title: Permittivity

text: Because the surface area of a sphere is formula_30, the electric field a distance formula_31 away from a uniform, spherical charge arrangement is


title: Permittivity

text: where formula_33 is the Coulomb constant (formula_34). This formula applies to the electric field due to a point charge, outside of a conducting sphere or shell, outside of a uniformly charged insulating sphere, or between the plates of a spherical capacitor.


title: Permittivity

text: In general, a material cannot polarize instantaneously in response to an applied field, and so the more general formulation as a function of time is


title: Permittivity

text: That is, the polarization is a convolution of the electric field at previous times with time-dependent susceptibility given by . The upper limit of this integral can be extended to infinity as well if one defines for . An instantaneous response would correspond to a Dirac delta function susceptibility .


title: Permittivity

text: It is convenient to take the Fourier transform with respect to time and write this relationship as a function of frequency. Because of the convolution theorem, the integral becomes a simple product,


title: Permittivity

text: This frequency dependence of the susceptibility leads to frequency dependence of the permittivity. The shape of the susceptibility with respect to frequency characterizes the dispersion properties of the material.


title: Permittivity

text: Moreover, the fact that the polarization can only depend on the electric field at previous times (i.e. effectively for ), a consequence of causality, imposes Kramers–Kronig constraints on the susceptibility .


title: Permittivity

text: As opposed to the response of a vacuum, the response of normal materials to external fields generally depends on the frequency of the field. This frequency dependence reflects the fact that a material's polarization does not change instantaneously when an electric field is applied. The response must always be "causal" (arising after the applied field), which can be represented by a phase difference. For this reason, permittivity is often treated as a complex function of the (angular) frequency of the applied field:


title: Permittivity

text: (since complex numbers allow specification of magnitude and phase). The definition of permittivity therefore becomes


title: Permittivity

text: The response of a medium to static electric fields is described by the low-frequency limit of permittivity, also called the static permittivity (also ):


title: Permittivity

text: At the high-frequency limit (meaning optical frequencies), the complex permittivity is commonly referred to as (or sometimes ). At the plasma frequency and below, dielectrics behave as ideal metals, with electron gas behavior. The static permittivity is a good approximation for alternating fields of low frequencies, and as the frequency increases a measurable phase difference emerges between and . The frequency at which the phase shift becomes noticeable depends on temperature and the details of the medium. For moderate field strength (), and remain proportional, and


title: Permittivity

text: Since the response of materials to alternating fields is characterized by a complex permittivity, it is natural to separate its real and imaginary parts, which is done by convention in the following way:


title: Permittivity

text: The choice of sign for time-dependence, , dictates the sign convention for the imaginary part of permittivity. The signs used here correspond to those commonly used in physics, whereas for the engineering convention one should reverse all imaginary quantities.


title: Permittivity

text: The complex permittivity is usually a complicated function of frequency , since it is a superimposed description of dispersion phenomena occurring at multiple frequencies. The dielectric function must have poles only for frequencies with positive imaginary parts, and therefore satisfies the Kramers–Kronig relations. However, in the narrow frequency ranges that are often studied in practice, the permittivity can be approximated as frequency-independent or by model functions.


title: Permittivity

text: At a given frequency, the imaginary part, , leads to absorption loss if it is positive (in the above sign convention) and gain if it is negative. More generally, the imaginary parts of the eigenvalues of the anisotropic dielectric tensor should be considered.


title: Permittivity

text: In the case of solids, the complex dielectric function is intimately connected to band structure. The primary quantity that characterizes the electronic structure of any crystalline material is the probability of photon absorption, which is directly related to the imaginary part of the optical dielectric function . The optical dielectric function is given by the fundamental expression:


title: Permittivity

text: In this expression, represents the product of the Brillouin zone-averaged transition probability at the energy with the joint density of states, ; is a broadening function, representing the role of scattering in smearing out the energy levels. In general, the broadening is intermediate between Lorentzian and Gaussian; for an alloy it is somewhat closer to Gaussian because of strong scattering from statistical fluctuations in the local composition on a nanometer scale.


title: Permittivity

text: According to the Drude model of magnetized plasma, a more general expression which takes into account the interaction of the carriers with an alternating electric field at millimeter and microwave frequencies in an axially magnetized semiconductor requires the expression of the permittivity as a non-diagonal tensor. (see also Electro-gyration).


title: Permittivity

text: If vanishes, then the tensor is diagonal but not proportional to the identity and the medium is said to be a uniaxial medium, which has similar properties to a uniaxial crystal.


title: Permittivity

text: Materials can be classified according to their complex-valued permittivity , upon comparison of its real and imaginary components (or, equivalently, conductivity, , when accounted for in the latter). A "perfect conductor" has infinite conductivity, , while a "perfect dielectric" is a material that has no conductivity at all, ; this latter case, of real-valued permittivity (or complex-valued permittivity with zero imaginary component) is also associated with the name "lossless media". Generally, when we consider the material to be a "low-loss dielectric" (although not exactly lossless), whereas is associated with a "good conductor"; such materials with non-negligible conductivity yield a large amount of loss that inhibit the propagation of electromagnetic waves, thus are also said to be "lossy media". Those materials that do not fall under either limit are considered to be general media.


title: Permittivity

text: In the case of a lossy medium, i.e. when the conduction current is not negligible, the total current density flowing is:


title: Permittivity

text: Note that this is using the electrical engineering convention of the Complex conjugate ambiguity; the physics/chemistry convention involves the complex conjugate of these equations.


title: Permittivity

text: The size of the displacement current is dependent on the frequency ω of the applied field "E"; there is no displacement current in a constant field.


title: Permittivity

text: In general, the absorption of electromagnetic energy by dielectrics is covered by a few different mechanisms that influence the shape of the permittivity as a function of frequency:


title: Permittivity

text: The above effects often combine to cause non-linear effects within capacitors. For example, dielectric absorption refers to the inability of a capacitor that has been charged for a long time to completely discharge when briefly discharged. Although an ideal capacitor would remain at zero volts after being discharged, real capacitors will develop a small voltage, a phenomenon that is also called "soakage" or "battery action". For some dielectrics, such as many polymer films, the resulting voltage may be less than 1–2% of the original voltage. However, it can be as much as 15–25% in the case of electrolytic capacitors or supercapacitors.


title: Permittivity

text: At low frequencies, molecules in polar dielectrics are polarized by an applied electric field, which induces periodic rotations. For example, at the microwave frequency, the microwave field causes the periodic rotation of water molecules, sufficient to break hydrogen bonds. The field does work against the bonds and the energy is absorbed by the material as heat. This is why microwave ovens work very well for materials containing water. There are two maxima of the imaginary component (the absorptive index) of water, one at the microwave frequency, and the other at far ultraviolet (UV) frequency. Both of these resonances are at higher frequencies than the operating frequency of microwave ovens.


title: Permittivity

text: At moderate frequencies, the energy is too high to cause rotation, yet too low to affect electrons directly, and is absorbed in the form of resonant molecular vibrations. In water, this is where the absorptive index starts to drop sharply, and the minimum of the imaginary permittivity is at the frequency of blue light (optical regime).


title: Permittivity

text: At high frequencies (such as UV and above), molecules cannot relax, and the energy is purely absorbed by atoms, exciting electron energy levels. Thus, these frequencies are classified as ionizing radiation.


title: Permittivity

text: While carrying out a complete "ab initio" (that is, first-principles) modelling is now computationally possible, it has not been widely applied yet. Thus, a phenomenological model is accepted as being an adequate method of capturing experimental behaviors. The Debye model and the Lorentz model use a first-order and second-order (respectively) lumped system parameter linear representation (such as an RC and an LRC resonant circuit).


title: Permittivity

text: The relative permittivity of a material can be found by a variety of static electrical measurements. The complex permittivity is evaluated over a wide range of frequencies by using different variants of dielectric spectroscopy, covering nearly 21 orders of magnitude from 10 to 10 hertz. Also, by using cryostats and ovens, the dielectric properties of a medium can be characterized over an array of temperatures. In order to study systems for such diverse excitation fields, a number of measurement setups are used, each adequate for a special frequency range.


title: Permittivity

text: Various microwave measurement techniques are outlined in Chen "et al.". Typical errors for the Hakki-Coleman method employing a puck of material between conducting planes are about 0.3%.


title: Permittivity

text: At infrared and optical frequencies, a common technique is ellipsometry. Dual polarisation interferometry is also used to measure the complex refractive index for very thin films at optical frequencies.


title: Permittivity

text: For the 3D measurement of dielectric tensors at optical frequency, Dielectric tensor tomography can be used.


title: Redwall

text: Redwall is a series of children's fantasy novels by British writer Brian Jacques, published from 1986 to 2011. It is also the title of the first book of the series, published in 1986, as well as the name of the abbey featured in the book, and is the name of an animated TV series based on three of the novels ("Redwall", "Mattimeo", and "Martin the Warrior"), which first aired in 1999. The books are primarily aimed at adolescents. There have been 22 novels and two picture books published. The twenty-second, and final, novel, "The Rogue Crew", was posthumously released on 3 May 2011, almost three months after Jacques' death on 5 February.


title: Redwall

text: The series chronicles the adventures of the anthropomorphic animals inhabiting Redwall Abbey and the surrounding countryside of Mossflower Wood, including mice, moles, hares, badgers, and other woodland species. Frequently the peace-loving creatures of Mossflower are called upon to become warriors to defend themselves from marauding bands of "vermin" such as rats, weasels, and foxes.


title: Redwall

text: The novels in the series are set in many periods in the fictional history of Redwall and Mossflower; the chronological order of the stories is not the same as the order in which they were written, some taking place before the construction of Redwall Abbey itself or in far-flung locations beyond Mossflower. Some of the books focus on characters who, in other volumes, are legendary historical figures, such as "The Legend of Luke". Because of the widely spaced storylines, very few characters are mentioned in more than one or two novels. One notable exception is Martin the Warrior, one of the founders of Redwall Abbey, whose adventures are chronicled in several of the novels and who is frequently mentioned as an icon of heroism who inspires later Redwall denizens, occasionally appearing to them as a spiritual vision.


title: Redwall

text: Despite the changing historical setting and absence of recurring characters, familiar character archetypes recur throughout the books, often characters in tribe-specific leadership roles, such the Badger Lords, the Skipper of Otters, or the shrew tribe leader "Log-a-Log". Other recurring elements include "Dibbuns" (the Redwall name for infant woodlanders) and detailed descriptions of food.


title: Redwall

text: Although the main setting is an abbey, and several characters are referred to as monks, friars, etc., the series makes little mention of religious beliefs or practices. Early novels establish a St. Ninian's church near Redwall Abbey, but a later novel portrays that as a misnomer for a building that was never a church.


title: Redwall

text: The "Redwall" novels are characterized as fantasy, but contain little in the way of magic or the supernatural, apart from the anthropomorphism of the animal characters. The sword of Martin the Warrior is believed by many characters to be magical, and vermin occasionally try to steal it for this reason; "Mossflower" reveals that it was forged from a fragment of a meteorite at the volcanic fortress Salamandastron by the Badger Lord known as Boar the Fighter. The role of "monsters" in the novels is played not by mythical creatures, but by real-world predators such as adders, sharks, and wolverines.


title: Redwall

text: At the time of Jacques' death, twenty-one novels had been released. "The Sable Quean" was released in February 2010. The twenty-second and (because of his death) final book, "The Rogue Crew", was released on 3 May 2011.


title: Redwall

text: The prequels to "Redwall" are not released in any chronological order. The sequels, including "Mattimeo", were released in the order in which they occur. The books are listed below in their chronological order within the fictional world of Redwall, with publication dates noted.


title: Redwall

text: The first three chronologically ordered books ("Lord Brocktree", "Martin the Warrior", and "Mossflower") take place before the construction of Redwall Abbey, while the fourth, "The Legend of Luke", takes place during its construction. Many of the books that take place before Redwall was constructed are told via a framing device.


title: Redwall

text: Most books adjacent to each other in chronological order take place within a generation or so of each other, as evidenced by mentions of past characters in the later books. "Redwall" and "Mattimeo" as well as "Mariel of Redwall", and "The Bellmaker" feature the same cast, with a short span of time between them. From "Triss" onward, however, they take place so far apart in time that none share any characters with other books anymore.


title: Redwall

text: In the Redwall universe, species almost invariably (with very few exceptions, including change of character mid-story) determines a creature's nature, whether good or evil. Some common noble species in Redwall include mice, otters, moles, hares, squirrels, hedgehogs, shrews, birds, voles, and badgers, while common vermin include rats, foxes, weasels, ferrets, ravens, snakes, stoats, ermine, sables, wildcats, magpies, rooks, and crows. However, many other varieties of species also make appearances throughout the novels as well. Dormice also appear sometimes but are rarely major characters. On numerous occasions it mentions seals, whose language makes little sense to other creatures; also bank voles on numerous occasions, usually as a "good" character but once as an evil character. Twice, in "Mattimeo" and "Loamhedge", there is a creature, apparently half weasel and half ferret, called a Wearet, while the book "The Rogue Crew" features a (purportedly) half-weasel and half-rat Wearat as its principal villain. Pine martens have been featured in three books, once as the main villain and twice in the service of a wildcat. Several reptiles are also mentioned, such as adders, other snakes, and lizards. Amphibians like toads and frogs have been featured also, and are depicted as lower creatures that live in more basic tribal systems and usually serve not as the primary villains but as secondary distractions to heroes. Pikes can be found throughout the books, inhabiting rivers, and also acting as a secondary distraction. Sharks have been known to attack ships, one instance can be found in "Triss". There are also some creatures that have only been mentioned once or twice (e.g., wolf, beaver, turtle, whale, wolverine, sable, tortoise, golden hamster, bats, monitor lizards, polecats, and in the first book horses, pigs, dogs and cows). Crows and other "Corvus" birds also appear on numerous occasions, usually being vicious and territorial. Other birds such as owls, herons, red-tailed hawks, and eagles are mentioned, some having major parts in books, including in "Mattimeo" when a raven named General Ironbeak manages to invade and almost conquers Redwall Abbey with his army of rooks. In "Martin the Warrior", a group of squirrels called the Gawtrybe are presented as villains, though squirrels are usually considered "good" and the Gawtrybe end up aiding the heroes during the final battle.


title: Redwall

text: The books are centered around Redwall Abbey, a red sandstone abbey built after the events of "Mossflower". It is home to many of the good animals of Mossflower Woods. Also important is the mountain fortress called Salamandastron, home to the Badger Lords and the famed hares of the Long Patrol, the mountain's army. There are many other places, such as the fortress Riftgard, Loamhedge, and Green Isle. Also, a main waterway is the River Moss. Other stories, like "The Bellmaker" and "The Legend of Luke", most of the story takes place onboard sailing ships and many dangers are only those involving the weather and damage resulting from such.


title: Redwall

text: There are also the far northern lands; much of the wildlife in the books from those lands are those native to Scotland specifically, such as pine martens and golden eagles. As well as the northern lands, there are islands featured in the series; usually, each island is featured in one book only.


title: Redwall

text: Brian Jacques was praised for his "Redwall" series. He was called one of "the best children's authors in the world". The books of the "Redwall" series have drawn comparisons from J. R. R. Tolkien’s "The Lord of the Rings" to Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows" to Erin Hunter's "Warriors" and Richard Adams's "Watership Down". Jacques combines "action, poetry, songs, courage, and vivid descriptions" to create a unique style that spans the seemingly endless series.


title: Redwall

text: The "Redwall" series has received praise for its "equal-opportunity adventuring, in which female creatures can be just as courageous (or as diabolical) as their male counterparts". Novels such as "Mariel of Redwall", "Pearls of Lutra", "High Rhulain" and "Triss" all feature strong female leading characters. Jacques has also received acclaim for his development of unique language intrinsic to certain species, giving the novels an "endearing dialectal dialogue".


title: Redwall

text: Some reviews have been critical of the "Redwall" novels for providing too simplistic a view of good and evil. The characteristics of the animals in the novels are fixed by their species, making them quite "predictable", though there have been a few books, such as in "Outcast of Redwall" and "Pearls of Lutra", in which vermin have acted selflessly, in one taking a spear through the chest and back meant for his former nursemaid, and in the other saving the Abbot of Redwall from lizards. Another exception is in "The Bellmaker", where a searat strove to start being good instead of evil, abandoning his life of pirating to live by himself. In some cases, different members of the same species possess different moral compasses. For example, the wildcats in the book "Mossflower" each exhibit different characteristics: although Lady Tsarmina is cruel and vicious, her father Lord Verdauga is seen as hard but fair, and her brother Gingivere is kind and eventually joins the side of the woodlanders. As a general rule though, characters tend to "epitomize their class origins", rarely rising above them.


title: Redwall

text: Many reviewers have also criticized the "Redwall" series for repetition and predictability, citing "recycled" plot lines and Jacques' tendency to follow a "pattern to the dot". Other reviewers note that such predictable "ingredients" may be what "makes the "Redwall" recipe so consistently popular". Although the series did not continue to break new ground, it does provide satisfying adventures with "comforting, predictable conclusions for its fans".


title: Redwall

text: The last interior artist was Sean Rubin. Prior to Rubin taking over in 2009, David Elliot illustrated six books in the Redwall series, including "Eulalia!", published in 2007. Elliot also illustrated the anniversary edition of "Mossflower", with full page illustrations. Other previous interior illustrators include Gary Chalk ("Redwall", "Mariel of Redwall", and "Martin the Warrior"), Allan Curless ("The Bellmaker" to "The Long Patrol"), Chris Baker ("Marlfox" to "Lord Brocktree") and Peter Standley ("The Taggerung"). The cover artist of the US editions of the novels is Troy Howell. Pete Lyon and Douglas Hall provided cover art for different UK editions of the first four books. Later, Chris Baker became the UK cover artist up until the release of "Triss", when David Wyatt took over.


title: Redwall

text: Books in the Redwall series have been translated into Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, and Swedish.


title: Redwall

text: The first season of the "Redwall" television series, released in 1999, was based upon the novel "Redwall". It was later followed by two more seasons, based on the books "Mattimeo" and "Martin the Warrior". Each season contained 13 episodes. Each episode was opened with Brian Jacques himself giving a synopsis of the story so far. These scenes were later cut from subsequent re-airings and DVD releases.


title: Redwall

text: In February 2021, Netflix acquired full adaptation rights to the novel series. A feature film based on the novel "Redwall" and an animated "event series" based on the character Martin the Warrior are in the works for the streaming platform. Patrick McHale, creator of "Over the Garden Wall", will be writing the film's script.


title: Redwall

text: There have been full-length audiobooks published of most of the "Redwall" books, the exceptions being "The Pearls of Lutra", "Marlfox", "Lord Brocktree" (on cassette), "The Legend of Luke", and "The Rogue Crew". Instead of being read by a single actor, the novels are narrated by a large cast. Brian Jacques served as the narrator for almost all of the audiobooks (with "Salamandastron" being the sole exception), sometimes reading select parts, and his son Marc Jacques appeared as the characters Matthias, Martin and others. The audiobooks also feature fully-realized musical performances of the songs that each book contains, composed and performed by Billy Maher.


title: Redwall

text: Some abridged audiobooks have also been released. They include "Redwall", "Mossflower", "Pearls of Lutra", "The Long Patrol", "Marlfox", "The Legend of Luke" and "Lord Brocktree". Each is three hours in length and read solely by Brian Jacques or another narrator.


title: Redwall

text: In 1996, Evelyn Swenson composed an opera based on the first book in the Redwall series. It was produced by OperaDelaware in Wilmington, Delaware and later toured Europe.


title: Redwall

text: There are currently two officially-licensed video games based on the Redwall series. Both games were created by Soma Games under the banner of "The Lost Legends of Redwall".


title: Mountbatten-Windsor

text: Mountbatten-Windsor is the personal surname used by some of the male-line descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Under a declaration made in Privy Council in 1960, the name "Mountbatten-Windsor" applies to male-line descendants of Queen Elizabeth II without royal styles and titles. Individuals with royal styles do not usually use a surname, but some descendants of the Queen with royal styles have used "Mountbatten-Windsor" when a surname was required.


title: Mountbatten-Windsor

text: The British monarchy asserts that the name "Mountbatten-Windsor" is used by members of the Royal Family who do not have a surname, when a surname is required. For example, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Anne, Princess Royal, children of Queen Elizabeth II, used the surname "Mountbatten-Windsor" in official marriage registry entries in 1986 and 1973 respectively. Likewise, William, the then Duke of Cambridge, used the name when filing a French lawsuit related to the topless pictures of his wife published by the French magazine "Closer".


title: Mountbatten-Windsor

text: At the time of the 1960 declaration, palace officials claimed in private communications that it created a hidden surname that would emerge several generations later when some of Queen Elizabeth II's descendants were further removed from the throne. On the wedding of Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999, the Queen decided, with their agreement, that any of their future children should not be styled His or Her Royal Highness. Consequently, the birth of their daughter in 2003 marked the first emergence of the Mountbatten-Windsor surname. Their daughter was named Louise Alice Elizabeth Mary Mountbatten-Windsor, and she goes by the title of Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor, her father being the Earl of Wessex.


title: Mountbatten-Windsor

text: Mountbatten-Windsor differs from the official name of the British royal family, which remains the House of Windsor. In accordance with law and custom in the English-speaking world, the surname "Mountbatten-Windsor" belongs to all male-line descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, and is used by them if and when a surname is needed. In contrast, male-line descendants of King George V, the first monarch of the House of Windsor, use "Windsor" as their surname if and when a surname is needed, as for example Lady Davina Windsor and Lady Marina Windsor, respectively descended from George V's sons Prince George, Duke of Kent and Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester. (George V's other sons have no male-line descendants: King George VI had only daughters while King Edward VIII had no issue and Prince John was unmarried.) After the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was renamed Windsor, other descendants of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert could also use the name Windsor, as for example, Alastair Arthur Windsor, 2nd Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, grandson of their son Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. None do so today, however, because the only male line (apart from the descendants of King George V) is through Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, whose descendants use the surname Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (English) or von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha (German).


title: Mountbatten-Windsor

text: The family tree is based on the current line of succession to the British throne, excluding female-line descendants.


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: The Laundromat is a 2019 American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh with a screenplay by Scott Z. Burns. It stars Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, Jeffrey Wright, David Schwimmer, Matthias Schoenaerts, James Cromwell, and Sharon Stone. It is based on the book "Secrecy World" about the Panama Papers scandal by author Jake Bernstein.


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2019. It was released theatrically on September 27, 2019, before being released for digital streaming by Netflix on October 18, 2019. The film has received mixed reviews from critics.


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: Lawyers Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca introduce themselves, along with the concept of money and credit. The pair serve as narrators for three stories of people around the world who are adversely affected by the machinations of their company, Mossack Fonseca. While the story has been somewhat fictionalized, the names of the law firm at the center of the scandal, along with those of its founders, were not.


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: Characters Ellen Martin and her husband, Joe, are on a pleasure boat, the "Ethan Allen" at Lake George, New York, when it capsizes, drowning Joe and many others. When Ellen tries to get compensation from the boating company for Joe's death, she cannot because the reinsurance company that the boat company's owner and son, Matthew bought their policy from, was sold to another company based out of Nevis. The Nevis-based company is actually a trust of one of Mossack's shell corporations, which is under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for fraud. When her attempts to contact Mossack and the Nevis-based company are unsuccessful, Ellen travels there to confront Malchus Boncamper, the manager of the trust. When Ellen bumps into Malchus, not knowing who he is, she asks questions about his firm's location. He lies and walks away. When Malchus travels to Miami he is arrested by IRS-CI Special Agents at the airport.


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: The second story is about Simone, who is the daughter of Charles, an African billionaire. When Simone discovers her best friend is having an affair with Charles, he offers her shares (supposedly worth $20 million) in one of his investment companies to keep her silence. She accepts his offer, but when she travels to Mossack's offices in Panama City to claim the shares, they turn out to be worthless because they are actually part of a shell company under Mossack that only exists on paper.


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: The third story is a dramatization of the death of Neil Heywood, part of the Wang Lijun incident. Heywood (renamed "Maywood" in the film), is an intermediary for wealthy Chinese looking to funnel money abroad. He visits a Chongqing hotel to meet Gu Kailai. Maywood demands and pressures Gu for a much higher price if she wants him to continue laundering money for her family through a shell company Mossack owns. Gu responds by poisoning Maywood's drinks. Gu discloses the incident and reports Maywood to Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun who secretly records the conversation; he then reports her to the Chinese government. The story ends with the arrest of Gu and her husband Bo Xilai for Maywood's murder and for corruption.


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: The film ends with the leaking of the Panama Papers and subsequent police raids on Mossack Fonseca, the brief imprisonment of Mossack and Fonseca, and the shutdown of the firm. Mossack and Fonseca, along with Meryl Streep as herself, remind viewers that many such companies still exist, and the practice of money laundering and corruption using fake trusts and shell companies based in tax havens is still widespread. Streep closes the film with a statement about the immediate need for campaign finance reforms in the US before adopting the Statue of Liberty's pose.


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: In a 2019 interview with Risa Sarachan in Forbes, Steven Soderbergh described his goal for the take away from this film: ".. my response is two-fold. One, well, in terms of policy you might want to think about supporting people who believe this is an issue that needs to be addressed. And do a little dive into how they think it should be addressed. Part two is to look around you and realize to what extent we are all touched by it. Whenever you think about, well, who owns this block? Who owns the real estate in my neighborhood? Who owns the real estate where I go shopping? It's sort of like the dark matter of our socio-economic life, these companies that behave like this. This is everywhere, and just being aware of it - I think if you're being inoculated to think that way or look at things that way, that's better than being oblivious or ignorant."


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: In July 2016, it was announced that Steven Soderbergh would produce a then-untitled Panama Papers project. Later, in April 2018, it was announced that Soderbergh would also direct the film, now titled "The Laundromat". Scott Z. Burns wrote the screenplay and production was set to commence in the fall of 2018. In May 2018, it was reported that Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas were in talks to star in the film with Netflix interested in acquiring the distribution rights. Soderbergh affirmed Netflix would likely be the film's distributor in July. In October, Netflix was confirmed to be releasing the movie, with David Schwimmer and Will Forte added to the cast. That same month, Matthias Schoenaerts, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Parnell, James Cromwell, Melissa Rauch, Larry Wilmore and Robert Patrick joined the cast.


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: It had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2019. It also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and the San Sebastián International Film Festival in September 2019. It was released theatrically on September 27, 2019, before being released for digital streaming on October 18, 2019, by Netflix.


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus says, ""The Laundromat" misuses its incredible cast by taking a disappointingly blunt and unfocused approach to dramatizing the real-life events that inspired it." Based on 37 critics on Metacritic, the film's weighted average score is 57 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote: "there's a kind of off-putting effrontery about Soderbergh's approach here that rather sours the whole experience. The tone is brittle, the attitude arch, the performances by a savvy and diverse cast uneven." Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun-Times" called it "a muddled, meandering, hit-and-miss social satire and political commentary that’s too heavy on the latter category and often lacking in the former." Alonso Duralde of "TheWrap" wrote: ""The Laundromat" flails about, with an excess of bad ideas that undercut the justifiable outrage over the events depicted."


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: Owen Gleiberman of "Variety" gave it a positive review and wrote: ""The Laundromat" is Soderbergh at his most playful, and also Soderbergh at his most wonkish, and damned, in this case, if the two don't chime together." A.O. Scott of "The New York Times" wrote: "Soderbergh and his top-notch cast (Sharon Stone shows up, as do Jeffrey Wright and Matthias Schoenaerts) keep things lively, playing out parables of betrayal and deception with pulpy, TV-movie flair."


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: The film was criticized for its use of brownface, casting Streep in a secondary role as a Panamanian woman called Elena. Soderbergh acknowledged the controversy but felt that in the context of the story the dual role was justifiable. He also felt that as a comedy trope it was acceptable and compared it to Oldman's impression of a German person, and that there are different rules for comedy.


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: On October 16, 2019, weeks after its limited theatrical release and just two days before its scheduled streaming release, the two Mossack Fonseca law firm partners at the center of the film, Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca, sued Netflix in an attempt to block the film's release. They argued the film defamed them. Netflix responded the next day calling the suit "laughable," and argued the film was "constitutionally protected speech." A Connecticut judge denied the injunction and moved the case to California, allowing the film to be released as planned. The Panamanian government also expressed strong objections to the film's release. In December 2019 a U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the film did not defame Mossack and Fonseca; and was protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution as free speech.


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: Panama's vice president José Gabriel Carrizo pledged that Panama would do everything in its power to "fix" the country's image worldwide.


title: The Laundromat (2019 film)

text: Because the movie involves disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai and the sensitive topic of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners, it was blocked from release in China and its Douban entry deleted. The film is mentioned in the Douban entries of Meryl Streep and Gary Oldman.


title: Assamese language

text: Assamese (), also Asamiya ( ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the north-east Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language, and it serves as a "lingua franca" of the wider region. The easternmost Indo-Iranian language, it has over 23 million speakers.


title: Assamese language

text: Nefamese, an Assamese-based pidgin, is used in Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language, is widely used in Nagaland. The Kamtapuri language of Rangpur division of Bangladesh and the Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri districts of India are linguistically closer to Assamese, though the speakers identify with the Bengali culture and the literary language. In the past, it was the court language of the Ahom kingdom from the 17th century.


title: Assamese language

text: Along with other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Assamese evolved at least before the 7th century CE from the middle Indo-Aryan Magadhi Prakrit. Its sister languages include Angika, Bengali, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Chakma, Chittagonian, Hajong, Rajbangsi, Maithili, Rohingya and Sylheti. It is written in the Assamese alphabet, an abugida system, from left to right, with many typographic ligatures.


title: Assamese language

text: Assamese originated in Old Indo-Aryan dialects, though the exact nature of its origin and growth is not clear yet. It is generally believed that Assamese and the Kamatapuri lects derive from the Kamarupi dialect of Eastern Magadhi Prakrit though some authors contest a close connection of Assamese with Magadhi Prakrit. The Indo-Aryan, which appeared in the 4th-5th century in Assam, was probably spoken in the new settlements of Kamarupa—in urban centers and along the Brahmaputra river—surrounded by Tibeto-Burman and Austroasiatic communities. Kakati's (1941) assertion that Assamese has an Austroasiatic substrate is generally accepted – which suggests that when the Indo-Aryan centers formed in the 4th-5th centuries CE, there were substantial Austroasiatic speakers that later accepted the Indo-Aryan vernacular. Based on the 7th-century Chinese traveler Xuanzang's observations, suggests that the Indo-Aryan vernacular differentiated itself in Kamarupa before it did in Bengal, and that these differences could be attributed to non-Indo-Aryan speakers adopting the language. The newly differentiated vernacular, from which Assamese eventually emerged, is evident in the Prakritisms present in the Sanskrit of the Kamarupa inscriptions.


title: Assamese language

text: The earliest forms of Assamese in literature are found in the 9th-century Buddhist verses called Charyapada the language of which bear affinities with Assamese (as well as Bengali and Odia) and which belongs to a period when the Prakrit was at the cusp of differentiating into regional languages. The spirit and expressiveness of the "Charyadas" are today found in the folk songs called "Deh-Bicarar Git".


title: Assamese language

text: In the 12th-14th century works of Ramai Pundit ("Sunya Puran"), Boru Chandidas ("Krishna Kirtan"), Sukur Mamud ("Gopichandrar Gan"), Durllava Mullik ("Gobindachandrar Git") and Bhavani Das ("Mainamatir Gan") Assamese grammatical peculiarities coexist with features from Bengali language. Though the Gauda-Kamarupa stage is generally accepted and partially supported by recent linguistic research, it has not been fully reconstructed.


title: Assamese language

text: A distinctly Assamese literary form appeared first in the 13th-century in the courts of the Kamata kingdom when Hema Sarasvati composed the poem "Prahrāda Carita". In the 14th-century, Madhava Kandali translated the Ramayana into Assamese (Saptakanda Ramayana) in the court of Mahamanikya, a Kachari king from central Assam. Though the Assamese idiom in these works are fully individualised, some archaic forms and conjunctive particles too are found. This period corresponds to the common stage of proto-Kamta and early Assamese.


title: Assamese language

text: The emergence of Sankardev's Ekasarana Dharma in the 15th-century triggered a revival in language and literature. Sankardev produced many translated works and created new literary forms—"Borgeets" (songs), "Ankia Naat" (one-act plays)—infusing them with Brajavali idioms; and these were sustained by his followers Madhavdev and others in the 15th and subsequent centuries. In these writings the 13th/14th-century archaic forms are no longer found. Sankardev pioneered a prose-style of writing in the "Ankia Naat". This was further developed by Bhattadeva who translated the Bhagavata Purana and Bhagavad Gita into Assamese prose. Bhattadev's prose was classical and restrained, with a high usage of Sanskrit forms and expressions in an Assamese syntax; and though subsequent authors tried to follow this style, it soon fell into disuse. In this writing the first person future tense ending "-m" ("korim": "will do"; "kham": "will eat") is seen for the first time.


title: Assamese language

text: The language moved to the court of the Ahom kingdom in the seventeenth century, where it became the state language. In parallel, the proselytising Ekasarana dharma converted many Bodo-Kachari peoples and there emerged many new Assamese speakers who were speakers of Tibeto-Burman languages. This period saw the emergence of different styles of secular prose in medicine, astrology, arithmetic, dance, music, besides religious biographies and the archaic prose of magical charms.


title: Assamese language

text: Most importantly this was also when Assamese developed a standardized prose in the Buranjis—documents related to the Ahom state dealing with diplomatic writings, administrative records and general history. The language of the Buranjis is nearly modern with some minor differences in grammar and with a pre-modern orthography. The Assamese plural suffixes ("-bor", "-hat") and the conjunctive participles ("-gai": "dharile-gai"; "-hi": "pale-hi", "baril-hi") become well established. The Buranjis, dealing with statecraft, was also the vehicle by which Arabic and Persian elements crept into the language in abundance. Due to the influence of the Ahom state the speech in eastern Assam took a homogeneous and standard form. The general schwa deletion that occurs in the final position of words came into use in this period.


title: Assamese language

text: The modern period of Assamese begins with printing—the publication of the Assamese Bible in 1813 from the Serampore Mission Press. But after the British East India Company (EIC) removed the Burmese in 1826 and took complete administrative control of Assam in 1836, it filled administrative positions with people from Bengal, and introduced Bengali language in its offices, schools and courts. The EIC had earlier promoted the development of Bengali to replace Persian, the language of administration in Mughal India, and maintained that Assamese was a dialect of Bengali.


title: Assamese language

text: Amidst this loss of status the American Baptist Mission (ABM) established a press in Sibsagar in 1846 leading to publications of an Assamese periodical ("Orunodoi"), the first Assamese grammar by Nathan Brown (1846), and the first Assamese-English dictionary by Miles Bronson (1863). The ABM argued strongly with the EIC officials in an intense debate in the 1850s to reinstate Assamese. Among the local personalities Anandaram Dhekial Phukan drew up an extensive catalog of medieval Assamese literature (among other works) and pioneered the effort among the natives to reinstate Assamese in Assam. Though this effort was not immediately successful the administration eventually declared Assamese the official vernacular in 1873 on the eve of Assam becoming a Chief Commissioner's Province in 1874.


title: Assamese language

text: In the extant medieval Assamese manuscripts the orthography was not uniform. The ABM had evolved a phonemic orthography based on a contracted set of characters. Working independently Hemchandra Barua provided an etymological orthography and his etymological dictionary, "Hemkosh", was published posthumously. He also provided a Sanskritised approach to the language in his "Asamiya Bhaxar Byakaran" ("Grammar of the Assamese Language") (1859, 1873). Barua's approach was adopted by the "Oxomiya Bhaxa Unnati Xadhini Xobha" (1888, "Assamese Language Development Society") that emerged in Kolkata among Assamese students led by Lakshminath Bezbaroa. The "Society" published a periodical "Jonaki" and the period of its publication, "Jonaki era", saw spirited negotiations on language standardization. What emerged at the end of those negotiations was a standard close to the language of the Buranjis with the Sanskritised orthography of Hemchandra Barua.


title: Assamese language

text: As the political and commercial center moved to Guwahati in the mid-twentieth century, of which Dispur the capital of Assam is a suburb and which is situated at the border between the western and central dialect speaking regions, standard Assamese used in media and communications today is a neutral blend of the eastern variety without its distinctive features. This core is further embellished with Goalpariya and Kamrupi idioms and forms.


title: Assamese language

text: Assamese is native to Assam. It is also spoken in states of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. The Assamese script can be found in of present-day Burma. The Pashupatinath Temple in Nepal also has inscriptions in Assamese showing its influence in the past.


title: Assamese language

text: Assamese is the official language of Assam, and one of the 22 official languages recognised by the Republic of India. The Assam Secretariat functions in Assamese.


title: Assamese language

text: The Assamese phonemic inventory consists of eight vowels, ten diphthongs, and twenty-three consonants (including two semivowels).


title: Assamese language

text: The Assamese phoneme inventory is unique in the group of Indo-Aryan languages as it lacks a dental-retroflex distinction among the coronal stops as well as the lack of postalveolar affricates and fricatives. Historically, the dental and retroflex series merged into alveolar stops. This makes Assamese resemble non-Indic languages of Northeast India (such as Austroasiatic and Sino-Tibetan languages). The only other language to have fronted retroflex stops into alveolars is the closely related group of eastern dialects of Bengali (although a contrast with dental stops remains in those dialects). Note that is normally realised as or as a retroflex approximant.


title: Assamese language

text: Assamese is unusual among Eastern Indo-Aryan languages for the presence of the (it varies between velar () and a uvular () pronunciations, depending on the speaker and speech register), due historically to the MIA sibilants' lenition to (initially) and (non-initially). The use of the voiceless velar fricative is heavy in the eastern Assamese dialects and decreases progressively to the west—from Kamrupi to eastern Goalparia, and disappears completely in western Goalpariya. The change of to and then to has been attributed to Tibeto-Burman influence by Dr. Chatterjee.


title: Assamese language

text: Assamese, Odia, and Bengali, in contrast to other Indo-Aryan languages, use the velar nasal (the English "ng" in "sing") extensively. In many languages, while the velar nasal is commonly restricted to preceding velar sounds, in Assamese it can occur intervocalically. This is another feature it shares with other languages of Northeast India, though in Assamese the velar nasal never occurs word-initially.


title: Assamese language

text: Eastern Indic languages like Assamese, Bengali, Sylheti, and Odia do not have a vowel length distinction, but have a wide set of back rounded vowels. In the case of Assamese, there are four back rounded vowels that contrast phonemically, as demonstrated by the minimal set: "kola" ('deaf'), "kóla" ('black'), "kwla" ('lap'), and "kula" ('winnowing fan'). The near-close near-back rounded vowel is unique in this branch of the language family. But in lower Assam, ও is pronounced same as অ' (ó). "kwla" "mwr"


title: Assamese language

text: Assamese has vowel harmony. The vowels [i] and [u] cause the preceding mid vowels and the high back vowels to change to [e] and [o] and [u] respectively. Assamese is one of the few languages spoken in India which exhibit a systematic process of vowel harmony


title: Assamese language

text: The schwa in modern Assamese, represented by //, is generally deleted in the final position unless it is (1) /w/ (); or (2) /y/ () after higher vowels like /i/ () or /u/ (). The final schwa was not deleted in Early Assamese. The initial schwa is never deleted.


title: Assamese language

text: Modern Assamese uses the Assamese script. In medieval times, the script came in three varieties: "Bamuniya", "Garhgaya", and "Kaitheli/Lakhari", which developed from the Kamarupi script. It very closely resembles the Mithilakshar script of the Maithili language, as well as the Bengali script. There is a strong literary tradition from early times. Examples can be seen in edicts, land grants and copper plates of medieval kings. Assam had its own manuscript writing system on the bark of the "saanchi" tree in which religious texts and chronicles were written, as opposed to the pan-Indian system of Palm leaf manuscript writing. The present-day spellings in Assamese are not necessarily phonetic. "Hemkosh" ( ), the second Assamese dictionary, introduced spellings based on Sanskrit, which are now the standard.


title: Assamese language

text: In the early 1970s, it was agreed upon that the Roman script was to be the standard writing system for Nagamese Creole.


title: Assamese language

text: The following is a sample text in Assamese of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:


title: Assamese language

text: Verbs in Assamese are negated by adding before the verb, with picking up the initial vowel of the verb. For example:


title: Assamese language

text: Assamese has a large collection of classifiers, which are used extensively for different kinds of objects, acquired from the Sino-Tibetan languages. A few examples of the most extensive and elaborate use of classifiers are given below:


title: Assamese language

text: In Assamese, classifiers are generally used in the "numeral + classifier + noun" (e.g. ejon manuh 'one man') or the "noun + numeral + classifier" (e.g. manuh ejon 'one man') forms.


title: Assamese language

text: Most verbs can be converted into nouns by the addition of the suffix . For example, ('to eat') can be converted to khaon ('good eating').


title: Assamese language

text: m="male", f="female", n="neuter.", *="the person or object is near.", **="the person or object is far.", v ="very familiar, inferior", f="familiar", p="polite", e="ergative form".


title: Assamese language

text: The language has quite a few regional variations. Banikanta Kakati identified two broad dialects which he named (1) Eastern and (2) Western dialects, of which the eastern dialect is homogeneous, and prevalent to the east of Guwahati, and the western dialect is heterogeneous. However, recent linguistic studies have identified four dialect groups listed below from east to west:


title: Assamese language

text: Collected from the book, "Assamese – Its formation and development". The translations are of different versions of the English translations:


title: Assamese language

text: Assamese does not have many caste- or occupation-based dialects. In the nineteenth century, the Eastern dialect became the standard dialect because it witnessed more literary activity and it was more uniform from east of Guwahati to Sadiya, whereas the western dialects were more heterogeneous. Since the nineteenth century, the center of literary activity (as well as of politics and commerce) has shifted to Guwahati; as a result, the standard dialect has evolved considerably away from the largely rural Eastern dialects and has become more urban and acquired western dialectal elements. Most literary activity takes place in this dialect, and is often called the "likhito-bhaxa", though regional dialects are often used in novels and other creative works.


title: Assamese language

text: In addition to the regional variants, sub-regional, community-based dialects are also prevalent, namely:


title: Assamese language

text: The first characteristics of this language are seen in the Charyapadas composed in between the eighth and twelfth centuries. The first examples emerged in writings of court poets in the fourteenth century, the finest example of which is Madhav Kandali's Saptakanda Ramayana. The popular ballad in the form of Ojapali is also regarded as well-crafted. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw a flourishing of Vaishnavite literature, leading up to the emergence of modern forms of literature in the late nineteenth century.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: The Toyota Sienna is a minivan manufactured and marketed by Toyota primarily for the North American and select East Asian markets. It is named for the Italian city of Siena, in the region of Tuscany. It replaced the first generation Previa van in 1997 with a more conventional front-wheel drive layout and shares a heavily revised platform with the Camry. Both the Previa and original Sienna were smaller than the other minivans they competed against, but a redesign in 2003 (for the 2004 model year) increased the dimensions to match those of its competitors.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: It was redesigned again in 2010 (for the 2011 model year). The third generation Sienna went on sale in the United States in February 2010 and is the first Sienna to ever receive a "Top Safety Pick" award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. A 2020 redesign (for the 2021 model year) saw the Sienna becoming a hybrid vehicle for its fourth generation. While previous generations of the Sienna were exported to select Asian and European markets, the fourth generation is the first to be produced outside of the United States as Chinese production commenced in July 2021.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: Following the discontinuation of GM's all-wheel drive minivans in 2006, the Sienna was the only minivan in its class offered with AWD in North America until the 2021 Chrysler Pacifica was introduced with an AWD option in 2020.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: The Sienna is not available in Japan and Australia as it is not produced in a right-hand drive configuration, and the segment in these countries is already occupied by the Alphard/Vellfire and the HiAce/Granvia respectively.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: In 1997, Toyota launched the front-wheel drive 1998 model year Sienna in the North American market as a replacement for the mid-engined, rear-wheel-drive Previa. The Sienna debuted with a 3.0-liter "1MZ-FE" V6 engine rated at and of torque. Built on an extended platform of the Toyota Camry, the Sienna was appropriately marketed as the "Camry of minivans," capitalizing on the Camry's popularity and reputation.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: It came in three trim levels, CE, LE, and XLE. The LE and XLE models were equipped with 2nd row captain's chairs while the CE models came equipped with a 2nd row 2-passenger bench seat. The seats can be easily folded and individually removed as needed. The driver side sliding door and roof rack were standard on the LE and XLE models, but were optional on the CE models. The XLE models offered leather seats and a wood trim package. The Sienna also touted best-in-class fuel economy of city driving and highway driving. It was built in Georgetown, Kentucky. A year after its release, the Sienna faced new competition from the redesigned Honda Odyssey minivan, which was larger and now offered a V6 like the Sienna.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: In 2000, for the 2001 model year, the Sienna underwent a mid-cycle refresh. This update included a facelift to both front and rear fascias which added a redesigned front grille and bumper along with revised rear tail lights sporting a more modern appearance (clear-lens turn-signals as opposed to amber-coloured). Toyota also revamped the center console area to add more usability to the HVAC controls along with new locations for the accessory switches (rear vent, power sliding doors, heated seats). The engine also came equipped with a variable valve timing feature VVT-i boosting output to and of torque. The driver side sliding door became standard on all models, although the roof rack remained optional on the CE models.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: This generation was noteworthy for its impressive safety content as one of the few minivans at the time to offer options including front seat-mounted side torso airbags and Vehicle Stability Control. Anti-lock braking was standard. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety rated the Sienna "Good" in all six frontal crash test measures, which was far better than the Previa.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: The reputation of this generation was marred by a class-action settlement for an engine oil sludge problem which affected the V6 engines in many Toyota models. Symptoms of the problem include oil smoke in the exhaust, oil quickly becoming dark or black after an oil change, gasoline odor in the oil, high oil consumption, and eventually engine failure.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: Toyota assigned Yuji Yokoya as chief engineer on the new Sienna project. Yokoya and his family drove the previous model over throughout North America to find weaknesses from the design. The engine was an updated ULEV certified 3.3-liter "3MZ-FE" V6 paired with a new five-speed automatic transmission. The gear stick was moved from the steering column to the center console and had a gated shift pattern. Seating for eight was optional on lower-level trims, and the third row seating was fold-flat, allowing the van to transport building materials like plywood and drywall sheets.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: On 6 January 2003, the second-generation Sienna was unveiled at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Production was moved from the Georgetown plant to Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana. Changes from the first generation included 45% more volume overall and 39% more cargo space. The seats were in the 60/40 split configuration, and the flat-folding third row seat was offered even with all-wheel-drive.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: Trim levels, in order of increasing standard and available features were: CE, LE, XLE and XLE Limited (renamed Limited in later years). The most distinguishable difference on the XLE Limited model was the horizontal chrome bar placed above the rear license plate. The CE had a black trim there, while the LE and XLE had a body-colored trim.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: Standard features included remote keyless entry, tilt-and-telescopic steering wheel, and high solar energy-absorbing glass (HSEA) on the windshield and front windows. All 2004–2007 Siennas had a factory tow package (hitch kit and trailer lighting connections not included) and a towing capacity.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: All-wheel drive, optional on the more expensive trims included run-flat tires. The all-wheel drive system continuously divided engine power 50:50 front and rear.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: Options, depending on the trim level, included HID Xenon headlamps, Dynamic Laser Cruise Control, parking sensors, a convex rear view mirror to enable the driver to see the passengers, a voice-activated navigation system (not voice activated for the 2004/2005 model year) which included a backup camera, 10-speaker JBL audio and rear-seat DVD entertainment system with two 110 V outlets.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: Updated styling allowed for a . EPA Fuel economy was 17 mpg city driving and 23 mpg highway for the FWD version. The AWD version got 16 mpg city driving and 22 mpg highway driving. The turning radius was .


title: Toyota Sienna

text: The Sienna came standard with anti-lock braking system, brake assist, electronic brakeforce distribution, traction control and a tire-pressure monitoring system. Side torso airbags and side curtain airbags were standard on certain 2004 and 2005 LE and XLE trims while optional on others, but became standard on all 2006 trims. Vehicle Stability Control initially optional on lower trims became standard for 2008 models.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: The IIHS gives the Sienna an overall "Good" score in their frontal offset crash test with "Good" marks in all six measured categories. All 2006 models and later receive a "Good" overall score, while pre-2006 models without side airbags receive an "Acceptable" score for side impacts.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: The redesigned 2011 Sienna premiered at the Los Angeles Auto Show in early December 2009. It was designed at Calty studios and engineered at Toyota Technical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan. The new Sienna arrived at dealers in February 2010. In November 2011, exports of the XL30 Sienna to South Korea began, making it the first Toyota minivan sold in Korea.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: The Sienna is offered in five trim levels, the "Sienna" base grade, "LE", "XLE", "Limited" and for the first time the "SE" trim. The new "SE" offers revised bodywork, clear tail lamps, wheels, firmer suspension and revised steering tuning for a sportier ride. All-wheel-drive is only available with the V6 engine on the "LE", "XLE" and "Limited" model trims. Described by "AOL Autos" as slipping a sports car in a minivan, Chief Engineer Kazuo Mori (an avid autocrosser) reportedly had to overcome opposition to get the SE equipment package included in the line-up.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: The previous 3.5-liter "2GR-FE" continues, now coupled to a six-speed transmission, but for the first time the Sienna offers a four-cylinder engine, the "1AR-FE". This is the first time Toyota has offered a four-cylinder engine in a North American minivan since discontinuation of the Estima/Previa in late 1997. An electric power steering (EPS) system replaces the previous hydraulic power steering system. Toyota continued to offer all-wheel drive in the Sienna. As GM discontinued its AWD minivans after the 2006 model year, it was the only North American minivan with an available AWD drivetrain until the 2021 Chrysler Pacifica went on sale in late 2020. Toyota published EPA-estimated mileage figures of city / highway for models powered by the 4-cylinder engine, city / highway for 2WD V6 models, and city / highway for AWD models. An optional tow package for V6 models is rated to tow .


title: Toyota Sienna

text: The front dashboard features a "swoop" wood trim, inspired by the Toyota Venza and Lexus RX, that gives front seat occupants a "60/60" split whether in the driver or passenger seat.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: New features included an optional sliding second row with "Lounge Seating" recliner style chairs, a feature previously seen on the Lexus LS, and Toyota's keyless Smart Key System with push-button start. The rear seat entertainment option now uses a LCD screen which operates in two view modes, a single 16:9-ratio widescreen or two separate 4:3-ratio split screens with separate wireless headphones.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: For safety the back-up camera comes with a new 180° panoramic view. Other new options include a Pre-Collision System (PCS) as well as an automatic highbeam dimmer, Safety Connect and a more advanced stability control system known as Vehicle Integrated Dynamics Management. A driver's knee airbag is now standard as well.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: When the second row seats are removed, the bottom of the second row seats, which is similar to a rack, remains attached to the van floor. This means that with second row seats removed, the floor is not flat.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: Toyota is the first automaker to offer a factory installed auto-access seat for disabled people. The one-touch rotating, power ascending/descending lift-up seat can lower to within of the ground.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: Toyota announced the fourth-generation Sienna in May 2020 as a 2021 model, and appearing for sale near the end of 2020. It was originally intended to be revealed at the 2020 New York International Auto Show in April, but instead was unveiled virtually on 18 May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on 27 October 2020 and hit the showrooms shortly after in November. It is built on GA-K platform. In a significant change, all grades of the Sienna came standard with a hybrid powertrain. Despite being hybrid only, Toyota claims that the fourth-generation Sienna can still tow the same capacity as the third-generation model.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: The fourth-generation Sienna is offered in the returning LE, XLE and Limited trims, while receiving two additional trims: the sport-oriented XSE (replaced the SE trim), and the top-of-the-line Platinum trim. The Sienna is available with a built-in vacuum cleaner, refrigerated compartment (however, vacuum and refrigerator were later discontinued due to supplier issues), heads-up display, and 360° camera view on the Platinum trim level. In addition, the Sienna can be equipped with a third electric motor to power the rear wheels. Standard and optional family oriented features for the Sienna include 18 cup holders, 7 USB ports (only one of which is data capable), four-zone climate control, onboard Wi-Fi, rear entertainment system, power sliding doors and liftgate, and a voice amplification system for the driver for better communications with passengers seated in the back. Standard driver-assistance features include adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, automated emergency braking, and lane-keeping assist.


title: Toyota Sienna

text: Starting in early 2021, the Sienna became available in Taiwan and in Mexico. In July 2021, the Sienna was launched in China where it is locally produced by GAC Toyota, while a rebadged variant bearing the Toyota Granvia () nameplate was produced by FAW Toyota. The Granvia adopted the styling of the North American Sienna XSE.


title: Monkey Island

text: Monkey Island is a series of adventure games. The first four games in the series were produced and published by LucasArts, earlier known as Lucasfilm Games. The fifth installment of the franchise was developed by Telltale Games in collaboration with LucasArts. A sixth game was developed by Terrible Toybox in cooperation with Lucasfilm Games and Devolver Digital.


title: Monkey Island

text: The games follow the misadventures of the hapless Guybrush Threepwood as he struggles to become the most notorious pirate in the Caribbean, defeat the plans of the evil undead pirate LeChuck and win the heart of Governor Elaine Marley. Each game's plot usually involves the mysterious Monkey Island and its impenetrable secrets.


title: Monkey Island

text: The first game in the series was created by Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. Gilbert worked on the first two games before leaving LucasArts. Grossman and Schafer, who also worked on the first two games, enjoyed success on other games before they both left LucasArts. The rights to "Monkey Island" remained with LucasArts, and the third and fourth games were created without direct involvement from the original writing staff. Dave Grossman was the project leader of the fifth game in the series and Gilbert was involved with the first design of the game. Gilbert's studio developed the sixth game, "Return to Monkey Island", with Grossman assisting.


title: Monkey Island

text: The Monkey Island series is known for its humor and "player-friendly" qualities. The player cannot permanently place the game in an unwinnable state or cause Guybrush to die without great effort. This "player-friendly" approach was unusual at the time of the first game's release in 1990; prominent adventure-game rivals included Sierra On-Line and Infocom, both of which were known for games with sudden and frequent character deaths or "lock-outs". LucasArts itself used such closed plot paths for its drama games like "" (1989), but preferred the open format for other humor-oriented adventure games such as "Sam & Max Hit the Road" (1993) and "Day of the Tentacle" (1993). After "" in 1991, the series went in hiatus until 1997, when it resumed with "The Curse of Monkey Island". After the fourth entry, "Escape from Monkey Island", the franchise again went on hiatus, though numerous rumors persisted about a revival until the announcement of "Tales of Monkey Island" by Telltale Games in early 2009. A new entry, "Return to Monkey Island", was released in September 2022.


title: Monkey Island

text: Much of the music of the games is composed by Michael Land. The score largely consists of reggae, Caribbean and dub-inspired music.


title: Monkey Island

text: The series also tends to break the fourth wall, as several of the characters acknowledge that they are in a video game.


title: Monkey Island

text: Each of the games takes place on in the Caribbean around the Golden Age of Piracy sometime between the 17th and 18th centuries, though in the fashion of a theme park: The islands teem with pirates dressed in outfits that seem to come from films and comic books rather than history, and there are many deliberate anachronisms and references to modern-day popular culture. The theme park motif is particularly strong near the end of the second game, which seems to take place in the service section of a modern-day theme park, concrete tunnels complete with elevators and electric lighting. The third game begins with Guybrush adrift in a bumper car instead of a boat, and ends on a roller coaster ride on Monkey Island. Oblique references from dialogue within the games suggest this theme park motif may have been a misperception stemming from a voodoo curse, but ultimately leaves it unresolved.


title: Monkey Island

text: The main setting of the "Monkey Island" games is the "Tri-Island Area", a fictional archipelago in the Caribbean. Since the first game in the series, "The Secret of Monkey Island", three of the games have visited the eponymous island of Monkey Island, while all have introduced their own set of islands to explore. "Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge" features four new islands, but does not return to Monkey Island until the final cutscene. "The Curse of Monkey Island" introduces three, and "Escape from Monkey Island", which revisits some of the older islands, features three new islands as well. As such, the "Tri-Island area" actually comprises a total of 13 visitable islands. "Tales of Monkey Island" takes place in a new area of the Caribbean called the "Gulf of Melange".


title: Monkey Island

text: The main islands of the Tri-Island Area are Mêlée Island, Booty Island, and Plunder Island governed by Elaine Marley in place of her long lost grandfather, Horatio Torquemada Marley. Elaine moves from island to island at her convenience, though she considers her governor's mansion on Mêlée Island, the capital island of the area, as home.


title: Monkey Island

text: Other islands in the region are considered under the umbrella of Tri-Island Area as well, even though not directly governed by Elaine include: Lucre Island, Jambalaya Island, Scabb Island, Phatt Island, Hook Island, Skull Island, Knuttin Atoll, Blood Island, Spittle Island and Pinchpenny Island.


title: Monkey Island

text: The Gulf of Melange has its own set of islands: Flotsam Island, the Jerkbait Islands (Spinner Cay, Spoon Island, Roe Island), Brillig Island, Boulder Beach, Isle of Ewe, and the Rock of Gelato.


title: Monkey Island

text: Monkey Island and Dinky Island are not officially part of any island area, but nonetheless are central to the series' overall back-story and canon.


title: Monkey Island

text: The games have a wide cast of characters, many of which reappear throughout the series. Each entry in the series revolves around three main characters: the hero Guybrush Threepwood; his love interest Elaine Marley; and the villain, the Demon/Zombie/Ghost pirate LeChuck. Several other characters such as the Voodoo Lady, Stan the salesman, Murray the Demonic Talking Skull and Herman Toothrot make multiple appearances within the series as well.


title: Monkey Island

text: Ron Gilbert's two main inspirations for the story were Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride and Tim Powers' book "On Stranger Tides". The book was the inspiration for the story and characters, while the ride was the inspiration for the ambiance. Gilbert said in interview that "[the POTC Ride] keeps you moving through the adventure but I've always wished I could get off and wander around, learn more about the characters, and find a way onto those pirate ships. So with "The Secret of Monkey Island" I wanted to create a game that had the same flavor, but where you could step off the boat and enter that whole storybook world".


title: Monkey Island

text: Several specific references to the ride are made throughout the series, including a puzzle in the based on the ride's famous Jail Cell/Dog With Keys scene (the dog in the scene is even named Walt). The banjo music in the opening menu of the third game is also very reminiscent of the banjo music at the beginning of the ride. Additional references are made to Disneyland and theme parks in general throughout the series, including Guybrush finding an E ticket.


title: Monkey Island

text: The series debuted in 1990 with "The Secret of Monkey Island" on the Amiga, MS-DOS, Atari ST and Macintosh platforms; the game was later ported to FM Towns and Mega-CD (1993). A remake version with updated graphics and new voiceovers was released for PlayStation Network, PC Windows, Xbox Live Arcade and OS X. An iPhone version was also released on July 23, 2009.


title: Monkey Island

text: The game starts off with the main character Guybrush Threepwood stating "I want to be a pirate!" To do so, he must prove himself to three old pirate captains. During the perilous pirate trials, he meets the beautiful governor Elaine Marley, with whom he falls in love, unaware that the ghost pirate LeChuck also has his eyes on her. When Elaine is kidnapped, Guybrush procures crew and ship to track LeChuck down, defeat him and rescue his love.


title: Monkey Island

text: The second game, "Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge" from 1991, was available for fewer platforms; it was only released for PC MS-DOS, Amiga, Macintosh, and later for FM Towns. A Special Edition version, in a similar style as "The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition", was released in July 2010 for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.


title: Monkey Island

text: As Guybrush, with a treasure chest in hand, and Elaine hang onto ropes in a void, he tells her the story of the game. He has decided to find the greatest of all treasures, that of Big Whoop. Unwittingly, he helps revive LeChuck, who is now in zombie form. Guybrush is eventually captured by his nemesis, but escapes with help from Wally and finds the treasure only to find himself dangling from a rope, as depicted at the beginning of the game. As Guybrush concludes his story, his rope breaks and he finds himself facing LeChuck, whom he finally defeats using voodoo. The surrealistic ending is open to a number of interpretations. In the manual of "The Curse of Monkey Island", it is stated that Guybrush falls victim to a hex implemented by LeChuck.


title: Monkey Island

text: "The Curse of Monkey Island", the third in the series, was exclusively available for PC Windows in 1997 after a 6-year hiatus. "The Curse of Monkey Island" was released after what could be said to be the biggest technological change in the gaming industry. This new era saw the advent of digital audio, CD-ROM technology, and advancements in graphics.


title: Monkey Island

text: The visuals of the third installment was also an advance over the old game, using a cel animation style. "The Curse of Monkey Island" is the only game in the series to feature this style of animation; subsequent games used 3D polygon animation.


title: Monkey Island

text: Guybrush unwittingly turns Elaine into a gold statue with a cursed ring, and she is soon stolen by pirates. He tracks her down before searching for a ring that can lift the curse. LeChuck appears in a fiery demon form, and is on the heels of Guybrush until a stand-off in LeChuck's amusement park ride, Monkey Mountain.


title: Monkey Island

text: "Escape from Monkey Island", the fourth installment, was released in 2000 for PC Windows, and in 2001 for Macintosh and PlayStation 2.


title: Monkey Island

text: When Guybrush Threepwood and Elaine Marley return from their honeymoon, they find that Elaine has been declared officially dead, her mansion is under a destruction order, and her position as governor is up for election. Guybrush investigates and unearths a conspiracy by LeChuck and evil real estate developer Ozzie Mandrill to use a voodoo talisman, "The Ultimate Insult", to make all pirates docile in order to turn the Caribbean into a center of tourism.


title: Monkey Island

text: "Tales of Monkey Island" is the fifth installment within the series, co-developed by Telltale Games and LucasArts, with a simultaneous release both on WiiWare and PC. Unlike other installments, "Tales" is an episodic adventure consisting of five different episodes. The first episode was released on July 7, with the last one released on December 8, 2009.


title: Monkey Island

text: During a heated battle with his nemesis, the evil pirate LeChuck, Guybrush unwittingly unleashes an insidious pox that rapidly spreads across the Caribbean, turning pirates into zombie-like monsters. The Voodoo Lady sends Guybrush in search of a legendary sea sponge to stem the epidemic, but this seemingly straightforward quest has surprises around every corner.


title: Monkey Island

text: In November 2011, when CEO of Telltale games Dan Conners was asked a question about another season of "Monkey Island", he replied: "I wish we had the rights to do more "Monkey" but we don't. Right now what I gather is LA is focused on building AAA titles internally but honestly we don't talk much these days".


title: Monkey Island

text: There had also been some speculation on Telltale Games forums about a possible sequel to "Tales of Monkey Island", although this was dismissed by Gilbert, who stated: "Basically, when we were working on "Tales", I understood that ... I'm too old for that job now" in an interview with "Edge" in March 2010. The "Tales" team claims that, despite a considerably increasing fanbase since 2009–10, there were not any plans to continue the series within the next five-year interval. In 2018 Telltale Games closed down.


title: Monkey Island

text: With the purchase of LucasArts by the Walt Disney Company in 2012, the rights to the franchise are now property of Disney. In the second half of 2010s, Disney Interactive ceased the production on gaming and transitioned to a licensing model. Gilbert wrote on Twitter that he was interested in buying the "Monkey Island" and "Maniac Mansion" properties. Fans of the series launched an online petition asking Disney to sell the franchise to Gilbert; by December 2021, the petition had gathered about 29,000 signatures.


title: Monkey Island

text: "Return to Monkey Island", the sixth "Monkey Island" installment, was released on September 19, 2022 on the Nintendo Switch and Windows, coming to other formats later. It is a collaboration between Gilbert's Terrible Toybox studio and Lucasfilm Games, and published by Devolver Digital. A frame story in the game serves to explain and continue from the ending of "LeChuck's Revenge", while the main narrative takes place after the other games in the series. Ron Gilbert has expressed his desire to tell a simple and focused pirate story in the game, whilst also redefining the adventure game user interface and incorporating an increased emphasis of meat pies into the greater lore. In addition to Gilbert, Grossman returns as co-writer, with music from veteran series composers Michael Land, Peter McConnell, and Clint Bajakian, and Dominic Armato, Alexandra Boyd, and Denny Delk reprising their roles as Guybrush, Elaine, and Murray. Jess Harnell replaces the retired Earl Boen as the voice of LeChuck.


title: Monkey Island

text: In "Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine", Guybrush can be accessed as a playable character via a cheat code; in addition, a "Monkey Island"-themed secret room can be found in the game's final level. Guybrush also appears in "" as a playable skin for Starkiller named "Guybrush Threepkiller".


title: Monkey Island

text: Guybrush is paid homage in the Naughty Dog video game "", where a pirate with major similarities to Guybrush is featured as one of the twelve pirate captains that founded Libertalia. Although he remains unnamed throughout the game, the resemblance is uncanny and his sigil is represented by a monkey. His portrait can be seen in the Libertalia treasury with the other founders and though his name is partly scratched out, the letters still visible spell out the truncated name "Guy Wood".


title: Monkey Island

text: Several elements from the "Monkey Island" series appear in "Sea of Thieves" as part of its June 2021 "A Pirate's Life" update. Developed in collaboration with Disney and primarily themed after "Pirates of the Caribbean", multiple references to the characters and locales from the Monkey Island franchise can be found in journals by Kate Capsize scattered around the wreckage of The Headless Monkey during the update's first Tall Tale, accompanied by an original arrangement of the Monkey Island theme. According to the journals, Guybrush and Elaine Threepwood are celebrating their honeymoon somewhere upon the Sea of Thieves.


title: Monkey Island

text: In an update to "Hitman 3", a new pirate-themed map was added, which featured an Easter Egg referencing "Monkey Island" in the form of a gravestone in the environment reading "G Threepwood, Mighty Pirate", a clear reference to Guybrush.


title: Monkey Island

text: Shortly after Pixar, a spinout from Lucasfilm, found success with the first "Toy Story" film in 1995, there had been a push across Hollywood for more digitally animated films. Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), in the midst of transitioning from practical to digital effects, offered its services for producing these films to other studios. One of the first projects they tried to work on was with Universal Pictures to revive the Universal Classic Monsters line with a film called "Frankenstein and the Wolfman". While several scripts and preliminary art was produced for this film, shake-ups at Universal due to the financial failure of "" led to changes in leadership for the film and ultimately its cancellation.


title: Monkey Island

text: David Carson, who had been set to direct "Frankenstein and the Wolfman" but left after the Universal shake-up, came back to ILM with the idea of an animated film based on the first "Monkey Island" game around 2000. With initial support from ILM, Carson worked an initial script with Corey Rosen and Scott Leberecht as to pitch the idea to Amblin Entertainment, the production company owned by Steven Spielberg. Spielberg had told Carson that he had previously told George Lucas that he should have made a "Monkey Island" movie years before, and other meetings with Amblin went well to proceed to further screenwriting work. The rest of ILM's story department was brought in to help write, including Steve Purcell, but this team worked separately from the writers that were developing the actual games, creating a disconnect between story the film was going with and the narrative already established in the video game series. As they continued to work out the screenplay, the direction of the film continued to veer further from the video game series, including at one point where Spielberg had suggested the game be about the monkeys on Monkey Island instead of the pirates. According to Carson, the lack of a creative direction at this point led to the film being shelved at ILM.


title: Monkey Island

text: Details about the film were first revealed publicly in 2011 as part of the "Monkey Island Special Edition Collection" which included some of the film's concept art, storyboards, and scripts.


title: Monkey Island

text: It had been rumored that Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio had been involved in the writing of the "Monkey Island" script which they subsequently used as the basis for the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" film. Both Elliott and Rossio had been to ILM and were shown parts of the "Monkey Island" script, around the same time they were working on their script for "Pirates". When "Pirates" was released, many fans of the "Monkey Island" series made comparisons of parts of the film to the games, and when news of the cancelled film first arose in 2011, the potential connection of Elliott and Rossio to the "Monkey Island" script started. Both Carson and Rossio stated that many of the tropes in both "Monkey Island" and "Pirates" are based on the classic pirate movies and that there was no direct reuse of the cancelled "Monkey Island" film in "Pirates".


title: Monkey Island

text: Each game contains a map puzzle, wherein Guybrush must use an unconventional map to find his way through a maze. The first game features a set of dance instructions that point the way through the dense forest of Mêlée Island to find the Island's fabled treasure. In the second game, Guybrush must use a song from a dream sequence to find his way through LeChuck's dungeon. The third game is the reverse of this, as the instructions the player receives are traditional directions and need to be used on a theatre light board. The fourth game has a set of directions based on time, and the fifth based on animal sounds and the direction of the wind and finally a map to get one of the items needed for "The Feast of the Senses". The sixth features a map of the Mêlée Island forest that is based on cardinal direction in Casual Mode, and based on the plant life seen at each exit in Hard Mode.


title: Monkey Island

text: Each game features a sequence of some sort, where players must gather the ingredients to create an item. Then, later in the game, the player has to create the item again, but this time around with improvised materials. In 'Secret', Guybrush must brew a voodoo concoction but, lacking ingredients, must improvise with the contents of his inventory, leading to amusing puns. In "Monkey Island 2", at two points of the game, Guybrush has to create a voodoo doll, one of Largo LaGrande with legitimate ingredients, and one of LeChuck with improvised ingredients. The same goes with the hangover medicine in 'Curse' and the Ultimate Insult in 'Escape'. 'Tales' starts with Guybrush having to obtain fizzy root-beer then dropping it and him having to instead put together some fizzy root-grog. Later 'Tales' requires Guybrush to put together a 'feast of the senses' to increase the size of La Esponja Grande, and later track down a reversed recipe for the 'diet of the senses'.


title: Monkey Island

text: Each game also contains a minigame based on learning and repetition of a sequence in order to become more proficient: Insult Sword fighting in the first and third games, a number-based "password" as well as a spitting contest in the second, banjo fighting in the third, insult arm wrestling and Monkey Kombat in the fourth, and Pirate Face-Off in the fifth. The first, second and fourth games also feature a puzzle which involves following another character through several locations, a trick also used in "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis". Some other minigames include naval cannon battles, and platform diving.


title: Monkey Island

text: The "Monkey Island" series is full of spoofs, in-jokes, humorous references, and Easter eggs: so many, in fact, that entire web sites are dedicated to their detection and listing.


title: Monkey Island

text: Running gags include lines such as "Look behind you, a three-headed monkey!", the introduction "My name is Guybrush Threepwood and I'm a mighty pirate", "How appropriate, you fight like a cow", "I'm selling these fine leather jackets" (a reference to ""), and "That's the second biggest [object] I've ever seen", a catchphrase from the TV series "Get Smart" (and in EMI "That's the second largest... No, that IS the "largest" conch shell I've ever seen!"), and the astounding fact that Guybrush can hold his breath for ten minutes.


title: Monkey Island

text: "The Secret of Monkey Island" poked fun at rival company Sierra's game-over screens. For example, when Guybrush falls off a cliff, a "game over" window appears, but then Guybrush bounces back to the top of the cliff, explaining that he landed in a "rubber tree". Also, when Guybrush stays underwater for more than ten minutes, he dies and a "game over" dialog box identical to that of Sierra's "King's Quest" series appears, giving the player an option to restore a saved game and jokingly stating: "Hope you saved the game!"


title: Monkey Island

text: The "stump joke" made fun about the use of multiple floppy disks for one program, but was not initially recognized by gamers as a joke. In "The Secret of Monkey Island", Guybrush comes across a passageway hidden beneath a stump, at which point a screen says to insert Disk No. 114. Later, in "The Curse of Monkey Island", Guybrush looks through a crack in the ceiling of an underground crypt to find himself peeking out of the same stump. The stump joke is also referenced in other games developed by "Monkey Island" team members, such as "Grim Fandango" and "Psychonauts".


title: Monkey Island

text: Ron Gilbert has openly admitted that sections of "Monkey Island 2" borrowed extensively from the original Pirates of the Caribbean Disneyland ride, such as the famous "dog holding the keys to the jail-cell". He has also said that he thought the second film ("") may have 'borrowed' from the "Monkey Island" series. The opening menu banjo music in "Curse" is also very reminiscent of the beginning of the Disneyland ride.


title: Monkey Island

text: Each game in the series features cameo appearances by Steve Purcell's characters Sam & Max, who were featured in their own LucasArts adventure game, "Sam & Max Hit the Road". These are replaced by the purple tentacle from yet another LucasArts adventure game Day of the Tentacle in the special edition versions.


title: Monkey Island

text: There are many comic references to various Lucas projects, especially Star Wars. For instance, in "Monkey Island 2" the Voodoo lady exclaims, "I just felt a sudden disturbance in the Force, as if a tiny, tiny voice just called out in fear", as an homage to Obi-Wan's speech in "Star Wars: A New Hope". In "Curse", when the player clicks on the fort that has been damaged by cannon fire from LeChuck's ship, Guybrush replies "That's funny, the damage doesn't look as bad from out here", which is a line spoken by the droid C-3PO in the same "Star Wars" film. When trying to gain access to the Brimstone Beach Club on Plunder Island, Guybrush attempts to use a "Jedi mind trick" on the Cabaña Boy at the entrance. In Part V of "Curse", LeChuck says to Guybrush during the opening dialogue "Search yer feelings, you know it to be true!", to which Guybrush replies "Oh no! It can't be!", lines that mirrored the dialogue between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker in "Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back". This scene is also reenacted at the end of "Monkey Island 2" almost verbatim.


title: Monkey Island

text: In "LeChuck's Revenge", the Governor of Phatt Island, Governor Phatt, says in his sleep "Be careful with those snacks, Eugene" in reference to the Pink Floyd song "Careful With That Axe, Eugene".


title: Monkey Island

text: None of the first five games explicitly reveal the "Secret of Monkey Island". LeChuck himself, when asked in the second and third games, refuses to answer the question; Guybrush can eventually prod LeChuck to confess that he does not know what the secret is. The team behind "Escape from Monkey Island" attempted to resolve the issue by showing that the Giant Monkey Head was actually the control room of a Giant Monkey Robot. The cut-scene in which the revelation was made is called "The Real Secret of Monkey Island".


title: Monkey Island

text: Gilbert stated that he never told anyone what the true secret of Monkey Island is. Gilbert stated in a 2004 interview that when the game was originally conceived it was considered "too big", so they split it into three parts. He added that he "knows what the third [part] is" and "how the story's supposed to end", indicating that he had a definite concept of the secret and a conclusive third game.


title: Monkey Island

text: The true nature of the secret acts as the focus of "Return to Monkey Island", with several characters competing with one another to find "the Secret" and debating as to its nature. The game's conclusion reveals the secret to be a novelty T-shirt earned as a prize at a pirate-themed amusement park, which has acted as the setting for all of Guybrush's previous adventures. Guybrush, as the game's narrator, is intentionally ambiguous as to whether this is the actual secret, suggesting that the secret is different things to different people, and putting forth the notion that the story of the journey and the joy of speculating about the secret with others is more valuable than the reward itself.


title: Anthropic principle

text: The anthropic principle, also known as the "observation selection effect", is the hypothesis, first proposed in 1957 by Robert Dicke, that there is a restrictive lower bound on how statistically probable our observations of the universe are, because observations could only happen in a universe capable of developing intelligent life. Proponents of the anthropic principle argue that it explains why this universe has the age and the fundamental physical constants necessary to accommodate conscious life, since if either had been different, we would not have been around to make observations. Anthropic reasoning is often used to deal with the notion that the universe seems to be finely tuned for the existence of life.


title: Anthropic principle

text: There are many different formulations of the anthropic principle. Philosopher Nick Bostrom counts them at thirty, but the underlying principles can be divided into "weak" and "strong" forms, depending on the types of cosmological claims they entail. The weak anthropic principle (WAP), as defined by Brandon Carter, states that the universe's ostensible fine tuning is the result of selection bias (specifically survivorship bias). Most such arguments draw upon some notion of the multiverse for there to be a statistical population of universes to select from. However, a single vast universe is sufficient for most forms of the WAP that do not specifically deal with fine tuning. Carter distinguished the WAP from the strong anthropic principle (SAP), which considers the universe in some sense compelled to eventually have conscious and sapient life emerge within it. A form of the latter known as the participatory anthropic principle, articulated by John Archibald Wheeler, suggests on the basis of quantum mechanics that the universe, as a condition of its existence, must be observed, so implying one or more observers. Stronger yet is the final anthropic principle, proposed by John D. Barrow and Frank Tipler, which views the universe's structure as expressible by bits of information in such a way that information processing is inevitable and eternal.


title: Anthropic principle

text: The principle was formulated as a response to a series of observations that the laws of nature and parameters of the universe take on values that are consistent with conditions for life as we know it rather than a set of values that would not be consistent with life on Earth. The anthropic principle states that this is a necessity, because if life were impossible, no living entity would be there to observe it, and thus would not be known. That is, it must be possible to observe "some" universe, and hence, the laws and constants of any such universe must accommodate that possibility.


title: Anthropic principle

text: The term "anthropic" in "anthropic principle" has been argued to be a misnomer. While singling out our kind of carbon-based life, none of the finely tuned phenomena require human life or some kind of carbon chauvinism. Any form of life or any form of heavy atom, stone, star or galaxy would do; nothing specifically human or anthropic is involved.