title: Sleeper hit

text: The independent film "Halloween", which played over the course of fall 1978 through fall 1979 and relied almost completely on word-of-mouth as marketing, was also a sleeper hit, having a box office take of $70 million on a budget of only $325,000. Its success caused other slasher films to try the same approach, although few fared as well since horror films heavily rely on opening weekend box office and quickly fall from theaters. Other notable examples of horror sleeper-hits to follow in "Halloween"'s wake include "Friday the 13th" in 1980, "The Evil Dead" in 1981, "A Nightmare on Elm Street" in 1984, "Scream" in 1996, "I Know What You Did Last Summer" in 1997, "The Blair Witch Project" in 1999, "Final Destination" in 2000, "Saw" in 2004, "Hostel" in 2005, "Paranormal Activity" in 2007, both "The Purge" and "The Conjuring" in 2013, and both "Happy Death Day" and the Academy Award-winning "Get Out" in 2017.


title: Sleeper hit

text: "Hocus Pocus" (1993) underperformed at the box office but eventually became a sleeper hit through television airings on the "13 Nights of Halloween" block on what is now Freeform.


title: Sleeper hit

text: "The Iron Giant" (1999) was a box office bomb due to poor marketing on behalf of distributor Warner Bros., who did not have faith in the film. The film was very positively received, however, and earned a cult following once it arrived on home video and television, and is nowadays considered a modern animation classic and one of the greatest animated films ever made.


title: Sleeper hit

text: "The Peanut Butter Falcon" (2019) also went on to become a sleeper hit, expanding the following weekend to 1,249 theaters and earning $3 million, as well as $1.1 million on Labor Day.


title: Sleeper hit

text: Don Howard's 1952 recording of "Oh Happy Day" was one of the earliest sleeper hits. Featuring only Howard's baritone vocals and his acoustic guitar played at an amateur level, it was initially released regionally and was never expected to become a hit. A massive groundswell of support from teenagers in Howard's home base of Cleveland, Ohio, led to the song rapidly rising in popularity, despite music industry scorn; cover versions (including one by Larry Hooper and the Lawrence Welk orchestra) were quickly rushed into production, and by 1953, there were no fewer than four hit recordings of the same song circulating, including Howard's original.


title: Sleeper hit

text: The Romantics' 1980 single "What I Like About You" was a minor hit upon its release, charting at number 49 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in the United States, while not charting at all in the United Kingdom. It eventually became one of the most popular songs of the 1980s thanks to its use in various advertising campaigns.


title: Sleeper hit

text: The 1987 single "Welcome to the Jungle" by American rock band Guns N' Roses performed poorly in both the United States and the United Kingdom when first released in September of that year. As the band's popularity grew steadily in 1988, it became a sleeper hit in the US and reached the top 10 of the "Billboard" charts. It was then re-released in the UK, charting within the top 40 there.


title: Sleeper hit

text: Nirvana's second album "Nevermind" was released in September 1991 with low expectations, hoping to sell 500,000 copies. The album entered the "Billboard" 200 at number 144, but slowly climbed up the charts over the following months, entering the top 40 in November. The album was selling 300,000 copies a week by December, before in January 1992, it even replaced Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" at number 1 on the "Billboard" charts. The album went on to sell over 30 million copies worldwide, and has since become one of the world's best-selling albums of all time.


title: Sleeper hit

text: Maroon 5's debut album, "Songs About Jane", was originally released in June 2002, but did not enter the chart until 11 months later in May 2003, where it underperformed on the chart, debuting at just No. 170, and staying beneath the top 40 for 8 months. However, with their popular hit single, "This Love", released in 2004, and the equally-popular follow-up, "She Will Be Loved", both peaking at No. 5, with the former spending 14 weeks in the top-ten and 43 weeks on the chart, it gave new hype for the album in the beginning of 2004, being certified platinum on February, and finally making the top 10 a month later.


title: Sleeper hit

text: The R&B singer Raphael Saadiq's classic soul-inspired album "The Way I See It" was a sleeper hit. Overlooked upon its release in 2008, it ended up charting for 41 weeks on the US "Billboard" 200.


title: Sleeper hit

text: "Sail" by rock band Awolnation was originally released in November 2010, and did not chart in the U.S. until 10 months later


title: Sleeper hit

text: in September 2011, where it debuted at No. 89 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. It spent 5 months leaving and reentering at the bottom of the chart, until


title: Sleeper hit

text: it disappeared completely in early 2012. However, its prominence through commercials, television broadcasts, and its feature in the 2012 Olympics,


title: Sleeper hit

text: helped revitalize new success for the song, where it cracked the top 40 in 2013, and ultimately peaking at No. 17. In total, the song had spent 79 weeks on the chart.


title: Sleeper hit

text: "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" by pop singer Lady Gaga were both released in 2008 but did not become popular hits until the end of the year and the following year in certain countries, including the U.S. and the U.K., and eventually becoming No. 1 hits in those countries. "Poker Face", in particular, went on to become the world's best-selling single of 2009 overall.


title: Sleeper hit

text: "Let Her Go" by Passenger was released in July 2012, but did not reach the top 20 until November 2013, and peaked at


title: Sleeper hit

text: No. 5 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in February 2014. Passenger remains a one-hit wonder to date, as Let Her Go is his only charting single on the Hot 100.


title: Sleeper hit

text: Fetty Wap's debut single "Trap Queen" was released in the spring of 2014 but didn't become popular until the end of the year. Following its December 2014 re-release, "Trap Queen" became Fetty Wap's nationwide breakthrough and the first major hit single for 300 Entertainment. It debuted on the "Billboard" Hot 100 at number 86 for the chart dated February 7, 2015. The song entered the chart's top ten seven weeks later, largely on the strength of its streaming activity and digital download sales. It peaked at number two for three consecutive weeks beginning on the chart dated May 16, 2015.


title: Sleeper hit

text: Alessia Cara's debut single "Here" was released in the spring of 2015, but did not become popular until much later into the year. It debuted at No. 95 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in August and took 6 more months to peak at No. 5 in early 2016. The same went for her follow-up, "Scars to Your Beautiful", which was released in July 2016, but did not enter the top 10 until February 2017.


title: Sleeper hit

text: R&B singer Miguel's 2010 debut album "All I Want Is You" performed poorly at first, debuting at number 109 on the "Billboard" 200 with sales of 11,000 copies, while underpromoted by his record label. As its singles achieved radio airplay and Miguel toured in the record's promotion, "All I Want Is You" became a sleeper hit and reached 404,000 copies sold by 2012. As of November 2017, the album has been certified platinum in the US.


title: Sleeper hit

text: "Truth Hurts" by Lizzo was released in September 2017, and did not chart until its appearance in the 2019 romantic comedy film "Someone Great" led to the single debuting at the number 50 position on the "Billboard" Hot 100. As the song became a sleeper hit on the chart, the music video—featuring the singer in a "wedding-gone-wild" concept—went viral. By September 2019, the single had reached number one on the chart. The music video has been viewed over 290 million times as of August 2022. The single also benefited from its use in TikTok videos by users who lip-synced or referenced the lyric "I just took a DNA test, turns out, I'm 100 percent that bitch". During its chart run, Gary Trust, the senior director of charts at "Billboard", noted the rarity of a song topping the Hot 100 almost two years after its release, but explained that, "in the digital era, it's much easier than ever before for music fans to be exposed to older songs that might've been overlooked the first time around." According to "Paper" magazine's Michael Love Michael, Lizzo's sleeper hit can also be explained by a more inclusive popular media since the song's original release: "Black women are more visible than ever on magazine covers; fashion is having broader conversations about size, racial, and ethnic diversity. Lizzo's presence in these spaces signals a future of greater inclusion."


title: Sleeper hit

text: The COVID-19 pandemic played a significant role in audiences' rediscovery of previously-released media, including music. Primarily through TikTok and other social media platforms, songs which were released up to several years prior but failed to make an immediate impression commercially have gained renewed popularity and chart success. Examples throughout 2021 and 2022 include: "Arcade" by Duncan Laurence (released March 2019), "Astronaut in the Ocean" by Masked Wolf (released June 2019), "Beggin'" (The Four Seasons cover) by Måneskin (released December 2017), "Iko Iko" (Mardi Gras Indians cover) by Justin Wellington (released June 2019), "Heat Waves" by Glass Animals (released June 2020), "Infinity" by Jaymes Young (released June 2017), "Title" by Meghan Trainor (released 2014), "Bubblegum Bitch" by Marina (released 2012), "Runaway" by Aurora (released 2015), "I Love You So" by The Walters (released 2014), "Dandelions" by Ruth B (released 2017), "Hurts So Good" by Astrid S (released 2016), "Enchanted" by Taylor Swift (released 2010), "Middle of the Night" by Elley Duhé (released 2020), "Unstoppable" by Sia (released 2016), and "Bloody Mary" by Lady Gaga (originally a non-single from the 2011 album "Born This Way" but released as a single 11 years later, after becoming popular on TikTok).


title: Sleeper hit

text: "Pocket Monster Red" and "Green" were released in 1996 in Japan, and later released as "Pokémon Red" and "Blue" in 1998. They followed several years of development and became sleeper hits. Believing it to be a one-time product, Nintendo initially shipped 200,000 copies, a relatively low amount. Most media ignored the games, but largely by word-of-mouth stemming from the hidden character Mew's introduction, their popularity gradually spread throughout Japan, selling a million units by the end of 1996. They eventually became the best-selling video games ever in Japan, with 7.8 million copies sold, and 45 million sold worldwide. After becoming a national sensation in Japan, the franchise was introduced to the United States in September 1998, going on to start a worldwide craze dubbed "Pokémania".


title: Sleeper hit

text: "Portal" was released in 2007 with little fanfare as part of the game compilation "The Orange Box", but eventually became a "phenomenon".


title: Sleeper hit

text: "SteamWorld Dig" (2013) was released on the 3DS by little-known developer Image & Form. It became one of the first indie games mentioned in a Nintendo Direct, and ultimately sold over a million copies on all platforms. If the game had not succeeded, the studio would have been forced to close.


title: Sleeper hit

text: "Among Us" was released in June 2018 and received little mainstream attention at first, with the game only averaging at around 30 to 50 concurrent players. It received a sudden and significant jump in popularity in mid-2020 after being popularized by streamers on Twitch and YouTube. In November 2020, SuperData Research reported that the game had over half a billion users, proclaiming it to be "by far the most popular game ever in terms of monthly players."


title: Sleeper hit

text: "" sold 73,000 copies by March 2000, regarded substandard, but was ultimately profitable, with estimated lifetime retail sales as 400,000 units as of 2017.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 2018, and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from 2018 to 2021. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for West Suffolk since 2010. He is a member of the Conservative Party, but now sits in the House of Commons as an independent, having had the whip suspended since November 2022.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Hancock was born in Cheshire, where his family runs a software business. He studied for a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Exeter College, Oxford, and an MPhil in Economics at Christ's College, Cambridge. He was an economist at the Bank of England before serving as a senior economic adviser and later chief of staff to George Osborne. Hancock was first elected as the MP for West Suffolk in 2010, succeeding Richard Spring. He was re-elected as West Suffolk's MP in 2015, 2017, and 2019.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Hancock served as a junior minister at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2013 to 2015 and was the United Kingdom Anti-Corruption Champion from 2014 to 2015. He attended David Cameron's cabinet as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016. After Theresa May became Prime Minister following Cameron's resignation, Hancock was moved to the post of Minister of State for Digital and Culture. He was promoted to May's cabinet as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. In July 2018, after the promotion of Jeremy Hunt to Foreign Secretary, Hancock replaced him as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. After May's resignation, Hancock stood in the Conservative Party leadership election to replace her, but withdrew shortly after the first ballot and subsequently endorsed Boris Johnson. After Johnson became Prime Minister, Hancock retained his position as Health Secretary in his cabinet.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Hancock's tenure as Health Secretary was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, which he played a prominent role in the government's response to. Hancock oversaw efforts to procure personal protective equipment, as well as to expand COVID-19 testing and tracing, and also oversaw the early stage of the UK's vaccination programme. In June 2021, after it was shown that he had breached COVID-19 social distancing restrictions, Hancock resigned as Health Secretary and was succeeded by Sajid Javid. Following his resignation as Health Secretary, Hancock returned to the backbenches.


title: Matt Hancock

text: In November 2022, Hancock had the whip suspended after announcing he would be appearing as a contestant in the 22nd UK series of the survival reality television show "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!", in which he finished in third place. On 7 December 2022, he announced his intention to stand down at the next general election.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Matthew John David Hancock was born on 2 October 1978 in Chester, Cheshire, to Michael Hancock and Shirley Hills (now Carter). Hancock has an older sister and a brother.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Hancock attended Farndon County Primary School, in Farndon, Cheshire, and the fee-paid King's School, Chester. He took A-levels in Maths, Physics, Computing and Economics. He later studied computing at the further education college, West Cheshire College. He studied at Exeter College, Oxford, and graduated with a first in philosophy, politics and economics, and later earned a MPhil degree in economics at Christ's College, Cambridge. Hancock became a member of the Conservative Party in 1999. He was diagnosed with dyslexia at university.


title: Matt Hancock

text: After university, Hancock briefly worked for his family's computer software company and for a backbench Conservative MP, before moving to London to work as an economist at the Bank of England, specialising in the housing market. In 2005, he became an economic adviser to the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, later becoming Osborne's chief of staff.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Hancock was selected as the Conservative candidate for West Suffolk in January 2010. He narrowly won the contest, defeating Natalie Elphicke (a solicitor who later became MP for Dover), by 88 votes to 81 in the final ballot. He was elected as the constituency's MP at the 2010 general election with 24,312 votes, 13,050 votes ahead of Liberal Democrat candidate Belinda Brooks-Gordon. In June, Hancock was elected to the Public Accounts Committee. He served on this committee until November 2012. Hancock also served on the Standards and Privileges Committee from October 2010 and December 2012.


title: Matt Hancock

text: In 2011, Hancock became a member of the Free Enterprise Group, a group of Thatcherite Conservatives co-founded by Liz Truss. In January 2013, he was accused of dishonesty by "Daybreak" presenter Matt Barbet after claiming he had been excluded from a discussion about apprentices after turning up "just 30 seconds late". Hancock acknowledged on social media that he was running late, but said he turned up ahead of time for the interview and was unfairly blocked from going on set by producers. Barbet said Hancock knew he was "much more than a minute late" and he should have arrived half an hour beforehand to prepare for the interview.


title: Matt Hancock

text: In October 2013, Hancock joined the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as the Minister of State for Skills and Enterprise.


title: Matt Hancock

text: In June 2014, Hancock encouraged employers to become involved in offering more apprenticeships, allowing young people to learn and earn simultaneously.On 15 July 2014, Hancock was appointed to the position of Minister of State for Business and Enterprise. He also took on additional responsibilities as the Minister of State for Portsmouth. On 27 July, he announced protection from fracking for National Parks, seen as a method of reducing anger in Conservative constituencies ahead of the election. Interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 "Today" programme, he rejected the suggestion that fracking was highly unpopular but he was unable to name any village that backed it.


title: Matt Hancock

text: In his role as Minister of State for Energy, he was criticised for hiring a private jet with senior diplomatic officials to fly back from a climate conference in Aberdeen, where he signed a deal with the Mexican President to use British expertise in Mexico. A DECC spokesman said the chartered flight was organised to fit around diary commitments, and the conference was not about climate change, but it was a visit to a university and discussion about investment. Hancock was later criticised for accepting money from a key backer of climate change denial organisation Global Warming Policy Foundation. In October 2014, he apologised after retweeting a poem suggesting that the Labour Party was "full of queers", describing his actions as a "total accident".


title: Matt Hancock

text: Hancock became Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General on 11 May 2015. Hancock launched a new social mobility drive to promote diversity within the civil service, outlining his vision in a speech in February 2016. He headed David Cameron's "earn or learn" taskforce which aimed to have every young person earning or learning from April 2017. He announced that jobless 18- to 21-year-olds would be required to do work experience as well as looking for jobs, or face losing their benefits.In the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership, Hancock supported the UK remaining within the EU.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Hancock moved to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as the Minister of State for Digital and Culture on 15 July 2016 after Theresa May became Prime Minister. As minister for digital policy, Hancock in June 2017 recommitted to a "full fibre" digital policy. This promised that 97% of the UK would enjoy "superfast broadband" at speeds of at least 24 megabits per second by 2020.


title: Matt Hancock

text: In August 2017, Hancock oversaw the strengthening of UK data protection law. As Digital Minister he announced people would have more control over their personal data and be better protected in the digital age.


title: Matt Hancock

text: On 8 January 2018, Hancock was appointed Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in Theresa May's 2018 cabinet reshuffle, succeeding Karen Bradley. On his first day in the role he criticised the BBC for the amounts of pay its foreign journalists received, and said that some men at the corporation were paid "far more than equivalent public servants".


title: Matt Hancock

text: In early 2018, Hancock was the first MP to launch his own mobile app, which was meant as a social network for him to communicate with his constituents and give people updates in relation to his cabinet role. The head of privacy rights group Big Brother Watch called the app a "fascinating comedy of errors", after the app was found to collect its users' photographs, friend details, check-ins, and contact information. Hancock said his app collects data once consent has been granted by the user.


title: Matt Hancock

text: In May 2018, as Media Secretary, Hancock confirmed the highest stake on fixed odds betting terminals would be cut to £2, after Prime Minister May sided with him over the issue.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Following the appointment of Jeremy Hunt to the position of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Hancock was appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care for England on 9 July 2018.


title: Matt Hancock

text: In November 2018, Hancock was criticised after appearing to endorse a mobile phone health app marketed by the subscription health service company Babylon in the "Evening Standard". Babylon allegedly sponsored the newspaper article. Justin Madders wrote to Theresa May accusing Hancock of repeatedly endorsing the products of a company that receives NHS funds for patients it treats, which contravenes ministerial guidelines. The ministerial code includes that ministers should not "normally accept invitations to act as patrons of, or otherwise offer support to, pressure groups or organisations dependent in whole or in part on Government funding".


title: Matt Hancock

text: In April 2019, Hancock, who had previously said the NHS would face "no privatisation on my watch", was criticised by Labour for allowing 21 NHS contracts worth £127 million to be tendered.


title: Matt Hancock

text: After Theresa May announced her intention to resign as Prime Minister on 24 May 2019, Hancock announced his intention to stand for the Conservative Party leadership. During this campaign, Hancock opposed the prorogation of Parliament to deliver Brexit and called on his fellow leadership candidates to join him on 6 June 2019. He proposed a televised debate with other candidates. He withdrew from the race on 14 June shortly after winning only twenty votes on the first ballot. Following his withdrawal, he endorsed Boris Johnson for the role.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Hancock continued in his role as Health Secretary in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's cabinet. He supported the prorogation of parliament in 2019 by Johnson which he had previously opposed while running for the leadership of the Conservative Party earlier in the year. On 24 September the Supreme Court ruled that the prorogation was unlawful.


title: Matt Hancock

text: In a September 2019 "Channel 4 News" interview, Hancock was asked to respond to allegations that at a private lunch in 1999, Johnson had groped the leg of journalist Charlotte Edwardes under a table. Edwardes also claimed that Johnson did the same to another woman at the same private lunch. In his reply to the "Channel 4 News" question, Hancock said of Charlotte Edwardes, "I know Charlotte well and I entirely trust what she has to say. I know her and I know her to be trustworthy", a view shared by fellow Conservative MP Amber Rudd. Both Johnson and anonymous Downing Street officials denied the allegation.


title: Matt Hancock

text: In October 2019, Hancock was lobbied by former Prime Minister David Cameron and financier Lex Greensill to introduce a payment scheme. Hancock was implicated in the Greensill scandal as the payment scheme was later rolled out within the NHS.


title: Matt Hancock

text: In November 2019, Hancock publicly apologised to Bethany, a teenager diagnosed with autism, for being kept in solitary confinement in various psychiatric facilities. Hancock apologised "for the things that have gone wrong in her care" and said her case in particular was "incredibly difficult and complex", calling Bethany's case "heart-rending" and saying that he had insisted on "a case review of every single person in those conditions."


title: Matt Hancock

text: On 31 January 2020, COVID-19 was confirmed to have spread to the UK, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hancock said the Government was considering "some quite significant actions that would have social and economic disruption". After the Government gave strict social distancing advice which was defied by large numbers of people, Hancock took a stronger line than the prime minister on condemning those still socialising in groups and derided them as being "very selfish". The Government later implemented legislation banning such groups from forming.


title: Matt Hancock

text: On 27 March 2020, along with Boris Johnson, Hancock himself tested positive for COVID-19. He stayed in self-isolation with mild symptoms for seven days, before delivering an update on COVID-19 testing targets and on Government plans to write off £13.4 billion of NHS debt.


title: Matt Hancock

text: In April 2020, Hancock was criticised when it emerged that the target he had set for 100,000 daily COVID-19 tests had been met only by changing the method of counting, to include up to 40,000 home test kits which had been sent, but not yet completed. This change was challenged by the UK Statistics Authority and labelled a "Potemkin testing regime".


title: Matt Hancock

text: Doctors groups maintained that they helped deliver 45,000 masks to hospitals without sufficient supply at the beginning of the pandemic and that families of healthcare workers who died from Covid had expressed concerns about the protection they got. Early in the pandemic NHS staff were photographed with poorly fitting PPE and some made gowns themselves from bin bags. Doctors and MPs criticised Hancock for denying there was a problem.


title: Matt Hancock

text: On 5 April 2020, Hancock warned that all outdoor exercise in England could be banned in response to COVID-19 if people did not follow social distancing rules, saying: "So my message is really clear. If you don't want us to have to take the step to ban exercise of all forms outside of your own home then you've got to follow the rules and the vast majority of people are following the rules."


title: Matt Hancock

text: Hancock received criticism for perceived sexism after suggesting on 5 May 2020 that Labour MP and shadow health minister Rosena Allin-Khan change the "tone" of her comments. Allin-Khan, a doctor, had stated in Parliament a lack of testing was costing lives when Hancock suggested she should "take a leaf out of the Shadow Secretary of State's <nowiki>[</nowiki>Jonathan Ashworth's] book in terms of tone".


title: Matt Hancock

text: On 15 August 2020, "The Daily Telegraph" reported that Hancock was to merge Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace into a new body called the National Institute for Health Protection, modelled on the Robert Koch Institute. The new body, renamed as the UK Health Security Agency, was set up before autumn amid "a feared surge in coronavirus cases".


title: Matt Hancock

text: On 11 October 2020, Hancock denied breaching a 10 pm drinking curfew in the Smoking Room bar in the House of Commons, put in place because of the pandemic. Eight days later, the "Daily Mirror" published a photograph of him riding in his chauffeur-driven car without wearing a mask.


title: Matt Hancock

text: On 2 December 2020, Hancock incorrectly claimed that the MHRA's fast approval of the first COVID-19 vaccine was possible because of Brexit. The MHRA stated that it had followed an expeditious procedure allowed under EU legislation which was still in force in the UK during the transition period.In January 2021, shopping vouchers for families in need were reintroduced. On "Good Morning Britain", Hancock praised the Government for reintroducing the scheme, despite being repeatedly reminded by Piers Morgan that he had opposed it in Parliament.


title: Matt Hancock

text: On 19 February 2021, after a legal challenge by the Good Law Project, a High Court judge ruled that Hancock had acted unlawfully by handing out PPE contracts without publishing details in a timely way. A ruling released by the High Court stated: "There is now no dispute that, in a substantial number of cases, the secretary of state breached his legal obligation to publish Contract Award Notices (CANs) within 30 days of the award of contracts." The details were published within 47 days.


title: Matt Hancock

text: In April 2021, it was reported that Hancock had been given 20% of shares in Topwood Limited, a firm based in Wrexham which is owned by his sister and other close family members. The company specialises in secure storage, scanning and shredding of documents. It won a place on a "procurement framework" listing to provide services to NHS England in 2019, as well as contracts with NHS Wales. There has been no suggestion that Hancock intervened in the normal processes, and in April 2021 the company had not earned anything through the framework. Lord Geidt later produced a report on ministerial interests saying that the awarding of the contract to Topwood could be seen to "represent a conflict of interest" that should have been declared. Hancock responded by saying: "I did not know about the framework decision, and so I do not think I could reasonably have been expected to declare it."


title: Matt Hancock

text: In May 2021, the former Downing Street chief adviser Dominic Cummings claimed, "tens of thousands of people died who didn't need to die" during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic due to what he claimed to be "criminal, disgraceful behaviour" within Downing Street under the supervision of Hancock. Cummings also said that Hancock should have been fired as Health Secretary for "15 to 20" different things. Following his testimony, YouGov noted that more people in the general public thought Hancock should resign than stay in his post, despite questions over the accuracy of Cummings's statements. Prime Minister Johnson defended Hancock and his decision-making.


title: Matt Hancock

text: On 25 June 2021, it was revealed that Hancock had breached COVID-19 social distancing restrictions with Gina Coladangelo, an adviser in the Department of Health and Social Care with whom he was having an extramarital affair, after CCTV images of him kissing and embracing her in his Whitehall office on 6 May were published in "The Sun" newspaper. The Government's guidelines allowed intimate contact with people from a different household only from 17 May. The previous year, Hancock had failed to declare he had appointed Coladangelo as an unpaid adviser at the department and later to a paid non-executive director role on its board, for which Coladangelo would earn between £15,000 and £20,000 annually from public funds. Coladangelo had become a close friend of Hancock after meeting him while they were both undergraduates at Oxford University.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Later that day on 25 June, Hancock said that he had "breached the social distancing guidelines in these circumstances" and apologised for "letting people down". Boris Johnson later said that he accepted the apology and considered the matter "closed". However, Hancock resigned on the evening of 26 June, stating "those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them", and he had not because of his "breaking the guidance". He was replaced as Health Secretary the same day by Sajid Javid.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Former Cabinet ministers Alan Johnson and Rory Stewart both said there had never been cameras in their offices during their time in Government, with Johnson saying: "I could never understand why there was a camera in the Secretary of State's office. There was never a camera in my office when I was Health Secretary or in any of the other five Cabinet positions." It was reported that the CCTV footage was leaked by a DHSC employee who opposed the Government's lockdown restrictions, and on 27 June it was confirmed that an internal investigation was undertaken by the department to find the culprit, for fear of future CCTV footage being leaked to states hostile to the UK, for the purposes of blackmail.


title: Matt Hancock

text: News of the scandal was met with a mixture of public anger and ridicule. The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group warned that Hancock's actions could undermine adherence to COVID-19 restrictions, similar to the Dominic Cummings scandal. Amanda Milling, Co-chairman of the Conservative Party, opined that Hancock's affair was a factor in the Conservative Party's failure to win the Batley and Spen by-election on 1 July.


title: Matt Hancock

text: On 15 July, investigators seized computers after searches at two homes in southern England, after the Information Commissioner's Office announced that it had set up an inquiry into the leak in the CCTV images.


title: Matt Hancock

text: On 29 July, the council of the second largest town in his constituency, Newmarket, passed a no-confidence vote against Hancock as its MP. Mayor Michael Jefferys cast the necessary vote to pass the motion.


title: Matt Hancock

text: According to the "Independent", Hancock faced severe criticism due to a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the NHS early in the pandemic, the award of contracts for supplying masks and the decision to transfer elderly patients to care homes without Covid testing. Hancock defended his handling of the pandemic and stated: "We suddenly needed masses more PPE and so did everybody else in the world."


title: Matt Hancock

text: On 12 October 2021, Hancock announced his appointment as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa special representative for financial innovation and climate change, an unpaid position advising the Commission on the African economy's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Four days later, the United Nations announced on 16 October that the offer had been rescinded.


title: Matt Hancock

text: During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hancock welcomed seven Ukrainian refugees into his family home in Suffolk in May 2022 through the "Homes for Ukraine" scheme.


title: Matt Hancock

text: In April 2022, it was announced that Hancock would publish his diaries during the COVID-19 pandemic called "Pandemic Diaries" with Biteback Publishing cowritten by Isabel Oakeshott. The royalties were planned to be donated to NHS charities. The book was to be released in December 2022.


title: Matt Hancock

text: The book was not based on a diary but was written after the fact based on Hancock's recollections as well his records of communications. It dismisses allegations that moving patients into care homes caused deaths arguing that the staff in care homes were the vector of disease. The book is critical of Dominic Cummings.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Reviews comment that the book presented too positive an image making Hancock seem unduly prescient with the benefit of hindsight arguing there may be elements of revisionism.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Gaby Hinsliff reviewing The Guardian said that there were kernels of truth about how politicians make decisions in the account but comments on how the book was writtten with the benefit of hindsight allowing Hancock to make himself seem prescient. Rod Dacombe writing in the i said that was absurd and devoid of literary flair. Adam Wagner, writing in Prospect magazine, said that the book had a focus on score settling and self-aggrandization but that there were some genuine relevations noting that more will be known when the UK Covid-19 Inquiry reports. Wagner argues Hancock's removal of exceptions for protest from proposed lockdown regulations on the grounds that protests could undermine public trust in measures and his criticism of protestors in the book are suggestive that protests were banned based on the political views of protestors, which Wagner thinks would likely constitute government overreach.


title: Matt Hancock

text: On 1 November 2022, Hancock announced that he would be a contestant on the 22nd series of the reality television series "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!", filmed while Parliament is in session. Agreement was reached with the show's producers that Hancock could communicate with his constituency team throughout his time in the jungle if necessary. Explaining his decision to participate in the show, Hancock said, "I want to raise the profile of my dyslexia campaign to help every dyslexic child unleash their potential — even if it means taking an unusual route to get there, via the Australian jungle!" Hancock also explained that he was driven by the intention to display his "human side" and to use reality TV as a means to convey "important messages to the masses". It was reported that Hancock would be paid £400,000, which was "one of the largest show fees" paid to a contestant. His spokesman said that a donation would be made to St Nicholas Hospice in Suffolk and causes supporting dyslexia.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Hancock joined the show on 9 November 2022 with comedian Seann Walsh. After he entered the jungle camp, Hancock was questioned by his fellow contestants, including Charlene White, Scarlette Douglas and Babatunde Aléshé, about his time as Health Secretary. Although he expressed remorse about breaking social distancing guidelines, he pointed out that he had not broken any laws and said that he did not regret the political decisions he made during the pandemic.


title: Matt Hancock

text: On the episode aired on 16 November 2022, Hancock said that he told Boris Johnson not to run for prime minister again during the October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, and said that former prime minister Liz Truss's political career is "totally finished" with "no ambiguity at all."


title: Matt Hancock

text: Hancock's ongoing participation in the show has been met with a mixed reaction by some of the other contestants. On the episode aired on 18 November 2022, fellow contestant Boy George said in a conversation with Seann Walsh that he found Hancock "slimy and slippery", and he later told Hancock that he found it difficult to "separate" the politician from the person. Another contestant, journalist Charlene White, said she feared she would lose her job if she was too sympathetic towards Hancock.


title: Matt Hancock

text: In response to participating in the show, the Conservative Party suspended the whip for Hancock—in effect, removing him from their parliamentary group but retaining him as a party member.


title: Matt Hancock

text: On 5 November it was reported that an online petition to stop Hancock from appearing on the show had attracted nearly 40,000 signatures. The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice and 38 Degrees groups flew a banner over the camp which read: "Covid bereaved say get out of here!".


title: Matt Hancock

text: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who had worked with Hancock during his tenure as chancellor, said he was "disappointed" at Hancock's decision to participate in a reality television show and expressed his discomfort at the level of degradation Hancock was subjecting himself to.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone stated her office had received "dozens of complaints" about Hancock being on the television show. Stone said that Hancock's decision to join the show raised "important questions about members' proper activities while they're supposed to be fulfilling their parliamentary duties and representing their constituents". Ofcom received just under 2,000 complaints about the show in its first week. 1,100 of these were over his appearance on the show but there were also some complaints criticising how Hancock was treated by other contestants.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Hancock broke government rules about post-ministerial jobs by not consulting the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments before he joined the show, according to Lord Pickles, the committee chair. However, Lord Pickles advised ministers that taking action against Hancock would be disproportionate.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Hancock married Martha Hoyer Millar, an osteopath, in 2006. She is a granddaughter of Frederick Millar, 1st Baron Inchyra. They have a daughter and two sons; one of their children is adopted. Hancock forbids his children to use social media. The family lived in Little Thurlow in his West Suffolk parliamentary constituency.


title: Matt Hancock

text: In June 2021, following an affair with his political aide Gina Coladangelo, sources reported that he had left his wife for Coladangelo. Hancock confirmed he was still with Coladangelo during a conversation with Babatunde Aléshé on the 22nd series of British reality television show "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!."


title: Matt Hancock

text: Hancock trained as a jockey in 2012 and won a horse race in his constituency town of Newmarket. Hancock supports Newcastle United, and auctioned his "pride and joy" signed team shirt to raise money for the NHS in May 2020.


title: Matt Hancock

text: Hancock told "The Guardian" in 2018 that he has dyslexia, something that he said first became apparent two decades earlier while he was studying at Oxford.


title: Slava Ukraini

text: "Glory to Ukraine!" (, ) is a Ukrainian national salute, known as a symbol of Ukrainian sovereignty and resistance and as the official salute of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since 2018. It is often accompanied by the response "Glory to the heroes!" (, ).


title: Slava Ukraini

text: The phrase first appeared at the beginning of the 20th century in different variations, when it became popular among Ukrainians during the Ukrainian War of Independence from 1917 to 1921. From the 1930s it was used by different Ukrainian groups, as well as Ukrainian diaspora groups and refugee communities in the West during the Cold War. In the Soviet Union the phrase was forbidden and discredited by Soviet and later Russian authorities. The phrase eventually resurfaced in Ukraine during the country's struggle for independence in connection with the fall of the Soviet Union. Its use was revived again during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and the Russo-Ukrainian War, during which it became a widely popular symbol in Ukraine.


title: Slava Ukraini

text: The phrase has gained worldwide attention during the ongoing 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and has subsequently been used in protests in support of Ukraine around the world. It has been used in speeches by Ukrainian politicians like President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well as numerous foreign leaders. It is also a battle cry for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.


title: Slava Ukraini

text: A similar phrase, "Glory of Ukraine", has been used at least since the time of the prominent patriotic Ukrainian writer Taras Shevchenko. In his poem "To Osnovianenko" («До Основ'яненка»; 1840, in the version of 1860) Shevchenko wrote:


title: Slava Ukraini

text: In the 1877 drama "L'Hetman" by the French author Paul Déroulède, the main character, Hetman Frol Gherasz, uses "Glory to Ukraine!" () as a salute. The events of the drama take place during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, which indicates that the phrase may have been in use in the Cossack Hetmanate.


title: Slava Ukraini

text: The first known mention of the slogan "Glory to Ukraine!" with the response "Glory all around the world!" (, "Po vsiy zemli slava") is in connection with the Ukrainian student community of the late 19th to early 20th centuries in Kharkiv.


title: Slava Ukraini

text: The phrase "" (Glory to Ukraine!) appeared in military formations during the Ukrainian War of Independence (from 1917 to 1921). It became part of the lexicon of Ukrainian nationalists in the 1920s.


title: Slava Ukraini

text: The modern response "" (Glory to the heroes!) appeared in the 1930s among members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) who started using this slogan to commemorate veterans of 1918 to 1921 Ukrainian-Soviet War and the wider Ukrainian War of Independence. The greeting "Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!" became an official slogan of Stepan Bandera's OUN-B in April 1941.


title: Slava Ukraini

text: In the Soviet Union, the slogan "Slava Ukraini!" was forbidden and discredited via a decades-long propaganda campaign alongside the diaspora Ukrainian nationalists who used it. They were dubbed "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists", "Banderites", and "Nazi henchmen" by Soviet authorities.


title: Slava Ukraini

text: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the slogan began to be heard at rallies and demonstrations. After Ukraine declared independence in 1991, the phrase "Glory to Ukraine" became a common patriotic slogan. In 1995, President of the United States Bill Clinton used the phrase in a speech in Kyiv (together with "God bless America").


title: Slava Ukraini

text: The phrase has undergone a resurgence in recent times, becoming a popular and prominent refrain during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, and a symbol of democracy and of resistance against Putin's Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Canadian historian Serhy Yekelchyk writes that "the nationalist greeting from the 1940s [...] acquired new meaning on the Maidan", and that "when used by protestors, [the slogan] referred to a hoped-for democratic and pro-Western Ukraine and regarded as heroes those who had fallen in service to their cause." According to political scientist Vyacheslav Likhachev, even variations that had far-right connotations lost that meaning during Euromaidan, for example, nearly every public speech, as well as public greetings began/ended with "Glory to Ukraine – glory to the heroes!" He noted that by the Equality March in 2021, the annual LGBTQ+ event in Kyiv, other variations like "Glory to the nation – death to the enemies!" were chanted by participants spontaneously. They had long become ubiquitous enough to lose any aggressive meaning.


title: Slava Ukraini

text: On 9 August 2018, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that "Glory to Ukraine" would be the official greeting of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, replacing "Hello comrades" (). The greeting was used during the Kyiv Independence Day Parade on 24 August 2018. The Ukrainian parliament approved the President's bill on this (in its first reading) on 6 September and on 4 October 2018. Parliament also made Glory to Ukraine the official greeting of the National Police of Ukraine.


title: Slava Ukraini

text: The popularization of the phrase was sometimes controversial abroad. After Croatia's 2018 FIFA World Cup victory, Croatia's assistant coach was fined by the football governing body FIFA after posting a video in which he used the slogan. In response, on 10 July 2018, Ukrainian supporters flooded FIFA's Facebook page with over 158,000 comments, most saying "Glory to Ukraine". Russia alleged that the chant has ultra-nationalist connotations. The Football Federation of Ukraine said in a statement that "'Glory to Ukraine' is a commonly used greeting in Ukraine," and that it "should not be interpreted as an act of aggression or provocation".


title: Slava Ukraini

text: This phrase became very popular among Ukrainian soldiers and their supporters to boost morale following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The slogan has seen worldwide use by protesters in solidarity with Ukraine all over the world, accompanying various demands towards the Russian embassies and the relevant national governments such as excluding Russia from SWIFT and closing airspace over Ukraine.


title: Slava Ukraini

text: It has been used in speeches by numerous Ukrainian politicians including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It has also been used by foreign leaders including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the UK's Permanent Representative Barbara Woodward in a speech to the UN. It has been used by commentators and media such as "The Times".


title: Slava Ukraini

text: The Norwegian Armed Forces' official composer Marcus Paus composed the song "Slava Ukraini!," loosely inspired by Ukraine's national anthem. Paus released the work on Facebook on 27 February 2022 and described it as a song of resistance; it was recorded two days later by Lithuanian-Norwegian viola player Povilas Syrrist-Gelgota of the Oslo Philharmonic, and was broadcast shortly afterwards by the Norwegian government broadcaster, NRK. Paus said that "the work seems to strike a chord with many people, including those who are in the middle of the battle zone. There is no nobler task for music than to unite and comfort people."


title: Slava Ukraini

text: Beyond Europe, the song "Glory to Hong Kong" drew inspiration from the slogan for use in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests. The Chinese edition of "Deutsche Welle" named "Glory to Hong Kong" the "anthem" of the Hong Kong protests. Describing the song, Chinese Television System News in Taiwan noted that the song had "peaceful vocals coupled with scenes of bloody conflicts between Hong Kong Police and the people" and that by creating "Glory to Hong Kong", Hongkongers recorded their "history of struggling for democracy and freedom". The connection between Ukraine and Hong Kong was received extremely negatively in mainland China, with Chinese commentators alleging American instigation of the Revolution of Dignity and Ukrainian Neo-Nazis meddling in Hong Kong affairs, going uncensored by the Great Firewall.


title: Slava Ukraini

text: The 2 euro commemorative coin issued by the Bank of Estonia in 2022 features the words "Slava Ukraini" (Glory to Ukraine), which was designed by Daria Titova, a Ukrainian refugee studying at the Estonian Academy of Arts.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a population) for populations in which adult men are on average less than tall.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: The term is primarily associated with the African Pygmies, the hunter-gatherers of the Congo Basin (comprising the Bambenga, Bambuti and Batwa).


title: Pygmy peoples

text: The terms "Asiatic Pygmies" and "Oceanian pygmies" have been used to describe the Negrito populations of Southeast Asia and Australo-Melanesian peoples of short stature. The Taron people of Myanmar are an exceptional case of a "pygmy" population of East Asian phenotype.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: The term "pygmy", as used to refer to diminutive people, derives from Greek πυγμαῖος "pygmaios" via Latin "Pygmaei" (sing. "Pygmaeus"), derived from πυγμή – meaning a short forearm cubit, or a measure of length corresponding to the distance from the wrist to the elbow or knuckles. (See also Greek πῆχυς "pēkhys".) In Greek mythology the word describes a tribe of dwarfs, first described by Homer, the ancient Greek poet, and reputed to live in India and south of modern-day Ethiopia.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: The term "pygmy" is sometimes considered pejorative. However, there is no single term to replace it. In French speaking Africa, they are sometimes referred to as autochthon, ("autochtone"), referring to 'native' or 'indigenous'. Many prefer to be identified by their ethnicity, such as the Aka (Mbenga), Baka, Mbuti, and Twa. The term "Bayaka", the plural form of the Aka/Yaka, is sometimes used in the Central African Republic to refer to all local pygmies. Likewise, the Kongo word "Bambenga" is used in Congo. In parts of Africa they are called Wochua or Achua.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: Various theories have been proposed to explain the short stature of pygmies. Some studies suggest that it could be related to adaptation to low ultraviolet light levels in rainforests. This might mean that relatively little vitamin D can be made in human skin, thereby limiting calcium uptake from the diet for bone growth and maintenance and leading to the evolution of the small skeletal size.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: Other explanations include lack of food in the rainforest environment, low calcium levels in the soil, the need to move through dense jungle, adaptation to heat and humidity, and as an association with rapid reproductive maturation under conditions of early mortality. Other evidence points towards unusually low levels of expression of the genes encoding the growth hormone receptor and growth hormone compared to the related tribal groups, associated with low serum levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 and short stature.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: African Pygmies live in several ethnic groups in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo (ROC), Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Madagascar, and Zambia. There are at least a dozen pygmy groups, sometimes unrelated to each other. The best known are the Mbenga (Aka and Baka) of the western Congo basin, who speak Bantu and Ubangian languages; the Mbuti (Efe "etc.") of the Ituri Rainforest, who speak Bantu and Central Sudanic languages, and the Twa of the African Great Lakes, who speak Bantu Rundi and Kiga. Most pygmy communities are partially hunter-gatherers, living partially but not exclusively on the wild products of their environment. They trade with neighbouring farmers to acquire cultivated foods and other material items; no group lives deep in the forest without access to agricultural products. It is estimated that there are between 250,000 and 600,000 Pygmies living in the Congo rainforest. However, although Pygmies are thought of as forest people, the groups called Twa may live in open swamp or desert.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: Expansion to Central Africa by the ancestors of African Pygmies most likely took place before 130,000 years ago, and certainly before 60,000 years ago. A commonly held belief is that African Pygmies are the direct descendants of Late Stone Age hunter-gatherer peoples of the central African rainforest, who were partially absorbed or displaced by later immigration of agricultural peoples, and adopted their Central Sudanic, Ubangian, and Bantu languages. This view has no archaeological support and ambiguous support from genetics and linguistics.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: Some 30% of Aka language is not Bantu, and a similar percentage of Baka language is not Ubangian. Much of pygmy vocabulary is botanical, dealing with honey collecting, or is otherwise specialized for the forest and is shared between the two western pygmy groups. It has been proposed that this is the remnant of an independent western pygmy (Mbenga or "Baaka") language. However, this type of vocabulary is subject to widespread borrowing among the Pygmies and neighboring peoples, and the "Baaka" language was only reconstructed to the 15th century.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: African Pygmy populations are genetically diverse and extremely divergent from all other human populations, suggesting they have an ancient indigenous lineage. Their uniparental markers represent the second-most ancient divergence, after those typically found in Khoisan peoples. Recent advances in genetics shed some light on the origins of the various Pygmy groups. Researchers found "an early divergence of the ancestors of Pygmy hunter–gatherers and farming populations 60,000 years ago, followed by a split of the Pygmies' ancestors into the Western and Eastern pygmy groups 20,000 years ago."


title: Pygmy peoples

text: New evidence suggests East and West African Pygmy children have different growth patterns. The difference between the two groups may indicate the Pygmies’ short stature did not start with their common ancestor but instead evolved independently in adapting to similar environments, which adds support that some sets of genes related to height were advantageous in Eastern Pygmy populations, but not in Western Pygmy populations.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: However, Roger Blench argues that the Pygmies are not descended from residual hunter-gatherer groups but rather are offshoots of larger neighboring ethnolinguistic groups that had adopted forest subsistence strategies. Blench notes the lack of clear linguistic and archaeological evidence for the antiquity of pygmy cultures and peoples and also notes that the genetic evidence can be problematic. Blench also notes that there is no evidence of the Pygmies have hunting technology distinctive from that of their neighbors, and argues that the short stature of pygmy populations can arise relatively quickly (in less than a few millennia) due to strong selection pressures.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: The African Pygmies are particularly known for their usually vocal music, usually characterised by dense contrapuntal communal improvisation. Simha Arom says that the level of polyphonic complexity of pygmy music was reached in Europe in the 14th century, yet Pygmy culture is unwritten and ancient. Music permeates daily life and there are songs for entertainment as well as specific events and activities.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: The pygmy population was a target of the Interahamwe during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Of the 30,000 Pygmies in Rwanda, an estimated 10,000 were killed and another 10,000 were displaced. They have been described as "forgotten victims" of the genocide.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: From the end of 2002 through January 2003 around 60,000 Pygmy civilians and 10,000 combatants were killed and often cannibalized in an extermination campaign known as "Effacer le tableau" during the Second Congo War. Human rights activists have made demands for the massacre to be recognized as genocide.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: In a strategy referred to as fortress conservation, in national parks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, such as Kahuzi-Biéga National Park; Messok Dja protected area in the Republic of the Congo; and Cameroon's Lobéké National Park, heavily armed park rangers come into deadly conflict with the Pygmy inhabitants who often cut the trees down to sell charcoal. The conservation efforts of national parks in the country are often financed by international organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund and often involve removing native inhabitants off the land. Some have argued that the most efficient conservation methods involve giving land rights to the land's indigenous inhabitants.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: In the Republic of the Congo, where Pygmies make up 2% of the population, many Pygmies live as slaves to Bantu masters. The nation is deeply stratified between these two major ethnic groups. The Pygmy slaves belong to their Bantu masters from birth in a relationship that the Bantus call a time-honored tradition. Even though the Pygmies are responsible for much of the hunting, fishing and manual labor in jungle villages, Pygmies and Bantus alike say that Pygmies are often paid at the master's whim: in cigarettes, used clothing, or simply not paid at all. As a result of pressure from UNICEF and human-rights activists, in 2009, a law that would grant special protections to the Pygmy people was awaiting a vote by the Congo parliament. According to reports made in 2013, this law was never passed.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, during the Ituri conflict, Ugandan-backed rebel groups were accused by the UN of enslaving Mbutis to prospect for minerals and forage for forest food, with those returning empty handed being killed and eaten.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: In Northern Katanga Province starting in 2013, the Pygmy Batwa people, whom the Luba people often exploit and allegedly enslave, rose up into militias, such as the "Perci" militia, and attacked Luba villages. A Luba militia known as "Elements" counterattacked. More than a thousand people were killed in the first eight months of 2014 alone with the number of displaced people estimated to be 650,000 as of December 2017. The weapons used in the conflict are often arrows and axes, rather than guns.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: Historically, the pygmy have always been viewed as inferior by both colonial authorities and the village-dwelling Bantu tribes. Pygmy children were sometimes captured during the period of the Congo Free State, which exported Pygmy children to zoos throughout Europe, including the world's fair in the United States in 1907. Pygmies are often evicted from their land and given the lowest paying jobs. At a state level, Pygmies are sometimes not considered citizens and are refused identity cards, deeds to land, health care and proper schooling. "The Lancet" published a review showing that Pygmy populations often had worse access to health care than neighboring communities.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: Negritos in Southeast Asia (including the Batak and Aeta of the Philippines, the Andamanese of the Andaman Islands, and the Semang of the Malay Peninsula) are sometimes called pygmies (especially in older literature). Negritos share some common physical features with African pygmy populations, including short stature and dark skin. The name "Negrito", from the Spanish adjective meaning "small black person", was given by early explorers. The explorers who named the Negritos assumed the Andamanese they encountered were from Africa. This belief was, however, discarded by anthropologists who noted that apart from dark skin, peppercorn hair, and steatopygia, the Andamanese had little in common with any African population, including the African pygmies. Their superficial resemblance to some Africans and Melanesians is thought to be from living in a similar environment, or simply retentions of the initial human form.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: Their origin and the route of their migration to Asia is a matter of great speculation. They are genetically distant from Africans and have been shown to have separated early from Asians, suggesting that they are either surviving descendants of settlers from the early out-of-Africa migration of the Great Coastal Migration of the Proto-Australoids, or that they are descendants of one of the founder populations of modern humans.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: Frank Kingdon-Ward in the early 20th century reported a tribe of pygmy Tibeto-Burman speakers known as the Taron inhabiting the remote region of Mt. Hkakabo Razi in Southeast Asia on the border of China (Yunnan and Tibet), Burma, and India. A Burmese survey done in the 1960s reported a mean height of an adult male Taron at 1.43 m (4'6") and that of females at 1.40 m (4'5"). These are the only known "pygmies" of clearly East Asian descent.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: The cause of their diminutive size is unknown, but diet and endogamous marriage practices have been cited. The population of Taron pygmies has been steadily shrinking and is now down to only a few individuals. In 2013, a link between the Taron and the Derung people in Yunnan, China, was uncovered by Richard D. Fisher, which may indicate the presence of pygmy populations among the Derung tribe.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: Australian anthropologist Norman Tindale and American anthropologist Joseph Birdsell suggested there were 12 Negrito-like tribes of short-statured Aboriginal peoples living on the coastal and rainforest areas around Cairns on the lands of the Mbabaram people and Djabugay people. Birdsell found that the average adult male height of Aboriginal people in this region was significantly less than that of other Aboriginal Australian groups; however, it was still greater than the maximum height for classification as a pygmy people, so the term "pygmy" may be considered a misnomer. He called this short-statured group "Barrineans", after Lake Barrine.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: Birdsell classified Aboriginal Australians into three major groups, mixed together to varying degrees: the Carpentarians, best represented in Arnhem Land; the Murrayans, centred in southeastern Australia; and the Barrineans. He argued that people related to Oceanic Negritos were the first arrivals, and had been absorbed or replaced over time by later incoming peoples; the present-day Barrineans retained the greatest proportion of ancestry from this original Negrito group, "[b]ut this is not to say that the Barrineans are Negritos ... the Negritic component is clearly subordinate, and ... the preponderant element is Murrayian." This trihybrid model is generally considered defunct today; craniometric, genetic, and linguistic evidence does not support a separate origin of Barrinean or other Aboriginal groups, and physical differences between Aboriginal groups can be explained by adaptation to differing environments.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: In 2002 the purported existence of short-statured people in Queensland was brought into the public eye by Keith Windschuttle and Tim Gillin in an article published by the right-wing Quadrant magazine (edited by Windschuttle himself). The authors argued that these people were evidence for a distinct Negrito population in support of Birdsell's theory, and claimed that "the fact that the Australian pygmies have been so thoroughly expunged from public memory suggests an indecent concurrence between scholarly and political interests", because evidence of descent from earlier or later waves of origin could lead to conflicting claims of priority by Aboriginal people and hence pose a threat to political co-operation among them. This and other publications promoting the trihybrid model drew several responses, which went over the current scientific evidence against the theory, and suggested that attempts to revive the theory were motivated by an agenda of undermining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander claims to native title.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: Some Aboriginal oral histories and oral traditions from Queensland tell of "little red men". In 1957 the last remaining survivor of the Jinibara (the Dalla people) tribe of SE Queensland, Gaiarbau, who was born in 1873 and had lived for many years traditionally with his tribe, said that he knew of the "existence of these “little people – the Dinderi", also known as "Dimbilum", "Danagalalangur" and "Kandju". Gaiarbau claims he saw members of a "tribe of small people ... and said they were like dwarfs ... and ... not ... any of them stood five feet [1.5m]." The Dinderi are also recorded in other stories, such as one concerning a platypus myth and another, "The Dinderi and Gujum - The Legend of the Stones of the Mary River".


title: Pygmy peoples

text: Susan McIntyre-Tamwoy, archaeologist and Adjunct Professor at James Cook University, has written of the northern Cape York Aboriginal people's belief of the "bipotaim", which is when “the landscape as we know it today was created”. "Bipotaim" was formed “before people, although not perhaps before the short people or the red devils as these were also here before people”. She writes, “many ethnographers recorded stories of ‘short people’ or what they referred to as ‘pygmy tribes’", such as Lindsey Page Winterbotham. She used information collected both through oral accounts (including those of Injinoo people), observation and archival research. McIntyre-Tamwoy recounts a "bipotaim" story: "We are the short people [pygmies?]. Red devils occupy parts of the adjacent stony coast but our home is here in the sand dunes and forest. Before the Marakai ['white people'] came to our land the people were plentiful and they roamed the land. They understood the land and called out in the language of the country to seek permission, as they should ...".


title: Pygmy peoples

text: According to Nathan Sentance, a librarian from the indigenous Wiradjuri nation employed by the Australian National Museum, there is no known archaeological or biological evidence such a people existed. Sentance claims it is a myth used to justify the colonisation of Australia as well as other countries by Europeans.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: Norman Gabel mentions that rumours exist of pygmy people in the interior mountains of Viti Levu in Fiji, but explains he had no evidence of their existence.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: E. W. Gifford reiterates Gabel's statement and claims that tribes of pygmies in the closest proximity to Fiji would most likely be found in Vanuatu.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: In 2008, the remains of at least 25 miniature humans, who lived between 1,000 and 3,000 years ago, were found on the islands of Palau in Micronesia.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: During the 1900s, when Vanuatu was known as New Hebrides, sizable pygmy tribes were first reported throughout northeastern Santo. It is likely that they are not limited to this region of New Hebrides. Nonetheless, there is no anthropological evidence linking pygmies to other islands of Vanuatu.


title: Pygmy peoples

text: The extinct archaic human species "Homo luzonensis" has been classified as a pygmy group. The remains used to identify "Homo luzonensis" were discovered in Luzon, the Philippines in 2007, and were designated as a species in 2019. "Homo floresiensis", another archaic human from the island of Flores in Indonesia, stood around 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) tall. The pygmy phenotype evolved as a result of island syndrome which, amongst other things, results in reduced body size in insular humans.


title: Erika Jayne

text: Erika Girardi (née Chahoy; born July 10, 1971), known professionally as Erika Jayne, is an American singer, television personality and former actress.


title: Erika Jayne

text: Erika Girardi was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 10, 1971, to single mother Renee Chahoy. Her parents broke up before her first birthday. She graduated from North Atlanta High School. At 18, she moved to New York City.


title: Erika Jayne

text: Her first two on-screen appearances were non-speaking roles as Suzanne Morton in the episodes "Prescription for Death" and "The Violence of Summer" as Pruiting's girlfriend in NBC's legal drama series "Law & Order". She also had roles in independent films "Alchemy" (1995) and "Lowball" (1996).


title: Erika Jayne

text: According to her autobiography "Pretty Mess", it was music producer Peter Rafelson, who came up with the idea of changing her name to "Erika Jayne". Rafelson said to her that the only name that flowed with "Erika" was "Jayne". She admitted to disliking it at first. Jayne's first single "Roller Coaster" was released on January 1, 2007. The song placed at number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. Jayne's debut album "Pretty Mess", was released in the United States on August 11, 2009.


title: Erika Jayne

text: On September 25, 2019, Jayne announced that she would be playing Roxie Hart in the musical "Chicago" on Broadway.


title: Erika Jayne

text: While living in New York, she met Thomas Zizzo, when he was working as a DJ at a club in Manhattan. The couple married in December 1991 at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Soon thereafter she gave birth to a son, Thomas Zizzo Jr. After the couple divorced in 1996, she relocated to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of becoming a singer.


title: Erika Jayne

text: In January 2000, she married Thomas Girardi, an attorney and founding partner of Girardi & Keese in Downtown Los Angeles after meeting in 1998.


title: Erika Jayne

text: In November 2020, she announced her separation from Girardi and filed for divorce. One month after the divorce announcement, the couple were named in a lawsuit for allegedly embezzling funds meant for families of the victims of the fatal 2018 Lion Air plane crash. Media outlets reported that the divorce could be a "sham" to hide assets. In December 2020, a Chicago-based law firm asked a federal judge to order Jayne to stop selling designer clothing online amid an effort to recover $2 million in missing money owed to people.


title: Erika Jayne

text: On December 17, 2020, the "Los Angeles Times" published a detailed article about the couple's legal issues titled "The legal titan and the 'Real Housewife': The rise and fall of Tom Girardi and Erika Jayne." The article alleged that Girardi "stole millions of dollars from vulnerable clients," and improperly funneled more than $20 million of victims' compensation to EJ Global, a company set up to finance Jayne’s entertainment and singing career. Two days later, Jayne released an Instagram post revealing text messages and photos of Tom Girardi's alleged mistress, a Californian judge. A documentary about the couple's highly publicized legal troubles titled "The Housewife and the Hustler" was released on Hulu on June 14, 2021. On August 31, she scored a legal win in a $5 million dollar fraud lawsuit, where the court found there was no evidence of 'wrong doing' confirmed in "New York Post"s "Page Six" article which later on the "Los Angeles Times" also had confirmed.


title: Age of Empires

text: Age of Empires is a series of historical real-time strategy video games, originally developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios. The first game was "Age of Empires", released in 1997. Nine total games within the series have been released so far as of October 28, 2021.


title: Age of Empires

text: "Age of Empires" focused on events in Europe, Africa and Asia, spanning from the Stone Age to the Iron Age; the expansion game explored the formation and expansion of the Roman Empire. The sequel, "", was set in the Middle Ages, while its expansion focused partially on the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. The subsequent three games of "Age of Empires III" explored the early modern period, when Europe was colonizing the Americas and several Asian nations were on the decline. Another installment, "Age of Empires Online", takes a different approach as a free-to-play online game utilizing Games for Windows Live. A spin-off game, "Age of Mythology", was set in the same period as the original "Age of Empires", but focused on mythological elements of Greek, Egyptian, and Norse mythology. The fourth main installment in the series, "Age of Empires IV", was released on October 28, 2021.


title: Age of Empires

text: The "Age of Empires" series has been a commercial success, selling over 25 million copies. Critics have credited part of the success of the series to its historical theme and fair play; the artificial intelligence (AI) players have fewer advantages than in many of the series' competitors.


title: Age of Empires

text: The games in the series focus on historical events throughout time. "Age of Empires" covers the events between the Stone Age and the Classical period, in Europe and Asia. Its expansion, "", follows the formation and rise of the Roman Empire. "" and its follow Europe and Asia through the Middle Ages. "The Age of Kings" expansion pack, "", is set during the same period, but also includes scenarios about the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, El Cid, and Attila the Hun. "Age of Empires III" and its first expansion, "", take place during the European colonization of the Americas. Its second expansion, "", follows the rise of Asia in the same period. Age of Empires Online focuses on the Greek and Egyptian civilizations. The series' spin-off, "Age of Mythology", and its expansion pack, "", are set during the Bronze Age, but focus on mythology as their themes, rather than history.


title: Age of Empires

text: "Age of Empires", released on October 15, 1997, was the first game in the series, as well as the first major release from Ensemble Studios. It was one of the first history-based real-time strategy games made, utilizing the Genie game engine. GameSpot described it as a mix of "Civilization" and "". The game gives players a choice of 12 civilizations to develop from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. The expansion pack, "The Rise of Rome", published by Microsoft on October 31, 1998, introduced new features and four new civilizations, including the Romans. Although the two games had contained many software bugs, patches resolved many of the problems.


title: Age of Empires

text: "Age of Empires" was generally well received, despite some highly negative reviews. GameSpot criticized a confused design, while "Computer and Video Games" praised the game as strong in single and multiplayer. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences named "Age of Empires" the 1998 "Computer Strategy Game of the Year." For several years, the game remained high on the sales charts, with over three million units sold by 2000. "The Rise of Rome" sold one million units in 2000 and attained 80% as an score from GameRankings.


title: Age of Empires

text: In June 2017, Adam Isgreen, creative director of Xbox Game Studios announced "Age of Empires: Definitive Edition" at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017. It will feature overhauled graphics with support for 4K resolution, a remastered soundtrack, and other gameplay improvements, and was planned to be released on October 19, 2017, but was delayed until February 20, 2018, when it was released on the Microsoft Store. On May 30, 2019, Microsoft announced that the Definitive Edition would be coming to Steam in the future, along with the Definitive Editions of both Age of Empires II and Age of Empires III.


title: Age of Empires

text: "Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings", released on September 30, 1999, used the Genie game engine, and had gameplay similar to its predecessor. "Age of Kings" is set in the Middle Ages, from the Dark Ages to the Imperial Age. It allows players to choose one of 13 civilizations, from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.


title: Age of Empires

text: On August 24, 2000, Microsoft published the expansion, "The Conquerors". It added new units and five new civilizations, including two Mesoamerican civilizations: the Maya and the Aztec. "The Age of Kings" was a bigger critical success than the first two games, with Game Rankings and Metacritic scores of 92%. Microsoft shipped out more than two million copies to retailers, and the game received numerous awards and accolades. Critics agreed that "The Conquerors" expanded well on "The Age of Kings", though issues of unbalanced gameplay were raised. "The Age of Kings" and "The Conquerors" won the 2000 and 2001 "Computer Strategy Game of the Year" awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, respectively.


title: Age of Empires

text: In April 2013, "" was released on the Steam digital distribution platform for Windows operating systems. The "HD Edition" includes both the original game and the expansion "The Conquerors", as well as updated graphics for high-resolution displays. Originally a fan-made modpack made for "The Conquerors", "Age of Empires II: The Forgotten" was an unofficial expansion that added a new campaign, playable civilizations, maps, and quality of service updates. The Forgotten was later developed into an official expansion with SkyBox Labs and Forgotten Studios, and in November 2013 "The Forgotten HD" was released by Microsoft exclusively for the "HD Edition" on Steam. A third expansion named "The African Kingdoms" was released by Microsoft in November 2015, also exclusively for the "HD Edition". A fourth expansion entitled "Rise of the Rajas" was released on December 19, 2016. On August 21, 2017, Microsoft announced "".


title: Age of Empires

text: In June 2019, Adam Isgreen, now the Franchise Creative Director for Age of Empires, shared more information regarding the at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2019. He confirmed that the Definitive Edition was being developed by Forgotten Empires, Tantalus Media, and Wicked Witch Software. He announced that the game would feature


title: Age of Empires

text: new 4K graphics, Xbox Live support for multiplayer, exclusive achievements, four new civilizations (Bulgarians, Cumans, Lithuanians, Tatars), three new campaigns, a new spectator mode and tournament features, and additional quality of life improvements. It was released on November 14, 2019. Bert Beeckman, co-founder of Forgotten Empires, confirmed on June 12 that "Age of Empires II: HD Edition" would not be removed from sale after the release of "Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition".


title: Age of Empires

text: "Age of Empires III", released on October 18, 2005, was built on an improved version of the "Age of Mythology" game engine with the most significant changes being the updated graphics engine and the inclusion of the Havok physics middleware engine. The game is set in the period between 1421 and 1850, and players can choose one of eight European nations. The game introduced a large number of features, such as home cities. Described by Ensemble Studios as "an important support system to your efforts in the New World," home cities help provide the player with resources, equipment, troops, and upgrades. They can be used across multiple games, and upgraded after each battle; the feature was compared to a role-playing game character by Ensemble Studios. The first expansion to "Age of Empires III", "The WarChiefs", was released October 17, 2006. Most gameplay changes in the expansion pack were small, but it introduced three new civilizations, with a focus on Native Americans. Most notable was the introduction of the unit. The second expansion, "", went on sale October 23, 2007. It was a jointly developed product; Big Huge Games helped Ensemble Studios develop the game, with Brian Reynolds joining Bruce Shelley as lead designer. The game expanded the "Age of Empires III" universe into Asia, and introduced three new civilizations. Reception towards "Age of Empires III" was mixed; Game Revolution described it as "about as much fun" as a history textbook, while GameZone argued it was "one of the best looking games, much less an RTS game, that is out on the market currently". It sold more than two million copies, and won the GameSpy "real-time strategy game of the year" award. "The WarChiefs" failed to equal the success of its predecessor, with a lower score on both Game Rankings and Metacritic, and "The Asian Dynasties"' score was lower still with 80%.


title: Age of Empires

text: Several collectors' editions of "Age of Empires III" included a hardcover artbook. The last page of the artbook has a pictorial depiction of the series; the Roman numerals below each panel range from I to V, indicating the series would include an "Age of Empires IV" and "Age of Empires V". Ensemble Studios employee Sandy Petersen said that the image "was total speculation on [their] part."


title: Age of Empires

text: In 2008, Microsoft announced they were closing down Ensemble Studios following the completion of "Halo Wars". Some of its employees would form a new team as part of Microsoft Studios. Kevin Unangst, director of Games for Windows, denied it was the end of the "Age of Empires" series, telling "The San Francisco Chronicle" "we're very excited about the future potential for "Age of Empires"". "Edge" confirmed, in an interview with Microsoft's corporate vice president of interactive entertainment, Shane Kim, that Microsoft continued to own "Age of Empires" and that they had plans to continue the series. However, Bruce Shelley wrote in his blog that he would not be part of any new studios formed.


title: Age of Empires

text: Following the announcement of remastered editions of previous games, Microsoft announced "" on August 21, 2017. On May 30, 2019, the company revealed that the "Definitive Edition" would come to Steam in the future, along with the Definitive Editions of both Age of Empires and Age of Empires II. On August 28, 2020, Microsoft announced at Gamescom 2020 that would release officially on October 15, 2020.


title: Age of Empires

text: On January 23, 2020, Microsoft announced a closed beta for early February of that year. Betas ran on Steam and the Microsoft Store, with each beta session including a small piece of the game. The first closed beta session began on February 11, 2020, and ended on February 19, 2020. The second closed multiplayer session began on March 31 and ran until April 7. The game was released on October 15, 2020.


title: Age of Empires

text: On August 21, 2017, Microsoft announced "Age of Empires IV", developed by Relic Entertainment. Microsoft's Executive Vice-President of Gaming, Phil Spencer, confirmed on June 11, 2019, that "Age of Empires IV" is still in development, with more information coming later in 2019. On November 14, 2019, gameplay footage of "Age of Empires IV" was shown at the X019 event. It showed medieval warfare between English and Mongol forces. "Age of Empires IV" was officially released on October 28, 2021, with eight civilizations available at launch: the Abbasid Dynasty, the Chinese, the Delhi Sultanate, the English, the French, the Holy Roman Empire, the Mongols, and the Rus. This title revisits the Middle Ages and incorporates several features and mechanics of "Age of Empires II" that were changed or removed in "Age of Empires III".


title: Age of Empires

text: "Age of Mythology" shared many elements of gameplay with the main series, and was considered a part of the series, despite its different focus. The campaign in "Age of Mythology" tells the story of an Atlantean, Arkantos, and his quest to find why his people are out of favor with Poseidon. Microsoft published the game on October 30, 2002, and its expansion, "The Titans", on October 21, 2003. "The Titans" featured the Atlanteans as a new civilization. Its campaign is shorter than previous expansions, and centers on Kastor, son of Arkantos, who falls for the lies of the titans and frees them from Tartarus. "Age of Mythology" sold more than one million units in four months. It scored 89% on Game Rankings and Metacritic. "The Titans" failed to equal the sales success of "Age of Mythology", although critics rated it highly.


title: Age of Empires

text: Backbone Entertainment developed "" as a turn-based game for the Nintendo DS. Majesco Entertainment published the game on February 14, 2006. It is similar to other turn-based games, such as "Advance Wars", but with a gameplay based on its PC . "Age of Empires: The Age of Kings" scored 80% on Game Rankings and Metacritic. Konami brought a game of the same title to the PlayStation 2 around five years earlier than the DS version, but the game had little promotion, and sold poorly.


title: Age of Empires

text: On August 16, 2010, Microsoft announced "Age of Empires Online", which was a free-to-play Games for Windows Live online game, it developed in collaboration with Robot Entertainment. It featured Free-to-play experiences via Games for Windows LIVE as well as: A persistent online capital city that lives and grows even when you're offline, Cooperative multiplayer quests, trading and a level-based system that lets you progress at your own pace. Premium content could be earned or purchased, such as access to blueprints and special items, as well as more quests and features. In September 2013, it was announced that the game would remain functional until July 1, 2014, after which it would be shut down due to the content being too expensive to maintain.


title: Age of Empires

text: On April 13, 2014, "" was announced. It was developed by KLab Games for the iOS, Android and Windows Phone. It was released on December 7, 2015, with the service terminated on November 30, 2016.


title: Age of Empires

text: On August 25, 2014, "" was announced. It is a touch-based game developed by Smoking Gun Interactive. It was released on September 17, 2014, for the Windows PC and Windows Phone 8.


title: Age of Empires

text: The development phases of the "Age of Empires" games were similar in several ways. Due to the games being based on historical events, the team often had to do large amounts of research. However, the research was not in depth, which, according to "Age of Empires" designer Bruce Shelley, is "a good idea for most entertainment products." Shelley also said that Ensemble Studios took most of the reference material from children's sections at libraries. He pointed out the goal was for the players of the game to have fun, "not [its] designers or researchers." At the Games Convention Developers Conference in 2007, Shelley continued with this thought and explained that the success of the series laid in "making a game which appealed to both the casual and hardcore gamer." Shelley also remarked the "Age of Empires" games were not about history in itself, but rather "about the human experience;" they focused not simply on what humans had done but on what they could do in the future such as "going into space." Ensemble Studios developed "Age of Mythology" in a different way than the previous two games. The team had worried they "couldn't get away" with a third historical-based game, and chose mythology as the setting after they had discussed several options.


title: Age of Empires

text: The artificial intelligence (AI) used in the "Age of Empires" series has been developed and improved regularly by designers. AI specialist Dave Pottinger noted the development team gave the AI in the original game a very high priority, and spent over a year working on it. He said that the AI in the game relies on tactics and strategies to win, instead of "cheating" by giving bonus resources to itself, or tweaking its units to be stronger than normal. Pottinger later noted that the "Age of Empires" series team took great pride in their AI playing a "fair game" and didn't know what the player was doing and had to play by the same rules as its human opponents.


title: Age of Empires

text: "Age of Empires" allows players to choose to play either along specialized, story-backed conditions or as individual battles against the AI (and other players). Choosing to battle against the AI – rather than following the storyline – allows the AI to adapt to players' strategies and even remember which games it won and lost. The AI eventually overcomes players' strategies and easily destroys their villages after several games. For instance, in "Age of Empires III," this is referred to as playing a "Skirmish." However "Age of Empires III" allows players to refine their strategies further against the AI by "Building a Deck," which allows players to replace "Home City" shipments with improved alternatives.


title: Age of Empires

text: In "Age of Empires II: The Conquerors" the AI was given a high priority, the result being the "smart villager" feature, which was included in subsequent games of the series. After building a structure that stores or produces resources, smart villagers would proceed to collect resources related to the structure, such as crops from farms or ore from exposed deposits.


title: Age of Empires

text: "Age of Mythology: The Titans" lets players use an AI debugger when creating custom scenarios; players can change the settings of computer players and make them act according to certain patterns. More basic changes to the AI had previously been available in the series' first two games.


title: Age of Empires

text: The graphics and visuals of "Age of Empires" improved with each successive release. From the original release to the second, "Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings," noteworthy improvements gained praise from several critics. With the release of "Age of Mythology" the praise continued, and the fourth release, "Age of Empires III," garnered even more.


title: Age of Empires

text: GameSpot praised the improved graphics in the second release, "Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings." Eurogamer welcomed its introduction of female villagers as compared with the original male only version. Allgame praised the advanced grouping and path-finding systems in the second release. Despite the improved graphics, Allgame complained that units in "Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings" were at times difficult to distinguish from one another, a point numerous reviewers agreed on. Nevertheless, Game Revolution wrote that the second release was "the best looking of the 2D RTS games out there right now."


title: Age of Empires

text: The graphics continued to improve in "Age of Mythology" and was praised by a majority of reviewers. IGN ranked the graphics in this third release, "a joy to watch ... awesome." GameSpot assented, also rating the graphics a 9 out of 10. Game Revolution agreed, and PC Gamer stated that the graphics in the third release "are packed with detail."


title: Age of Empires

text: The trend in improved graphics continued well into the next release, "Age of Empires III," much to the delight of reviewers. IGN stated, "After seeing the screenshots, our jaws hit the floor at the amount of detail." "1UP.com" described "Age of Empires III" as "one of the most beautiful games you will put on your computer for the foreseeable future." GameSpy agreed, stating, ""Age III"s graphics are unmatched in the strategy genre." "Age of Empires III" builds on and introduces new features to the prior release, "Age of Mythology," such as the inclusion of the award-winning Havok physics simulation middleware game engine for the Windows version and PhysX for the Mac OS X. The innovative result is that pre-created animations are avoided; instead events are calculated according to the physics engine. Consequently, views of events like building destruction and tree felling are not pre-recorded. GameSpot also admired the graphics in the fourth release but complained about "the awkward unit behavior." Other graphical features of the game include bloom lighting and support for pixel shader 3.0.


title: Age of Empires

text: Stephen Rippy has been the series' music director since the first game. He has had occasional help from his brother, David Rippy, as well as Kevin McMullan. He created the original music in "Age of Empires" with sounds of instruments from the periods in the game. These sounds came from actual instruments, and their digital samples. The tunes were the result of extensive research on the cultures, styles, and instruments used. Rippy said that sound development on "The Age of Kings" was easy, since there was knowledge of the instruments used in the Middle Ages. Therefore, they were able to reproduce the tunes for the soundtrack of the game. In "Age of Mythology", an orchestral instrumentation was used, instead. According to McMullan, the team also collected large numbers of audio recordings from zoos, and created "a massive sound library of [their] own material." The music of "Age of Empires III" was similar to "The Age of Kings", in which the team used more historical instruments; Rippy noted the team used instruments such as "bagpipes and field drums" to give it a realistic feel.


title: Age of Empires

text: Ensemble Studios worked together with Big Huge Games to develop "The Asian Dynasties", "Age of Empires III"s second expansion. This was the first joint venture for both teams. The reason for them doing so was compatible schedules: Ensemble Studios was busy with other projects—particularly "Halo Wars"—while Big Huge Games' real-time strategy team had few projects at that time. Big Huge Games did most of the work, but Ensemble Studios designers Greg Street and Sandy Petersen joined in the brainstorming, and had control over the final product. Both studios had roles in testing the game before its release.


title: Age of Empires

text: The "Age of Empires" series has been a commercial success. As of 2008, five of its games have each sold more than one million copies. According to Gamasutra, "Age of Empires" had sold more than three million copies, and "The Rise of Rome" sold one million copies as of 2000. Around the same time, Microsoft announced that they shipped over two million copies of "The Age of Kings". In 2003, Microsoft announced the sales of one million copies for "Age of Mythology". By 2004—prior to the release of "Age of Empires III"—the "Age of Empires" franchise had sold over 15 million copies. On May 18, 2007, Ensemble Studios announced that two million copies of "Age of Empires III" had been sold.


title: Age of Empires

text: Games in the series have consistently scored highly on video game review aggregator websites GameRankings and Metacritic, which collect data from numerous review websites. As noted in the adjacent table, the highest rating game is "Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings", receiving a 92% score from both sites.


title: Age of Empires

text: Critics have credited "Age of Empires" for influencing real-time strategy (RTS) games such as "Rise of Nations", "Empire Earth", and "". "" was also influenced by the series: it utilized the Genie game engine, as "Age of Empires" and "Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings" had, and was considered by critics to be a very close replica to the games; IGN began their review with the statement "I love "Age of Star Wars", I mean "Star Empires". Whatever it's called, I dig it." and GameSpot wrote that "fundamentals of the "Age of Empires II" engine are so intact in "Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds" that veterans of that game can jump right in." In October 2005, Shelley commented on the impact of the series. In a GameSpy interview, he explained that parents would "tell Ensemble Studios that their kid is reading books about ancient Greece because they enjoy playing with the triremes so much, or that they want to check out books about medieval history because [the] game taught them what a trebuchet was."