title: Inoculation

text: The first clear and credible reference to smallpox inoculation in China comes from Wan Quan's (1499–1582) "Douzhen Xinfa" (痘疹心法) of 1549, which states that some women unexpectedly menstruate during the procedure, yet his text did not give details on techniques of inoculation. Inoculation was first vividly described by Yu Chang in his book "Yuyi cao" (寓意草), or "Notes on My Judgment", published in 1643. Inoculation was reportedly not widely practiced in China until the reign of the Longqing Emperor (r. 1567–1572) during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), as written by Yu Tianchi in his "Shadou Jijie" (痧痘集解) of 1727, which he alleges was based on Wang Zhangren's "Douzhen Jinjing Lu" (痘疹金鏡錄) of 1579. From these accounts, it is known that the Chinese banned the practice of using smallpox material from patients who actually had the full-blown disease of "Variola major" (considered too dangerous); instead they used proxy material of a cotton plug inserted into the nose of a person who had already been inoculated and had only a few scabs, i.e. "Variola minor". This was called "to implant the sprouts", an idea of transplanting the disease which fit their conception of beansprouts in germination. Needham quotes an account from Zhang Yan's "Zhongdou Xinshu" (種痘新書), or "New book on smallpox inoculation", written in 1741 during the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), which shows how the Chinese process had become refined up until that point:


title: Inoculation

text: Method of storing the material. Wrap the scabs carefully in paper and put them into a small container bottle. Cork it tightly so that the activity is not dissipated. The container must not be exposed to sunlight or warmed beside a fire. It is best to carry it for some time on the person so that the scabs dry naturally and slowly. The container should be marked clearly with the date on which the contents were taken from the patient.


title: Inoculation

text: In winter, the material has "yang" potency within it, so it remains active even after being kept from thirty to forty days. But in summer the "yang" potency will be lost in approximately twenty days. The best material is that which had not been left too long, for when the "yang" potency is abundant it will give a 'take' with nine persons out of ten peopleand finally it becomes completely inactive, and will not work at all. In situations where new scabs are rare and the requirement great, it is possible to mix new scabs with the more aged ones, but in this case more of the powder should be blown into the nostril when the inoculation is done.


title: Inoculation

text: Two reports on the Chinese practice were received by the Royal Society in London in 1700; one by Dr. Martin Lister who received a report by an employee of the East India Company stationed in China and another by Clopton Havers. But no action was taken.


title: Inoculation

text: The Circassian women have, from time immemorial, communicated the small-pox to their children when not above six months old by making an incision in the arm, and by putting into this incision a pustule, taken carefully from the body of another child. This pustule produces the same effect in the arm it is laid in as yeast in a piece of dough; it ferments, and diffuses through the whole mass of blood the qualities with which it is impregnated. The pustules of the child in whom the artificial small-pox has been thus inoculated are employed to communicate the same distemper to others. There is an almost perpetual circulation of it in Circassia; and when unhappily the small-pox has quite left the country, the inhabitants of it are in as great trouble and perplexity as other nations when their harvest has fallen short...


title: Inoculation

text: Voltaire does not speculate on where the Circassians derived their technique from, though he reports that the Chinese have practiced it "these hundred years". The Turkish practice was presented to the Royal Society in 1714 and 1716, when the physicians and Giacomo Pylarini independently sent letters from Istanbul.


title: Inoculation

text: Inoculation is mentioned in the Ayurvedic text "Sact'eya Grantham". The outside world was exposed to it later on, as evidenced by the French scholar Henri Marie Husson, who noted it in the journal "". However, the idea that inoculation originated in India has been also taken in account, as few of the ancient Sanskrit medical texts described the process of inoculation. Variolation is documented in India from the eighteenth century, thanks to the 1767 account by the Irish-born surgeon John Zephaniah Holwell. Holwell's extensive 1767 description included the following, that points to the connection between disease and "multitudes of imperceptible animalculae floating in the atmosphere":


title: Inoculation

text: They lay it down as a principle, that the immediate cause of the smallpox exists in the mortal part of every human and animal form; that the mediate (or second) "acting" cause, which stirs up the first, and throws it into a state of fermentation, is multitudes of imperceptible animalculae floating in the atmosphere; that these are the cause of all epidemical diseases, but more particularly of the small pox.


title: Inoculation

text: Holwell ascribes this account to his Brahman informants. However, such a theory has not yet been discovered in any Sanskrit or vernacular treatise.


title: Inoculation

text: Several historians have suggested that variolation may be older than the eighteenth century in India, but historical evidence for this assertion is lacking. The widespread rumour since the nineteenth century that vaccination was documented in India before the discoveries of Edward Jenner can all be traced to propaganda tracts written in Sanskrit and the Indian vernaculars by colonial officers, in the hope of convincing pious Indians to accept the newly discovered Jennerian procedure. A landmark anthropological study by Ralph Nicholas described the mid-twentieth century rituals of appeasement to Śītalā, the Indian goddess of smallpox, in Bengal.


title: Inoculation

text: Early travellers to Ethiopia report that variolation was practiced by the Amhara and Tigray peoples. The first European to report this was Nathaniel Pearce, who noted in 1831 that it was performed by a "debtera" who would collect "a quantity of matter" from a person with the most sores from smallpox, then "cuts a small cross with a razor in the arm" of his subject and puts "a little of the matter" into the cut which was afterwards bound up with a bandage. Subsequent visitors who described this practice included the British traveller William Cornwallis Harris and Dr. Petit of the French scientific mission of 1839–1841.


title: Inoculation

text: Inoculation against smallpox seems to have been known to West Africans, more specifically the Ga-Adangbe people of Accra. An enslaved African named Onesimus in the Province of Massachusetts Bay explained the inoculation procedure to Cotton Mather during the 18th century; he reported to have acquired the knowledge from Africa.


title: Inoculation

text: In January 1714 the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society" published an account of a letter John Woodward had received from Emmanuel Timonius in Istanbul. Smallpox inoculation was advocated as a proven method of curbing the severity of the disease.


title: Inoculation

text: The practice was introduced to England by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Lady Montagu's husband, Edward Wortley Montagu, served as the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1716 to 1718. She witnessed firsthand the Ottoman use of inoculation in Istanbul, and was greatly impressed: she had lost a brother to smallpox and bore facial scars from the disease herself. When a smallpox epidemic threatened England in 1721, she called on her physician, Charles Maitland, to inoculate her daughter. She invited friends to see her daughter, including Sir Hans Sloane, the King's physician. Sufficient interest arose that Maitland gained permission to test inoculation at Newgate Prison on six prisoners due to be hanged in exchange for their freedom, an experiment which was witnessed by a number of notable doctors. All survived, and in 1722 the Prince of Wales' daughters received inoculations.


title: Inoculation

text: The practice of inoculation slowly spread amongst the royal families of Europe, usually followed by more general adoption amongst the people.


title: Inoculation

text: The practice is documented in America as early as 1721, when Zabdiel Boylston, at the urging of Cotton Mather, successfully inoculated two slaves and his own son. Mather, a prominent Boston minister, had heard a description of the African practice of inoculation from Onesimus, an enslaved man in his household, in 1706 and later from Timoni's report to the Royal Society. However, Mather had been previously unable to convince local physicians to attempt the procedure. Following this initial success, Boylston began performing inoculations throughout Boston, despite much controversy and at least one attempt upon his life. The effectiveness of the procedure was proven when, of the nearly three hundred people Boylston inoculated during the outbreak, only six died, whereas the mortality rate among those who contracted the disease naturally was one in six. Boylston traveled to London in 1724. There he published his results and was elected to the Royal Society in 1726.


title: Inoculation

text: In France, considerable opposition arose to the introduction of inoculation, and it was banned by the Parlement. Voltaire, in his "Lettres Philosophiques", wrote a criticism of his countrymen for being opposed to inoculation and having so little regard for the welfare of their children, concluding that "had inoculation been practised in France it would have saved the lives of thousands."


title: Inoculation

text: Likewise, in the United States, the Continental Congress issued a proclamation in 1776 prohibiting Surgeons of the Army from performing inoculations. However, in 1777, George Washington, witnessing the virulent spread of smallpox, and fearing the likelihood of mass transmission of the disease throughout the Continental Army, weighed the risks and overruled this prohibition, conducting smallpox inoculation of all troops. He wrote, "Should the disorder infect the Army in the natural way and rage with its usual virulence, we have more to dread from it than from the sword of the enemy." This was the first mass inoculation of an army, and was successful, with only isolated infections occurring, and no regiments incapacitated by the disease.


title: Inoculation

text: Inoculation grew in popularity in Europe through the 18th century. Given the high prevalence and often severe consequences of smallpox in Europe in the 18th century (according to Voltaire, there was a 60% incidence of first infection, a 20% mortality rate, and a 20% incidence of severe scarring), many parents felt that the benefits of inoculation outweighed the risks and so inoculated their children.


title: Inoculation

text: Two forms of the disease of smallpox were recognised, now known to be due to two strains of the Variola virus. Those contracting "Variola minor" had a greatly reduced risk of death – 1–2% – compared to those contracting "Variola major" with 30% mortality. Infection via inhaled viral particles in droplets spread the infection more widely than the deliberate infection through a small skin wound. The smaller, localised infection is adequate to stimulate the immune system to produce specific immunity to the virus, while requiring more generations of the virus to reach levels of infection likely to kill the patient. The rising immunity terminates the infection. So the twofold effect is to ensure the less fatal form of the disease is the one caught and to give the immune system the best start possible in combating it.


title: Inoculation

text: Inoculation in the East was historically performed by blowing smallpox crusts into the nostril. In Britain, Europe and the American Colonies the preferred method was rubbing material from a smallpox pustule from a selected mild case ("Variola minor") into a scratch between the thumb and forefinger. This would generally be performed when an individual was in normal good health, and thus at peak resistance. The recipient would develop smallpox; however, due to being introduced through the skin rather than the lungs, and possibly because of the inoculated individual's preexisting state of good health, the small inoculum, and the single point of initial infection, the resulting case of smallpox was generally milder than the naturally occurring form, produced far less facial scarring, and had a far lower mortality rate. As with survivors of the natural disease, the inoculated individual was subsequently immune to re-infection.


title: Inoculation

text: In 1798, British physician Edward Jenner published the results of his experiments and thus introduced the far superior and safer method of inoculation with cowpox virus, a mild infection that also induced immunity to smallpox. Jenner was not the first person to inoculate with cowpox, nor the first to realize that infection with cowpox gave immunity to smallpox. However, he was the first to publish evidence that it was effective, and to provide advice on its production. His efforts led to smallpox inoculation falling into disuse, and eventually being banned in England in 1840.


title: Philo

text: Philo of Alexandria (; ; ; ), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt.


title: Philo

text: Philo's deployment of allegory to harmonize Jewish scripture, mainly the Torah, with Greek philosophy was the first documented of its kind, and thereby often misunderstood. Many critics of Philo assumed his allegorical perspective would lend credibility to the notion of legend over historicity. Philo often advocated a literal understanding of the Torah and the historicity of such described events, while at other times favoring allegorical readings.


title: Philo

text: Though never properly attributed, Philo's marriage of Jewish exegesis and Stoic philosophy provided a formula later picked up by other Midrash content from the 3rd and 4th centuries. Some claimed this lack of credit or affinity for Philo by the Rabbinic leadership at the time, was due to his adoption of allegorical instead of literal interpretations of the Hebrew Bible, though it was likely due to his criticism of Rabbinic scholars, citing their works and ideas were "full of Sybaritic profligacy and licentiousness to their everlasting shame", "eager to give a specious appearance to infamous actions, so as to secure notoriety for disgraceful deeds", and ultimately, that he "disregards the envious disposition of such men, and shall proceed to narrate the true events of Moses' life" of which Philo felt were unjustly hidden and covered over.


title: Philo

text: According to Josephus, Philo was largely inspired by Aristobulus of Alexandria and the Alexandrian school. The only event in Philo's life that can be decisively dated is his participation in the embassy to Rome in 40 CE; whereby he represented the Alexandrian Jews in a delegation to the Roman Emperor Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (Caligula) following civil strife between the Alexandrian Jewish and Greek communities.


title: Philo

text: Philo's dates of birth and death are unknown but can be judged by Philo's description of himself as "old" when he was part of the delegation to Gaius Caligula in 38 CE. Jewish history professor Daniel R. Schwartz estimates his birth year as sometime between 20 and 10 BCE. Philo's reference to an event under the reign of Emperor Claudius indicates that he died sometime after 41 CE.


title: Philo

text: Although the names of his parents are unknown, it is known that Philo came from a family which was noble, honourable and wealthy. It was either his father or paternal grandfather who was granted Roman citizenship from Roman dictator Gaius Julius Caesar. Jerome wrote that Philo came "de genere sacerdotum" (from a priestly family). His ancestors and family had social ties and connections to the priesthood in Judea, the Hasmonean dynasty, the Herodian dynasty and the Julio-Claudian dynasty in Rome.


title: Philo

text: Philo had two brothers, Alexander the Alabarch and Lysimachus. Through Alexander, Philo had two nephews, Tiberius Julius Alexander and Marcus Julius Alexander. The latter was the first husband of the Herodian princess Berenice. Marcus died in 43 or 44.


title: Philo

text: Philo visited the Second Temple in Jerusalem at least once in his lifetime. Philo along with his brothers received a thorough education. They were educated in the Hellenistic culture of Alexandria and the culture of ancient Rome, to a degree in Ancient Egyptian culture and particularly in the traditions of Judaism, in the study of Jewish traditional literature and in Greek philosophy.


title: Philo

text: In ("Embassy to Gaius"), Philo describes his diplomatic mission to Gaius Caligula, one of the few events in his life which is known specifically. He relates that he was carrying a petition describing the sufferings of the Alexandrian Jews and asking the emperor to secure their rights. Philo gives a description of their sufferings, more detailed than Josephus's, to characterize the Alexandrian Greeks as the aggressors in the civil strife that had left many Jews and Greeks dead.


title: Philo

text: Philo lived in an era of increasing ethnic tension in Alexandria, exacerbated by the new strictures of imperial rule. Some expatriate Hellenes (Greeks) in Alexandria condemned the Jews for a supposed alliance with Rome, even as Rome was seeking to suppress Jewish nationalism in the Roman province of Judea. In "Ad Flaccum", Philo describes the situation of the Jews in Egypt, writing that they numbered not less than a million and inhabited two of the five districts in Alexandria. He recounts the abuses of the prefect Aulus Avilius Flaccus, who he says retaliated against the Jews when they refused to worship Caligula as a god. Daniel Schwartz surmises that given this tense background it may have been politically convenient for Philo to favor abstract monotheism instead of overt pro-Judeanism.


title: Philo

text: Philo considers Caligula's plan to erect a statue of himself in the Second Temple to be a provocation, asking, "Are you making war upon us, because you anticipate that we will not endure such indignity, but that we will fight on behalf of our laws, and die in defence of our national customs? For you cannot possibly have been ignorant of what was likely to result from your attempt to introduce these innovations respecting our temple." In his entire presentation, he implicitly supports the Jewish commitment to rebel against the emperor rather than allow such sacrilege to take place.


title: Philo

text: Philo says he was regarded by his people as having unusual prudence, due to his age, education, and knowledge. This indicates that he was already an older man at this time (40 CE).


title: Philo

text: In "Antiquities of the Jews", Josephus tells of Philo's selection by the Alexandrian Jewish community as their principal representative before the Roman emperor Gaius Caligula. He says that Philo agreed to represent the Alexandrian Jews in regard to civil disorder that had developed between the Jews and the Greeks. Josephus also tells us that Philo was skilled in philosophy, and that he was brother to the alabarch Alexander. According to Josephus, Philo and the larger Jewish community refused to treat the emperor as a god, to erect statues in honour of the emperor, and to build altars and temples to the emperor. Josephus says Philo believed that God actively supported this refusal.


title: Philo

text: Some of Philo's works have been preserved in Greek, while others have survived through Armenian translations, and a smaller number survive in a Latin translation. Exact date of writing and original plan of organization is not known for much of the text attributed to Philo.


title: Philo

text: Most of Philo's surviving work deals with the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). Within this corpus are three categories:


title: Philo

text: Philo represents the apex of Jewish-Hellenistic syncretism. His work attempts to combine Plato and Moses into one philosophical system. His ethics were strongly influenced by Pythagoreanism and Stoicism, preferring a morality of virtues without passions, such as lust/desire and anger, but with a "common human sympathy".


title: Philo

text: Philo bases his doctrines on the Hebrew Bible, which he considers as the source and standard not only of religious truth but of all truth. Its pronouncements are the , , and (holy word, godly word, righteous word), uttered sometimes directly and sometimes through the mouth of a prophet, and especially through Moses, whom Philo considers the real medium of revelation. Although he distinguishes between the words uttered by God himself, such as the Ten Commandments, and the edicts of Moses, as the special laws.


title: Philo

text: Philo regards the Bible as the source not only of religious revelation, but also of philosophic truth; for he claimed that Greek philosophers' ideas had already been laid out in the Bible: Heraclitus' idea of binary oppositions, according to "Who is the Heir of Divine Things?" § 43 [i. 503]; and the conception of the wise man expounded by Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, according to "Every Good Man is Free", § 8 [ii. 454].


title: Philo

text: Philo's allegorical interpretation of scripture allows him to grapple with morally disturbing events and impose a cohesive explanation of stories. Specifically, Philo interprets the characters of the Bible as aspects of the human being, and the stories of the Bible as episodes from universal human experience. For example, Adam represents the mind and Eve the senses. Noah represents tranquility, a stage of "relative" (incomplete but progressing) righteousness.


title: Philo

text: Philo affirms a transcendent God without physical features or emotional qualities resembling those of human beings. In Philo, God exists beyond time and space and does not make special interventions into the world because he already encompasses the entire cosmos.


title: Philo

text: Philo's notion is even more abstract than that of the monad of Pythagoras or the Good of Plato. Only God's existence is certain, no appropriate predicates can be conceived. Following Plato, Philo equates matter to nothingness and sees its effect in fallacy, discord, damage, and decay of things. This view enables Philo to combine the Jewish belief in creation with the Greek conviction about the formation of all things from the permanent matter.


title: Philo

text: Philo seems to look at man as trichotomous, nous (mind), psyche (soul), soma (body), common to the Hellenistic view of mind-soul-body. In Philo's writings, however, mind and spirit are used interchangeably.


title: Philo

text: Philo wrote that God created and governed the world through mediators. Logos is the chief among them, the next to God, demiurge of the world. Logos is immaterial, an adequate image of God, his shadow, his firstborn son. Being the mind of the Eternal, Logos is imperishable. He is neither uncreated as God is, nor created as men are, but occupies a middle position. He has no autonomous power, only an entrusted one.


title: Philo

text: Philo probably was the first philosopher who identified Plato's Ideas with Creator's thoughts. These thoughts make the contents of Logos; they were the seals for making sensual things during world creation. Logos resembles a book with creature paradigms. An Architect's design before the construction of a city serves to Philo as another simile of Logos. Since creation, Logos binds things together. As the receptacle and holder of ideas, Logos is distinct from the material world. At the same time, Logos pervades the world, supporting it.


title: Philo

text: Logos has the function of an advocate on behalf of humanity and also that of a God's envoy to the world. He puts human minds in order. The right reason is an infallible law, the source of any other laws. The angel closing Balaam's way (Numbers XXII, 31) is interpreted by Philo as manifestation of Logos, which acts as man's conscience.


title: Philo

text: Philo frequently engages in Pythagorean-inspired numerology, explaining at length the importance of religious numbers such as six, seven, and ten.


title: Philo

text: Commentators can infer from his mission to Caligula that Philo was involved in politics. However, the nature of his political beliefs, and especially his viewpoint on the Roman Empire, is a matter of debate.


title: Philo

text: Philo was more fluent in Greek than in Hebrew and read the Jewish Scriptures chiefly from the Septuagint, a Koine Greek translation of Hebraic texts later compiled as the Hebrew Bible and the deuterocanonical books.


title: Philo

text: The Septuagint translates the phrase (, ) as (, ). Philo identified the angel of the Lord (in the singular) with the Logos. Peter Schäfer argues that Philo's Logos was derived from his understanding of the "postbiblical Wisdom literature, in particular the Wisdom of Solomon". The Wisdom of Solomon is a Jewish work composed in Alexandria, Egypt, around the 1st century BCE, with the aim of bolstering the faith of the Jewish community in a hostile Greek world. It is one of the seven Sapiential or wisdom books included within the Septuagint.


title: Philo

text: The extent of Philo's knowledge of Hebrew is debated. His numerous etymologies of Hebrew names—which are along the lines of the etymologic "midrash" to Genesis and of the earlier rabbinism, although not modern Hebrew philology—suggest some familiarity. Philo offers for some names three or four etymologies, sometimes including the correct Hebrew root (e.g., , , as the origin of the name Jordan). However, his works do not display much understanding of Hebrew grammar, and they tend to follow the translation of the Septuagint more closely than the Hebrew version.


title: Philo

text: In the text attributed to Philo, he "consistently uses as a designation for God". According to David B. Capes "the problem for this case, however, is that Christian scholars are responsible for copying and transmitting Philo's words to later generations" and add that "George Howard surveys evidence and concludes: 'Although it is improbable that Philo varied from the custom of writing the Tetragram when quoting from Scripture, it is likely that he used the word when making a secondary reference to the divine name in his exposition'." James Royse concludes: "(1) the exegete [Philo] knows and reads biblical manuscripts in which the tetragram is written in palaeo-Hebrew or Aramaic script and not translated by "kyrios" and that (2) he quotes scriptures in the same way he would have pronounced it, that is, by translating it as "kurios"."


title: Philo

text: For a long time, Philo was read and explained mostly by Christian authors. Azariah dei Rossi's "Me'or Enayim: Imre Binah" (1575), one of the first Jewish commentaries on Philo, describes four "serious defects" of Philo: reading the Torah in Greek, not Hebrew; belief in primordial matter rather than ; unbelief in the Lord as evidenced by excessively allegorical interpretation of scripture; and neglect of the Jewish oral tradition. Dei Rossi later gives a possible defense of Philo and writes that he can neither absolve nor convict him.


title: Adventures of the Gummi Bears

text: Adventures of the Gummi Bears is an American animated television series, created by Disney CEO Michael Eisner, produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, and distributed by Buena Vista Television. The series, loosely inspired by the gummy bear candies, takes place in a fantasy world of medieval lands and magic, and focuses on the lives of seven mystical beings known as Gummi Bears. The series focuses on the exploits of the main characters, as they tackle a series of problems, as well as aid their human friends and thwarting the plans of various evil characters. Episodes consisted of either a single story, or two 11-minute stories.


title: Adventures of the Gummi Bears

text: The lavishly budgeted series became iconic for not only spearheading the style of Disney animated series that followed, but also starting an era of artistic improvement in television animation spurred on its success with competitors forced to improve their own artistic standards to avoid unfavorable comparisons. The series was known for various elements, including its signature potion known as "gummiberry juice", and the theme music - written by Michael and Patty Silversher, performed by Joseph Williams. The animated series first premiered in the United States, running for six seasons between 1985 to 1991, with the show later sold to other countries including the United Kingdom.


title: Adventures of the Gummi Bears

text: "Adventures of the Gummi Bears" takes place within a fantasy world of magic, monsters, and medieval living. 500 years before the events of the first episode, humans lived in peace alongside a race of beings known as Gummi bears - anthropomorphic bears with great skills in magic and technology. However, growing hostility from neighboring humans forced Gummi Bears to flee to safer lands across the sea, leaving small groups to mind their machinery, cities and ancient warrens in their absence. Over the years that followed, humans began to forget their existence, with the few remaining bears opting to become hidden from the sight of humans for their safety, eventually leading humans to believing that Gummi Bears are merely legends and portraying them as characters in children's fairy tales. For their part, the remaining Gummi Bears declined in population and technical expertise.


title: Adventures of the Gummi Bears

text: The series focuses on the lives of one small caretaker group, consisting of six Gummi Bears - Zummi, the elder of the group; Gruffi, a craftsman and mechanic; Grammi, a cook and mother to the younger members; Tummi, a slighty overweight, relaxed member; Sunni, a young female cub who wishes to enjoy her youth; and Cubbi, a young male cub seeking to become a knight. The group live within one of the Gummi Bear warrens called Gummi Glen, housed within an ancient tree and filled with a network of tunnels, rooms, and access to an ancient transport network known as Quick Tunnels. The group find themselves discovered by a human for a first time in the form of a young page named Cavin, whom they come across out cold after being chased by ogres. Discovering he possesses an ancient Gummi medallion that can unlock the Great Book - an ancient manuscript containing the Gummi Bears' various laws and magic, and the chronicles of their good deeds - the group befriend Cavin, and eventually decide to assist anyone who needs help against wicked people even as they themselves strove to rediscover their heritage.


title: Adventures of the Gummi Bears

text: Alongside Cavin, the group also befriend Calla, a young adventurous princess from the page's home of Dunwyn Castle, and help the pair in protecting their kingdom from attacks by various villains. The most prominent villain the Gummi Bears face is Duke Igthorn, a former knight of Dunwyn who was exiled in disgrace for various misdeeds, who seeks revenge on the kingdom's ruler, King Gregor, by attacking his castle with an army of ogres. Being among the few humans aware of the Gummi Bears' actual existence, Igthorn will stop at nothing to exploit the lost civilization's secrets for his advantage. To help the Gummis in their battles against villains, alongside other matters and problems that arise, the group make use of a special potion called "Gummiberry Juice", which temporarily grants them the power to bounce and become elusive. Humans may also drink the juice, which temporaily grants them superhuman strength, but only once a day; the Gummis may use their juice as many times as needed.


title: Adventures of the Gummi Bears

text: The series premiered on NBC on September 14, 1985, and aired there for four seasons. The series moved to ABC for one season from 1989 to 1990 (airing alongside "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" as the "Gummi Bears-Winnie the Pooh Hour") and concluded on September 6, 1991, as part of the Disney Afternoon television syndication package. The series was later rebroadcast on the Disney Afternoon block and rerun on the Disney Afternoon through the summer of 1991. In later years, it was shown on The Disney Channel (from October 7, 1991) to at least January 1997 and later on Toon Disney, with its most recent televised airing occurring on December 28, 2001. Seasons 1 to 3 of the series were released on DVD on November 14, 2006. On November 12, 2019, the series was released on Disney+.


title: Adventures of the Gummi Bears

text: Several VHS cassettes of the series were released internationally. Of those, eight cassettes containing 32 episodes are listed below. The first four cassettes ("Welcome to Gummiglen!", "Creature Feature", "Hot Little Tot!", and "A Sky Full of Gummies!"), which contain 20 episodes, were released in English in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. These four cassettes were also released in some non-English-speaking countries (including Poland, the Netherlands and Germany). The other four cassettes, as well as the ones not listed below, were released exclusively in non-English-speaking countries (including the Netherlands, Poland, Finland, and Italy.)


title: Adventures of the Gummi Bears

text: On November 14, 2006, Walt Disney Home Entertainment released "Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears: Volume 1" on DVD in Region 1. The 3-disc set features seasons 1 to 3 and does not contain any bonus features, save for subtitles for the hearing impaired.


title: Adventures of the Gummi Bears

text: To date, the series has never officially been released on DVD in the UK. However, since November 2016 the show has been available on the UK Disney streaming site DisneyLife.


title: Adventures of the Gummi Bears

text: In Australia, Disney released nine volumes, which have now long been discontinued. They are all in complete storyline production order, but the first volume starts from episode 19 in series 2. Episodes 1-18 have not been released on DVD in Australia and are only available on the USA Region 1 collection. However, the Region 4 Australian DVDs do finish off the series and go right up to episode 65 of the series' final two-part double episode adventure.


title: Adventures of the Gummi Bears

text: "Gummi Bears" was adapted into a daily newspaper comic, which ran from September 1, 1986, to April 1, 1989. The strip was written by Lee Nordling and illustrated by Rich Hoover.


title: Adventures of the Gummi Bears

text: "Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears" was Disney's first major serialized animated television series (it was released back to back with another show, "The Wuzzles", which lasted only 13 episodes), and is often credited as having helped jump start the television animation boom of the late 1980s and 1990s. Consequently, it also became the forerunner to Disney's famous Disney Afternoon timeslot, which gave way to other famous serialized Disney television series, such as "DuckTales", "" and "Gargoyles". Although many of these subsequently-created shows exceeded "Gummi Bears" in budget and length, the show is often credited as a sort of prototype for all of the animation which followed it.


title: Adventures of the Gummi Bears

text: The show was so successful in the United Kingdom that the episodes "A New Beginning" and "Faster Than a Speeding Tummi" were released as theatrical featurettes there in 1986 and 1987, alongside "The Great Mouse Detective" and a re-release of Disney's "Pinocchio".


title: Adventures of the Gummi Bears

text: Appearances of Gummi Bears in other media include one of Gruffi Gummi in a D-TV music video of the Elvis Presley song "Teddy Bear", in 1986.


title: Adventures of the Gummi Bears

text: The show's popularity led to a re-theming of Disneyland's Motor Boat Cruise, along with a small part of Disneyland that became known as "Disney Afternoon Avenue." The Motor Boat Cruise became the "Motor Boat Cruise to Gummi Glen" and plywood characters from the show made Gummiberry Juice along the waterway. The Gummi Bears have been featured as meetable characters who greet guests in Disney theme parks.


title: Jap

text: Jap is an English abbreviation of the word "Japanese". Today, it is generally regarded as an ethnic slur.


title: Jap

text: In the United States, some Japanese Americans have come to find the term very offensive, even when used as an abbreviation. Prior to the Attack on Pearl Harbor, "Jap" was not considered primarily offensive. However, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Japanese declaration of war on the US, the term began to be used derogatorily, as anti-Japanese sentiment increased. During the war, signs using the epithet, with messages such as "No Japs Allowed", were hung in some businesses, with service denied to customers of Japanese descent.


title: Jap

text: According to the "Oxford English Dictionary", "Jap" as an abbreviation for "Japanese" was in colloquial use in London around 1880. An example of benign usage was the previous naming of Boondocks Road in Jefferson County, Texas, originally named Jap Road when it was built in 1905 to honor a popular local rice farmer from Japan.


title: Jap

text: Later popularized during World War II to describe those of Japanese descent, "Jap" was then commonly used in newspaper headlines to refer to the Japanese and Imperial Japan. "Jap" began to be used in a derogatory fashion during the war, more so than "Nip". Veteran and author Paul Fussell explains the rhetorical usefulness of the word during the war for creating effective propaganda by saying that "Japs" "was a brisk monosyllable handy for slogans like 'Rap the Jap' or 'Let's Blast the Jap Clean Off the Map'". Some in the United States Marine Corps tried to combine the word "Japs" with "apes" to create a new description, "Japes", for the Japanese; this neologism never became popular.


title: Jap

text: In the United States the term has now been considered derogatory; the "Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary" notes it is "disparaging". A snack food company in Chicago named Japps Foods (for the company founder) changed their name and eponymous potato chip brand to Jays Foods shortly after the Attack on Pearl Harbor to avoid any negative associations with the name.


title: Jap

text: Spiro Agnew was criticized in the media in 1968 for an offhand remark referring to reporter Gene Oishi as a "fat Jap".


title: Jap

text: In Texas, under pressure from civil rights groups, Jefferson County commissioners in 2004 decided to drop the name Jap Road from a road near the city of Beaumont. In adjacent Orange County, Jap Lane has also been targeted by civil rights groups. The road was originally named for the contributions of Kichimatsu Kishi and the farming colony he founded. In Arizona, the state department of transportation renamed Jap Road near Topock, Arizona to "Bonzai Slough Road" to note the presence of Japanese agricultural workers and family-owned farms along the Colorado River there in the early 20th century. In November 2018, in Kansas, automatically generated license plates which included three digits and "JAP" were recalled after a man of Japanese ancestry saw a plate with that pattern and complained to the state.


title: Jap

text: Koto Matsudaira, Japan's Permanent Representatives to the United Nations, was asked whether he disapproved of the use of the term on a television program in June 1957, and reportedly replied, "Oh, I don't care. It's English word. It's maybe American slang. I don't know. If you care, you are free to use it." Matsudaira later received a letter from the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), and apologized for his earlier remarks upon being interviewed by reporters from Honolulu and San Francisco. He then pledged cooperation with the JACL to help eliminate the term "Jap" from daily use.


title: Jap

text: In 2003, the Japanese deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Yoshiyuki Motomura, protested the North Korean ambassador's use of the term in retaliation for a Japanese diplomat's use of the term "North Korea" instead of the official name, "Democratic People's Republic of Korea".


title: Jap

text: In 2011, after the term's offhand use in a March 26 article appearing in "The Spectator" ("white-coated Jap bloke"), the Minister of the Japanese Embassy in London protested that "most Japanese people find the word 'Japs' offensive, irrespective of the circumstances in which it is used".


title: Jap

text: Jap-Fest is an annual Japanese car show in Ireland. In 1970, the Japanese fashion designer Kenzo Takada opened the Jungle Jap boutique in Paris.


title: Jap

text: In Singapore and Hong Kong, the term is used freely as a contraction of the adjective "Japanese" rather than as a derogatory term. The Australian news service Asia Pulse has also used the term in 2008.


title: Jap

text: The word "Jap" is used in Dutch as well, where it is also considered an ethnic slur. It frequently appears in the compound "Jappenkampen" 'Jap camps', referring to Japanese internment camps for Dutch citizens in the Japanese-occupied Dutch Indies.


title: Jap

text: In Brazil, the term "japa" is sometimes used in place of the standard "japonês" as both a noun and an adjective. Although not considered offensive in the vein of the English "Jap", its use assumes a familiarity with the interlocutor that may be inappropriate in formal contexts. Moreover, while common, the use of "japa" in reference to any person of East Asian appearance, regardless of their specific ancestry, carries a pejorative connotation.


title: Jap

text: In Canada, the term "Jap Oranges" was once very common, and was not considered derogatory, given the widespread Canadian tradition of eating imported Japanese-grown oranges at Christmas dating back to the 1880s (to the degree that Canada at one time imported by far the bulk of the Japanese orange crop each year), but after WW2 as consumers were still hesitant to purchase products from Japan the term "Jap" was gradually dropped and they began to be marketed as "Mandarin Oranges". Today the term "Jap Oranges" is typically only used by older Canadians.


title: Jap

text: In the UK, the term is variously seen as neutral or offensive. For instance, Paul McCartney used the term in his 1980 instrumental song "Frozen Jap" from "McCartney II", maintaining that he had not intended to cause offense; the song's title was changed to "Frozen Japanese" for the Japanese market. "Nip" is the term that is usually used in the UK when the intention is to cause offence.


title: Sherwood Forest

text: Sherwood Forest is a royal forest in Nottinghamshire, England, famous because of its historic association with the legend of Robin Hood.


title: Sherwood Forest

text: The area has been wooded since the end of the Last Glacial Period (as attested by pollen sampling cores). Today Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve encompasses , surrounding the village of Edwinstowe, the site of Thoresby Hall. It is a remnant of an older and much larger royal hunting forest, which derived its name from its status as the "shire (or sher) wood" of Nottinghamshire, which extended into several neighbouring counties (shires), bordered on the west by the River Erewash and the Forest of East Derbyshire. When Domesday Book was compiled in 1086 the forest covered perhaps a quarter of Nottinghamshire (approximately 19,000 acres or 7,800 hectares) in woodland and heath subject to the forest laws.


title: Sherwood Forest

text: Sherwood Forest is established over an area underlain by the Permian and Triassic age New Red Sandstone. The larger part of the Forest is found across the outcrop of pebbly sandstones known as the Chester Formation. The regional dip is a gentle one to the east, hence younger rocks are found in that direction and older ones exposed to the west. The local stratigraphy is (uppermost/youngest at top):


title: Sherwood Forest

text: The sandstone is an aquifer providing a local water supply. Quaternary deposits include river sands and gravels, river terrace deposits and some scattered mid-Pleistocene glacial till. There are 41 local geodiversity sites within the Sherwood NCA; these are largely quarries and river sections.


title: Sherwood Forest

text: The Sherwood Forest Trust is a small charity that covers the ancient royal boundary and current national character area of Sherwood Forest. Its aims are based on conservation, heritage and communities but also include tourism and the economy.


title: Sherwood Forest

text: Nottinghamshire County Council and Forestry England jointly manage the ancient remnant of forest north of the village of Edwinstowe, providing walks, footpaths and a host of other activities.


title: Sherwood Forest

text: This central core of ancient Sherwood is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), NNR and Special Area of Conservation (SAC). It is a very important site for ancient oaks, wood pasture, invertebrates and fungi, as well as being linked to the legends of Robin Hood.


title: Sherwood Forest

text: During the Second World War parts of Sherwood Forest were used extensively by the military for ammunition stores, POW camps and training areas. Oil was produced at Eakring. After the war large ammunition dumps were abandoned in the forest and were not cleared until 1952, with at least 46,000 tons of ammunition in them.


title: Sherwood Forest

text: Part of the forest was opened to the public as a country park in 1969 by Nottinghamshire County Council, which manages a small part of the forest under lease from the Thoresby Estate. In 2002 a portion of Sherwood Forest was designated a national nature reserve by English Nature. In 2007 Natural England officially incorporated the Budby South Forest, Nottinghamshire's largest area of dry lowland heath, into the Nature Reserve, nearly doubling its size from .


title: Sherwood Forest

text: A new Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre was authorised in 2015. In August 2018 the RSPB opened the new development with a shop and café, having been granted permission to manage the woods in 2015. Part of an agreement with Natural England was that the land where the existing 1970s visitor centre was located would be restored to wood pasture.


title: Sherwood Forest

text: Some portions of the forest retain many very old oaks, especially in the portion known as the Dukeries, south of the town of Worksop, which was so called because it used to contain five ducal residences.


title: Sherwood Forest

text: The River Idle, a tributary of the Trent, is formed in Sherwood Forest from the confluence of several minor streams.


title: Sherwood Forest

text: Sherwood attracts around 350,000 tourists annually, many from other countries. Each August the nature reserve hosts a week-long Robin Hood Festival. This event recreates a medieval atmosphere and features the major characters from the Robin Hood legend. The week's entertainment includes jousters and strolling players dressed in medieval attire, in addition to a medieval encampment complete with jesters, musicians, rat-catchers, alchemists and fire eaters.


title: Sherwood Forest

text: Throughout the year visitors are attracted to the Sherwood Forest Art and Craft Centre in the former coach house and stables of Edwinstowe Hall in the heart of the Forest. The centre contains art studios and a cafe and hosts special events, including craft demonstrations and exhibitions.


title: Sherwood Forest

text: Sherwood Forest is home to the famous Major Oak, which according to local folklore was Robin Hood's principal hideout. The oak tree is between 800 and 1,000 years old and since the Victorian era its massive limbs have been partially supported by an elaborate system of scaffolding. In February 1998 a local company took cuttings from the Major Oak and began cultivating clones of the famous tree with the intention of sending saplings to be planted in major cities around the world.


title: Sherwood Forest

text: The Major Oak was featured on the 2005 BBC TV programme "Seven Natural Wonders" as one of the natural wonders of the Midlands.


title: Sherwood Forest

text: Thynghowe, an important Danelaw meeting place where people came to resolve disputes and settle issues, was lost to history until its rediscovery in 2005–06 by local history enthusiasts amidst the old oaks of an area known as the Birklands. Experts believe it may also yield clues about the boundary of the ancient Anglo Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria.


title: Triple 9

text: Triple 9 is a 2016 American heist action thriller film directed by John Hillcoat and written by Matt Cook. The film stars an ensemble cast featuring Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, Clifton Collins Jr., Norman Reedus, Teresa Palmer, Michael K. Williams, Gal Gadot, Woody Harrelson, and Kate Winslet.


title: Triple 9

text: "Triple 9" was released in the United States on February 26, 2016, by Open Road Films. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $25 million against its $20 million production budget.


title: Triple 9

text: An Atlanta criminal crew consisting of former Navy SEALs Michael Atwood and Russell Welch, Russell’s ex-cop brother Gabe, and corrupt detectives Marcus Belmont and Franco Rodriguez, rob a bank to retrieve a safe deposit box. The box contains information that could overturn the recent conviction of a Jewish-Russian Mafia boss. When Michael brings the safe deposit box to the boss's wife, Irina, she withholds their reward money and gives Michael and his crew another mission, which involves breaking into a DHS office and stealing more data on her husband. To convince them to take the job, the mafia tortures and then dumps a mortally wounded Russell off in front of the crew, forcing Michael to mercy-kill Russell in front of them, traumatizing Gabe.


title: Triple 9

text: The group decides to go forward with the job. As they think of ways they can pull it off, Marcus and Franco suggest a Triple 9 scenario, which involves an "officer down" call that sends all of the police to the location of the incident, with Marcus nominating his new partner, Chris Allen, a Marine veteran, as the cop to be killed. Marcus tries to befriend Chris as they go out on calls together. During one call, Chris attempts to question a local gang member, Luis Pinto, about a gang-related homicide, only for Luis to attack Chris before being detained for his actions. Chris's uncle, Jeffrey Allen, is a Sgt. Detective in the police force working on the bank robbery case. Jeffrey gets a lead and discovers that Gabe is one of the people involved in the bank robbery. Gabe, still grieving over his brother, tries to stop the heist from happening by following Chris and Marcus around and telling Chris, but is stopped by both Michael and Jeffrey.


title: Triple 9

text: On the day of the heist, Marcus takes Chris to an abandoned housing project to meet an informant with information on their homicide case. As they walk around the building, Marcus slips away, and Luis comes in and tries to find Chris. Chris bumps into Gabe who tries to warn him that he is going to die. Luis then charges in and tries to shoot Chris but hits Gabe. As Luis runs away, Chris confronts a critically wounded Gabe. Before Gabe can say anything, Marcus comes in, triggering a shootout between the two. Gabe is killed, and Marcus is shot in the head. Fearing Marcus is dead, Chris makes the Triple 9 call. Thinking his nephew is the officer down, Jeffrey rushes to the scene. Meanwhile, Michael and Franco break into the DHS office and steal the information with little police disruption. Luis flees the projects and is later shot dead by SWAT after barricading himself in a nearby home.


title: Triple 9

text: In the aftermath, Marcus survives but is in critical condition. Michael meets with Irina and her henchmen for the exchange. He has a gift for his son to give to him upon their reunion. Irina gives him the money but does not bring Michael's son as she had promised to earlier. Michael and Irina were earlier revealed to have a family relationship: the mother of Michael's son is Irina's sister; nonetheless, Irina refers to Michael as a "monkey." After being beaten by her henchmen, Michael walks back to his car and triggers a bomb that was wired into his "gift," killing Irina and her thugs. As he drives away, Michael is pulled over by Franco, who kills him and steals the money. After investigating Luis's belongings at the morgue, Chris finds a note in Luis's wallet, which contained the location where Marcus took him the day of the shooting. Chris later finds out that Marcus met Luis the day of the shooting, letting him know where to kill Chris. Angered, Chris visits an unconscious Marcus to try to get answers but is interrupted by Franco, who invites Chris back to the station to get his account of the shooting. As the two head to the car, Chris receives a call from Jeffrey, who tells him that Franco has been cleaning house and that he might be next. Chris, clutching his holstered weapon, stops and tells Franco that he'll meet him at the station. Franco, realizing Chris has been tipped of his involvement, agrees to meet Chris there. As the two head out to their respective cars, Jeffrey is seen in the backseat of Franco's car, and they both shoot each other when Franco takes a seat in his car. Franco is killed, and Jeffrey is shot in the abdomen. As Chris makes a Triple 9 call, Jeffrey calmly pulls a joint and smokes it. Jeffrey's fate is left unknown.


title: Triple 9

text: The project was first announced in August 2010 with director John Hillcoat circling Matt Cook's crime drama script "Triple Nine", set to star Shia LaBeouf, with Steve Golin attached to produce. Cook's script was included in Black List scripts of 2010. Hillcoat confirmed his direction of the film later in May 2012; the casting of LaBeouf and Nick Cave scoring the music for the film were also confirmed. Later, Cave left the project and Atticus Ross came on board to compose the score for the film. In February 2014 Open Road Films acquired the US distribution rights to the film and Worldview Entertainment came on board to finance the film after the exit of Panorama Media.


title: Triple 9

text: The film went through many casting changes. Shia LaBeouf was initially attached to star in the film but later left the project and was replaced by Charlie Hunnam. In December 2013, Hunnam also left the project and was replaced by Casey Affleck. In August 2013, Cate Blanchett and Christoph Waltz were in talks to join the cast but later dropped out and instead Kate Winslet and Woody Harrelson came on board. Casting completed in March 2014, as Aaron Paul, Norman Reedus, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Casey Affleck, Anthony Mackie, Gal Gadot, Teresa Palmer, and Clifton Collins Jr. rounded out the cast.


title: Triple 9

text: Hillcoat talking about filming schedule said that, "It's a challenge, arranging everyone's schedules and trying to accomplish something with eight main characters. I've never worked on something quite like this."


title: Triple 9

text: Principal photography began on May 28, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia. On June 5, filming took place at St. Regis in Buckhead, Atlanta, with Winslet. Filming took place at Centennial Olympic Park Drive, Atlanta from June 23 to June 25, 2014. In early July, filming moved to Decatur, scenes were shot from July 9–12, 2014 in the 200 block of Kings Highway. Additionally stretches of Ansley Street and Kings Highway were also be used as establishing shots. Scenes were also shot on White Street, South East of Westview Cemetery, Atlanta. On July 17, 2014, a scene was shot in Atlanta with real paramedics, SWAT officers and police officers along with the principal cast. Due to heavy rain, some scenes remained unfinished while shooting at Centennial Olympic Park, where filming again took place from August 5–6, 2014. After that, filming was wrapped.


title: Triple 9

text: Atticus Ross composed the music for the film along with his wife Claudia Sarne, brother Leopold Ross and Bobby Krlic. Talking about the music of the film, Ross said that "he [Hillcoat] had a particular vision for the music on this movie which was very raw sounding electronics; with bizarrely a saxophone in there. With this film, it was difficult because we were trying to get the story right and one would write the music, but then the scenes would change around and it all becomes redundant. So it was quite a bit of work." A foreboding version of "This Little Piggy" was featured in the trailer of the film.


title: Triple 9

text: On August 27, 2014, Open Road set the film for a nationwide release on September 11, 2015. But on June 10, 2015 it was announced the release date of the film has moved from September 11, 2015 to March 4, 2016. In October 2015, the release date was moved up to February 26, 2016.


title: Triple 9

text: "Triple 9" grossed $12.6 million in North America, and $13.3 million in other territories, for a total gross of $25.9 million, against a production budget of $20 million.


title: Triple 9

text: In the United States and Canada, pre-release tracking suggested the film would gross $7–9 million from 2,205 theaters in its opening weekend, trailing fellow newcomer "Gods of Egypt" ($12–15 million projection) but similar to "Eddie the Eagle". The film made $2.1 million on its first day and $6.1 million in its opening weekend, finishing 6th at the box office.


title: Triple 9

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 54% based on 183 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The site's consensus reads, ""Triple 9"s pulpy potboiler thrills don't quite live up to the ferocious talents of its cast, but the film's efficient, solidly crafted genre fun is often enough to balance its troublesome flaws." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Triple 9

text: Tom Huddleston of "Time Out" gave "Triple 9" four out of five stars, positively comparing the film to Michael Mann's "Heat". Huddleston praised the ensemble cast and concluded that the film is "carried off with brashness and momentum by a director who genuinely seems to be having a blast." "Variety"'s Justin Chang was less receptive towards the film's narrative, but applauded its action sequences and wrote that the "result is a film that conveys the eerie sense of lying in wait for all its characters, and the paranoia is infectious, with at least two scenes certain to have viewers checking their car backseats upon exiting the theater.


title: Triple 9

text: In a mixed review, "Empire"'s Ian Freer gave "Triple 9" three out of five stars. Freer praised the cast's performance, but criticized the film's screenplay and second half, surmising that "the interesting world of the film doesn't get the story it deserves." While praising Anthony Mackie's performance and Nicholas Karakatsanis's cinematography, "Indiewire"s Oliver Lyttelton criticized the film's narrative structure as unsatisfying, suggesting that "perhaps there's a longer cut out there… perhaps that cut led to a film that felt like it was actually about something." Alonso Duralde of "TheWrap" also panned "Triple 9", in particular, disapproving of the film's screenplay and third act. Duralde writes: "…["Triple 9"] somehow managed to collect an impressively A-list cast on its way toward becoming a cop movie that's not just dumb, it's disastrous."


title: Leucism

text: Leucism () is a wide variety of conditions that result in the partial loss of pigmentation in an animal—causing white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales, or cuticles, but not the eyes. It is occasionally spelled "leukism". Some genetic conditions that result in a "leucistic" appearance include piebaldism, Waardenburg syndrome, vitiligo, Chédiak–Higashi syndrome, flavism, isabellinism, xanthochromism, axanthism, amelanism, and Melanophilin mutations. Pale patches of skin, feathers, or fur (often referred to as "depigmentation") can also result from injury.


title: Leucism

text: "Leucism" is often used to describe the phenotype that results from defects in pigment cell differentiation and/or migration from the neural crest to skin, hair, or feathers during development. This results in either the entire surface (if all pigment cells fail to develop) or patches of body surface (if only a subset are defective) having a lack of cells that can make pigment.


title: Leucism

text: Since all pigment cell-types differentiate from the same multipotent precursor cell-type, leucism can cause the reduction in all types of pigment. This is in contrast to albinism, for which leucism is often mistaken. Albinism results in the reduction of melanin production only, though the melanocyte (or melanophore) is still present. Thus in species that have other pigment cell-types, for example xanthophores, albinos are not entirely white, but instead display a pale yellow color.


title: Leucism

text: More common than a complete absence of pigment cells is localized or incomplete hypopigmentation, resulting in irregular patches of white on an animal that otherwise has normal coloring and patterning. This partial leucism is known as a "pied" or "piebald" effect; and the ratio of white to normal-colured skin can vary considerably not only between generations, but between different offspring from the same parents, and even between members of the same litter. This is notable in horses, cows, cats, dogs, the urban crow and the ball python but is also found in many other species.


title: Leucism

text: Due to the lack of melanin production in both the retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) and iris, those affected by albinism sometimes have pink pupil due to the underlying blood vessels showing through. However, this is not always the case and many albino animals do not have pink pupils. The common belief that all albinos have pink pupils results in many albinos being incorrectly labeled as 'leucistic'. The neural crest disorders that cause leucism do not result in pink pupils and therefore most leucistic animals have normally colored eyes. This is because the melanocytes of the RPE do not derive from the neural crest. Instead, an out-pouching of the neural tube generates the optic cup that, in turn, forms the retina. As these cells are from an independent developmental origin, they are typically unaffected by the genetic cause of leucism.


title: Leucism

text: The terms "leucistic" and "leucism" are derived from the stem "leuc-" + "-ism", from Latin "leuco-" in turn derived from Greek "leukos" meaning "white".


title: Cushitic languages

text: The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and the Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As of 2012, the Cushitic languages with over one million speakers were Oromo, Somali, Beja, Afar, Hadiyya, Kambaata, Saho, and Sidama.


title: Cushitic languages

text: The Cushitic languages with the greatest number of total speakers are Oromo (37 million), Somali (22 million), Beja (3.2 million), Sidamo (3 million), and Afar (2 million).


title: Cushitic languages

text: Oromo serves as one of the official working languages of Ethiopia and is also the working language of several of the states within the Ethiopian federal system including Oromia, Harari and Dire Dawa regional states and of the Oromia Zone in the Amhara Region.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Somali is the first of two official languages of Somalia and three official languages of the self declared republic of Somaliland. It also serves as a language of instruction in Djibouti, and as the working language of the Somali Region in Ethiopia.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Beja, Afar, Blin and Saho, the languages of the Cushitic branch of Afroasiatic that are spoken in Eritrea, are languages of instruction in the Eritrean elementary school curriculum. The constitution of Eritrea also recognizes the equality of all natively spoken languages. Additionally, Afar is a language of instruction in Djibouti, as well as the working language of the Afar Region in Ethiopia.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Christopher Ehret argues for a unified Proto-Cushitic language in the Red Sea Hills as far back as the Early Holocene. Based on onomastic evidence, the Medjay and the Blemmyes of northern Nubia are believed to have spoken Cushitic languages related to the modern Beja language. Less certain are hypotheses which propose that Cushitic languages were spoken by the people of the C-Group culture in northern Nubia, or the people of the Kerma culture in southern Nubia.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Most Cushitic languages have a simple five-vowel system with phonemic length (); a notable exception are the Agaw languages, which do not contrast vowel length, but have one or two additional central vowels. The consonant inventory of many Cushitic languages includes glottalic consonants, e.g. in Oromo, which has the ejectives and the implosive . Less common are pharyngeal consonants , which appear e.g. in Somali or the Saho–Afar languages.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Pitch accent is found in most Cushitic languages, and plays a prominent role in morphology and syntax.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Nouns are inflected for case and number. All nouns are further grouped into two gender categories, masculine gender and feminine gender. In many languages, gender is overtly marked directly on the noun (e.g. in Awngi, where all female nouns carry the suffix "-a").


title: Cushitic languages

text: The case system of many Cushitic languages is characterized by marked nominative alignment, which is typologically quite rare and predominantly found in languages of Africa. In marked nominative languages, the noun appears in unmarked "absolutive" case when cited in isolation, or when used as predicative noun and as object of a transitive verb; on the other hand, it is explicitly marked for nominative case when it functions as subject in a transitive or intransitive sentence.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Possession is usually expressed by genitive case marking of the possessor. South Cushitic—which has no case marking for subject and object—follows the opposite strategy: here, the possessed noun is marked for construct case, e.g. Iraqw "afé-r mar'i" "doors" (lit. "mouths of houses"), where "afee" "mouth" is marked for construct case.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Most nouns are by default unmarked for number, but can be explicitly marked for singular ("singulative") and plural number. E.g. in Bilin, "dəmmu" "cat(s)" is number-neutral, from which singular "dəmmura" "a single cat" and plural "dəmmut" "several cats" can be formed. Plural formation is very diverse, and employs ablaut (i.e. changes of root vowels or consonants), suffixes and reduplication.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Verbs are inflected for person/number and tense/aspect. Many languages also have a special form of the verb in negative clauses.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Most languages distinguish seven person/number categories: first, second, third person, singular and plural number, with a masculine/feminine gender distinction in third person singular. The most common conjugation type employs suffixes. Some languages also have a prefix conjugation: in Beja and the Saho–Afar languages, the prefix conjugation is still a productive part of the verb paradigm, whereas in most other languages, e.g. Somali, it is restricted to only a few verbs. It is generally assumed that historically, the suffix conjugation developed from the older prefix conjugation, by combining the verb stem with a suffixed auxiliary verb. The following table gives an example for the suffix and prefix conjugations in affirmative present tense in Somali.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Basic word order is verb final, the most common order being subject–object–verb (SOV). The subject or object can also follow the verb to indicate focus.


title: Cushitic languages

text: The phylum was first designated as "Cushitic" in 1858. The Omotic languages, once included in Cushitic, have almost universally been removed. The most influential recent classification, Tosco (2003), has informed later approaches. It and two more recent classifications are as follows:


title: Cushitic languages

text: Geographic labels are given for comparison; Bender's labels are added in parentheses. Dahalo is made a primary branch, as also suggested by Kiessling and Mous (2003). Yaaku is not listed, being placed within Arboroid. Afar–Saho is removed from Lowland East Cushitic; since they are the most 'lowland' of the Cushitic languages, Bender calls the remnant 'core' East Cushitic.


title: Cushitic languages

text: These classifications have not been without contention. For example, it has been argued that Southern Cushitic belongs in the Eastern branch, with its divergence explained by contact with Hadza- and Sandawe-like languages. Hetzron (1980) and Fleming (post-1981) exclude Beja altogether, though this is rejected by other linguists. Some of the classifications that have been proposed over the years are summarized here:


title: Cushitic languages

text: Beja constitutes the only member of the Northern Cushitic subgroup. As such, Beja contains a number of linguistic innovations that are unique to it, as is also the situation with the other subgroups of Cushitic (e.g. idiosyncratic features in Agaw or Central Cushitic). Hetzron (1980) argues that Beja therefore may comprise an independent branch of the Afroasiatic family. However, this suggestion has been rejected by most other scholars. The characteristics of Beja that differ from those of other Cushitic languages are instead generally acknowledged as normal branch variation.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Didier Morin (2001) assigned Beja to Lowland Cushitic on the grounds that the language shared lexical and phonological features with the Afar and Saho idioms, and also because the languages were historically spoken in adjacent speech areas. However, among linguists specializing in the Cushitic languages, the standard classification of Beja as North Cushitic is accepted.


title: Cushitic languages

text: There are also a few poorly-classified languages, including Yaaku, Dahalo, Aasax, Kw'adza, Boon, the Cushitic element of Mbugu (Ma'a) and Ongota. There is a wide range of opinions as to how the languages are interrelated.


title: Cushitic languages

text: The positions of the Dullay languages and of Yaaku are uncertain. They have traditionally been assigned to an East Cushitic subbranch along with Highland (Sidamic) and Lowland East Cushitic. However, Hayward thinks that East Cushitic may not be a valid node and that its constituents should be considered separately when attempting to work out the internal relationships of Cushitic.


title: Cushitic languages

text: The Afroasiatic identity of Ongota has also been broadly questioned, as is its position within Afroasiatic among those who accept it, because of the "mixed" appearance of the language and a paucity of research and data. Harold C. Fleming (2006) proposes that Ongota is a separate branch of Afroasiatic. Bonny Sands (2009) thinks the most convincing proposal is by Savà and Tosco (2003), namely that Ongota is an East Cushitic language with a Nilo-Saharan substratum. In other words, it would appear that the Ongota people once spoke a Nilo-Saharan language but then shifted to speaking a Cushitic language while retaining some characteristics of their earlier Nilo-Saharan language.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Hetzron (1980) and Ehret (1995) have suggested that the South Cushitic languages (Rift languages) are a part of Lowland East Cushitic, the only one of the six groups with much internal diversity.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Cushitic was formerly seen as also including the Omotic languages, then called West Cushitic. However, this view has been abandoned. Omotic is generally agreed to be an independent branch of Afroasiatic, primarily due to the work of Harold C. Fleming (1974) and Lionel Bender (1975); some linguists like Paul Newman (1980) challenge Omotic's classification within the Afroasiatic family itself.


title: Cushitic languages

text: A number of extinct populations have been proposed to have spoken Afroasiatic languages of the Cushitic branch. Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst (2000) proposed that the peoples of the Kerma Culture – which inhabited the Nile Valley in present-day Sudan immediately before the arrival of the first Nubian speakers – spoke Cushitic languages. She argues that the Nilo-Saharan Nobiin language today contains a number of key pastoralism related loanwords that are of proto-Highland East Cushitic origin, including the terms for sheep/goatskin, hen/cock, livestock enclosure, butter and milk. However, more recent linguistic research indicates that the people of the Kerma culture (who were based in southern Nubia) instead spoke Nilo-Saharan languages of the Eastern Sudanic branch, and that the peoples of the C-Group culture to their north (in northern Nubia) and other groups in northern Nubia (such as the Medjay and Belmmyes) spoke Cushitic languages with the latter being related to the modern Beja language. The linguistic affinity of the ancient A-Group culture of northern Nubia—the predecessor of the C-Group culture—is unknown, but Rilly (2019) suggests that it is unlikely to have spoken a language of the Northern East Sudanic branch of Nilo-Saharan, and may have spoken a Cushitic language, another Afro-Asiatic language, or a language belonging to another (non-Northern East Sudanic) branch of the Nilo-Saharan family. Rilly also criticizes proposals (by Behrens and Bechaus-Gerst) of significant early Afro-Asiatic influence on Nobiin, and considers evidence of substratal influence on Nobiin from an earlier now extinct Eastern Sudanic language to be stronger.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Linguistic evidence indicates that Cushitic languages were spoken in Lower Nubia, an ancient region which straddles present day Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan, before the arrival of North Eastern Sudanic languages from Upper Nubia.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Julien Cooper (2017) states that in antiquity, Cushitic languages were spoken in Lower Nubia (the northernmost part of modern-day Sudan). He also states that Eastern Sudanic-speaking populations from southern and west Nubia gradually replaced the earlier Cushitic-speaking populations of this region.


title: Cushitic languages

text: In Handbook of Ancient Nubia, Claude Rilly (2019) states that Cushitic languages once dominated Lower Nubia along with the Ancient Egyptian language. He mentions historical records of the Blemmyes, a Cushitic-speaking tribe which controlled Lower Nubia and some cities in Upper Egypt. He mentions the linguistic relationship between the modern Beja language and the ancient Blemmyan language, and that the Blemmyes can be regarded as a particular tribe of the Medjay.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Additionally, historiolinguistics indicate that the makers of the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic (Stone Bowl Culture) in the Great Lakes area likely spoke South Cushitic languages.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Christopher Ehret (1998) proposed on the basis of loanwords that South Cushitic languages (called "Tale" and "Bisha" by Ehret) were spoken in an area closer to Lake Victoria than are found today.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Also, historically, the Southern Nilotic languages have undergone extensive contact with a "missing" branch of East Cushitic that Heine (1979) refers to as "Baz".


title: Cushitic languages

text: Christopher Ehret proposed a reconstruction of Proto-Cushitic in 1987, but did not base this on individual branch reconstructions. Grover Hudson (1989) has done some preliminary work on Highland East Cushitic, David Appleyard (2006) has proposed a reconstruction of Proto-Agaw, and Roland Kießling and Maarten Mous (2003) have jointly proposed a reconstruction of West Rift Southern Cushitic. No reconstruction has been published for Lowland East Cushitic, though Paul D. Black wrote his (unpublished) dissertation on the topic in 1974. Hans-Jürgen Sasse (1979) proposed a reconstruction of the consonants of Proto-East Cushitic. No comparative work has yet brought these branch reconstructions together.


title: Cushitic languages

text: Sample basic vocabulary of Cushitic languages from Vossen & Dimmendaal (2020:318) (with PSC denoting Proto-Southern Cushitic):


title: Sabbac

text: Sabbac is the name of three American comic book supervillains appearing in DC Comics. The original Sabbac debuted in "Captain Marvel Jr." #4 (February 1943), and was created by Otto Binder and Al Carreno as an enemy of Captain Marvel Jr., while an updated version debuted in "Outsiders" #8 (March 2004), and was created by Judd Winick and Tom Raney as a nemesis for both Junior and the Outsiders superhero team. A third version was introduced in "Justice League" #21 (August 2013), and was created by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank as an adversary for the Shazam Family and an associate of Black Adam and the Seven Deadly Sins of Man.


title: Sabbac

text: The Ishmael Gregor version of the character made its live-action debut in the television series "Arrow", played by David Meunier. The Ishmael Gregor version appears in the DC Extended Universe film "Black Adam" (2022), played by Marwan Kenzari.


title: Sabbac

text: The original Sabbac is depicted as a "dark opposite" to the Marvels, similar to Captain Marvel's foe Ibac, who draws his powers from four historical villains. The dark forces of Hell gave the human Timothy Karnes (alternatively spelled as Barnes) the power to become a being with powers to rival Captain Marvel. To access this power, all Karnes has to do is say the magic word Sabbac, and magic black lightning strikes up from the underworld and transforms him into a muscle-bound demon with super-strength, super-speed, flight, fire breath, and the ability to emit fire blasts from the palms of his hands. His powers match those of the Marvels. Like Captain Marvel's magic word Shazam, the word Sabbac is an acronym for the six beings who empower Sabbac: the demons Satan, Aym, Belial, Beelzebub, Asmodeus and Crateis. He resembles Timothy in green robes but with a more muscular build and fangs in his pronounced overbite. Sabbac was an enemy of Captain Marvel Jr. Sabbac appeared in two issues of the Golden Age "Captain Marvel Jr." comic book (issues #4 and #6, both from 1943), and in two issues each of "World's Finest Comics" and "Adventure Comics" during the early 1980s. When he first appears he joins Nazi agents, being promised power over America if he helps them conquer it, and tries to destroy transport lines to isolate eastern and western North America. However, as he continues to battle Jr., the various demons empowering him leave him as things grow increasingly bleak for the villain, removing his powers until Satan leaves him, allowing him to be defeated.


title: Sabbac

text: In 2004, Sabbac was introduced into DC Comics continuity in "Outsiders" #8, written by Judd Winick and illustrated by Tom Raney. The story established Timothy Karnes as Freddy Freeman's (Captain Marvel Jr.'s alter-ego) former foster brother. Freddy's parents, David and Rebecca Freeman, had taken Timothy in, but the boy was sent to live with another family when the couple were killed in a car accident. Timothy would find himself shuffled from one abusive foster home to another, and grew to hate and resent Freddy Freeman, who lived a successful and relatively peaceful life with his grandfather.


title: Sabbac

text: Sabbac's origin was depicted in the 2005/2006 "Superman/Shazam! First Thunder" miniseries, written by Winick and drawn by Joshua Middleton. Dr. Sivana, hoping to find a way to kill Captain Marvel, has the high priest of the Temple of Bagdan kidnap Timothy, whom they learn is a descendant of the Bagdan line and the heir to the demonic powers of Sabbac. During a demonic ritual, Timothy is transformed for the first time into the demon Sabbac and challenges Superman and Captain Marvel. Marvel defeats Sabbac after tricking him into saying his name (and thus causing him to turn back into Timothy).


title: Sabbac

text: In "Outsiders" #8-10, Captain Marvel Jr. and the Outsiders team face a new, more feral version of Sabbac. This version of Sabbac, possessing amplified demonic powers and a hairy beast-like appearance with horns instead of the more humanoid original form, is the alter ego of Ishmael Gregor, a Russian immigrant who had become a New York City mob boss. Gregor lusted after the power of Sabbac and had his men find Timothy Karnes, who had been incarcerated and had his voice box removed to prevent him from speaking. Gregor initiates a demonic ritual which he states will allow Karnes to access his power without needing to speak. The ritual involves the murder of an entire New York bus full of passengers. At the end, Gregor kills Karnes and gains the power of Sabbac for himself.


title: Sabbac

text: The second Sabbac opens a portal in the backyard of a very specific California home. This brings a host of demons into the world. He is challenged by the Outsiders and Captain Marvel Jr. and flees when his demons are defeated.


title: Sabbac

text: The Secret Society of Super-Villains sends Deathstroke the Terminator to Las Vegas, where Sabbac is taking over the local Mafia. Deathstroke kills Sabbac's personal entourage and convinces him that the Society has much to offer.


title: Sabbac

text: Sabbac also works with the Fearsome Five to attack Alcatraz in San Francisco, now a supervillain prison. They are there for the seemingly minor purpose of freeing the FF member Mammoth. During the attack, the magical Rock of Eternity explodes over Gotham City. Sabbac's preparations allow him to absorb the sentient power of the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man. He also grows much larger. He uses 'Lust' to bring down the Five, the Alcatraz prisoners, and a majority of the guards. He uses the other sins in combat against the Outsiders. Donna Troy appears and the heroes use Katana's magic Soultaker sword to imprison the demon. From inside the Soultaker, Sabbac admits that the Society had enlisted him to kidnap Captain Marvel Jr. and bring him to Lex Luthor.


title: Sabbac

text: When the Outsiders were out of options, Katana summoned forth Ishmael from the Soultaker to destroy Dr. Sivana's base.


title: Sabbac

text: In the "52" maxiseries, Captain Marvel, on the brink of insanity due to the Sins' voices, mentioned that Sabbac had tried an assault on the Rock of Eternity. Later in the series, Sabbac attacked Boston on Halloween, with the intention of kidnapping children and sacrificing their souls to the demon-lord Neron, causing a new age of blood. Sabbac was now several stories tall, and was only stopped through the efforts of both the Marvel Family and the Black Marvel Family, who strike him with their lightning and knock him out. The Black Marvels then move him to an unknown location, and their popularity was increased.


title: Sabbac

text: After DC's 2011 The New 52, a new version of Sabbac was introduced. This version of Sabbac was a physical manifestation of the Seven Deadly Sins of Man, who can simultaneously possess a wicked person (in this case, Mr. Bryer, a rich man who bullies Billy Batson along with his sons) and transform that person into a 50-foot demon that breathes fire. Sabbac then attacked downtown Philadelphia under the command of Black Adam, who was intent on having the demon destroy the world so Adam could remake it in his own image. The Shazam Family united to save the city from Sabbac as Shazam himself took on Black Adam. Bryer is then sent to the hospital after Sabbac leaves his body.


title: Sabbac

text: Sabbac has superhuman strength, agility and endurance. He is able to fly at incredible speeds and project fire from his mouth and hands. He is now several stories high. This is accomplished by saying "Sabbac", which will also undo the change.


title: Louis X of France

text: Louis X (4 October 1289 – 5 June 1316), known as the Quarrelsome (), was King of France from 1314 and King of Navarre as Louis I from 1305 until his death. He emancipated serfs who could buy their freedom and readmitted Jews into the kingdom. His short reign in France was marked by tensions with the nobility, due to fiscal and centralisation reforms initiated during the reign of his father by Grand Chamberlain Enguerrand de Marigny.


title: Louis X of France

text: Louis' first wife, Margaret, implicated in the Tour de Nesle affair, was found guilty of infidelity and was imprisoned til her death in 14 August 1315. Louis and Clementia of Hungary were married that same year, but he died on 5 June 1316 leaving a pregnant wife. Queen Clementia gave birth to a boy, who was proclaimed king as John I, but the infant only lived five days. Louis' brother Philip, Count of Poitiers, succeeded John to become, Philip V, King of France.


title: Louis X of France

text: Louis was born in Paris, the eldest son of Philip IV of France and Joan I of Navarre. He inherited the kingdom of Navarre on the death of his mother, on 4 April 1305, later being crowned 1 October 1307. On 21 September 1305, at age 15, he married Margaret of Burgundy and they had a daughter, Joan. Louis was known as "the Quarreler", "the Quarrelsome", as the result of the tensions prevailing throughout his reigns.


title: Louis X of France

text: Both Louis and Margaret became involved in the Tour de Nesle affair towards the end of Philip's reign. In 1314, Margaret, Blanche and Joan—the latter two being the wives of Louis' brothers Charles and Philip, respectively—were arrested on charges of infidelity. Margaret and Blanche were both tried before the French parlement later that year and found guilty. Their alleged lovers were executed, and the women had their hair shorn and were sentenced to life imprisonment. Philip stood by his wife Joan, who was ultimately found innocent and released. Margaret would be imprisoned at Chateau Gaillard.


title: Louis X of France

text: On the death of his father in 1314, Louis became King of France. Margaret of Burgundy would not be released from imprisonment or crowned, but as his wife, she technically became Queen of France. Without an incumbent pope, Louis could not annul his marriage. The imprisoned Queen of France died on 14 August 1315 and Louis remarried five days later, on 19 August to Clementia of Hungary, the daughter of Charles Martel of Anjou and the niece of Louis' own uncle and close advisor, Charles of Valois. Louis and Clementia were crowned at Reims in August 1315.


title: Louis X of France

text: In 1305, Louis married Margaret of Burgundy, with whom he had a daughter, Joan II of Navarre. Margaret was later convicted of adultery, was imprisoned in Château Gaillard, caught a cold and died in 1315, although another source states that she was strangled to death. In 1315, Louis married Clementia of Hungary, who gave birth to John I of France five months after the king's death. The infant John's death a few days later led to a disputed succession. With an unknown woman, Louis had a daughter, Eudeline, who joined the Order of St. Claire and became the abbess of the Franciscan nuns of Paris, 1334-1339.


title: Louis X of France

text: Louis was king of Navarre for eleven years and king of France for less than two years. His reign was dominated by continual feuding with the noble factions within the kingdom, and major reforms designed to increase royal revenues, such as the freeing of the French serfs and the readmittance of the Jews.


title: Louis X of France

text: By the end of Philip IV's reign opposition to the fiscal reforms was growing. With Philip's death and the accession of Louis, this opposition rapidly developed in more open revolt, some authors citing Louis' relative youth as one of the reasons behind the timing of the rebellions. Leagues of regional nobles began to form around the country, demanding changes. Charles of Valois took advantage of this movement to turn against his old enemy, Philip IV's former minister and chamberlain Enguerrand de Marigny, and convinced Louis to bring corruption charges against him. When these failed, Charles then convinced Louis to bring sorcery charges against him instead, which proved more effective and led to de Marigny's execution at Vincennes in April 1315. Other former ministers were similarly prosecuted. This, combined with the halting of Philip's reforms, the issuing of numerous charters of rights and a reversion to more traditional rule, largely assuaged the regional leagues.


title: Louis X of France

text: In July 1315, Louis X issued an edict effectively abolishing serfdom in the royal domain. As a way of raising revenues, for his war against Flanders, and having alighted on a reform of French serfdom as a way of achieving this, he declared that French serfs would be freed, although each serf would have to purchase his freedom. A body of commissioners was established to undertake the reform, establishing the "peculium", or value, of each serf. For serfs owned directly by the King, all of the "peculium" would be received by the Crown; for serfs owned by subjects of the King, the amount would be divided between the Crown and the owner.


title: Louis X of France

text: Louis was also responsible for a key shift in policy towards the Jews. In 1306, his father, Philip IV, had expelled the Jewish minority from across France, a "shattering" event for most of these communities. Louis began to reconsider this policy, motivated by the additional revenues that might be forthcoming to the Crown if the Jews were allowed to return. Accordingly, Louis issued a charter in 1315, readmitting the Jews subject to various conditions. The Jews would only be admitted back into France for twelve years, after which the agreement might be terminated; Jews were to wear an armband at all times; Jews could only live in those areas where there had been Jewish communities previously; Jews were initially to be forbidden from usury. This was the first time that French Jews had been covered by such a charter, and Louis was careful to justify his decision with reference to the policies of his ancestor Saint Louis IX, the position of Pope Clement V and an argument that the people of France had demanded a return of the Jews. The result was a much weakened Jewish community that depended directly upon the King for their right of abode and protection.


title: Louis X of France

text: Louis X continued the effort of his predecessor to achieve a military solution to the vexing problem of Flanders. The Count of Flanders ruled an "immensely wealthy state" which enjoyed a largely autonomous existence on the margins of the French realm; French kings claimed to exercise suzerainty over Flanders, but heretofore with little success. Philip IV had attempted to assert royal overlordship, but his army, led by Robert II of Artois, had been defeated at Courtrai in 1302; despite a later French victory at the Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle the relationship remained testy and unsettled.


title: Louis X of France

text: Louis mobilised an army along the Flemish border, but the French position rapidly become strained by the demands of maintaining a wartime footing. Louis had prohibited exports of grain and other material to Flanders in 1315. This proved challenging to enforce, and the king had to pressure officers of the Church in the borderlands, as well as Edward II of England, to support his effort to prevent Spanish merchant vessels from trading with the embargoed Flemish. An unintended result of the embargo was the rise of smuggling activities that reduced the advantage (and consequently the amount) of trading in compliance with royal restrictions in the border region. Louis was also forced to requisition food directly for his forces, resulting in a series of complaints from local lords and the Church.


title: Louis X of France

text: Louis was a keen player of "jeu de paume", or real tennis, and became notable as the first person to construct indoor tennis courts in the modern style. Louis was unhappy with playing tennis outdoors and accordingly had indoor, enclosed courts made in Paris "around the end of the 13th century". In due course this design spread across royal palaces all over Europe. On 5 June 1316 at Vincennes, following a particularly exhausting game, Louis drank a large quantity of cooled wine and subsequently died of either pneumonia or pleurisy, although there were also suspicions of poisoning. Because of the contemporary accounts of his death, Louis is history's first tennis player known by name. He and his second wife Clementia are interred in Saint Denis Basilica.


title: Louis X of France

text: Louis' second wife Clementia was pregnant at the time of his death, leaving the succession in doubt. A son would have primacy over Louis' daughter, Joan. A daughter, however, would have a weaker claim to the throne, and would need to compete with Joan's own claims—although suspicions hung over Joan's parentage following the scandal in 1314. As a result, Louis' brother Philip was appointed regent for the five months remaining until the birth of his brother's child, John I, who lived only five days. Philip then succeeded in pressing his claims to the crowns of France and Navarre.


title: Louis X of France

text: All "de jure" monarchs of Navarre from 1328 onwards were descended from Louis through his daughter, Joan, including Jeanne d'Albret, the mother of Henry IV of France, and therefore the entire royal House of Bourbon.


title: Louis X of France

text: Louis is a major character in "Les Rois maudits" ("The Accursed Kings"), a series of French historical novels by Maurice Druon. He was portrayed by in the 1972 French miniseries adaptation of the series, and by Guillaume Depardieu in the 2005 adaptation.


title: Round Table

text: The Round Table (; ; ; ) is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status, unlike conventional rectangular tables where participants order themselves according to rank. The table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of Arthur's fabulous retinue. The symbolism of the Round Table developed over time; by the close of the 12th century it had come to represent the chivalric order associated with Arthur's court, the Knights of the Round Table.


title: Round Table

text: Though the Round Table is not mentioned in the earliest accounts, tales of King Arthur having a marvellous court made up of many prominent warriors are ancient. Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his "Historia Regum Britanniae" (composed c. 1136) says that, after establishing peace throughout Britain, Arthur "increased his personal entourage by inviting very distinguished men from far-distant kingdoms to join it." The code of chivalry so important in later medieval romance figures in as well, as Geoffrey says Arthur established "such a code of courtliness in his household that he inspired peoples living far away to imitate him."


title: Round Table

text: Arthur's court was well known to Welsh storytellers; in the romance "Culhwch and Olwen", the protagonist Culhwch invokes the names of 225 individuals affiliated with Arthur. The fame of Arthur's entourage became so prominent in Welsh tradition that in the later additions to the Welsh Triads, the formula tying named individuals to "Arthur's Court" in the triad titles began to supersede the older "Island of Britain" formula. Though the code of chivalry crucial to later continental romances dealing with the Round Table is mostly absent from the Welsh material, some passages of "Culhwch and Olwen" seem to reference it. For instance, Arthur explains the ethos of his court, saying "[w]e are nobles as long as we are sought out: the greater the bounty we may give, the greater our nobility, fame and honour."


title: Round Table

text: Though no Round Table appears in the early Welsh texts, Arthur is associated with various items of household furniture. The earliest of these is Saint Carannog's mystical floating altar in that saint's 12th century "Vita". In the story Arthur has found the altar and tries unsuccessfully to use it as a table; he returns it to Carannog in exchange for the saint ridding the land of a meddlesome dragon. Elements of Arthur's household figure into local topographical folklore throughout Britain as early as the early 12th century, with various landmarks being named "Arthur's Seat", "Arthur's Oven", and "Arthur's Bed-chamber".


title: Round Table

text: A henge at Eamont Bridge near Penrith, Cumbria, is known as "King Arthur's Round Table". The still-visible Roman amphitheatre at Caerleon has been associated with the Round Table, and it has been suggested as a possible source for the legend. Following archaeological discoveries at the Roman ruins in Chester, some writers suggested that the Chester Roman Amphitheatre was the true prototype of the Round Table; however, the English Heritage Commission, acting as consultants to a History Channel documentary in which the claim was made, stated that there was no archaeological basis to the story.