title: OpenGL

text: OpenGL 2.0 was originally conceived by 3Dlabs to address concerns that OpenGL was stagnating and lacked a strong direction. 3Dlabs proposed a number of major additions to the standard. Most of these were, at the time, rejected by the ARB or otherwise never came to fruition in the form that 3Dlabs proposed. However, their proposal for a C-style shading language was eventually completed, resulting in the current formulation of the OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL or GLslang). Like the assembly-like shading languages it was replacing, it allowed replacing the fixed-function vertex and fragment pipe with shaders, though this time written in a C-like high-level language.


title: OpenGL

text: The design of GLSL was notable for making relatively few concessions to the limits of the hardware then available. This harked back to the earlier tradition of OpenGL setting an ambitious, forward-looking target for 3D accelerators rather than merely tracking the state of currently available hardware. The final OpenGL 2.0 specification includes support for GLSL.


title: OpenGL

text: Before the release of OpenGL 3.0, the new revision had the codename Longs Peak. At the time of its original announcement, Longs Peak was presented as the first major API revision in OpenGL's lifetime. It consisted of an overhaul to the way that OpenGL works, calling for fundamental changes to the API.


title: OpenGL

text: The draft introduced a change to object management. The GL 2.1 object model was built upon the state-based design of OpenGL. That is, to modify an object or to use it, one needs to bind the object to the state system, then make modifications to the state or perform function calls that use the bound object.


title: OpenGL

text: Because of OpenGL's use of a state system, objects must be mutable. That is, the basic structure of an object can change at any time, even if the rendering pipeline is asynchronously using that object. A texture object can be redefined from 2D to 3D. This requires any OpenGL implementations to add a degree of complexity to internal object management.


title: OpenGL

text: Under the Longs Peak API, object creation would become atomic, using templates to define the properties of an object which would be created with one function call. The object could then be used immediately across multiple threads. Objects would also be immutable; however, they could have their contents changed and updated. For example, a texture could change its image, but its size and format could not be changed.


title: OpenGL

text: To support backwards compatibility, the old state based API would still be available, but no new functionality would be exposed via the old API in later versions of OpenGL. This would have allowed legacy code bases, such as the majority of CAD products, to continue to run while other software could be written against or ported to the new API.


title: OpenGL

text: Longs Peak was initially due to be finalized in September 2007 under the name OpenGL 3.0, but the Khronos Group announced on October 30 that it had run into several issues that it wished to address before releasing the specification. As a result, the spec was delayed, and the Khronos Group went into a media blackout until the release of the final OpenGL 3.0 spec.


title: OpenGL

text: The final specification proved far less revolutionary than the Longs Peak proposal. Instead of removing all immediate mode and fixed functionality (non-shader mode), the spec included them as deprecated features. The proposed object model was not included, and no plans have been announced to include it in any future revisions. As a result, the API remained largely the same with a few existing extensions being promoted to core functionality.


title: OpenGL

text: Among some developer groups this decision caused something of an uproar, with many developers professing that they would switch to DirectX in protest. Most complaints revolved around the lack of communication by Khronos to the development community and multiple features being discarded that were viewed favorably by many. Other frustrations included the requirement of DirectX 10 level hardware to use OpenGL 3.0 and the absence of geometry shaders and instanced rendering as core features.


title: OpenGL

text: Other sources reported that the community reaction was not quite as severe as originally presented, with many vendors showing support for the update.


title: OpenGL

text: OpenGL 3.0 introduced a deprecation mechanism to simplify future revisions of the API. Certain features, marked as deprecated, could be completely disabled by requesting a "forward-compatible context" from the windowing system. OpenGL 3.0 features could still be accessed alongside these deprecated features, however, by requesting a "full context".


title: OpenGL

text: OpenGL 3.1 fully removed all of the features which were deprecated in version 3.0, with the exception of wide lines. From this version onwards, it's not possible to access new features using a "full context", or to access deprecated features using a "forward-compatible context". An exception to the former rule is made if the implementation supports the ARB_compatibility extension, but this is not guaranteed.


title: OpenGL

text: OpenGL 3.2 further built on the deprecation mechanisms introduced by OpenGL 3.0, by dividing the specification into a "core profile" and "compatibility profile". Compatibility contexts include the previously-removed fixed-function APIs, equivalent to the ARB_compatibility extension released alongside OpenGL 3.1, while core contexts do not. OpenGL 3.2 also included an upgrade to GLSL version 1.50.


title: OpenGL

text: OpenGL 4.0 was released alongside version 3.3. It was designed for hardware able to support Direct3D 11.


title: OpenGL

text: As in OpenGL 3.0, this version of OpenGL contains a high number of fairly inconsequential extensions, designed to thoroughly expose the abilities of Direct3D 11-class hardware. Only the most influential extensions are listed below.


title: OpenGL

text: Hardware support: Nvidia GeForce 400 series and newer, AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series and newer (FP64 shaders implemented by emulation on some TeraScale GPUs), Intel HD Graphics in Intel Ivy Bridge processors and newer.


title: OpenGL

text: Hardware support: Nvidia GeForce 400 series and newer, AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series and newer (FP64 shaders implemented by emulation on some TeraScale GPUs), and Intel HD Graphics in Intel Haswell processors and newer. (Linux Mesa: Ivy Bridge and newer)


title: OpenGL

text: Hardware support: AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series and newer (FP64 shaders implemented by emulation on some TeraScale GPUs), Intel HD Graphics in Intel Haswell processors and newer. (Linux Mesa: Ivy Bridge without stencil texturing, Haswell and newer), Nvidia GeForce 400 series and newer. VIRGL Emulation for virtual machines supports 4.3+ with Mesa 20.


title: OpenGL

text: Hardware support: AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series and newer (FP64 shaders implemented by emulation on some TeraScale GPUs), Intel HD Graphics in Intel Broadwell processors and newer (Linux Mesa: Haswell and newer), Nvidia GeForce 400 series and newer, Tegra K1.


title: OpenGL

text: Hardware support: AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series and newer (FP64 shaders implemented by emulation on some TeraScale GPUs), Intel HD Graphics in Intel Broadwell processors and newer (Linux Mesa: Haswell and newer), Nvidia GeForce 400 series and newer, Tegra K1, and Tegra X1.


title: OpenGL

text: Hardware support: AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series and newer (FP64 shaders implemented by emulation on some TeraScale GPUs), Intel Haswell and newer, Nvidia GeForce 400 series and newer.


title: OpenGL

text: Apple deprecated OpenGL in iOS 12 and macOS 10.14 Mojave in favor of Metal, but it is still available as of macOS 13 Ventura (including Apple silicon devices). The latest version supported for OpenGL is 4.1 from 2011. A proprietary library from Molten – authors of MoltenVK – called MoltenGL, can translate OpenGL calls to Metal.


title: OpenGL

text: There are several projects which attempt to implement OpenGL on top of Vulkan. The Vulkan backend for Google's ANGLE achieved OpenGL ES 3.1 conformance in July 2020. The Mesa3D project also includes such a driver, called "Zink".


title: OpenGL

text: In June 2018, Apple deprecated OpenGL APIs on all of their platforms (iOS, macOS and tvOS), strongly encouraging developers to use their proprietary Metal API, which was introduced in 2014.


title: OpenGL

text: In 2016, id Software released an update for the id Tech 6 game engine that added support for Vulkan, while retaining support for OpenGL. ID Tech 7 eliminated support for OpenGL.


title: OpenGL

text: On September 17, 2021 Valve announced that it would be removing OpenGL from Dota 2 in a future update.


title: OpenGL

text: Atypical Games, with support from Samsung, updated their game engine to use Vulkan, rather than OpenGL, across all non-Apple platforms.


title: OpenGL

text: OpenGL doesn't support anti-aliasing's algorithm with deep learning – AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution(FSR)


title: OpenGL

text: Vulkan, formerly named the "Next Generation OpenGL Initiative" (glNext), is a grounds-up redesign effort to unify OpenGL and OpenGL ES into one common API that will not be backwards compatible with existing OpenGL versions.


title: Geezer Butler

text: Terence Michael Joseph "Geezer" Butler (born 17 July 1949) is a English musician and songwriter. He is best known as the bassist and primary lyricist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath. He has also recorded and performed with Heaven & Hell, GZR, and Ozzy Osbourne. Butler was the bassist of Deadland Ritual, which has since disbanded.


title: Geezer Butler

text: Geezer Butler as he is known by, adopted the nickname "Geezer" at an early age. "It came because when I was at school, my brother was in the army, and he was based with a lot of Cockneys. And people in London call everybody a 'geezer.' [It means] just a man — like, 'Hello, mate.' It's just like somebody calling you 'dude' over here (In the United States). In England, it'd be 'geezer.' So my brother used to come home from leave from the army, and he'd be going, 'Hello, geezer. How are you, geezer?' So because I had looked up to my brother when I was about seven years old, I'd go to school calling everybody a geezer. So that's how I got cursed with it."


title: Geezer Butler

text: Butler grew up in a working-class Irish Catholic family in Birmingham. The Butler family had seven children and were poor, typically having "no money whatsoever". Two of Butler's older brothers had been called upon to serve in the army and Butler feared that he would be next. However, mandatory service was ended in England a couple of years before he was due to be conscripted.


title: Geezer Butler

text: Butler was heavily influenced by the writing of Aleister Crowley as a teenager. By his late teens, he had stopped attending Mass. He cited a loss of belief, and feels that everyone should sooner or later decide for themselves what to believe in. By the end, Butler was "going to Mass every Sunday just to take a look at all the nice girls that were going there", he recalled years later.


title: Geezer Butler

text: Butler formed his first band, Rare Breed, in late 1967, with John "Ozzy" Osbourne soon joining as lead vocalist. At that time, Butler was dating a girl who lived near Tony Iommi, and Iommi's earliest memories of Butler involved seeing him walking past his house every day to visit her. Later, Iommi and Butler became acquainted when their bands played at a nearby nightclub. Separated for a time, Osbourne and Butler reunited in the blues foursome, Polka Tulk, along with guitarist Iommi and drummer Bill Ward, both of whom had recently left the band Mythology. They renamed their new band Earth, but a band already existed in the small-time English circuit with the same name, so they were forced to change the name yet again. Inspired by the popular Boris Karloff horror film of the same name, Butler suggested the name Black Sabbath in early 1969.


title: Geezer Butler

text: Inspired by John Lennon, Butler played rhythm guitar in his pre-Sabbath days, including with Rare Breed. When Sabbath was formed, Iommi made it clear that he did not want to play with another guitarist, so Butler moved to bass. According to Butler, "I'd never played bass until I was on stage at the first gig that we played. Borrowed the bass guitar off one of my friends and it only had three strings on it." Butler lists Jack Bruce of Cream as his biggest influence as a bassist. Iommi described Butler as being "from another planet" in the band's early days; he took LSD, wore Indian hippie dresses, and was very peaceful. At the time Black Sabbath was formed, Butler was studying to become an accountant, and this training resulted in him managing the band's finances in the early days.


title: Geezer Butler

text: After Black Sabbath fired vocalist Ozzy Osbourne in 1979, Butler also briefly left the band to deal with the divorce from his first wife. The 1980 album "Heaven and Hell" was recorded with bassist Craig Gruber but Butler returned to the band at the last minute and re-recorded the bass parts prior to release. He again left the band in 1984 after touring in support of their 1983 album, "Born Again", though he returned months later as the band attempted a comeback with vocalist David Donato.


title: Geezer Butler

text: In 1988, Butler joined the backing band of his former Sabbath bandmate Osbourne to take part in the "No Rest for the Wicked" World Tour. He rejoined Black Sabbath in 1991 for the reunion of the "Mob Rules" line-up, but again quit the group after the "Cross Purposes" tour in 1994.


title: Geezer Butler

text: In 1995 Butler again joined Osbourne's band to perform on the "Ozzmosis" album. After recording "Ozzmosis", he formed G/Z/R, issuing "Plastic Planet" in 1995. His next solo album, "Black Science," followed in 1997. Butler returned to Sabbath once more for the 1997 edition of Ozzfest, and has remained with the band since. In 2005 he released "Ohmwork", his third solo album. In October 2006 it was announced that Butler, along with Tony Iommi, would be reforming the "Dehumanizer"-era Black Sabbath line-up with Vinny Appice and Ronnie James Dio, under the name Heaven & Hell to differentiate between the reunited touring band fronted by Osbourne, and the Dio-fronted version of the band.


title: Geezer Butler

text: He rejoined Iommi and Osbourne to record "13" and toured in support of the album, which reached its conclusion in 2017.


title: Geezer Butler

text: Butler is noted for his melodic playing, and as being one of the first bassists to use a wah pedal and to down-tune his instrument (from the standard E-A-D-G to the lower C#-F#-B-E), as exemplified on Black Sabbath's "Master of Reality" album, to match Iommi who had started tuning his guitar to C# (a minor third down). During the band's Ozzy Osbourne era, Butler wrote most of the band's lyrics, drawing heavily upon his fascination with religion, science-fiction, fantasy and horror, and musings on the darker side of human nature that posed a constant threat of global annihilation.


title: Geezer Butler

text: Butler is regarded as one of the most influential bassists in heavy metal. Billy Sheehan of Mr. Big said: "He's a founding father of a whole genre of music and a man who really set the bar early on to be such an integral part of the sound and song structure of Sabbath". In Mick Wall's biography of Iron Maiden entitled "Run to the Hills", founder Steve Harris recalls: "I distinctly remember trying to play along to Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" – at first I just could not get it. I threw the guitar on my bed and walked out in a huff, but the next day I came back, picked it up and played it all the way through note-for-note! Once I got going, I started getting into bass-lines with a bit more subtlety to them...".


title: Geezer Butler

text: Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, who defined him his "number 1 influence", stated: "All true metal bassists look up to Geezer as a pioneer and Godfather of our chosen instrument. The best, ever". Rex Brown of Pantera and Kill Devil Hill asserted: "He's a legend. He's everything. Geezer is so much of an influence on me. Other bassists such as Peter Steele, Cliff Burton, Les Claypool, Steve Di Giorgio, Alex Webster, John Myung, Johnny Lee Middleton, Greg Smith cited Butler as a significant influence on their style.


title: Geezer Butler

text: Butler is married to Gloria Butler, who managed Heaven & Hell. He was divorced from his first wife in 1980. He also shares his Los Angeles home with several cats, of whom he has posted pictures on his website. His oldest son, Biff Butler, was the frontman in the nu metal band Apartment 26. Butler says Biff is very religious and brings up his children in the Catholic faith. Butler's other son James earned a degree in social sciences from Oxford University and resides in London. Butler describes him as "very politically minded". "My youngest is extremely left-wing, and I think it's because he was brought up knowing wealth and money, whereas I was brought up having no money whatsoever. That's where the church came in and made up for the lack of money because everybody knew each other in the street and everybody used to help each other out", Butler said.


title: Geezer Butler

text: Butler is a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa Football Club, and during Black Sabbath's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Butler is heard shouting "Up the Villa" as the members of the band left the stage. He has referred to football as his "religion" and has stated that Villa legend Peter McParland is his "all-time hero".


title: Geezer Butler

text: According to Osbourne, Butler "never uses foul language". He was raised on a vegetarian diet, largely due to his family being too poor to buy meat on a regular basis, and has been a vegan since approximately 1994. His mother was also a vegetarian.


title: Geezer Butler

text: Butler appeared in a promotional ad for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in 2009 and later urged fans to boycott Fortnum & Mason until they remove foie gras from their shelves. Butler said, "I've seen some outrageous things in my time, but watching those poor birds suffer simply so that their diseased livers can be sold on your shop floor is horrific!"


title: Geezer Butler

text: Over the years, Butler has become disillusioned with politics, saying "For me, it's almost pointless voting anymore because it seems to be the same no matter what party or politics you stand for. It all seems corrupted to me. It's all the same old people that rule the world." He has also expressed concern over the increasing level of control government has in people's lives. "Every time I go back to England, there are things that totally surprise me that you never think would happen in England, just all the CCTV everywhere. There seems to be so much control over people these days", he said in 2014.


title: Geezer Butler

text: In January 2015, Butler was briefly detained after a bar brawl in Death Valley, California and charged with misdemeanour assault, public intoxication and vandalism. He was released following detoxification and a citation. In 2016 he opened up about the event: "This guy started mouthing off about something. He was, like, some drunken Nazi bloke. He [...] started going on about Jews and everything - Jews this, Jews that. My missus is Jewish and I'd just had enough, and me hand sort of met his chin. I whacked him one."


title: Geezer Butler

text: Butler currently endorses Lakland basses and has his own signature model. For amplification, Butler is endorsed by Hartke bass amplification, "Kilo" bass head and 4X10 HyDrive cabinet. In the past, he has been known to use Ampeg SVT and B-15 bass amps, and Fender, Dan Armstrong Plexi, Rickenbacker, Yamaha BB, Vigier and B.C. Rich Basses.


title: Milind Soman

text: Milind Soman (born 4 November 1965) is an Indian actor, supermodel, film producer, and fitness enthusiast. He was a contestant on " Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 3".


title: Milind Soman

text: Soman was born on 4 November 1965 in Glasgow, Scotland in a Marathi family. His family moved to Scotland/UK where he lived until the age of seven, then his family moved back to Mumbai, India in 1973. He attended Dr. Antonio Da Silva High School and Jr. College of Commerce, Bombay. Later, he completed his Diploma in Electrical Engineering.


title: Milind Soman

text: Milind Soman met Mylene Jampanoi, a French actress, on the sets of their 2006 film, "Valley of Flowers". The couple married in July 2006 at a resort in Goa. Soman and Jampanoi separated in 2008 and divorced in 2009.


title: Milind Soman

text: In 1995, Soman got featured in Alisha Chinai's music video, "Made in India". The same year, he made his debut as a television actor in "A Mouthful of Sky". Later, he was seen in the Indian science fiction TV Series "Captain Vyom"


title: Milind Soman

text: and also played part in the TV series "Sea Hawks". Soman has worked in films such as "Pachaikili Muthucharam", "Paiyaa", "Agni Varsha" and "". In 2007 he appeared in "Bhram", "Say Salaam India" and "Bheja Fry". In 2009 he acted in Sachin Kundalkar's Marathi film "Gandha". He has also acted in English language, foreign language films and television series, including "Valley of Flowers" and "The Flag". In the Swedish film "Arn – The Knight Templar" he portrayed Saladin, the revered 12th-century Kurdish leader of the Arabs and Muslims. He was also seen playing an important role in the film "Bajirao Mastani".


title: Milind Soman

text: In 2010, he participated in the reality show "." He was also seen in Amazon Prime series "Four More Shots Please" as Dr. Aamir Warsi and Alt Balaji series "Paurashpur" as Boris.


title: Milind Soman

text: He started swimming at age of 6. He has represented Maharashtra at the age of 10 in various age groups before going on to represent his state at the senior level. Soman represented India in swimming in the inaugural South Asian Games (then known as South Asian Federation Games) in 1984 held at Kathmandu where he won a Silver medal. In 2015, Milind completed the Ironman challenge in 15 hours and 19 minutes , in his first try.


title: Milind Soman

text: In 1995, Milind Soman and his then-girlfriend, Madhu Sapre, an ex-Miss India and model attracted controversy in India, when the pair posed nude in a print ad for Tuffs Shoes. The social service branch of the Mumbai police had registered a case in August 1995 after Sapre and Soman posed in the nude, wearing only shoes and a python wrapped around them. Another case was filed under the Wildlife Protection Act against the advertising agency for illegal use of the python. The accused include the publishers and distributors of two magazines that featured the controversial ad, the advertising agency, the two models, and the photographers. The case dragged on for 14 years, after which the courts acquitted the accused.


title: Milind Soman

text: On his 55th birthday in 2020, Soman shared a picture of himself running in the nude on a beach in Goa. The incident led to the creation of many Internet memes featuring the picture.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: Baldur's Gate is a series of role-playing video games set in the Forgotten Realms "Dungeons & Dragons" campaign setting. The game has spawned two series, known as the "Bhaalspawn Saga" and the "Dark Alliance", both taking place mostly within the Western Heartlands, but the Bhaalspawn Saga extends to Amn and Tethyr. The "Dark Alliance" series was released for consoles and was critically and commercially successful. The "Bhaalspawn Saga" was critically acclaimed for using pausable realtime gameplay, which is credited with revitalizing the computer role-playing game (CRPG) genre.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: The "Bhaalspawn Saga" was originally developed by BioWare for personal computers. In 2012, Atari revealed that Beamdog and Overhaul Games would remake the games in HD. The "Dark Alliance" series was originally set to be developed by Snowblind Studios, but ports were handled by Black Isle Studios, High Voltage Software, and Magic Pockets, with the second game developed by Black Isle.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: Black Isle Studios had planned a third series to be set in the Dalelands and be a PC-exclusive hack and slash game with pausable real-time gameplay. The game would not have been connected to the Bhaalspawn Saga series. However, the game was cancelled when Interplay forfeited the D&D PC license to Atari.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: The series was revived in 2012 with the announcement of "", an update of the original "Baldur's Gate" using an enhanced Infinity Engine. The release of the Enhanced Edition marked the first release in the series in eight years, and was followed by an enhanced edition of the second "Baldur's Gate" called "". Beamdog was granted permission to develop new games with the license, with two games in development, codenamed "Adventure Y" and "Adventure Z"; "Adventure Y" was revealed to be "", an expansion for "Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition". "Baldur's Gate III" is currently in development at Larian Studios, the creators of the "" series.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: The "Baldur's Gate" series brought technical advancements over role-playing video games of the past. BioWare's Infinity Engine offers a pre-rendered isometric worldview, with sprite-based characters. "Baldur's Gate" was the third computer game to make use of the Lua scripting language. The engine was used for "" and the "Icewind Dale" series.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: The games are based on a real-time modification of the second edition "AD&D" ("Advanced Dungeons & Dragons") ruleset. The player's party can have up to six members, either created by the player according to the "AD&D" rules or non-player characters (NPCs) recruited by the protagonist from the game world. Numerous side quests and plot twists are associated with particular NPCs and can be activated if they are found in the player's party. Through extensive, context-dependent dialogue, many characters inside and outside the player's party are fleshed out and given an added level of complexity.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: The first game in the series was "Baldur's Gate" and introduces the player character as a powerless orphan raised in the monastery of Candlekeep, south of Baldur's Gate and north of the kingdom of Amn. The main character searches for the killer of their foster father Gorion, and becomes involved with the region's iron crisis which causes metal to crumble, while battling to stay alive. An expansion pack for Baldur's Gate called "Tales of the Sword Coast" did not add to the primary storyline, but presented the protagonist with more areas to explore along the Sword Coast, more powerful enemies, more spells, and better equipment. It also allows the player character to reach higher levels of experience, made some general changes to gameplay, and altered the original game's final battle.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: The sequel to "Baldur's Gate" was "Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn". The main character is captured by Jon Irenicus and must escape into the city of Athkatla, the capital of Amn. Here the protagonist faces several different ways to figure out the reason behind the capture, as they journey through the region of Amn and the Underdark. The game presents a number of innovations over the first "Baldur's Gate" game, including further specialization of character classes, better graphics, and higher power levels. It also allowed more interaction with the game's joinable NPCs, including friendships, romances, and your own party members' interactions with one another. "Throne of Bhaal" is an expansion pack for "Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn", and includes both an expansion of the original game, such as new areas to explore, and a conclusion to the Bhaalspawn story arc started in the first Baldur's Gate game.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: The third main title, "Baldur's Gate III", will be developed by Larian Studios in partnership with Wizards of the Coast, which holds the license for the "Dungeons & Dragons" IP. It is expected to be released at a yet undisclosed date for Windows and Mac OS systems.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: The action role-playing game "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance" was developed by Snowblind Studios and others, and released in 2001 for the PlayStation 2 console, and later Xbox and GameCube video game consoles. The game takes place in the city of "Baldur's Gate" and surrounding area and is set in the "Forgotten Realms" setting, with a ruleset derived from the 3rd edition of Dungeon & Dragons; the plot is unrelated to previous PC games. The console version used an overhead third person view, and hack-and-slash dungeon crawl style gameplay. A Game Boy Advance version was released in 2004, with reduced graphics quality using an 2.5D isometric type perspective. While all ports were very well received, the original for the PlayStation 2 was the only one that gained universal acclaim.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: A sequel, "" was developed by Black Isle Studios and released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox; the game used the same gameplay style as the original, and was also positively reviewed. The gameplay style was expanded to make the game more like a role-playing game, the ability to craft weapons, armor and amulets was added, "Baldur's Gate" became a hub city with the addition of a world map and being able to travel back to areas, making the game open world and many more side-quests were added as well as the ability to level up one's class.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: In March 2019, Tuque Games announced that it was developing a "Dungeons & Dragons" game in partnership with Wizards of the Coast. Wizards of the Coast then acquired Tuque Games in October 2019. The game "" was officially announced with a teaser trailer shown during The Game Awards 2019 on December 12, 2019. Tuque Games studio head Jeff Hattem described the game as a "spiritual successor" to the previous "Dark Alliance" games, rather than a direct sequel. Hattem and lead game designer Kevin Neibert have also clarified that "Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance" will use a more "intimate" third-person perspectives rather than the traditional 2.5D isometric perspective of the previous "Dark Alliance" games.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: The original game was remade in 2012 by Overhaul Games, later becoming Beamdog, 14 years after the release of the original game. It was re-released on multiple platforms as "", a collection of the original game and its expansion "Tales of the Sword Coast". A brand new expansion named "" was released on March 31, 2016.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: On March 15, 2012, "" was announced. It was developed by Overhaul Games for PC, Mac, and iPad. It features "a re-forged version of the Infinity Engine with a variety of modern improvements." "Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition" was announced as a Beamdog exclusive that would feature some new content and widescreen compatibility, and would continue to utilize 2nd Edition D&D rules. Beamdog since also made enhanced versions of other Infinity Engine games, including "Icewind Dale", "" and "Neverwinter Nights".


title: Baldur's Gate

text: The enhanced versions were released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in October 2019.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: Overhaul Games announced that, after finishing the Enhanced Editions of "Baldur's Gate" and "Baldur's Gate II", they would be developing "Baldur's Gate 3" with funding from Kickstarter, as "Wasteland 2" had gotten. Overhaul Games later clarified their "Baldur's Gate" game to be a separate game from "The Black Hound". Game developer Trent Oster suggested Thay and Waterdeep as possible settings for the game. Beamdog began calling the game "Baldur's Gate Next" as a way to differentiate it from the Bhaalspawn Saga.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: In September 2016, Interplay Entertainment placed its entire catalogue of video game intellectual properties (IP) and assets up for sale, including that of "Dark Alliance". Overhaul Games later confirmed that their chances were slim of acquiring the "Dark Alliance" IP and assets.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: "Baldur's Gate III" was announced on June 6, 2019, to be released for Google's Stadia and PC. It is being developed at Larian Studios, the Belgian developer behind the "" series. "Baldur’s Gate III" will be based on "current D&D mechanics and spells and is the official new chapter in the legendary series," according to a press release.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: "" was announced on December 12, 2019, to be released for PC and consoles. It was billed as a spiritual successor to the "" games, and will feature a storyline based on characters from R. A. Salvatore's novel series "The Legend of Drizzt".


title: Baldur's Gate

text: During Baldur's Gate 2021 Panel From Hell livestream studio head Swen Vincke revealed that the target release date for "Baldur's Gate 3" would be "hopefully somewhere in 2022."


title: Baldur's Gate

text: "Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound" (code named "Jefferson" and "FR6") was mentioned in early 2001 as a new game in the Baldur's Gate series to be made by Black Isle Studios using a new 3D engine. The game was originally announced in 2002 and was said to have used the 3rd Edition "Dungeons & Dragons" ruleset. Many new gameplay features were also going to be added to fit the 3rd Edition Ruleset better, elements from the "Dark Alliance" series would have also been borrowed. The game used the Jefferson Engine which featured 3D effects such as casting dynamic shadows.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: "The Black Hound" was originally going to be a departure from the high-powered epic of the Bhaalspawn saga to a low-key, role-playing plot. With protagonists progressing to around level four at the end of Black Isle Studios' typically large campaign and a hard cap at level eight, gameplay was refocussed to adventure, with emphasizing quests over combat. The game was only titled "Baldur's Gate" due to Interplay having lost the general "D&D" license to Atari, but still retaining the right to make "Baldur's Gate" and "Icewind Dale" branded "D&D" games (the same reason as for ""s title). The game was not going to be connected to the previous "Baldur's Gate" series in any way and would start a new series, the "Black Hound" series. It was to be a sequel in terms of gameplay and not story, although it would continue some aspects of the "Icewind Dale II" story.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: Development on "" was cancelled in 2003 and the third game in the "Dark Alliance" series was also cancelled in 2004 when Black Isle Studios was closed in 2004 by parent company Interplay Entertainment Corp. The engine for "The Black Hound" was re-purposed for the development of the similarly ill-fated "Van Buren" project, the working title for the eventual "Fallout 3". The game was 75% finished before it was canceled. Its cancellation happened due to Interplay losing the right to publish "Baldur's Gate" games on the PC yet retaining the "Baldur's Gate" name for consoles, the result of this was "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II".


title: Baldur's Gate

text: In an interview with Winterwind Productions, "Black Hound" developer Damien Foletto revealed the story and setting of the game, which would have been in the Dalelands. The player character would have been resting at their campsite when a woman chasing a Black Hound crashes in; she kills the hound, which dies on the player character 's lap. Accusing the player character of being in league with the dog, she is about to kill the player character as well, but the Riders of Archendale arrive and scare her off before questioning the player character. After a brief inquisition, the local magistrates tell the player character not to wander far because they may have more questions. The player's quest would involve finding out who the mad cleric was, what this has to do with them, why a black spirit hound follows them around, and why people can not leave the player character alone and do things for themselves instead.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: On December 2, 2008, Atari stated in a press conference that the "Baldur's Gate" series (among others) would be revisited after 2009. As a personal side project, Sawyer continued work on "The Black Hound" as a module for "Neverwinter Nights 2" for a time.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: The "Baldur's Gate" series features a wide array of noteworthy characters. Some characters can be recruited by the player as party members and accompany the player character in their adventures. Other major characters influence the plot of the game but are not playable characters, serving as either antagonists or supporting characters in their interactions with the player character. The player character for the main series is fully customizable, whereas the "Dark Alliance" sub-series feature a choice of defined characters for the player to choose from.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: In addition, a number of major "Forgotten Realms" characters make guest appearances throughout the "Baldur's Gate" series, such as Drizzt Do'Urden, Elminster, and Volothamp Geddarm. Drizzt in particular appears alongside his fellow Companions of the Hall, Bruenor Battlehammer, Catti-brie and Wulfgar as the protagonists of the 2021 video game "", a spiritual successor to "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance" and "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II".


title: Baldur's Gate

text: Philip Athans, editor of the "Forgotten Realms" novel line, wrote the first two novels in the "Baldur's Gate" trilogy of novels: "Baldur's Gate" and "Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn", both are novelizations of the video game series' storylines. The novels follow the basic outline of the original stories, but eschew several of the games' numerous subplots and include only a few of the NPCs. The Bhaalspawn main character is named Abdel Adrian in the novels. The third novel, "Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal", was authored by Drew Karpyshyn.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: In July 2014, a comic titled "Dungeons & Dragons: Legends of Baldur's Gate" was announced to be released in October 2014. It is set generations after "Throne of Bhaal", and features Minsc as the main character. It is written by Jim Zub and pencilled by Max Dunbar. It is part of the "Dungeons & Dragons" 40th anniversary celebrations.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: In 1999, "Baldur's Gate" won the Origins Award for "Best Role Playing Game Computer Game of 1998", and in 2000, "Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast" won "Best Role Game Playing Game Computer Game of 1999". The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences would award "Baldur's Gate" the AIAS award for PC Role Playing Game of the Year. "Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal" and "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance" too would later win AIAS awards for Role Playing Game of the Year, taking the award for both its PC and Console categories in the year 2001. "Dark Alliance II" would later be awarded the 2004 RPG of the Year Award by the surviving GameFan website, later being inducted into the GameFan Hall of Fame. By June 2001, the series sold more than 3.5 million units worldwide.


title: Baldur's Gate

text: "PC Gamer's" Paul Dean noted that the series "has always been as much about who these characters were as what they could do". He considered "Baldur’s Gate's" characters as the cornerstone of the series, and that some of them were the best RPG companions ever written.


title: Hardcore Pawn

text: Hardcore Pawn is an American reality television series produced by RDF USA (later Zodiak USA) and Richard Dominick Productions for truTV about the day-to-day operations of American Jewelry and Loan, a family-owned and -operated pawn shop and broker in Detroit, Michigan's 8 Mile Road corridor.


title: Hardcore Pawn

text: The series premiered on August 16, 2010, delivering two million viewers, setting a record as truTV's most-watched series premiere ever. Production was halted in 2014.


title: Hardcore Pawn

text: American Jewelry and Loan is owned by Les Gold, a third-generation pawnbroker and businessman, and the grandson of a pawnbroker who once owned Sam's Loans, a now-defunct pawnshop on Michigan Avenue in Detroit. Les first opened American Jewelry at the Green Eight Shopping Center on 8 Mile Road in Oak Park in 1978, moving to its present location in 1993.


title: Hardcore Pawn

text: In 2011, American Jewelry expanded to its second location when it acquired Premier Jewelry and Loan in Pontiac; the new location was featured in the first few episodes of "Hardcore Pawn"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s fifth season, and in two episodes of the sixth season, where Les's son and co-owner/employee Seth attempts to sell the Pontiac location behind Les's back.


title: Hardcore Pawn

text: Les' only son, Seth, is an alumnus of the University of Michigan and has been a co-owner of American Jewelry since graduating from school. Seth handles the store's marketing division and claims that if it was not for him, the shop's only marketing campaign would be "an ad in the Yellow Pages". Les's daughter, Ashley, has a bachelor's degree in business administration from Michigan State University and earned her graduate diamond certification from the Gemological Institute of America. Ashley is a co-owner of American Jewelry and has been working there for more than fifteen years, although she took three years off at one point for maternity leave. The sibling rivalry between her and Seth is a common element of many episodes.


title: Hardcore Pawn

text: During season 9, truTV decided not to order more episodes because of the network's new direction. truTV was concentrating on comedy programming and it was decided that "Hardcore Pawn" did not relate properly to other programs in the network's schedule. No other television networks showed interest in the series, and production was halted in 2014.


title: Hardcore Pawn

text: The show has been largely compared to similar reality program "Pawn Stars" on History, but in the vein of similar programs also on truTV ("Operation Repo" and "Lizard Lick Towing" for example), where it differs however is the focus being mainly on the human aspects of drama and interaction, rather than the actual significance of the items being brought into the shop.


title: Hardcore Pawn

text: Due to similarities to "Pawn Stars", "Hardcore Pawn" has been described as simply being a knock-off and a capitalization on the breakout success of "Pawn Stars". Les Gold defends the show with claims that his show is a true representation of what a pawn shop does, focusing on the human element and showing that people are suffering tough times and need money for basic necessities like food and rent.


title: Hardcore Pawn

text: According to Marc Juris of truTV, any similarities between the shows are coincidental. He also noted that "Hardcore Pawn" was in development for more than a year and two test episodes aired in December 2009. Regarding the initial identical time slot of Monday nights at 10 pm ET, opposite "Pawn Stars" at the time, Juris claimed the choice was made because "Hardcore Pawn" fit well with "Operation Repo". The second season debuted in December 2010, in the Tuesday at 9 pm ET timeslot.


title: Hardcore Pawn

text: The first season put an emphasis on the sad stories of people pawning their possessions and on the Golds' need to arm and otherwise protect themselves in dangerous Detroit. This was deemed too dark for television, and from the second season all mention of danger was dropped and pawn stories downplayed in favor of people selling unusual things and Les bargaining them down in price. Owner Les Gold said at the launch of the show that there would be no staged antics, products or characters on the show. However, "New York Post" writer Linda Stasi has opined that some situations in "Hardcore Pawn" are set up. Big Daddy, who was on a never-aired episode back in 2011, confirms that, although his particular segment was lightly coached and completely unscripted, he did observe at


title: Hardcore Pawn

text: In addition, Rich Pyle, one of the American Jewelry clerks who was featured in many episodes of "Hardcore Pawn", has since left the show and became host of another television series for the National Geographic Channel, "Meltdown", a series focusing on the recycling of precious metals. That series debuted on National Geographic on October 31, 2013.


title: The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

text: The Nutty Professor is a 1996 American science fiction black comedy film starring Eddie Murphy. It is a remake of the 1963 film of the same name, which starred Jerry Lewis, which itself was a parody of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde". The film co-stars Jada Pinkett, James Coburn, Larry Miller, Dave Chappelle, and John Ales.


title: The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

text: Filming began on 8 May 1995 and concluded on 8 September 1995. The original music score was composed by David Newman. The film won Best Makeup at the 69th Academy Awards.


title: The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

text: Murphy portrays a university professor, Sherman Klump, a brainy and kind-hearted man who is morbidly obese. A research scientist, academic, and lecturer, Klump develops a miraculous, but experimental, weight-loss pharmaceutical, and hoping to win the affection of the girl of his dreams, tests it upon himself. Just like Julius Kelp from the original film, Klump's vigorous, charismatic, but evil alter ego takes the name "Buddy Love". Murphy plays a total of seven characters in the film, including Sherman and most of Sherman's family, consisting of Sherman's older brother, Sherman's maternal grandmother, and both of Sherman's parents. Sherman's nephew is the only member of the family not to be portrayed by Eddie Murphy.


title: The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

text: The film received positive reviews, with critics particularly praising the makeup and Murphy's performance. The film's success spawned a sequel, "", released in 2000.


title: The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

text: Sherman Klump, a morbidly obese and kind-hearted professor at Wellman College, creates an experimental formula that reconstructs someone's DNA for weight to be lost easier. Sherman, during a date at a club, called The Scream, with Carla Purty, a chemistry graduate who is a big fan of his work, is made fun of for his weight by insult comic, Reggie Warrington. This influences him to test his serum on himself the next morning, losing 250 pounds within seconds. He initially celebrates the weight loss, but later finds the effects of the serum are only temporary. Sherman adopts a false identity, "Buddy Love", and invites Carla out on a date at The Scream again. Reggie is present again, and Buddy takes revenge for Sherman by heckling him mercilessly, topping it off with a sardonic interpretation of Minnie Riperton’s “Lovin’ You” on a piano. Sherman's "Buddy" persona starts to develop an independent personality due to the heightened testosterone levels of the transformation, gradually changing from his regular good-natured self to perverted and super-confident. This transformation is seen by Sherman's lab assistant, Jason.


title: The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

text: Buddy's identity also takes over Sherman's job and all the credit for his work. He meets Dean Richmond and wealthy businessman, Harlan Hartley, the latter planning to donate $10 million to the science department. Buddy shows the serum, which impresses Hartley and Dean Richmond to the point where they invite him to the Alumni Ball the next night. Buddy then cheats on Carla with three women, and Carla dumps him out of disgust. After being fired as a professor, Sherman attempts to stop the alter ego by destroying all of the serum samples, which he does with Jason's help. However, Buddy is hiding a sample of the serum in one of Sherman's diet shake cans, which Sherman drinks, causing him to transform into Buddy again. He then punches Jason, knocking him to the floor.


title: The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

text: Jason discovers Buddy's testosterone levels are at a lethally high 60,000% and gets to the ball in the middle of Buddy's demonstration of the serum. Buddy plans to drink the serum to get rid of Sherman, resulting in a fight between the two identities. Sherman eventually transforms into his regular self and admits his misdeeds to the shocked audience, including his parents, Cletus and Anna, and Carla. As he leaves, Carla stops him and asks why he lied; he says he did not believe that she would accept him. Carla forgives Sherman and invites him to dance with her. Jason presents Sherman with a tuxedo that will fit him. Richmond rehires Sherman and Hartley donates the grant to Wellman because he remarks that Sherman is "a brilliant scientist and a gentleman as well". Sherman and Carla continue to dance at the center with Sherman's mother cheering them on.


title: The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

text: Producer Brian Grazer pursued the idea of remaking "The Nutty Professor" with a black lead after it was suggested to him by music producer Russell Simmons. Murphy and Grazer had hoped John Landis would direct, having previously worked successfully with Murphy. Ultimately Tom Shadyac, director of "", joined the project. "The Nutty Professor" was the first Tom Shadyac film to feature outtakes over the closing credits.


title: The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

text: Murphy, Barry Blaustein and David Sheffield worked together on the screenplay. The film is not a strict remake of the Jerry Lewis film; Murphy said, "we stripped down the story to its bare bones and built it up to this whole different thing", adding elements from the story of Jekyll and Hyde as well as Cyrano de Bergerac.


title: The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

text: The film has a series of scenes with Murphy and comedian Dave Chappelle who plays insult comic Reggie Warrington. Much of their dialogue was improvised. Murphy was one of Chappelle's biggest comedic influences. Reggie Warrington is named after Reginald and Warrington Hudlin, brothers, and directors of one of Murphy's previous films, "Boomerang". Reginald Hudlin was stunned to see the obnoxious character was named after himself and his brother, and to see the character violently stuffed into a piano.


title: The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

text: The film was made with the help of Jerry Lewis. He was an executive producer for both this film and the 2000 sequel "The Klumps". In 2009 he expressed regret for allowing the remakes saying, "I have such respect for Eddie, but I should not have done it. What I did was perfect the first time around and all you're going to do is diminish that perfection by letting someone else do it."


title: The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

text: Rick Baker created the fat suits for Murphy. They were made from urethane foam and a spandex suit, and filled with pockets of liquid to make it jiggle believably. It took three hours to apply the makeup each day. Baker praised Murphy saying "He really makes the stuff come to life, and he never complains. When we did "The Nutty Professor" [...], he spent 80-odd days in the makeup chair. As much as I love makeup, even I would have been complaining by the end, but Eddie didn't."


title: The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

text: "The Nutty Professor" was a box office success, opening with $25,411,725 and reaching a domestic sum of $128,814,019, and $145,147,000 internationally, for a total of $273,961,019 worldwide.


title: The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

text: "The Nutty Professor" has received generally positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 64% based on reviews from 55 critics, with an average rating of 5.90/10. The site's consensus states: ""The Nutty Professor" falls back on juvenile humor eagerly and often, but Eddie Murphy's consistently funny work in dual roles means more for audiences to love." Metacritic gave the film a score of 62 out of 100, based on reviews from 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A− on scale of A to F.


title: The Nutty Professor (1996 film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film 3 stars out of 4, calling it "a movie that's like a thumb to the nose for everyone who said [Murphy had] lost it. He's very good. And the movie succeeds in two different ways: it's sweet and good-hearted, and then again it's raucous slapstick and bathroom humor. I liked both parts." Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a B+, writing "You can feel Murphy rediscovering his joy as a performer. He rediscovers it, too, as Sherman Klump, a fellow who, much like Murphy, is on the bottom rung, desperate to reinvent himself, and — at long last — does." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film a positive review, saying "Eddie Murphy is funny again. Sadly, he lacks the guts to follow through on the cathartic self-satire that gives the film its distinction." Travers praised the amazing fat makeup by Rick Baker, but criticizes the easy fat jokes, and concludes "Only when Murphy stops skewering the compulsive overeater in his nutty professor and targets the sexist pig does the film hit home."


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: The "Exxon Valdez" oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989. "Exxon Valdez", an oil supertanker owned by Exxon Shipping Company bound for Long Beach, California struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef, west of Tatitlek, Alaska at 12:04 a.m. and spilled (or 37,000 tonnes) of crude oil over the next few days.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: The "Exxon Valdez" spill is the second largest in U.S. waters, after the 2010 "Deepwater Horizon" oil spill, in terms of volume of oil released. Prince William Sound's remote location, accessible only by helicopter, plane, or boat, made government and industry response efforts difficult and made existing response plans especially hard to implement. The region is a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals, and seabirds. The oil, extracted from the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, eventually affected of coastline, of which were heavily or moderately oiled.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: "Exxon Valdez" was carrying of oil, of which approximately were spilled into the Prince William Sound.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: The ship docked at the Valdez Marine Terminal at 11:30 p.m. on March 22, 1989. Loading of crude oil was completed late in the day on the 23rd. The tanker left the terminal at 9:12 p.m. March 23, 1989 (the deck log shows that it was clear of the dock at 9:21p.m.), loaded with 53,094,510 gallons (1,264,155 barrels) of crude oil. Captain Joseph Hazelwood retired to his cabin at 9:25p.m. Harbor pilot William Murphy and Third Mate Gregory Cousins were accompanied by a single tug for the passage through the Valdez Narrows – a journey of about 7 miles. The pilot left the bridge shortly after the vessel left the narrows, at 11:24p.m. At this point, the captain was called to the bridge. Cousins helped the pilot disembark from the vessel, leaving the captain as the only officer on the bridge. At 11:25p.m. "Exxon Valdez" reported that the pilot had left. The third mate advised traffic control and decided to deviate from the predetermined traffic lane to avoid small icebergs; a common occurrence since the Columbia Glacier calved such icebergs nearby. The vessel was placed on a due south course and set on autopilot. At 11:47p.m. the vessel left the traffic lane's eastern boundary.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Third Mate Cousins had been on duty for 6 hours and was scheduled to be relieved by Second Mate Lloyd LeCain Jr. However, due to the long hours that the second mate had worked, Cousins was reluctant to wake him, and remained on duty. Cousins was the only officer on the bridge for most of the night, in violation of company policy. At around midnight on March 24 Cousins began to maneuver the vessel into the traffic lanes. At the same time, the lookout reported that the Bligh Reef light appeared far off the starboard bow at 45 degrees – this was problematic given that the light should have been off the port side. Cousins ordered a course change as the ship was in danger. Captain Hazelwood was phoned by Cousins, but before their conversation could finish, the ship grounded. At 12:04a.m., accompanied by what the helmsman and Cousins described as “a bumpy ride and “six very sharp jolts” respectively, the ship ran aground on Bligh Reef.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Carried by its own momentum, the ship ended up perched on its middle on a pinnacle of rock. 8 out of 11 cargo holds were punctured. 5.8 million gallons of oil drained from the ship within 3 hours and 15 minutes. 30 minutes after numerous attempts to dislodge the ship under her own power, Captain Hazelwood radioed the Coast Guard informing them of the grounding. For more than 45 minutes after the grounding, the captain attempted to maneuver free of the reef despite being informed by First Mate James Kunkel that the vessel was not structurally sound without the reef supporting it.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Captain Hazelwood, who was widely reported to have been drinking heavily that night, was not at the controls when the ship struck the reef. Exxon blamed Hazelwood for the grounding of the tanker, but he accused the corporation of making him a scapegoat.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: In a 1990 trial he was charged with criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, and piloting a vessel while intoxicated, but was cleared of the three charges. He was convicted of misdemeanor negligent discharge of oil. 21 witnesses testified that he did not appear to be under the influence of alcohol around the time of the accident.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Other factors, according to an MIT course entitled "Software System Safety" by Professor Nancy G. Leveson, included:


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: This disaster resulted in International Maritime Organization introducing comprehensive marine pollution prevention rules (MARPOL) through various conventions. The rules were ratified by member countries and, under International Ship Management rules, the ships are being operated with a common objective of "safer ships and cleaner oceans."


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: In 2009, Captain Hazelwood offered a "heartfelt apology" to the people of Alaska, suggesting he had been wrongly blamed for the disaster: "The true story is out there for anybody who wants to look at the facts, but that's not the sexy story and that's not the easy story," he said. Hazelwood said he felt Alaskans always gave him a fair shake.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Chemical dispersant, a surfactant and solvent mixture, was applied to the slick by a private company on March 24 with a helicopter, but the helicopter missed the target area. Scientific data on its toxicity were either thin or incomplete. In addition, public acceptance of new, widespread chemical treatment was lacking. Landowners, fishing groups, and conservation organizations questioned the use of chemicals on hundreds of miles of shoreline when other alternatives might have been available."


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: According to a report by David Kirby for TakePart, the main component of the Corexit formulation used during cleanup, 2-butoxyethanol, was identified as "one of the agents that caused liver, kidney, lung, nervous system, and blood disorders among cleanup crews in Alaska following the 1989 "Exxon Valdez" spill.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Mechanical cleanup was started shortly afterward using booms and skimmers, but the skimmers were not readily available during the first 24 hours following the spill, and thick oil and kelp tended to clog the equipment. Despite civilian insistence for a complete cleanup, only 10% of total oil was actually completely cleaned. Exxon was widely criticized for its slow response to cleaning up the disaster and John Devens, the mayor of Valdez, said his community felt betrayed by Exxon's inadequate response to the crisis. More than 11,000 Alaska residents, along with some Exxon employees, worked throughout the region to try to restore the environment.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Though the clean-up effort was diligent it failed to contain the majority of the oil that had spilled and that has been blamed heavily upon Exxon. On November 26, 1984 Ronald A. Kreizenbeck(Director, Alaska Operations Office) informed the Coast Guard that the EPA suspected, due to a recent site-visitation during a 'Annual Marine Drill' that the Port of Valdez was not prepared to 'efficiently respond to a major spill event'. In the letter, he stated that '[it] appears that the Vikoma boom and/or deployment vessels used may not be adequate to handle the harsh environmental conditions of Port Valdez'


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Because Prince William Sound contained many rocky coves where the oil was collected, the decision was made to displace it with high-pressure hot water. However, this also displaced and destroyed the microbial populations on the shoreline; many of these organisms (e.g. plankton) are the basis of the coastal marine food chain, and others (e.g. certain bacteria and fungi) are capable of facilitating the biodegradation of oil. At the time, both scientific advice and public pressure was to clean everything, but since then, a much greater understanding of natural and facilitated remediation processes has developed, due somewhat in part to the opportunity presented for study by the "Exxon Valdez" spill. Despite the extensive cleanup attempts, less than ten percent of the oil was recovered.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Both long-term and short-term effects of the oil spill have been studied. Immediate effects include the deaths of between 100,000 and 250,000 seabirds, at least 2,800 sea otters, approximately 12 river otters, 300 harbor seals, 247 bald eagles, and 22 orcas, and an unknown number of salmon and herring.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Nine years after the disaster, evidence of negative oil spill effects on marine birds was found in the following species: cormorants, goldeneyes, mergansers, murres and pigeon guillemots.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Although the volume of oil has declined considerably, with oil remaining only about 0.14–0.28% of the original spilled volume, studies suggest that the area of oiled beach has changed little since 1992. A study by the National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA in Juneau, determined that by 2001 approximately 90 tonnes of oil remained on beaches in Prince William Sound in the sandy soil of the contaminated shoreline, with annual loss rates declining from 68% per year prior to 1992, to 4% per year after 2001.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: The remaining oil lasting far longer than anticipated has resulted in more long-term losses of species than had been expected. Laboratory experiments found that at levels as low as one part per billion, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are toxic for salmon and herring eggs. Species as diverse as sea otters, harlequin ducks, and orcas suffered immediate and long-term losses. Oiled mussel beds and other tidal shoreline habitats may take up to 30 years to recover.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: ExxonMobil denied concerns over the remaining oil, stating that they anticipated the remaining fraction would not cause long-term ecological impacts. According to the conclusions of ExxonMobil's study: "We've done 350 peer-reviewed studies of Prince William Sound, and those studies conclude that Prince William Sound has recovered, it's healthy and it's thriving."


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: On March 24, 2014, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the spill, NOAA scientists reported that some species seem to have recovered, with the sea otter the latest creature to return to pre-spill numbers. Scientists who have monitored the spill area for the last 25 years report that concern remains for one of two pods of local orca whales, with fears that one pod may eventually die out. Federal scientists estimate that between 16,000 and 21,000 US gallons (61 to 79 m) of oil remains on beaches in Prince William Sound and up to 450 miles (725 km) away. Some of the oil does not appear to have biodegraded at all. A USGS scientist who analyses the remaining oil along the coastline states that it remains among rocks and between tide marks. "The oil mixes with seawater and forms an emulsion...Left out, the surface crusts over but the inside still has the consistency of mayonnaise – or mousse." Alaska state senator Berta Gardner is urging Alaskan politicians to demand that the US government force ExxonMobil to pay the final $92 million (£57 million) still owed from the court settlement. The major part of the money would be spent to finish cleaning up oiled beaches and attempting to restore the crippled herring population.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: As of 2012, the indirect and long-term sublethal effects of oil on shorebirds had been measured in relatively few studies.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: In October 1989, Exxon filed a suit against the State of Alaska, claiming that the state had interfered with Exxon's attempts to clean up the spill by refusing to approve the use of dispersant chemicals until the night of the 26th. The State of Alaska disputed this claim, stating that there was a long-standing agreement to allow the use of dispersants to clean up spills, thus Exxon did not require permission to use them, and that, in fact, Exxon had not had enough dispersant on hand to effectively handle a spill of the size created by "Exxon Valdez".


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Exxon filed claims in October 1990 against the Coast Guard, asking to be reimbursed for cleanup costs and damages awarded to plaintiffs in any lawsuits filed by the State of Alaska or the federal government against Exxon. The company claimed that the Coast Guard was "wholly or partially responsible" for the spill, because they had granted mariners' licenses to the crew of the Valdez, and because they had given "Exxon Valdez" permission to leave regular shipping lanes to avoid ice. They also reiterated the claim that the Coast Guard had delayed cleanup by refusing to give permission to immediately use chemical dispersants on the spill.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Also, in 1991, Exxon made a quiet, separate financial settlement of damages with a group of seafood producers known as the Seattle Seven for the disaster's effect on the Alaskan seafood industry. The agreement granted $63.75 million to the Seattle Seven, but stipulated that the seafood companies would have to repay almost all of any punitive damages awarded in other civil proceedings. The $5 billion in punitive damages was awarded later, and the Seattle Seven's share could have been as high as $750 million if the damages award had held. Other plaintiffs have objected to this secret arrangement, and when it came to light, Judge Holland ruled that Exxon should have told the jury at the start that an agreement had already been made, so the jury would know exactly how much Exxon would have to pay.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: In the case of "Exxon v. Baker", an Anchorage jury awarded $287 million for actual damages and $5 billion for punitive damages. To protect itself in case the judgment was affirmed, Exxon obtained a $4.8 billion credit line from J.P. Morgan & Co., who created the first modern credit default swap so that they would not have to hold as much money in reserve against the risk of Exxon's default.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Meanwhile, Exxon appealed the ruling, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the trial judge, Russel Holland, to reduce the punitive damages. On December 6, 2002, Holland announced that he had reduced the damages to $4 billion, which he concluded was justified by the facts of the case and was not grossly excessive. Exxon appealed again and the case returned to Holland to be reconsidered in light of a recent Supreme Court ruling in a similar case. Holland increased the punitive damages to $4.5 billion, plus interest.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: After more appeals, in December 2006 the damages award was cut to $2.5 billion. The court of appeals cited recent Supreme Court rulings relative to limits on punitive damages.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Exxon appealed again. On May 23, 2007, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied ExxonMobil's request for a third hearing and let stand its ruling that Exxon owed $2.5 billion in punitive damages. Exxon then appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case. On February 27, 2008, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments. Justice Samuel Alito, who at the time owned between $100,000 and $250,000 in Exxon stock, recused himself from the case. In a decision issued June 25, 2008, written by Justice David Souter, the court vacated the $2.5 billion award and remanded the case back to the lower court, finding that the damages were excessive with respect to maritime common law. Exxon's actions were deemed "worse than negligent but less than malicious." The punitive damages were further reduced to an amount of $507.5 million. The Court's ruling was that maritime punitive damages should not exceed the compensatory damages, supported by a precedent dating from 1818. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy has decried the ruling as "another in a line of cases where this Supreme Court has misconstrued congressional intent to benefit large corporations."


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Exxon's official position was that punitive damages greater than $25 million were not justified because the spill resulted from an accident, and because Exxon spent an estimated $2 billion cleaning up the spill and a further $1 billion to settle related civil and criminal charges. Attorneys for the plaintiffs contended that Exxon bore responsibility for the accident because the company "put a drunk in charge of a tanker in Prince William Sound." Exxon recovered a significant portion of clean-up and legal expenses through insurance claims associated with the grounding of "Exxon Valdez".


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: As of December 15, 2009, Exxon had paid the entire $507.5 million in punitive damages, including lawsuit costs, plus interest, which were further distributed to thousands of plaintiffs. This amount was 1/10th of the original punitive damages, Exxon remained hugely profitable, the process of payment was drawn out over decades, and long term damage continues and is not funded by Exxon. Hence, the Exxon spill is often cited as shorthand for corporate responsibility for societal damage not being enforced adequately.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: A 1989 report by the Coast Guard's U.S. National Response Center summarized the event and made many recommendations, including that neither Exxon, Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, the State of Alaska, nor the federal government were prepared for a spill of this magnitude.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: In response to the spill, the United States Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA). The legislation included a clause that prohibits any vessel that, after March 22, 1989, has caused an oil spill of more than in any marine area, from operating in Prince William Sound.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: In April 1998, the company argued in a legal action against the federal government that the ship should be allowed back into Alaskan waters. Exxon claimed OPA was effectively a bill of attainder, a regulation that was unfairly directed at Exxon alone. In 2002, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Exxon. As of 2002, OPA had prevented 18 ships from entering Prince William Sound.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: OPA also set a schedule for the gradual phase-in of a double hull design, providing an additional layer between the oil tanks and the ocean. While a double hull would likely not have prevented the "Exxon Valdez" disaster, a Coast Guard study estimated that it would have cut the amount of oil spilled by 60 percent.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: "Exxon Valdez" was towed to San Diego, arriving on July 10. Repairs began on July 30. Approximately of steel were removed and replaced. In June 1990, the tanker, renamed "Exxon Mediterranean", left the harbor after $30 million of repairs. In 1993, owned by SeaRiver Maritime, it was named "S/R Mediterranean", then in 2005 "Mediterranean". In 2008 the vessel was acquired by a Hong Kong company that operated her as "Dong Fang Ocean", then in 2011 renamed her "Oriental Nicety". In August 2012, she was beached at Dalian, China, and dismantled.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: In the aftermath of the spill, Alaska governor Steve Cowper issued an executive order requiring two tugboats to escort every loaded tanker from Valdez out through Prince William Sound to Hinchinbrook Entrance. As the plan evolved in the 1990s, one of the two routine tugboats was replaced with a Escort Response Vehicle (ERV). Tankers at Valdez are no longer single-hulled. Congress enacted legislation requiring all tankers to be double-hulled as of 2015.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: In 1991, following the collapse of the local marine population (particularly clams, herring, and seals) the Chugach Alaska Corporation, an Alaska Native Corporation, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It has since recovered.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: According to several studies funded by the state of Alaska, the spill had both short-term and long-term economic effects. These included the loss of recreational sports, fisheries, reduced tourism, and an estimate of what economists call "existence value", which is the value to the public of a pristine Prince William Sound.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: The economy of the city of Cordova, Alaska was adversely affected after the spill damaged stocks of salmon and herring in the area. The village of Chenega was transformed into an emergency base and media outlet. The local villagers had to cope with a tripling of their population from 80 to 250. When asked how they felt about the situation, a village councilor noted that they were too shocked and busy to be depressed; others emphasized the human costs of leaving children unattended while their parents worked to clean up. Many Native Americans were worried that too much time was spent on the fishery and not enough on the land that supports subsistence hunting.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: In 2010, CNN reported on studies concluding that many oil spill cleanup workers involved in the "Exxon Valdez" response had subsequently become sick, and warned those exposed to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to take heed. Anchorage lawyer Dennis Mestas found that this was true for 6,722 of 11,000 worker files he was able to inspect, despite access to the records being controlled by Exxon. Exxon denied this in a statement to CNN:


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Environmental activists and State officials became concerned that BP would use similar techniques to minimize liability and de-emphasize health impacts:


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: In 1992, Exxon released a video titled "Scientists and the Alaska Oil Spill" for distribution to schools. Critics said the video misrepresented the clean-up process.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: In December 1994, the Unabomber assassinated Burson-Marsteller executive Thomas J. Mosser, accusing him of having "helped Exxon clean up its public image after the "Exxon Valdez" incident".


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Several weeks after the spill, "Saturday Night Live" aired a pointed sketch featuring Kevin Nealon, Phil Hartman, and Victoria Jackson as cleanup workers struggling to scrub the oil off of animals and rocks on a beach in Prince William Sound.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: In the 1995 film "Waterworld", "Exxon Valdez" is the flagship of the movie's villain, "The Deacon," the leader of a band of scavenging raiders. In the ship is a portrait of their patron saint, Joseph Hazelwood.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: In the second Forrest Gump novel, "Gump and Co." by Winston Groom, Gump commandeers "Exxon Valdez" and accidentally crashes it.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: Composer Jonathan Larson wrote a song called "Iron Mike" about the oil spill. The song is written in the style of a sea shanty. It was first professionally recorded by George Salazar for the album "The Jonathan Larson Project".


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: On Sep 25, 1998, the fifth episode of the fourth season of "Pinky and the Brain", "The Pinky and the Brain Reunion Special," showed a brief snippet of Brain and Pinky boarding the "Exxon Valdez", thus insinuating they were the cause of the grounding.


title: Exxon Valdez oil spill

text: In season 2, episode 8, of "Breaking Bad", entitled "Better Call Saul", Walter White tells Jesse Pinkman that Brandon "Badger" Mayhew is going to spill like the "Exxon Valdez".


title: Fantasy film

text: Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction films and horror films, although the genres do overlap. Fantasy films often have an element of magic, myth, wonder, escapism, and the extraordinary. Prevalent elements include fairies, angels, mermaids, witches, monsters, wizards, unicorns, dragons, talking animals, ogres, elves, trolls, white magic, gnomes, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, demons, dwarves, giants, goblins, anthropomorphic or magical objects, familiars, curses and other enchantments, worlds involving magic, and the Middle Ages.


title: Fantasy film

text: Several sub-categories of fantasy films can be identified, although the delineations between these subgenres, much as in fantasy literature, are somewhat fluid.


title: Fantasy film

text: The most common fantasy subgenres depicted in movies are High Fantasy and Sword and Sorcery. Both categories typically employ quasi-medieval settings, wizards, magical creatures and other elements commonly associated with fantasy stories.


title: Fantasy film

text: High Fantasy films tend to feature a more richly developed fantasy world, and may also be more character-oriented or thematically complex. Often, they feature a hero of humble origins and a clear distinction between good and evil set against each other in an epic struggle. Many scholars cite J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" novel as the prototypical modern example of High Fantasy in literature, and the recent Peter Jackson film adaptation of the books is a good example of the High Fantasy subgenre on the silver screen.


title: Fantasy film

text: Sword and Sorcery movies tend to be more plot-driven than high fantasy and focus heavily on action sequences, often pitting a physically powerful but unsophisticated warrior against an evil wizard or other supernaturally endowed enemy. Although Sword and Sorcery films sometimes describe an epic battle between good and evil similar to those found in many High Fantasy movies, they may alternately present the hero as having more immediate motivations, such as the need to protect a vulnerable maiden or village, or even being driven by the desire for vengeance.


title: Fantasy film

text: The 1982 film adaptation of Robert E. Howard's "Conan the Barbarian", for example, is a personal (non-epic) story concerning the hero's quest for revenge and his efforts to thwart a single megalomaniac—while saving a beautiful princess in the process. Some critics refer to such films by the term Sword and Sandal rather than Sword and Sorcery, although others would maintain that the Sword and Sandal label should be reserved only for the subset of fantasy films set in ancient times on the planet Earth, and still others would broaden the term to encompass films that have no fantastic elements whatsoever. To some, the term Sword and Sandal has pejorative connotations, designating a film with a low-quality script, bad acting, and poor production values.


title: Fantasy film

text: Another important subgenre of fantasy films that has become more popular in recent years is contemporary fantasy. Such films feature magical effects or supernatural occurrences happening in the "real" world of today.


title: Fantasy film

text: Films with live action and animation such as Disney's "Mary Poppins", "Pete's Dragon", "Enchanted", and the Robert Zemeckis film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" are also fantasy films although are more often referred to as Live action/animation hybrids (2 of those are also classified as musicals).


title: Fantasy film

text: Fantasy films set in the afterlife, called Bangsian Fantasy, are less common, although films such as the 1991 Albert Brooks comedy "Defending Your Life" would likely qualify. Other uncommon subgenres include Historical Fantasy and Romantic Fantasy, although 2003's "" successfully incorporated elements of both.


title: Fantasy film

text: As noted above, superhero movies and fairy tale films might each be considered subgenres of fantasy films, although most would classify them as altogether separate movie genres.


title: Fantasy film

text: As a cinematic genre, fantasy has traditionally not been regarded as highly as the related gee of science fiction film. Undoubtedly, the fact that until recently fantasy films often suffered from the "Sword and Sandal" afflictions of inferior production values, over-the-top acting, and decidedly poor special effects was a significant factor in fantasy film's low regard.


title: Fantasy film

text: Since the early 2000s, however, the genre has gained new respectability in a way, driven principally by the successful adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series. Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy is notable due to its ambitious scope, serious tone, and thematic complexity. These pictures achieved phenomenal commercial and critical success, and the of the trilogy became the first fantasy film ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The "Harry Potter" series has been a tremendous financial success, has achieved critical acclaim for its design, thematic sophistication and emotional depth, grittier realism and darkness, narrative complexity, and characterization, and boasts an enormous and loyal fanbase.


title: Fantasy film

text: Following the success of these ventures, Hollywood studios have greenlighted additional big-budget productions in the genre. These have included adaptations of the first, second, and third books in C. S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia" series and the teen novel "Eragon", as well as adaptations of Susan Cooper's "The Dark Is Rising", Cornelia Funke's "Inkheart", Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass", Holly Black's "The Spiderwick Chronicles", Nickelodeon's TV show "", and the "Fantasia" segment (along with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's original poem) "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"


title: Fantasy film

text: Many fantasy movies starting in the 2000s, such as "The Lord of the Rings" films, the first and third "Narnia" adaptations, and the first, second, fourth and seventh "Harry Potter" adaptations have most often been released in November and December. This is in contrast to science fiction films, which are often released during the northern hemisphere summer (June–August). All three installments of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" fantasy films, however, were released in July 2003, July 2006, and May 2007 respectively, and the latest releases in the "Harry Potter" series were released in July 2007 and July 2009. The huge commercial success of these pictures may indicate a change in Hollywood's approach to big-budget fantasy film releases.


title: Fantasy film

text: Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identifies fantasy films as one of eleven super-genres in his screenwriters’ taxonomy, claiming that all feature length narrative films can be classified by these super-genres. The other ten super-genres are Action, Crime, Horror, Romance, Science Fiction, Slice of Life, Sports, Thriller, War and Western.


title: Fantasy film

text: Fantasy films have a history almost as old as the medium itself. However, fantasy films were relatively few and far between until the 1980s, when high-tech filmmaking techniques and increased audience interest caused the genre to flourish.


title: Fantasy film

text: In the era of silent film, the earliest fantasy films were those made by French film pioneer Georges Méliès from 1903. The most famous of these was 1902's "A Trip to the Moon". In the Golden Age of Silent film (1918–1926) the most outstanding fantasy films were Douglas Fairbanks' "The Thief of Bagdad" (1924), Fritz Lang's "Die Nibelungen" (1924), and "Destiny" (1921). Other notables in the genre were F.W. Murnau's romantic ghost story "Phantom", "Tarzan of the Apes" starring Elmo Lincoln, and D. W. Griffith's "The Sorrows of Satan".


title: Fantasy film

text: Following the advent of sound films, audiences of all ages were introduced from 1937's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" to 1939's "The Wizard of Oz". Also notable of the era, the iconic 1933 film "King Kong" borrows heavily from the Lost World subgenre of fantasy fiction as does such films as the 1935 adaptation of H. Rider Haggard's novel "She" about an African expedition that discovers an immortal queen known as Ayesha "She who must be obeyed". Frank Capra's 1937 picture "Lost Horizon" transported audiences to the Himalayan fantasy kingdom of Shangri-La, where the residents magically never age. Other noteworthy fantasy films of the 30s include "Tarzan the Ape Man" in 1932 starring Johnny Weissmuller starting a successful series of talking pictures based on the fantasy-adventure novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs and the G. W. Pabst directed "The Mistress of Atlantis" from 1932. 1932 saw the release of the Universal Studios monster movie "The Mummy" which combined horror with a romantic fantasy twist. more light-hearted and comedic affairs from the decade include films like 1934s romantic drama film "Death Takes a Holiday" where Fredric March plays Death who takes a human body to experience life for three days and 1937s "Topper" where a man is haunted by two fun-loving ghosts who try to make his life a little more exciting.


title: Fantasy film

text: The 1940s then saw several full-color fantasy films produced by Alexander Korda, including "The Thief of Bagdad" (1940), a film on par with "The Wizard of Oz", and "Jungle Book" (1942). In 1946, Jean Cocteau's classic adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast" won praise for its surreal elements and for transcending the boundaries of the fairy tale genre. "Sinbad the Sailor" (1947), starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., has the feel of a fantasy film though it does not actually have any fantastic elements.


title: Fantasy film

text: Several other pictures featuring supernatural encounters and aspects of Bangsian fantasy were produced in the 1940s during World War II. These include "Beyond Tomorrow", "The Devil and Daniel Webster", and "Here Comes Mr. Jordan", all from 1941, "Heaven Can Wait" the musical "Cabin in the Sky" (1943), the comedy "The Horn Blows at Midnight" and romances such as "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" (1947), "One Touch of Venus" and "Portrait of Jennie", both 1948.


title: Fantasy film

text: An astonishing anticipation of the full "sword and sorcery" genre was made in 1941 in Italy by Alessandro Blasetti. "La Corona di Ferro" presents the struggles of two imaginary kingdoms around the legendary Iron Crown (historically the ancient crown of Italy), with war, cruelty, betrayal, heroism, sex, magic and mysticism, a whirl of events taken from every possible fairy tale and legend source Blasetti could find. This movie is unlike anything done before; indeed, considering that it was finished fifteen years before the publication of Lord Of The Rings, its invention of a vast, national epic mythology is an act of genius. And while the storytelling is rough - due to the need to insert everything - and the resources limited, Blasetti shows how to make a little go a long way through beautifully staged and designed battle and crowd scenes.


title: Fantasy film

text: Although it's not classified as a fantasy film, Gene Kelly's "Anchors Aweigh" had a fantasy sequence called "The King who Couldn't Dance" in which Gene did a song and dance number with Jerry Mouse from Tom and Jerry.


title: Fantasy film

text: Because these movies do not feature elements common to high fantasy or sword and sorcery pictures, some modern critics do not consider them to be examples of the fantasy genre.


title: Fantasy film

text: In the 1950s there were a few major fantasy films, including "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" and "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.", the latter penned by Dr. Seuss. Jean Cocteau's Orphic Trilogy, begun in 1930 and completed in 1959, is based on Greek mythology and could be classified either as fantasy or surrealist film, depending on how the boundaries between these genres are drawn. Russian fantasy director Aleksandr Ptushko created three mythological epics from Russian fairytales, "Sadko" (1953), "Ilya Muromets" (1956), and "Sampo" (1959). Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi's 1953 film "Ugetsu Monogatari" draws on Japanese classical ghost stories of love and betrayal.


title: Fantasy film

text: Other notable pictures from the 1950s that feature fantastic elements and are sometimes classified as fantasy are "Harvey" (1950), featuring a púca of Celtic mythology; "Scrooge", the 1951 adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"; and Ingmar Bergman's 1957 masterpiece, "The Seventh Seal". Disney's 1951 animated film "Alice in Wonderland" is also a fantasy classic.


title: Fantasy film

text: There were also a number of lower budget fantasies produced in the 1950s, typically based on Greek or Arabian legend. The most notable of these may be 1958's "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad", featuring special effects by Ray Harryhausen and music by Bernard Herrmann.


title: Fantasy film

text: Harryhausen worked on a series of fantasy films in the 1960s, most importantly "Jason and the Argonauts" (1963). Many critics have identified this film as Harryhausen's masterwork for its stop-motion animated statues, skeletons, harpies, hydra, and other mythological creatures. Other Harryhausen fantasy and science fantasy collaborations from the decade include the 1961 adaptation of Jules Verne's "Mysterious Island", the critically panned "One Million Years B.C." starring Raquel Welch, and "The Valley of Gwangi" (1969).


title: Fantasy film

text: Capitalising on the success of the sword and sandal genre several Italian B-movies based on classical myth were made, including the "Maciste" series. Otherwise, the 1960s were almost entirely devoid of fantasy films. The fantasy picture "7 Faces of Dr. Lao", in which Tony Randall portrayed several characters from Greek mythology, was released in 1964. But the 1967 adaptation of the Broadway musical "Camelot" removed most of the fantasy elements from T. H. White's classic "The Once and Future King", on which the musical had been based. The 1960s also saw a new adaption of Haggard's "She" in 1965 starring Ursula Andress as the immortal "She who must be obeyed" and was followed by a sequel in 1968 "The Vengeance of She" based loosely on the novel "" both produced by Hammer Film Productions, 1968 also saw the release of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" based on a story by Ian Fleming with a script from Roald Dahl.


title: Fantasy film

text: gye the former being predominantly from the same team who did "Mary Poppins" the latter again being from Roald Dahl in both script and novel.


title: Fantasy film

text: 1980s fantasy films were initially characterized by directors finding a new spin on established mythologies. Ray Harryhausen brought the monsters of Greek legends to life in "Clash of the Titans" while Arthurian lore returned to the screen in John Boorman's 1981 "Excalibur". Films such as Ridley Scott's 1985 "Legend" and Terry Gilliam's 1981–1986 trilogy of fantasy epics ("Time Bandits", "Brazil", and "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen") explored a new artist-driven style featuring surrealist imagery and thought-provoking plots. The modern sword and sorcery boom began around the same time with 1982's "Conan the Barbarian" followed by "Krull" and "Fire and Ice" in 1983, as well as a boom in fairy tale-like fantasy films such as "Ladyhawke" (1985), "The Princess Bride" (1987), and "Willow" (1988).


title: Fantasy film

text: The 1980s also started a trend in mixing modern settings and action film effects with exotic fantasy-like concepts. "Big Trouble in Little China" (1986), directed by John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russell, combined humor, martial arts and classic Chinese folklore in a modern Chinatown setting. "Highlander", a film about immortal Scottish swordsmen, was released the same year.


title: Fantasy film

text: Jim Henson produced two iconic fantasy films in the 80s, the solemn "The Dark Crystal" and the more whimsical and lofty "Labyrinth". Meanwhile, Robert Zemeckis helmed "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", featuring various famous cartoon characters from animation's "Golden Age," including Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Droopy, Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Pie, and Jiminy Cricket, among others.


title: Fantasy film

text: The 90s saw the Disney Renaissance in which many successful adaptations of written fantasy works were released by Disney Animation.


title: Fantasy film

text: The 2000s saw a boom in the genre. This was compounded by the success of Lord of The Rings and Harry Potter, which spurred a movement in film adaptations of fantasy literary works including The Chronicles of Narnia, Tales from Earthsea, Eragon, Inkheart, and The Golden Compass. The Star Wars prequel trilogy and Pirates of the Caribbean also saw success at the box office.


The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revolution. Inspired by Enlightenment philosophers, the Declaration was a core statement of the values of the French Revolution and had a major impact on the development of popular conceptions of individual liberty and democracy in Europe and worldwide.


title: Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

text: The Declaration was originally drafted by the Marquis de Lafayette, but the majority of the final draft came from the Abbé Sieyès. Influenced by the doctrine of natural right, the rights of man are held to be universal: valid at all times and in every place. It became the basis for a nation of free individuals protected equally by the law. It is included in the beginning of the constitutions of both the Fourth French Republic (1946) and Fifth Republic (1958), and is considered valid as constitutional law.


text: The principal drafts were prepared by Lafayette in consultation with his close friend Thomas Jefferson. In August 1789, the Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès and Honoré Mirabeau played a central role in conceptualizing and drafting the final Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.


text: The last article of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen was adopted on the 26 of August 1789 by the National Constituent Assembly, during the period of the French Revolution, as the first step toward writing a constitution for France. Inspired by the Enlightenment, the original version of the Declaration was discussed by the representatives on the basis of a 24 article draft proposed by , led by . The draft was later modified during the debates. A second and lengthier declaration, known as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1793, was written in 1793 but never formally adopted.


text: The concepts in the Declaration come from the philosophical and political duties of the Enlightenment, such as individualism, the social contract as theorized by the Genevan philosopher Rousseau, and the separation of powers espoused by the Baron de Montesquieu. As can be seen in the texts, the French declaration was heavily influenced by the political philosophy of the Enlightenment and principles of human rights as was the U.S. Declaration of Independence which preceded it (4 July 1776).


text: The declaration defines a single set of individual and collective rights for all men. Influenced by the doctrine of natural rights, these rights are held to be universal and valid in all times and places. For example, "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good." They have certain natural rights to property, to liberty, and to life. According to this theory, the role of government is to recognize and secure these rights. Furthermore, the government should be carried on by elected representatives.


text: At the time it was written, the rights contained in the declaration were only awarded to men. Furthermore, the declaration was a statement of vision rather than reality. The declaration was not deeply rooted in either the practice of the West or even France at the time. The declaration emerged in the late 18th century out of war and revolution. It encountered opposition, as democracy and individual rights were frequently regarded as synonymous with anarchy and subversion. This declaration embodies ideals and aspirations towards which France pledged to struggle in the future.


text: The Declaration is introduced by a preamble describing the fundamental characteristics of the rights which are qualified as being "natural, unalienable and sacred" and consisting of "simple and incontestable principles" on which citizens could base their demands. In the second article, "the natural and imprescriptible rights of man" are defined as "liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression". It called for the destruction of aristocratic privileges by proclaiming an end to feudalism and to exemptions from taxation, freedom and equal rights for all "Men", and access to public office based on talent. The monarchy was restricted, and all citizens were to have the right to take part in the legislative process. Freedom of speech and press were declared, and arbitrary arrests outlawed.