaning of "akrides" is locust.


title: Locust

text: The Torah, although disallowing the use of most insects as food, permits the consumption of certain locusts; specifically, the red, the yellow, the spotted grey, and the white are permissible. Islamic jurisprudence deems eating locusts to be halal. The Prophet Muhammad was reported to have eaten locusts during a military raid with his companions.


title: Locust

text: Locusts are eaten in the Arabian Peninsula, including Saudi Arabia. In 2014, consumption of locusts spiked around Ramadan especially in the Al-Qassim Region, since many Saudis believe they are healthy to eat, but the Saudi Ministry of Health warned that pesticides made them unsafe. Yemenis also consume locusts, and expressed discontent over governmental plans to use pesticides against them. ʻAbd al-Salâm Shabînî described a locust recipe from Morocco. 19th century European travellers observed Arabs in Arabia, Egypt, and Morocco selling, cooking, and eating locusts. They reported that in Egypt and Palestine locusts were consumed. They reported that in Palestine, around the River Jordan, in Egypt, in Arabia, and in Morocco that Arabs ate locusts, while Syrian peasants did not eat locusts.


title: Locust

text: In the Haouran region, Fellahs who were in poverty and suffered from famine ate locusts after removing the guts and head, while locusts were swallowed whole by Bedouins. Syrians, Copts, Greeks, Armenians, and other Christians and Arabs themselves reported that in Arabia locusts were eaten frequently and one Arab described to a European traveler the different types of locusts which were favored as food by Arabs. Persians use the Anti-Arab racial slur "Arabe malakh-khor" (, literally "Arab locust eater") against Arabs.


title: Locust

text: Locusts yield about five times more edible protein per unit of fodder than cattle, and produce lower levels of greenhouse gases in the process. The feed conversion rate of orthopterans is 1.7 kg/kg, while for beef it is typically about 10 kg/kg. The protein content in fresh weight is between 13 and 28 g / 100 g for adult locust, 14–18 g / 100 g for larvae, as compared to 19–26 g / 100 g for beef. The calculated protein efficiency ratio is low, with 1.69 for locust protein compared to 2.5 for standard casein. A serving of 100 g of desert locust provides 11.5 g of fat, 53.5% of which is unsaturated, and 286 mg of cholesterol. Among the fatty acids, palmitoleic, oleic, and linolenic acids were found to be the most abundant. Varying amounts of potassium, sodium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc were present.


title: Sandra Dee

text: Sandra Dee (born Alexandra Zuck; April 23, 1942 – February 20, 2005) was an American actress. Dee began her career as a child model, working first in commercials, and then film in her teenage years. Best known for her portrayal of ingénues, Dee earned a Golden Globe Award as one of the year's most promising newcomers for her performance in Robert Wise's "Until They Sail" (1958). She became a teenage star for her performances in "Imitation of Life" and "Gidget" (both 1959), which made her a household name.


title: Sandra Dee

text: By the late 1960s, her career had started to decline, and a highly publicized marriage to Bobby Darin ended in divorce. The year of her divorce, Dee's contract with Universal Pictures was dropped. She attempted a comeback with the 1970 independent horror film "The Dunwich Horror", but rarely acted after this time, appearing only occasionally in television productions throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. The rest of the decade was marred by alcoholism, mental illness, plus near total reclusiveness, particularly after her mother died in 1988. Afterwards she sought medical and psychological help in the early 1990s, and died in 2005 of complications from kidney disease, brought on by lifelong anorexia nervosa.


title: Sandra Dee

text: Dee was born Alexandra Zuck on April 23, 1942 in Bayonne, New Jersey, the only child of John Zuck and Mary ( Cimboliak) Zuck, who met as teenagers at a Russian Orthodox Church dance. They married shortly afterward, but divorced before Dee was five years old. She was of Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry and raised in the Orthodox faith; her son, Dodd Darin, wrote in his biographical book about his parents titled "Dream Lovers" that Dee's mother Mary and her aunt Olga [later Olga Duda] "were first generation daughters of a working-class Russian Orthodox couple", and Dee recalled, "we belonged to a Russian Orthodox church, and there was dancing at the social events."


title: Sandra Dee

text: She soon adopted the name Sandra Dee, becoming a professional model by the age of four and progressing to television commercials.


title: Sandra Dee

text: There has been some dispute as to Dee's actual birth year, with evidence pointing to both 1942 and 1944. Legal records, including her California divorce record from Bobby Darin, as well as the Social Security Death Index and her own cryptstone all give her year of birth as 1942. In a 1967 interview with the "Oxnard Press-Courier", she acknowledged being 18 in 1960 when she first met Darin, whom she wed three months later.


title: Sandra Dee

text: According to her son's book, Dee was born in 1944, but, having begun modeling and acting at a very young age, she and her mother falsely inflated her age by two years in order that she could find more work. However, given that the cryptstone her own family ordered gives 1942 as her year of birth, this is unlikely.


title: Sandra Dee

text: Dee's parents divorced in 1950, and her mother married, secondly, to real estate executive Eugene "Gene" Douvan, who reportedly sexually abused Dee after he married her mother.


title: Sandra Dee

text: Producer Ross Hunter claimed to have discovered Dee on Park Avenue in New York City with her mother when she was 12 years old. In a 1959 interview, Dee recalled that she "grew up fast," surrounded mostly by older people, and was "never held back in anything [she] wanted to do."


title: Sandra Dee

text: During her modeling career, Dee attempted to lose weight to "be as skinny as the high-fashion models," although an improper diet "ruined [her] skin, hair, nails—everything." Having lost weight, her body was unable to digest any food that she ate, and it took the help of a doctor to regain her health. According to Dee, she "could have killed [herself]" and "had to learn to eat all over again."


title: Sandra Dee

text: Despite the damaging effects on her health, Dee earned $75,000 in 1956 () working as a child model in New York, which she used to support herself and her mother after the death of her stepfather in 1956. According to sources, Dee's large modeling salary was more than that which she would later earn as an actress. While modeling in New York, she attended the Professional Children's School.


title: Sandra Dee

text: Ending her modeling career, Dee moved from New York to Hollywood in 1957. She graduated from University High School in Los Angeles in June 1958, aged 16. Her onscreen debut was in the 1957 MGM film "Until They Sail", directed by Robert Wise. To promote the film, Dee appeared in a December issue of "Modern Screen" in a column by Louella Parsons, who praised Dee and compared her appearance and talent to those of Shirley Temple. Dee's performance made her one of that year's winners of the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress.


title: Sandra Dee

text: MGM cast Dee as the female lead in "The Reluctant Debutante" (1958), with John Saxon as her romantic costar. It was the first of several films in which Dee appeared with Saxon. She provided the voice of Gerda for the English dub of "The Snow Queen" (1957). With her newfound success and the effects of sexual abuse, Dee continued to struggle with anorexia nervosa, and her kidneys temporarily failed.


title: Sandra Dee

text: In 1958, Dee signed with Universal Pictures and was one of the company's last contract players prior to the dissolution of the studio system. She had a lead role in "The Restless Years" (1958) for producer Ross Hunter, opposite Saxon and Teresa Wright. She followed this with another film for Hunter, "A Stranger in My Arms" (1959).


title: Sandra Dee

text: Dee's third film for Hunter was of greater impact than the first two: "Imitation of Life" (1959), starring Lana Turner.


title: Sandra Dee

text: The film became a box-office success, grossing more than $50 million. It was the highest-grossing film in Universal's history and made Dee a household name. She was loaned to Columbia Pictures to play the title role in the teenage beach comedy "Gidget" (1959), which was a solid hit, helping spawn the beach party genre and leading to two sequels, two television series and two television movies (although Dee did not appear in any of these).


title: Sandra Dee

text: Universal next cast Dee as a tomboy opposite Audie Murphy in the Western romantic comedy "The Wild and the Innocent" (1959). Warner Bros. borrowed her for another melodrama in the vein of "Imitation of Life", "A Summer Place" (1959), opposite Troy Donahue as her romantic costar. The film was a massive hit, and that year American box office exhibitors voted Dee the 16th-most popular star in the country.


title: Sandra Dee

text: Hunter reunited Dee with Turner and Saxon in Universal's "Portrait in Black" (1960), a thriller that was a financial success despite receiving harsh reviews. Dee was listed as the nation's seventh-greatest star at the end of 1960. Peter Ustinov cast her as the lead in the Cold War comedy "Romanoff and Juliet" (1961) with Universal's new heartthrob John Gavin, reuniting them from "Imitation of Life".


title: Sandra Dee

text: Dee and Gavin played together again in Hunter's popular "Tammy Tell Me True" (1961), in which Dee took the Tammy role originated by Debbie Reynolds. In "Come September" (1961), she worked with Bobby Darin in his film debut (following a cameo in an earlier film). Dee and Darin married after filming on December 1, 1960. On December 16, 1961, she gave birth to their son, her only child, Dodd Mitchell Darin (also known as Morgan Mitchell Darin).


title: Sandra Dee

text: In 1961, Dee, with three years remaining on her Universal contract, signed a new one for seven years. Dee and Darin appeared together in the Hunter romantic comedy "If a Man Answers" (1962). In 1963, she appeared in the final Tammy film, "Tammy and the Doctor", and the hit comedy "Take Her, She's Mine", playing a character loosely based on Nora Ephron. That year, she was voted the eighth-greatest star in the country, but it was her last appearance in the top 10. Dee appeared n "I'd Rather Be Rich" (1964), a musical remake of "It Started with Eve", once again for Hunter. She was reunited with Darin in "That Funny Feeling" (1965) before appearing in her last film at Universal under her contract with the spy comedy "A Man Could Get Killed" (1966).


title: Sandra Dee

text: Dee was also a singer and recorded some singles in the early 1960s, including a cover version of "When I Fall in Love".


title: Sandra Dee

text: By the end of the 1960s, Dee's career had slowed significantly, and she was dropped by Universal Pictures. She rarely acted following her 1967 divorce from Darin. In a 1967 interview with Roger Ebert, she reflected on her experience in the studio system and on the ingénue image that had been foisted on her, which she found constricting:Look at this––[a] cigarette. I like to smoke. I'm 25 years old, and it so happens that I like to smoke. So out in Hollywood the studio press agents are still pulling cigarettes out of my hand and covering my drink with a napkin whenever my picture is taken. Little Sandra Dee isn't supposed to smoke, you know. Or drink. Or breathe.


title: Sandra Dee

text: Dee appeared in the somewhat successful "Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding!" in 1967. Hunter asked her to return to Universal in a co-starring role in "Rosie!" (1967), but the film was not a success. Dee was inactive in the film industry for several years before appearing in the 1970 American International Pictures occult horror film "The Dunwich Horror"—a loose adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story—as a college student who finds herself in the center of an occult ritual plot. Dee later said, "The reason I decided to do "Dunwich" was because I couldn't put the script down once I started reading it. I had read so many that I had to plow through, just because I promised someone. Even if this movie turns out be a complete disaster, I guarantee it will change my image." However, she refused to appear nude in the film's final sequence that had been written in the screenplay.


title: Sandra Dee

text: Throughout the 1970s, Dee took sporadic guest-starring roles on episodes of several television series, such as "Night Gallery", "Fantasy Island" and "Police Woman". Her final film performance occurred in the low-budget drama "Lost" (1983). In her later years, Dee told a newspaper that she "felt like a has-been that never was."


title: Sandra Dee

text: Dee's years in the 1980s were marked by poor health, and she became a self-described recluse after retiring from acting. At one point, she finally confronted her mother about the sexual abuse by her stepfather when she was a child, as well as her mother's obliviousness to it. She said:


title: Sandra Dee

text: One night I couldn't control the pressure any longer. My mother and I were at home with a few of her close friends, and she started eulogizing my stepfather. I was slowly getting more and more irate. Finally I said, "Mom, shut up. A saint he wasn't." My mother started defending him, and I said, "Well, guess what your saint did to me? He had sex with me." My mother was shocked, then angry. I knew I hurt her. I wanted to. I had so much anger toward her for not doing something to help me. But she ignored me, and the subject never came up again. I realize now that my mother erased the abuse from her own mind. It didn't exist, so she didn't have to feel guilty.


title: Sandra Dee

text: Dee battled anorexia nervosa, depression and alcoholism for many years, hitting a low point after her mother died of lung cancer on December 27, 1987 at age 63. Dee stated that for months she became a recluse living on soup, crackers and Scotch, with her body weight falling to only 80 pounds. After she began to vomit blood, her son compelled her to seek medical and psychiatric treatment. Her mental and physical condition improved, and she expressed a desire to appear in a television situation comedy, partly in order to belong to a family. She stopped drinking altogether after she was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2000, which was attributed to years of heavy drinking and smoking.


title: Sandra Dee

text: In 1994's "Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee", Dodd Darin chronicled his mother's anorexia and drug and alcohol problems, stating that she had been sexually abused as a child by her stepfather Eugene Douvan. The same year, Dee's final acting credit occurred with a voice-only appearance on an episode of "Frasier".


title: Sandra Dee

text: After requiring kidney dialysis for the last four years of her life, complications from kidney disease led to Dee's death on February 20, 2005 at the Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, California at the age of 62. She was interred in a crypt at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills.


title: Sandra Dee

text: For a number of years, exhibitors voted Dee one of the most popular box-office stars in the United States:


title: Sandra Dee

text: Dee is referenced in the song "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" from the 1971 musical "Grease" and its 1978 film adaptation.


title: The Economist

text: The Economist is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Economist Group, with its core editorial offices in the United States, as well as across major cities in continental Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. In 2019, its average global print circulation was over 909,476; this, combined with its digital presence, runs to over 1.6 million. Across its social media platforms, it reaches an audience of 35 million, as of 2016. The newspaper has a prominent focus on data journalism and interpretive analysis over original reporting, to both criticism and acclaim.


title: The Economist

text: Founded in 1843, "The Economist" was first circulated by Scottish economist James Wilson to muster support for abolishing the British Corn Laws (1815–1846), a system of import tariffs. Over time, the newspaper's coverage expanded further into political economy and eventually began running articles on current events, finance, commerce, and British politics. Throughout the mid-to-late 20th century, it greatly expanded its layout and format, adding opinion columns, special reports, political cartoons, reader letters, cover stories, art critique, book reviews, and technology features. The paper is often recognizable by its fire engine red nameplate and illustrated, topical covers. Individual articles are written anonymously, with no byline, in order for the paper to speak as one collective voice. It is supplemented by its sister lifestyle magazine, "1843", and a variety of podcasts, films, and books.


title: The Economist

text: The editorial stance of "The Economist" primarily revolves around classical, social, and most notably economic liberalism. It has supported radical centrism as the concept became established in the late 20th century, favouring policies and governments that maintain centrist politics. The newspaper typically champions economic liberalism, particularly free markets, free trade, free immigration, deregulation, and globalisation. Despite a pronounced editorial stance, it is seen as having little reporting bias, and as exercising rigorous fact-checking and strict copyediting. Its extensive use of word play, high subscription prices, and depth of coverage has linked the paper with a high-income and educated readership, drawing both positive and negative connotations. In line with this, it claims to have an influential readership of prominent business leaders and policy-makers.


title: The Economist

text: "The Economist" was founded by the British businessman and banker James Wilson in 1843, to advance the repeal of the Corn Laws, a system of import tariffs. A prospectus for the newspaper from 5 August 1843 enumerated thirteen areas of coverage that its editors wanted the publication to focus on:


title: The Economist

text: Wilson described it as taking part in "a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress", a phrase which still appears on its masthead as the publication's mission. It has long been respected as "one of the most competent and subtle Western periodicals on public affairs". It was cited by Karl Marx in his formulation of socialist theory because Marx felt the publication epitomised the interests of the bourgeoisie. He wrote that "the London "Economist", the European organ of the aristocracy of finance, described most strikingly the attitude of this class." In 1915, revolutionary Vladimir Lenin referred to "The Economist" as a "journal that speaks for British millionaires". Additionally, Lenin stated that "The Economist" held a "bourgeois-pacifist" position and supported peace out of fear of revolution.


title: The Economist

text: In 1920, the paper's circulation rose to 6,170. In 1934, it underwent its first major redesign. The current fire engine red nameplate was created by Reynolds Stone in 1959. In 1971, "The Economist" changed its broadsheet format into a magazine-style perfect-bound formatting. In January 2012, "The Economist" launched a new weekly section devoted exclusively to China, the first new country section since the introduction of one on the United States in 1942.


title: The Economist

text: In 1991, James Fallows argued in "The Washington Post" that "The Economist" used editorial lines that contradicted the news stories they purported to highlight. In 1999, Andrew Sullivan complained in "The New Republic" that it uses "marketing genius" to make up for deficiencies in original reporting, resulting in "a kind of "Reader's Digest"" for America's corporate elite. "The Guardian" wrote that "its writers rarely see a political or economic problem that cannot be solved by the trusted three-card trick of privatisation, deregulation and liberalisation".


title: The Economist

text: In 2005, the "Chicago Tribune" named it the best English-language paper noting its strength in international reporting where it does not feel moved to "cover a faraway land only at a time of unmitigated disaster" and that it kept a wall between its reporting and its more conservative editorial policies. In 2008, Jon Meacham, former editor of "Newsweek" and a self-described "fan", criticised "The Economist" focus on analysis over original reporting. In 2012, "The Economist" was accused of hacking into the computer of Justice Mohammed Nizamul Huq of the Bangladesh Supreme Court, leading to his resignation as the chairman of the International Crimes Tribunal. In August 2015, Pearson sold its 50% stake in the newspaper to the Italian Agnelli family's investment company, Exor, for £469 million (US$531 million) and the paper re-acquired the remaining shares for £182 million ($206 million).


title: The Economist

text: Pearson plc held a 50% shareholding via The Financial Times Limited until August 2015. At that time, Pearson sold their share in the Economist. The Agnelli family's Exor paid £287m to raise their stake from 4.7% to 43.4% while the Economist paid £182m for the balance of 5.04m shares which will be distributed to current shareholders. Aside from the Agnelli family, smaller shareholders in the company include Cadbury, Rothschild (21%), Schroder, Layton and other family interests as well as a number of staff and former staff shareholders. A board of trustees formally appoints the editor, who cannot be removed without its permission. The Economist Newspaper Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Economist Group. Sir Evelyn Robert de Rothschild was Chairman of the company from 1972 to 1989.


title: The Economist

text: Although "The Economist" has a global emphasis and scope, about two-thirds of the 75 staff journalists are based in the London borough of Westminster. However, due to half of all subscribers originating in the United States, "The Economist" has core editorial offices and substantial operations in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington D.C.


title: The Economist

text: The editor-in-chief, commonly known simply as "the Editor", of "The Economist" is charged with formulating the paper's editorial policies and overseeing corporate operations. Since its 1843 founding, the editors have been:


title: The Economist

text: Though it has many individual columns, by tradition and current practice the newspaper ensures a uniform voice—aided by the anonymity of writers—throughout its pages, as if most articles were written by a single author, which may be perceived to display dry, understated wit, and precise use of language. "The Economist"s treatment of economics presumes a working familiarity with fundamental concepts of classical economics. For instance, it does not explain terms like invisible hand, macroeconomics, or demand curve, and may take just six or seven words to explain the theory of comparative advantage. Articles involving economics do not presume any formal training on the part of the reader and aim to be accessible to the educated layman. It usually does not translate short French (and German) quotes or phrases. It does describe the business or nature of even well-known entities, writing, for example, "Goldman Sachs, an investment bank". "The Economist" is known for its extensive use of word play, including puns, allusions, and metaphors, as well as alliteration and assonance, especially in its headlines and captions. This can make it difficult to understand for those who are not native English speakers.


title: The Economist

text: "The Economist" has traditionally and historically persisted in referring to itself as a "newspaper", rather than a "news magazine" due to its mostly cosmetic switch from broadsheet to perfect-binding format and its general focus on current affairs as opposed to specialist subjects. It is legally classified as a newspaper in Britain and the United States. Most databases and anthologies catalogue the weekly as a newspaper printed in magazine- or journal-format. "The Economist" differentiates and contrasts itself as a newspaper against their sister lifestyle magazine, "1843", which does the same in turn. Editor Zanny Minton Bedoes clarified the distinction in 2016: "we call it a newspaper because it was founded in 1843, 173 years ago, [when] all [perfect-bound publications] were called newspapers."


title: The Economist

text: "The Economist"‘s articles often take a definite editorial stance and almost never carry a byline. Not even the name of the editor is printed in the issue. It is a long-standing tradition that an editor's only signed article during their tenure is written on the occasion of their departure from the position. The author of a piece is named in certain circumstances: when notable persons are invited to contribute opinion pieces; when journalists of "The Economist" compile special reports (previously known as surveys); for the Year in Review special edition; and to highlight a potential conflict of interest over a book review. The names of "The Economist" editors and correspondents can be located on the media directory pages of the website. Online blog pieces are signed with the initials of the writer and authors of print stories are allowed to note their authorship from their personal web sites. "This approach is not without its faults (we have four staff members with the initials 'J.P.', for example) but is the best compromise between total anonymity and full bylines, in our view", wrote one anonymous writer of "The Economist". There are three editorial and business areas in which the anonymous ethos of the weekly has contributed to strengthening its unique identity: collective and consistent voice, talent and newsroom management, and brand strength and clarity.


title: The Economist

text: The editors say this is necessary because "collective voice and personality matter more than the identities of individual journalists" and reflects "a collaborative effort". In most articles, authors refer to themselves as "your correspondent" or "this reviewer". The writers of the titled opinion columns tend to refer to themselves by the title (hence, a sentence in the "Lexington" column might read "Lexington was informed...").


title: The Economist

text: American author and long-time reader Michael Lewis criticised the paper's editorial anonymity in 1991, labelling it a means to hide the youth and inexperience of those writing articles. Although individual articles are written anonymously, there is no secrecy over who the writers are, as they are listed on "The Economist" website, which also provides summaries of their careers and academic qualifications. Later, in 2009, Lewis included multiple "Economist" articles in his anthology about the 2008 financial crisis, "".


title: The Economist

text: John Ralston Saul describes "The Economist" as a "...[newspaper] which hides the names of the journalists who write its articles in order to create the illusion that they dispense disinterested truth rather than opinion. This sales technique, reminiscent of pre-Reformation Catholicism, is not surprising in a publication named after the social science most given to wild guesses and imaginary facts presented in the guise of inevitability and exactitude. That it is the Bible of the corporate executive indicates to what extent received wisdom is the daily bread of a managerial civilization."


title: The Economist

text: "The Economist"s primary focus is world events, politics and business, but it also runs regular sections on science and technology as well as books and the arts. Approximately every two weeks, the publication includes an in-depth special report (previously called surveys) on a given topic. The five main categories are Countries and Regions, Business, Finance and Economics, Science, and Technology. The newspaper goes to press on Thursdays, between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. GMT, and is available at newsagents in many countries the next day. It is printed at seven sites around the world.


title: The Economist

text: Since July 2007, there has also been a complete audio edition of the paper available 9 pm London time on Thursdays. The audio version of "The Economist" is produced by the production company "Talking Issues". The company records the full text of the newspaper in MP3 format, including the extra pages in the UK edition. The weekly 130 MB download is free for subscribers and available for a fee for non-subscribers. The publication's writers adopt a tight style that seeks to include the maximum amount of information in a limited space. David G. Bradley, publisher of "The Atlantic", described the formula as "a consistent world view expressed, consistently, in tight and engaging prose".


title: The Economist

text: "The Economist" frequently receives letters from its readership in response to the previous week's edition. While it is known to feature letters from senior businesspeople, politicians, ambassadors, and spokespeople, the paper includes letters from typical readers as well. Well-written or witty responses from anyone are considered, and controversial issues frequently produce a torrent of letters. For example, the survey of corporate social responsibility, published January 2005, produced largely critical letters from Oxfam, the World Food Programme, United Nations Global Compact, the Chairman of BT Group, an ex-Director of Shell and the UK Institute of Directors.


title: The Economist

text: In an effort to foster diversity of thought, "The Economist" routinely publishes letters that openly criticize the paper's articles and stance. After "The Economist" ran a critique of Amnesty International and human rights in general in its issue dated 24 March 2007, its letters page ran a reply from Amnesty, as well as several other letters in support of the organisation, including one from the head of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Rebuttals from officials within regimes such as the Singapore government are routinely printed, to comply with local right-of-reply laws without compromising editorial independence.


title: The Economist

text: Letters published in the paper are typically between 150 and 200 words long and had the now-discontinued salutation 'Sir' from 1843 to 2015. In the latter year, upon the appointment of Zanny Minton Beddoes, the first female editor, the salutation was dismissed; letters have since had no salutation. Previous to a change in procedure, all responses to online articles were usually published in "The Inbox".


title: The Economist

text: Every three months, "The Economist" publishes a technology report called "Technology Quarterly", or simply, "TQ", a special section focusing on recent trends and developments in science and technology. The feature is also known to intertwine "economic matters with a technology". The "TQ" often carries a theme, such as quantum computing or cloud storage, and assembles an assortment of articles around the common subject.


title: The Economist

text: In September 2007, "The Economist" launched a sister lifestyle magazine under the title "Intelligent Life" as a quarterly publication. At its inauguration it was billed as for "the arts, style, food, wine, cars, travel and anything else under the sun, as long as it's interesting". The magazine focuses on analyzing the "insights and predictions for the luxury landscape" across the world. Approximately ten years later, in March 2016, the newspaper's parent company, Economist Group, rebranded the lifestyle magazine as "1843", in honor of the paper's founding year. It has since remained at six issues per year, and carries the motto "Stories of An Extraordinary World". Unlike "The Economist", the author's names appear next to their articles in "1843".


title: The Economist

text: "1843" features contributions from "Economist" journalists as well as writers around the world and photography commissioned for each issue. It is seen as a market competitor to "The Wall Street Journal"'s "WSJ." and the "Financial Times"' "FT Magazine". It has, since its March 2016 relaunch, been edited by Rosie Blau, a former correspondent for "The Economist".


title: The Economist

text: The paper also produces two annual reviews and predictive reports titled "The World In [Year]" and "The World If [Year]" as part of their "The World Ahead" franchise. In both features, the newspaper publishes a review of the social, cultural, economic and political events that have shaped the year and will continue to influence the immediate future. The issue was described by the American think tank Brookings Institution as ""The Economist"'s annual [150-page] exercise in forecasting."


title: The Economist

text: An Urdu-language version of "The World In [Year]" in collaboration with "The Economist" is being distributed by Jang Group in Pakistan.


title: The Economist

text: In addition to publishing its main newspaper, lifestyle magazine, and special features, "The Economist" also produces books with topics overlapping with that of its newspaper. The weekly also publishes a series of technical manuals (or guides) as an offshoot of its explanatory journalism. Some of these books serve as collections of articles and columns the paper produces. Often columnists from the newspaper write technical manuals on their topic of expertise; for example, Philip Coggan, a finance correspondent, authored "The Economist Guide to Hedge Funds" (2011).


title: The Economist

text: Additionally, the paper publishes book reviews in every issue, with a large collective review in their year-end (holiday) issue – published as ""The Economist"'s Books of the Year". The paper has its own in-house stylebook rather than following an industry-wide writing style template. All "Economist" writing and publications follow "The Economist Style Guide", in various editions.


title: The Economist

text: "The Economist" sponsors a wide-array of writing competitions and prizes throughout the year for readers. In 1999, "The Economist" organised a global futurist writing competition, The World in 2050. Co-sponsored by Royal Dutch/Shell, the competition included a first prize of US$20,000 and publication in "The Economist"s annual flagship publication, "The World In". Over 3,000 entries from around the world were submitted via a website set up for the purpose and at various Royal Dutch Shell offices worldwide. The judging panel included Bill Emmott, Esther Dyson, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, and Matt Ridley.


title: The Economist

text: In the summer of 2019, they launched the Open Future writing competition with an inaugural youth essay-writing prompt about climate change. During this competition the paper accepted a submission from an artificially-intelligent computer writing program.


title: The Economist

text: The presence of data journalism in "The Economist" can be traced to its founding year in 1843. Initially, the weekly published basic international trade figures and tables. The paper first included a graphical model in 1847, with a bubble chart detailing precious metals, and its first non-epistolary chart was included in its 1854 issue, charting the spread of cholera. This early adoption of data-based articles was estimated to be "a 100 years before the field's modern emergence" by "Data Journalism.com." Its transition from broadsheet to magazine-style formatting led to the adoption of colored graphs, first in fire-engine-red during the 1980s and then to a thematic blue in 2001. The "Economist" told their readers throughout the 2000s that the paper's editors had "developed a taste for data-driven stories". Starting in the late-2000s, they began to publish more and more articles that centered solely on charts, some of which began to be published daily. The daily charts are typically followed by a short, 300-word explanation. In September 2009, "The Economist" launched a Twitter account for their Data Team.


title: The Economist

text: In 2015, the weekly formed a dedicated team of 12 data analysts, designers, and journalists to head up their firm-wide data journalism efforts. In order to ensure transparency in their data collection "The Economist" maintains a corporate GitHub account to publicly disclose all of their models and software. In October 2018, they introduced their "Graphic Detail" feature in both their print and digital editions. The Graphic Detail feature would go on to include mainly graphs, maps, and infographics.


title: The Economist

text: "The Economist"'s Data Team won the 2020 Sigma Data Journalism Award for Best Young Journalists. In 2015, they placed third for an infographic describing Israel's coalition networks in the year's Data Journalism Awards by the Global Editors Network.


title: The Economist

text: Historically, the publication has also maintained a section of economic statistics, such as employment figures, economic growth, and interest rates. These statistical publications have been found to be seen as authoritative and decisive in British society. "The Economist" also publishes a variety of rankings seeking to position business schools and undergraduate universities among each other, respectively. In 2015, they published their first ranking of U.S. universities, focusing on comparable economical advantages. Their data for the rankings is sourced from the U.S. Department of Education and is calculated as a function of median earnings through regression analysis. Among others, the most well-known data indexes the weekly publishes are:


title: The Economist

text: The editorial stance of "The Economist" primarily revolves around classical, social, and most notably, economic liberalism. Since its founding, it has supported radical centrism, favouring policies and governments that maintain centrist politics. The newspaper typically champions neoliberalism, particularly free markets, free trade, free immigration, deregulation, and globalisation. When the newspaper was founded, the term "economism" denoted what would today be termed "economic liberalism". The activist and journalist George Monbiot has described it as neoliberal while occasionally accepting the propositions of Keynesian economics where deemed more "reasonable". The weekly favours a carbon tax to fight global warming. According to one former editor, Bill Emmott, "the "Economist"s philosophy has always been liberal, not conservative". Alongside other publications such as The Guardian, The Observer and The Independent, it supports the United Kingdom becoming a republic.


title: The Economist

text: Individual contributors take diverse views. "The Economist" favours the support, through central banks, of banks and other important corporations. This principle can, in a much more limited form, be traced back to Walter Bagehot, the third editor of "The Economist", who argued that the Bank of England should support major banks that got into difficulties. Karl Marx deemed "The Economist" the "European organ" of "the aristocracy of finance". The newspaper has also supported liberal causes on social issues such as recognition of


title: The Economist

text: gay marriages, legalisation of drugs, criticises the U.S. tax model, and seems to support some government regulation on health issues, such as smoking in public, as well as bans on smacking children. "The Economist" consistently favours guest worker programmes, parental choice of school, and amnesties and once published an "obituary" of God. "The Economist" also has a long record of supporting gun control.


title: The Economist

text: "The Economist" has endorsed the Labour Party (in 2005), the Conservative Party (in 2010 and 2015), and the Liberal Democrats (in 2017 and 2019) at general election time in Britain, and both Republican and Democratic candidates in the United States. "Economist.com" puts its stance this way:


title: The Economist

text: In 2008, "The Economist" commented that Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the president of Argentina at the time was "Dashing hopes of change, Argentina's new president is leading her country into economic peril and social conflict". "The Economist" also called for Bill Clinton's impeachment and, after the emergence of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse, for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation. Though "The Economist" initially gave vigorous support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, it later called the operation "bungled from the start" and criticised the "almost criminal negligence" of the Bush Administration's handling of the war, while maintaining, in 2007, that pulling out in the short term would be irresponsible. In an editorial marking its 175th anniversary, "The Economist" criticised adherents to liberalism for becoming too inclined to protect the political status quo rather than pursue reform. The paper called on liberals to return to advocating for bold political, economic and social reforms: protecting free markets, land and tax reform in the tradition of Georgism, open immigration, a rethink of the social contract with more emphasis on education, and a revival of liberal internationalism.


title: The Economist

text: Each of "The Economist" issues' official date range is from Saturday to the following Friday. "The Economist" posts each week's new content online at approximately 21:00 Thursday evening UK time, ahead of the official publication date. From July to December 2019, their average global print circulation was over 909,476, while combined with their digital presence, runs to over 1.6 million. However, on a weekly average basis, the paper can reach up to 5.1 million readers, across their print and digital runs. Across their social media platforms, it reaches an audience of 35 million, as of 2016.


title: The Economist

text: In 1877, the publication's circulation was 3,700, and in 1920 it had risen to 6,000. Circulation increased rapidly after 1945, reaching 100,000 by 1970. Circulation is audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). From around 30,000 in 1960 it has risen to near 1 million by 2000 and by 2016 to about 1.3 million. Approximately half of all sales (54%) originate in the United States with sales in the United Kingdom making 14% of the total and continental Europe 19%. Of its American readers, two out of three earn more than $100,000 a year. "The Economist" has sales, both by subscription and at newsagents, in over 200 countries.


title: The Economist

text: "The Economist" once boasted about its limited circulation. In the early 1990s it used the slogan ""The Economist" – not read by millions of people". "Never in the history of journalism has so much been read for so long by so few," wrote Geoffrey Crowther, a former editor.


title: The Economist

text: Sections of "The Economist" criticising authoritarian regimes are frequently removed from the paper by the authorities in those countries.


title: The Economist

text: Like many other publications, "The Economist" is subjected to censorship in Iran. On 15 June 2006, Iran banned the sale of "The Economist" when it published a map labelling the Persian Gulf simply as Gulf—a choice that derives its political significance from the Persian Gulf naming dispute.


title: The Economist

text: In a separate incident, the government of Zimbabwe went further and imprisoned "The Economist"s correspondent there, Andrew Meldrum. The government charged him with violating a statute on "publishing untruth" for writing that a woman was decapitated by supporters of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front party. The decapitation claim was retracted and allegedly fabricated by the woman's husband. The correspondent was later acquitted, only to receive a deportation order.


title: The Economist

text: On 19 August 2013, "The Economist" disclosed that the Missouri Department of Corrections had censored its issue of 29 June 2013. According to the letter sent by the department, prisoners were not allowed to receive the issue because "1. it constitutes a threat to the security or discipline of the institution; 2. may facilitate or encourage criminal activity; or 3. may interfere with the rehabilitation of an offender".


title: Countdown (game show)

text: Countdown is a British game show involving word and number tasks that began airing in November 1982. It is broadcast on Channel 4 and is currently presented by Colin Murray, assisted by Rachel Riley, with resident lexicographer Susie Dent. It was the first programme to be aired on Channel 4, and 85 series have been broadcast since its debut on 2 November 1982. With over 7,000 episodes, "Countdown" is one of Britain's longest-running game shows, along with the original French version, "Des chiffres et des lettres" (Numbers & Letters), which has been running on French television continuously since 1965. "Countdown" was produced by Yorkshire Television and was recorded at The Leeds Studios for 27 years, before moving to the Manchester-based Granada Studios in 2009. Following the development of MediaCityUK, "Countdown" moved again in 2013 to the new purpose-built studios at Dock10, Greater Manchester.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: The programme was presented by Richard Whiteley for 22 years until his death in June 2005. It was then presented by Des Lynam from October 2005 until December 2006, Des O'Connor from January 2007 until December 2008, Jeff Stelling from January 2009 until December 2011 and Nick Hewer from January 2012 until July 2021, with Colin Murray standing in for Hewer during part of the COVID-19 pandemic. The series was then presented by Anne Robinson, its first female presenter, from July 2021 until July 2022. Murray then returned on 14 July as a stand-in host. On 25 July 2022, it was announced that Les Dennis would guest host the show from 4–15 August followed by Jenny Eclair from 16 to 19 August, because Murray tested positive for COVID-19. Guest hosts would return later that year as part of the show’s 40th anniversary celebrations, with Floella Benjamin, Richard Coles, Trevor McDonald (for a second time) and Moira Stuart each hosting one week's worth of episodes.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: In the early years, the show had multiple assistant presenters, including Carol Vorderman, who was hired for the first series to check calculations in the numbers round, and her role expanded to include placing the number and letter tiles. She left in 2008, at the same time as O'Connor, and was replaced by Rachel Riley. Susie Dent has been the permanent lexicographer since 2004 and appears in "Dictionary Corner" alongside a celebrity guest.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: The two contestants in each episode compete in three game types: ten letters rounds, in which the contestants attempt to make the longest word possible from nine randomly chosen letters; four numbers rounds, in which the contestants must use arithmetic to reach a random target number from six other numbers; and the conundrum, a buzzer round in which the contestants compete to solve a nine-letter anagram. During the series heats, the winning contestant returns the next day until they either lose or retire with eight wins as an undefeated "Octochamp". The best eight contestants are invited back for the series finals, which are decided in knockout format. Contestants of exceptional skill have received national media coverage and the programme, as a whole, is widely recognised and parodied within British culture.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: "Countdown" originated from the format of the French game show "Des chiffres et des lettres" ("Numbers and Letters"), created by Armand Jammot. After watching the programme, Belgian record executive Marcel Stellman brought the format to Britain on the belief it could be popular overseas and proposed his concept for the British version to several networks. The concept was purchased in the early 1980s by Yorkshire Television, which commissioned a series of eight shows under the title "Calendar Countdown", which were broadcast between April and May 1982. Aimed at being a spin-off of their regional news programme "Calendar", the programme's host deemed the natural choice for the concept. The spin-off was aired only in the Yorkshire area, with Whiteley earning the nickname of "Twice Nightly Whiteley" because of his daily appearances on both programmes. He was assisted by Cathy Hytner and Denise McFarland-Cruickshanks, who handled the letters and numbers rounds respectively.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: By 1982, after an additional pilot episode was made with a refined format – an episode that was never broadcast – the show was bought by Channel 4, a new British television channel set to launch in November 1982, based on the refined concept. While Whiteley and Hytner from the original pilot were retained, the programme was renamed "Countdown", and the format was expanded to include additional members in the hosting team, including letters and number experts. It was commissioned to be broadcast four times a week for seven weeks initially, but was such a success it's still being recommissioned as of 2022.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: An additional spin-off to the programme for young contestants was proposed at the time, dubbed "Junior Countdown" – the concept would be similar in format, but hosted by Gyles Brandreth and Ted Moult – but while a pilot was created, the proposal was abandoned after it was found to be highly flawed.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: "Countdown" was the first programme broadcast by Channel 4 when it launched on 2 November 1982, with Whiteley opening the programme with the line:


title: Countdown (game show)

text: Alongside the original cast from "Calendar Countdown", the new format of the gameshow led to production staff seeking out further hostesses through advertising in national newspapers for young women to become a member of the programme's cast, with notable conditions about their involvement; in particular, those recruited for calculations found it made clear that as an applicant, their appearance would be less important than their skill as a mathematician. Amongst those recruited, Beverley Isherwood was hired to work alongside Hytner in handling the selection of number and letter tiles respectively, while Linda Barrett and Carol Vorderman were recruited for checking over calculations by contestants in the numbers round. In addition, a lexicographer was also required to form part of the format's "Dictionary Corner" segment, to verify words given by contestants in the letters round (see "Letters round rules") and to point out any longer or otherwise interesting words available; such a role was aided by the show's producers, with no assistance from any computer program and accompanied by a celebrity guest for a set period on the programme – contributing words and providing entertainment through anecdotes, puzzles, poems and stories. Amongst these who have appeared on the programme are Nigel Rees, Jo Brand, Martin Jarvis, Richard Digance, Geoffrey Durham, Ken Bruce, Magnus Magnusson, Pam Ayres, Paul Zenon, Jenny Eclair, Al Murray, John Sergeant and Gyles Brandreth.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: Over time, the additional hostesses on the programme were dropped by production staff, who retained Vorderman and assigned her primarily to handle the selection of letter and number tiles, as well as verifying contestant calculations. The programme frequently rotated between various lexicographers, including Richard Samson and Alison Heard, for each series, until in 2004 the role was permanently given to Susie Dent, after her debut on "Countdown" in 1992.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: On 26 June 2005, Whiteley died after a failed heart operation. At the time, he had been slowly recovering from pneumonia earlier that year, which had prevented him recording further episodes. His death impacted the show, causing the episode scheduled for that day to be postponed by Channel 4 as a mark of respect, while the remaining episodes he had completed were aired after his death, the first of which was preceded by a tearful tribute from Vorderman. After the series' conclusion, "Countdown" was placed into hiatus from 1 July to determine how to proceed.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: In October 2005, Channel 4 announced that Des Lynam would take over as the main presenter, having previously participated in the celebrity edition ("Celebrity Countdown") in April 1998. Lynam's tenure ran until December 2006, whereupon his demanding filming schedule forced him to resign from the programme. Channel 4 proposed reducing his travelling by moving filming from Leeds to a site closer to his residence in Worthing, West Sussex, but viewers reacted angrily to the idea and Lynam decided it would cause considerable disruption for many of the programme's camera crew.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: In January 2007, Des O'Connor took over as the main presenter. During his tenure as host, Dent went on maternity leave over the winter of 2007–08, and Alison Heard temporarily replaced her on the programme until 6 February 2008. By July 2008, both O'Connor and Vorderman had announced that they would be leaving by the end of that year, after the end of the 59th series. While O'Connor was forced to leave in order to concentrate on other projects, Vorderman left after her offer to take a 33% salary decrease was rejected and production staff asked her to take a 90% pay cut; her agent stated that staff had told her that the show had survived without Whiteley and could "easily survive without you". Some media reports suggested that the new presenter would be either Rory Bremner, the early favourite, or Alexander Armstrong, but both ruled themselves out of the job. At the same time there was speculation that several prominent women, including Anthea Turner, Ulrika Jonsson and Myleene Klass, were strong candidates to take over Vorderman's job, but Channel 4 revealed that the role was to be assigned to a previously unknown male or female arithmetician with "charm and charisma".


title: Countdown (game show)

text: When Des Lynam became the new presenter after Whiteley's death in 2005, the show regularly drew an average 1.7 million viewers every day; this was around half a million more than in the last few years of Richard Whiteley presenting. The Series 54 final, on 26 May 2006, attracted 2.5 million viewers. 3–4 million viewers had watched the show daily in its previous 16:15 slot. The drop in viewing figures following the scheduling change, coupled with the show's perceived educational benefits, even caused Labour MP Jonathan Shaw to table a motion in the UK Parliament requesting that the show be returned to its later time. Minor scheduling changes have subsequently seen the show move from 15:15 to 15:30, 15:45, 15:25, and 15:10. As of , it is broadcast at 14:10.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: In November 2008, Jeff Stelling was confirmed as the new host, while Oxford maths graduate Rachel Riley was confirmed as Vorderman's replacement. Stelling remained with the programme until the end of 2011, when his football commitments with Sky Sports forced him reluctantly to leave "Countdown". Before his departure, "The Apprentice" star Nick Hewer was announced as his replacement, and he took over as the main presenter when his first episode aired on 9 January 2012. In 2020, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it was announced that Colin Murray, a frequent Dictionary Corner guest, would fill in for Hewer while he spent a period of time in isolation during the UK's second lockdown.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: On 7 December 2020, Hewer announced that he would be stepping down as the host of "Countdown" at the end of series 83 in summer 2021. Hewer said it had been "privilege and a pleasure to take the helm of "Countdown"". It was then announced on 15 February 2021 that Anne Robinson, who first appeared on the show as a guest in Dictionary Corner in 1987, would take over from Hewer at the start of series 84. Hewer's final show aired on 25 June 2021. On 28 June 2021, Robinson became the show’s first female host in its 39-year history. In May 2022, it is announced that she would be leaving the show after just one year, with Murray taking over for the majority of series 86. In total, Robinson recorded 265 episodes, which equates to two full series, and the first three weeks of series 86.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: "Countdown" quickly established cult status within British television – an image which it maintains today, despite the loss of key presenters. The programme's audience comprises mainly students, homemakers and pensioners, because of the "teatime" broadcast slot and inclusive appeal of its format and presentation. "Countdown" has been one of Channel 4's most-watched programmes for over twenty years, but has never won a major television award.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: On each episode, the prize for defeating the reigning champion is a teapot that is styled to resemble the renowned clock used in each round. Introduced in December 1998, the pot is custom-made and can only be obtained by winning a game on the programme. Defeated contestants receive an assortment of "Countdown"-themed merchandise as a parting gift.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: At first, the prize for the series winner was a leather-bound copy of the twenty-volume "Oxford English Dictionary", worth over £4,000. Between 2011 and 2021, the prize consisted of ordinary hardback twenty-one-volume dictionaries, a laptop computer and a lifetime subscription to Oxford Online (replaced by a MacBook pro laptop by series 68). David Acton, winner of Series 31, opted for a CD-ROM version of the dictionaries, not wanting to accept leather-bound books owing to his strict veganism, and he donated the monetary difference to charity. The paperback dictionaries, given to the series winner, were last featured in Series 83; they were removed as they were considered significantly outdated.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: Runner-up prizes in the finals increased over the years from a £100 book voucher to £250, later to £500, and then £1,000. Beginning with series 68, the runner-up in the finals wins a laptop.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: Since Series 54 in 2006, the series champion also receives the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy, in memory of the show's original presenter.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: Though the style and colour scheme of the set have changed many times (and the show itself moved to Manchester, after more than 25 years in Leeds), the clock has always provided the centrepiece and, like the clock music composed by Alan Hawkshaw, is an enduring and well-recognised feature of "Countdown". Executive producer John Meade once commissioned Hawkshaw to revise the music for extra intensity to introduce at the start of series 31 in January 1996; after hundreds of complaints from viewers, the old tune was reinstated after just 12 shows. The original clock featured until September 2013, when it was replaced.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: The first episode of "Countdown" was repeated on 1 October 2007 on More4 and also on 2 November 2007 on Channel 4; this was as part of "Channel 4 at 25", a season of programmes to celebrate its 25th birthday.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: On 2 November 2007, "Countdown" celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary and aired a special 'birthday episode'. The two players were 2006 winner Conor Travers and 2002 winner Chris Wills. However, for the rounds, VIP guests selected the letters and numbers. Guests included Gordon Brown, Amir Khan and Richard Attenborough. A statement from the French TV network France Télévisions was read out on air by Vorderman to commend Channel 4 on its success of "Countdown".


title: Countdown (game show)

text: On 26 March 2010, Queen Elizabeth II congratulated "Countdown" for amassing 5,000 episodes. On 5 September 2014, the programme received a Guinness World Record at the end of its 6,000th show for the longest-running television programme of its kind during the course of its 71st series.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: In September 2014, "Countdown" entered the "Guinness World Records" for the most series of a TV game show broadcast.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: "Countdown" has occupied a daytime broadcast slot since its inception, originally in a 30-minute format. Since 2001, an episode lasts around 45 minutes including advertising breaks. During the normal series, the winner of each game returns for the next day's show. A player who wins eight games is declared an "octochamp" and retires from the programme. At the end of the series, the eight best players (ranked first by number of wins, then by total score if required to break a tie) are invited back to compete in the series finals. They are seeded in a knockout tournament, with the first seed playing the eighth seed, the second playing the seventh, and so on. The winner of this knockout, which culminates in the Grand Final, becomes the series champion. Each series lasts around six months, with about 125 episodes.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: Approximately every four series, a Champion of Champions tournament takes place. For this, sixteen of the best players to have appeared since the previous Championship are invited back for another knockout tournament. The producer, former contestant Damian Eadie, decides which players to include, but typically the tournament includes the series winners and other noteworthy contestants. Series 33 was designated a "Supreme Championship", in which 56 of the best contestants from all the previous series returned for another knockout tournament. Series 10 champion Harvey Freeman was declared Supreme Champion after beating Allan Saldanha in the final. There are also occasional special episodes, in which past contestants return for themed matches. For example, David Acton and Kenneth Michie returned for a rematch of their Series 31 final, while brothers and former contestants Sanjay and Sandeep Mazumder played off against each other on 20 December 2004.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: Since the change to 45-minute episodes, the game has been split into three sections, separated by advertising breaks. The first section contains two letters rounds and a numbers round, the second has two letters rounds and a numbers round followed by the anecdote from the Dictionary Corner guest and then a further two letters rounds and a numbers round, while the last section has two letters rounds, Susie Dent's "Origins of Words" item, two further letters rounds, a numbers round and a final "Conundrum" puzzle. With the exception of the Conundrum, the contestants swap control after every round so that each of them has control for five letters rounds and two numbers rounds.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: At the end of the first two sections, the host poses a "Teatime Teaser" for the viewers, giving a set of short words and a cryptic clue to a single word that can be anagrammed from them. The solution is revealed at the start of the next section. (Example: Given the words SAD MOODY and the clue "We'll all be sad and moody when this arrives," the solution would be DOOMSDAY.) When the Teatime Teaser was first introduced, the anagrams were seven letters long; they were later extended to eight, then to nine in late 2016, before returning to eight in 2020.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: The contestant in control chooses between two stacks of face-down letter tiles, one containing vowels (A-E-I-O-U only) and the other consonants, and the assistant reveals the top tile from that stack and places it on the board. This is done nine times, and the final grouping must contain at least three vowels and four consonants. The contestants then have 30 seconds to form the longest single word they can, using the nine revealed letters; no letter may be used more often than it appears in the selection. The frequencies of the letters within each stack are weighted according to their frequency in natural English, in the same manner as Scrabble. For example, there are many "N"s and "R"s in the consonant stack, but only one "Q". The letter frequencies are altered by the producers from time to time, so any published list does not necessarily reflect the letters used in any particular programme. The two stacks of tiles are not replenished between rounds.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: Both contestants write down the words they form, in case they select the same one. After time runs out, the host asks the contestants to declare their word lengths, starting with the contestant who chose the letters. The host then asks the discovered words, starting with the shorter declared length. If one contestant has not written their word down in time, they must state this fact; if both then declare the same length, that contestant must give their word first to prevent cheating. If both contestants state that they have not written their words, the host allows them a moment to do so; this is typically edited out of the final broadcast. The contestant with the longer valid word scores one point per letter, or 18 points if they have used all nine. If the words are identical or of the same length, both contestants score. In the former case, the contestants must show their written words to each other as proof that they are the same. If a contestant is visually impaired, Dictionary Corner will verify the word. Contestants who inaccurately declare the length of their word score zero, even if the word is valid. Each round ends with Dictionary Corner revealing the longest words and/or any unusual ones that can be formed from the available letters, aided by the production team.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: Any word which appears in the "Oxford Dictionary of English" is valid, as well as accepted forms of them that may not be explicitly listed. Examples are:


title: Countdown (game show)

text: The contestant in control chooses six of 24 shuffled face-down number tiles, arranged into two groups: 20 "small numbers" (two each of 1 to 10), and four "large numbers" of 25, 50, 75, and 100. Some special episodes replace the large numbers with 12, 37, 62, and 87. The contestant decides how many large numbers are to be used, from none to all four, after which the six tiles are randomly drawn and placed on the board. A random three-digit target number is then generated by an electronic machine, known as "CECIL" (which stands for "Countdown's Electronic Calculator In Leeds"). The contestants have 30 seconds to work out a sequence of calculations with the numbers whose final result is as close to the target number as possible. They may use only the four basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and do not have to use all six numbers. A number may not be used more times than it appears on the board. Division can only be performed if the result has no remainder (i.e., the divisor is a factor of the dividend). Fractions are not allowed, and only positive integers may be obtained as a result at any stage of the calculation. As in the letters rounds, any contestant who does not write down their calculations in time must go first if both declare the same result, and both contestants must show their work to each other if their results and calculations are identical.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: Only the contestant whose result is closer to the target number scores points: ten for reaching it exactly, seven for being between one and five from the target, and five for being within six and ten from the target. Contestants score no points for being more than ten away, if their calculations are flawed, or if they take too long to give a solution after saying they have not written it down. Both score if they reach the same result, or if their results are the same distance away. Should neither contestant reach the target exactly, the assistant is called upon to attempt a solution, either immediately or at a later time during the episode.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: In some games, there are many ways to reach the target exactly; the example target above could also be reached by 7 × (75 + 50 + 2 – 8 – 3) = 812. Not all games are solvable, and for a few selections it is impossible even to get within 10, most commonly when a contestant picks six small numbers and the target number is quite large. There is a tactical element in selecting how many large numbers to include. One large and five small numbers is the most popular selection, despite two large numbers giving the best chance of the game being solvable exactly. Selections with zero or four large numbers are generally considered the hardest.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: The 24 tiles are laid out in four rows, the topmost of which contains only the four large numbers. The contestant may specify how many tiles to draw from each row, or simply state how many large and small numbers will be used; in the latter case, the assistant draws the tiles randomly. The numbers are usually placed on the board from right to left, starting with the small ones, but have occasionally been displayed in scrambled order. On rare occasions, the contestant has declined to make any choices, in which case the assistant selects the tiles. Unlike the letters round, the pool of tiles is fully replenished after each numbers round.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: A special edition, broadcast on 15 March 2010, for two previous series champions, Kirk Bevins and Chris Davies, used instead of the usual four large numbers, the numbers 12, 37 and two numbers unrevealed for the duration of the show. In a further special broadcast on 16 August 2010 between the Series 59 finalists Charlie Reams and Junaid Mubeen, the other two numbers were revealed to be 62 and 87.


title: Countdown (game show)

text: The final round of the game is the "Countdown Conundrum", in which the contestants are shown a combination of two or three words with a total of nine letters. They have 30 seconds to form a single word using all the letters and must buzz in to respond (a bell for the champion, a buzzer for the challenger). Each contestant is allowed only one guess, and the first to answer correctly scores 10 points. If a contestant buzzes-in and either responds incorrectly or fails to give any response, the remaining time is given to the opponent. If neither contestant can solve it, the presenter asks whether anyone in the audience knows the answer and, if so, chooses someone to call it out. (This practice was stopped temporarily in 2009 to avoid difficulties with camera angles after the studio layout was changed.) The Conundrum is designed to have only one solution, but on occasion more than one valid word is found by happenstance (e.g. MISSATTEE can become both ESTIMATES and STEAMIEST). If this happens, any of these results is accepted. On rare occasions, the Conundrum is presented as a single nine-letter word that must be anagrammed into another one (e.g. SMARTENED becoming TRADESMEN).


title: Countdown (game show)

text: If the contestants' scores are within ten points of each other going into this round, it is referred to as a "Crucial Countdown Conundrum". Since ten points are at stake, the contestant who solves it will either win the game or force a tiebreaker. If the scores are tied after the Conundrum, additional Conundrums are played until the tie is broken. There have been several instances in which two Conundrums were used to decide the winner, but only a handful of episodes have required three. (There have also been cases when even more Conundrums have been required to provide a winner, but not all have been included in the transmitted programme.)


title: Countdown (game show)

text: The rules of "Countdown" are derived from those of "Des chiffres et des lettres". Perhaps the biggest difference is the length of the round; "DCedL"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s number rounds are each 45 seconds long to "Countdown"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s 30. "DCedL" also features "duels", in which players compete in short tasks such as mental arithmetic problems, extracting two themed words from another, or being asked to spell a word correctly. Other minor differences include a different numbers scoring system (9 points for an exact solution, or 6 points for the closest inexact solution in "DCedL") and the proportion of letters to numbers rounds (10 to 4 in "Countdown", 8 to 4 in "DCedL").


title: Countdown (game show)

text: The pilot episode followed significantly different rules from the current ones. Most noticeably, only eight letters were selected for each letters round. If two contestants offered a word of the same length, or an equally close solution to a numbers game, then only the contestant who made the selection for that round was awarded points. Also, only five points were given for an exact numbers solution, three for a solution within 5, and one point for the closer solution, no matter how far away.