Project Cybersyn was a Chilean project from 1971 to 1973 during the presidency of Salvador Allende aimed at constructing a distributed decision support system to aid in the management of the national economy. The project consisted of four modules: an economic simulator, custom software to check factory performance, an operations room, and a national network of telex machines that were linked to one mainframe computer.

Project Cybersyn was based on viable system model theory approach to organizational design, and featured innovative technology at its time: it included a network of telex machines ('Cybernet') in state-run enterprises that would transmit and receive information with the government in Santiago. Information from the field would be fed into statistical modeling software ('Cyberstride') that would monitor production indicators, such as raw material supplies or high rates of worker absenteeism, in "almost" real time, alerting the workers in the first case and, in abnormal situations, if those parameters fell outside acceptable ranges by a very large degree, also the central government. The information would also be input into economic simulation software ('CHECO', for CHilean ECOnomic simulator) that the government could use to forecast the possible outcome of economic decisions. Finally, a sophisticated operations room ('Opsroom') would provide a space where managers could see relevant economic data, formulate feasible responses to emergencies, and transmit advice and directives to enterprises and factories in alarm situations by using the telex network.

The principal architect of the system was British operations research scientist Stafford Beer, and the system embodied his notions of organisational cybernetics in industrial management. One of its main objectives was to devolve decision-making power within industrial enterprises to their workforce in order to develop self-regulation of factories.

After the military coup on September 11, 1973, Cybersyn was abandoned, and the operations room was destroyed.

Name

The project's name in English ('Cybersyn') is a portmanteau of the words 'cybernetics' and 'synergy'. Since the name is not euphonic in Spanish, in that language the project was called , both an initialism for the Spanish , ('system of information and control'), and a pun on the Spanish , the number five, alluding to the five levels of Beer's viable system model.

Implementation

Stafford Beer was a British consultant in management cybernetics. He also sympathized with the stated ideals of Chilean socialism of maintaining Chile's democratic system and the autonomy of workers instead of imposing a USSR-style system of top-down command and control.

In July 1971, Fernando Flores, a high-level employee of the Chilean Production Development Corporation (CORFO) under the instruction of Pedro Vuskovic, contacted Beer for advice on incorporating Beer's theories into the management of the newly nationalized sector of Chile's economy. Beer saw this as a unique opportunity to implement his ideas on a national scale. More than offering advice, he left most of his other consulting business and devoted much time to what became Project Cybersyn. He traveled to Chile often to collaborate with local implementors and used his personal contacts to secure help from British technical experts.

The implementation schedule was very aggressive, and the system had reached its prototype stage in 1972. The Cybersyn system was put to good use in October 1972, when about 40,000 truck owners took strike action on a national-scale. Because of the network of telex machines in factories across Chile the government of Salvador Allende was able to rely on real-time data and was able to respond to the changing strike situation.

The telex network enabled communication across regions and the maintenance of distributed essential, goods across the country.According to Gustavo Silva, then the executive secretary of energy in CORFO, the system's telex machines helped organize the transport of resources into the city with only about 200 trucks driven by strike-breakers, lessening the potential damage caused by the 40,000 striking truck drivers.

The strike actions against the Allende government was funded by the United States as part of an economic warfare. The elected Allende government survived in part due to the Cybersyn system. Eventually the Allende government was brought down by a CIA-supported coup d'état in 1973. Oppressive regimes, including those based in Brazil and South Africa, expressed interest in building up their own Cybersyn system. In the history of computing hardware, Project Cybersyn was a leap and computation has since been developed within an economic and political context, so that computation was no longer put exclusively to work by the military or scientific institutions.

System
There were 500 unused telex machines bought by the previous government. Each was put into a factory. In the control centre in Santiago, each day data coming from each factory (several numbers, such as raw material input, production output and number of absentees) were put into a computer, which made short-term predictions and necessary adjustments. There were four levels of control (firm, branch, sector, total), with algedonic feedback. If one level of control did not remedy a problem in a certain interval, the higher level was notified. The results were discussed in the operations room and a top-level plan was made. The network of telex machines, called 'Cybernet', was the first operational component of Cybersyn, and the only one regularly used by the Allende government.

The software for Cybersyn was called 'Cyberstride', and used Bayesian filtering and Bayesian control. It was written by Chilean engineers in consultation with a team of 12 British programmers. Cybersyn first ran on an IBM 360/50, but later was transferred to a less heavily used Burroughs 3500 mainframe.

The futuristic operations room was designed by a team led by the interface designer Gui Bonsiepe. It was furnished with seven swivel chairs (considered the best for creativity) with buttons, which were designed to control several large screens that could project the data, and other panels with status information, although these were of limited functionality as they could only show pre-prepared graphs. This consisted of slides.

The project is described in some detail in the second edition of Stafford Beer's books 'Brain of the Firm' and 'Platform for Change'. The latter book includes proposals for social innovations such as having representatives of diverse 'stakeholder' groups into the control centre.

A related development was known as the Project Cyberfolk, which allowed citizens to send information about their moods to the Project organizers.

Aesthetics
The Ops room used Tulip chairs similar to those used in the American science fiction TV show Star Trek, although according to the designers, the style was not influenced by science fiction movies.

Legacy
Computer scientist Paul Cockshott and economist Allin Cottrell referenced Project Cybersyn in their 1993 book Towards a New Socialism, citing it as an inspiration for their own proposed model of computer-managed socialist planned economy. The Guardian in 2003 called the project "a sort of socialist internet, decades ahead of its time".

Authors Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski also dedicated a chapter on the project in their 2019 book The People's Republic of Walmart. The authors presented a case to defend the feasibility of a planned economy aided by contemporary processing power used by large organizations such as Amazon, Walmart and the Pentagon. The authors, however, question whether much can be built on Project Cybersyn in particular, specifically, "whether a system used in emergency, near–civil war conditions in a single country—covering a limited number of enterprises and, admittedly, only partially ameliorating a dire situation—can be applied in times of peace and at a global scale" especially as the project was never completed due to the military coup in 1973, which was followed by economic reforms by the Chicago Boys.

Chilean science fiction author Jorge Baradit published a Spanish-language science fiction novel Synco in 2008. It is an alternate history novel set in a 1979 after a military coup was stopped and "the socialist government consolidates and creates 'the first cybernetic state, a universal example, the true third way, a miracle'." Baradit's novel imagines the realized project as an oppressive dictatorship disguised as a bright utopia. In defence of the project, former operations manager of Cybersyn Raul Espejo wrote: "the safeguard against any technocratic tendency was precisely in the very implementation of CyberSyn, which required a social structure based on autonomy and coordination to make its tools viable. […] Of course politically it was always possible to use information technologies for coercive purposes however that would have been a different project, certainly not SYNCO".

In a 2014 essay for The New Yorker, technology journalist Evgeny Morozov argued that Cybersyn helped pave the way for big data and anticipated how Big Tech would operate, citing Uber's use of data and algorithms to monitor supply and demand for their services in real time as an example. In July 2023, Morozov would go on to produce a nine-part podcast about Cybersyn, Stafford Beer and the group around Salvador Allende, titled 'The Santiago Boys'.

In October 2016, the podcast 99% Invisible produced an episode about the project. The Radio Ambulante podcast covered some history of Allende and the Cybersyn project in their 2019 episode The Room That Was A Brain.

See also

Alexander Kharkevich, the director of the Institute for Information Transmission Problems in Moscow (later Kharkevich Institute)
Comparison of system dynamics software
Critique of political economy
Cyberocracy
Cybernetics in the Soviet Union
Economic calculation debate
Enterprise resource planning
Fernando Flores
History of Chile
History of computer hardware in Eastern Bloc countries
Material balance planning
OGAS
Socialist democracy
Scientific socialism
System dynamics
Viable system model

References

External links
 Eden Medina, "Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile", (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2011).
 Eden Medina, "Designing Freedom, Regulating a Nation: Socialist Cybernetics in Allende's Chile." Journal of Latin American Studies 38 (2006):571-606. (pdf)
 Eden Medina, "Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile" (adapted excerpt). Cabinet magazine, no. 46 (Summer 2012).
 Lessons of Stafford Beer
 The CeberSyn heritage in the XXI Century
 The CyberSyn multimedia "reconstruction"
 Before '73 Coup, Chile Tried to Find the Right Software for Socialism, by Alexei Barrionuevo. 'The New York Times.' March 28, 2008
 The forgotten story of Chile's 'socialist internet'
 Futurism, fictional and science fictional - rambling and inspiring on BoingBoing
 Project Cybersyn | varnelis.net
 Rhizome.org: Project Cybersyn
 Stafford Beer, and Salvador Allende's Internet, and the Dystopian Novel
 Free As In Beer: Cybernetic Science Fictions
 Planning Machine at The New Yorker
 Allende's socialist internet at Red Pepper
 'Network Effects: Raul Espejo on Cybernetic Socialism in Salvador Allende's Chile', Kristen Alfaro interviews Raúl Espejo for 'Logic'. January 1, 2019.

Cybernetics
Economy of Chile
1970s in Chile
Presidency of Salvador Allende
Socialism in Chile
Economic planning
Experimental computer networks
History of computing in South America
Networks
Socialism
1970s economic history
Information management
Chilean inventions
Government by algorithm

Project Cybersyn


GrooveLily is an American musical trio based in New York City notable for creative songwriting in different pop genres, such as rock, folk, jazz, and show tune. The band consists of Valerie Vigoda and Brendan Milburn along with Gene Lewin. A report in The New York Times in 2004 described the group as an "up and coming trio". According to Variety, GrooveLily was founded by Vigoda.

A review of their 2006 performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream described their show as having "plenty of fun" with "original music" from GrooveLily, but noted problems with acoustics. In 2008, Milburn & Vigoda wrote seven musical numbers for the Disney Wonder cruise ship production of Toy Story: The Musical. In 2002 (and in subsequent years, opening off-Broadway in 2006), GrooveLily performed a holiday musical entitled Striking 12. A Washington Post reviewer described it as an "engaging concert-style entertainment" and fusion of "cabaret act and chamber musical". Milburn & Vigoda wrote the book, music and lyrics along with Rachel Sheinkin. Variety gave Striking 12 a mixed review, saying the show's "lame wit obscures its moments of beauty" and that the trio's "politeness hinders the supposedly rebellious humor."

After years of very few GrooveLily performances, the band came together to write and perform a musical called Wheelhouse about their earlier touring career on the road in a Winnebago and why they stopped touring largely because of that experience. The show premiered at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley June 6, 2012.

Albums

References

External links
Groovelily's official website

American pop music groups

GrooveLily


The Whitsun Weddings is a collection of 32 poems by Philip Larkin.  It was first published by Faber in the United Kingdom on 28 February 1964.  It was a commercial success, by the standards of poetry publication, with the first 4,000 copies being sold within two months. A United States edition appeared some seven months later.

It contains many of Larkin's best known poems, such as "The Whitsun Weddings", "Days", "Mr Bleaney", "MCMXIV", and "An Arundel Tomb".

Poems
 Here
 Mr Bleaney
 Nothing To Be Said
 Love Songs in Age
 Naturally the Foundation will Bear Your Expenses
 Broadcast
 Faith Healing
 For Sidney Bechet
 Home is so Sad
 Toads Revisited
 Water
 The Whitsun Weddings
 Self's the Man
 Take One Home for the Kiddies
 Days
 MCMXIV
 Talking in Bed
 The Large Cool Store
 A Study of Reading Habits
 As Bad as a Mile
 Ambulances
 The Importance of Elsewhere
 Sunny Prestatyn
 First Sight
 Dockery and Son
 Ignorance
 Reference Back
 Wild Oats
 Essential Beauty
 Send No Money
 Afternoons
 An Arundel Tomb

See also
 List of poems by Philip Larkin
 1964 in poetry

1964 poetry books
English poetry collections
Poetry by Philip Larkin
Faber and Faber books

The Whitsun Weddings


The mythology of The X-Files, sometimes referred to as its "mytharc" by the show's staff and fans, follows the quest of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), a believer in supernatural phenomena, and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), his skeptical partner. Their boss, FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner, was also often involved. Beginning with season 8, another skeptic named John Doggett, and Monica Reyes, a believer like Mulder, were also introduced. The overarching story, which spans events as early as the 1940s, is built around a government conspiracy to hide the truth about alien existence and their doomsday plan. Not all episodes advanced the mythology plot, but those that did were often set up by Mulder or Scully via an opening monologue.

Most mythological elements in The X-Files relate to extraterrestrial beings, referred to by the writers as "Colonists", whose primary goal is to colonize Earth. Late in the series, this was revealed to have been planned for the year 2012.

Episodes
This list of mythology episodes was originally taken from official sources, The X-Files Mythology range of DVDs and the book The Complete X-Files: Behind the Series, the Myths and the Movies.

Chronology

Season 1
FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) has made a name for himself, "Spooky Mulder," working on X-Files—unexplained cases which may be paranormal in origin. He is appointed a partner in these investigations—Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson)—with his superiors hoping that she will be able to debunk and discredit his work. Their first case together is the investigation of possible abductions in Oregon, which falters when their evidence is destroyed in a fire. A later case, involving the disappearance of a United States Air Force test pilot, sees the introduction of secretive informant Deep Throat (Jerry Hardin), who continues to provide the agents sensitive information. This help is supplemented by conspiracy theorist group The Lone Gunmen, who are contacted for help in a further abduction case. Deep Throat is killed, however, when he helps the agents uncover details of a government human cloning program, and the X-Files unit is closed shortly thereafter.

Season 2
Unable to continue his work with Scully, Mulder obtains information about possible extraterrestrial contact in Puerto Rico, finding that the SETI program at the Arecibo Observatory is being forcibly closed. Although the pair are allowed to resume their work, Scully is later kidnapped by an unhinged multiple alien abductee, Duane Barry. Barry takes Scully to a hilltop where she is then abducted, presumably by aliens. She is found comatose at a later date, having mysteriously arrived at a hospital, and recovers several days later. Mulder receives a call from his father, who informs him that his sister Samantha (Megan Leitch), who had been abducted as a child, has returned. Samantha is being pursued by a shapeshifting bounty hunter, who is assassinating human clones. Samantha is killed, although it is revealed that she was simply one of a number of clones, produced using alien tissue to create an alien-human hybrid.

The Lone Gunmen contact Mulder and Scully about a successful attempt by a friend of theirs to hack the United States Department of Defense computer system. The hacker, Kenneth Soona (Bernie Coulson), is able to give Mulder the downloaded information on a digital cassette. Soona is subsequently assassinated, and the downloaded files are found to be written in Navajo. Contacting Albert Hosteen (Floyd Red Crow Westerman)—a Navajo man capable of translating the files—Mulder is shown a box-car full of what appear to be alien corpses. He is trapped in the box-car by the series' antagonist, The Smoking Man (William B. Davis), and left for dead after it is destroyed.

Season 3
Mulder is later found and nursed back to health by Hosteen. Meanwhile, Scully investigates the possible involvement of the smallpox eradication program in human genetic experimentation, discovering that a Nazi scientist who defected during Operation Paperclip has been conducting human experimentation to create alien-human hybrids. Dana's sister Melissa (Melinda McGraw) is shot by assassins who mistake her for Dana, and dies in the hospital. Investigating evidence of an alien autopsy, Mulder infiltrates a secretive government train carriage carrying an alien-human hybrid being experimented on by Japanese scientists. Mulder is almost killed by a Syndicate operative guarding the hybrid, but is saved by his informant X (Steven Williams). X had been tipped off about Mulder's activities by Scully. Scully, meanwhile, meets a group of women with abduction experiences similar to her own, and meets another member of the Syndicate known as the First Elder (Don S. Williams). The First Elder claims that during Scully's abduction she was placed on a similar train car and experimented upon by the Japanese scientists.

The crew of a French salvage ship trying to raise a World War II-era submarine from the sea floor are stricken with massive radiation burns—except for one man, who has been infected with a parasitic black oil discovered on the submarine. The black oil, controlling the crewman's body, passes into the crewman's wife and uses her to travel to Hong Kong in pursuit of a middleman selling government secrets. Mulder is after the same man. After Mulder catches Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) in Hong Kong, the black oil passes itself to Krycek. Scully determines that the submarine had been involved in discovering the black oil on the sea floor during World War II, under the guise of finding a sunken fighter plane. The infected Krycek makes his way to a missile silo used to hide a UFO, and the black oil escapes his body to board the craft. Meanwhile, Scully has tracked down Luis Cardinal, the man responsible for killing her sister.

Season 4
When the Syndicate suspect that a member is passing information to Mulder and Scully, they organise a canary trap to find the leak, using information about the safety of Mulder's mother as bait. X's role as an informant is discovered, and he is shot dead, although he is able to pass along the name of another informant who can be of use to Mulder—Marita Covarrubias (Laurie Holden), the Special Representative to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Mulder seeks Covarrubias' aid when he attempts to reach the site of the Tunguska event, in Russia, to investigate the source of a further black oil contamination. While there, Mulder is held in a gulag and used—successfully—as a test subject for a black-oil vaccine. He escapes and is able to return to America, having found out that Krycek is working with the Russians. Scully, who has been diagnosed with cancer, is unsure of her future with the FBI. Mulder is convinced that her condition is a result of her earlier abduction, and is prepared to make a deal with the Syndicate to find a cure. He is dissuaded by Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), who secretly makes such a deal himself.

Season 5
While being pursued by an assassin responsible for a hoax alien corpse discovered on a mountaintop, Mulder fakes his own suicide, mutilating the assassin's face to provide a decoy body. He uses the distraction to infiltrate The Pentagon in search of a cure for Scully's cancer. Meanwhile, Scully is able to uncover and reveal a Syndicate connection within the FBI.

While a rebel alien race secretly attacks several groups of former alien abductees, the agents meet Cassandra Spender (Veronica Cartwright), a woman who claims to be a multiple abductee and wants to deliver a positive message about aliens. After Cassandra goes missing and her son, Jeffrey Spender (Chris Owens), angrily attempts to push his way into the FBI, Mulder has Scully put under hypnosis to learn the truth about her abduction. The Syndicate, meanwhile, speed up their tests of the black oil vaccine, sacrificing their own to do so. Later, the assassination of a chess grandmaster leads Mulder and Scully into an investigation that strikes at the heart of the X-Files: They learn that the assassin's real target was a telepathic boy named Gibson Praise (Jeff Gulka).

The X-Files: Fight the Future (feature film)

The X-Files have been shut down again, and Mulder and Scully are sent on a mission to deal with a terrorist bomb threat. However, after a government building is destroyed, Mulder is approached by a mysterious doctor, Alvin Kurtzweil (Martin Landau), who reveals that a new strain of the black oil has been discovered in North Texas. The new strain allows an extraterrestrial to gestate inside the host within 96 hours. Kurtzweil argues that the conspiracy deliberately placed the bomb within the government to hide the evidence. After Scully is stung by a black-oil-infected bee and abducted, the Well-Manicured Man gives Mulder her location and a weak vaccine, developed by the Syndicate. The Well-Manicured Man is killed by a car bomb, but his information leads Mulder to Antarctica, where he discovers a massive alien spaceship buried. Inside the ship, he finds Scully and administers the vaccine, which heals her.

Season 6
In Washington, D.C., Mulder appears before an FBI panel regarding his experiences in Antarctica, but is later denied reassignment to the X-Files division: Mulder and Scully have been replaced by Spender and Diana Fowley (Mimi Rogers). After a scientist working for the Syndicate accidentally comes into contact with the black oil and gestates an alien, Mulder and Scully attempt to track the creature down in Phoenix, Arizona before the Syndicate can capture it. Skinner is mysteriously poisoned by a nanorobot infection. The culprit is Krycek, who continues to control the potentially debilitating nanotechnology in Skinner's system in order to achieve his goals.

Mulder and Scully learn of reports of rebel aliens burning doctors who were working on Cassandra. After they locate her, she informs them that the aliens are here to destroy all life on Earth and that she is a successful alien-human hybrid. The Smoking Man reveals everything to Diana Fowley, who agrees to help him and betray Mulder. Fowley forces Mulder, Cassandra, and Scully to go to a CDC facility at Fort Marlene. Meanwhile, the Syndicate meets at a check point, expecting to be taken away by the Colonists, who are preparing for invasion. They are met, instead, by the alien rebels, who incinerate them all, including Cassandra. The Smoking Man and Fowley manage to escape. Jeffrey Spender is then purportedly killed by The Smoking Man. Several months later, an inscribed metallic artifact is found on a beach on Africa's Côte d'Ivoire. Mulder examines rubbings of the object and falls into a dangerous coma. Hoping to find a cure for her partner, Scully rushes to Africa and discovers a massive wrecked spacecraft partially buried in the ocean.

Season 7
Skinner and Michael Kritschgau (John Finn) try desperately to learn the truth about the alien object. Unsuccessful, Scully returns from Africa to see Mulder, but she is told that he has disappeared. She contacts Kritschgau and Skinner, trying to find her partner. In fact, The Smoking Man has taken Mulder away to transplant the telepathic part of Mulder's brain into his own cranium. The surgery is a failure. Mulder develops an inoperable, terminal brain tumor after the surgery; he keeps the news from Scully.

While investigating the bizarre disappearance of a young girl from her home, Mulder soon discovers the truth about his sister's abduction. He and Scully find evidence proving that Samantha was abducted by The Smoking Man, who forced her to live in a now-abandoned US Army base and experimented on her. Mulder also learns that his sister was taken by a "walk-in," a benevolent spirit who saves the souls of children doomed to die in suffering.  Mulder is eventually reunited with the spirit of his sister, allowing him to finally let her go. Mulder and Scully investigate a case of alien abduction which leads them back to Oregon, the site of their first case together where Mulder is taken by a UFO.

Season 8
Scully soon meets Special Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick), the leader of an FBI taskforce organized to search for Mulder. Although the search proves unsuccessful, Doggett is assigned to the X-Files, and he works with Scully to search for explanations for several cases. When Scully learns that several women have reportedly been abducted and impregnated with alien babies, she begins to question her own pregnancy.

Doggett introduces Scully to Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish), an FBI specialist in ritualistic crime, shortly before Mulder's dead body suddenly appears in a forest at night. Following Mulder's funeral, Assistant Director Skinner is threatened by Krycek, who tells him that he must kill Scully's baby before it is born. Billy Miles, a multiple abductee who disappeared on the same night as Mulder, is returned as a corpse, but his dead body is resurrected and restored to full health. Mulder also returns from death, with Scully supervising his recovery. Fully rejuvenated and healed of his earlier brain tumor, Mulder investigates several X-Files, against orders, and he is soon fired, leaving Doggett in charge of the cases. Mulder continues to provide input in an unofficial capacity.

Reluctantly accepting Krycek's assistance, Mulder, Doggett and Skinner learn that an alien virus recently created in secret by members of the United States government has replaced several humans, including Billy Miles and several high-ranking FBI personnel, with so-called alien "Super Soldiers". Krycek claims that the soldiers are virtually unstoppable aliens who want to make sure that humans will not survive the colonization of Earth. They have learned that Scully's baby is a miraculously special child and are afraid that it may be more powerful than they are. When Miles arrives at the FBI Headquarters, Mulder, Doggett, Skinner and Krycek help Scully to escape along with Reyes, who drives her to a remote farm. Shortly after, Skinner kills Krycek, and Scully delivers an apparently normal baby while the alien "Super Soldiers" surround her. Without explanation, the aliens leave the area when Mulder arrives. While Doggett and Reyes report to the FBI Headquarters, Mulder takes Scully and their newborn son, William, back to her apartment.

Season 9
Mulder goes into hiding, Scully is reassigned to the FBI Academy, and Reyes becomes Doggett's new partner at the X-Files. Doggett, Scully, and Reyes discover a conspiracy to place Chloramine in the nation's water, causing mutations and creating "Super Soldiers." This leads them to a clandestine laboratory where a secret experiment connected to Scully's child, William, is underway. The X-Files' investigation is hampered by Deputy Director Alvin Kersh (James Pickens, Jr.) and Assistant Director Brad Follmer (Cary Elwes). Scully is hopeful about reuniting with Mulder after a stranger, "Shadow Man" (Terry O'Quinn), offers to drive Mulder out of hiding. She accepts his offer, but she and Mulder are nearly killed: The man is a Super Soldier. Later on, Scully, Doggett and Reyes find evidence of a dangerous UFO cult that has found a spacecraft similar to the one Scully studied in Africa two years ago. The cult kidnaps William, but is destroyed when the baby's crying activates the ship and kills everyone while leaving William unharmed.

Doggett finds a strange, disfigured man in the X-Files office. At first he believes the man is Mulder, but it is actually Jeffrey Spender, Mulder's half-brother. Spender sticks a needle into William. The other agents believe the injection to be a virus of some kind, but it is actually a cure for William's powers. Mulder comes out of hiding to look for classified information at an army base and, after allegedly killing a supposedly indestructible "Super Soldier" Knowle Rohrer (Adam Baldwin), he is placed on trial to defend the X-Files and himself. With the help of Kersh, Scully, Reyes, Doggett, Spender, and Gibson Praise (Jeff Gulka), Mulder escapes. Mulder and Scully then travel to New Mexico to find an old "wise man", later revealed to be The Smoking Man, who tells them that the aliens will arrive in 2012. Doggett and Reyes are confronted by Knowle Rohrer, who is killed by magnetite (the only known vulnerability of the "Super Soldiers"). The four agents then escape from a pair of black helicopters that kill The Smoking Man with missile fire. Scully and Mulder are last seen together in a motel room, facing an uncertain future.

Season 10

Fourteen years since leaving the X-Files, Mulder and Scully are contacted by media host Tad O'Malley who has uncovered possible evidence of the alien abductions being fabricated by the government to cover up their experiments on humans, and Mulder has a theory that everything that he and Scully were led to believe on the X-Files was made up by a conspiracy of men. Mulder and Scully find themselves being enlisted back to the FBI and working on the now reopened X-Files unit, which brings the attention of the alive Cigarette Smoking Man.

Six weeks later a mass contagion, the Spartan Virus, begins to break out, causing people's immune systems to break down; all but those with alien DNA in their system. This is part of a scheme by The Smoking Man, something which has been put into motion since 2012 (the year the supposed alien invasion was meant to take place). Scully works to try and find a cure by using her alien DNA and Mulder disappears and confronts the Smoking Man in an attempt to stop his plans. Scully finds out that The Smoking Man enlisted former FBI agent Monica Reyes as an assistant to his schemes.

Mulder begins to succumb to the virus, but refuses the Smoking Man's chance of a "seat at the table." Mulder is eventually rescued by fellow agent Miller and reunited with Scully on a bridge in Washington, where she reveals Mulder needs a stem cell transplant that only their son can give them. As America is thrown into chaos, a UFO looms over Mulder, Scully and Miller on the bridge.

Season 11

The episode "My Struggle II" is revealed to be a premonition of Scully, foreseeing the end of humanity which leads to trying to find a way to prevent it by finding her and Mulder's son. Whilst the Smoking Man looks to depopulate most of humanity, there is another group looking to kill him and prevent it from happening, also is part of their own motives which allegedly involves space colonization with a select few, something which they feel can't be done if the Smoking Man's plans succeed. The two groups are also after Scully's son William, with the revelation that the Smoking Man is his father.

It is mentioned by former Syndicate member Mr. Y (who is on the side opposing the Smoking Man) that the colonization hasn't taken place as the aliens abandoned their plans due to global warming on earth.

The X-Files comic book series

Although published in 2013, prior to the broadcast of Season 10, the comic book series is considered non-canon with the television series taking precedence in the mythology arc. In this comic book series, which is "Executive Produced" by Chris Carter, Mulder and Scully are visited by Deputy Director Skinner who informs them that someone has hacked into the FBI's files and discovered information regarding the X-Files. Scully has later gone missing and Mulder tracks down the Lone Gunmen, who had faked their deaths several years earlier, in order to help him find Scully.

FBI Agent John Doggett investigates a pipeline that mysteriously explodes and is later revealed to possess magnetite. FBI Agent Monica Reyes finds out that William's adoptive parents are dead. Mulder is also visited by the believed-to-be dead Cigarette Smoking Man. Scully, after many encounters with mysterious aliens, reports to an FBI review board that people with connections to the X-Files division are systematically being targeted by an unknown group. As a result, Mulder and Scully are reinstated as federal agents as a countermeasure.

Production

Conception and early work

At the beginning, Chris Carter did not think of creating a "mythology" for the episodes focusing on extraterrestrial life, because "they were just stories we wanted to tell," which involved Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) on his personal quest joined by his partner, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). Eventually, the writers saw that the most "personal" episodes were the ones centering on the government conspiracy. Another reason for the development of the mythology, was that the producers were afraid of not creating a thread between the episodes centering on the conspiracy, being that they felt it would be pretentious if they did not do it.

According to Carter, the mythology "sprung from" the pilot episode and its follow up, "Deep Throat", which set up the idea that aliens had been around for many years. Carter sees the final scene of "Deep Throat" as the "launching moment for the entire mythology". The main theme for the show starts with these episodes, being Mulder's quest to find "the truth" about his sister, Samantha Mulder. Mulder's quest for the truth helped build the mythology, since his investigation took him into cases about the paranormal.

After a series of stand-alone episodes featuring UFOs and extraterrestrials early in the first season, the show's mythology developed largely based on the pregnancy of actress Gillian Anderson, who became pregnant midway through the first season. Executive producer Frank Spotnitz described it as "the best thing that ever happened to the series.", also saying "This mythology really ended up running through the life of the series, all because Gillian Anderson became pregnant". Although there were initially second thoughts about Scully (Anderson) giving birth to an alien baby, ultimately the writers decided to work around Anderson's pregnancy. The writers decided on closing the X-Files at the end of the season to separate Mulder and Scully from one another, and have Scully abducted, who would later reappear in a coma. In addition to the creation of the storyline concerning Scully's abduction, Anderson's reduced role in the first half of the second season permitted the writers to develop some of the other characters in the show including Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), The Smoking Man (William B. Davis) and X (Steven Williams), and resulted in the introduction of the character Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea). Krycek, who was initially created by writer Howard Gordon to temporarily replace Scully as Mulder's partner for three episodes eventually grew into a character that lasted seven seasons on the show.

Creation of mythology and early seasons

Prior to the season two episode, "One Breath" the "Cigarette Smoking Man" mostly "lurked around in the shadows" and smoked cigarettes. The Smoking Man uttered only four audible words in the entire first season of the show, all of them being in "Tooms". R.W. Goodwin did not trust William B. Davis to take on the part as arch-nemesis to Fox Mulder. It was later revealed to the producers that Davis was running an acting school, and teaching such actors as Lucy Lawless, who would make an appearance in the ninth season.

In the two-part episodes "Colony" and "End Game", Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz along with some help from David Duchovny created what would become a recurring character named the Alien Bounty Hunter. According to Carter, Duchovny came to him and said "Wouldn't it be great if we had like an alien bounty hunter?" Carter was positive towards the idea. The actor, Brian Thompson, auditioned for the role in a casting session, where he was competing with another actor. Spotnitz and Carter did not have much time to cast this character, but they knew this casting would be important since he was going to be a recurring character. Thompson was chosen according to Spotnitz because he had a very "distinctive look" about him, most notably his face and mouth. After casting him, they told Thompson's agent that he needed a hair cut, because he was originally envisioned as a US Air Force pilot who had been shot down. When Thompson came to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada there had been some "misunderstanding" between them, and he had not been told of the hair cut. So the hairstyle seen in this and every episode since was a "compromise between Thompson and the producers."

Mythology development in seasons 3–5

Chris Carter admits that David Duchovny was very involved in shaping the show's mythology. His first notable efforts were "End Game" and "Anasazi". After writing the episode, Carter met with a Fox Network executive who wanted the show to explain the paranormal phenomena in each episode. Carter responded that: "the interesting part about this for me was going to be telling stories where you left people wondering at the end, with the possibility that it could be real, but never ever stating that this is in fact the truth." "Anasazi" was the first episode of a three-parter where the writers introduced the government conspiracy arc following the Syndicate. "Paper Clip" introduced the idea of genetic material that was taken through inoculations.

In season three the black oil was introduced, which was an alien creature which invaded bodies and made them into living hosts. The Black oil was able to enter through a victim's mouth, eyes or nose; it would leave a victim's body to get back to its original form or get a new host. Later on in the show's mythology, it is discovered that the Black oil is the Colonists' lifeform; the oil was brought to Earth by meteorites to create hosts of the human population living there. The season four two-parters "Tunguska" and "Terma" hit the writers when they were trying to conceive a big and fun canvas to tell stories. So they decided to create a story which had connections to the Russian gulags, which led to a "natural" idea that the Russians were experimenting separately from the Syndicate to create a vaccine for the Black oil. Shiban felt it was natural creating an arms race-like story between the United States and Russia, being that the Cold War had ended a few years earlier.

With the season five episodes "Patient X" and "The Red and the Black", the mythology became too hard for some viewers to follow. These two episodes marked the introduction of the Alien rebels who were fighting against the Colonists for their plan to colonize the known universe. These Alien rebels were of the same race as the Alien Bounty Hunters. Cassandra (Veronica Cartwright) and Jeffrey Spender (Chris Owens) would make their first appearances in these two episodes. Two other characters, Diana Fowley (Mimi Rogers) and Gibson Praise (Jeff Gulka) were introduced to the series mythology in the season five finale, "The End".

The X-Files feature film and seasons 6–7
From the third season to the sixth season, the mysterious Syndicate was explored in detail. In the two part episode "Two Fathers"/"One Son", the Syndicate was destroyed. The plan to eliminate the Syndicate and relaunch the series' mythology in a new direction was originally conceived in September 1998. Director Kim Manners stated "I've said for years that the show really resolved itself, if you will, by accident. The whole story line of the Syndicate and the bees and the aliens and the chips in the neck, they all seemed to just accidentally fall into place and create an intriguing, mysterious storyline that eventually got so mysterious and so intriguing that Chris had to blow it up, because he couldn't deal with it anymore."

The "Biogenesis"/"The Sixth Extinction"/"Amor Fati" trio of episodes started a new mythology for the series, questioning the origin of human life. Series creator Chris Carter claimed to be interested in the subject for a while, citing the possibility of extraterrestrial involvement in great extinctions that had happened millions of years ago. Carter claimed that early in the show he had met with a man who was one of the people responsible for leading the project of mapping the human genome and that he was interested enough in the subject to tie it into the show's alien mythology. The scientific basis for extraterrestrials pursued the writers to help Mulder and Scully's beliefs come together, which was furthered in the later seasons of the show. Frank Spotnitz claimed that the ideas used in this episode had been discussed between him and Carter for a few years, and had become easier to bring up after clearing away elements of the conspiracy in the episodes "Two Fathers" and "One Son".

"Closure" was written to create an end to Mulder's quest for his sister, Samantha, who had been abducted when he was a child. The idea to close the story arc received mixed reactions from various production and crew members. However, many of the show's producers realized that the time had come to answer one of the show's biggest questions. Spotnitz explained that, "I think [series star, David Duchovny] grew tired of playing the man who is missing his sister. [...] I told him, 'This is going to be the last time you're going to have to play [that part].'" Paul Rabwin noted that, "It's been seven years. I don't think any of us are going to miss Samantha Mulder. That device and motivation were very strong in the early years of the show. But as the years have gone by, the speculation kind of melted away."

"Requiem" was written as a way to potentially end the series. While filming was underway for the seventh season, many members of the crew felt that the show had entered into its final season. Executive producer Frank Spotnitz later explained, "There was a pretty strong sentiment inside and outside the show that it was time to call it a day." Eventually, it was decided that Mulder would be abducted at the end of the seventh season, leaving things open for the actor's return in 11 episodes the following year. They eventually replaced Duchovny's Mulder with Robert Patrick's John Doggett.

Season eight and "The New X-Files"

The season eight premiere, "Within", started the storyline following the Super Soldiers and the search for Mulder. As Carter always believed the only way to get the audience to keep watching the show was to give them answers. So when they cast Robert Patrick as John Doggett a new lead character, since Duchovny had sued the Fox Network and Carter for more money, while wanting to leave, the court said he must appear in 12 episodes in the eighth season and then leave. When introducing Doggett into the series, they wanted to give him an enemy, this eventually led to the Super Soldiers, who rose up in "Within" to take on the role as the new government conspirators. The reason for creating a new enemy was to make sure not to just create a "new Mulder". The original idea for the Super Soldiers was that the United States Defense Department was developing genetically modified human beings, this was the non-alien explanation, while these characters eventually became the new aliens. Dana Scully took Mulder's role as a "believer" and handed her previous role as a "skeptic" to Doggett.

Carter himself has admitted that the mythology became "complex" and a bit "too difficult to" follow, and even more difficult for the writers to "add more layers on to it". While saying it got "more interesting" in some ways but at the same time less interesting in some other ways, he said he understood why long-time fans of the show were discontent at seeing a "Mulderless" season, but at the same time said the new characters introduced new fans to the show who reacted positively to the changes.

Annabeth Gish's character Monica Reyes, who would become a main character in season nine, made her first appearance in "This Is Not Happening". When creating the character for the episode, they wanted to give the character a personality who had much in common with both Mulder and Scully. Her first shot was four in the morning and her first scene in the episode was to run down a hill to discover a former abductee. Reyes, along with Skinner, were elevated to main character status in the ninth season.

The original plan for season nine was to exit both Mulder, Scully and baby William out of the storyline in the following season. A proposed Season 10 would follow a storyline where the aliens were not the central focus of the mythology, since many of the writers, most notably Frank Spotnitz, felt that the alien-conspiracy storyline had gone on long enough "and played itself out." The story arc would instead focus on what happened to Doggett's son, Luke, and the character of Reyes.

Revamped Mythology (Revival Series)

For the tenth season of the show (which marked the revival of the series after fourteen years), a new mythology was introduced, and the Super-Soldier arc was ignored as was the supposed alien colonization, which didn't appear to happen in December 2012.

The new mythology involved a conspiracy of men who were planning to invade and takeover America, something which was put in motion since 2012 (when the colonization was supposed to take place). The Cigarette Smoking Man was reintroduced after his apparent death at the end of the original series, appearing as one of the masterminds behind the plot. The new arc appears to contradict claims in previous seasons, and makes out that aliens are not involved in the invasion plans, rather the conspiracy of men utilizing alien technology to be used in their master plans.

For the eleventh season, it was decided to tone down on the alien mythology, and instead focus on a story arc involving Mulder and Scully attempting to track down their son William.

Reception
Jay Anderson, writing for What Culture, described the mythology entries as "some of the best of the series, featuring many superb acting performances, well-crafted scripts, and nail-biting endings". Anderson added that the mythology "really held the show together".  Andrew Payne of Starpulse named the "original" mytharc of seasons 1–6 a "37-way-tie" for the fifth best episode of the series, explaining that it "was the thing that made The X-Files the best show on television during its first six seasons". However, he commented that it "went awry during the inscrutable sixth season finale". IGN's Dan Iverson wrote, "I loved the X-Files from the moment I started watching it, due in no small part to the mythology that Chris Carter created. Even though we all loved the 'monster of the week' episodes, these less ostentatious gems kept us interested in what could come in the long run. The overall story arc may have eventually fizzled out, but the questioning, open-ended nature of the stories nevertheless kept us at the edge of our seats."

For the first five seasons, critics praised the development in the mythology episodes.  The first-season episode "Deep Throat" was cited as beginning to "set the stage for the central conflicts" of the series. IGN Dan Iverson felt that the episode served to "open the door to the possibilities of this series"; while Tor.com's Meghan Deans noted that "although the pilot introduced the idea of government conspiracy, it's 'Deep Throat' that kicks out the edges of the canvas". Nina Sordi of Den of Geek noted that the plotline in the second-season finale "Anasazi" laid "the groundwork for the mythology arc for the rest of the series", adding that it "brought much more significance to what is to come". Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club called the third season The X-Files "best season and maybe one of the greatest TV seasons of all time", noting it was consistent and "[swung] from strength to strength" between mythology and stand-alone episodes. Michael Sauter of Entertainment Weekly praised the new additions to the series' mythology during the series' fifth year. As the show increased in popularity, the mythology episodes even started causing media speculation. For instance, the fourth-season episode "Gethsemane" caused newspapers to run articles on whether or not Mulder had actually died. An article in the Wall Street Journal discussed fan theories behind Mulder's madness while a cartoon ran in The New Yorker a few weeks later surrounding Mulder's "death".

After the 1998 film, the show's mythology began to receive increasingly critical reviews. Some fans felt there was no coherent plan to the main storyline and that Carter was "making it all up as he goes along." The sixth season entries "Two Fathers" and "One Son"—which are considered to be the end to the Syndicate arc—were well-received for delivering answers and closure. Earl Cressey from DVD Talk named both episodes as  "highlights of season six."  Joyce Millman from Salon magazine said the episodes were some "of the most coherent, [...] almost unbearably tense, hours in the series' run". Likewise, "Closure", which concluded the Samantha story-arc, was met with mixed to positive reviews; although many felt that the episode hit the right emotional notes, some felt it did not conclude the way it should have.

Many critics considered that the introduction of John Doggett and the search for Mulder in season eight helped to revitalize the series. However, once the series entered into its ninth season, most critics panned the mythology. The A.V. Club called the episodes "clumsy", noting that they were "new serialized storylines about so-called 'super soldiers'". The series finale, title "The Truth", received mixed reviews from critics. The main reason for criticism was that, instead of creating a conclusion, the episode created new questions for the audience. Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, gave the episode a scathing review and awarded it one star out of five. The two, despite calling the opening "promising", derided the episode's ending—especially the revelation of alien colonization of December 22, 2012—writing, "is this really what the series was about?" Furthermore, Shearman and Pearson concluded that the problem with the episode was that the show decided "to define itself in the summing up" with the episode, which did not answer very many questions. Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations, noted that the episode "told us nothing of significance" regarding the "big picture" mythology story arc.

See also
List of The X-Files episodes, with mythology episodes marked

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

 EatTheCorn - a site dedicated to explaining the mythology of The X-Files
 https://web.archive.org/web/20090707095742/http://www.xfiles.com/

The X-Files (franchise)
X-Files

Mythology of The X-Files


Mahapurush (; ) is a 1965 film directed by Satyajit Ray, based on a short story Birinchibaba (বিরিঞ্চি বাবা) by Rajshekhar Basu.

Plot
After the death of his wife, Gurupada Mitra (Prasad Mukherjee), an advocate, has not been at peace. He and his daughter Buchki (Gitali Roy), meet Birinchi (Charuprakash Ghosh). Birinchi Baba claims to be ageless. He tells stories from the past; about his arguments with 'Plato' about time, how he taught E=mc2 to Einstein, and was on first-name terms with Jesu (Christ) and Gautam (Buddha). Birinchi Baba has a growing band of rich devotees.

Gurupada decides to patronize the holy man and become his disciple. Daughter Buchki is disappointed with her lover Satya. To teach him a lesson, she tells Satya that she is going to leave him and become a disciple of Birinchi Baba.

Satya turns to his friend Nibaran for his help. It does not take Nibaran long to realize that Birinchi Baba is a fraud. Nibaran and friends expose Birinchi Baba. The devotees feel foolish and perhaps have learnt a lesson.

Cast
 Charuprakash Ghosh as Birinchi Baba, the self-proclaimed Godman and the con-artist
 Rabi Ghosh as Birinchi Baba's assistant, his disciple/(originally) his nephew Kyabla
 Somen Bose as Nibaran da
 Satya Bandopadhyay as Nitai da
 Haridhan Mukherjee as Ganesh Mama
 Satindra Bhattacharya as Satya
 Santosh Dutta as Professor Nani
 Geetali Roy as Buchki/Neelima, Gurupada's younger daughter
 Prasad Mukherjee as Gurupada Mittir
 Renuka Roy as Nani's wife/Gurupada's elder daughter

Preservation
The Academy Film Archive preserved Mahapurush in 2005.

References

External links
 Mahapurush (SatyajitRay.org)

1965 films
Films directed by Satyajit Ray
Bengali-language Indian films
Films about religion
Films with screenplays by Satyajit Ray
1960s Bengali-language films

Mahapurush


The Arboretum de Forêt Verte is an arboretum located within the Forêt Domaniale Verte near Houppeville, Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France. It was created in 1970 to study resistance of different trees to pollution.

See also
 List of botanical gardens in France

References
 Agglo-Rouennaise history (French)
 Charte Forestière de Territoire – Rapport d'activités de l'année 2005 (French)

Gardens in Seine-Maritime
Foret Verte

Arboretum de Forêt Verte


Eulah Elizabeth Tucker (January 28, 1924 – August 20, 2012) was a pitcher who played from  through  in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5' 4", 123 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.

A native of Detroit, Michigan, Tucker received an invitation in 1946 to participate in the AAGPBL spring training held at Pascagoula, Mississippi. After making the league tryout, she was allocated to the Peoria Redwings.  A hard-thrower underhand pitcher, Tucker struggled through the many stages of the league, including shifting from underhand (1946) to sidearm (1947) to overhand (1948) pitching, although she hurled on awful expansion teams that did not give her much run support.

After a year in Peoria, Tucker opened 1947 with the Fort Wayne Daisies and then found herself on the move again, this time to the Rockford Peaches and then the Grand Rapids Chicks. The next year she joined the Chicago Colleens, and returned to the Redwings in 1949, her last AAGPBL season. After that, Tucker pitched in 1950 for the Rockola Chicks of the rival National Girls Baseball League, which was based in Chicago, and remained underhand pitching through 1953. At the time, many AAGPBL players also joined the NGBL because of better salaries and in some cases for not being on the road as much was also important.

The AAGPBL folded in 1954, but there is a permanent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York since November 5,  that honors them.

Tucker was a long time resident of Tucson, Arizona, where she died in 2012 at the age of 88.

Sources

1924 births
2012 deaths
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players
Baseball players from Detroit
Baseball players from Tucson, Arizona
National Girls Baseball League players
21st-century American women
American female baseball players

Betty Tucker


Achille Variati (Vicenza, 19 January 1953) is an Italian politician and former Mayor of Vicenza.

A long-time member of Christian Democracy, he was elected to the municipal council of Vicenza in 1980 and then re-elected in 1985 and 1990, when he became city Mayor. After the disbandment of Christian Democracy, he joined the Italian People's Party and later Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy and the Democratic Party.

Elected to the Regional Council of Veneto in 1995, 2000 and 2005, he was President of the group of the Democratic Party since the beginning of 2007, almost eight months before the party was founded. He was elected Mayor of Vicenza in 2008 and re-elected in 2013.

References

Living people
1953 births
Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy politicians
21st-century Italian politicians
Italian People's Party (1994) politicians
Members of the Regional Council of Veneto
Mayors of Vicenza
Presidents of the Province of Vicenza

Achille Variati


The Emperor and the Golem () is a two-part Czechoslovak historical fantasy comedy film produced in 1951. The film is set during the reign of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor and was filmed in color (not common for Czechoslovak films in that period), because of the international release. It is one of the best known films of Jan Werich, who's performing a dual role of Emperor Rudolf and baker Matěj.

Plot

Part I
Aging and eccentric Emperor Rudolf II, who is obsessed with finding the Golem, refuses to hear out ambassadors and falls into destructive fits. Later he welcomes Magister Edward Kelley at Prague Castle and shows him his alchemist laboratory. All the alchemists are either charlatans or fools. Rudolf wants alchemist Scotta to make him an elixir of youth and pressures him into performing a magic ritual at night. While performing the ritual, they accidentally stumble upon the Golem. However the Golem can't be awakened without a little ball called shem.

Meanwhile, a baker Matěj is confronted with angry mob which demands bread rolls but cannot receive them, because the bread rolls are baked only for the emperor. When the corrupt head of the bakery leaves the building, Matěj distributes the emperor's bread rolls to the poor and is imprisoned in the dungeons for this deed. Kelley reveals his homunculus Sirael, whom the Emperor wishes to teach everything of our world, including love. Rudolf does not know that Sirael is a regular country girl, Kateřina, acting after coercion by Kelley. Kateřina and Matěj communicate through vents between Kelley's room and the dungeons and fall in love through conversation, although they cannot see each other. Alchemist Scotta concocts an elixir of youth for Rudolf (actually a mix of strong alcoholic drinks and morphium). Meanwhile, Matěj escapes the dungeons.

Part II
Rudolf drinks Scotta's concoction and falls asleep. Matěj ends up in the emperor's rooms. Servants of the Emperor find the fugitive Matěj, who bears a remarkable likeness to the Emperor in his young days, hiding in the bath and, believing the rejuvenation has worked, they take him for the emperor and dress him accordingly. After waking up, Rudolf sees Matěj and mistakes him for his younger self in the mirror. Elated by his supposed new vigor, Rudolf and his old loyal servant ride alone in a carriage to the countryside to remind themselves of the sins of their misspent youth.

The emperor's mistress Countess Strada also believes the rejuvenation worked and drinks up the remnants of the concoction. She embarrasses Matěj by her advances and then falls asleep. The horrified and confused Matěj puts her on top of a double-decker bed. Matěj decides that he has to act as Rudolf because it is his best chance to find Kateřina. Matěj as the emperor dismisses Rudolf's astrologer, minimises the extravagant expenses and deals with all the waiting ambassadors. He attempts to rule fairly, all the while searching for Kateřina. He finds a helper in Scotta, who knows his elixir could not have worked, and therefore knows Matěj is not the real emperor.

Meanwhile, intrigue abounds among the emperor's councillors and Kelley. They want to overthrow Rudolf and seize power for themselves. They all want to utilise the Golem and chase after the shem, which is eventually found by Matěj. Kelley then pressures Kateřina into killing the emperor, but Matěj reveals to her that he's not Rudolf. Matěj's identity is also revealed to the councillors. They all try to capture him and Kateřina, while also fighting among themselves. Kelley is killed and Matěj is captured. The Court Astrologer gets a shem from Matěj and awakens the Golem. Lang kills the astrologer and Russworm kills Lang. Then Russworm is killed by the Golem, who only obeys the person who put the shem in its head. The Emperor returns while the Golem is destroying the palace. Eventually, with the help of the townspeople, Matěj succeeds in stopping the Golem and removing the shem. Rudolf is reinstated, after Matěj convinces him to give the Golem to the people rather than use it for his own means. The Golem is installed in the bakery and its power is used to make more bread for everyone.

Cast
 Jan Werich as Emperor Rudolf II / Baker Matěj Kotrba
 Marie Vášová as Countess Catherina Strada
 Nataša Gollová as Kateřina aka Sirael
 Bohuš Záhorský as Chamberlain Filip Lang
 Jiří Plachý as Edward Kelley
 Zdeněk Štěpánek as Marshall Bernard Russworm
 František Filipovský as Court Astrologer
 František Černý as Alchemist Jeroným Alessandro Scotta
 Václav Trégl as Emperor's personal servant
 Vladimír Leraus as Hungarian Delegate
 Miloš Nedbal as Court Physician
 Bohuš Hradil as Tycho Brahe
 František Holar as Guard Commander

Production

Jan Werich and Jiří Voskovec were trying to make the film based on their play Golem in the 1930s. That film eventually became Le Golem directed by Julien Duvivier, who significantly re-wrote the screenplay and changed it into a horror film. Werich returned to this theme in 1950s and co-wrote a screenplay with Jiří Brdečka. It was originally directed by Jiří Krejčík, but after disputes with the Werich, Krejčík was replaced by Martin Frič. The whole film was shot in Barrandov Studios. It was the third Czechoslovak full-length color film after Warriors of Faith and Temno. It was shot on Eastmancolor and Agfacolor material. Costumes were based on designs by Jiří Trnka.

Release
The Emperor and the Golem had a premiere on 4 January 1952 as a two-part film, 155 minutes long.

International version
A 112-minute-long one-part international version was prepared, with most propaganda flavoured scenes cut out (e.g., songs). It was successfully distributed in many countries, including Italy, West Germany, East Germany, Sweden, USA, UK, Finland, France, Belgium or Argentina.

References

External links

1951 films
1950s historical comedy films
1950s fantasy comedy films
Czechoslovak comedy films
Czech historical films
Czech fantasy films
1950s Czech-language films
Films about lookalikes
Films based on fairy tales
Films directed by Martin Frič
Films with screenplays by Jiří Brdečka
Cultural depictions of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
Golem films
Films set in Prague
Films set in 16th-century Holy Roman Empire
Tycho Brahe
1952 comedy films
1952 films
1951 comedy films
Czech monster movies
Czech comedy films
Czechoslovak fantasy films

The Emperor and the Golem


A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issues, such as defence, foreign relations, internal trade or currency, with the central government being required to provide support for all its members. Confederalism represents a main form of intergovernmentalism, defined as any form of interaction around states that takes place on the basis of sovereign independence or government.

The nature of the relationship among the member states constituting a confederation varies considerably. Likewise, the relationship between the member states and the general government and their distribution of powers varies. Some looser confederations are similar to international organisations. Other confederations with stricter rules may resemble federal systems.

Since the member states of a confederation retain their sovereignty, they have an implicit right of secession. The political philosopher Emmerich de Vattel said: "Several sovereign and independent states may unite themselves together by a perpetual confederacy without each, in particular, ceasing to be a perfect state.... The deliberations in common will offer no violence to the sovereignty of each member".

Under a confederation, compared to a federal state, the central authority is relatively weak. Decisions made by the general government in a unicameral legislature, a council of the member states, require subsequent implementation by the member states to take effect; they are not laws acting directly upon the individual but have more the character of interstate agreements. Also, decision-making in the general government usually proceeds by consensus (unanimity), not by the majority. Historically, those features limit the union's effectiveness. Hence, political pressure tends to build over time for the transition to a federal system of government, as in the American, Swiss and German cases of regional integration.

Confederated states

In terms of internal structure, every confederal state is composed of two or more constituent states, referred to as confederated states. Regarding their political systems, confederated states can have republican or monarchical forms of government. Those that have a republican form (confederated republics) are usually called states (like states of the American Confederacy, 1861-1865) or republics (like republics of Serbia and Montenegro within the former State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, 2003-2006). Those that have a monarchical form of government (confederated monarchies) are defined by various hierarchical ranks (like kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan within the Hashemite Arab Union in 1958).

Examples

Belgium
Many scholars have claimed that the Kingdom of Belgium, a country with a complicated federal structure has adopted some characteristics of a confederation under the pressure of separatist movements, especially in Flanders. For example, C. E. Lagasse declared that Belgium was "near the political system of a Confederation" regarding the constitutional reform agreements between Belgian Regions and between Communities, and the director of the Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques (CRISP) Vincent de Coorebyter called Belgium "undoubtedly a federation...[with] some aspects of a confederation" in Le Soir. Also in Le Soir, Michel Quévit of the Catholic University of Louvain wrote that the "Belgian political system is already in dynamics of a Confederation".

Nevertheless, the Belgian regions and the linguistic communities do not have the autonomy to leave the Belgian state. As such, federal aspects still dominate. Also, for fiscal policy and public finances, the federal state dominates the other levels of government.

The increasingly-confederal aspects of the Belgian Federal State appear to be a political reflection of the profound cultural, sociological and economic differences between the Flemish (Belgians who speak Dutch or Dutch dialects) and the Walloons (Belgians who speak French or French dialects). For example, in the last several decades, over 95% of Belgians have voted for political parties that represent voters from only one community, the separatist N-VA being the party with the most voter support among the Flemish population. Parties that strongly advocate Belgian unity and appeal to voters of both communities usually play only a marginal role in nationwide general elections. The system in Belgium is known as consociationalism.

That makes Belgium fundamentally different from federal countries like Switzerland, Canada, Germany and Australia. National parties receive over 90% of voter support in those countries. The only geographical areas comparable with Belgium within Europe are Catalonia, the Basque Country (both part of Spain), Northern Ireland and Scotland (both part of the United Kingdom) and parts of Italy, where a massive voter turnout for regional (and often separatist) political parties has become the rule in the last decades, and nationwide parties advocating national unity draw around half or sometimes less of the votes.

Benelux
The Benelux is a politico-economic union of the states of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg bound through treaties and based on consensus between the representatives of the member states.

They partially share a common foreign policy, especially in regards to their navies through the BeNeSam. The Dutch defence minister (2010-2012) Hans Hillen even said on Belgian radio that it is not impossible that the three armed forces of the member-states could be integrated into "Benelux Armed Forces" one day.

Because of this the Benelux is sometimes labeled as a "kind of confederation" by, for example, Belgian Minister of State Mark Eyskens.

Canada

In Canada, the word confederation has an additional unrelated meaning. "Confederation" refers to the process of (or the event of) establishing or joining the Canadian federal state.

In modern terminology, Canada is a federation, not a confederation. However, to contemporaries of the Constitution Act, 1867, confederation did not have the same connotation of a weakly-centralized federation. Canadian Confederation generally refers to the Constitution Act, 1867, which formed the Dominion of Canada from three of the colonies of British North America, and to the subsequent incorporation of other colonies and territories. Beginning on 1 July 1867, it was initially a self-governing dominion of the British Empire with a  federal structure, whose government was led by Sir John A. Macdonald. The initial colonies involved were the Province of Canada (becoming Quebec from Canada East, formerly the colony of Lower Canada; and Ontario from Canada West, formerly the colony of Upper Canada), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Later participants were Manitoba, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Alberta and Saskatchewan (the latter two created in 1905 as federated provinces from parts of the directly federally administered Northwest Territories, first transferred to the Dominion in 1869 and now possessing devolved governments as itself, Yukon and Nunavut), and finally Newfoundland (now Newfoundland and Labrador) in 1949. Canada is an unusually decentralized federal state, not a confederate association of sovereign states, the usual meaning of confederation in modern terms. A Canadian judicial constitutional interpretation, Reference Re Secession of Quebec, and a subsequent federal law, set forth negotiating conditions for a Canadian province (though not a territory) to leave the Canadian federal state (addressed also by a related Quebec law). Importantly, negotiation would first need triggering by referendum and executing by constitutional amendment using a current amending mechanism of Canada's constitution—meaning that, while not legal under the current constitution, it is democratically feasible without resorting to extralegal means or international involvement.

European Union
Its unique nature and the political sensitivities surrounding it cause there to be no common or legal classification for the European Union (EU). However, it bears some resemblance to both a confederation (or a "new" type of confederation) and a federation. The term supranational union has also been applied. The EU operates common economic policies with hundreds of common laws, which enable a single economic market, a common customs territory, (mainly) open internal borders, and a common currency among most member-states. However, unlike a federation, the EU does not have exclusive powers over foreign affairs, defence, taxation, along with the immigration and transit of non-EU nationals. Furthermore, most EU laws, which have been developed by consensus between relevant national government ministers and then scrutinised and approved or rejected by the European Parliament, must be transposed into national law by national parliaments. Most collective decisions by member states are taken by weighted majorities and blocking minorities typical of upper houses in federations. On the other hand, the absolute unanimity typical of intergovernmentalism is required only in respect to the Common Foreign and Security Policy, as well as in situations when ratification of a treaty or of a treaty amendment is required. Such a form may thus be described as a semi-intergovernmental confederation.

However, some academic observers more usually discuss the EU in the terms of it being a federation. As the international law professor Joseph H. H. Weiler (of the Hague Academy and New York University) wrote, "Europe has charted its own brand of constitutional federalism". Jean-Michel Josselin and Alain Marciano see the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg City as being a primary force behind the building of a federal legal order for the EU, with Josselin stating that a "complete shift from a confederation to a federation would have required to straight-forwardly replace the principality of the member states vis-à-vis the Union by that of the European citizens. As a consequence, both confederate and federate features coexist in the judicial landscape". Rutgers political science professor R. Daniel Kelemen said: "Those uncomfortable using the 'F' word in the EU context should feel free to refer to it as a quasi-federal or federal-like system. Nevertheless, the EU has the necessary attributes of a federal system. It is striking that while many scholars of the EU continue to resist analyzing it as a federation, most contemporary students of federalism view the EU as a federal system". Thomas Risse and Tanja A. Börzel claim that the "EU only lacks two significant features of a federation. First, the Member States remain the "masters" of the treaties, i.e., they have the exclusive power to amend or change the constitutive treaties of the EU. Second, the EU lacks a real "tax and spend" capacity, in other words, there is no fiscal federalism".

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the chairman of the body of experts commissioned to elaborate a constitutional charter for the European Union, was confronted with strong opposition from the United Kingdom towards including the words "federal" or "federation" in the unratified European Constitution and the word was replaced with either "Community" or "Union".

A majority of the Political Groups in the European Parliament, including the EPP, the S&D Group and Renew Europe, support a federal model for the European Union. The ECR Group argues for a reformed European Union along confederal lines. The Brothers of Italy party, led by Giorgia Meloni, campaigns for a confederal Europe. On her election as President of the ECR Party in September 2020 Meloni said, "Let us continue to fight together for a confederate Europe of free and sovereign states".

Indigenous confederations in North America

In the context of the history of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, a confederacy may refer to a semi-permanent political and military alliance consisting of multiple nations (or "tribes", "bands", or "villages"), which maintained their separate leadership. One of the most well-known is the Haudenosaunee (or Iroquois), but there were many others during different eras and locations across North America, such as the Wabanaki Confederacy, Western Confederacy, Tsenacommacah, Seven Nations of Canada, Pontiac's Confederacy, Illinois Confederation, Tecumseh's Confederacy, Muscogee Confederacy, Great Sioux Nation, Blackfoot Confederacy, Manahoac Confederacy, Iron Confederacy and Council of Three Fires.

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, historically known as the Iroquois League or the League of Five (later Six) Nations, is the country of Native Americans (in what is now the United States) and First Nations (in what is now Canada) that consists of six nations: the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, the Seneca and the Tuscarora. The Six Nations have a representative government known as the Grand Council which is the oldest governmental institution still maintaining its original form in North America. Each clan from the five nations sends chiefs to act as representatives and make decisions for the whole confederation. It has been operating since its foundation in 1142 despite limited international recognition today.

Indigenous confederations in South America
Several of the Pre-Columbian cultures of Colombia, such as the Muisca and Tairona were composed of loose confederations. The Muisca form of government consisted of two different rulers that governed a region in the central Andean highlands in present-day Colombia. The Hoa ruled the northern section of the confederation, while the Zipa ruled the southern portion.

The Andean civilizations consisted of loose confederations, such as the Aymara kingdoms and the Diaguita, with the former being composed of distinct diarchies.

Serbia and Montenegro
In 2003, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was transformed into the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, a confederation of the Republic of Montenegro and the Republic of Serbia. The state was constituted as a loose political union, but formally functioned as a sovereign subject of international law, and member of the United Nations. As a confederation, the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro had very few shared functions, such as defense, foreign affairs and a weak common president, ministerial council and parliament.

The two constituent republics functioned separately throughout the period of its short existence, and they continued to operate under separate economic policies and to use separate currencies (the euro was and still is the only legal tender in Montenegro, and the dinar was and still is the legal tender in Serbia). On 21 May 2006, the Montenegrin independence referendum was held. The final official results indicated on 31 May that 55.5% of voters voted in favor of independence. The confederation effectively came to an end after Montenegro's formal declaration of independence on 3 June 2006 and Serbia's formal declaration of independence on 5 June.

Switzerland
Switzerland, officially known as the Swiss Confederation, is an example of a modern country that traditionally refers to itself as a confederation because the official (and traditional) name of Switzerland in German (the majority language of the Swiss) is  (literally "Swiss Comradeship by Oath"), an expression which was translated into the Latin  (Helvetic Confederation). It had been a confederacy since its inception in 1291 as the Old Swiss Confederacy, which was originally created as an alliance among the valley communities of the central Alps, until it became a federation in 1848 but it retains the name of Confederacy for reasons of historical tradition. The confederacy facilitated management of common interests (such as freedom from external domination especially from the Habsburg Empire, the development of republican institutions in a Europe dominated by monarchies and free trade), and it ensured peace between the different cultural entities of the area.

After the Sonderbund War of 1847, when some of the Catholic cantons of Switzerland attempted to set up a separate union ( in German) against the Protestant majority, a vote was held and the majority of the cantons approved the new Federal Constitution which changed the political system to one of a federation.

Union State of Russia and Belarus

In 1999, Russia and Belarus signed a treaty to form a confederation, which came into force on 26 January 2000. Although it was given the name Union State, and has some characteristics of a federation, it remains a confederation of two sovereign states. Its existence has been seen as an indication of Russia's political and economic support for the Belarusian government. The confederation was created with the objective of co-ordinating common action on economic integration and foreign affairs. However, many of the treaty's provisions have not yet been implemented. Consequently, The Times, in 2020, described it as "a mostly unimplemented confederation".

Historical confederations
Historical confederations (especially those predating the 20th century) may not fit the current definition of a confederation, may be proclaimed as a federation but be confederal (or the reverse), and may not show any qualities that 21st-century political scientists might classify as those of a confederation.

List
Some have more the characteristics of a personal union, but appear here because of their self-styling as a "confederation":

See also
 Associated state
 Commonwealth
 Federalism
 Federation
 Supranational union
 Continental union
 NATO
 African Union
 Union State
 Military alliance
 List of confederations

References

Sources

External links

 P.-J. Proudhon, The Principle of Federation, 1863.
 The Fathers of Confederation
 Confederation: The Creation of Canada
 United Confederation of Taino People

Constitutional state types
Federalism
Political systems

Confederation


SI, Si, or si may refer to:

Science
 Silicon, chemical symbol Si
 International System of Units, abbreviated SI from its French name, Système International d'unités
 Self-injury
 Sexual intercourse, a medical abbreviation
 Suicidal ideation, a medical term for thoughts about suicide
 Small intestine, part of the digestive system
 .si, the Internet country code top-level domain for Slovenia

Places
 Slovenia, a European country (from the ISO 3166-2 two-letter abbreviation)
 Solomon Islands, a Pacific island country
 South India, a region in India
 The South Island, one of the two main islands of New Zealand
 Southern Ireland, an old name for the Republic of Ireland
 Staten Island, a borough of New York City and an island in the Hudson River
 Province of Siena, an Italian province (two letter provincial code)

Other uses
 Sí (album), an album by Julieta Venegas
 Smithsonian Institution, a research institute
 Socialist International, an organisation of socialist and labour political parties
 Societas Iesu, the Jesuits, a group within the Roman Catholic Church
 Sports Illustrated, a sports magazine

SI (disambiguation)


Urban Christian Ahlin (; born 13 November 1964) is a Swedish Social Democratic Party politician who was Speaker of the Riksdag from September 2014 to September 2018. He served as a Member of the Riksdag (MP) for the Västra Götaland County East constituency from 1994 to 2018. He was formerly Foreign Policy spokesman for the Social Democrats.

Education and career
Ahlin was born in Mariestad, Skaraborg County, Sweden. From 1981 to 1982, and again from 1984 to 1985, he was chairman of the local branch of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League in Mariestad. Between 1985 and 1990 he was chairman of the Social Democratic Youth League in Skaraborg County. Between 1991 and 1998 he was chairman of the Social Democratic Party in Mariestad, Skaraborg County, and between 1999 and 2002 he was the deputy secretary general of the Social Democratic Party. Since 2005 he is chairman of the Social Democratic Party in Skaraborg County.

Between 1985 and 1990 Ahlin studied at the specialist teacher-training course at Karlstad University. He then worked as a teacher at an upper level elementary school in Mariestad, teaching mathematics and general science, until being elected to the Swedish parliament in 1994.

Between 2002 and 2006 Ahlin was chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Swedish parliament. From 2006 to 2014, after the Social Democrats lost power in the 2006 election, he was deputy chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. During this time, Urban Ahlin was the Foreign Policy spokesperson for the Social Democrats in the Swedish Parliament. In Parliament he held a number of different positions. He was a member of the Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs, a member of the War Delegation, and a deputy member of the Committee on European Union Affairs. He was also a member of the party board of the Social Democratic Party.

He has been the chair of the Socialist group in the OSCE PA, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. He is at the moment the deputy chair of the Swedish delegation to NATO Parliamentary Assembly

Following the 2014 election, on 29 September 2014 Ahlin was elected Speaker of the Riksdag for the period 2014-2018. He succeeded Per Westerberg in that post.

Successful mediator

Urban Ahlin has been engaged in many mediations and negotiations. In 2007 he managed after extensive meetings and talks to get two Swedish construction workers out from the Iranian prison, Evin, in Tehran. He was the backchannel between Belarus and United States in negotiating the release of the imprisoned presidential candidate in Belarus, Alexander Kozulin. Kozulin was eventually released.
Urban Ahlin was also the person behind the scene in the work to release the hostage at the headquarters of the Social Democratic Party in Stockholm. The staff had been taken hostage by a group of young members of PKK as a protest after the arrest of their leader Öcalan. Urban Ahlin was the channel talking directly to the youngsters making them to give up after Ahlin gave a promise to attend the court hearings in Turkey. Which he later did together with the former Swedish minister Carl Lidbom.

Other organisations
Urban Ahlin is and has been a member of many different non-profit organisations. He is a founding member of the European Council on Foreign Relations ECFR. He is also a member of the Swedish group of Trilateral Commission. He has been a director of the influential American "think and do tank" EastWest Institute. Urban Ahlin regularly participates in programs and seminars organised by The Aspen Institute, German Marshall Fund GMF and Council on Foreign Relationsin Washington DC. Urban Ahlin is also a member of the International Advisory Board of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferations Studies, CSN at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, CA.

State orders
Urban Ahlin received the state Order for Merits to Lithuania from President Adamkus in 2005 for his work to extend the international relationship.

References

External links

Urban Ahlin at the Swedish parliament's website

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1964 births
Living people
People from Mariestad Municipality
Members of the Riksdag from the Social Democrats
Speakers of the Riksdag
Recipients of the Order for Merits to Lithuania
Ambassadors of Sweden to Canada
Ambassadors of Sweden to the United States
Members of the Riksdag 1994–1998
Members of the Riksdag 1998–2002
Members of the Riksdag 2002–2006
Members of the Riksdag 2006–2010

Urban Ahlin


Secret of the Scarlet Hand is the sixth installment in the Nancy Drew point-and-click adventure game series by Her Interactive. The game is available for play on Microsoft Windows platforms. It has an ESRB rating of E for moments of mild violence and peril. Players take on the first-person view of fictional amateur sleuth Nancy Drew and must solve the mystery through interrogation of suspects, solving puzzles, and discovering clues. There are two levels of gameplay, including a Junior and Senior detective mode. Each mode offers a different difficulty level of puzzles and hints, but neither of these changes affect the actual plot of the game. The game is loosely based on a book of the same name, published in 1995.

Plot
Nancy Drew lands an internship at the Beech Hill Museum in Washington D.C., which is devoted to Mayan culture and will soon be exhibiting a newly discovered monolith to the public. However, shortly before the exhibition opens, one of the museum's most treasured pieces is stolen from the museum, and the thief leaves behind a mysterious red hand print.  Nancy must find the stolen jade carving of Pacal and save Beech Hill from financial ruin.

Development

Characters
Nancy Drew - Nancy is an 18-year-old amateur detective from the fictional town of River Heights in the United States. She is the only playable character in the game, which means the player must solve the mystery from her perspective.
Joanna Riggs - Joanna is the curator of Beech Hill Museum. Her eagerness to obtain rare Mayan artifacts have gotten her into financial trouble with the Beech Hill Board of Directors before. She knows a few Latin phrases and is usually all business. She doesn't get along well with the Mexican Consulate due to artifacts that the museum has acquired under shady circumstances.
Henrik van der Hune - Henrik works at Beech Hill Museum. He was hired by Joanna from the Chaco Canyon Cultural Center, where he worked previously. An expert in glyph translations, Henrik works in the museum's lab studying priceless artifacts. Perhaps he learned something in his translations and then stole the Pacal stone to keep others from learning it secrets?
Taylor Sinclair - Taylor is an art dealer with an office in Washington, D.C. He believes something shady is going on at Beech Hill and fears for the future of the museum. He is also concerned about the robberies of Prudence Rutherford and a museum in New Mexico. Is he just pretending to be concerned in order to get off Nancy's suspect list?
Alejandro del Rio - Alejandro is an ambassador to the Mexican Consulate in Washington, D.C, and knows several languages, including Spanish, English, and Nahuatl. Alejandro passionately believes that all artifacts should be returned to the country they were found, especially when it comes to his home country, Mexico. He believes that Mexico has been 'robbed' of one of its greatest artifacts, the Pacal carving. Would he take extreme measures in order to repatriate artifacts to Mexico?

Cast
Nancy Drew -Lani Minella
Joanna Riggs - Laurie Jerger
Taylor Sinclair - Jake Perrine
Henrik van der Hune - David S. Hogan
Alejandro del Rio - Gary Hoffman
Bess Marvin - Alisa Murray
George Fayne - Maureen Nelson
Frank Hardy - Joshua Silwa
Joe Hardy - Rob Jones
Franklin Rose / Silvio Jr. - Wayne Rawley
Gordon Bluefoot / Mack / Dr. Bob Bobson - Scott Plusquellec
Prudence Rutherford - Simone Choule
Henry Albert Daddle - Scott Carty
Sheila Schultz - Amy Broomhall

Critical reception
According to PC Data, Secret of the Scarlet Hand sold 50,195 retail copies in North America during 2003. In the United States, Secret of the Scarlet Hands computer version sold between 100,000 and 300,000 units by August 2006. Combined sales of the Nancy Drew adventure game series reached 500,000 copies in North America by early 2003, and the computer entries reached 2.1 million sales in the United States alone by August 2006. Remarking upon this success, Edge called Nancy Drew a "powerful franchise".

John Moran of Lawrence Journal-World described the game, along with Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake as "well designed, engrossing and fun", adding "the animation is quite striking [and] facial expressions, facial gestures, even voices are lifelike". However, it received a negative review from Charles Herold of The New York Times. He wrote, "After three first-rate games, HerInteractive has stumbled, producing a game that is more concerned with trivia than puzzles."

References

2002 video games
Detective video games
Video games based on Nancy Drew
Point-and-click adventure games
Video games scored by Kevin Manthei
Video games developed in the United States
Video games set in Washington, D.C.
Windows games
Windows-only games
Her Interactive games
Single-player video games
North America-exclusive video games
Children's educational video games

Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand


El pintor de su deshonra ("The Painter of His Dishonor"), sometimes known as El pintor ("The Painter"), is a 1640s play of the Spanish Golden Age theatre by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. It is one of the author's three famous wife-murder plays, along with A secreto agravio, secreta venganza ("Secret Vengeance for Secret Insult") and El médico de su honra ("The Physician of His Honor"), where private revenge of an aggrieved husband, in this case a painter by the name of Juan Roca, ultimately becomes very public.

This play departs from the other two honor tragedies in its concern with art. Here, Juan Roca is a solitary artist who decides to take a young bride. He can never truly depict her in paint, since he feels he cannot grasp her soul. During the carnival, wanting to flee the noise and revelry, he tells his wife to dance with a masked man who turns out to be Don Álvaro, her former lover who was thought to have drowned. During a fire, Don Álvaro abducts Serafina and although she never surrenders to his advances, she is believed to be guilty by Juan Roca, her husband, after he finds her. He had been sent to secretly paint this unknown woman. His commission was to paint a mythological subject, Hercules, jealous of the abducted Deianira.  In killing Serafina, the melancholy Juan Roca becomes the painter of his dishonor. Much of the criticism on this play centers on questions of art.  The play has also been studied in terms of the tragic and the political. Its setting in Barcelona and the uses of the poetry of Juan Boscán has led some to see it as an homage to the Catalan poet.

It has been translated into English several times, notably (and freely) by Edward FitzGerald and more recently by Alan K. G. Paterson.

References

Spanish plays
Plays by Pedro Calderón de la Barca
1640s plays

El pintor de su deshonra