title: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

text: In one ending, the sound of a computer data tape recording is heard; loading the sound into a ZX Spectrum generates a QR code with the White Bear glyph in the middle that leads to the fictional Tuckersoft website, where a playable copy of the ZX Spectrum game "Nohzdyve" can be downloaded. This ending was at one point intended to be a clue to a real life treasure hunt in which people could find "Bandersnatch" cassettes, inspired by the 1979 picture book "Masquerade" that gave hints as to the location of a buried bejewelled golden hare.


title: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

text: The film received mixed reception from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it received a 72% approval rating based on 69 reviews, with an average rating of 7.44/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "While "Bandersnatch" marks an innovative step forward for interactive content, its meta narrative can't quite sustain interest over multiple viewings — though it provides enough trademark "Black Mirror" tech horror to warrant at least one watch." It garnered ratings of four out of five stars in "The Independent" and "The Observer", and three stars in "Rolling Stone". "IndieWire" gave it an A− rating and "IGN" reviewed it as eight out of ten.


title: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

text: Describing the piece as "incredibly funny at times", Heritage reviewed it as a "masterpiece of sophistication". Liz Shannon Miller of "IndieWire" found it "hard-to-define" but "impossible to forget". Quinn believed it to be one of the better instalments of "Black Mirror", saying that it was a "brilliant foray into a (more or less) new realm of visual storytelling". However, Brian Lowry of CNN wrote that it was "a wildly familiar plot for a psychological thriller" and Spencer said that the storyline "isn't particularly memorable". Austen Goslin of "Polygon" criticised that the narrative is "like a cleverly disguised straight line".


title: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

text: The technical design of "Bandersnatch" was widely praised. Griffin wrote that the tutorial "does a solid job of explaining how the experience works". The user interface and transitions between choice points were lauded by critics including Heritage and "NPR"s Linda Holmes, who both called it "seamless", and Griffin, who found the feature "smooth and unobtrusive". Miller commented that "the system was very smart about knowing when to essentially fast-forward through earlier storylines to move things forward". The relationship between interactivity and the storyline, however, received less positive reception. Griffin reviewed that the "short amount of time" to make a choice could cause frustration. Goslin believed that the interactivity leads to "staccato pacing that prevents anyone involved from finding a real rhythm in each scene", Roisin O'Connor of "The Independent" concurring that the choices "can become quite wearisome". Lowry said that the medium "winds up feeling like a gimmick".


title: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

text: The narrative received further criticism. Spencer found it "riddled with cliche", saying that Stefan questioning the nature of free will "has been done to death in print" and other interactive fiction. Holmes wrote that "it would have been good to see this technology demonstrated on a stronger story". Lowry found that the story kept "circling back", which was "numbing and repetitive". Holmes agreed, finding it "deeply frustrating" when she was "simply shown the same segment of story again" until she made the choice "that will actually move you forward". Lucy Mangan of "The Observer" experienced that the story "rarely landed in an unexpected place". Overall, "Rolling Stone"s David Fear criticised that the experience gave "little to hold onto after the fact" and that "the story doesn't matter". Holmes found it "especially poorly suited to being watched more than once". In contrast, Cumming reviewed that the medium "is bound with the plot", which "saves the film from pure gimmickry". Griffin felt "responsible" for Stefan's behaviour and "more and more invested in his story". Miller and Quinn both praised the self-referential "Netflix" branch of the story.


title: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

text: The characters were met with mostly negative commentary. Goslin called them "paper thin and barely interesting"; Mangan wrote that the medium did not have "energy to spare to make the characters much more than ciphers". Holmes criticised that the "isolated artist" trope "doesn't really hold up a narrative on its own". She further said that the audience doesn't "learn enough about who [Stefan] is to care about him". In regard to Stefan's backstory involving his mother's death, Goslin commented that "Bandersnatch" is "really only interested in this premise as a bridge toward its ultimate destination: becoming meta commentary on itself and video games as a medium". However, the acting was met with praise from Griffin, who approved of "impactful performances from Fionn Whitehead and Will Poulter", and Cumming, finding that Poulter "steals most of his scenes". Cumming further wrote that "the dialogue is as knowing and smart as we have come to expect".


title: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

text: "Bandersnatch" received middling rankings on critics' lists of the 23 instalments of "Black Mirror", from best to worst:


title: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

text: Among its nominations, "Bandersnatch" won two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Broadcasting Press Guild TV and Radio Award in the Innovation category. Charlie Brooker won the Best Game Writing category at the 2018 Nebula Awards in 2019, rather than a storytelling category.


title: Ungulate

text: Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Ungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. These include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraffes, camels, sheep, deer, and hippopotamuses. Cetaceans such as whales, dolphins, and porpoises are also classified as even-toed ungulates, although they do not have hooves. Most terrestrial ungulates use the hoofed tips of their toes to support their body weight while standing or moving.


title: Ungulate

text: The term means, roughly, "being hoofed" or "hoofed animal". As a descriptive term, "ungulate" normally excludes cetaceans as they do not possess most of the typical morphological characteristics of other ungulates, but recent discoveries indicate that they were also descended from early artiodactyls. Ungulates are typically herbivorous and many employ specialized gut bacteria to allow them to digest cellulose. Some modern species, such as pigs, are omnivorous, while some prehistoric species, such as mesonychians, were carnivorous.


title: Ungulate

text: Ungulate is from the Late Latin adjective "ungulatus", "hoofed". "Ungulatus" is a diminutive form of Latin "unguis", "nail" (finger nail; toe nail).


title: Ungulate

text: Ungulata is a clade (or in some taxonomies, a grand order) of mammals. The two orders of ungulates were the Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates) and Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates). Hyracoidea (hyraxes), Sirenia (sea cows) (dugongs and manatees) and Proboscidea (elephants) were in the past included in a superorder called Paenungulata which was grouped with the ungulata. These three orders were now considered a clade and grouped in the Afrotheria clade while Ungulata is now grouped under the Laurasiatheria clade.


title: Ungulate

text: In 2009 morphological and molecular work found that aardvarks, hyraxes, sea cows, and elephants were more closely related to each other and to sengis, tenrecs, and golden moles than to the perissodactyls and artiodactyls, and form the clade Afrotheria. Elephants, sea cows, and hyraxes were grouped together in the clade Paenungulata, while the aardvark has been considered as either a close relative to them or a close relative to sengis in the clade Afroinsectiphilia. This is a striking example of convergent evolution.


title: Ungulate

text: There is now some dispute as to whether this smaller Ungulata is a cladistic (evolution-based) group, or merely a phenetic group (form taxon) or folk taxon (similar, but not necessarily related). Some studies have indeed found the mesaxonian ungulates and paraxonian ungulates to form a monophyletic lineage, closely related to either the Ferae (the carnivorans and the pangolins) in the clade Fereuungulata or to the bats. Other studies found the two orders not that closely related, as some place the perissodactyls as close relatives to bats and Ferae in Pegasoferae and others place the artiodactyls as close relatives to bats.


title: Ungulate

text: Below is a simplified taxonomy (assuming that ungulates do indeed form a natural grouping) with the extant families, in order of the relationships. Keep in mind that there were still some grey areas of conflict, such as the case with relationship of the pecoran families and the baleen whale families. See each family for the relationships of the species as well as the controversies in their respective article.


title: Ungulate

text: Perissodactyla and Artiodactyla include the majority of large land mammals. These two groups first appeared during the late Paleocene, rapidly spreading to a wide variety of species on numerous continents, and have developed in parallel since that time. Some scientists believed that modern ungulates were descended from an evolutionary grade of mammals known as the condylarths; the earliest known member of the group was the tiny "Protungulatum", an ungulate that co-existed with the last of non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago; however, many authorities do not consider it a true placental, let alone an ungulate. The enigmatic dinoceratans were among the first large herbivorous mammals, although their exact relationship with other mammals is still debated with one of the theories being that they might just be distant relatives to living ungulates; the most recent study recovers them as within the true ungulate assemblage, closest to "Carodnia".


title: Ungulate

text: In Australia, the marsupial "Chaeropus" also developed hooves similar to those of artiodactyls, an example of convergent evolution.


title: Ungulate

text: Perissodactyls were thought to have evolved from the Phenacodontidae, small, sheep-sized animals that were already showing signs of anatomical features that their descendants would inherit (the reduction of digit I and V for example). By the start of the Eocene, 55 million years ago (Mya), they had diversified and spread out to occupy several continents. Horses and tapirs both evolved in North America; rhinoceroses appear to have developed in Asia from tapir-like animals and then colonised the Americas during the middle Eocene (about 45 Mya). Of the approximately 15 families, only three survive (McKenna and Bell, 1997; Hooker, 2005). These families were very diverse in form and size; they included the enormous brontotheres and the bizarre chalicotheres. The largest perissodactyl, an Asian rhinoceros called "Paraceratherium", reached , more than twice the weight of an elephant.


title: Ungulate

text: It has been found in a cladistic study that the anthracobunids and the desmostylians - two lineages that have been previously classified as Afrotherians (more specifically closer to elephants) - have been classified as a clade that is closely related to the perissodactyls. The desmostylians were large amphibious quadrupeds with massive limbs and a short tail. They grew to in length and were thought to have weighed more than . Their fossils were known from the northern Pacific Rim, from southern Japan through Russia, the Aleutian Islands and the Pacific coast of North America to the southern tip of Baja California. Their dental and skeletal form suggests desmostylians were aquatic herbivores dependent on littoral habitats. Their name refers to their highly distinctive molars, in which each cusp was modified into hollow columns, so that a typical molar would have resembled a cluster of pipes, or in the case of worn molars, volcanoes. They were the only marine mammals to have gone extinct.


title: Ungulate

text: The South American meridiungulates contain the somewhat tapir-like pyrotheres and astrapotheres, the mesaxonic litopterns and the diverse notoungulates. As a whole, meridiungulates were said to have evolved from animals like "Hyopsodus". For a while their relationships with other ungulates were a mystery. Some paleontologists have even challenged the monophyly of Meridiungulata by suggesting that the pyrotheres may be more closely related to other mammals, such as Embrithopoda (an African order that were related to elephants) than to other South American ungulates. A recent study based on bone collagen has found that at least litopterns and the notoungulates were closely related to the perissodactyls.


title: Ungulate

text: The oldest known fossils assigned to Equidae date from the early Eocene, 54 million years ago. They had been assigned to the genus "Hyracotherium", but the type species of that genus is now considered not a member of this family, but the other species have been split off into different genera. These early Equidae were fox-sized animals with three toes on the hind feet, and four on the front feet. They were herbivorous browsers on relatively soft plants, and already adapted for running. The complexity of their brains suggest that they already were alert and intelligent animals. Later species reduced the number of toes, and developed teeth more suited for grinding up grasses and other tough plant food.


title: Ungulate

text: Rhinocerotoids diverged from other perissodactyls by the early Eocene. Fossils of "Hyrachyus eximus" found in North America date to this period. This small hornless ancestor resembled a tapir or small horse more than a rhino. Three families, sometimes grouped together as the superfamily Rhinocerotoidea, evolved in the late Eocene: Hyracodontidae, Amynodontidae and Rhinocerotidae, thus creating an explosion of diversity unmatched for a while until environmental changes drastically eliminated several species.


title: Ungulate

text: The first tapirids, such as "Heptodon", appeared in the early Eocene. They appeared very similar to modern forms, but were about half the size, and lacked the proboscis. The first true tapirs appeared in the Oligocene. By the Miocene, such genera as "Miotapirus" were almost indistinguishable from the extant species. Asian and American tapirs were believed to have diverged around 20 to 30 million years ago; and tapirs migrated from North America to South America around 3 million years ago, as part of the Great American Interchange.


title: Ungulate

text: Perissodactyls were the dominant group of large terrestrial browsers right through the Oligocene. However, the rise of grasses in the Miocene (about 20 Mya) saw a major change: the artiodactyl species with their more complex stomachs were better able to adapt to a coarse, low-nutrition diet, and soon rose to prominence. Nevertheless, many perissodactyl species survived and prospered until the late Pleistocene (about 10,000 years ago) when they faced the pressure of human hunting and habitat change.


title: Ungulate

text: The artiodactyls were thought to have evolved from a small group of condylarths, Arctocyonidae, which were unspecialized, superficially raccoon-like to bear-like omnivores from the Early Paleocene


title: Ungulate

text: (about 65 to 60 million years ago). They had relatively short limbs lacking specializations associated with their relatives (e.g. reduced side digits, fused bones, and hooves), and long, heavy tails. Their primitive anatomy makes it unlikely that they were able to run down prey, but with their powerful proportions, claws, and long canines, they may have been able to overpower smaller animals in surprise attacks. Evidently these mammals soon evolved into two separate lineages: the mesonychians and the artiodactyls.


title: Ungulate

text: Mesonychians were depicted as "wolves on hooves" and were the first major mammalian predators, appearing in the Paleocene. Early mesonychids had five digits on their feet, which probably rested flat on the ground during walking (plantigrade locomotion), but later mesonychids had four digits that ended in tiny hooves on all of their toes and were increasingly well adapted to running. Like running members of the even-toed ungulates, mesonychids ("Pachyaena", for example) walked on their digits (digitigrade locomotion). Mesonychians fared very poorly at the close of the Eocene epoch, with only one genus, "Mongolestes", surviving into the Early Oligocene epoch, as the climate changed and fierce competition arose from the better adapted creodonts.


title: Ungulate

text: The first artiodactyls looked like today's chevrotains or pigs: small, short-legged creatures that ate leaves and the soft parts of plants. By the Late Eocene (46 million years ago), the three modern suborders had already developed: Suina (the pig group); Tylopoda (the camel group); and Ruminantia (the goat and cattle group). Nevertheless, artiodactyls were far from dominant at that time: the perissodactyls were much more successful and far more numerous. Artiodactyls survived in niche roles, usually occupying marginal habitats, and it is presumably at that time that they developed their complex digestive systems, which allowed them to survive on lower-grade food. While most artiodactyls were taking over the niches left behind by several extinct perissodactyls, one lineage of artiodactyls began to venture out into the seas.


title: Ungulate

text: The traditional theory of cetacean evolution was that cetaceans were related to the mesonychids. These animals had unusual triangular teeth very similar to those of primitive cetaceans. This is why scientists long believed that cetaceans evolved from a form of mesonychid. Today, many scientists believe cetaceans evolved from the same stock that gave rise to hippopotamuses. This hypothesized ancestral group likely split into two branches around . One branch would evolve into cetaceans, possibly beginning about with the proto-whale "Pakicetus" and other early cetacean ancestors collectively known as Archaeoceti, which eventually underwent aquatic adaptation into the completely aquatic cetaceans. The other branch became the anthracotheres, a large family of four-legged beasts, the earliest of whom in the late Eocene would have resembled skinny hippopotamuses with comparatively small and narrow heads. All branches of the anthracotheres, except that which evolved into Hippopotamidae, became extinct during the Pliocene without leaving any descendants.


title: Ungulate

text: The family Raoellidae is said to be the closest artiodactyl family to the cetaceans. Consequentially, new theories in cetacean evolution hypothesize that whales and their ancestors escaped predation, not competition, by slowly adapting to the ocean.


title: Ungulate

text: Ungulates were in high diversity in response to sexual selection and ecological events; the majority of ungulates lack a collar bone. Terrestrial ungulates were for the most part herbivores, with some of them being grazers. However, there were exceptions to this as pigs, peccaries, hippos and duikers were known to have an omnivorous diet. Some cetaceans were the only modern ungulates that were carnivores; baleen whales consume significantly smaller animals in relation to their body size, such as small species of fish and krill; toothed whales, depending on the species, can consume a wide range of species: squid, fish, sharks, and other species of mammals such as seals and other whales. In terms of ecosystem ungulates have colonized all corners of the planet, from mountains to the ocean depths; grasslands to deserts and some have been domesticated by humans.


title: Ungulate

text: Ungulates have developed specialized adaptations, especially in the areas of cranial appendages, dentition, and leg morphology including the modification of the astragalus (one of the ankle bones at the end of the lower leg) with a short, robust head.


title: Ungulate

text: The hoof is the tip of a toe of an ungulate mammal, strengthened by a thick horny (keratin) covering. The hoof consists of a hard or rubbery sole, and a hard wall formed by a thick nail rolled around the tip of the toe. The weight of the animal is normally borne by both the sole and the edge of the hoof wall. Hooves grow continuously, and are constantly worn down by use. In most modern ungulates, the radius and ulna are fused along the length of the forelimb; early ungulates, such as the arctocyonids, did not share this unique skeletal structure. The fusion of the radius and ulna prevents an ungulate from rotating its forelimb. Since this skeletal structure has no specific function in ungulates, it is considered a homologous characteristic that ungulates share with other mammals. This trait would have been passed down from a common ancestor. While the two orders of ungulates colloquial names were based on the number of toes of their members ("odd-toed" for the perissodactyls and "even-toed" for the terrestrial artiodactyls), it is not an accurate reason they were grouped. Tapirs have four toes in the front, yet they were members of the "odd-toed" order; peccaries and modern cetaceans were members of the "even-toed" order, yet peccaries have three toes in the front and whales were an extreme example as they have flippers instead of hooves. Scientists had classified them according to the distribution of their weight to their toes.


title: Ungulate

text: Perissodactyls have a mesaxonic foot meaning that the weight is distributed on the third toe on all legs thanks to the plane symmetry of their feet. There has been reduction of toes from the common ancestor, with the classic example being horses with their single hooves. In consequence, there was an alternative name for the perissodactyls the nearly obsolete Mesaxonia. Perissodactyls were not the only lineage of mammals to have evolved this trait; the meridiungulates have evolved mesaxonic feet numerous times.


title: Ungulate

text: Terrestrial artiodactyls have a paraxonic foot meaning that the weight is distributed on the third and the fourth toe on all legs. The majority of these mammals have cloven hooves, with two smaller ones known as the dewclaws that were located further up on the leg. The earliest cetaceans (the archaeocetes), also have this characteristic in the addition of also having both an astragalus and cuboid bone in the ankle, which were further diagnostic traits of artiodactyls.


title: Ungulate

text: In modern cetaceans, the front limbs have become pectoral fins and the hind parts were internal and reduced. Occasionally, the genes that code for longer extremities cause a modern cetacean to develop miniature legs (known as atavism). The main method of moving is an up-and-down motion with the tail fin, called the fluke, which is used for propulsion, while the pectoral fins together with the entire tail section provide directional control. All modern cetaceans still retain their digits despite the external appearance suggesting otherwise.


title: Ungulate

text: Most ungulates have developed reduced canine teeth and specialized molars, including bunodont (low, rounded cusps) and hypsodont (high crowned) teeth. The development of hypsodonty has been of particular interest as this adaptation was strongly associated with the spread of grasslands during the Miocene about 25 million years. As forest biomes declined, grasslands spread, opening new niches for mammals. Many ungulates switched from browsing diets to grazing diets, and possibly driven by abrasive silica in grass, hypsodonty became common. However, recent evidence ties the evolution of hypsodonty to open, gritty habitats and not the grass itself. This is termed the Grit, not grass hypothesis.


title: Ungulate

text: Some ungulates completely lack upper incisors and instead have a dental pad to assist in browsing. It can be found in camels, ruminants, and some toothed whales; modern baleen whales were remarkable in that they have baleen instead to filter out the krill from the water. On the other spectrum teeth have been evolved as weapons or sexual display seen in pigs and peccaries, some species of deer, musk deer, hippopotamuses, beaked whales and the Narwhal, with its long canine tooth.


title: Ungulate

text: Ungulates have evolved a variety of cranial appendages that today can be found in cervoids (with the exception of musk deer). In oxen and antelope, the size and shape of the horns varies greatly but the basic structure is always a pair of simple bony protrusions without branches, often having a spiral, twisted, or fluted form, each covered in a permanent sheath of keratin. The unique horn structure is the only unambiguous morphological feature of bovids that distinguishes them from other pecorans. Male horn development has been linked to sexual selection, while the presence of horns in females is likely due to natural selection. The horns of females are usually smaller than those of males and are sometimes of a different shape. The horns of female bovids are thought to have evolved for defense against predators or to express territoriality, as nonterritorial females, which are able to use crypsis for predator defense, often lack horns.


title: Ungulate

text: Rhinoceros horns, unlike those of other horned mammals, consist only of keratin. These horns rest on the nasal ridge of the animal's skull.


title: Ungulate

text: Antlers are unique to cervids and found mostly on males: the only cervid females with antlers are caribou and reindeer, whose antlers are normally smaller than males'. Nevertheless, fertile does of other species of deer have the capacity to produce antlers on occasion, usually due to increased testosterone levels. Each antler grows from an attachment point on the skull called a pedicle. While an antler is growing it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone. Antlers are considered one of the most exaggerated cases of male secondary sexual traits in the animal kingdom, and grow faster than any other mammal bone. Growth occurs at the tip, initially as cartilage that is then mineralized to become bone. Once the antler has achieved its full size the velvet is lost and the antler's bone dies. This dead bone structure is the mature antler. In most cases the bone at the base is destroyed by osteoclasts and the antlers eventually fall off. As a result of their fast growth rate antlers place a substantial nutritional demand on deer; they thus can constitute an honest signal of metabolic efficiency and food gathering capability.


title: Ungulate

text: Ossicones are horn-like (or antler-like) protuberances found on the heads of giraffes and male okapis. They are similar to the horns of antelopes and cattle save that they are derived from ossified cartilage, and that the ossicones remain covered in skin and fur rather than horn.


title: Ungulate

text: Pronghorn cranial appendages are unique. Each "horn" of the pronghorn is composed of a slender, laterally flattened blade of bone that grows from the frontal bones of the skull, forming a permanent core. As in the Giraffidae, skin covers the bony cores, but in the pronghorn it develops into a keratinous sheath that is shed and regrown on an annual basis. Unlike the horns of the family Bovidae, the horn sheaths of the pronghorn are branched, each sheath possessing a forward-pointing tine (hence the name pronghorn). The horns of males are well developed.


title: Sigur Rós

text: Sigur Rós () is an Icelandic post-rock band from Reykjavík, active since 1994. The band comprises singer and guitarist Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson, bassist Georg Hólm, and keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson. Known for their ethereal sound, frontman Jónsi's falsetto vocals, and their use of bowed guitar, Sigur Rós incorporate classical and minimal aesthetic elements. Jónsi's vocals are sung in Icelandic and non-linguistic vocalisations the band have termed "Vonlenska". They have released seven studio albums and five EPs since their formation.


title: Sigur Rós

text: Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson (guitar and vocals), Georg Hólm (bass) and Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson (drums) formed the group in Reykjavík in January 1994. The band's name means Victory Rose. They took their name from Jónsi's younger sister Sigurrós, who was born a few days before the band was formed. They soon signed a record deal with the local Sugarcubes-owned record label Bad Taste, because they thought the falsetto vocals would appeal to teenage girls. In 1997, they released "Von" (pronounced , meaning "hope") and in 1998 a remix collection named "Von brigði" (). This name is also Icelandic wordplay: "Vonbrigði" means "disappointment", but "Von brigði" means "variations on "Von"". The band was joined by Kjartan Sveinsson on keyboards in 1998. He is the only member of Sigur Rós with musical training, and has contributed most of the orchestral and string arrangements for their later work.


title: Sigur Rós

text: International acclaim came with 1999's "Ágætis byrjun" ( "A Good Beginning"). The album's reputation spread by word of mouth over the following two years. Soon critics worldwide were praising it effusively, and the band was playing support to established acts such as Radiohead.


title: Sigur Rós

text: Three songs, "Ágætis byrjun", "Svefn-g-englar", and a live take, from a summer 2000 concert in Denmark, of the then-unreleased "Njósnavélin" (later 'unnamed' "Untitled #4") appeared in the Cameron Crowe film "Vanilla Sky". The former two also subsequently appeared in the US version of the television series "Queer as Folk". Their music has also appeared in the TV series "24" with "Ný batterí", and "" with "Svefn-g-englar". In 2004, Wes Anderson used "Starálfur" in "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" as did the Emmy-winning 2005 TV film "The Girl in the Café". In Enki Bilal's "Immortel (Ad Vitam)" the song "Hjartað hamast (bamm bamm bamm)" is used. The song "Svefn-g-englar" was also used on "V" on 24 November 2009, and features prominently in "Café de Flore" released in 2011.


title: Sigur Rós

text: After the release of "Ágætis byrjun", the band became well known for Jónsi's signature style of reverb accentuated guitar work using a cello's bow.


title: Sigur Rós

text: In 2001, Sigur Rós christened their newly completed studio by recording an EP titled "Rímur" with an Icelandic fisherman named Steindór Andersen. The EP contains six songs, all of which feature Steindór Andersen reciting traditional Icelandic rímur poetry. Sigur Rós accompany him on three songs. Two songs feature Steindór alone. The last song on the EP, "Lækurinn", is a duet with Sigurður Sigurðarson. A thousand copies of the EP were printed and sold during the spring tour of 2001. The EP was sold in a blank-white-paper case. In 2001 the band toured in Canada, performing at Massey Hall in Toronto in September.


title: Sigur Rós

text: Drummer Ágúst left the band after the recording of "Ágætis byrjun" and was replaced by Orri Páll Dýrason. In 2002, their highly anticipated follow-up album "( )" was released. Upon release all tracks on the album were untitled, though the band later published song names on their website. All of the lyrics on "( )" are sung in "Vonlenska", also known as Hopelandic, a language without semantic meaning, which resembles the phonology of the Icelandic language. It has also been said that the listener is supposed to interpret their own meanings of the lyrics which can then be written in the blank pages in the album booklet.


title: Sigur Rós

text: In 2002, the band also wrote an original score for the Bodyscript dance production by Wayne McGregor Random Dance in collaboration with Sadler's Wells Theatre and the Arts Council England.


title: Sigur Rós

text: Sigur Rós collaborated with Radiohead in October 2003 to compose music for Merce Cunningham's dance piece "Split Sides"; Sigur Rós's three tracks were released on the March 2004 EP "Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do". Radiohead's contribution was not commercially released. Sigur Rós' 1997 debut album "Von" found a US and UK release in October 2004.


title: Sigur Rós

text: "Untitled 3" (a.k.a. Samskeyti) from the album is used on the video "6AM" by film maker Carmen Vidal, winner of the 2006 Student Academy Award.


title: Sigur Rós

text: "Untitled 3" is also used at the end credits of the indie drama movie, "Mysterious Skin". It can also be heard in "Skins" and "" and the British TV Documentary "Protecting Our Children" as well as during a section of the London 2012 summer Olympics on the BBC. It can also be heard in the climactic scene of Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga on Netflix. "Untitled 4" from the album (also called "Njósnavélin") featured in the final scene of "Vanilla Sky", and director Cameron Crowe commented, "We struggled to find an appropriate track to end the film with and then I went to see Sigur Rós perform in Los Angeles and they played this song, "Njósnavélin", that was just perfect. I had to have it." This track is also featured on Canadian TV series "Orphan Black" in episode 10 of season 3.


title: Sigur Rós

text: Their fourth album, "Takk..." (; "Thanks...") employs the distinctive sound of their second album in a more rock oriented structure with greater use of the guitar, and was released in September 2005. "Hoppípolla" ( "Hopping into puddles"), the second official single from "Takk...", was released in November alongside a new studio remake of "Hafsól" ( "Ocean Sun"), a song that was previously released on the band's 1997 debut, "Von". "Hoppípolla" was used in the trailers for the BBC's natural history series "Planet Earth" in 2006, as well as the closing credits for the 2006 FA Cup final, ITV's coverage of the 2006 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, advertisements for the BBC's coverage of England games during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, on television advertisements for RTÉ's Gaelic games coverage in Ireland, and on an advertisement for Oxfam. It was also used in the final scene of the movie "Penelope", for the trailer of the film "Children of Men" and for the trailer of the film "Slumdog Millionaire". Following this, demand for the single grew. It was made more widely available by EMI in consequence. This song is also used in the trailer for the Disney movie "Earth" as well as in the 2011 film "We Bought a Zoo". Whilst it does not appear on the film's soundtrack Album, it is also featured in "".


title: Sigur Rós

text: An extended "Sæglópur" EP () was released in July 2006 in most parts of the world and in August in the United States. Its original release was scheduled in May, but because of the sudden demand of "Hoppípolla" it was pushed back from that date. Sigur Rós recorded three new songs to appear on the EP ("Refur", "Ó friður", and "Kafari"). In July 2006, Sigur Rós finished a major world tour with stops in Europe, the United States (where they played a headline show at the Hollywood Bowl), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan. Upon return to their homeland, Sigur Rós provided a series of free surprise outdoor concerts throughout Iceland in July and August, playing in various venues such as abandoned bunkers and community coffee shops, all of which were included in the 2007 documentary film "Heima". They also performed twice in the United States in February.


title: Sigur Rós

text: In August 2007, a limited DVD+CD edition of the 2002 soundtrack to the documentary "Hlemmur" was released. "Hvarf/Heim" () was released on 5 November (6 November in the U.S.), a double compilation album containing studio versions of previously unreleased songs — "Salka" , "Hljómalind" (formerly known as "Rokklagið"), "Í Gær" and "Von" on "Hvarf", and acoustic studio versions of the songs: "Samskeyti" (), "Starálfur" , "Vaka" , "Ágætis Byrjun", "Heysátan" and "Von", on "Heim". On the same day (20 November in the U.S.) "Heima", a live DVD of the previous summer's Iceland tour, was released. Just prior to the release of "Hvarf/Heim", on 29 October, a single named "Hljómalind" was released.


title: Sigur Rós

text: The 2007 feature-length documentary from Sigur Rós's summer tour in Iceland, which occurred in 2006, attempts to shed light on the band's homeland. Therefore, the film is called "Heima", which means "at home". In the movie, the band members express their interpretation of "Iceland". The film revolves around three main elements; the band playing live, the Icelandic nature shaping their music, along with interviews, where they tell the viewers what it was like to play at home in addition to sharing their overall experience of the tour.


title: Sigur Rós

text: To promote their film "Heima", the band scheduled a series of premiere screenings throughout the world, featuring a short acoustic set before the film and a question-and-answer session afterwards.


title: Sigur Rós

text: The band's fifth regular studio album (, "with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly"), recorded with producer Flood in downtown Reykjavík, was released in June 2008 to generally positive reviews. Stylistically different from their earlier releases, it featured fewer strings and more guitar, and had more pop-oriented songs, making it "the group's most accessible effort" while maintaining the "majestic beauty that defines the band's music." The final track "All Alright" is the band's first to be sung in English, though all the other lyrics are in Icelandic.


title: Sigur Rós

text: The band were announced as a headlining act for the 2008 Splendour in the Grass Festival in Byron Bay, Australia, Latitude Festival 2008, and the 2008 La Route du Rock Festival in St Malo, France. In addition, the band performed a late-night set at the 2008 Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, where they blew a speaker at the end of their second song. Jónsi Birgisson commented, "The piano is exploding, I think," one of the few things spoken in English.


title: Sigur Rós

text: The band released the first song from the album titled "Gobbledigook" for free on their website, along with a music video.<ref name="http://www.nme.com/news/sigur-ros/36914"></ref><ref name="http://www.sigurros.com/dvd3.asp"> </ref>


title: Sigur Rós

text: On 8 June, the whole album was made available for free streaming on their website.<ref name="http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/band/disco/medsud-dot.php"></ref>


title: Sigur Rós

text: In autumn 2008 Sigur Rós embarked on a world tour supporting their newly released album. The band played as a four-piece without Amiina and the brass band, the first time the band had played as a four-piece in seven years. The tour started on 17 September 2008 in the United States, at the United Palace Theater in New York City, and finished with a concert in Reykjavík at Laugardalshöll on 23 November 2008. The majority of the tour was European with the exception of concerts in the United States, Australia, Canada and Japan.


title: Sigur Rós

text: The track "Festival" from the album features in the score of the 2010 film "127 Hours", providing the euphoric backing to the climax of the movie. It is also featured at the end of HBO mini-series "24/7 – Flyers-Rangers".


title: Sigur Rós

text: The track "Untitled #7 (Dauðalagið)" was also featured in the launch trailer for Dead Space (2008 video game).


title: Sigur Rós

text: On 28 May 2009, Sigur Rós announced that they had almost completed recording their latest album. The band said the album was taking form as a slower and more ambient record than both "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" and "Takk...". The music was also described as melodic but much less noisy and more "out there" than previous albums. The unnamed album was expected to be released sometime in 2010. However, the band later revealed that the recordings had been scrapped. In a 2010 interview, Jónsi confirmed "We haven't got another album ready", he said. "It was just a rumour. We started to record something, but then we chucked it all away. So I think we are going to have to start it all again". Without further word on the new album, Sigur Rós were rumoured to be on indefinite hiatus as of January 2010. However, before taking the stage at Coachella in April 2010, Jónsi commented that Sigur Rós would be getting back to work that year: "I'm gonna record some other stuff with Sigur Rós when I'm home", between a series of shows during his solo tour in summer 2010. On 1 February 2011, Jónsi's official website announced that he would be back in the studio with the band over the spring.


title: Sigur Rós

text: On 11 August 2011 Sigur Rós's official website unveiled a trailer for a project called "Inní", a DVD and double CD of the band's live performances in London, directed by Vincent Morisset. It was screened at the 68th Venice International Film Festival, and saw official release in November 2011. On 16 September 2011, the "Inni" album and live video became available to pre-order from the band's site in a variety of formats. Additionally, the band made the video for the song "Festival" available to watch online, as well as offering a free download of the audio from a live performance of the song.


title: Sigur Rós

text: On 3 November 2011, following the UK premiere of "Inni" at the British Film Institute in London, the band members participated in a Q&A session during which Georg promised that 2012 would be a "very busy" year for Sigur Rós. The band hinted at a new album and tour in the second half of 2012. The Q&A session was curtailed when a stage light began to emit smoke and the room was evacuated.


title: Sigur Rós

text: "The band's next album is scheduled for release in the spring. Based on excerpts presented by Mr. Sveinsson, the new music promises to be as exceptional as the best of the band's catalog. Mr. Holm called it "introverted", while Mr. Birgisson said it was "floaty and minimal". "An ambient album" was how Mr. Dýrason described it, with "a slow takeoff toward something". For a visitor who heard a preliminary recording in which Mr. Birgisson's falsetto was surrounded by rich choral voices and what sounded like a pipe organ, the music was thrilling".


title: Sigur Rós

text: Beginning in February 2012, Sigur Rós announced their live return with festival appearances at Bestival in England, Summer Sonic Festival in Japan, and other shows in Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Poland, and Italy. The band was also added to Montréal's Osheaga 2012 lineup, and the 2012 Lollapalooza lineup.


title: Sigur Rós

text: After a four-year hiatus, an interview with the band in the March 2012 issue of "Q" magazine confirmed the completion of a new album, titled "Valtari", scheduling its release on 28 May 2012. On 26 March 2012, the band released the first official single from the album, "Ekki múkk." On 14 April 2012, a lower quality version of the complete album leaked out on the internet. On 10 May 2012, Sigur Rós's new track "Dauðalogn" was premiered on "The Departed", the season 3 finale of "The Vampire Diaries".


title: Sigur Rós

text: It was rumored that an already-complete additional album would follow-up their sixth release, "Valtari". However, the band has dismissed the rumor as a "fabrication".


title: Sigur Rós

text: On 2 November 2012, Georg Hólm confirmed that the band had already started work on a new album, due to be released some time in 2013. He described it as a dramatic change of direction, "an anti-Valtari". The band performed a new song, entitled ""Brennisteinn"" ('brimstone'), in Reykjavik on 4 November at the Iceland Airwaves 2012 festival, to favourable reception. On 12 November 2012, the band announced a new North American tour, to take place in March and April 2013. The band also announced that every ticket purchased will include a new digital copy of a three-track EP, containing new and unreleased music, made available to ticket holders on 22 March 2013.


title: Sigur Rós

text: On 24 January 2013, Sigur Rós announced in a Q&A on Reddit that Kjartan had left the band, feeling it was time "to do something different". They announced their seventh studio album, "Kveikur", on 22 March. On the same day, they also released the album's first single: "Brennisteinn". The album itself was finally released on 14 June (releasing two days earlier in Japan, and four days later in the US) and marked both a musical and thematic change for the band, providing a more aggressive sound, compared to their previous albums. The album was well received by critics, scoring 80 on Metacritic, with several reviewers praising for the band's new musical approach, as well as a lack of commercialism. The release was marked, by the band, with a new tour, as well as an interactive musical experience, where fans could live stream a concert, taking control of the camera. The band later performed at the iTunes Festival, on 2 September 2013, where selected portions of their concert were later released on 21 October.


title: Sigur Rós

text: The band provided original music and a rendition of ""The Simpsons" Theme", as well as a brief cameo, for the "Simpsons" episode "The Saga of Carl", which aired on 19 May 2013.


title: Sigur Rós

text: The band appeared in the HBO TV series "Game of Thrones" episode "The Lion and the Rose" on 13 April 2014. They also covered the song "The Rains of Castamere", which was originally recorded by The National for the earlier episode "Blackwater".


title: Sigur Rós

text: Georg and Orri worked with Georg's brother Kjartan Dagur "KD" Hólm and the composer Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson on the soundtrack to "". This was released as an album, "Circe – Music Composed for The Show of Shows", on the Krunk label in the UK on 28 August 2015.


title: Sigur Rós

text: A reissue of the band's second album, "Ágætis byrjun", was announced in early 2015. It was announced to feature previously unheard studio and live recordings as well as photographic and documentary material from their personal archives.


title: Sigur Rós

text: On 31 January 2017 it was announced that the band would be touring later in 2017, playing concerts in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Croatia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil.


title: Sigur Rós

text: The band, in collaboration with Alex Somers, produced two instrumental pieces, "End" and "Match", for the "Black Mirror" season four episode "Hang the DJ", aired on 29 December 2017.


title: Sigur Rós

text: On 8 May 2018, the band released a new multimedia project called "Liminal", which they described as an "endless mixtape" of ambient music which will be continuously added to over time. In addition, Jónsi, Somers, and frequent collaborator Paul Corley announced a series of "live soundbaths," where the music would be played in front of an audience.


title: Sigur Rós

text: In September 2018, Orri was accused of sexual assault by artist Meagan Boyd. On 1 October 2018, he announced that he had decided to leave the band "in light of the scale of this matter". In March 2019, Sigur Rós were charged with tax evasion, accused of having submitted incorrect tax returns from 2011 to 2014, evading 151m Icelandic krona. The band members blamed their former accountant and said they were co-operating with the authorities. The case was dismissed in October 2019 but this decision was later overruled by an appellate court. Three members were cleared, but the charges against Jónsi and his company Frakkur will proceed.


title: Sigur Rós

text: In October 2020, the band announced that a new album, "Odin's Raven Magic", an orchestral work that was debuted live in 2002, would be released on 4 December 2020. This album is a live recording of the orchestral piece being performed in Paris in 2004. On 14 February 2022, Sigur Rós announced that Kjartan had rejoined them. The following week, they announced their first world tour in nearly five years. In addition to the tour, it was announced that the band are in the process of writing and recording a new album.


title: Sigur Rós

text: "Vonlenska" (English: "Hopelandic") is a term coined by the band to refer to the vocalizations that Jónsi sings on "( )" in lieu of lyrics in Icelandic or English. It takes its name from "Von", a song on Sigur Rós's debut album "Von" where it was first used. However, not all Sigur Rós songs are in Vonlenska; many are sung in Icelandic.


title: Sigur Rós

text: Vonlenska differs from both natural and constructed languages used for human communication. It consists of strings of meaningless syllables containing non-lexical vocables and phonemes. There is no grammatical relation between or among syllables, nor are they accompanied by clearly defined word boundaries. Vonlenska emphasizes the phonological and emotive qualities of human vocalizations, and it uses the melodic and rhythmic elements of singing without the conceptual content of language. In this way, it is similar to the use of scat singing in vocal jazz and puirt à beul in traditional Irish folk music and Scottish. The band's website describes it as "a form of gibberish vocals that fits to the music".


title: High Life (2018 film)

text: High Life is a 2018 science fiction horror film directed by Claire Denis, in her English-language debut, and written by Denis and her long-time collaborator Jean-Pol Fargeau. Starring Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche, it focuses on a group of criminals sent on a space mission toward a black hole while taking part in scientific experiments.


title: High Life (2018 film)

text: Physicist and black hole expert Aurélien Barrau was hired as a consultant, and Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson designed the film's spacecraft. "High Life" premiered on 9 September 2018 at the Toronto International Film Festival.


title: High Life (2018 film)

text: A group of criminals serving death sentences are sent on a mission in space to extract alternative energy from a black hole. Each prisoner is treated as a guinea pig by Dr. Dibs for her experiments. She is fixated on trying to create a child in space through artificial insemination, but has yet to succeed. Sexual activity between prisoners is prohibited. The ship is equipped with "The Box," a device in a small room that is obsessively used by the crew to masturbate. Dr Dibs administers sedatives to the passengers. Dibs is on the ship because she murdered her own children and husband before attempting suicide. Monte, the only celibate prisoner, rejects Dibs' sexual advances. Monte is serving a life sentence for murdering a friend for killing his dog as a child. Monte's only friend on the ship is Tcherny, who is drawn to the onboard garden because it reminds him of Earth.


title: High Life (2018 film)

text: Pregnant prisoner Elektra delivers a baby, who dies later before she does as well. The captain, Chandra, develops leukemia from radiation and has a stroke before being euthanized by Dibs. One night, male prisoner Ettore binds a female prisoner Boyse and her roommate Mink to their beds and attempts to rape Boyse. Nansen, the pilot, intervenes, but Ettore attacks and overpowers her. Monte arrives, throws Ettore off Boyse, and beats him. When Monte leads Boyse away to be treated, Mink stabs Ettore to death in the hallway. Dibs begins doubling the amount of sedatives each prisoner receives, later sneaking into Monte's cell and raping him while he is sedated. She then injects his semen into Boyse, who produces a healthy child that Dibs dotes on, but Monte is unaware that he is the baby's father.


title: High Life (2018 film)

text: As the ship approaches the black hole, Nansen prepares to pilot a shuttle around it. Unbeknownst to the other prisoners, Boyse kills Nansen with a shovel and takes her place. The shuttle travels through a molecular cloud that alters its trajectory and causes it to dive into the black hole, where Boyse explodes due to spaghettification, the stretching and horizontal compression of objects into long thin shapes in a very strong non-homogeneous gravitational field. Mink later attacks Dibs and injures her, but is then killed by Monte. Dibs informs Monte that the child is his before ejecting herself into space. Tcherny commits suicide and Monte buries him in the garden according to his wishes. Now the only surviving prisoner, Monte removes the bodies from the ship's morgue, dresses them in spacesuits, and releases them into space.


title: High Life (2018 film)

text: Monte struggles to raise the baby, whom he has named Willow. He attempts to make repairs to the ship, but her frantic cries through his helmet speakers causes him to drop a tool and lose it in space. Much later, when Willow has grown into a teenager, they encounter another ship similar to their own. Monte boards the ship, but finds it carrying stray dogs who have survived by eating one another. Willow begs Monte to bring one back, but he refuses, implying contamination could potentially sicken or kill them. The ship moves closer to the black hole, and Willow convinces Monte to board a shuttle with her and journey through it. Monte takes Willow's hand as a yellow light source grows ever larger and envelops them.


title: High Life (2018 film)

text: Claire Denis had the idea of the project in her mind for fifteen years. She said, "I had a screenplay which was naturally in English, because the story takes place in space and, I don't know why, but for me, people speak English—or Russian or Chinese—but definitely not French in space."


title: High Life (2018 film)

text: Novelist Nick Laird co-wrote the screenplay for the film along with Denis, Fargeau and Geoff Cox. Laird's wife Zadie Smith also contributed to early drafts of the English version of the screenplay. Due to creative differences between Denis and Smith, Laird and Smith dropped out of the project as screenwriters, but Laird later served as the consultant for the script.


title: High Life (2018 film)

text: Denis went to the European Space Agency's Astronaut Centre in Cologne to learn about human spaceflight exploration before the film started shooting.


title: High Life (2018 film)

text: Denis explained the practical reasons for the non-linear story, saying "I always wanted it to start with a man and a baby, as a ritual of two living persons with no despair in that moment. And then there would be the flashbacks bringing in all the despair." Denis compared Pattinson's character to the knight Percival of Arthurian legend, and Binoche's character to Medea from the Greek tragedy.


title: High Life (2018 film)

text: During the project's early stages, Denis had Vincent Gallo in mind for the lead role, and wrote the film thinking of Philip Seymour Hoffman. The project later caught the attention of Robert Pattinson; according to Denis:Pattinson contacted the person who was doing the English casting. I was intrigued but I thought he was too young. Every time I went to London to meet some actors, he was there. His desire to work with me has never faltered. And now he is a little less young and it's perfect. […] It's strange, though, because it would be difficult to imagine anyone more unlike Philip Seymour Hoffman physically, but Robert is very enigmatic, with a powerful presence. He gives off an aura that immediately makes you want to film him.Pattinson described his character as an astronaut and said, "He's a criminal who volunteers for a mission toward a black hole, but he realizes along the way that a doctor on board also wants to do sexual experimentation with humans in space." In late 2015, Patricia Arquette and Mia Goth joined the cast. In September 2017, Arquette dropped out while the rest of the cast, including Juliette Binoche and rapper André 3000, were also announced. Playing the role of baby Willow is Scarlette Lindsay, Pattinson's goddaughter. After Pattinson was unable to bond with the babies cast as Willow, he remembered that Lindsay was friendly around adults. Pattinson asked a favour of Lindsay's father to cast her in the film, which he described as a "massive gamble" that was ultimately paid off by her "incredible" performance.


title: High Life (2018 film)

text: Principal photography began in Cologne, Germany on 4 September 2017. The Polish part of the shooting took place in Białystok. Filming wrapped in late October 2017.


title: High Life (2018 film)

text: Following its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, the film competed in main competition at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in late September 2018. The film had its theatrical release in France on 7 November 2018 and in the United Kingdom on 10 May 2019. A24 acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. The film was released in the United States on 5 April 2019. It was later given a Blu-Ray/DVD release in North American retailers.


title: High Life (2018 film)

text: On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, of critics have given the film a positive review based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads, ""High Life" is as visually arresting as it is challenging, confounding, and ultimately rewarding – which is to say it's everything film fans expect from director Claire Denis." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 77 out of 100 based on reviews from 42 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: High Life (2018 film)

text: David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film an A− grade, saying it owed more to "Solaris" than "Star Wars" and describing it as "a pensive and profound study of human life on the brink of the apocalypse." Jessica Kiang of "Variety" called it "extraordinary, difficult, hypnotic, and repulsive". Charles Bramesco of the "Guardian" gave the film 5 stars out of 5, saying Denis had reconfigured the genre's "familiar components to create a startlingly fresh engagement with the question of what it means to be human." Steve MacFarlane of "Slant Magazine" wrote: "The film asks down-and-dirty questions about what really resides beneath thousands of years of human progress, a savage and haunting antidote to the high-minded idealism of movies like Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" and Ridley Scott's "The Martian"." Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com described it as "tailor-made for viewers who like science fiction in a cryptic 1970s art-house mode."


title: Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

text: "Do not stand at my grave and weep" is the first line and popular title of the bereavement poem "Immortality", written by Clare Harner in 1934.


title: Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

text: Kansas native Clare Harner (1909–1977) first published "Immortality" in the December 1934 issue of "The Gypsy" poetry magazine. It was written shortly after the sudden death of her brother. Harner's poem quickly gained traction as a eulogy and was read at funerals in Kansas and Missouri. It was soon reprinted in the "Kansas City Times" and the "Kansas City Bar Bulletin"


title: Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

text: Harner earned a degree in journalism at Kansas State University. Several of her other poems were published and anthologized. She married a Marine named David Lyon, and appended his last name to hers. They moved to San Francisco where she continued to work as a journalist for Fairchild Fashion Media.


title: Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

text: The poem is often attributed to anonymous or incorrect sources, such as the Hopi and Navajo tribes. The most notable claimant was Mary Elizabeth Frye (1905–2004), who often handed out xeroxed copies of the poem with her name attached. She was first wrongly cited as the author of the poem in 1983. In her obituary, she asserted that her authorship was "undisputed" and confirmed by "Dear Abby". However, Pauline Phillips and her daughter Jeanne Phillips, writing as Abigail van Buren, repeatedly confessed to their readers that they could not confirm who had written the popular poem.


title: Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

text: Below is the version published in "The Gypsy" of December 1934 (page 16), under the title "Immortality" and followed by the author's name and location: "CLARE HARNER, Topeka, Kan." The indentation and line breaks are as given there.


title: Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

text: Other versions of the poem appeared later, usually without attribution, such as the one below. Differing words are shown in it by "italics".


title: Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

text: The poem is twelve lines long, rhyming in couplets. Each line is in iambic tetrameter, except for lines five and seven, the fifth having an extra syllable, the seventh, two extra.


title: Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

text: John Wayne read the poem "from an unspecified source" on December 29, 1977 at the memorial service for film director Howard Hawks. After hearing John Wayne's reading, script writer John Carpenter featured the poem in the 1979 television film "Better Late Than Never". A common reading at funerals and remembrance ceremonies, the poem was introduced to many in the United Kingdom when it was read by the father of a soldier killed by a bomb in Northern Ireland. The soldier's father read the poem on BBC radio in 1995 in remembrance of his son, who had left the poem among his personal effects in an envelope addressed 'To all my loved ones'.


title: Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

text: The poem's first four lines are engraved on one of the stones of the Everest Memorial, Chukpi Lhara, in Dhugla Valley, near Everest. Reference to the wind and snow and the general theme of the poem, the absence of the departed, particularly resonate with the loved ones of those who "disappeared" in the mountain range to whom the memorial is dedicated. It is also reproduced on the gravestone of the actor Charles Bronson.


title: Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

text: The first and last couplets are adapted and used as part of the lyrics in the song "Another Time" by Lyriel.


title: Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

text: The poem is read by Lisa (Kerry Godliman), the dying wife of lead character Tony (played by Ricky Gervais) in the final episode of the Netflix series "After Life".


title: Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

text: The poem is recited at the funeral of Sir Freddy Butler (played by "Joss Ackland") by Lady Annabel Butler (played by "Siân Phillips") in the Episode 3 of Season 9 of "Midsomer Murders" ("Vixen's Run").


title: Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

text: The poem is recited on live broadcast at the funeral of Michael Hutchence, the founding member and lead singer of rock band INXS, by his sister Tina Hutchence on 27 November 1997


title: Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

text: To coincide with National Poetry Day 1995, the British television programme "The Bookworm" conducted a poll to discover the nation's favourite poems, and subsequently published the winning poems in book form. The book's preface stated that "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep" was "the unexpected poetry success of the year from Bookworm's point of view"; the poem had "provoked an extraordinary response... the requests started coming in almost immediately and over the following weeks the demand rose to a total of some thirty thousand. In some respects it became the nation's favourite poem by proxy... despite it being outside the competition." This was all the more remarkable, since the name and nationality of the American poet did not become known until several years later. In 2004 "The Times" wrote: "The verse demonstrated a remarkable power to soothe loss. It became popular, crossing national boundaries for use on bereavement cards and at funerals regardless of race, religion or social status".


title: QI

text: QI (short for Quite Interesting) is a British comedy panel game quiz show for television created and co-produced by John Lloyd. The series currently airs on BBC Two and is presented by Sandi Toksvig. It features permanent panellist Alan Davies and three guest panellists per episode who are mostly comedians. The series was presented by Stephen Fry from its beginning in 2003 until 2016.


title: QI

text: The format of the show focuses on the panellists answering questions that are extremely obscure, making it unlikely that the correct answer will be given. To compensate, the panellists are awarded points not only for the correct answer, but also for interesting ones, regardless of whether they are correct or even relate to the original question, while points are deducted for "answers which are not only wrong, but pathetically obvious" – typically answers that are generally believed to be true but in fact are misconceptions. These answers, referred to as "forfeits", are usually indicated by a loud klaxon and alarm bell, flashing lights, and the incorrect answer being flashed on the video screens behind the panellists. Bonus points are sometimes awarded or deducted for challenges or incorrect references, varying from show to show. "QI" has a philosophy that "everything is interesting if looked at in the right way". Many factual errors in the show have been corrected in later episodes or on the show's blog.


title: QI

text: For its first five series shown between 2003 and 2007, episodes premiered on BBC Four before receiving their first analogue airing on BBC Two a week later. From 2008 and 2011, the show was moved to BBC One, with an extended-length edition of each episode often broadcast on BBC Two a day or two after the regular show's broadcast under the title of "QI XL". Series G and H saw the regular show broadcast in a pre-watershed slot with the extended edition remaining within a post-watershed slot. Beginning with the I series, the regular show returned to a post-watershed slot on BBC Two. Syndicated episodes of previous series are regularly shown on Dave. In November 2020 a new compilation series titled "QI XS" started, with a run-time of 14 minutes per episode. Series of "QI" are assigned letters in sequence and episodes are themed around topics starting with that letter.


title: QI

text: The show has received very positive ratings from critics and has been nominated for multiple awards; "QI" itself has the highest viewing figures for any show broadcast on BBC Two and Dave. Several books, DVDs and other tie-ins to the show have been released, and international versions of "QI" have been made in other countries.


title: QI

text: The panel consists of four participants: three rotating guests and one regular, Alan Davies, who has the seat to the immediate right of the host. Davies has appeared in every episode, although in "Divination" he was not able to appear at the studio but was still able to play "from beyond". Despite frequent wins, Davies often finishes last due to incurring forfeits.


title: QI

text: Questions posed to the panellists are often misleading, obscure, or very difficult. Providing an "obvious but wrong" answer (referred to as a "forfeit") results in a sequence of klaxons, alarm bells, and flashing lights and a score penalty. Davies is often the panellist who gives these answers. In the first two series, Fry produced the given answer on a card to show the panellists, while it also flashed on the large screens behind them (except in the pilot episode and the first show of the first series, when only the cards were used.) In the third series and onward, Fry's answer cards were dispensed with altogether, leaving only the screens as proof that such answers had been predicted.


title: QI

text: Because the show's creators expected that hardly anyone would be able to give a correct answer without significant prompting, they instead encourage sheer "interestingness", which is how points are mainly scored. As such, tangential discussions are encouraged, and panellists are apt to branch off into frivolous conversations, give voice to trains of thought, and share humorous anecdotes from their own lives. The number of points given and taken away are normally decided by the host or beforehand by "QI" researchers known as "The "QI" Elves". For example, in one episode Davies was docked 10 points for suggesting "oxygen" to the question "What is the main ingredient of air?"


title: QI

text: Negative scores are common, and occasionally even the victor's score may be negative. Score totals are announced at the conclusion of the show. Fry has said, "I think we all agree that nobody in this universe understands QI's scoring system." John Lloyd, "QI"s creator, has, on one occasion, admitted that not even he has any idea how the scoring system works, but there is someone who is paid to check on the scores. According to the Series A DVD, guests are allowed the right of appeal if they believe their score is wrong, but none has so far exercised that right.


title: QI

text: Panellists are given buzzers to use in signalling a response, each of which produces a different sound when pressed. For the first three series, the sounds were seemingly random things or followed an arbitrary theme in each episode, such as commonly heard everyday sounds in the Series C episode "Common Knowledge." From Series D onward, all four sounds are based on the particular episode's theme, such as in the Series F episode "Films and Fame" (sound clips associated with well-known movies, with Davies receiving Porky Pig's stuttering "That's all, folks!"). The buzzers are always demonstrated at the beginning of the programme, but are usually given a shortened version for repeated use during the episode, mostly in General Ignorance. Davies "always gets the most demeaning sound" for his buzzer.


title: QI

text: Sometimes, the buzzers have unique points to them, such as having questions based on them; in most cases they are usually about Davies' own. For example, one of his buzzer noises in the Series D episode "Descendants" sounded like a Clanger, and the panel had to try and guess what was being said, while in the Series F episode "Fakes and Frauds", all the buzzers sounded like ordinary household objects, but three turned out to be the sound of the superb lyrebird mimicking the noises. In other episodes, they were sometimes changed to suit the theme of an episode; for the Series D episode "Denial and Deprivation", the panellists had to use unique buzzers – two had bells, one flicked a ruler over the edge of a school desk, and Davies squeezed a toy chipmunk – while in the Series G episode "Green", the buzzers were replaced with whistles so the show could be seen to be eco-friendly. On one occasion, points were automatically deducted from Davies' score solely because the buzzer did not match the theme of the episode, or activated the Klaxon.


title: QI

text: In a parody of ubiquitous general knowledge quizzes, the final round is off-topic and called "General Ignorance". It focuses on seemingly easy questions which have widely believed but wrong answers. Whereas in the main rounds of the show, the panellists' buzzer usage is not usually enforced, the "General Ignorance" questions are introduced by the host's reminder to keep "fingers on buzzers". "General Ignorance" was featured in every episode until the I (ninth) series, but featured only occasionally in the J (tenth) and K (eleventh) series before appearing regularly again in the L (twelfth) series. Due to the large number of "obvious but wrong" answers, panellists—especially Davies—usually incur the greatest point losses in this round.


title: QI

text: In a number of episodes, either the set, the panellists' clothing, the opening theme, or a mixture of all, are changed to match the episode's theme. For example, in "Denial and Deprivation", the set was replaced with an auctioneer stand for Fry and school desks or side tables for the panellists, and the lighting was stripped down; while in "Health and Safety", the panellists wore hard hats, safety glasses, and bright yellow work vests and Fry wore a doctor's white coat and stethoscope.


title: QI

text: In some episodes, an extra task is given to the panellists to complete during the course of an episode, which can earn them extra points. Such tasks have included a drawing contest, or spotting an item on the video screens and waving a "joker" card (e.g. Cuttlefish.) Several series have had a recurring task spanning every episode, often involving the use of a joker card to respond to a question whose answer fit a specified theme. Examples include "The Elephant in the Room" (series E, elephants), "Nobody Knows" (Series I, for questions without a known answer) and "Spend a Penny" (Series L, lavatories).


title: QI

text: In addition to assigning tasks, Fry performed scientific experiments or demonstrations during certain episodes. He often did so once an episode in the J, K and L series, where they were called "Jolly Japes", "Knick-Knakes" and "Lab Larks", respectively, and usually occurred towards the end of the episode. Such experiments either used simple objects, various chemical compounds, odd contraptions, or a mixture of all. If an experiment's outcome was too fast to be seen, a short "replay" of it was shown, (sometimes with multiple angles) to reveal precisely what happened.


title: QI

text: Writer and former BBC producer John Lloyd devised the format of the show, and it is produced by Quite Interesting Limited, an organisation set up by Lloyd. "QI" was originally seen as being an "Annotated Encyclopædia Britannica ... the world's first non-boring encyclopaedia." As a panel game, it was conceived as a radio show, with Lloyd as chairman. While developing the show with Peter Fincham and Alan Yentob, Lloyd decided that it would work better on television. The three pitched it to Lorraine Heggessey, controller of BBC One at the time. Heggessey passed on the format, opting to commission a similar panel game called "Class War", which was never made. When Fincham became controller of BBC One, Lloyd pitched it to him, only to be turned down by his former collaborator. Eventually, he pitched it to Jane Root, then controller of BBC Two, who agreed to develop it. When it was decided that the show would air on television, Michael Palin was offered the job of chairman with Fry and Davies as captains of the "cleverclogs" and "dunderheads" teams, respectively. However, when Palin decided not to take the job, the producers opted to change the format; Fry became the host, with Davies as the only regular panellist. Root commissioned a pilot and a further 16 episodes after that, although budget limitations reduced the first series to 12 episodes.


title: QI

text: In October 2015, it was announced that Fry would be stepping down as host after Series M and would be replaced by Sandi Toksvig. Fry described his position on "QI" as "one of the best jobs on television", but that "it was time to move on". According to Alan Davies, Fry quit because the BBC cut the budget, so that three shows had to be recorded on the same day. "For budget reasons, they ended up making him do three shows in 24 hours", Davies said. Toksvig said that ""QI" is my favourite television programme both to watch and to be on". Lloyd said that Toksvig will be "the first female host of a mainstream comedy panel show on British television", and that although she is very different from Fry, she "will bring to the show the same kind of wonderful thing that Stephen does, the mixture of real brains and a hinterland of knowledge, plus this naughty sense of humour." He also said it will give the show a chance to "do things in a slightly different way".


title: QI

text: Recordings usually take place over a few weeks in May or June; three episodes are typically filmed per week and sixteen are filmed for each series. Series A–P were filmed at The London Studios, with Series Q onwards being filmed at Television Centre.


title: QI

text: In the morning on the day of recording, the studio has to be set up. Seven cameras are used to record "QI". To check that images, forfeits, buzzers and lighting are working, the first technical rehearsal is hosted by floor manager Guy Smart with stand-ins for panellists. Fry, who was given the list of questions roughly an hour beforehand, hosted the second technical rehearsal at 2:00 pm. Guests may have time to practise with a set of warm-up questions.


title: QI

text: For earlier series, warm-up comedians were used before recording began, frequently Stephen Grant, credited as the "audience wrangler". However, there have been no warm-ups for recent series. Fry recorded and tweeted audience AudioBooms and introduced the guests before the show. Recordings start at either 4:30 pm or 7:30 pm and last up to two hours, although only 30 minutes of footage is used for normal episodes and 45 minutes for "XL" episodes. By 10:00 pm, recording has usually finished and the set has been disassembled. Roughly 16 questions are asked and about half of those make it into the show; about 20% of material researched is used in a "QI" episode, while other facts may appear in the XL versions, a "QI" book, on "QI"s Twitter feed or on their website.


title: QI

text: In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, two episodes of series R were filmed without an audience, due to social distancing requirements. Further series R episodes were recorded with a virtual audience via Zoom.


title: QI

text: The makers of the show insist that the answers are not given to the panellists beforehand. The host is given a list of questions about an hour before the show, for preparatory purposes, but the guests are forbidden to ask for preparatory materials or other help. Alan Davies never does any preparation.


title: QI

text: In an interview with the "Radio Times" regarding the current state of the BBC, Fry revealed that one of the regular panellists insists on seeing the questions before they appear in the show.


title: QI

text: "There's only one regular guest who always insists on seeing the questions beforehand and prepares for them. I won't tell you his or her name," he said. "It really annoys me. In fact, one day, I'll make sure that person is given a list from another programme because they don't need them."


title: QI

text: Following this comment, people asked Fry to identify the guest and some posted their own speculations. Fry later posted on his Twitter account that it was neither Davies nor Rob Brydon. In a 2022 Q&A at the Oxford Union, regular panellist Dara Ó Briain said that the guest in question was someone who had since died, but was not Sean Lock.


title: QI

text: The research for the show is mostly carried out by seven people called the ""QI" Elves", a team which has included Justin Pollard, Vitali Vitaliev, Molly Oldfield (daughter of Mike Oldfield), and Jenny Ryan. The "elves" devise the questions for the show, and one is on set during filming who is able to communicate with the host during the show to provide and correct information. Other people involved in researching questions and compiling the scripts are John Mitchinson and Piers Fletcher, known (along with Justin Pollard, Molly Oldfield, and James Harkin) as the "Question Wranglers", whose research uses both "Encyclopædia Britannica" and "Wikipedia". The "QI" website also has a forum.


title: QI

text: A "QI" Elves podcast, "No Such Thing as a Fish", began on 8 March 2014. The title is taken from an entry into the "Oxford Encyclopedia of Underwater Life" (although in the opening theme of the first 41 episodes it in incorrectly referenced as the "Oxford 'Dictionary' of Underwater Life"), which was used on the show. The audio from the first episode in which they discuss how they found this fact is used as an introduction. Regular elves are Anna Ptaszynski, James Harkin, Dan Schreiber, and Andrew Hunter Murray, with occasional appearances from Alex Bell and Anne Miller. Schreiber is the host of the show. The theme song is "Wasps" from the band Emperor Yes, which is based on a fact about bees which was used on "QI". The song is written as an exchange between the bees, as they defend their hive from attacking wasps by swarming the wasp, and using their body heat to kill the wasps by overheating. A TV show entitled "No Such Thing as the News" aired for two seasons in 2016, following a similar format based around news stories and current events. In 2018 an online behind the scenes series that followed the podcasters on their UK tour was released called 'Behind The Gills'.


title: QI

text: In "QI", every series takes its theme from a different letter of the alphabet, starting with the letter "A". Series are referred to by letter rather than number. The first series started on 11 September 2003, and consisted of topics beginning with "A". The second series consisted of topics beginning with "B" and also saw the first attempts to pay attention to a particular theme throughout one episode, e.g. "Birds" (the over-riding theme did not necessarily begin with "B", although the questions always contained an element that did). The only exceptions to the alphabet system have been the Christmas specials, where the topics are often Christmas-based and do not necessarily correspond to that series' letter (although greater attempts have been made to do so since Series D).


title: QI

text: Series D was the first to see all the episodes focus upon a single topic or theme, beginning with the series letter (e.g. Danger), and for each to be given an official title connected to the topic/theme. It also saw Fry modify his introduction of the panellists, by incorporating the theme/topic of the episode, with Davies often getting the "demeaning" introduction. This trend has continued with each subsequent series; episodes from previous series were retroactively given titles. A video podcast (featuring the best moments with some out-takes) was planned to accompany Series E, but this was instead turned into a set of "Quickies" featured on the "QI" homepage of the BBC's website. As this decision was not reached until after recording, the videos are still referred to as "vodcasts" by whoever is introducing them (usually Fry but occasionally a panellist or even the audience.) The series was ended by a special outtake compilation entitled "Elephants".


title: QI

text: Points may be given to (or taken from) the studio audience, and five episodes have the distinction of being won by the audience: "Death", the fifth episode in Series D; "England", the 10th episode in Series E; "Flora & Fauna", the 10th episode in Series F; "Greeks", the 14th episode in Series G; "Next", the 15th episode in Series N; and "Quantity and Quality", the 15th episode in Series Q. The audience's win in "Greeks" was only announced during the XL broadcast as their contribution was cut out of the main broadcast. In contrast, the audience lost the fifth episode of Series E, "Europe", receiving a forfeit of −100 when they incorrectly sang the first stanza of the German national anthem, and the fourth episode of Series Q, “Queasy Quacks”, when they received a forfeit for referring to the first patient in a disease outbreak as Patient Zero. Several others have scored points in certain episodes by making appearances on the set or screens; these have included ASIMO (a humanoid robot) and US President Barack Obama.


title: QI

text: A special stand-alone episode was filmed between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. (GMT) on 6 March 2011 as part of Comic Relief's special "24 Hour Panel People" featuring David Walliams, who appeared in various old and new panel game shows throughout a 24-hour period. The shows were streamed live on the Red Nose Day website, and parts of each show were shown during five half-hour specials on Comic Relief. The "QI" episode featured panellists Sue Perkins, Jo Brand, Russell Tovey and David Walliams. Davies admitted through Twitter that he was asked to host the episode when it was not certain if Fry would be available, but Davies declined. Once Fry confirmed his participation, Davies did not hear back from the production team. Unlike the classic format of the show where most questions follow a subject, this episode was instead an hour-long General Ignorance round.


title: QI

text: As of 16 December 2022, the following have all appeared multiple times as one of the guest panellists on the show. This list only includes "canonical" episodes of the BBC show. It does not include the unbroadcast pilot, nor the special editions for the Comic Relief and Sport Relief telethons, nor any live stage editions.


title: QI

text: Rich Hall has the highest number of guest appearances in a single series—six times in Series B (half of the episodes that year), while Phill Jupitus has won the most episodes of any guest panellist, with 14.


title: QI

text: In Australia, "QI" is broadcast on the ABC. The programme was first broadcast on 20 October 2009 after the surprise ratings success of "Stephen Fry in America". The ABC aired "QI" Series F first, but subsequently, in July 2010, ABC1 began broadcasting "QI" from the very beginning with Series A. "QI" has also been broadcast on the pay TV channel UKTV.


title: QI

text: In March 2010, "QI" began a run in New Zealand on Prime. On 27 May 2011, Series A of "QI" was broadcast in South Africa on BBC Entertainment. "QI" series A-Q has also aired on BBC Entertainment in the Nordic countries.


title: QI

text: There have been several attempts to broadcast "QI" in the United States. US networks that have tried to broadcast the series include Comedy Central, PBS, Discovery Channel and BBC America. Show creator and producer John Lloyd said that one factor in the failure to get the show broadcast is due to the cost. As "QI" features several images during each episode there are copyright issues. Lloyd said in an interview with TV Squad that: "No country in the world has bought the original show and this is partly a matter of cost. The pictures in the background of the show are only cleared for UK usage, so until the show is bought by a Stateside TV company and the rights cleared for World, the programme (is) unaffordable by smaller countries." Amongst the famous names also to express anger over "QI" not being shown in the US include comedian John Hodgman, who appeared as a "fifth guest" in the second episode of Series G. In 2013, "QI" was picked up in the US by the streaming video service Hulu.


title: QI

text: On 30 January 2015 BBC America announced that they had acquired "QI" and planned on airing the show, beginning with Series J, on 19 February 2015.


title: QI

text: Davies has criticised "QI" being repeated so often, saying ""QI" being in a soup of shows on one of these repeat channels ... completely devalues the brand". Davies thought the show would gain more viewers when a new series aired if channels made "an audience wait for a couple of months".


title: QI

text: In 2008, the "QI" format was sold to the Dutch broadcaster VARA. Also called "QI", the Dutch version of the show aired for the first time on 27 December 2008 and was hosted by the writer Arthur Japin with the comedian Thomas van Luyn taking the role of regular panellist. Japin also appeared (in the audience) in a British "QI" episode, "Gothic", explaining how the name Vincent van Gogh should be pronounced. The Dutch series was discontinued after six episodes.


title: QI

text: A Swedish version of "QI" started airing on SVT1 8 September 2012, and was called "Intresseklubben". Comedian Johan Wester hosted "Intresseklubben", and Anders Jansson was featured as the regular panellist. A second series covering the letter B started airing in September 2013; Series C was recorded in June 2014 and aired in late 2014, while season D was recorded in June 2015 and started airing in August 2015.


title: QI

text: A Danish version of QI, called "Quiz i en hornlygte" aired on DR2 between 2012 and 2013. The show was hosted by Danish comedian Carsten Eskelund. While not directly branded as a Danish version of QI, it maintained some recognisable elements, such as the difficulty of some questions and awarding points for interesting answers as well as negative points for wrong, but widely believed, answers.


title: QI

text: The Czech version of "QI" was first broadcast on TV Prima on 14 August 2013. The programme is hosted by Leoš Mareš, with Patrik Hezucký appearing as a guest in every episode.


title: QI

text: The QI Test was a planned spinoff version of "QI" that was to be broadcast on BBC Two. Created by Lloyd, Talkback Thames' Dave Morely and former QI Commercial Director Justin Gayner, "The QI Test" differed from "QI" in that it would have featured members of the public as contestants instead of comedians and celebrities. It would have been broadcast during the daytime schedules. The pilot was not hosted by Fry and was recorded in November 2009, but a series was never broadcast.


title: QI

text: Some of the answers on the show have been disputed and shown to be incorrect. In Series A, the show claimed that the longest animal in the world was the lion's mane jellyfish, but this was later corrected in Series C, saying that the longest animal in the world is the bootlace worm.


title: QI

text: Members of the public and members of the "QI" website contact the show to correct information. At the end of the third series, Dara Ó Briain was docked points for having stated, in the previous series, that the triple point of water is zero degrees Celsius, an answer which earned him 2 points at the time. Viewers had written in to say that the triple point of water is in fact 0.01 degrees, and so the 2 points awarded Ó Briain in the previous series were revoked and he received a further deduction of 10 points for "saying a now "obvious answer"".


title: QI

text: Various other retractions are made by the producers of the show on the special features of the DVD releases. The origin of the error may also be explained. For instance, Fry made a mistake when explaining why helium makes your voice higher, in the Series B Christmas special. He claimed that the gas only affected the frequency, but not the pitch, despite them being the same thing; in actuality, the timbre is affected.


title: QI

text: Information contributed by a panellist during a discussion, but which has since been found to be false, have also been corrected. In the "Knowledge" episode in Series K it was explained that many facts on the show are later shown to be incorrect. Points were refunded to three panellists who had appeared previously; The largest refund went to Davies, who received in excess of 700 wrongly deducted points. Fry gave some examples of incorrect facts told in previous episodes, such as ones relating to lobster ages, the evolution of giraffe's necks and millipede legs.


title: QI

text: More recently, the online forum now includes a "QI Qibbles" blog, which aims to rectify further mistakes in the show.


title: QI

text: The error that has attracted the most complaints to date was made in Series B, when it was claimed that the Welsh language has no word for "blue". In fact it is "glas". The error was explained on the "Banter" section of the Series B DVD as a mistake on the part of John Lloyd himself (the show's producer).


title: QI

text: An episode in Series B claimed that the language spoken by children's TV characters Bill and Ben was called "Flobbadob" and was named after the onomatopoeic phrase that supposed creator Hilda Brabban's younger brothers (after whom the characters were named) gave to their bath farts during their early childhood. However, in Series D, Fry read out the following letter written by Silas Hawkins, the son of veteran voice-over talent Peter Hawkins, who provided the original voices of the characters:


title: QI

text: The fart-in-the-bath story was trotted out last year in an episode of Stephen Fry's otherwise admirable quiz show "QI". It (the story) first appeared some twenty years ago in a newspaper article, to which my father immediately wrote a rebuttal. This was obviously ferreted out by some BBC researcher. It may be quite interesting, but in this case, it just isn't true.


title: QI

text: Fry then apologised and corrected the error, saying "Their language is called 'Oddle poddle'. 'Flobbadob' means 'Flowerpot' in Oddle poddle."


title: QI

text: It has later been established that while Hilda Brabban did sell stories about characters named Bill and Ben to the BBC in the 1950s, these bear no resemblance to the Bill and Ben of the Flower Pot Men.


title: QI

text: "QI" has stated it follows a philosophy: everything in the world, even that which appears to be the most boring, is "quite interesting" if looked at in the right way. The website states that:


title: QI

text: "We live, they say, in The Information Age, yet almost none of the information we think we possess is true. Eskimos do not rub noses. The rickshaw was invented by an American. Joan of Arc was not French. Lenin was not Russian. The world is not solid, it is made of empty space and energy, and neither haggis, whisky, porridge, clan tartans nor kilts are Scottish. So we stand, silent, on a peak in Darien a vast, rolling, teeming, untrodden territory before us. "QI" country. Whatever is interesting we are interested in. Whatever is not interesting, we are even more interested in. Everything is interesting if looked at "in the right way". At one extreme, "QI" is serious, intensely scientific, deeply mystical; at the other it is hilarious, silly and frothy enough to please the most indolent couch-potato."


title: QI

text: On 28 December 2009, the BBC Radio 4 panel game "The Unbelievable Truth", hosted by frequent "QI" guest panellist David Mitchell, broadcast a New Year's Special which paid tribute to "QI". The show featured Fry, Davies and Lloyd on the panel, as well as Rob Brydon, another regular "QI" participant.


title: QI

text: In December 2010, panellists on "QI" made jokes during a discussion about Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived both atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Yamaguchi had died only earlier that year. The Japanese embassy in London wrote a letter of complaint to the BBC about the content of its quiz show after being alerted to the content when viewers in Japan contacted diplomatic staff. Yamaguchi's daughter also made known how upset she was as a result of the comments broadcast on the BBC. She said that Britain, as a nuclear power, had no right to "look down" on her father. In January 2011, the BBC issued an apology for "any offence caused" to Japan by the incident, recognising "the sensitivity of the subject matter for Japanese viewers". In February 2011, the BBC cited a "strength of feeling" in Japan following its atomic bomb joke broadcast in its decision to cancel the filming of part of its "Planet Word" documentary in the country, which was due to be presented by Fry.


title: QI

text: In February 2011, the BBC received several complaints about jokes made in an episode of "QI" about Margaret Thatcher. Regular panellist Jo Brand commented that Lady Thatcher sounded like "a device for removing pubic hair". Later, panellist Phill Jupitus shouted "Burn the witch!" when a digitally altered picture of Thatcher, showcasing the Thatcher effect optical illusion, was shown on-screen. Several Conservative politicians condemned the remarks; and Lord Tebbit complained that "Lady Thatcher has been treated like this by the BBC for the past 30 years".


title: QI

text: In 2011, an episode of "QI" featuring Jeremy Clarkson was withdrawn due to controversial comments Clarkson had recently made about people committing suicide by jumping in front of trains. The "QI" episode did not contain any such statements, but was postponed "to avoid putting Clarkson in the spotlight". The episode, on the subject of "idleness", was broadcast later.


title: QI

text: On 11 January 2013, an episode of "QI" ending with Fry reading a limerick about paedophilia was criticised by viewers, especially as it was broadcast directly before a "Newsnight" report on Jimmy Savile. The BBC Trust described the incident as "unfortunate and regrettable" and the limerick as "capable of causing offence", but ruled it was not in breach of BBC guidelines.


title: QI

text: The BBC has received criticism regarding the lack of women on their comedy panel shows. As a result, the corporation decided to ban all-male panels on comedy shows in February 2014, with BBC's director of TV Danny Cohen stating in an interview with "The Observer" that "shows without women are unacceptable". In November 2014, "Mirror" reported stats revealing that 38% of all "QI" episodes at that time had featured only men, 55.9% featured only one woman, and only the remaining 6.1% had two or three women, out of a total of three guest panellists per episode (the fourth one being regular panellist Alan Davies). Clem Bastow of "The Sydney Morning Herald" was supportive of BBC's decision, saying that "left to their own devices, the producers of these shows are clearly failing massively when it comes to putting together line-ups that aren't just endless parades of the same old white men," and noted that this could motivate the producers to uncover some new talent. In 2017, creator of "QI" John Lloyd commented on BBC's decision, telling the "Cheltenham Literature Festival" that "arguing a BBC quota for women panellists risked being mere tokenism", while his wife Sarah Wallace—director of QI Limited—stated that female comedians are hesitant to appear on the show.


title: QI

text: In April 2014, Sandi Toksvig, who was hosting "The News Quiz" on BBC Radio 4 at that time, had also criticised BBC's decision saying that "recruiting more female hosts would be a more desirable way of correcting the imbalance." She explained that women would feel more comfortable about participating with a female host, and described the fact that many quiz shows are presented by men as "slightly ridiculous". In 2015, when Toksvig took over from Fry as a host of "QI", she told the "Guardian" newspaper: "If I can show that by hosting a programme like this women neither destroy the social fabric of this country [nor] frighten the horses, it's a very good job." Nevertheless, Toksvig has acknowledged Fry's delicate treatment towards his female panellists, and she herself continues to encourage them to be smart and funny when they appear on the show. In 2018, Emma Cox of "Radio Times" highlighted a notable difference between "QI" and other "aggressively masculine" panel shows.


title: QI

text: In September 2018, while responding to a question on equal pay at the Women's Equality Party's conference, Toksvig revealed that she receives 40% of what Stephen Fry was being paid as the host of "QI", and the same amount as panellist Alan Davies. Talent fees for "QI" are managed by Talkback.


title: QI

text: "QI" was received very positively by its viewers. It was the most popular programme on BBC Four in 2005, and one of its books, "The Book of General Ignorance", became a global best-seller for Christmas 2006.