title: The House of the Devil

text: The House of the Devil is a 2009 American horror film written, directed, and edited by Ti West, starring Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov, Greta Gerwig, A. J. Bowen, and Dee Wallace.


title: The House of the Devil

text: The plot concerns a young college student who is hired as a babysitter at an isolated house and is soon caught up in bizarre and dangerous events as she fights for her life.


title: The House of the Devil

text: The film combines elements of both the slasher film and haunted house subgenres while using the "satanic panic" of the 1980s as a central plot element. The film pays homage to horror films of the 1970s and 1980s, recreating the style of films of that era using filming techniques and similar technology to what was used then. The film's opening text claims that it is based upon true events, a technique used in some horror films, such as "The Amityville Horror" and "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre".


title: The House of the Devil

text: Samantha Hughes, a cash-strapped college student, responds to an ad for a babysitting job for a Mr. Ulman. Her best friend Megan gave her a ride to the Ulmans' remote mansion. Mr. Ulman reveals he actually needs Samantha to tend to his wife's mother. Samantha reluctantly agrees to a fee of $400. On the way home, Megan is shot in the head by a stranger (later identified as Victor).


title: The House of the Devil

text: Samantha orders a pizza from a number Mr. Ulman had repeatedly recommended. After accidentally breaking a vase, she cleans up the mess and discovers a cupboard containing old family photographs. In one photograph, a family that is not the Ulmans stands next to the Volvo that she and Megan saw at the house. Later, three corpses are shown in one of the rooms, implying that they were the family in the photographs and the true residents of the house.


title: The House of the Devil

text: Unnerved by noises in the house and the arrival of the pizza, delivered by Victor, Samantha dials 911 but tells the operator that it was an accidental call. Drugs in the pizza cause her to pass out just as she sees movements behind a door on the third floor.


title: The House of the Devil

text: Samantha comes to during a lunar eclipse and finds herself bound in the center of a Pentagram on the floor. Mr. and Mrs. Ulman, along with their son Victor, begin a ritual. "Mother" is revealed to be a grotesque, witch-like figure. She slices her arm and pours her blood into a goat skull. She then uses it to draw occult symbols on Samantha's belly and forehead, and forces Samantha to drink the blood.


title: The House of the Devil

text: Samantha stabs Mother and escapes. After finding Megan's corpse in the kitchen, she kills Victor and Mrs. Ulman, but horrific images of Mother begin appearing in her mind. Mr. Ulman chases her into a nearby cemetery, telling her that she was chosen and destined to accept "him". Samantha threatens to shoot Ulman, but he is resigned, telling her it is too late. Instead, Samantha shoots herself in the head.


title: The House of the Devil

text: Elsewhere, a TV news reports a strange lunar eclipse the night before, which confounded scientists due to its abrupt ending.


title: The House of the Devil

text: Samantha lies unconscious on a hospital bed, her head in bandages. A nurse pats her belly, saying "You will be just fine. Both of you,” implying that she has been impregnated.


title: The House of the Devil

text: The film was shot in Connecticut. Taking place in the 1980s, the film was shot on 16mm film, giving it a retro stylistic look that matched the decade. Similarly, some aspects of the culture of the 1980s—i.e. feathered hair, Samantha's 1980 Sony Walkman, the Fixx's 1983 song "One Thing Leads to Another", the Greg Kihn Band's 1981 song "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)", and the Volvo 240 sedan—are seen in the film as signifiers of the decade. The cinematography of the film also reflects the methods used by directors of the time. For instance, West often has the camera zoom in on characters (rather than dolly in as is now common in film), a technique that was often used in horror films of the 1970s and continued to be used into the 1980s. Other stylistic signifiers include opening credits (which became less common in films in the decades after the 1980s) in yellow font, accompanied by freeze-frames, and the closing credits being played over a still image of the final scene.


title: The House of the Devil

text: The United States premiere was at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 25. It was made available through video on demand on October 1, 2009. The film was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on October 30, 2009. The DVD and Blu-ray of the film were released on February 2, 2010. A promotional copy of the film was released on VHS in a clamshell box like the ones that many early VHS films of the 1980s came in.


title: The House of the Devil

text: The soundtrack for "The House of the Devil" was released in November 2009 as a double feature with the score of "I Can See You", both by composer Jeff Grace.


title: The House of the Devil

text: The film received a score of 87% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 98 reviews; the site's consensus states that "Though its underlying themes are familiar, "House of the Devil" effectively sheds the loud and gory cliches of contemporary horror to deliver a tense, slowly building throwback to the fright flicks of decades past." It also received an aggregate score of 73 on Metacritic, based on 18 critic ratings, indicating "Generally favorable reviews."


title: The House of the Devil

text: Roger Ebert gave it 3 out of 4 stars, complimenting its use of subtlety and tension as being "an introduction for some audience members to the Hitchcockian definition of suspense." Oliver Smith of "7films" similarly compared it to staples of the genre, praising that "as the great horror films of past days, such as "The Omen" or "Rosemary’s Baby", "The House of the Devil" is a slow-burning horror film". Kevin Sommerfield from Slasher Studios gave the film four out of four stars, commenting that the film is "not just a nostalgia piece for director Ti West, one of the best horror directors working today", but that it also reflected "how horror movies "should" be made".


title: The House of the Devil

text: Self-proclaimed redneck film critic Joe Bob Briggs has praised the film as "just a superb slow-burn, extremely well-crafted movie."


title: The House of the Devil

text: In a review for "Salon", Stephanie Zacharek indicated that she liked the movie, declaring it "clever" and "somewhat a novelty". Zacharek perceived it as "obviously made with love", though conceding that the film is likely "not going to change the face or direction of horror filmmaking in any drastic way".


title: The House of the Devil

text: Some critics were less kind, critiquing the pacing or originality of the film. Kyle Smith of the "New York Post" admitted that it was "creepy", but that it took "a little too long to arrive" at its climatic culmination. Kirk Honeycutt from "The Hollywood Reporter" judged the film to be derivative, rather than flatteringly imitative, calling the film and its genre "banal".


title: The House of the Devil

text: The film won a few awards shortly after its release, but was largely absent from most major competitions and film festivals, and from the public eye, possibly due to its limited theatrical release and low budget. It won the 2009 Birmingham Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival award for Best Feature Film. At 2009 Screamfest, it won festival trophies for Best Actress (Jocelin Donahue) and Best Score (Jeff Grace).


title: Freedom of the City

text: The Freedom of the City (or Borough in some parts of the UK) is an honour bestowed by a municipality upon a valued member of the community, or upon a visiting celebrity or dignitary. Arising from the medieval practice of granting respected citizens freedom from serfdom, the tradition still lives on in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand—although today the title of "freeman" confers no special privileges. The Freedom of the City can also be granted by municipal authorities to military units which have earned the city's trust; in this context, it is sometimes called the Freedom of Entry. This allows them the freedom to parade through the city, and is an affirmation of the bond between the regiment and the citizenry.


title: Freedom of the City

text: The honour was sometimes accompanied by a "freedom box", a small gold box inscribed to record the occasion; these are not usual today. In some countries, such as the United States, esteemed residents and visitors may instead be presented with the Key to the City, a similarly symbolic honour. Other US cities award Honorary Citizenship with just a certificate.


title: Freedom of the City

text: Freedom of the City is an ancient honour granted to martial organisations, allowing them the privilege to march into the city "with drums beating, colours flying, and bayonets fixed".


title: Freedom of the City

text: This honour dates back to ancient Rome which regarded the "pomerium", the boundary of the city, as sacred. Promagistrates and generals were forbidden from entering it, and resigned their "imperium" immediately upon crossing it. An exception was made for victory celebrations (called triumphs), during which the victorious general would be permitted to enter for one day only. Under the Republic, soldiers also lost their status when entering, becoming citizens: thus soldiers at their general's triumph wore civilian dress. Weapons were also banned inside the pomerium for religious and traditional reasons. (The assassination of Julius Caesar occurred outside this boundary.)


title: Freedom of the City

text: Similar laws were passed by other European cities throughout the Medieval era, to protect public security and civic rights, even against their own king's troops. As a result, soldiers would be forced to camp outside the walls of the city during the winter months. The Freedom of the City was an honour granted only to troops which had earned the trust of the local populace, either through some valiant action or simply by being a familiar presence.


title: Freedom of the City

text: Today, martial freedom of the city is an entirely ceremonial honour, usually bestowed upon a unit with historic ties to the area, as a token of appreciation for their long and dedicated service. The awarding of the Freedom is often accompanied by a celebratory parade through the city.


title: Freedom of the City

text: A slightly more common freedom of the city is connected to the medieval concept of "free status", when city and town charters drew a distinction between freemen and vassals of a feudal lord. As such, freemen actually pre-date modern boroughs. Early freedom of the boroughs ceremonies had great importance in affirming that the recipient enjoyed privileges such as the right to trade and own property, and protection within the town.


title: Freedom of the City

text: In modern society, the award of honorary freedom of the city or borough tends to be entirely ceremonial, given by the local government in many towns and cities on those who have served in some exceptional capacity, or upon any whom the city wishes to bestow an honour.


title: Freedom of the City

text: Before parliamentary reform in 1832, freedom of the city or town conferred the right to vote in the parliamentary boroughs for the MPs. Until the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 the freemen were the exclusive electorate for some of the boroughs. These two acts together curtailed the power of the freemen and extended the franchise to all "householders" (defined as local rate payers; in fact therefore property owners). The private property belonging to the freemen collectively was retained. The freemen of York, Oxford and Newcastle upon Tyne still own considerable areas within their towns, although the income is effectively given to support charitable objects. The Local Government Act 1972 specifically preserved freemen's rights. The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 removed any restrictions entitling only men to be freemen.


title: Freedom of the City

text: Today, the grant of honorary freedom in the United Kingdom is governed by the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009). The 1972 Act enabled the councils of cities, royal boroughs, boroughs, and parishes (or, in Wales, communities) with the status of a royal town to confer the status of honorary freeman on "persons of distinction and persons who have, in the opinion of the council, rendered eminent services" to the local area. The 2009 Act extends the ability to grant the status of honorary freeman to any county, city, district, borough, town, parish or community council (so removing the requirement for the town to have 'royal' status, and also enabling county councils to confer the honour). A special meeting of the council can grant the honour by passing a resolution with a two-thirds majority at a specially convened meeting.


title: Freedom of the City

text: The exact qualifications for borough freedom differ between each city or town, but generally fall into two categories, "patrimony" (inheritance) and "servitude" (apprenticeship). For example, in Chester, only the children or grandchildren of freemen may apply for admission. In York, this extends to great- and great-great-grandchildren, and apprenticeship to a freeman of the city will also allow admission. In Great Grimsby, the widow of a freeman passes his rights to her second husband, who retains the privilege after either divorce from or death of the widow. The borough freedom is strongest in York, Chester, Newcastle upon Tyne and Coventry; in Coventry, freedom is qualified by having served an apprenticeship. Durham and Northampton have extended their admission criteria to those who have served an apprenticeship without being "bound" (trained) by a freeman directly. Freemen of Newcastle upon Tyne are bestowed the right to graze cattle on the town moor.


title: Freedom of the City

text: Recipients of this honour have included athlete Mary Peters, actor Kenneth Branagh, diplomat John Jordan, industrialist Andrew Carnegie, shipowner Thomas Henry Ismay and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.


title: Freedom of the City

text: In England, the most established borough freedom is that conferred by the Freedom of the City of London, first recorded in 1237. This is closely tied to the role and status of the livery companies. From 1835, the freedom "without the intervention of a Livery Company" has been bestowed by a general resolution of Common Council, by "redemption" (purchase), at one time for an onerous sum. Now the Freedom can be obtained by servitude, by patrimony, by nomination, or by presentation via a Livery Company. Freedom through nomination by two sponsors is available for a fee (known as a "fine") of but is free to those on the electoral roll of the City.


title: Freedom of the City

text: New freemen are enrolled in a ceremony in Guildhall, when they receive a guide to conducting their lives in an honourable fashion and a sealed certificate. Freemen's children get admission preference at the City of London Freemen's School. There are a number of rights traditionally but apocryphally associated with freemen—the right to drive sheep and cattle over London Bridge; to a silken rope, if hanged; to carry a naked sword in public; or that if the City of London Police finds a freeman drunk and incapable, they will bundle him or her into a taxi and send them home rather than throw them into a cell. While sheep have occasionally been driven over London Bridge by Freemen on special occasions, these privileges are now effectively symbolic.


title: Freedom of the City

text: The right to herd sheep and cattle across London's four bridges is no longer economically relevant, as there are no livestock markets in the city. Nevertheless, this right has been exercised, or the city has granted permission, on several occasions in modern times:


title: Freedom of the City

text: By 2015, the driving of sheep across the bridge had become an annual event, organised by the Worshipful Company of Woolmen livery company, typically to raise funds for the Lord Mayor's Appeal and the Worshipful Company of Woolmen.


title: Freedom of the City

text: York has a long history of freemen dating back to the Anglo-Saxon period, with records dating back to 1272. Freemen may claim their rights through patronage (as far back as their great-great-grandparent, there are records of women being admitted in York in medieval times, a right forgotten for a time until the late 1970s when the gild carried out research and rediscovered it) or apprenticeship. Once sworn in, freemen can join the Gild (archaic spelling used) of Freemen who continue to take an interest in the affairs of the city. New admissions are made every year (usually October) following an admission ceremony with the Lord Mayor at the Guildhall. Prince Andrew, Duke of York was given the honour in 1986, but a councillors' vote stripped him of the title after allegations of sexual abuse became public.


title: Freedom of the City

text: In Ireland, borough freedom of the city is generally given to noted foreign and national dignitaries and the list rarely exceeds a few dozen. As in the United Kingdom, the title generally comes with various ancient privileges – for instance, freemen of Dublin are allowed the right to vote in certain elections, bring goods for sale in the city without customs and the right to pasture sheep on common ground such as College Green and St. Stephen's Green.


title: Freedom of the City

text: Freedom of the City is a privilege bestowed to individual units of the Canadian Forces. Many units exercise this privilege in conjunction with significant annual commemorations. The Calgary Highlanders commemorate the Battle of Kitcheners' Wood with an annual freedom of the city parade.


title: Freedom of the City

text: In some countries, such as the United States, an ornamental key – the 'key to the city' – is presented to esteemed visitors, residents, or others whom the city wishes to honour. This practice is a variation on the freedom of the city tradition, and has a similar symbolic meaning; evoking medieval walled cities, the gates of which would be guarded during the day and locked at night, the key symbolises the freedom of the recipient to enter and leave the city at will, as a trusted friend of city residents.


title: Freedom of the City

text: In some cities in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, the key to the city is given to the so-called " who leads the carnivals which take place the week prior to Septuagesima. The tradition is that the mayor steps down for this period and power is transferred to the prince carnival, who then returns the key at the end of Shrove Tuesday / Mardi Gras. Today, the handing over of the key is mostly symbolic and marks the start and end of the carnival.


title: Freedom of the City

text: A similar tradition exists in some festivities in Latin America (like in Rio Carnival), where the festival's King Momo receives the key to the city at the start of the festivities.


title: Freedom of the City

text: In Canada, major cities including Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal may award a key to the city to influential business leaders, musicians, and political leaders. In 2016, the Canadian recording artist Drake received a key to the city of Toronto, presented by the mayor John Tory. In a local tradition, Calgary has opted to award esteemed visitors a symbolic cowboy hat instead of a key; this is usually followed by reciting one of two oaths (one formal, the other more silly) to become honorary Calgarians.


title: Freedom of the City

text: In New Zealand, on 22 May 2020, a domestic cat named Mittens was given the Key to the City of Wellington – New Zealand's capital city. Mittens received a certificate outlining the honours bestowed on him, and was given a miniature key for his collar by Mayor Foster, who was dressed in full regalia for the auspicious occasion.


title: Orthographic projection

text: Orthographic projection (also orthogonal projection and analemma) is a means of representing three-dimensional objects in two dimensions. Orthographic projection is a form of parallel projection in which all the projection lines are orthogonal to the projection plane, resulting in every plane of the scene appearing in affine transformation on the viewing surface. The obverse of an orthographic projection is an oblique projection, which is a parallel projection in which the projection lines are "not" orthogonal to the projection plane.


title: Orthographic projection

text: The term "orthographic" sometimes means a technique in multiview projection in which principal axes or the planes of the subject are also parallel with the projection plane to create the "primary views". If the principal planes or axes of an object in an orthographic projection are "not" parallel with the projection plane, the depiction is called "axonometric" or an "auxiliary views". ("Axonometric projection" is synonymous with "parallel projection".) Sub-types of "primary views" include "plans", "elevations", and "sections"; sub-types of "auxiliary views" include "isometric", "dimetric", and "trimetric projections".


title: Orthographic projection

text: Often, it is more useful to use homogeneous coordinates. The transformation above can be represented for homogeneous coordinates as


title: Orthographic projection

text: In computer graphics, one of the most common matrices used for orthographic projection can be defined by a 6-tuple, ("left", "right", "bottom", "top", "near", "far"), which defines the clipping planes. These planes form a box with the minimum corner at ("left", "bottom", -"near") and the maximum corner at ("right", "top", -"far").


title: Orthographic projection

text: The box is translated so that its center is at the origin, then it is scaled to the unit cube which is defined by having a minimum corner at (−1,−1,−1) and a maximum corner at (1,1,1).


title: Orthographic projection

text: Three sub-types of orthographic projection are "isometric projection", "dimetric projection", and "trimetric projection", depending on the exact angle at which the view deviates from the orthogonal. Typically in axonometric drawing, as in other types of pictorials, one axis of space is shown to be vertical.


title: Orthographic projection

text: In isometric projection, the most commonly used form of axonometric projection in engineering drawing, the direction of viewing is such that the three axes of space appear equally foreshortened, and there is a common angle of 120° between them. As the distortion caused by foreshortening is uniform, the proportionality between lengths is preserved, and the axes share a common scale; this eases one's ability to take measurements directly from the drawing. Another advantage is that 120° angles are easily constructed using only a compass and straightedge.


title: Orthographic projection

text: In dimetric projection, the direction of viewing is such that two of the three axes of space appear equally foreshortened, of which the attendant scale and angles of presentation are determined according to the angle of viewing; the scale of the third direction is determined separately. Dimensional approximations are common in dimetric drawings.


title: Orthographic projection

text: In trimetric projection, the direction of viewing is such that all of the three axes of space appear unequally foreshortened. The scale along each of the three axes and the angles among them are determined separately as dictated by the angle of viewing. Dimensional approximations in trimetric drawings are common, and trimetric perspective is seldom used in technical drawings.


title: Orthographic projection

text: In "multiview projection", up to six pictures of an object are produced, called "primary views", with each projection plane parallel to one of the coordinate axes of the object. The views are positioned relative to each other according to either of two schemes: "first-angle" or "third-angle" projection. In each, the appearances of views may be thought of as being "projected" onto planes that form a six-sided box around the object. Although six different sides can be drawn, usually three views of a drawing give enough information to make a three-dimensional object. These views are known as "front view", "top view" and "end view". Other names for these views include "plan", "elevation" and "section". When the plane or axis of the object depicted is "not" parallel to the projection plane, and where multiple sides of an object are visible in the same image, it is called an "auxiliary view". Thus "isometric projection", "dimetric projection" and "trimetric projection" would be considered "auxiliary views" in multiview projection. A typical characteristic of multiview projection is that one axis of space is usually displayed as vertical.


title: Orthographic projection

text: An orthographic projection map is a map projection of cartography. Like the stereographic projection and gnomonic projection, orthographic projection is a perspective (or azimuthal) projection, in which the sphere is projected onto a tangent plane or secant plane. The "point of perspective" for the orthographic projection is at infinite distance. It depicts a hemisphere of the globe as it appears from outer space, where the horizon is a great circle. The shapes and areas are distorted, particularly near the edges.


title: Orthographic projection

text: The orthographic projection has been known since antiquity, with its cartographic uses being well documented. Hipparchus used the projection in the 2nd century BC to determine the places of star-rise and star-set. In about 14 BC, Roman engineer Marcus Vitruvius Pollio used the projection to construct sundials and to compute sun positions.


title: Orthographic projection

text: Vitruvius also seems to have devised the term orthographic (from the Greek "orthos" (= “straight”) and graphē (= “drawing”) for the projection. However, the name "analemma", which also meant a sundial showing latitude and longitude, was the common name until François d'Aguilon of Antwerp promoted its present name in 1613.


title: Orthographic projection

text: The earliest surviving maps on the projection appear as woodcut drawings of terrestrial globes of 1509 (anonymous), 1533 and 1551 (Johannes Schöner), and 1524 and 1551 (Apian).


title: 2048 (video game)

text: 2048 is a single-player sliding tile puzzle video game written by Italian web developer Gabriele Cirulli and published on GitHub. The objective of the game is to slide numbered tiles on a grid to combine them to create a tile with the number 2048; however, one can continue to play the game after reaching the goal, creating tiles with larger numbers. It was originally written in JavaScript and CSS over a weekend, and released on 9 March 2014 as free and open-source software subject to the MIT License. Versions for iOS and Android followed in May 2014.


title: 2048 (video game)

text: "2048" was intended to be an improved version of two other games, both of which were clones of the iOS game "Threes" released a month earlier. Cirulli himself described "2048" as being "conceptually similar" to "Threes". The release of "2048" resulted in the rapid appearance of many similar games, akin to the flood of "Flappy Bird" variations from 2013. The game received generally positive reviews from critics, with it being described as "viral" and "addictive".


title: 2048 (video game)

text: "2048" is played on a plain 4×4 grid, with numbered tiles that slide when a player moves them using the four arrow keys. Every turn, a new tile randomly appears in an empty spot on the board with a value of either 2 or 4. Tiles slide as far as possible in the chosen direction until they are stopped by either another tile or the edge of the grid. If two tiles of the same number collide while moving, they will merge into a tile with the total value of the two tiles that collided. The resulting tile cannot merge with another tile again in the same move. Higher-scoring tiles emit a soft glow; the highest possible tile is 131,072.


title: 2048 (video game)

text: If a move causes three consecutive tiles of the same value to slide together, only the two tiles farthest along the direction of motion will combine. If all four spaces in a row or column are filled with tiles of the same value, a move parallel to that row/column will combine the first two and last two. A scoreboard on the upper-right keeps track of the user's score. The user's score starts at zero, and is increased whenever two tiles combine, by the value of the new tile.


title: 2048 (video game)

text: The game is won when a tile with a value of 2048 appears on the board. Players can continue beyond that to reach higher scores. When the player has no legal moves (there are no empty spaces and no adjacent tiles with the same value), the game ends.


title: 2048 (video game)

text: Strategies in 2048 include keeping the highest tiles in a specific corner and to keep that tile in that corner and to fill the specified row with the highest numbers.


title: 2048 (video game)

text: Nineteen-year-old Gabriele Cirulli created the game in a single weekend as a test to see if he could program a game from scratch. "It was a way to pass the time", he said. He described it as being "conceptually similar" to the recently released iOS game "Threes", and a clone of another game, "1024". Developed by Veewo Studio, "1024" is itself a clone of "Threes", with its App Store description once reading "no need to pay for "Threes"". Cirulli's README for "2048" cites another "1024" clone as influence: the homonymous but slightly different in terms of mechanics "2048" by Saming.


title: 2048 (video game)

text: Cirulli was surprised when his weekend project received over 4 million visitors in less than a week. The game is free to play, Cirulli having said that he was unwilling to make money "from a concept that [he] didn't invent". He released ports for iOS and Android in May 2014.


title: 2048 (video game)

text: The simple controls allowed it to be used in a promo video for the Myo gesture control armband, and the availability of the code underneath allowed it to be used as a teaching aid for programming. The second-place winner of a coding contest at Matlab Central Exchange was an AI system that would play "2048" on its own. As the source code is available, many additions to the original game, including a score leaderboard, an undo feature, and improved touchscreen playability have been written by other people. All are available to the public.


title: 2048 (video game)

text: Spinoffs have been released online and include versions with elements from the Doge meme, "Doctor Who", "Flappy Bird" and "Tetris". There has also been a 3D version and versions with bigger or smaller grids. Cirulli sees these spinoffs as "part of the beauty of open source software" and does not object to them "as long as they add new, creative modifications to the game". In 2014, an unofficial clone of the game was published in the iOS app store by Ketchapp, monetized with advertising. There has also been a Doctor Who spinoff of the game, as well as one for the Nintendo 3DS, which included a retail release.


title: 2048 (video game)

text: The game has been described by "The Wall Street Journal" as "almost like "Candy Crush" for math geeks", and "Business Insider" called it ""Threes" on steroids". Caitlin Dewey of "The Washington Post" called it "a nerdy, minimalist, frustrating game", while "The Independent" called it "addictive". The phenomenon of "2048" has been compared to that of "Flappy Bird" by several commentators. Both games' success, and their simplicity, led to the rapid creation of many variants, and both games have been described as "viral" and "very addictive".


title: 2048 (video game)

text: James Vincent of "The Independent" labeled "2048" as "a clone of a clone". In April 2014, "Pocket Gamer" reported that 15 new clones of "Threes" were released daily in the App Store.


title: 2048 (video game)

text: When asked if he was concerned that his situation would end up as stressed as that of Nguyễn Hà Đông, the creator of "Flappy Bird", Cirulli said that he had "already gone through that phase" on a smaller scale, and that once he had decided against monetizing "2048", he "stopped feeling awkward."


title: 2048 (video game)

text: In response to rampant cloning, the creators of "Threes" published a log of how the game evolved over its 14-month development cycle. They said they had tried and dismissed "2048" tile merging variant, because it made the game too easy. In a 2014 "Wired" article, they claimed to have each beaten "2048" on their first play.


title: 2048 (video game)

text: The mathematical nature of 2048 has made the game of interest to AI researchers. As of 2022, AI achieved over 95% (likely over 98%, but the measurement has noise) probability of making a 16384 tile, over 75% (likely over 80%) probability of making a 32768, and over 3% probability of making a 65536 (improving over the results in and ). Due to randomness and lack of spare room, the optimal probability of making a 65536 tile is expected to be low; this is supported by optimal solutions for constrained boards.


title: 2048 (video game)

text: 2048 AI strategy uses expectimax search up to a certain (variable) depth, plus transposition tables to avoid duplication. Analogously to endgame tablebases, tables are used to estimate success (for building a large enough tile without destroying the configuration) in appropriate positions with many large tiles. A position evaluation function can favor empty squares, having a large number of merge possibilities, placement of larger tiles at the edge, and monotonicity for tile sizes, especially for larger tiles. The parameters are optimized by a search for better parameter values; some papers used temporal difference reinforcement learning.


title: Peugeot 208

text: The Peugeot 208 is a supermini car (B-segment in Europe) produced by the French automaker Peugeot. Unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2012 and positioned below bigger 308 and above smaller 108. The 208 replaced the 207 in 2012, and the car is currently at its second generation.


title: Peugeot 208

text: The first 208 models were three door hatchbacks produced in November 2011, at the company's new plant in Slovakia. In June 2012, as five-door hatchbacks became available, production of the 208 also commenced at Peugeot's French plants at Mulhouse, and at Poissy.


title: Peugeot 208

text: The 208, developed under code name "A9", is built on the PSA PF1 platform and the weight is to be reduced by ( on average) compared with the 207 and still offer more space than the predecessor.


title: Peugeot 208

text: The boot offers (VDA) of space, more than the 207, and the leg room in the rear seat increases . The design was led by Pierre Authier, with Sylvain Henry as exterior designer.


title: Peugeot 208

text: The interior design is by Adam Bazydlo, and the colour and trim is by Marie Sanou. The car features a tablet computer like screen, and panoramic glass roof surrounded by LED lights. The car is relatively aerodynamic with a drag coefficient, C, of 0.29.


title: Peugeot 208

text: A high performance 208 R was to be positioned above the 208 GTi in the lineup, but was never released.


title: Peugeot 208

text: In mid-2018, the three-door model was discontinued. In 2019, Peugeot ceased the production of the first-generation 208 in Europe. The first-generation 208 has been produced in Brazil from January 2013 to March 2020, when the second-generation model imported from Argentina was released.


title: Peugeot 208

text: All the petrol engines comply with the Euro 5 norm and the diesel engines have emissions of 99 g/km or lower. In addition to the four cylinder petrol engines carried over from the previous model, from September 2012, the 208 has been offered with two new three cylinder units with variable valve timing – the 1.0 VTi (68 hp) and 1.2 VTi (82 hp).


title: Peugeot 208

text: The 1.0 comes with an advertised fuel consumption of , and a emissions value of 99 g/km. A 1.2 L three cylinder is available with a turbocharger designated as the PureTech 110 S&S (available on the GT Line models and the allures) or without designated PureTech 82 S&S (available on the active, VTi, or XS).


title: Peugeot 208

text: This engine is coupled to a five speed manual or a six speed automatic. The 208 GTi is fitted with a 1.6 litre turbo (1,598 cc) four cylinder in line turbo petrol Prince engine producing at 5,800 rpm and of torque at 1,700 rpm, and is fitted with a six speed manual transmission.


title: Peugeot 208

text: This first GTi model has since been replaced by the 208 GTi by PeugeotSport which is directly derived from the limited edition '30ème Anniversaire Edition' which put out 208 bhp with revised suspension and an optional two tone paint job, along with a facelift of the original bumpers and other small changes.


title: Peugeot 208

text: The range of diesel units starts with the four-cylinder 1.4-litre e HDi unit, originally introduced in 2010 for the 207, which provides of power coupled, in the 208, with published fuel economy and emission figures of and 87 g/km.


title: Peugeot 208

text: The 208 in its most basic Latin American configuration with 2 airbags received 4 stars for adult occupants and 3 stars for toddlers from Latin NCAP in 2014.


title: Peugeot 208

text: The 208 in its most basic Latin American configuration with 2 airbags and no ESC received 2 stars for adult occupants and 3 stars for toddlers from Latin NCAP in 2016 (one level above 2010-2015).


title: Peugeot 208

text: The second generation Peugeot 208 was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2019, and officially went on sale across Europe over the summer. A fully electric version, named e-208, was also revealed at Geneva. The 208 offers a choice of powertrains, using conventional petrol or diesel engines, or an electric motor.


title: Peugeot 208

text: The drivetrains and platform of the 208 are shared with the Peugeot 2008, the DS 3 Crossback and Opel Corsa. The conventional petrol engines branded ""PureTech"" are all 1.2-litre, three-cylinder naturally aspirated EB2FA with , or turbo EB2DT with , or turbo EB2DTS with , except the versions made in Argentina which use the 1.6-litre naturally-aspirated EC5 either petrol-only or ethanol-capable flex fuel for export to Brazil.


title: Peugeot 208

text: The diesel model will come in just one engine variant, a 1.5-litre four cylinder engine producing . Moroccan buyers have the option of the old 1.6 HDi engine producing . Peugeot have yet to announce the Sport models and what engine they will be using, such as the GTi which has been part of the family of the 208.


title: Peugeot 208

text: However, Guillaume Clerc, the project manager for the second generation 208, stated that development of a petrol 208 GTi ended in 2017, because it was impossible to meet the corporate average emission targets with the larger 1.6-litre engine used in the previous generation 208 GTi. Clerc hinted the next GTi could be based on the e-208.


title: Peugeot 208

text: The 208 and e-208 are available with optional advanced driver-assistance systems, featuring adaptive cruise control, lane centering, automatic parking, and blind spot monitoring. Models equipped with a manual transmission feature cruise control down to a minimum speed of ; the automatic and e208 models can control the car down to a stop.


title: Peugeot 208

text: Unlike competing contemporary vehicles such as the Renault Zoe and Volkswagen ID.3, the e-208 shares a common chassis with the conventional petrol/diesel powered 208. Peugeot chose this deliberately to enable potential buyers to select the drivetrain that best suits their requirements.


title: Peugeot 208

text: This also allows Peugeot to assemble the e-208 on the same line as the 208, in Trnava plant. Compared to the conventionally powered versions of the 208, the e-208 is approximately heavier, and has a slightly wider rear axle, to accommodate the battery pack.


title: Peugeot 208

text: The e-208 has a heat-pump controlled 50 kWh battery, a motor, and a 6.6 kW charger. WLTP range is . It is equipped with a CCS Combo Type 2 connector, and can charge at a rate of up to 100 kW from a suitable DC fast charging station.


title: Peugeot 208

text: Charge rate can be 70kW up to 40% state of charge, then decreasing to 50kW. The onboard charger is limited to 7.4 kW, but may be equipped with a three phase 11 kW charger as an option. In the e208, the gear selector is used to choose the level of regenerative braking.


title: Peugeot 208

text: Shortly after it went on sale in October 2019, demand for the e-208 was strong. Peugeot had anticipated making approximately 30,000 e-208 cars per year, 10% of the planned annual production of 300,000 for the entire 208 product line, but of all pre-orders received were for the e208. Maximum production for the e-208 is 60,000 per year.


title: Peugeot 208

text: The electric e-208 was voted "Most Desired Electric Car" in North Macedonia at the Golden Steering Wheel awards at the beginning of 2021.


title: Peugeot 208

text: In July 2020, Peugeot started the assembly of the second-generation 208 in Argentina in its Buenos Aires plant. The production at this plant is intended for South American market. It only produces internal combustion models, as the e-208s sold in South America are imported. The Argentinian-made 208 is equipped with the 1.6-litre VTi engine producing .


title: Peugeot 208

text: In 2020, it is claimed to be 95% equal to the European version (but the engine is different, for starters) and 40% of its parts are made in Argentina. 60% of its production is exported.


title: Peugeot 208

text: In May 2022, following the merger of PSA and FCA to form Stellantis, Peugeot released a naturally-aspirated 1.0-litre 208 as an entry-level option for Brazilian market, using the Firefly engine from the Fiat Argo with .


title: Peugeot 208

text: The 208 in its most basic Latin American configuration with 4 airbags and ISA received 2 stars from Latin NCAP in 2021 under its new protocol (one level above 2016-2019, similar to Euro NCAP 2014).


title: Peugeot 208

text: In April 2013, a 208 T16 was tested by Sébastien Loeb at Mont Ventoux. Loosely based on the shape and design of the production 208, the T16 is a lightweight vehicle that uses the rear wing from the Peugeot 908, and has a 3.2 litre, twin turbo V6 engine, developing and 0–100 km/h in just 1.8s with the aim of competing at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. The engine was derived from racing variants of the PSA ES/L V6 built by Sodemo, which were used in the Courage C60 Le Mans race car between 2001 and 2003.


title: Peugeot 208

text: At Pikes Peak on 30 June 2013, Sébastien Loeb used the 208 T16 to break Rhys Millen's record time, set in 2012 on the first fully paved roads in the history of the competition. The previous record of 9:46.164 was shattered, and a new record time of 8:13.878 was set.


title: Peugeot 208

text: In 2018, a Peugeot 208 GTi 30th Edition model won the overall award in the inaugural "Classic Sports Car Club Turbo Tin Tops Series", for forced induction front wheel drive cars.


title: Peugeot 208

text: Team Peugeot-Hansen won the manufacturers title at the FIA World Rallycross Championship in November 2015. Jérôme Grosset-Janin was runner up in the FIA European Rallycross Championship in the same year.


title: Peugeot 208

text: In the FIA World Rallycross Championship, Timmy Hansen won the drivers championship with a Peugeot 208, and Hansen MJP won the teams championship.


title: Quetta

text: Quetta (; ; ; ) is the tenth most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in south-west of the country close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is the capital of the province of Balochistan where it is the largest city. Quetta is at an average elevation of above sea level, making it Pakistan's only high-altitude major city. The city is known as the ""Fruit Garden of Pakistan"" due to the numerous fruit orchards in and around it, and the large variety of fruits and dried fruit products produced there.


title: Quetta

text: Located in northern Balochistan near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and the road across to Kandahar, Quetta is a trade and communication centre between the two countries. The city is near the Bolan Pass route which was once one of the major gateways from Central Asia to South Asia. Quetta played an important role militarily for the Pakistani Armed Forces in the intermittent Afghanistan conflict.


title: Quetta

text: The name "Quetta" is a variation of the Pashto word "Kwatkōṭ", or "kōta" meaning "fortress". Quetta was formerly known as Shalkot (; ),


title: Quetta

text: The immediate area has long been one of pastures and mountains, with varied plants and animals relative to the dry plains to the west.


title: Quetta

text: From 11th century, the land of Quetta was owned and ruled by the Kasi Pashtun tribe. It was captured by Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi during his invasion of South Asia. In 1543, Mughal emperor Humayun came to Quetta en route to Safavid Persia, leaving his son and future Mughal emperor Akbar here. In 1709, the region was a part of Afghan Hotak dynasty and stayed a part until 1747 when Ahmed Shah Durrani conquered it and made it a part of Durrani Empire. The first European visited Quetta in 1828, describing it as "mud-walled fort surrounded by three hundred mud houses".


title: Quetta

text: In 1876 Quetta was occupied by the British and subsequently incorporated into British India. In 1856, British General John Jacob had urged his government to occupy Quetta given its strategic position on the western frontier. British Troops constructed the infrastructure for their establishment.


title: Quetta

text: By the time of the earthquake on 31 May 1935, Quetta had developed into a bustling city with a number of multi-storey buildings and so was known as "Little London". The epicenter of the earthquake was close to the city and destroyed most of the city's infrastructure, killing an estimated 40,000 people.


title: Quetta

text: Quetta has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen "BSk") with a significant variation between summer and winter temperatures. Summer starts about late May and goes on until early September with average temperatures ranging from . The highest temperature in Quetta is which was recorded on 10 July 1998. Autumn starts in mid-September and continues until mid-November with average temperatures in the range. Winter starts in late November and ends in late February, with average temperatures near . The lowest temperature in Quetta is which was recorded on 8 January 1970. Spring starts in early March and ends in mid-May, with average temperatures close to . Unlike more easterly parts of Pakistan, Quetta does not have a monsoon season of heavy rainfall. Highest rainfall during 24 hours in Quetta is which was recorded on 17 December 2000, Highest monthly rainfall of was recorded in March 1982, also the year of the highest annual rainfall, at . In the winter, snowfall has become quite erratic (December, January and February).


title: Quetta

text: The city saw a severe drought from 1999 to 2001, during which the city did not receive snowfall and below normal rains. In 2002 the city received snow after a gap of five years. In 2004 and 2005, the city received normal rains after three years without snowfall while in 2006, 2007 and 2009 the city received no snow. In 2008 Quetta received a snowfall of in four hours on 29 January, followed on 2 February by in 10 hours – the city's heaviest snowfall in a decade. During the winter of 2010 it received no snow and saw below normal rains due to the presence of El-Nino over Pakistan.


title: Quetta

text: The population of the city is around one million. In 2016, it was estimated at 1,140,000, but the 2017 Census revealed a total of 1,001,205. This makes it the largest city in Balochistan province and one of the major cities of Pakistan. The scholars disagree about the demographics of the city. According to some, the city has a Pashtun plurality followed by Baloch people, other indigenous people of Balochistan, Hazaras and lastly the settlers from other areas of Pakistan. Others think the city has a Pashtun majority followed by Balochs, Hazaras, Brahui, Punjabis and Muhajir people. Urdu being national language is used and understood by all the residents and serves as a lingua franca.


title: Quetta

text: According to Reuters and the BBC, there are as many as 500,000-600,000 Hazaras living in Quetta and its surrounding areas.


title: Quetta

text: At the local level, the city is governed by a municipal corporation consisting of 66 ward members which elects a mayor and a deputy mayor. In addition, Quetta development authority is responsible for provision of municipal services for the city.


title: Quetta

text: Quetta is on the western side of Pakistan and is connected to the rest of the country by a network of roads, railways and its international airport close to its center.


title: Quetta

text: At an altitude of above sea level, Quetta Airport is the second highest airport in Pakistan. Pakistan International Airlines has regular flights to and from the other major cities of Pakistan including Islamabad, Gwadar, Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar.


title: Quetta

text: Quetta Railway Station is one of the highest railway stations in Pakistan at above sea level. The railway track was laid in the 1890s during the British era to link Quetta with rest of the country. The extensive network of Pakistan Railways connects Quetta to Karachi in the south, by a track, Lahore in the northeast (1,170 km or 727 miles) and Peshawar further northeast (1,587 km or 986 miles). A metalled road runs alongside the railway that connects Quetta to Karachi via the nearby town of Sibi to Jacobabad and Rohri in the plain of the River Indus.


title: Quetta

text: Quetta serves as the learning centre for the Balochistan province. The city has a number of government and private colleges, including the following:


title: Quetta

text: Football is the most popular sport among the people of Quetta. Football teams from Quetta include: Quetta Zorawar, Muslim FC, Balochistan United W.F.C., Hazara Green Football Club, Baluch Football Club and Quetta Bazigars Club. Balochistan United W.F.C. won the 2014 National Women Championship. Bugti Stadium is the home of Balochistan cricket team, a first-class cricket team which competes in domestic tournaments, and the Quetta based team Quetta Gladiators compete in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).


title: Quetta

text: Boxing is highly popular as well. Muhammad Waseem is a professional boxer from Quetta. In Body Building Nisar Ahmed Khilji has Mr. Balochistan and Mr. Pakistan Titles and Pakistan representation in International Body Building Contests. In hockey, Quetta has produced Zeeshan Ashraf and Shakeel Abbasi, who were members of the Pakistan's national hockey team.


title: Quetta

text: The Shaheed Nauoroz Stadium is the largest stadium in the city. The city also has Ayub National Stadium, a multipurpose stadium used for football and cricket and Bugti Stadium for cricket.


title: Quetta

text: Local facilities were created in the city for mountain climbing and caving as well as water sports. Hayatullah Khan Durrani (Pride of Performance) is the chief executive of Hayat Durrani Water Sports Academy, Balochistan's first and only Rowing, Canoeing, Kayaking, Sailing, rough swimming and boating academy where all such facilities provide free to the youth members at Hanna Lake.


title: Norman Fell

text: Norman Fell (born Norman Noah Feld; March 24, 1924 – December 14, 1998) was an American actor of film and television, most famous for his role as landlord Mr. Roper on the sitcom "Three's Company" and its spin-off, "The Ropers", and his film roles in "Ocean's 11" (1960), "The Graduate" (1967), and "Bullitt" (1968). Early in his career, he was billed as Norman Feld.


title: Norman Fell

text: Fell was born on March 24, 1924, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Samuel and Edna Feld. His father was an Austrian Jewish immigrant, and his maternal grandparents were Russian Jews. He attended Central High School of Philadelphia. He studied drama at Temple University after serving as a tail gunner on a B-25 Mitchell in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He later honed his craft at The Actors Studio and the Black Hills Players.


title: Norman Fell

text: Aside from Fell's best-known television work, he also played minor character roles in several films, including the original "Ocean's 11", "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", "PT 109", "The Graduate", "Bullitt" and "Catch-22" (as Sergeant Towser). He appeared alongside Ronald Reagan in Reagan's last film, "The Killers". In 1992, he starred as a hotel owner in a comedy film titled "Hexed".


title: Norman Fell

text: On TV, Fell portrayed Mike in "Joe and Mabel" (1955–1956), Howie Fletcher in "The Tom Ewell Show" (1960–1961), Meyer Meyer in "87th Precinct" (1961–1962), Charles Wilentz in "Dan August" (1970–1971), Nathan Davidson in "Needles and Pins" (1973), Bernie Solkin in "Executive Suite" (1976–1977), Richie's father in "Richie Brockelman, Private Eye" (1978), and Ben Cooper in "Teachers Only" (1982–1983).


title: Norman Fell

text: From 1977 to 1979, Fell portrayed the main characters' landlord Stanley Roper on the hit sitcom "Three's Company" (a role with some similarities to Mr. McCleery in "The Graduate"). He continued the role as the co-lead with Audra Lindley playing his wife, Helen, on "The Ropers", a spin-off which lasted two seasons, airing from 1979 to 1980.


title: Norman Fell

text: Fell won a Golden Globe Award for Best TV Actor in a Supporting Role in 1979 for "Three's Company". He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his dramatic performance as the boxing trainer of Tom Jordache (Nick Nolte) in the miniseries "Rich Man, Poor Man". His final television appearance was a cameo as Mr. Roper on an episode of the sitcom "Ellen" in 1997.


title: Norman Fell

text: On May 21, 1950, Fell married Dolores Pikoos in Philadelphia. They divorced in 1954 and Fell married and divorced two subsequent times. He had two daughters, Tracy and Mara, with his second wife and adopted a son with his third wife, Karen Weingard.


title: Norman Fell

text: On November 26 (Thanksgiving Day) of 1998, Fell had become too weak to get out of bed at his Marina del Rey home. He was rushed to the hospital where he was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer. He died at the Motion Picture and Television's retirement home in Woodland Hills, California on December 14, 1998, at the age of 74.


title: Smaug

text: Smaug () is a dragon and the main antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel "The Hobbit", his treasure and the mountain he lives in being the goal of the quest. Powerful and fearsome, he invaded the Dwarf kingdom of Erebor 150 years prior to the events described in the novel. A group of thirteen dwarves mounted a quest to take the kingdom back, aided by the wizard Gandalf and the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. In "The Hobbit", Thorin describes Smaug as "a most specially greedy, strong and wicked worm".


title: Smaug

text: Critics have identified close parallels with what they presume are sources of Tolkien's inspiration, including the dragon in "Beowulf", who is provoked by the stealing of a precious cup, and the speaking dragon Fafnir, who proposes a betrayal to Sigurd. A further source may be Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1855 poem "The Song of Hiawatha", where Megissogwon, the spirit of wealth, is protected by an armoured shirt, but whose one weak spot is revealed by a talking bird. Commentators have noted Smaug's devious, vain, and proud character, and his aggressively polite way of speaking, like the British upper class.


title: Smaug

text: Smaug was voiced and interpreted with performance capture by Benedict Cumberbatch in Peter Jackson's film adaptations of "The Hobbit".


title: Smaug

text: Dragons lived in the Withered Heath beyond the Grey Mountains. Smaug was "the greatest of the dragons of his day", already centuries old at the time he was first recorded. He heard rumours of the great wealth of the Dwarf-kingdom of Erebor, which had a prosperous trade with the Northmen of Dale. Smaug "arose and without warning came against King Thrór and descended on the mountain in flames". After driving the Dwarves out of their stronghold, Smaug occupied the interior of the mountain for the next 150 years, guarding a vast hoard of treasure. He destroyed the town of Dale; the men retreated to the Long Lake, where they built Lake-town of houses on stilts, surrounded by water to guard against the dragon.


title: Smaug

text: Gandalf realized that Smaug could pose a serious threat if used by Sauron. He therefore agreed to assist a party of Dwarves, led by Thrór's grandson Thorin Oakenshield, who set out to recapture the mountain and kill the dragon. Assuming that Smaug would not recognize the scent of a hobbit, Gandalf recruited the hobbit Bilbo Baggins to join the quest.


title: Smaug

text: Upon reaching Erebor, the Dwarves sent Bilbo into Smaug's lair, and he was initially successful in stealing a beautiful golden cup as Smaug slept fitfully. Knowing the contents of the treasure hoard which he had slept upon for centuries to the ounce, Smaug quickly realized the cup's absence upon his awakening and searched for the thief on the Mountain. Unsuccessful, he returned to his hoard to lie in wait. Having been nearly killed in the dragon's search, the Dwarves sent Bilbo down the secret tunnel a second time. Smaug sensed Bilbo's presence immediately, even though Bilbo had rendered himself invisible with the One Ring, and accused the Hobbit (correctly) of trying to steal from him. During his discourse with the dragon, Bilbo noticed a small bare patch on Smaug's jewel-encrusted underbelly, and narrowly escaped. A thrush overheard Bilbo's account of the meeting, and learnt of the bare patch on Smaug's underside.


title: Smaug

text: Still enraged, Smaug flew south to Laketown and set about destroying it. The townsmen's arrows and spears proved useless against the dragon's armoured body. The thrush told Bard the Bowman of Smaug's one weak spot, a bare patch on the dragon's belly. With his last arrow, Bard killed Smaug by shooting into this place.


title: Smaug

text: Tolkien made Smaug "more villain than monster", writes the author and biographer Lynnette Porter; he is "devious and clever, vain and greedy, overly confident and proud."


title: Smaug

text: The fantasy author Sandra Unerman called Smaug "one of the most individual dragons in fiction". The Tolkien scholar Anne Petty said that "it was love at first sight", describing Smaug as "frightening, but surprisingly knowable".


title: Smaug

text: The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey notes the "bewilderment" that Smaug spreads: he is enchanted by gold and treasure, and those who come into contact with his powerful presence, what Tolkien describes as "the effect that dragon-talk has on the inexperienced", similarly become bewildered by greed. In Shippey's view, however, the most surprising aspect of Smaug's character is "his oddly circumlocutory mode of speech. He speaks in fact with the characteristic aggressive politeness of the British upper class, in which irritation and authority are in direct proportion to apparent deference or uncertainty." In sharp contrast to this is his vanity in response to flattery, rolling over "absurdly pleased" as Tolkien narrates, to reveal his marvellously armoured belly. Shippey comments that such paradoxes, "the oscillations between animal and intelligent behaviour, the contrast between creaking politeness and plain gloating over murder" join to create Smaug's principal attribute, "wiliness".


title: Smaug

text: The Christian commentator Joseph Pearce describes Smaug's weak spot as his Achilles heel, noting his boastful over-confidence in his own indestructibility, and seeing in the fact that the vulnerability is over his heart a sign that "it is the wickedness of his heart which will lead to his downfall". Pearce likens Smaug's pride to that of Achilles, whose pride leads to the death of his best friend, and of many Greeks; and to the cockerel Chauntecleer in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Nun's Priest's Tale", where a boastful reply to the flattering fox causes the cockerel's fall.


title: Smaug

text: From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was a professor of English Literature at Oxford University. He was a prominent scholar of the Old English poem "Beowulf", on which he gave a lecture at the British Academy in 1936. He described the poem as one of his "most valued sources" for "The Hobbit". Many of Smaug's attributes and behaviour in "The Hobbit" derive directly from the unnamed "old night-ravager" in "Beowulf": great age; winged, fiery, and reptilian form; a stolen barrow within which he lies on his hoard; disturbance by a theft; and violent revenge on the lands all about, flying and attacking at night.


title: Smaug

text: The scholars of English literature Stuart D. Lee and Elizabeth Solopova analyse the parallels between Smaug and the unnamed "Beowulf" dragon.


title: Smaug

text: Smaug's ability to speak, the use of riddles, the element of betrayal, his enemy's communication via birds, and his weak spot could all have been inspired by the talking dragon Fafnir of the "Völsunga saga". Shippey identified several points of similarity between Smaug and Fafnir.


title: Smaug

text: Tolkien noted, in a joking letter that he was surprised to see published in "The Observer" in 1938, that "the dragon bears as name—a pseudonym—the past tense of the primitive Germanic verb "smúgan", to squeeze through a hole: a low philological jest." Critics have explored what that jest might have been; an 11th-century medical text "Lacnunga" ("Leechings, Remedies") contains the Old English phrase "wid smeogan wyrme", "against a penetrating worm" in a spell, which could also be translated "against crafty dragons". The Old English verb meant "to examine, to think out, to scrutinise", implying "subtle, crafty". Shippey comments that it is "appropriate" that Smaug has "the most sophisticated intelligence" in the book. All the same, Shippey notes, Tolkien has chosen the Old Norse verb "smjúga", past tense "smaug", rather than the Old English "sméogan", past tense "smeah"—possibly, he suggests, because his enemies were Norse dwarves.


title: Smaug

text: John Garth, writing in "The Guardian", notes the similarity between Smaug's death from Bard's last arrow and the death of Megissogwon in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1855 poem "The Song of Hiawatha". Megissogwon was the spirit of wealth, protected by an armoured shirt of wampum beads. Hiawatha shoots in vain, until he has only three arrows left. Mama the woodpecker sings to Hiawatha where Megissogwon's only weak point is, the tuft of hair on his head, just as Tolkien's thrush tells Bard where to shoot at Smaug.


title: Smaug

text: Tolkien created numerous pencil sketches and two pieces of more detailed artwork portraying Smaug. The latter were a detailed ink and watercolour labelled "Conversation with Smaug" and a rough coloured pencil and ink sketch entitled "Death of Smaug". While neither of these appeared in the original printing of "The Hobbit" due to cost constraints, both have been included in subsequent editions, particularly "Conversation with Smaug". "Death of Smaug" was used for the cover of a UK paperback edition of "The Hobbit".


title: Smaug

text: Smaug was voiced and interpreted with performance capture by Benedict Cumberbatch in Peter Jackson's three-part adaptation of "The Hobbit". From the motion capture, Smaug's design was created with key frame animation. Weta Digital employed its proprietary "Tissue" software, which was honoured in 2013 with a "Scientific and Engineering Award" from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to make the dragon as realistic as possible. In addition, Weta Digital supervisor Joe Letteri said in an interview for "USA Today" that they used classic European and Asian dragons as inspirations to create Smaug. "The Telegraph" stated that Cumberbatch had "the authority to make of Smaug a cunning nemesis".


title: Smaug

text: In the first film, "", the audience sees only his legs, wings, and tail, and his eye, which is showcased in the final scene of the film. Smaug is a topic of discussion among the White Council as Gandalf's reason to support Thorin Oakenshield's quest.


title: Smaug

text: Smaug appears in the second film, "". In an interview with Joe Letteri, Smaug's design was changed to the wyvern-like form shown in the film after the crew saw how Benedict Cumberbatch performed Smaug while moving around on all four limbs.


title: Smaug

text: In "", Smaug attacks Lake-town. He is killed by Bard with a black arrow and his body falls on the boat carrying the fleeing Master of Lake-town. It is later revealed that Smaug's attack on Erebor was all part of Sauron's design, meaning that Smaug and Sauron were in league with each other.


title: Smaug

text: Smaug was considered one of the highlights of the second film of the series (as well as his burning of Lake-Town in the third film); several critics hailed him as cinema's greatest dragon. Critics also praised the visual effects company Weta Digital and Cumberbatch's vocal and motion-capture performance for giving Smaug a fully realized personality, "hiss[ing] out his words with cold-blooded vitriol".


title: Smaug

text: In the 2003 video game release, Smaug, voiced by James Horan, appears as a non-player character, based closely on the book, whereas in the 2014 video game "Lego The Hobbit", the portrayal departs more from the book; rather than ever more closely simulating the book's characters, the scholar Carol L. Robinson notes, the technology has allowed new fiction to be created.


title: Smaug

text: In 2011, scientists named a genus of southern African girdled lizards, "Smaug". The lizards were so named after the fictional dragon for being armoured, dwelling underground, and native to Tolkien's birthplace, Bloemfontein. In 2015, a new species of shield bug was named "Planois smaug", because of its size and its status "sleeping" in the researcher's collections for about 60 years until it was discovered. An ant species has been named "Tetramorium smaug".


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a moment 6.7 (), blind thrust earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 4:30:55 a.m. PST in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: The quake had a duration of approximately 10–20 seconds, and its peak ground acceleration of 1.82 "g" was the highest ever instrumentally recorded in an urban area in North America. Shaking was felt as far away as San Diego, Turlock, Las Vegas, Richfield, Phoenix and Ensenada. The peak ground velocity at the Rinaldi Receiving Station was , the fastest ever recorded.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: Two 6.0 aftershocks followed, the first about one minute after the initial event and the second approximately 11 hours later, the strongest of several thousand aftershocks in all. The death toll was 57, with more than 9,000 injured. In addition, property damage was estimated to be $13–50 billion (equivalent to $24–93 billion in 2021), making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: The earthquake struck in the San Fernando Valley about northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Although given the name "Northridge", where the quake was believed to have been centered and substantial damage occurred, the actual epicenter was pinpointed in the neighboring community of Reseda within several days.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: The United States Geological Survey placed the hypocenter's geographical coordinates at and at a depth of . It occurred on a previously undiscovered fault, now named the "Northridge Blind Thrust Fault" (also known as the "Pico Thrust Fault"). Several other faults experienced minor rupture during the main shock and other ruptures occurred during large aftershocks, or triggered events.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: Damage occurred up to away, with the most damage in the west San Fernando Valley, and the cities and neighborhoods of Santa Monica, Hollywood, Simi Valley and Santa Clarita. The Historic Egyptian Theater in Hollywood was red-tagged and closed as was the Capital Theater in Glendale due to structural damage. The exact number of fatalities is unknown, with sources estimating the number to be 60 or "over 60", to 72, where most estimates fall around 60. The "official" death toll was placed at 57; 33 people died immediately or within a few days from injuries sustained, and many died from indirect causes, such as stress-induced cardiac events. Some counts factor in related events such as a man's suicide possibly inspired by the loss of his business in the disaster.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: More than 8,700 were injured including 1,600 who required hospitalization. Actress Iris Adrian died in September 1994 from complications of a broken hip she suffered in the earthquake.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: Sixteen people were killed as a result of the collapse of the Northridge Meadows apartment complex. The Northridge Fashion Center and California State University, Northridge also sustained very heavy damage – most notably the collapse of parking structures. The earthquake also gained worldwide attention because of damage to the vast freeway network, which serves millions of commuters every day. The most notable was to the Santa Monica Freeway, Interstate 10, known as the busiest freeway in the United States, congesting nearby surface roads for three months while the freeway was repaired. Farther north, the Newhall Pass interchange of Interstate 5 (the Golden State Freeway) and State Route 14 (the Antelope Valley Freeway) collapsed as it had 23 years earlier in the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, even though it had been rebuilt with minor improvements to the structural components. LAPD motorcycle officer Clarence Wayne Dean died because of the collapse of the Newhall Pass interchange, falling 40 feet from the damaged connector from southbound 14 to southbound I-5. He likely did not realize until too late in the early morning darkness that the elevated roadway had collapsed. The rebuilt interchange was renamed in his honor a year later.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: Additional damage occurred about southeast in the city of Anaheim, located in Orange County, as the scoreboard at Anaheim Stadium collapsed onto several hundred seats. The stadium was vacant at the time. Although several commercial buildings also collapsed, loss of life was minimized because of the early morning hour of the quake, and because it also occurred on a federal holiday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day). Also, because of known seismic activity in California, area building codes dictate that buildings incorporate structural design intended to withstand earthquakes. However, the damage revealed that some structural specifications did not perform as intended. Because of these revelations, building codes were revised. Some structures were not red-tagged until months later because the damage was not immediately evident.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: The quake produced unusually strong ground accelerations in the range of 1.0 "g". Damage was also caused by fire and landslides. The Northridge earthquake was notable for hitting almost the same exact area as the 6.6 San Fernando (Sylmar) earthquake. Estimates of total damage range between $13 and $50 billion.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: Most casualties and damage occurred in multi-story wood-frame buildings (such as the three-story Northridge Meadows apartment building). In particular, buildings with an unstable first floor (such as those with parking areas on the bottom) performed poorly. Numerous fires were also caused by broken gas lines from houses shifting off their foundations or unsecured water heaters tumbling. In the San Fernando Valley, several underground gas and water lines were severed, resulting in some streets experiencing simultaneous fires and floods. Damage to the system resulted in water pressure dropping to zero in some areas; this predictably affected success in fighting subsequent fires. Five days later, it was estimated that between 40,000 and 60,000 customers were still without public water service. As expected, unreinforced masonry buildings and houses on steep slopes suffered damage. However, school buildings (K-12), which are required by California law to be reinforced, in general survived fairly well.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: An unusual effect of the Northridge earthquake was an outbreak of coccidioidomycosis (Valley fever) in Ventura County. This respiratory disease is caused by inhaling airborne spores of the fungus. The 203 cases reported, of which three resulted in fatalities, constituted roughly 10 times the normal rate in the initial eight weeks. This was the first report of such an outbreak following an earthquake, and it is believed that the spores were carried in large clouds of dust created by seismically triggered landslides. Most of the cases occurred immediately downwind of the landslides.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: Eleven hospitals suffered structural damage and were damaged or rendered unusable. Not only were they unable to serve their local neighborhoods, but they also had to transfer out their inpatient populations, which further increased the burden on nearby hospitals that were still operational. As a result, the state legislature passed a law requiring all hospitals in California to ensure that their acute care units and emergency rooms would be in earthquake-resistant buildings by January 1, 2005. Most were unable to meet this deadline and only managed to achieve compliance in 2008 or 2009.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: The production of movies and TV shows was disrupted. At the time of the quake, before dawn on Monday morning, the Warner Bros. film "Murder in the First" (with Christian Slater, Kevin Bacon, and Gary Oldman) was being filmed only from the epicenter. Production came to a halt. The main courtroom set was in shambles. The building containing the set was later "red tagged" as unsafe due to the damage it sustained. The "" episode "" was being filmed at the time, and actors Armin Shimerman and Edward Wiley left the Paramount Pictures lot in full Ferengi and Cardassian makeup, respectively. The season five episode of "Seinfeld" entitled "The Pie" was due to begin shooting on January 17 before stage sets were damaged. Also, ABC's "General Hospital" set at ABC Television Center suffered partial structural collapse and water damage.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: All of the earthquake sequences in the Wes Craven film "New Nightmare" were filmed a month prior to the Northridge quake. The real quake struck only weeks before filming was completed. Subsequently, a team was sent out to film footage of the quake-damaged areas of the city. The cast and crew had initially thought that the scenes that were filmed before the real quake struck were a bit overdone, but upon viewing the footage after the earthquake, they were reportedly startled by the realism of it.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: Some archives of film and entertainment programming were also affected. For example, the original 35 mm master films for the 1960s sitcom "My Living Doll" were destroyed.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: Portions of a number of major roads and freeways, including Interstate 10 over La Cienega Boulevard, and the interchanges of Interstate 5 with California State Route 14, 118, and Interstate 210, were closed because of structural failure or collapse. James E. Roberts was chief bridge engineer with Caltrans and was placed in charge of the seismic retrofit program for Caltrans until his death in 2006.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: Rail service was briefly interrupted, with full Amtrak and expanded Metrolink service resuming in stages in the days after the quake. Interruptions to road transport caused Metrolink to experiment with service to Camarillo in February and Oxnard in April, which continues today as the Ventura County Line, and extended the Antelope Valley Line almost ten years ahead of schedule. Six new stations opened in six weeks. Metrolink leased equipment from Amtrak, San Francisco's Caltrain and Toronto, Canada's GO Transit to handle the sudden onslaught of passengers. Amtrak ceased service in the Pasadena Subdivision following structural damage to a rail bridge in Arcadia and redirected all rail traffic through Riverside and Fullerton. All MTA bus lines operated service with detours and delays on the day of the quake. Los Angeles International Airport and other airports in the area were also shut down as a 2-hour precaution, including Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport (now Hollywood Burbank Airport) and Van Nuys Airport, which is near the epicenter, where the control tower suffered from radar failure and panel collapse. The airport was reopened in stages after the quake.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: California State University, Northridge, was the closest university to the epicenter. Many campus buildings were heavily damaged and a parking structure collapsed. Many classes were moved to temporary structures. The 1994 Northridge earthquake greatly affected the CSUN campus, damaging much of its infrastructure, and causing multiple fires and explosions throughout the campus. The magnitude 6.7 earthquake damaged several buildings as well as destroying all communications, such as telephone lines and causing computer systems to shut down. The seismic event killed two CSUN students at the Northridge Meadows Complex along with 14 other residents. The damage caused a shutdown of the campus and delayed the start of the 1994 Spring semester.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: All 58 buildings on campus sustained significant damage, resulting in a $406 million recovery effort (equivalent to $757 million today). In addition, the newly completed student parking structure C collapsed, and had to be demolished. The Oviatt Library experienced both interior and exterior damage, but the overall frame of the central part of the building remained stable, allowing student use to continue. In the Science Complex, Building #1 and #2 suffered fire damage while the bridges connecting buildings #3 #4 were closed and named unstable. The Fine Arts Building and the South Library experienced internal structural damage, resulting in the demolition and replacement of both buildings.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: The 1994 Spring semester was delayed by two weeks due to the Northridge earthquake. The campus was unable to use any of its classrooms because of the damage the buildings sustained. The campus still opened and provided students with mobile classrooms and mobile offices. CSUN President Dr. Blenda Wilson assured the rental of temporary structures to be placed in available spaces throughout the campus. An estimated $350 million (equivalent to $ million today) was used to supply the number of trailers and domes which housed classes and administration offices. Enrollment dropped by approximately 1,000 students, leaving some homeless as dormitories were closed due to damage that rendered them unsafe and which required repair.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: The seismic event led to millions of dollars worth of damage resulting in a sharp drop in student enrollment. CSUN received financial assistance for its efforts in reestablishing the damaged buildings with monetary gifts from the McCarthy Foundation, the Common Wealth Fund, and the Union Bank Foundation. In addition, the campus received a $23,000 check (equivalent to $ today) from the "Los Angeles Times Valley Edition" for the journalism department. CSUN also received assistance from government agencies FEMA and OES to support the recovery effort and serve the needs of the local community. UCLA and Pierce College opened their doors and allowed CSUN students to use their libraries while providing shuttle buses to and from the university.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: Universal Studios Hollywood shut down the attraction, based on the 1974 motion picture blockbuster, "Earthquake". It was closed for the second time since the Loma Prieta earthquake. Angel Stadium of Anaheim (then known as Anaheim Stadium) suffered some damage when the scoreboard fell into the seats, forcing a Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group off-road race at the ballpark to be postponed from that upcoming weekend to February 12.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: Numerous Los Angeles museums, including the Art Deco Building in Hollywood, were closed, as were numerous city shopping malls. Gazzarri's nightclub suffered irreparable damage and had to be torn down. The city of Santa Monica suffered significant damage. Many multifamily apartment buildings in Santa Monica were yellow-tagged and red-tagged. An especially hard hit area was between Santa Monica Canyon and Saint John's Hospital, a linear corridor that suffered a significant amount of property damage. The City of Santa Monica provided assistance to landlords dealing with repairs so tenants could return home as soon as possible. In Valencia, the California Institute of the Arts experienced heavy damage, with classes relocated to a nearby Lockheed test facility for the remainder of 1994. The Los Angeles Unified School District closed local schools throughout the area, which reopened one week later. UCLA and other local universities were also shut down. The University of Southern California suffered some structural damage to several older campus buildings, but classes were conducted as scheduled.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: In the weeks following the quake, many San Fernando Valley residents had either lost their homes entirely or experienced structural damage too severe to continue living in them without making repairs. Although the vast majority of homes in the area, with the exception of a few particular neighborhoods, were relatively unaffected; many feared an aftershock to rival or exceed the severity of the first one. While a notable aftershock never came, many residents opted to stay in shelters or live with friends and family outside the area for a short time following.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: While many businesses remained closed in the days following the quake, some infrastructure was not able to be rebuilt for months, even years later. The daily commute for many drivers in the weeks following was significantly lengthened, notably for those traveling between Santa Clarita and Los Angeles, and commuters on I-10 traveling to and from the Westside. Additionally, many businesses were forced to relocate or use temporary facilities in order to accommodate structural damage to their original locations or the difficulty accessing them. Some people even made temporary relocations closer to their jobs while their homes or neighborhoods were being rebuilt.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: The Northridge earthquake led to a number of legislative changes. Due to the large amount lost by insurance companies, most insurance companies either stopped offering or severely restricted earthquake insurance in California. In response, the California Legislature created the California Earthquake Authority (CEA), which is a publicly managed but privately funded organization that offers minimal coverage. A substantial effort was also made to reinforce freeway bridges against seismic shaking, and a law requiring water heaters to be properly strapped was passed in 1995.


title: 1994 Northridge earthquake

text: The analysis of the effect of Northridge earthquake on behavior of structures has been investigated by many researchers. For example, the behavior of underground walls has been evaluated for the Northridge earthquake using numerical methods. The comparison of the seismic behavior of underground braced walls with ACI 318 design method reveals that bending moment and shear force of the walls under Northridge earthquake loads were observed to reach 2.8 and 2.7 times as large as the respective allowable limits. Therefore, caution should be taken in seismic design of diaphragm walls using ACI 318 code requirements.


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: I, Claudius (stylized as I·CLAVDIVS) is a 1976 BBC Television adaptation of Robert Graves' 1934 novel "I, Claudius" and its 1935 sequel "Claudius the God". Written by Jack Pulman, it stars Derek Jacobi as Claudius, with Siân Phillips, Brian Blessed, George Baker, Margaret Tyzack, John Hurt, Patricia Quinn, Ian Ogilvy, Kevin McNally, Patrick Stewart, and John Rhys-Davies. The series covers the history of the early Roman Empire, told from the perspective of the elderly Emperor Claudius who narrates the series.


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: Among many other productions and adaptations, Graves' Claudius novels have also been adapted for BBC Radio 4 broadcast (2010) and for the stage (1972).


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: "I, Claudius" follows the history of the early Roman Empire, narrated by the elderly Roman Emperor Claudius, from the year 24 BC to his death in AD 54.


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: The series opens with Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome, attempting to find an heir, and his wife, Livia, plotting to elevate her own son Tiberius to this position. An expert poisoner, Livia uses the covert assassination and betrayal of all rivals to achieve her aims, beginning with the death in 22 BC of Marcellus. The plotting, double-crossing, and murder continue for many decades, through the reign of Tiberius, the political conspiracy of his Praetorian Prefect Sejanus, and the depraved rule of the lunatic emperor Caligula, culminating in the accidental rise to power of his uncle Claudius. Claudius' enlightened reign is marred by the betrayals of his adulterous wife Messalina and his boyhood friend Herod Agrippa. Eventually, Claudius comes to accept the inevitability of his own assassination and consents to marrying his scheming niece, Agrippina the Younger, clearing the way for the ascent of his mad stepson, Nero, whose disastrous reign Claudius vainly hopes will bring about the restoration of the Roman Republic.


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: The series was produced by Joan Sullivan and Martin Lisemore, and directed by Herbert Wise. Production was delayed because of complex negotiations between the BBC and the copyright holders of Alexander Korda's aborted 1937 film version. This did, however, give the scriptwriter Jack Pulman more time to fine-tune his script.


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: The series was shot on videotape in the studios at BBC Television Centre, for artistic rather than budgetary reasons. "I, Claudius" was made at a relatively low cost of £60,000 for an hour of broadcast material (£ in ), in a series that had a total running time of 650 minutes.


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: As alluded to in the 2002 documentary "I, Claudius: A Television Epic", the original version of episode 8, "Zeus, by Jove!", included a closing shot after Caligula has cut the fetus from Drusilla's womb, which was considered very shocking. It was therefore re-edited several times, even on the day of its premiere, by order of Bill Slater, then head of Serials Department. After initial broadcast and a rerun two days later, the scene was edited again, so that the episode is now "somewhat attenuated". The "slightly nastier version" of the episode's closing (a scene that used "makeup on her belly") was allegedly shown twice in 1976, but is now lost since the BBC no longer has a copy of it. Pulman noted that the original script for the episode ended with "a long shot showing the butchered woman hanging on a chariot".


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: The 2002 documentary, which features extensive interviews with all the principal cast members, revealed many previously unknown facts about the casting and development of the series, among them being:


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: Wilfred Josephs wrote the title music. David Wulstan and the Clerkes of Oxenford ensemble provided the (diegetic) music for most episodes.


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: Most VHS and DVD versions of the TV series include the BBC documentary "The Epic That Never Was" (1965), about the uncompleted Korda film version of the first book, featuring interviews with key production staff and actors as well as most of the surviving footage. The 2002 UK DVD edition also contains a documentary on the series, "I, Claudius – a Television Epic", as well as some alternative and deleted scenes. The US DVD release was updated on 2 December 2008 with superior audio and video to the 2000 US DVD version, but it was met with hostile reviews from some customers, citing that some parts were either cut or censored from the original version, and no subtitles or closed captioning was included.


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: A 35th anniversary edition was released on 27 March 2012. It includes all 13 episodes (uncut except for the lost footage in "Zeus, by Jove!") on four discs, with SDH subtitles and one disc of bonus features.


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: The initial reception of the show in the UK was negative, with "The Guardian" commenting sarcastically in its first review that "there should be a society for the prevention of cruelty to actors." However, the series went on to become a huge success with audiences. During its original airing in 1976, the BBC estimated that "I, Claudius" had an average audience of 2.5 million viewers per episode, based on rating surveys. Among other awards, the series won three BAFTAs in 1977 : Derek Jacobi, Best Actor (TV); Siân Phillips, Best Actress (TV); Tim Harvey, Best Design (TV). Director Herbert Wise won Outstanding Contribution Award at BAFTAs in 1978. In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, "I, Claudius" placed 12th.


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: The series was subsequently broadcast in the United States as part of PBS's "Masterpiece Theatre" series, where it received critical acclaim. Tim Harvey won a 1978 Emmy for Outstanding Art Direction. The producers and director received Emmy nominations.


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: "I, Claudius" is frequently cited as one of the best British television shows and one of the best shows in history. In 2007, it was listed as one of "Time" magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-"TIME"", and placed at #9 on BBC America's poll of the 10 best British dramas of all time. In 2016, it was ranked #8 out of 11 on "The Daily Telegraph"s list of groundbreaking British TV moments.


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: Contemporary critics are unanimous in their praise for the quality of the screenplay and the actors' performances, particularly those of Siân Phillips and Derek Jacobi. "The Daily Telegraph" opined that the "...lust for power, devious plotting and mesmerising machinations" displayed in the show foreshadowed later series like "The Sopranos", "Game of Thrones", and "House of Cards". The creators of the hit 1980s soap opera, "Dynasty", acknowledged that they were seeking to make a modern-day version of "I, Claudius". Jace Lacob of "The Daily Beast" compared the character of Livia Soprano to the character of the same name in "I, Claudius", saying that "... there is a whiff of familiarity about his Livia, as though the ghost of Phillips’ ancient Roman empress had echoed through millennia to rain chaos upon yet another dynastic clan."


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: In 2012, Mary McNamara of the "Los Angeles Times" credited "I, Claudius" with transforming the quality of television drama:


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: With its complex characters and multi-toned narrative, not to mention the high quality of writing, performance and direction, "I, Claudius" established a timeline that would eventually include the rise of HBO and all its cable competitors. This in turn expanded the palette and quality of network drama and, most recently, persuaded AMC executives to begin original programming.


title: I, Claudius (TV series)

text: However, criticism is sometimes leveled at the series over its outdated appearance and relatively poor production quality compared to modern TV drama, with Charlotte Higgins of "The Guardian" writing that "it's hard to suppress a giggle in the opening scene at Derek Jacobi's make-up and stringy wig."


title: Priya Prakash Varrier

text: Priya Prakash Varrier (born 28 October 1999) is an Indian actress, model, and playback singer who works in Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi films. Her wink in the film "Oru Adaar Love" went viral, making her the most searched-for personality through Google in India in 2018.


title: Priya Prakash Varrier

text: Priya was born on 28 October 1999 to Prakash Varrier, a Central Excise Department employee, and Preetha, a homemaker at Punkunnam, Thrissur, in Kerala. She attended school at Sandeepani Vidya Nikethan, Thrissur. In 2018, she enrolled in a Bachelor of Commerce course at Vimala College, Thrissur.


title: Priya Prakash Varrier

text: She played the role of Priya in the 2019 movie "Oru Adaar Love", a romantic drama set in a school. The official teaser on YouTube, which includes Priya winking, has received over 30 million views as of April 2022. Her wink was said to have gone viral. The song "Manikya Malaraya Poovi" from "Oru Adaar Love" was deemed offensive by some Muslims, as the lyrics reference Khadijah, the wife of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. A first information report relating to this was filed against Priya and the film's creators, and subsequently rejected by the Supreme Court of India.


title: Priya Prakash Varrier

text: In 2019, the song "Nee Mazhavillu Polen", which she sings with Naresh Iyer for the film "Finals" starring Rajisha Vijayan in the lead role, was released. She was cast in the Hindi film "Sridevi Bungalow", which was in production as of January 2020.


title: Priya Prakash Varrier

text: She debuted in Telugu language in 2021 playing the second female lead in "Check" in which she played a honey trapper opposite Nithin and Rakul Preet Singh.


title: Maraschino cherry

text: A maraschino cherry ( ) is a preserved, sweetened cherry, typically made from light-colored sweet cherries such as the Royal Ann, Rainier, or Gold varieties. In their modern form, the cherries are first preserved in a brine solution usually containing sulfur dioxide and calcium chloride to bleach the fruit, then soaked in a suspension of food coloring (common red food dye is FD&C Red 40), sugar syrup, and other components.


title: Maraschino cherry

text: Maraschino cherries are used in many alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and cocktails, including the Tequila Sunrise, the Queen Mary and the Shirley Temple, giving them the nickname cocktail cherries. (This term is also used to refer to other varieties, including Amarena, Balaton, and Bing, when used for the same purpose, typically soaked in alcohol or sugar.) Sometimes the cherries, along with some of the maraschino syrup, are put into a glass of Coca-Cola to make an old-fashioned or homemade "Cherry Coke".


title: Maraschino cherry

text: As a garnish, they can be used to decorate frozen yogurt, baked ham, cakes, pastry, parfaits, milkshakes and ice cream sodas. They are an integral part of an American ice cream sundae, giving rise to the term "cherry on top" in more general usage. They are frequently included in canned fruit cocktail.


title: Maraschino cherry

text: The name "maraschino" originates from the marasca cherry of Croatian origin and the maraschino liqueur made from it, in which marasca cherries were crushed and preserved after being pickled. Whole cherries preserved in this liqueur were known as "maraschino cherries". This had been a local means of preserving the fruit in Dalmatia.


title: Maraschino cherry

text: In the 19th century, these became popular in the rest of Europe, but the supply in Dalmatia was quite limited, so they came to be seen as a delicacy for royalty and the wealthy. Because of the relative scarcity of the marasca, other cherries came to be preserved in various ways and sold as "maraschino".


title: Maraschino cherry

text: The cherries were first introduced in the United States in the late 19th century, where they were served in fine bars and restaurants. Because they were scarce and expensive, by the turn of the century American producers were experimenting with other processes for preserving cherries, with flavors such as almond extract and substitute fruit like Queen Anne cherries. Among these, alcohol was already becoming less common.


title: Maraschino cherry

text: In response, the USDA in 1912 defined "maraschino cherries" as "marasca cherries preserved in maraschino" under the authority of the Food and Drugs Act of 1906. The artificially-colored and sweetened Royal Anne variety were required to be called "Imitation Maraschino Cherries" instead. Food Inspection Decision 141 defined marasca cherries and maraschino themselves. It was signed on 17 Feb. 1912.


title: Maraschino cherry

text: During Prohibition in the United States as of 1920, the decreasingly popular alcoholic variety was illegal as well. Ernest H. Wiegand, a professor of horticulture at Oregon State University (OSU), developed the modern method of manufacturing maraschino cherries using a brine solution rather than alcohol. Accordingly, most modern maraschino cherries have only a historical connection with maraschino liqueur.


title: Maraschino cherry

text: According to Bob Cain, Cliff Samuels, and Hoya Yang, who worked with Wiegand at OSU, Prohibition had nothing to do with Wiegand's research: his intention was to develop a better brining process for cherries that would not soften them. When Wiegand began his research, there were several ways to preserve maraschino cherries without alcohol, long before Prohibition went into effect. Wiegand took a process that people had their own recipes for—"and who knows what they were putting in there" (frequently not alcohol)—and turned it into a science, something replicable.