title: Ulf Ekberg

text: On 27 March 1993, "Expressen" reported that Ekberg had once been a member of a band called . Commit Suiside was a band active in Gothenburg from 1984 to 1986, when Ulf was between the ages of 14 and 16, described as "a New Wave music band creating and performing electronic music on synthesizers without any political touch or agenda." In 1998, songs that were claimed to have been recorded by Commit Suiside (with explicit racist lyrics) were released on the unauthorized album "Uffe was a Nazi!". However, the cited songs were not recorded by Commit Suiside. Other media outlets reported that Ekberg had been a neo-Nazi in his youth, for which Ekberg has repeatedly expressed regret.


title: Ulf Ekberg

text: Ekberg has repented of and criticized this part of his life multiple times since its reporting. In the 1997 documentary "Our Story", Ekberg said: "I told everyone I really regret what I've done. [...] I took the experience from it, I learned from it. But that life is not me. It's somebody else." In 2013, he said: "During the early 1990s I did dozens of interviews, all around the world, about the people I sometimes found myself surrounded by in the 1980s and how profoundly regretful I am now about associating with such individuals. Those interviews covered every aspect of my past, as I strove to be an open book to anyone who asked. [...] The teenage mistakes I did make in terms of my chosen ideas at the time were unfortunate and if I were to live through those days again I would have done things very differently! I’m truly deeply sorry for any hurt and disappointment this has caused for our fans, and I want to be very clear that Ace of Base never shared any of these opinions and strongly oppose all extremist opinions on both the right and left wing."


title: Ulf Ekberg

text: Ekberg dated the Swedish model/actress Emma Sjöberg from 1994 to 2000. Until summer 2010, Ekberg lived in London. He currently lives in Stockholm with his girlfriend Johanna Aybar and their three children.


title: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg

text: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (; "Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting"; RBB , stylized as rbb) is an institution under public law (national broadcaster) for the German states of Berlin and Brandenburg, based in Berlin and Potsdam. RBB was established on 1 May 2003 through the merger of Sender Freies Berlin (SFB) and


title: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg

text: Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg (ORB), based in Potsdam, and is a member of the Association of PSBs in the Federal Republic of Germany (ARD).


title: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg

text: Aside from its two main studios in Berlin and Potsdam, RBB also has regional studios in Cottbus and Frankfurt (Oder), and regional offices in Perleberg and Prenzlau. RBB also operates ARD's studio in Warsaw; the responsibility changes every five years between RBB and WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk). RBB also plays out ARD's digital channels from a center in Potsdam. RBB and WDR are jointly responsible for ARD's television studio in Berlin.


title: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg

text: RBB was founded on 25 June 2002 on the basis of a treaty between Berlin and Brandenburg. As a result, RBB is required to treat both states equally "with respect to the regional content needs".


title: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg

text: In 2022 there were complains about nepotism of rbb-director Patricia Schlesinger. The public prosecutor started an investigation and Schlesinger stepped back from the office as ARD-director and rbb-director.


title: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg

text: The first director-general of the RBB was Dagmar Reim, from 1 May 2003 to 30 June 2016, at an annual salary of €220,000. Her successor Patricia Schlesinger has been in office since 1 July 2016 and the annual salary has risen to €257,000.


title: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg

text: Every household in Germany is legally required to pay a €17.50 licence fee per month -the "Rundfunkbeitrag" (broadcast contribution) to finance the public broadcast system. The fee is collected by "Beitragsservice von ARD, ZDF und Deutschlandradio". RBB's revenues from the licence fee amounted to


title: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg

text: RBB produces episodes of the crime series Tatort and Polizeiruf 110 for ARD. It also produces Kontraste, a political show and the satirical show Satiregipfel (formerly "Scheibenwischer") for ARD. From 2003 to 2005, RBB broadcast the Kurt Krömer Show, which attracted attention nationwide. RBB has produced the show's successor -"Bei Krömers" – for ARD since 2005.


title: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg

text: The regional news show "Abendschau" has a high profile in the capital region. Since 1958, initially with a slot in ARD including nationwide transmission of the Berlin visit of John F. Kennedy, and later distributed under SFB-frequency, Abendschau reports on politics, economy, sports in Berlin and as well as news from the various districts and boroughs of the city.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: The Squadron Supreme is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, of which there are several notable alternate versions. The original team was created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, derived from the previously created supervillain team Squadron Sinister.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: The core members of the Squadron Supreme are Hyperion, Nighthawk, Doctor Spectrum, Power Princess, and the Whizzer, pastiches of prominent members of rival publisher DC Comics' superhero team the Justice League. Many other characters were later added to the roster, not all of which were based on DC heroes.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: The Squadron Supreme has its roots in the Squadron Sinister, which first appeared in "The Avengers" #69 as a pastiche of the Justice League. Roy Thomas later introduced a heroic version of the Squadron Sinister named the Squadron Supreme, which first appeared in "The Avengers" #85–86 (Feb.–March 1971), and which was co-created with John Buscema. The team then had guest appearances on several more occasions, and in 1985 was featured in a self-titled twelve-issue limited series by Mark Gruenwald.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: In 2003, a reimagined Squadron Supreme appeared in an ongoing series entitled "Supreme Power", published under the mature-audience MAX imprint. This version was created by writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Gary Frank.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: Yet another Squadron Supreme was introduced in 2015, written by James Robinson and drawn by Leonard Kirk. Unlike the previous teams, which had appeared in alternate realities, this team was based in Marvel's main "Earth-616" reality, although the team members were from a variety of alternate universes that had been destroyed in the aftermath of the 2015 "Secret Wars" event.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: Another version of the Squadron Supreme, set in the Marvel Universe, was introduced by Jason Aaron in "The Avengers" vol. 8. The Squadron, created by Mephisto and led by Phil Coulson, acts as the US government's sanctioned superhero team in place of the Avengers. This version of the team is the focus of the "Heroes Reborn" storyline, where reality is overwritten so that the Avengers were never formed and the Squadron Supreme are Earth's premier superhero team instead.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: The Squadron Supreme are first encountered by four members of the Avengers – the Vision, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch and Goliath – who have arrived in the Earth-712 universe by mistake. The Avengers are initially confused, since several members of the Squadron Supreme have identical names and powers to the Squadron Sinister, a group of previously encountered villains. After a brief battle, the Avengers assist the Squadron Supreme against the global threat posed by the mutant Brain-Child, before returning to their own universe. The Squadron Supreme have another series of skirmishes with the Avengers engineered by the group the Serpent Cartel, but eventually they join forces and prevent the use of the Serpent Crown.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: The team features briefly in the title "Thor", when the evil version of Hyperion attacks the Earth-712 version and then the Earth-616 Thor. The Squadron appear in the title "The Defenders" as mind-controlled pawns of the entities the Over-Mind and Null the Living Darkness, but are freed and aid the Defenders in defeating the villains. Earth-712, however, is left in a post-apocalyptic state.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: The Squadron Supreme were next featured in a self-titled 12-issue miniseries (Sept. 1985–Aug. 1986) by writer Mark Gruenwald, which picks up from where Earth-712 was last seen in "The Defenders" #114. The Squadron, led by Hyperion, believe they have the knowledge and power to recreate the world and create a utopia. Nighthawk protests, believing that the Squadron should serve and not rule. The issue is put to a vote, with the so-called "Utopia Program" favored by the majority of the Squadron; Nighthawk, unable to agree with the decision in clear conscience, resigns from the team. The Squadron assume overall control of the government of the United States and remake the nation into a virtual utopia. The team implement a series of sweeping changes, including revealing their secret identities; instituting a program of behavior modification in prisons where inmates are forced to submit to a process that mentally inhibits their criminal instincts; enforcing a strict gun control policy; and developing medical technology to cryogenically preserve the dead.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: Despite the economic and technological advances, there are setbacks: the Golden Archer abuses the behavior modification technology by forcing fellow member Lady Lark to love him, resulting in his eventual removal from the team;The Amphibian becomes increasingly disgusted with the Squadron's methods and abandons the surface world altogether; Nuke inadvertently kills his parents via unnoticed and uncontrollable release of radiation and dies while battling Doctor Spectrum during a rampage; and Tom Thumb discovers he has cancer but chooses not to inform his teammates, eventually succumbing to the disease.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: At one point, the team is attacked by the Institute of Evil. The Squadron ultimately defeats the Institute and uses the behavior modification technology to reform them, adding the former supervillains as members. Three of them die or are incapacitated.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: In the meantime, Nighthawk forms a new team he calls the America Redeemers, recruiting former villains and several previously unknown superhumans. The later infiltrate the Squadron and kidnap the surviving Institute members to reverse the behavior modification on them. Despite mixed feelings on the parts of several of the Institute members, they too join the Redeemers. Former Squadron member the Golden Archer (now known as the Black Archer) also joins.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: Eventually, the Redeemers confront the Squadron Supreme. A brutal battle ensues in which several members of both teams are killed, including Nighthawk. A horrified Hyperion realizes that Nighthawk was right: the Squadron, despite having good intentions, had inadvertently created a totalitarian state with themselves as its dictators. The Squadron surrenders, disbands and returns control of the United States to the government.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: In a graphic novel sequel by Gruenwald, Ryan and inker Al Williamson, "Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe", remnants of the team reunite to battle the Nth Man. Although they succeed, several members of the Squadron are killed, with the remainder (Hyperion, Doctor Spectrum, the Whizzer, Power Princess, Lady Lark (now known as Skylark), Arcanna, Haywire, and the Shape) marooned in the mainstream Marvel universe.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: The Squadron encounter the hero Quasar, and relocate to the government facility Project Pegasus. After another encounter with the Overmind and a visit to the laboratory world of the Stranger, the Squadron attempt unsuccessfully to return to their own universe and members Hyperion, Doctor Spectrum and the Whizzer battle the entity the Deathurge.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: The entire Squadron Supreme appear in an "Avengers" storyline with the Avengers that finally returns them to their home universe. The one-shot issue "Squadron Supreme: New World Order" reveals that Earth-712 is now dominated by corporations using the Squadron's own utopia technologies.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: The Squadron come into conflict with a new government when an interdimensional team called the Exiles, traveling from the Earth-616 universe, reveal that the government had rigged the election through worldwide vote fraud. The Squadron and the Exiles depose the new government and attempt to allow society to progress without superhuman involvement.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: The series "Supreme Power" features the rebooted version of the superhero team Squadron Supreme and is set on Earth-31916.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: Alien Hyperion arrives on Earth as an infant, and is taken into custody by the US government and raised in a controlled environment. Army Corporal Joseph Ledger is given a strange crystal removed from Hyperion's spaceship by the government that bonds to him, causing him to fall into a coma for years.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: Discovering Hyperion has superhuman abilities, the government uses him as a secret weapon, and is eventually outed by the media. The government then announces and introduces Hyperion as a state-sponsored hero, which encourages other beings to appear, such as the Blur, who can move at superspeed. Ledger awakens and, harnessing the energy powers of the crystal, becomes Doctor Spectrum. Hyperion and Spectrum are initially hostile to one another and they battle, with Hyperion accessing lost memories when coming in contact with Spectrum's crystal. The Amphibian is seen on dry land for the first time, and Princess Zarda heals Hyperion after his battle. Nighthawk solicits the aid of Hyperion and the Blur to deal with a superpowered serial killer, who Hyperion now knows is actually the product of experimentation with his DNA.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: Although successful, Hyperion is outraged by the government exploitation and leaves, warning that he has no wish to be contacted by humankind again. The government gathers the remaining superhumans into a team to capture Hyperion.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: The story continues in the limited series "Supreme Power: Hyperion" with new Squadron members Emil Burbank, Arcanna, the Shape and Nuke tracking Hyperion to what they believe is an alternate reality. In this world, Hyperion and a version of the Squadron rule the world, with only Nighthawk and a small group of superhumans opposing their rule. Although the heroes locate the true Hyperion and convince him to return to their world, Burbank discovers that it was, in fact, not an alternate reality but their world two years from the present time.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: The second volume of the series "Squadron Supreme" brings together all the superhumans (except a reluctant Nighthawk), who are split into two teams – one for international/public missions and another for covert operations. The President of the United States calls the group the Squadron Supreme. The Squadron meets with mixed success: an attempt to kill an African dictator is botched, and the target is murdered by local superhumans who state the group is not welcome in Africa, and a mission to Iran has member Inertia encouraging a victim to fight back and kill.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: China recruits Redstone, the superpowered serial killer created from Hyperion's DNA, in a bid to protect itself. The final issue is a battle to the death against Redstone (with the Blur recruiting Nighthawk to assist) who threatens to detonate a nuclear weapon. The outcome is not revealed, as the series concluded with issue #7.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: An unrelated nine-issue series, "Ultimate Power", written by J. Michael Straczynski; Brian Michael Bendis and Jeph Loeb with art by Greg Land, features the Squadron in a crossover into the Ultimate Universe. Courtesy of a deception engineered by Nick Fury and the Ultimate villain Doctor Doom, the Squadron travel to the Ultimate Universe, thinking that the Ultimate Reed Richards is responsible for releasing an organism that has destroyed much of the United States.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: A series of misunderstandings ensues, and after a series of battles between the Squadron, the Ultimate Fantastic Four, the Ultimates and the Earth-712 Squadron Supreme (whose world was also affected by the organism), the third culprit is revealed as Burbank, who was asked by the government to develop a weapon to kill Hyperion. Nick Fury is detained in custody in the Earth-31916 universe, while Squadron member Power Princess remains in the Ultimate Universe to ensure that Doom (who escaped custody by using a Doombot) is captured.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: An unrelated four-issue limited series, "Squadron Supreme: Hyperion vs. Nighthawk", written by Marc Guggenheim and with art by Paul Gulacy, relates how Hyperion and Nighthawk, after an initial skirmish, join forces to try and alleviate the Darfur conflict in war-torn Sudan. Hyperion discovers Nighthawk has a prototype weapon built from stolen plans of Emil Burbank's journal that cannot actually injure him, but can convince him that he is being injured.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: A third volume of the title "Squadron Supreme", written by Howard Chaykin and with art by Greg Land (and other artists), is published, with the 12-issue series being set five years after the battle with Redstone. Most of the Squadron have disappeared, with Ultimate Nick Fury, Burbank and Arcanna now a team of intelligence officers working for the government and investigating a group of returning astronauts that exhibit strange abilities. The astronauts infect many people they come into contact with, also giving them superhuman abilities.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: Fury eventually leads a new version of the Squadron that features characters who are pastiches of long-time Marvel characters. The group eventually come into conflict with many of the original members of the Squadron who have been gathered by Hyperion. The heroes unite to stop a group of superhuman terrorists from the Middle East, but then, via a government device, apparently all lose their abilities. Arcanna secretly reveals to Fury that she, and likely many others, still possesses superhuman abilities. Fury later returns to the Ultimate Universe.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: Later, the members of the Squadron Supreme are apparently killed by Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Cabal after the villains raid the Squadron's universe. Versions resembling these characters later appear on the Battleworld created by Doctor Doom during the "Secret Wars" event, only to be killed again at the hands of the Squadron Sinister. Nighthawk is left as the group's only survivor.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: This team, set in Marvel's mainstream reality, features characters from numerous alternate universes, such as the Nighthawk from "Supreme Power", a Hyperion from a reality that had been destroyed upon colliding with another universe, Doctor Spectrum from the world of the Great Society (which was destroyed by Namor the Sub-Mariner to prevent it from colliding with the mainstream universe), the Blur from the New Universe, and Warrior Woman from a "Secret Wars" tie-in (posing as the Earth-712 Squadron Supreme's Power Princess).


title: Squadron Supreme

text: The Squadron Supreme's first action was to get revenge on Namor for what happened to the worlds of some of its members. They attacked Atlantis where Hyperion beheaded Namor and Zarda killed Attuma. The fight ended with Hyperion lifting Atlantis above the ocean and throwing it onto the ground hard enough to kill the remaining Atlanteans present. The actions caused by the Squadron Supreme led the Avengers Unity Division to apprehend them before anyone else ends up killed by their hand. The Squadron Supreme were saved by Thundra and later teleported to Weirdworld, where they encounter Doctor Druid, who plans to mind-control Weirdworld's inhabitants. The Squadron Supreme shatter the crystal that Druid was using to enhance his mind control powers and return home. Power Princess remains on Weirdworld and reveals herself as Warrior Woman. Thundra sides with the Squadron Supreme, although she is unsure if she should help the Squadron Supreme protect the world or help protect the world from the Squadron Supreme.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: Through Modred the Mystic's magical modifications to Reed Richard's time machine, Hyperion and Doctor Spectrum are accidentally transformed into ephemeral "ghosts" caught in the past; specifically during the Squadron's attack on Atlantis and just before Hyperion kills Namor. They decide to change the past by dragging this past Namor back to the present, thereby resurrecting him. Although this action is easy for Hyperion, who has had second thoughts about the cutthroat methods the Squadron Supreme has been using, it is more difficult for Doctor Spectrum, as Namor destroyed her Earth. At the end of the story arc, Hyperion leads the action to disband the Squadron, and the team goes their separate ways.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: When the Avengers become a global peacekeeping force, Thunderbolt Ross meets with Phil Coulson to discuss the matter. Phil reveals that he has established the Squadron Supreme of America as the newest United States superhero team. The team consists of Hyperion, Power Princess, Nighthawk, the Blur, and Doctor Spectrum as their leader.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: With Doctor Spectrum as their leader, the Squadron Supreme of America were first used to fight Namor and his Defenders of the Deep when they attacked a Roxxon oil rig that is off the coast of Alaska.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: Then the Squadron Supreme visited another oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, where Doctor Spectrum used his powers to melt areas of the oil rig to secure it from an attack by Namor. The Squadron Supreme then made short work of Namor and the Defenders of the Deep.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: During the "War of the Realms" storyline, the Squadron Supreme of America were summoned to Washington D.C. by Phil Coulson, who brought them up to speed on Malekith's invasion. They are shown fighting Rock Trolls and Frost Giants. Their origin is fully shown where its members are revealed to be simulacrums created by Mephisto and programmed by the Power Elite so that Phil Coulson can have them be a United States-sponsored superhero team. After the Squadron Supreme caused the Frost Giants to retreat, Phil Coulson sends them to Ohio which has become a battleground.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: The Squadron Supreme are summoned to confront Black Panther when he infiltrates the Pentagon and confronts Phil Coulson. Hyperion states that the Squadron Supreme are the United States' sanctioned superhero team in light of the Avengers becoming an anti-American team. As Nighthawk states to Blur that the Black Panther will not run as he is under arrest, the Black Panther states to them that he does not know how they got their powers and that they are not the Squadron Supreme, as he even asked if they trust Phil Coulson. Before they can grab him, the Black Panther contacts Broo to teleport him away. As he disappears, the Black Panther states that Phil Coulson will not answer their questions and that the Avengers are not their enemies unless they force them to be.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: During the "Heroes Reborn" storyline, reality has been somehow changed so that the Squadron Supreme of America are the main superhero team and that the Avengers never existed. The Squadron Supreme are seen fighting the Masters of Doom consisting of Doctor Juggernaut, Black Skull, Silver Witch and All-Gog after their escape from the Negative Zone. The Squadron Supreme manages to repel the Masters of Doom with the fight being witnessed by President Phil Coulson. The Skrullian Skymaster was shown to be a member of this reality's Squadron Supreme before he was killed by Rogue to avenge Mystique's death. Nighthawk and Blur had a Secret Squadron team that consisted of Tom Thumb (who is an amalgam of both versions), Amphibian, Blue Eagle, Golden Archer, and Arcanna Jones. This group fought the Siege Society in London where Amphibian was beheaded by Baron Helmut Zemo, Golden Archer was killed by Hawkeye and Fire-Ant, Tom Thumb was subdued by Hawkeye, Arcanna Jones was killed by Silver Witch, and Golden Eagle was slain offscreen by Black Widow and Hawkeye who escape with Fire Ant using his special wings. Following the fight, Nighthawk, Blur, and Tom Thumb mourn their comrades at their funeral. The Squadron Supreme of America discuss their encounters with various heroes and concerns about their world being wrong. Putting aside their differences and without telling President Coulson, they gather clues and rule out suspects before eventually arriving in Wakanda, where they confront the Avengers. The Avengers battle and eventually defeat the Squadron Supreme of America. After Captain America, Star Brand, and Echo use the Pandemonium Cube to restore the original reality, the Squadron Supreme of America find their memories transferred to their counterparts in the Avengers' reality and struggle to find their place in an unfamiliar world.


title: Squadron Supreme

text: A group of clones of the Squadron Supreme appear in the 2011 "Marvel Zombies Supreme" miniseries, which sees the members of the team infected with a zombie virus developed by a deranged geneticist.


title: Torpor

text: Torpor is a state of decreased physiological activity in an animal, usually marked by a reduced body temperature and metabolic rate. Torpor enables animals to survive periods of reduced food availability. The term "torpor" can refer to the time a hibernator spends at low body temperature, lasting days to weeks, or it can refer to a period of low body temperature and metabolism lasting less than 24 hours, as in "daily torpor".


title: Torpor

text: During the active part of their day, such animals maintain normal body temperature and activity levels, but their metabolic rate and body temperature drop during a portion of the day (usually night) to conserve energy.


title: Torpor

text: Some animals seasonally go into long periods of inactivity, with reduced body temperature and metabolism, made up of multiple bouts of torpor. This is known as hibernation if it occurs during winter or aestivation if it occurs during the summer. Daily torpor, on the other hand, is not seasonally dependent and can be an important part of energy conservation at any time of year.


title: Torpor

text: Torpor is a well-controlled thermoregulatory process and not, as previously thought, the result of switching off thermoregulation.


title: Torpor

text: Marsupial torpor differs from non-marsupial mammalian (eutherian) torpor in the characteristics of arousal. Eutherian arousal relies on a heat-producing brown adipose tissue as a mechanism to accelerate rewarming. The mechanism of marsupial arousal is unknown, but appears not to rely on brown adipose tissue.


title: Torpor

text: The evolution of torpor likely accompanied the development of homeothermy. Animals capable of maintaining a body temperature above ambient temperature when other members of its species could not would have a fitness advantage. Benefits of maintaining internal temperatures include increased foraging time and less susceptibility to extreme drops in temperature. This adaptation of increasing body temperature to forage has been observed in small nocturnal mammals when they first wake up in the evening.


title: Torpor

text: Although homeothermy lends advantages such as increased activity levels, small mammals and birds maintaining an internal body temperature spend up to 100 times more energy in low ambient temperatures compared to ectotherms. To cope with this challenge, these animals maintain a much lower body temperature, staying just over ambient temperature rather than at normal operating temperature. This reduction in body temperature and metabolic rate allows the prolonged survival of animals capable of entering torpid states.


title: Torpor

text: In 2020 scientists reported evidence of the torpor in "Lystrosaurus" living ~250 Mya in Antarctica – the oldest evidence of a hibernation-like state in a vertebrate animal.


title: Torpor

text: Slowing metabolic rate to conserve energy in times of insufficient resources is the primarily noted purpose of torpor. This conclusion is largely based on laboratory studies where torpor was observed to follow food deprivation. There is evidence for other adaptive functions of torpor where animals are observed in natural contexts:


title: Torpor

text: Animals that can enter torpor rely on biological rhythms such as circadian and circannual rhythms to continue natural functions. Different animals will manage their circadian rhythm differently, and in some species it's seen to completely stop (such as in European hamsters). Other organisms, such as a black bear, enter torpor and switch to multi-day cycles rather than rely on a circadian rhythm. However, it is seen that both captive and wild bears express similar circadian rhythms when entering torpor. Bears entering torpor in a simulated den with no light expressed normal but low functioning rhythms. The same was observed in wild bears denning in natural areas. The function of circadian rhythms in black, brown, and polar bears suggest that their system of torpor is evolutionarily


title: Torpor

text: Torpor has been shown to be a strategy of small migrant birds to increase their body fat. Hummingbirds, resting at night during migration, were observed to enter torpor which helped conserve fat stores for the rest of their migration.


title: Torpor

text: This strategy of using torpor to increase body fat has also been observed in wintering chickadees. Black-capped chickadees, living in temperate forests of North America, do not migrate south during winter. The chickadee can maintain a body temperature 12 °C lower than normal. This reduction in metabolism allows it to conserve 30% of fat stores amassed from the previous day. Without using torpor the chickadee would not be able to conserve its fat stores to survive winter.


title: Torpor

text: Torpor can be a strategy of animals with unpredictable food supplies. For example, high-latitude living rodents use torpor seasonally when not reproducing. These rodents use torpor as means to survive winter and live to reproduce in the next reproduction cycle when food sources are plentiful, separating periods of torpor from the reproduction period. Some animals use torpor during their reproductive cycle, as seen in unpredictable habitats. They experience the cost of a prolonged reproduction period but the payoff is survival to be able to reproduce at all.


title: Torpor

text: The eastern long-eared bat uses torpor during winter and is able to arouse and forage during warm periods.


title: Torpor

text: It is suggested that this daily torpor use may have allowed survival through mass extinction events. Heterotherms make up only four out of 61 mammals confirmed to have gone extinct over the last 500 years. Torpor enables animals to reduce energy requirements allowing them to better survive harsh conditions.


title: Torpor

text: Interspecific competition occurs when two species require the same resource for energy production. Torpor increases fitness in the case of inter-specific competition with the nocturnal common spiny mouse. When the golden spiny mouse experiences reduced food availability by diet overlap with the common spiny mouse it spends more time in a torpid state.


title: Torpor

text: A drop in temperature from torpor has been shown to reduce the ability of parasites to reproduce. Ectoparasites of bats in temperate zones have reduced reproductive rates when bats enter torpor. Where bats do not enter torpor the parasites reproduce at a constant rate throughout the year.


title: Torpor

text: In 2013, SpaceWorks Engineering began researching a way to dramatically cut the cost of a human expedition to Mars by putting the crew in extended torpor for 90 to 180 days. Traveling while hibernating would reduce astronauts' metabolic functions and minimize requirements for life support during multi-year missions.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: The Volkswagen Sharan is a seven-seater minivan that was produced by the German Volkswagen Group and built at the AutoEuropa plant in Palmela, Portugal, with a front-wheel-drive version across two generations, from 1995 to 2022. Through badge engineering, the Volkswagen Sharan shares the same platform with the SEAT Alhambra, and the first generation was also in most respects identical to the Ford Galaxy. From 2010 to 2022 the Sharan was in its second generation. It is described in the motor industry as a multi-purpose vehicle (MPV).


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: The Sharan was the Volkswagen-badged product from a joint venture between Volkswagen and Ford Motor Company to produce vehicles in the increasingly important MPV market, which was filled at the time by Renault's Espace and Chrysler's Voyager. The resulting Volkswagen Sharan concept (and Ford Galaxy) was shown at the 1994 Paris Auto Show, and production started in May 1995. The name Sharan was said to be derived from the Persian word 'Shahran' meaning "Carrier of Kings". However, according to Volkswagen, it is a made-up word, like 'Touran'.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: Development began in top-secret in 1987, known only to the highest level members of the respective companies, with a team consisting of Ford's Steve Harper, Paul Coucill, and Volkswagen's Peter Knapp. Harper's design was chosen at the first review that September. It originally had a very different boxier design, and used a conventional minivan layout with a single sliding-door.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: The Volkswagen Group subsequently rebadged the Sharan and sold it as the SEAT Alhambra alongside the Sharan. All variants were produced at the joint venture's plant AutoEuropa in Portugal, alongside the closely related Ford Galaxy. The Sharan was on sale from 1995 to 2010, accompanied with facelifts in 2000 and 2004.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: As of 2007, the annual production for the Sharan is in the 50,000 unit range; it is sold in Europe, South Africa and some Asia Pacific and Latin American countries. In Mexico, it was available with the 1.8L Turbo 4 cil with five speed Tiptronic automatic gearbox in Comfortline trim only, while in Argentina it is available with the 1.8L Turbo and the 1.9L TDI 115 hp four cylinder engines, in both five speed manual and five speed Tiptronic transmissions in Trendline trim only.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: The cooperation between Volkswagen and Ford ended in 2006, with the latter going alone in building the second generation Galaxy.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: The Sharan was not sold in the United States and Canada. Originally, this was due to an agreement between Ford and Volkswagen, leaving the market free from competition for Ford's Aerostar minivan. Volkswagen later decided not to introduce the Sharan in North America, ceased developing the Microbus concept, and instead introduced a badge-engineered variant of the Chrysler minivans as the Routan. This was launched in 2009, and replaced the Sharan in Mexico which was the only North American country where the Sharan was sold.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: Scoring 200 points on the "United Kingdom Reliability Index", the Sharan is considered very unreliable when compared to the average vehicle score of 100, while a very reliable vehicle scores 60 or below. The average age and repair cost of the tested Sharan was 5,3 years and covered 63,546 miles. It has been noted that, despite enjoying high popularity, the Sharan has consistently performed poorly in UK customer satisfaction surveys, including a last place 138th in a 2003 survey. Although quality problems existed in the original version, the Sharan quickly became the best selling MPV in Germany. It also sold better there than the technically identical SEAT Alhambra and Ford Galaxy despite costing up to 2500 euros more.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: The first generation Volkswagen Sharan was on sale for over 15 years having been built almost unchanged during the time. By the time it was replaced in 2010 it was one of the longest running car models in Europe. Despite its age, nearly 24,000 Sharans were still being sold annually as of 2008. In total, Volkswagen sold almost 670,000 units of its Sharan.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: The design and technology of the Sharan (including Alhambra and Galaxy) was a mix between both Volkswagen and Ford. The design was a compromise solution, with the front looking similar to a Ford Mondeo Mk1 and the rear like Volkswagen Passat (B4). Each of the three MPV models had its own subtle differences in exterior, and, for the Galaxy, in interior design. The first generation's initial design was completed under Greg M Greeson, an American designer employed in Volkswagen's Advanced Design Studio in Düsseldorf, West Germany from 1989 to 1990.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: Some small visual changes in 1998 included new door wings derived from the Volkswagen Golf Mk4 and some changes in the dashboard.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: The Sharan and its stablemates received a major facelift in May 2000. At this time, Volkswagen also extended the wheelbase by , increased the front and rear track, and gave it the "Volkswagen family" look of the time including a brand new dashboard no longer sourced from Ford. Seven seats came as standard.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: A further minor cosmetic facelift was implemented in September 2003 at Frankfurt Motor Show for the model year of 2004. This changed, primarily, the grille, and tail lights (round). Also, more standard equipment was added, including air conditioning and curtain side air bags. In 2006, Ford independently introduced a new Galaxy which was not based on the Sharan and Alhambra designs from the Volkswagen Group.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: The new Galaxy was built at a dedicated Ford plant in Limburg, Belgium. The last first generation Ford Galaxy rolled off the AutoEuropa line at the end of 2005, while the first generation Sharan and SEAT Alhambra continued in production, alongside the Volkswagen Eos and the new Scirocco, until August 2010.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: A BlueMotion variant was introduced in 2008 and went on sale in Germany in May 2008, with lower (159g/km) CO emissions and average fuel consumption of 38 mpg U.S. In the UK only 60 BlueMotions were expected to shift per year, and it was on sale there until February 2011.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: In June 2006, PrinceGas and Volkswagen launched the Sharan with a 2.0 L flexible fuel engine, which could work with either petrol or autogas (liquified petroleum gas), providing an additional range over the regular 2.0L petrol engine. Both fuel tanks, the 70L (18 US gallon) petrol tank and the 60L liquid gas tank combined, give the Sharan enough fuel to cover between refuels at an average fuel consumption of 9.6 L/100 km.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: The liquid gas tank is built into the spare wheel well so it does not compromise on passenger and loading space of the Sharan's interior, although it does eliminate the spare tyre.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: The second generation Sharan, based on the Volkswagen Passat (B7), was launched at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show and a month later, the second generation of its sibling model, the SEAT Alhambra, was officially announced. Sales commenced in September 2010.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: Although still built at the AutoEuropa factory in Portugal, the new model inherits only its name from the previous Sharan, compared to which it is longer, wider and lower, with the wheelbase lengthened by .


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: Weight has been reduced by . The initial engine range comprises 1.4-litre TSI (148 bhp) and 2.0-litre (197 bhp) petrol options, plus two 2.0-litre TDI diesel engines, rated at and . The rear doors now slide open rather than being hinged.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: In March 2020, Volkswagen ceased production of the Sharan MPV for the Chinese market in favor of the brand new model, China-only Volkswagen Viloran. Meanwhile, the car is still available in Europe after more than 12 years' presence.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: The VW Sharan was discontinued in the UK in 2021 but continued to be available elsewhere in Europe. However, in October 2022, the VW Sharan finally ended production in Portugal after more than a decade of production of the second generation model. No replacement is planned as the market has shifted away from large MPV's to crossovers and SUV's.


title: Volkswagen Sharan

text: At the 2015 Geneva Motor Show, a facelifted Sharan was unveiled to the public. It has new electronic systems and engines with reduced fuel consumption. Its 2.0 litre TSi engine (, ) and six speed direct-shift gearbox are the same as in the 2016 Golf GTi.


title: Chain gang

text: A chain gang or road gang is a group of prisoners chained together to perform menial or physically challenging work as a form of punishment. Such punishment might include repairing buildings, building roads, or clearing land. The system was notably used in the convict era of Australia and in the Southern United States. By 1955 it had largely been phased out in the U.S., with Georgia among the last states to abandon the practice. North Carolina continued to use chain gangs into the 1970s. Chain gangs were reintroduced by a few states during the "get tough on crime" 1990s: in 1995 Alabama was the first state to revive them. The experiment ended after about one year in all states except Arizona, where in Maricopa County inmates can still volunteer for a chain gang to earn credit toward a high school diploma or avoid disciplinary lockdowns for rule infractions.


title: Chain gang

text: A single ankle shackle with a short length of chain attached to a heavy ball is known as "a ball and chain". It limited prisoner movement and impeded escape.


title: Chain gang

text: Two ankle shackles attached to each other by a short length of chain are known as a "hobble" or as "leg irons." These could be chained to a much longer chain with several other prisoners, creating a work crew known as a "chain gang". The walk required to avoid tripping while in leg irons is known as the "convict shuffle."A group of prisoners working outside prison walls under close supervision, but without chains, is a "work gang". Their distinctive attire (stripe wear or orange vests or jumpsuits) and shaven heads served the purpose of displaying their punishment to the public, as well as making them identifiable if they attempted to escape. However, the public was often brutal, swearing at convicts and even throwing things at them.


title: Chain gang

text: The use of chains could be hazardous. Some of the chains used in the Georgia system in the first half of the twentieth century weighed . Some prisoners suffered from "shackle sores"—ulcers where the iron ground against their skin. Gangrene and other infections were serious risks. Falls could imperil several individuals at once.


title: Chain gang

text: Modern prisoners are sometimes put into handcuffs or wrist manacles (similar to handcuffs, but with a longer length of chain) and leg irons, with both sets of manacles (wrist and ankle) being chained to a "belly chain." This form of restraint is most often used on prisoners expected to be violent, or prisoners appearing in a setting where they may be near the public (a courthouse) or have an opportunity to flee (being transferred from a prison to a court). Although prisoners in these restraints are sometimes chained to one another during transport or other movement, this is not a chain gang—although reporters may refer to it as such—because the restraints make any kind of manual work impossible.


title: Chain gang

text: In the Australian penal colonies, chain gangs were also referred to as "iron gangs". They were used as a punishment for convicts who reoffended after being transported. Iron gangs were frequently employed on the construction of roads in remote areas where escape was a possibility, such as on the Great North Road from Sydney to the Hunter Valley and the road from Sydney to Bathurst over the Blue Mountains. The leg irons were installed by blacksmiths using hot rivets, and then attached to a single "gang chain" to allow for control by an overseer. The irons and chains could weigh as much as or more. Some of the convicts on iron gangs were as young as 11 years old.


title: Chain gang

text: The use of iron gangs in the Colony of New South Wales was expanded by Governor Ralph Darling as part of his infrastructure program. Their tasks included "breaking rocks, clearing trees, constructing stone culverts and bridges". In 1828, the colony's chief surveyor Edmund Lockyer directed that each iron gang could contain up to 60 men, supervised by one main overseer and three assistants. The iron gangs "received the worst and least trustworthy characters, together with the strictest security measures". Better-behaved convicts still worked in gangs but were unshackled. Convicts who escaped from iron gangs were described as "bolters" and became some of the first bushrangers.


title: Chain gang

text: The introduction of chain gangs into the United States began after the American Civil War. The southern states needed finances and public works to be performed. Prisoners were a free way for these works to be achieved.


title: Chain gang

text: The use of chain gangs for prison labor was the preferred method of punishment in some southern states like Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama.


title: Chain gang

text: Chain gangs experienced a resurgence when Alabama began to use them again in 1995; they still existed in 1997.


title: Chain gang

text: Several jurisdictions in the United States have re-introduced prison labor. In 1995 Sheriff Joe Arpaio reintroduced chain gangs in Arizona.


title: Chain gang

text: A year after reintroducing the chain gang in 1995, Alabama was forced to again abandon the practice pending a lawsuit from, among other organizations, the Southern Poverty Law Center. "They realized that chaining them together was inefficient; that it was unsafe", said attorney J. Richard Cohen of the organization. However, as late as 2000, Alabama Prison Commissioner Ron Jones has again proposed reintroducing the chain gang.In 2011, Tim Hudak, former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in Canada, campaigned on introducing penal labour in the province, referred to by many as chain gangs. He lost seats to the provincial Liberals which formed another majority government in the subsequent general election.


title: Chain gang

text: According to their own policies, Britain First (a British far-right political organization) want to re-introduce chain gangs "to provide labour for national public works". This is part of their aim to turn prisons from "cosy holiday camps" into "a place of hard labour".


title: Chain gang

text: In 2013, Brevard county Jail reintroduced chain gangs as a deterrent on crime in a pilot project. Ex-convict Larry Lawton, critical of this move, said "Chain gangs send a bad message about our county", adding "I don't think people want to come to this county as a tourist or a beach person and see people in chains." Instead he proposed a better use of law enforcement resources would be to combat drug addiction because he says it is a "contributing factor" to criminal activity.


title: Ion Țiriac

text: Ion Țiriac (; born 9 May 1939), also known as the "Brașov Bulldozer", is a Romanian businessman and former professional tennis and ice hockey player. He has been president of the Romanian Tennis Federation.


title: Ion Țiriac

text: A former singles top 10 player on the ATP Tour, Tiriac was the winner of one grand slam title, the 1970 French Open in men's doubles. Țiriac was the first man to play against a woman and defeat her, in a sanctioned tennis tournament (against Abigail Maynard, in 1975). The highlight of his ice hockey career was participating as defenseman in the Romanian national team at the 1964 Winter Olympics.


title: Ion Țiriac

text: After retirement, Tiriac became active as a tennis coach, advisor and player agent in the 1980s, taking under his wing Ilie Năstase, Manuel Orantes, Adriano Panatta, Guillermo Vilas, Henri Leconte and the young Boris Becker. Later, Țiriac developed the Mutua Madrid Open ATP masters tennis tournament, which he owns. In 2013, he was elected as contributor into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He has been managing French tennis player Lucas Pouille since December 2016.


title: Ion Țiriac

text: As a tennis player, Tiriac played dramatic five-setters against Rod Laver, Stan Smith, Jan Kodeš and Manuel Orantes. His singles record includes wins over Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Roscoe Tanner, Manuel Orantes, Andrés Gimeno, Adriano Panatta and Niki Pilić. He played three Davis Cup finals (in 1969, 1971 and 1972).


title: Ion Țiriac

text: As of April 2022, Forbes ranked him as the third-richest person in Romania with a net worth of $1.6 billion.


title: Ion Țiriac

text: Țiriac was born in Transylvania, which is probably the reason why he has the nickname 'Count Dracula'. He first appeared on the international sports scene as a child ping pong champion, then subsequently as an ice hockey player on the Romanian national team at the 1964 Winter Olympics. Shortly after that he switched to tennis as his main sport. With fellow Romanian Ilie Năstase he won the men's doubles in the 1970 French Open and reached the Davis Cup finals several times in the 1970s.


title: Ion Țiriac

text: John McPhee wrote of him that his drooping mustache suggests "that this man has been to places most people do not imagine exist. He appears to be a panatela ad, a triple agent from Alexandria, a used-car salesman from central Marrakesh. Tiriac has the air of a man who is about to close a deal in a back room behind a back room."


title: Ion Țiriac

text: Țiriac participated in the short period during the 1970s when women dabbled as coeds in established men's tennis tournaments. In his first match he defeated Abigail Maynard 6–0, 6–0 in their round one match at USTA pro circuit's Fairfiled County International Tennis Championship. It was the first time ever a female had entered a men's tournament.


title: Ion Țiriac

text: After his retirement, he served as coach and manager for players such as Ilie Năstase, Guillermo Vilas, Mary Joe Fernández, Goran Ivanišević and Marat Safin. He became the sports agent of Boris Becker and managed his career from 1984 to 1993.


title: Ion Țiriac

text: Țiriac ran major men's events in Germany, including the season-ending championships in Hanover. Although tennis is now a much smaller part of his portfolio and occupies only 5 percent of his time, he has taken particular pleasure and pride in making Madrid Tennis Open a combined men's and women's event with €7.2 million in total prize money. The trophy awarded to the tournament winner bears his name.


title: Ion Țiriac

text: Țiriac also holds the license for the BRD Năstase Țiriac Trophy tennis tournament since 1996. It is currently a €450,000 event, part of the ATP World Tour 250 series, held annually in Bucharest, Romania, just 2 weeks before the Madrid Open.


title: Ion Țiriac

text: On 13 July 2013, Țiriac joined the International Tennis Hall of Fame as a successful promoter and tournament director for numerous events including the two of the largest Masters 1000 events, the Italian Open and the Madrid Masters.


title: Ion Țiriac

text: After his retirement as a professional tennis player, Țiriac became a businessman in (then West) Germany. In 1987, he appeared in a TV commercial for Miller Lite beer with Bob Uecker, who extols Țiriac's supposed humorous qualities, laughing hysterically while Țiriac sits stone-faced.


title: Ion Țiriac

text: In Germany, Țiriac met another Romanian businessman, Dan Petrescu. Țiriac and Petrescu became economic partners and collaborated in the development of several companies in the following years.


title: Ion Țiriac

text: Following the collapse of communism in Romania, Țiriac started numerous businesses and investments back home. In 1990, he founded Ion Țiriac Bank, the first private bank in post-Communist Romania. Between that and several other enterprises (retail, insurance, auto leasing, auto dealerships, airlines, etc.), his fortune was estimated at over US$900 million in 2005.


title: Ion Țiriac

text: Țiriac is an avid car collector. The Tiriac Collection represents the exhibition of cars and motorcycles under his ownership. Reopened to the public in May 2015, the collection includes historical vehicles manufactured since 1899 and also modern exotics with about 350 cars and 165 cars at full time display on a rotation basis. Visitors will find the only collection in the world with 2 Rolls-Royce Phantoms IV, as well as exhibits that previously belonged to great names such as Sir Elton John, Sammy Davis Jr. or Bernie Ecclestone.


title: Ion Țiriac

text: Ion Țiriac became the first Romanian to enter Forbes' List of billionaires in the 2007 Forbes rankings, ranking 840th in the world. His wealth was estimated at $1.0 billion as of 2010, according to the magazine. In 2010, TOP 300 Capital declared Ion Țiriac the richest man in Romania with a wealth estimated at €1.5–€1.6 billion ($2–$2.2 billion).


title: Ion Țiriac

text: In 2018, Ion Țiriac ranked #1867 on the "Forbes" World's Billionaires list, with wealth listed at US$1.2 billion.


title: Ion Țiriac

text: He has a son, Ion Țiriac Jr., with Mikette von Issenberg, a fashion model; and further two children, Karim Mihai and Ioana Natalia, with Sophie Ayad, an Egyptian journalist.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: A Face in the Crowd is a 1957 American satirical drama film directed by Elia Kazan and starring Andy Griffith (in his film debut), Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau. The screenplay is by Budd Schulberg and is based on his short story "Your Arkansas Traveler", from the collection "Some Faces in the Crowd" (1953).


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: The story centers on Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, a drifter who is discovered by the producer (Neal) of a small-market radio program in rural northeast Arkansas. Rhodes ultimately rises to great fame and influence on national television. The character was inspired by Schulberg's acquaintance with Will Rogers Jr. The successes of Arthur Godfrey and Tennessee Ernie Ford were also acknowledged in the screenplay.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: The film launched Griffith into stardom but got mixed reviews upon its original release. Later decades have seen favorable reappraisals of the movie. In 2008 it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: In late 1950s America, radio journalist Marcia Jeffries encounters a drunken drifter, Larry Rhodes, while recording a segment at a rural Arkansas jail. She invites him to speak to the audience and sing while playing his guitar, and his raw voice, folksy humor and personal charm make him instantly popular. Marcia dubs him "Lonesome" Rhodes and fast-tracks him onto his own radio program.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: Marcia enlists the support of the show's staff writer Mel Miller and witnesses the charismatic Rhodes ad-lib his way to Memphis-area popularity, effectively criticizing local politicians along the way.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: When he pokes fun at his sponsor, a mattress company, it initially pulls its ads, but when his adoring audience revolts, burning mattresses in the street, the sponsor discovers that Rhodes's irreverent pitches actually increased sales by 55%, and Rhodes returns to the air with a new awareness of his persuasive power. He begins an affair with Marcia and proposes to her.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: An ambitious office worker at the mattress company, Joey DePalma, puts together a deal for Rhodes to star in a new TV show in New York City. The sponsor is Vitajex, an energy supplement that Rhodes ingeniously reimagines as a yellow pill marketed as a male enhancement product. As his fame, influence, and ego increase, Rhodes is enlisted to improve the appeal of presidential hopeful Senator Worthington Fuller of California, and rebrands the stuffy conservative as an everyman with the folksy nickname "Curly".


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: In contrast to his friendly onscreen persona, Rhodes has privately become an egomaniac who berates his staff. Marcia's hopes of marrying Rhodes are dashed, first when a woman turns up claiming to be his legitimate wife, and then when he returns from alleged divorce proceedings in Mexico, newly married to 17-year-old drum majorette Betty Lou. Rhodes and Marcia enter into a profit-sharing agreement after she reminds him of her role in his success.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: Ultimately, Rhodes's ascent into fame and arrogance begins to turn on him. Joey has an affair with Rhodes's young wife. Rhodes dumps her and sends her back to Arkansas, but can't get out of his business arrangement with Joey, who threatens to reveal Rhodes's secrets.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: Rhodes visits Marcia, who has come to regret her role in making him famous while he proposed his "Fighters for Fuller" proposal. While Rhodes gets comfortable, Marcia leaves in the rain. To destroy him, she activates a live microphone over the end credits of his TV show that reveals Rhodes contemptuously mocking Fuller and the station's "idiot" viewers. His popularity and the show's ratings plummet, and the advertisers cancel their sponsorships, as Rhodes descends in an elevator to the ground floor.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: Rhodes returns to his penthouse, where he was scheduled to address the nation's business and political elite, only to find the room empty, except for his friend, Beanie, and a few Black servants, whom he dismisses when they don't respond to his demands. He discovers the truth during a phone call with Mel and Marcia and threatens suicide, but Marcia only goads him on. When the pair arrive at Rhodes's home, they find him speaking with an applause machine replacing the people whose support he lost. Marcia tells Rhodes that she was responsible for his open-microphone incident and demands that he never call her again.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: Before they leave, Mel lays out a prediction of Rhodes's future: his career is not completely over, and he will likely find further TV work soon, but never again enjoy the same level of popularity and prestige. After leaving the building, Mel and Marcia hear Rhodes screaming from the penthouse, for Marcia to return to him, but ignore him as they depart into the night in a taxi, as a Coca-Cola sign in neon lights flashes continuously.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: The film was produced under the working title of "The Arkansas Traveler". Director Elia Kazan said that he and screenwriter Budd Schulberg had based the character of Lonesome Rhodes on Arthur Godfrey as well as Billy Graham and Huey Long.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: Contemporary newspapers reported an early 1956 trip by Kazan to Sarasota, Florida, to confer with Schulberg. Late in April, columnist Walter Winchell wrote that Andy Griffith was due to leave the cast of his Broadway show "No Time for Sergeants" at the end of July, vacation for a month, and then begin shooting with Kazan. Kazan and Schulberg spent much of July and August 1956 in Memphis and in Arkansas, with Patricia Neal's involvement being announced by early August.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: Griffith, Lee Remick, Charles Irving, and uncrediteds Lois Nettleton and Rip Torn all made their film debuts in "A Face in the Crowd".


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: In stage performance, Griffith noted, he would work gradually up to his most intense moments, but needed to conjure that up spontaneously when shooting such scenes for Kazan. In some instances, he asked to have a few discarded chairs available to destroy, in order to work up his rage before filming.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: Big Jeff Bess, who portrayed the Sheriff under his own name, was a country singer and bandleader in Nashville who led Big Jeff and his Radio Playboys. He was once married to Tootsie Bess, owner of Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. Real-life personalities who make cameo appearances in the film include Walter Winchell and Mike Wallace.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: Most of the film's interiors were shot in New York at the Biograph Studios in the Bronx. This was preceded by shooting in Memphis and Piggott, Arkansas, where Rhodes meets Betty Lou.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: The most involved location shoot was in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, standing in for Piggott in the fair and baton-twirling competition scenes. Five thousand extras were sought, to be fed and paid $1 hourly for a mid-August day's work. Sixty baton twirlers and musicians from six different high school bands were rounded up from Arkansas and Missouri. Remick reported spending two weeks in Piggott living with teen twirler Amanda Robinson and her family, working on her twirling and local accent. Some of her baton-twirling scenes used a double. At the Piggott location shoot some 380 dogs were assembled from Missouri and Arkansas for the scene following Rhodes's first mass-action call on his audience: to take their dogs to the home of a local sheriff who was running for higher office to find out if a candidate is worthy of the office of dog catcher.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: Shooting in New York included 61 sets at Biograph Studios as well as some exteriors. The scene of the network headquarters switchboard was NBC, 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Anthony Franciosa, eager to work with Kazan, had turned down a more lucrative offer to appear in MGM's "The Vintage". Schulberg remained involved throughout: "I went on a trip in 1955 to scout a location in Arkansas, and I've been on the set every day since shooting started in August [1956]."


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" applauded Griffith's performance, writing Griffith "plays him [Lonesome Rhodes] with thunderous vigor". However, Crowther felt that the character Lonesome Rhodes overshadowed the rest of the cast and the story, in which he wrote: "As a consequence, the dominance of the hero and his monstrous momentum ... eventually become a bit monotonous when they are not truly opposed." "Harrison's Reports" wrote: "On a whole, however, it is a fascinating picture, superbly directed and finely acted. Much credit for the film's impact is due [to] Andy Griffith, a newcomer to the screen, for his exceptional performance in the principal role. It is not a sympathetic part, but he plays it with explosive vigor and makes the characterization entirely believable. Worthy of special mention, too, is Patricia Neal for her fine portrayal" as Marcia Jeffries.


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: Hy Hollinger of "Variety" praised the film as "provocative and hard-hitting", summarizing that "Kazan once again demonstrates his ability as a director and why major studios are willing to give him carte blanche in selecting his own story material and working under his own conditions." Edwin Schallert of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote, " Far and away outstanding in their stellar performances are Griffith, Miss Neal and Matthau, with Franciosa also very capable. They are nearly all at their peaks in their interpretations, even though the actual reading of lines is not too easy to understand at times. Schulberg has, however, written a splendid screenplay, and the picture is by far one of Kazan's most penetrating and incidentally ironic."


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: In his review for "Cahiers du cinéma", François Truffaut, then a film critic, called it "a great and beautiful work whose importance transcends the dimensions of a cinema review". Karel Reisz, reviewing the film in "Sight & Sound", critiqued more harshly, writing, "If we are to accept its attack on the jungle values of American sponsored television then we must be able to sense a more decent, rational tone in the film which is attacking them. And this becomes more and more difficult as the film goes on. When it comes to the test Kazan and Schulberg seem to have little more respect for their audience than the [t]elevision showmen. Dramatic scenes are all played at full blast, while the more intimate scenes are slurred over." Filmmaker Spike Lee credited the film with inspiring his landmark film "Bamboozled".


title: A Face in the Crowd (film)

text: "A Face in the Crowd" has an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 33 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The critical consensus reads, "A raucous Andy Griffith channels the corruptive influence of celebrity in Elia Kazan's "A Face in the Crowd", a prescient critique of American media." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 72 based on 10 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Kisaeng

text: Kisaeng (Hangul: 기생, Hanja: 妓生, RR: "Gisaeng"), also called ginyeo (Hangul: 기녀, Hanja: 妓女), were women from outcast or slave families who were trained to be courtesans, providing artistic entertainment and conversation to men of upper class. First appearing in Goryeo, were the government's legal entertainers, required to perform various functions for the state. Many were employed at court, but they were also spread throughout the country. They were carefully trained and frequently accomplished in the fine arts, poetry, and prose, and although they were of low social class, they were respected as educated artists. Aside from entertainment, their roles included medical care and needlework.


title: Kisaeng

text: Throughout the Goryeo and Joseon periods, held the status of , the lowest in society. They shared this status with other entertainers, as well as butchers and slaves. Status was hereditary, so the children of a were also of status, and daughters automatically became as well. Beginning in the Goryeo period, the governing offices in each district kept a registry of , to ensure thorough oversight. The same practice was followed for conscripted slaves. could only be released from their position if a hefty price was paid to the government; this could only be done by a wealthy patron, typically a high government official.


title: Kisaeng

text: Many were skilled in poetry, and numerous composed by have survived. These often reflect themes of heartache and parting, similar to poems composed by scholars in exile. In addition, some of the most famous poems were composed to persuade prominent scholars to spend the night. The style later came to be associated with women, while women of status focused on the form.


title: Kisaeng

text: Though they were of low social class, the held a unique role in ancient Korea's society, and were respected for their career as educated artists and writers. For this reason, they were sometimes spoken of as "possessing the body of the lower class but the mind of the aristocrat" and as having a "paradoxical identity as a socially despised yet popularly (unofficially) acclaimed artist". Not all engaged in prostitution as different groups or tiers of had different educations and roles. Numerous accounts report individual as specializing specifically in arts, music, poetry, and conversation skills.


title: Kisaeng

text: The career of most was very short, generally peaking at age 16 or 17, and over by age 22. Only a few were able to maintain their business for very long beyond this time. It may be for this reason that the training institutes accepted entrants as young as eight. All were obliged by law to retire at age 50. The best prospect most had for long-term support was through becoming the concubine of a patron. However, even this was not an option unless their patron first purchased them from the state, which few men of the Joseon period could afford. Thus, most former went on to work in or manage a local tavern.


title: Kisaeng

text: In the later period of Joseon, a three-tiered system developed. The highest tier was occupied by () who sang and danced at upper-class feasts. were not permitted to entertain after they turned 30. However, they could continue working in other duties, such as dressmaking and medicine, until the age of 50. They received guests only by choice. The (Korean: 행수; Hanja: 行首) of each district, who was the leader of the "kisaeng", took charge of discipline and training new .


title: Kisaeng

text: In the course of their careers, some were able to amass considerable personal wealth. However, these were the exception. were required to meet their expenses, including food, clothes, and makeup, out of their own personal funds.


title: Kisaeng

text: Women entered the class through various paths. Some were the daughters of , who inherited their mother's status. Others were sold into the wealthy by families who could not afford to support them. Most such families were of rank, but sometimes poor families of higher status sold their children in this fashion. On occasion, even women from the aristocracy were made , usually because they had violated the strict sexual mores of the Joseon period.


title: Kisaeng

text: As were skilled workers from the beginning, the government took an early interest in ensuring correct education. This first emerged with the establishment of , training institutes for palace during the Goryeo period. During the Joseon period, this became further codified, with instruction focusing on music and dance.


title: Kisaeng

text: In the three-tiered system of later Joseon, more specialized training schools were established for of the first tier. The course of study lasted three years and covered poetry, dance, music, and art. The most advanced such school was located in Pyongyang. This system continued well into the Japanese colonial period, during which time the schools training were known as ().


title: Kisaeng

text: As slaves of the government, the lives of kisaeng were closely regulated. They were overseen by the officer in charge of kisaeng, known as the "hojang". The "hojang" was also in charge of maintaining the kisaeng register, and ensuring that none of the district's kisaeng had fled. Kisaeng were required to answer the requests of patrons, unless they had previously notified the "hojang". The kisaeng of the district were expected to appear for inspection twice a month and also when a new official arrived in the area. In addition, they were required to report for continuing education, usually focused on music and dance. The frequency and content of this training varied from region to region.


title: Kisaeng

text: However, the detailed affairs of the kisaeng were not directly overseen by the state. Order was kept within each "gyobang", which might include some tens of kisaeng, by the "haengsu" kisaeng, those of the highest tier. When problems arose between a kisaeng and a client, or when charges of criminal conduct were made against a kisaeng, the "haengsu" kisaeng usually took the leading role in resolving the situation.


title: Kisaeng

text: In addition, most kisaeng had a "gibu", or "kisaeng husband", who provided protection and economic support, such as buying them valuable things or granting them social status in return for entertainment. Most "gibu" were former soldiers, government enforcers, or servants of the royal household. At times, there was friction between would-be customers and possessive "gibu", although the "gibu" was not the kisaeng's husband and had no legal claim to her. The role of the "gibu" changed over time; at first, many kisaeng in government service had no such patron. However, by the late Joseon dynasty, the "gibu" system was more or less universal.


title: Kisaeng

text: In the Joseon Dynasty, kisaeng houses were typically located near the center of a town, often close to the marketplace. They were laid out to create a welcoming effect; in many cases, a location was chosen with a fine view, and the area around the house would be landscaped with ornamental pools and plantings.


title: Kisaeng

text: Kisaeng played a number of important political roles, as servants of the state and in their own right. They were employed to entertain visiting foreign dignitaries from parts of China, and to accompany them if they travelled through the country.


title: Kisaeng

text: Thanks to their frequenting the taverns and guest-houses of the town, kisaeng were often among the most knowledgeable on local affairs. For this reason, they were at times a key source of intelligence. It was through information supplied by kisaeng that the rebel army of Hong Gyeong-nae was able to easily take the fortress of Jongju in the early 19th century.


title: Kisaeng

text: When cities fell, as many of Korea's cities did during the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–98) in the late 16th century, kisaeng were often made to entertain the generals of the victorious army. Some of Korea's most famous kisaeng, including Nongae of Jinju, are remembered today for their bravery in killing or attempting to kill leaders of the imperial Japanese army.


title: Kisaeng

text: Some kisaeng were also active in the Korean independence movements of the early 20th century. In this they resembled other women of Joseon, who often took a leading role in the independence struggle. Aengmu, a kisaeng of Daegu, was a major donor to the National Debt Repayment Movement in the early 20th century. Some fifty kisaeng of Jinju took part in a demonstration as part of the March 1st Movement in 1919.


title: Kisaeng

text: Kisaeng seem to have been relatively few in number, at the most a few thousand. They were spread throughout the country, with a few hundred in the larger centers and smaller numbers in the hyeon villages. They were also found in the "stations" and inns which provided food and shelter to travelers along the country's arterial roads, such as the Great Yeongnam Road.


title: Kisaeng

text: The number and characteristics of the kisaeng varied greatly from region to region. During the Joseon period, the city with the most kisaeng by far was Seoul, then called Hanseong, with perhaps 1000. Many of these worked for the court, and helped to fill the vast number of trained entertainers needed for grand festivals. Beautiful or talented kisaeng were often taken from the provinces to Seoul. The required training for kisaeng in Seoul was regular and very strict, with inattentive kisaeng sent home.


title: Kisaeng

text: There were also large numbers of kisaeng in the old capitals of Gaesong and Pyeongyang. The kisaeng of Pyeongyang were noted for their high level of skill and beauty. The kisaeng school of Pyeongyang was one of the country's most advanced, and continued operating until late in the colonial period. The kisaeng of Pyeongyang were also known for their ability to recite the "gwan san yung ma", a song by the 18th-century composer Shin Gwangsu.


title: Kisaeng

text: Other large concentrations existed around military camps, particularly along the northern border. For instance, in the time of Sejong the Great in the 15th century, there were some sixty kisaeng attached to the army base at Yongbyon. In these areas, kisaeng essentially filled the role of wives for the army and their role was commensurately more focused on domestic tasks than entertainment.


title: Kisaeng

text: The kisaeng of other regions also maintained distinctive local identities. The kisaeng of Jinju were particularly adept at the Geommu, a traditional sword dance. Those of Jeju were known for their equestrian prowess. In many cases, the noted skills of a region's kisaeng corresponded with some other local claim to fame. The kisaeng of the Gwandong region on the east coast, home to many famous sights including Mount Kumgang, memorized the "gwan dong byeol gok" (), a poem recounting their region's scenery. Those of the Honam region in the southwest were trained in "pansori", while those of the "seonbi" city Andong could recite the "Great Learning" (Daxue; Daehak) by heart.


title: Kisaeng

text: An overwhelming silence hangs over the official histories of Korea when it comes to the kisaeng. They enter only occasionally into official records such as the "Goryeosa" or "Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty". For example, the "Royal Protocols," or Ǔigwe (), records names of those who worked to prepare for important court rituals, and some "kisaeng" are listed as needleworkers. Yet references to kisaeng are quite widespread in the "yadam" or "anecdotal histories" of later Joseon and Silhak thinkers such as Yi Ik and Jeong Yakyong, known as "Dasan", who gave some thought to their role and station in society. A few records of "kisaeng" that exist are used in the study of their history, such as "Joseon Haeeohwhasa" (), "Nogpajapgi" (), and "Joseon miinbogam" (), the last one being written in the Japanese colonial period. Even today, many formal histories of Korea pay little or no heed to the story of the kisaeng. For example, Lee Ki-baik's "New History of Korea" does not contain a single reference to the kisaeng.


title: Kisaeng

text: There are various theories concerning the origin of the kisaeng. The first such theory was formulated by the scholar Dasan, and theories have multiplied as the kisaeng themselves have receded further into the past.


title: Kisaeng

text: One theory actually places their origins in the Silla, among the "wonhwa", female predecessors of the hwarang. However, there is little to suggest a concrete link between Silla's "wonhwa" and the later kisaeng. Also, the wonhwa seem to have been chosen from among the aristocracy, whereas kisaeng were always members of the lower classes. For these reasons, few contemporary scholars support this theory.


title: Kisaeng

text: Many others trace their origins to the early years of Goryeo, when many people were displaced following the end of the Later Three Kingdoms period in 936. At this time, a large number of Baekje people wandered the country. It is not clear whether this nomadic lifestyle was already established, or a consequence of the recent turmoil. In fact, a connection between these wanderers and the nomadic tribes of Manchuria has been conjectured. The first king of Goryeo, Taejo, considered these wanderers to be a threat to the stability of the state. He ordered that they be made into slaves of the government. Although no certain records exist, it is likely that the first kisaeng were drawn from these former wanderers.


title: Kisaeng

text: Regardless of their origins, kisaeng first emerged as a class and rose to prominence during the Goryeo Dynasty, 935–1394. They are first mentioned in the early 11th century. At this time, they were primarily engaged in skilled trades such as needlework, music, and medicine. The female entertainers of the court during this period filled a role similar to that later filled by almost all kisaeng.


title: Kisaeng

text: Due to the growth of the kisaeng class, during the reign of Myeongjong the state began to keep records (called "gijeok") of the kisaeng living in each jurisdiction. Around this time, the state also made its first efforts to set up educational institutions to train kisaeng entertainers. These academies were known as "gyobang", and first appear in history with their abolition by King Hyeonjong in 1010. However, they were re-established in the reign of Chungnyeol. The "gyobang" provided training in the "dangak" and "sogak" musical styles.


title: Kisaeng

text: The women trained in the "gyobang" were exclusively court entertainers. Their role in the affairs of the court became increasingly important as the dynasty progressed. They entertained both the king and visiting dignitaries, a role which continued into the Joseon period. In addition, beginning in the reign of Munjong, they performed at official ceremonies of the state.


title: Kisaeng

text: Just as the origin of the kisaeng is unclear, so is their precise relation to other strata of society. The female entertainers who appear in records are exclusively kisaeng of the court, and are recorded as slaves of the government.


title: Kisaeng

text: Goryeo was succeeded by the Joseon dynasty, which lasted from 1394 to 1897. During the Joseon dynasty, the kisaeng system continued to flourish and develop, despite the government's deeply ambivalent attitude toward it.


title: Kisaeng

text: Joseon was founded on Korean Confucianism, and these scholars of the time took a very dim view of professional women and of the kisaeng class in particular. There were many calls for the abolition of the kisaeng, or for their exclusion from court, but these were not successful—perhaps because of the influence of the women themselves, or perhaps because of fear that officials would take to stealing the wives of other men. One such proposal was made during the reign of Sejong the Great, but when an advisor of the court suggested that the abolition of the class would lead to government officials committing grave crimes, the king chose to preserve the kisaeng.


title: Kisaeng

text: During the brief and violent reign of Yeonsangun, 1494–1506, kisaeng became symbolic of royal excess. Yeonsan-gun treated women as primarily objects of pleasure, and made even the medicinal kisaeng ("yakbang gisaeng") into entertainers. Yeonsan-gun brought 1,000 women and girls from the provinces to serve as palace kisaeng; many of them were paid from the public treasury. He may have been the first to institute a formal hierarchy among them, dividing the kisaeng of the palace into "Heaven", those with whom he slept, and "Earth", those who served other functions.


title: Kisaeng

text: In 1650, all kisaeng were made slaves of the government. The kisaeng attached to a government office were known as "gwan-gi", or "kisaeng of the office". Their role did not, by law, include sexual service to the officeholder; in fact, government officials could be punished severely for consorting with a kisaeng. However, in practice kisaeng were often forced to serve the officeholder. A distinction was sometimes made between those "gwan-gi" who were obliged to sleep with the officeholder, and those who were not. This distinction was featured in the popular play "Chunhyangga".


title: Kisaeng

text: The Gabo Reform of 1895 officially abolished the class system of Joseon dynasty, and slavery as well. From that year forward, all kisaeng became nominally free, and the "gwan-gi" no longer belonged to the government. In practice, many kisaeng, like many other slaves, continued in servitude for many years. In addition, many of those who were freed had no alternative career; they continued as entertainers, now without the protections afforded by kisaeng status. During the subsequent decade, many of these kisaeng went to elsewhere to work.


title: Kisaeng

text: In 1908, the Japanese police enacted the "Kisaeng Tansongnyŏng" (), which required all "kisaeng" to register under a 'guild' called "chohap" with a permit from the police to continue their occupation. Later, these guilds were changed to gwonbeon, which not only was a group of "kisaeng" under registration but was also a school to teach young "kisaeng" mainly traditional art, such as calligraphy, dance, and songs. During the colonial period, the preexisting tiers or structures of "kisaeng" disappeared, and they were more viewed as relevant to prostitution than before. Most of the "kisaeng" of this time performed in restaurants or entertainment houses to earn a living, and they were often seen as a tourist attraction for the Japanese in Korea, especially Seoul.


title: Kisaeng

text: The 1970s onward saw kisaeng dances and vocabulary partially preserved in the contemporary Korean dance and theatre scene observed in the gwonbeon, kisaeng schools, that predominated during the Japanese colonial period, between 1910 and 1945. Although true gwŏnbŏn no longer existed, an academic convention developed where students would study privately with former kisaeng or gwŏnbŏn entertainers.


title: Kisaeng

text: Very few traditional kisaeng houses continue to operate in South Korea, and many traditions and dances are considered to be lost forever. Some South Korean businesses continue to escort visiting foreign business people to a kisaeng house, but these locations are mostly modern interpretations of old kisaeng houses. The oldest traditional kisaeng house in Korea, "Ohjinam" (오진암), was closed in 2010. Today, the kisaeng's evolution and impact on Korean society is receiving new attention as Koreans increase efforts to rediscover and revitalize their cultural and historical heritage. However, this interest is focused almost entirely on the historical kisaeng of the Joseon period, and not on the traces of the kisaeng which endure today.


title: Kisaeng

text: In North Korea, all kisaeng descendants were labelled as members of the 'hostile class' and are considered to have 'bad songbun', i.e. "tainted blood".


title: Kisaeng

text: Kisaeng have played important roles in Korean popular literature since the mid-Joseon Dynasty. As popular literature such as novels and pansori emerged, kisaeng often took a leading role. This was in part due to their unique role as women who could move freely in society. Kisaeng appear as heroines in stories such as "Chunhyangga", and as important figures in many other Joseon-era narratives.


title: Kisaeng

text: Kisaeng also began to appear in the vernacular art of later Joseon. They are particularly common in the work of the famed early 19th-century painter Hyewon, whose work focused on both the life of the "cheonmin", including "kisaeng", and erotic themes. During the colonial period, "kisaeng" were a popular object to Japanese and Korean painters, and postcards with the picture of Korean "kisaeng" were circulated in Japan.


title: Kisaeng

text: Kisaeng continue to be central to the understanding and imagining of Joseon culture in contemporary South and North Korea. For example, the female lead in the film "Chi-hwa-seon" was a kisaeng, the companion of painter Owon. Fresh treatments of popular kisaeng stories, including the fictional Chunhyang and the historical Hwang Jin-Yi, continue to emerge in popular novels and cinema. There was a modern re-telling of Kisaengin the Kdrama Tales of a Kisaeng.


title: Kisaeng

text: Not very many works by "kisaeng" are extant this day. While many were accomplished artists in their time, it is likely that their work was not deemed valuable enough to keep or store. A large amount of their poetry survive, Hwang Jin-I being one of the most famous "kisaeng" poets (Book: Songs of the Kisaeng: courtesan poetry of the last Korean dynasty). While very little of their painting survive, the National Museum of Korea has thirteen of Juk-hyang's paintings of plants and flowers. In the Japanese colonial period, though the education of gwonbeon still focused on traditional music and performance, the scope of their art expanded along with the cultural changes of society to include both folk genres and Japanese music. The transmission of many songs and dances, albeit some with modification, were through the "kisaeng" of this period.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: The Ricky Gervais Show is a comedy radio show in the UK starring Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and Karl Pilkington, later adapted into a podcast and a television series. Despite being named after the more famous Gervais, it mostly revolves around the life and ideas of Karl Pilkington. The show started in August 2001 on Xfm, and aired in weekly periods for months at a time throughout 2002, 2003, 2004, and mid-2005. In November 2005, "Guardian Unlimited" offered the show as a podcast series of 12 shows. Throughout January and February 2006, the podcast was consistently ranked the number one podcast in the world; it appeared in the 2007 Guinness World Record for the world's most downloaded podcast, having gained an average of 261,670 downloads per episode during its first month. According to the BBC, by September 2006, the podcasts of the series had been downloaded nearly 18 million times. , the podcast has been downloaded over 300 million times. An animated series based on the podcast and adapted for television debuted for HBO in the United States and Channel 4 in the UK in 2010.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: Gervais and Merchant first worked together in radio on the London-based alternative radio station Xfm London. Their show was broadcast from January to August 1998 from 4–6pm on Sundays, and only featured Gervais and Merchant (before their collaboration on "The Office"). The show's original format was more interactive, with features, guests, phone-ins, and audience interaction through listeners' letters.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: Gervais and Merchant returned to Xfm in August 2001, after the first series of "The Office" had been broadcast, with Pilkington brought in as producer. The show was originally just billed as Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and Karl's presence was not acknowledged on posters and other advertisements. Gervais and Merchant would speak to Karl about his thoughts on whatever they were talking about. In 2003 Pilkington was officially added to advertisements for the show as over the years Karl's role on the show became more prominent as Ricky and Steve were finding more amusement with his views and personal life. As the producer, Karl had input with features such as Rockbusters, Songs of Phrase, Do We Need 'em, Knob News, Cheeky Freak of the Week, Monkey News and Educating Ricky. Their last show for XFM aired on 2 July 2005, after which they chose to switch the show's format from radio to podcasting.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: The show ran between September 2001 and May 2002 before Gervais and Merchant went on hiatus to film the second series of ‘’The Office’’. Initially, Pilkington’s on-air presence was relatively minimal compared to what it would become. Gervais and Merchant only occasionally called for Karl to weigh in with his thoughts, while the two mostly talked to each other, with the “links” between songs comprising only about 30 minutes of the show’s 2-hour run time.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: As Pilkington’s personality moved to the forefront, the talk portion of the show expanded to roughly an hour per 2-hour broadcast. While the show relied largely upon a stream-of-consciousness format, Pilkington made attempts to keep things more conventional by insisting on running contests and airing pre-recorded segments and regular “features”.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: With the second series of ‘’The Office’’ complete, Gervais, Merchant, and Pilkington returned to XFM in August of 2002 to resume their 2-hour Saturday afternoon broadcasts. Though Pilkington’s name was still not being used in promotional materials, the format mainly centered on his contributions with Gervais and Merchant mostly reacting to the various things Karl said and did, a format that would endure through the remainder of the radio broadcasts and podcasts, concluding in 2012.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: This was the longest stretch of XFM shows, running 51 weeks until August 2003 when Gervais and Merchant again went on hiatus, this time to record the Christmas Special (finale) for ‘’The Office’’.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: Monkey News”, “Rockbusters”, “Songs of Phrase”, and “The Film Thing”, among others. Karl grew increasingly frustrated with Ricky’s antagonism toward him throughout the year, and over the final few shows, suggested he did not want to continue on. Gervais and Merchant repeatedly said on air they would not return if Pilkington didn’t agree to remain with the show.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: During the hiatus, Pilkington signed on with Gervais and Merchant’s talent agent, and negotiated a deal with XFM to get Mondays off in exchange for continuing to do The Ricky Gervais Show on Saturdays. This was a frequent topic of contention during this run with Gervais repeatedly accusing Pilkington of being lazy for demanding an entire day off on exchange for doing 2-hours of work on Saturdays.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: This show began airing again in November 2003 and broadcast for 12 weeks until January 2004 when Gervais and Merchant went on hiatus to film series 1 of their new show, ‘’Extras’’.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: Gervais, Merchant, and Pilkington returned to XFM following the completion of ‘’Extras’’ series 1. This time, they recorded only 6 shows before Gervais and Merchant left XFM for good. The show would later continue as a podcast, with no further association with XFM.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: On the 17 November 2001 broadcast, Gervais and Merchant (despite Karl's protests) filled the show with sexual innuendos and double entendres, in which they used the word "cock" multiple times, claiming they were referring to the bird, rather than the penis. During a later show, Gervais and Merchant revealed that they had discovered that they had received a warning from the radio authority by reading an article on a news website. The pair often joked how it was acceptable to say "cock" referring to the male bird but not say "cock" referring to a penis. Such as on 2 August 2003, when Ricky brought in a tin of "Cock Soup" then he and Steve made obvious sexual innuendos about the soup, while maintaining they were referring to "cock as in the bird", and later the two played with the name of philosopher Immanuel Kant and its obvious similarity in sound to the word "cunt".


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington broadcast two hour-long holiday specials on Radio 2 during the 2005 holiday season, the first airing on Christmas Eve and the second on New Year's Eve.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington recorded a two-hour radio show as part of the test transmissions for the new radio station NME Radio. The episode aired on Monday 9 June 2008, 12pm (BST).


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: According to Emily Bell, editor-in-chief of "Guardian Unlimited", Gervais and Merchant had approached the "Guardian" with the idea of the show. Bell believes they switched to a podcast format for greater control over content and access to a larger audience. The first 12 episodes were released free of charge through the "Guardian Unlimited" website.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: The first series of podcasts began on 5 December 2005, and a new episode was released each Monday for the next twelve weeks. The show relies heavily on the wit and bizarre theories of Pilkington, who was now unemployed, having left his job as radio producer at XFM. The podcast focuses more on Pilkington as a primary figure of humour in the show in various ways, including questions directed at him that have been emailed in, either by fans of the show or by Gervais and Merchant themselves.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: Series two of the podcast began on 28 February 2006. It consisted of 6 episodes with the final one released on 4 April 2006. The series saw the return of Karl's Diary and Rockbusters. A new (though short-lived; it was only presented in the first episode) feature was also introduced in order to replace Pilkington's "Monkey News", called "Real Monkey News", where Gervais attempts to present facts about chimpanzees which are factual and scientific.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: With the start of series two, the formerly free "Ricky Gervais Show" shifted to a pay model – and as a result the show is now classified as an audiobook. It is available through Audible and the iTunes Store with individual episodes. The reason for this addition, according to Ricky on the podcast, is because "The Guardian" agreed to pay for the bandwidth for 12 episodes, and any more extra episodes would have to be paid for out of their personal finances.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: Series three of the podcasts was released on 22 August 2006. This season saw the return of Karl's Diary as well as a new feature based on Karl's attempts at Poetry. Pilkington was noticeably lethargic during this 6-episode series, having been in and out of the hospital with kidney stones and subsequent complications. This was a major focus of his diary entries during this period with Gervais and Merchant ridiculing him for his histrionics over what they noted was a minor, routine operation.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: All other known features were abandoned, with the rest of each episode focusing instead on conversation. The season had the same pricing implementation as season two, although the file quality was increased from 32 kbit/s to 56 kbit/s.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: At the end of the sixth episode, Gervais and Merchant agreed to put the show on an indefinite hiatus.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: Three free podcasts were announced that coincide with special days. The first was released on 31 October 2006, to coincide with Halloween, the next was on 23 November, coinciding with Thanksgiving, and the last was released on 24 December 2006, to coincide with Christmas.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: A special podcast was made available as a giveaway to people who went to see Gervais' standup tour Fame, which showed from January to April 2007. It was later released for free to the public in October of that year.


title: The Ricky Gervais Show

text: On 25 November 2007, Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington released a special bonus podcast for free. In it, Ricky and Steve continued to probe Karl with questions from "Inside the Actors Studio". Originally released as an extra on the audio CD release of series one, it was later made available free through iTunes.