title: CEGEP

text: A pre-university program is two years long. It covers both the subject matter that roughly corresponds to the additional year of high school common elsewhere in Canada and the courses corresponding to those taken in first-year university in preparation for a chosen field in university (Sciences, Humanities, Commerce or Arts). Upon the completion of studies, the provincial government issues a Diploma of College Studies (DCS), or DEC ().


title: CEGEP

text: Students are then prepared to complete certain undergraduate programs at a Quebec university in 3 years, as opposed to 4 years outside Quebec. Students with a DEC who choose to attend university in another province in Canada or outside the country are eligible to either skip the first year and enter university as a second year student, or gain advanced standing or extra credit for their first year. The amount of extra credit accepted is at the discretion of each university. In practice, most universities do accept Quebec college credits, but only up to one year, given the difference in structure of education systems between Quebec and the rest of the provinces.


title: CEGEP

text: Quebec colleges also offer three-year technical programs for students who wish to pursue a skilled trade. Unlike the pre-university programs, these are not preparation for university, although this does not prevent a student from attending a university afterwards. The technical programs also lead to a DEC. Examples of such technical programs are Industrial Electronics, Architectural Technology, Nursing, Building Engineering Technology, Computer Science, and Theatre. Though those programs can also lead to the university, they are geared towards immediate employment after completion.


title: CEGEP

text: Adult continuing education programs are also offered at colleges. Many of those programs lead to a college certificate (Attestation of College Studies (ACS), : "Attestation d'études collégiales"—"AEC"), which is similar to a DEC but does not include the core curriculum. This certificate is delivered by a college's continuing education department, while a diploma is issued by the Ministry of Education, Recreation, and Sport of Quebec (later renamed The Ministry of Education and Higher Education, in French).


title: CEGEP

text: In addition, the majority of the province's thirty-one "Technology Transfer Centres" have been established by CEGEPs. At these centres, applied research is carried out in a specific field in cooperation with industrial partners.


title: CEGEP

text: Students can attend either a French-language or English-language cégep. There are significantly more French CEGEPs than English ones; only five public colleges (plus a couple of private ones) are in English, with all the remainder being French. The English-language CEGEPs are particularly popular among immigrants and English-speaking Quebecers. In response, the Quebec government is capping their enrollments, although there is concern that they will become elite institutions, and that Quebecers will increasingly seek higher education outside the province.


title: V The Final Battle

text: V: The Final Battle (abbreviated as V:TFB) is a 1984 American TV miniseries. It is a sequel to the 1983 miniseries "V" written by Kenneth Johnson about aliens known as "The Visitors" trying to take over Earth.


title: V The Final Battle

text: Johnson parted ways with NBC over creative differences regarding the content of the miniseries; his writing contribution is credited under the pseudonym "Lillian Weezer".


title: V The Final Battle

text: "V: The Final Battle" was played out over three episodes, set several months after the events of the original miniseries.


title: V The Final Battle

text: Teleplay by Brian Taggert and Peggy Goldman<br>Story by Lillian Weezer & Peggy Goldman & Faustus Buck (pseudonym for Craig Faustus Buck) & Diane Frolov and Harry & Renee Longstreet


title: V The Final Battle

text: The first episode begins with a nightmare showing Mike Donovan and his son, Sean, trying to escape from a Visitor mother-ship with Visitor troopers in pursuit. Mike is knocked down by laser fire, Sean is shot in the back and apparently killed. Juliet rouses Mike from his sleep as the Resistance prepares for a raid on a Visitor processing plant to rescue humans who have been repackaged into food cocoons. The raid is easily thwarted at the plant perimeter, due to the Visitors' advanced armor and security measures. In the raid's debriefing at the Resistance hideout, the team bickers over how things went wrong. Robin Maxwell's pregnancy is also at an advanced stage but she has told nobody that the father is a Visitor.


title: V The Final Battle

text: The rebels later get wind of a major event to be held at the Los Angeles Medical Center, where John is expected to announce a medical breakthrough—a universal cancer cure. Due to the extensive media coverage, the rebels infiltrate the hospital. While he can provide uniforms for the infiltration, Martin however cannot supply weapons, as all Visitor armories are heavily guarded. The rebels scout the facility and secure medical supplies. Meanwhile, after discovering that the Visitors are indeed reptilian, Robin insists on an abortion with Juliet's help. However, the abortion is canceled because of potentially fatal complications to Robin and she is therefore forced to continue with the pregnancy to full term.


title: V The Final Battle

text: Meanwhile, television reporter Kristine Walsh begins to doubt her association with the Visitors, after Mike's claim that Sean is a captive aboard the mother-ship. Her suspicions are aroused even more after a well-known doctor makes a stinging criticism about her being the Visitors' puppet spokesperson, but then days later gives her a tremendously warm reception (due to Diana's subjecting him to her conversion process). During a scouting mission, the rebels succeed in capturing Willie, a friendly Visitor technician, whom they bring to their hideout for study. Willie's human girlfriend, Harmony, then makes a case among the rebels for humane treatment of the prisoner.


title: V The Final Battle

text: The hospital raid is a success, with Juliet unmasking John's true, reptilian nature. Martin and Lorraine, another member of the Fifth Column, prevent the mother-ship from cutting off the live feed. Diana also kills Kristine after she disobeys her orders to report the incident as a terrorist hoax and instead makes a desperate call for rebellion. After a firefight inside the hospital corridors, the rebels escape with help from the Fifth Column, who have assigned a transport crew to "capture" them; however, it is a Pyrrhic victory, as Juliet, now separated from the group, is captured during her attempt to escape from the hospital.


title: V The Final Battle

text: After the fiasco of the previous evening Diana has the scene re-enacted under heavy security to be passed off as the actual broadcast, with the audience held at gunpoint and Eleanor DuPres eagerly taking Kristine's place reporting the event. As it concludes, Stephen tells John and Diana they have the location of the resistance base and that troops are on their way.


title: V The Final Battle

text: On the mothership, Juliet is undergoing the conversion process. As she endures the torture, Diana watches, claiming Juliet will be her masterpiece.


title: V The Final Battle

text: Teleplay by Brian Taggert and Diane Frolov<br>Story by Lillian Weezer & Diane Frolov & Peggy Goldman & Faustus Buck


title: V The Final Battle

text: Two mercenaries, Ham Tyler and associate Chris Farber, join the Resistance. Ham reveals the existence of an international resistance force that can supply armor-piercing ammunition plus other effective weapons for the war.


title: V The Final Battle

text: The Visitors storm the hideout, but the rebels escape with the help of Tyler and Farber and further advance-warning from Ruby, who now works at the Visitors' security headquarters as a cleaner. They relocate to an old western movie studio.


title: V The Final Battle

text: Juliet's brainwashing continues in the conversion chamber. The process inflicts horrifying hallucinations on Juliet's mind, designed to brainwash her into a Visitor ally. However, she proves quite strong, forcing Diana to continually increase the intensity of the process. This eventually causes Juliet to go into cardiac arrest and nearly die. Despite Juliet's failing health, she is forced to undergo another conversion session. Frustrated with Juliet's resistance, Diana takes the power of the chamber to maximum. Now in intense agony, Juliet struggles to resist. Just as her heart is beginning to give out, Juliet breaks and Diana stops the session. Juliet collapses to the ground, seemingly converted. After the session, Mike Donovan bursts in and attempts to shoot Diana, but Jake kills him in time. Seeing this, however, appears to snap Juliet out of her brainwashing. It is later revealed that the man appearing to be Mike is a Fifth Column agent in disguise.


title: V The Final Battle

text: Because of the danger of Fifth Column infiltration (especially now with the arrival of Diana's superior, Squadron Commander Pamela), Martin suggests that all major prisoners be transferred from the mother-ship to the security headquarters on the ground for further protection. Mark's girlfriend, Maggie Blodgett, who has seduced collaborator and Visitor Youth member Daniel Bernstein, brings this information to the rebels, who see the opportunity and rescue Juliet. Daniel, however, kills Ruby after she cuts the power for the laser fencing, a critical part of the operation.


title: V The Final Battle

text: Once again in the ranks of the Resistance, Juliet tells the others of a 30-day plan to steal all the water from southern California by means of a water pipeline to a Visitor mothership. With the aid of devices that make their voices similar to those of the Visitors, the rebels scout the facility and prepare to destroy it. Tyler questions Juliet's loyalty, convinced she had been converted. She responds firmly and retains command in front of the others. In private, however, she is mentally scarred from her torture aboard the mothership. She shows signs that the conversion was successful, making her unsure of herself. She finally seeks comfort in Mike's arms. At the same time, Maggie confronts Mark over their relationship in light of her undercover liaison with Daniel. They make peace, and he proposes to her.


title: V The Final Battle

text: The attack on the water facility goes as planned, and after explosives are placed a fire-fight ensues between the rebels and the aliens. Mark is wounded and sacrifices his life to cover the escape. Maggie grieves over the loss of her fiancé.


title: V The Final Battle

text: Later on, Diana and Stephen appear in a news bulletin along with Sean, whom Stephen had ordered Brian to take out of stasis as a favor to Eleanor. It is a clear invitation for Mike to surrender to them in exchange for his son. Mike gives himself up and is taken on a mothership, while Ham and Julie bring Sean to safety. The rebels relocate to an old city jail afterwards, where their prisoner Willie gradually wins their trust when he helps Robin through her pre-labor stage.


title: V The Final Battle

text: A Fifth Column agent named Oliver visits Mike at his cell and offers a suicide pill to prevent him from divulging information about the Resistance and the Fifth Column, in light of Diana's ultra-potent truth serum. Jake kills Oliver and Diana injects Mike with the drug. The effects take place immediately, with Mike forced to compromise Martin, who is present. Martin tries to shoot Diana, but she escapes with the knowledge that he is a Fifth Columnist. Donovan and Martin hide in the mother-ship's air shafts.


title: V The Final Battle

text: The episode ends when Robin goes into labor and via a caesarian section gives birth to dizygotic twins—a human looking girl with a forked tongue, and a reptilian boy with blue human-like eyes.


title: V The Final Battle

text: Teleplay by Brian Taggert and Faustus Buck<br>Story by Lillian Weezer & Faustus Buck & Diane Frolov & Peggy Goldman


title: V The Final Battle

text: The first few days after Robin's delivery prove to be challenging for her and the others. The male child dies while the baby girl, Elizabeth, begins to grow at a rapid rate. Juliet and Robert's analysis of the male child's corpse reveals certain bacteria that affected only the boy, despite his proximity to Elizabeth in the uterus. Encouraged by the sudden development, the duo decide to culture the germs as a potential weapon.


title: V The Final Battle

text: Mike Donovan and Martin skydive out of the mothership and Martin hides with other ground-based Fifth Columnists. After Mike reaches the jail, the team discuss testing the bacterium, now called the "Red Dust," but firmly reject Ham's suggestion of using Willie as a guinea pig. Instead, the rebels capture Brian at the Bernstein house and frame Daniel. Stephen retaliates by sending Daniel off to be processed as food.


title: V The Final Battle

text: The team locks up Brian, and Robin (with Elizabeth in tow) visits him in the middle of the night. However, the family reunion is short, as Robin seeks revenge by throwing a vial of the Red Dust into Brian's holding chamber. The results are fatal. Father Andrew Doyle, the team's resident priest, carries Elizabeth off to safety as the others look at the outcome. While Ham and Mike mull over capturing a Visitor Youth member to be used as a test subject, Juliet enters the chamber and proves the dust is non-lethal to humans.


title: V The Final Battle

text: Father Andrew brings Elizabeth to Diana, who initially welcomes them. Later she murders the priest after reading the Bible, realizing through its words that she is 'vulnerable.' The danger of compromise forces the rebels to evacuate and regroup at a coastal lighthouse complex, where more Red Dust stocks are produced. Ham and Mike get into a physical argument over delivering the stocks to other resistance groups before a vaccine is ready, one that would protect the Fifth Columnists.


title: V The Final Battle

text: Martin later asks Mike to stop producing the toxin and reveals the Visitors' contingency plan: using their mothership as a doomsday device if the situation was lost. In light of the new complication the team debate whether to attack. Elias makes the case that attack remains the best chance for saving the world, and the majority of the resistance agree.


title: V The Final Battle

text: The planning sessions take place, but Juliet notices Sean overhearing the details. She then tells Mike of the possibility that Sean was converted before the exchange, which Ham later confirms. Sean escapes the hideout to warn the Visitors, but the original plan of using United States Air Force planes to spread the toxin into Earth's atmosphere turns out to be a ruse; the rebels will use hot air balloons instead. Martin and a number of Fifth Column members arrive at the complex aboard a Visitor tanker vehicle, which will carry a stock of Red Dust for dispersal aboard the mothership. They are later given a vaccine for the Red Dust.


title: V The Final Battle

text: The raid begins in earnest and Sean's false information leads the bulk of the Visitor forces to secure all airbases for an attack that never arrives. The tanker strike team manages to steal aboard the mother-ship, where Mike closes all security feeds as the rest of the team pump the toxin into the ventilation system. Robert, Ham, and Chris lead the assault on the Visitor security headquarters. Red Dust mortar blasts eliminate the defenders with no human casualties. Desperate to escape, Stephen kills Eleanor, but Ham takes him down long enough to douse his face with a bag of Red Dust. The balloons' mass dispersal of Red Dust around the world will allow the deadly bacteria to multiply in Earth's ecosystem. The Visitor forces evacuate Earth.


title: V The Final Battle

text: Diana activates the doomsday device aboard the Los Angeles ship before shooting John for his refusal to take part in her plan. Mike, Juliet, Elias, and Lorraine get pinned down by Visitor troops in a ventilation tunnel. The Red Dust begins to circulate, killing more soldiers. Martin joins up with them as they face Diana on the bridge. Mike wounds Diana in the shoulder, disarming her. Lorraine and Mike attempt to disarm the auto-destruct sequence. The other rebels and Visitors evacuate the ship while Martin attempts to move it out of the atmosphere beyond Earth orbit. Diana uses her conversion of Juliet to distract her long enough to escape. Elizabeth steps up and stops the countdown with her latent superhuman powers. Martin then brings the mothership back to Earth.


title: V The Final Battle

text: Like the first miniseries, "V: The Final Battle" was successful for NBC. Its three parts averaged a 25.1 rating and 37 share, beating ABC's miniseries "The Last Days of Pompeii", which aired on the same days as "The Final Battle". Ed Siegel of "The Boston Globe" stated that "The Final Battle" was "by far the better" of the two and "spirited escapist entertainment", but still "rather uninspired". He judged both inferior to PBS's "Concealed Enemies", which Siegel stated "treats its audience as if it has an IQ above 25."


title: V The Final Battle

text: In his review for the "New York Times", John J. O'Connor opines how "in its own dizzy way, 'V' is rarely less than compelling," adding that, "the continuing saga is still impressive where it counts most in this sort of science-fiction caper. The overall look and the special effects are remarkably striking, perfectly calibrated for the context of the small television screen." On "Rotten Tomatoes", "V: The Final Battle" has an aggregate score of 69% based on 20 positive and 9 negative critic reviews. The website’s consensus reads: ""V" tempers its ambitions for the better in this rousing if silly climax, dialing back the awkward allegory while upping the pulpy spectacle."


title: Michael McDowell (author)

text: Michael McEachern McDowell (June 1, 1950 – December 27, 1999) was an American novelist and screenwriter described by author Stephen King as "the finest writer of paperback originals in America today". His best-known work is the screenplay for the Tim Burton film "Beetlejuice".


title: Michael McDowell (author)

text: McDowell was born in 1950 in Enterprise, Alabama, and graduated from T.R. Miller High in Brewton, Alabama. He received a B.A. and an M.A. from Harvard College, and a Ph.D in English from Brandeis University in 1978, based on a dissertation entitled "American Attitudes Toward Death, 1825–1865".


title: Michael McDowell (author)

text: McDowell lived in Medford, Massachusetts and maintained a residence in Hollywood with his sister Ann and the filmmaker Peter Lake. He also had one brother, James. McDowell's partner was theatre historian and director Laurence Senelick, whom he met in 1969 when McDowell was a cast member of the Senelick-directed play, "Bartholomew Fair". McDowell and Senelick remained together for thirty years until McDowell's death.


title: Michael McDowell (author)

text: McDowell specialized in collecting death memorabilia. His extensive and diverse collection, which reportedly filled over seventy-six boxes, included items such as death pins, photographs and plaques from infant caskets. After his death, the collection was acquired by Chicago's Northwestern University, where it went on display in 2013.


title: Michael McDowell (author)

text: McDowell was diagnosed with AIDS in 1994. After his diagnosis, McDowell taught screenwriting at Boston University and Tufts University while continuing to write commissioned screenplays. One of his final projects, upon which he was working at the time of his death, was a sequel to "Beetlejuice". His final, unfinished novel "Candles Burning" was completed by novelist Tabitha King and published in 2006.


title: Michael McDowell (author)

text: McDowell died on December 27, 1999 in Boston, Massachusetts from an AIDS-related illness at the age of 49.


title: Michael McDowell (author)

text: While arguably best known for his works of Southern Gothic horror, McDowell was an accomplished stylist who wrote several series with marked differences in tone, character, and subject matter. His period novels are praised for their intricate eye for historical research and accurate details, and range from Gilded Age New York City to wiregrass Alabama in the depths of the Great Depression.


title: Michael McDowell (author)

text: McDowell collaborated with his close friend Dennis Schuetz in writing four mysteries starring Daniel Valentine and Clarisse Lovelace: "Vermillion" (1980), "Cobalt" (1982), "Slate" (1984), and "Canary" (1986). The four novels were published under the pseudonym Nathan Aldyne.


title: Michael McDowell (author)

text: In the early 1980s, McDowell and Dennis Schuetz released two psychological thrillers, "Blood Rubies" (1982) and "Wicked Stepmother" (1983) under the pseudonym Axel Young. Both books were over-the-top parodies of Sidney Sheldon-type suspense novels.


title: Michael McDowell (author)

text: In the mid-1980s, McDowell wrote the "Jack and Susan" mysteries for Ballantine Books, featuring characters reminiscent of the influential Thin Man films. The series included "Jack and Susan in 1953" (1985), "Jack and Susan in 1913" (1986) and "Jack and Susan in 1933" (1987). The books chronicled the adventures of an eternally youthful couple and their ever-changing dog. McDowell had contracted to do one for each decade of the century, but he bowed out of the contract after three.


title: Michael McDowell (author)

text: His screen credits include "Beetlejuice" (1987), and collaborations on "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993) and "Thinner" (1996). McDowell also wrote the novelization of the film "Clue" in 1985. The film was based on the board game and featured three different endings; however, the novelization was based on the shooting script and includes an additional fourth ending that was cut from the film. He also contributed screenplays to a number of television horror anthologies, including "Tales from the Darkside".


title: Michael McDowell (author)

text: McDowell was one of seventeen contemporary British and American horror writers interviewed by Douglas E. Winter in his 1985 interview book "Faces of Fear". Of his writing, McDowell says in this book: "I am a commercial writer and I'm proud of that. I am writing things to be put in the bookstore next month. I think it is a mistake to try to write for the ages." Stephen King described McDowell as "the finest writer of paperback originals in America today".


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: The Cincinnati Kid is a 1965 American drama film directed by Norman Jewison. It tells the story of Eric "The Kid" Stoner, a young Depression-era poker player, as he seeks to establish his reputation as the best. This quest leads him to challenge Lancey "The Man" Howard, an older player widely considered to be the best, culminating in a climactic final poker hand between the two.


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: The script, adapted from Richard Jessup's novel of the same name, was written by Ring Lardner Jr. and Terry Southern; it was Lardner's first major studio work since his 1947 blacklisting as one of The Hollywood Ten. The film stars Steve McQueen in the title role and Edward G. Robinson as Howard. Director Jewison, who replaced Sam Peckinpah shortly after filming began, describes "The Cincinnati Kid" as his "ugly duckling" film. He considers it the film that allowed him to transition from the lighter comedic films he had previously been making and take on more serious films and subjects.


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: The film garnered mixed reviews from critics on its initial release; supporting actors Robinson and Joan Blondell earned award nominations for their performances.


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: In the 1930s Eric Stoner, nicknamed "The Kid", is an up-and-coming poker player in New Orleans. He hears that Lancey Howard, a longtime master of the game nicknamed "The Man", is in town, and sees it as his chance to finally become the Man himself. The Kid's friend Shooter cautions him, reminding the Kid how Shooter thought he was the best five-card stud player in the world, until Howard "gutted" him when they played.


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: Howard arranges a game with wealthy and corrupt William Jefferson Slade, who secures Shooter's services as dealer. Howard wins $6,000 from Slade over a 30-hour game, angering Slade and wounding his pride. That night at Slade's home, he tries to bribe Shooter into cheating in the Kid's favor when the two players meet. Shooter declines, but Slade calls in Shooter's markers worth $12,000, and blackmails him by threatening to reveal damaging information about Shooter's sleazy wife, Melba. Shooter agonizes over his decision, having spent the last 25 years building a reputation for integrity.


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: With the Kid's girl Christian visiting her parents, Melba tries to seduce him, even though she and Christian are close friends. Out of respect for Shooter, he rebuffs her, and spends the day before the game with Christian at her family's farm.


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: The Kid intentionally arrives late to the game. The big game starts with six players, including Howard and the Kid, with Shooter playing as he deals and Lady Fingers relieving him whenever Shooter needs a break. In the first big confrontation between the Kid and Howard, the Kid is short $2,000 and Slade steps in to stake him. Several hours later, Howard busts a player called Pig, perhaps with a bluff, and the remaining players take a break. Following the break, Lady Fingers, who has been delighting in needling Howard all evening, takes over as dealer and continues to needle him.


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: As the game wears on, Shooter only deals, and then after another hand when Howard outplays them, two more players, Yeller and Sokal, drop out. That leaves just Howard and the Kid. After a few unlikely wins, the Kid calls for a break and confronts Shooter, who admits to being forced into cheating by Slade. The Kid insists he can win on his own and tells Shooter to deal straight or he will blow the whistle, destroying Shooter's reputation. Before the game resumes, Melba succeeds in seducing the Kid. Christian makes a surprise visit to the room, catches them after the fact and walks out on the Kid.


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: Slade tells the Kid that Shooter will continue to cheat for him and confronts him with a menacing thug, but the Kid flatly refuses. Back at the game, the Kid maneuvers to have Shooter replaced by Lady Fingers, lying that Shooter is ill. He then wins several major pots from Howard, who is visibly losing confidence.


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: During the final hand Howard beats the Kid with a queen-high straight flush. The Kid turns over his cards to show he has a full house, aces full of tens. This loss devastates the Kid, who not only loses all his money in this final hand, but also an additional $5,000 raise from Howard which the Kid called before Howard showed his hand. Howard then mocks the Kid, telling him that he will always be "second best" as long as Howard is around. As the Kid leaves the table, he is ridiculed by both Slade and Melba, and consoled by Shooter.


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: Following the game, the Kid leaves the hotel and loses a penny pitch to the shoe shine boy he had beaten at the same game at the film's opening. Around the corner, he runs into Christian and they embrace.


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: In some cuts, the film ends with a freeze-frame on Steve McQueen's face following his penny-pitching loss. Turner Classic Movies and the DVD feature the ending with Christian. Jewison wanted to end the film with the freeze-frame but was overruled by the producer.


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: "The Cincinnati Kid" was filmed on location in New Orleans, Louisiana, a change from the original St. Louis, Missouri, setting of the novel. Spencer Tracy was originally cast as Lancey Howard, but ill health forced him to withdraw from the film. Sam Peckinpah was originally hired to direct; producer Martin Ransohoff fired him shortly after filming began for "vulgarizing the picture." Peckinpah's version was to be shot in black-and-white to give the film a 1930s period feel. Jewison scrapped the black-and-white footage, feeling it was a mistake to shoot a film with the red and black of playing cards in greyscale. He did mute the colors throughout, both to evoke the period and to help pop the card colors when they appeared. Strother Martin said he was cast in the film but got fired after Jewison replaced Peckinpah.


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: The film features a theme song performed by Ray Charles, the Eureka Brass Band performing a second line parade, and a scene in Preservation Hall with Emma Barrett (vocalist and pianist), Punch Miller (trumpet), Paul Crawford (trombone), George Lewis (clarinet), Cie Frazier (drums) and Allan Jaffe (helicon).


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: The world premiere was held at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans on October 15, 1965, with a nationwide release on October 27. On November 5 the film opened in Los Angeles.


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: "The Cincinnati Kid" was released on Region 1 DVD on May 31, 2005. The DVD features a commentary track by director Norman Jewison, commentary on selected scenes from "Celebrity Poker Showdown" hosts Phil Gordon and Dave Foley and "The Cincinnati Kid Plays According to Hoyle", a promotional short featuring magician Jay Ose. A Blu-ray Disc was released on June 14, 2011.


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: With the release of the film on DVD, one modern reviewer said the film "is as hip now as when it was released in 1965" and another cited McQueen as "effortlessly watchable as the Kid, providing a masterclass in the power of natural screen presence over dialogue" and Robinson "simply fantastic." Poker author Michael Wiesenberg calls "The Cincinnati Kid" "[o]ne of the greatest poker movies of all time."


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: Upon its 1965 release, "The Cincinnati Kid" was favorably reviewed by "Variety" which wrote "Martin Ransohoff has constructed a taut, well-turned-out production. In Steve McQueen he has the near-perfect delineator of the title role. Edward G. Robinson is at his best in some years as the aging, ruthless Lancey Howard..." Howard Thompson of "The New York Times" called the film a "respectably packaged drama" that is "strictly for those who relish—or at least play—stud poker" and notes that the "film pales beside "The Hustler", to which it bears a striking similarity of theme and characterization." "Time" magazine also noted the similarities to "The Hustler", saying "nearly everything about "Cincinnati Kid" is reminiscent" of that film, but falls short in the comparison, in part because of the subject matter:


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: Director Jewison can put his cards on the table, let his camera cut suspensefully to the players' intent faces, but a pool shark sinking a tricky shot into a side pocket undoubtedly offers more range. "Kid" also has a less compelling subplot. Away from the table, McQueen gambles on a blonde (Tuesday Weld) and on the integrity of his dealer pal, Karl Malden. Pressure comes from a conventionally vicious Southern gentleman (Rip Torn), whose pleasures include a Negro mistress, a pistol range adjacent to his parlor, and fixed card games. As Malden's wife, Ann-Margret spells trouble of another kind, though her naive impersonation of a wicked, wicked woman recalls the era when the femme fatale wore breastplates lashed together with spider web. By the time all the bets are in, "Cincinnati Kid" appears to hold a losing hand.


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: A retrospective review published by the New York State Writers Institute of the University at Albany also noted the similarities the film had to "The Hustler", but in contrast said "The Cincinnati Kid"s "stylized realism, dreamlike color, and detailed subplots give [the film] a dramatic complexity and self-awareness that "The Hustler" lacks."


title: The Cincinnati Kid

text: Blondell was singled out for her performance as Lady Fingers with an award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. "Motion Picture Exhibitor" magazine nominated Robinson for its Best Supporting Actor Laurel Award.


title: Shor in the City

text: Shor in the City () is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K., and produced by Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor starring Tusshar Kapoor, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Preeti Desai, Girija Oak, Radhika Apte, Nikhil Dwivedi, Pitobash Tripathy, Sundeep Kishan (in his Hindi debut) and Amit Mistry.


title: Shor in the City

text: The background score of the film was composed by Roshan Machado. The first look of the film was unveiled on 21 March 2011 while the film was released in India on 28 April 2011.


title: Shor in the City

text: Five prominent personalities in the city Mumbai are the focus of the film. Tilak (Tusshar Kapoor) is a small-time publisher of unlicensed books along with his friends Mandook (Pitobash Tripathy) and Ramesh (Nikhil Dwivedi).They kidnap a famous author and force him to give the manuscript of his latest book to them so that they will be the first ones to publish it.


title: Shor in the City

text: Abhay (Sendhil Ramamurthy) is a NRI who returns to India to start his own small business and meets Shalmili (Preeti Desai).


title: Shor in the City

text: Sawan (Sundeep Kishan) is a young cricketer hoping to break into the under-22 Mumbai cricket team. The story focuses on their trials and tribulations as they battle life in the city of Mumbai during the chaotic period of the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi.


title: Shor in the City

text: The film attempts to address topics such as chance, the never-ending conflict between hope and despair, and self-actualization. The film begins with the song "Karma is a bitch," which fits with the major concept of the movie, in which the characters struggle to come to terms with their own actions. Abhay has a horrible past that isn't disclosed in the movie, but it's possible that he travelled to India to escape it. Tilak initially holds himself responsible for the injury of the child due to bomb explosion that happens in the movie which brings him closer to his wife and viewing life from a different perspective. The goons who traumatised Abhay eventually end up being shot by their own bullets on the day of Ganesha Visarjan.


title: Shor in the City

text: Tilak gets a new life and finds his treasure at home. Sawan gives up the money he finds at the bank robbery and instead focuses on improving his game for cricket selections and gets support from Sejal (Sawan's partner) too. Ramesh is seen applying for jobs and Mandook protesting at a rally. Towards the end of the movie all characters move on different paths.


title: Shor in the City

text: "Shor in the City" was made on a small budget of ₹3 Crore and a further ₹2.75 crore on P&A, with total investment coming to around ₹6 crore. Trade analysts estimated that around 50% of this will be recovered from non-theatrical revenue but as always it is the theatrical revenue that decides a film's fate at the box office.


title: Shor in the City

text: Balaji Motion Pictures, head of distribution and acquisition Girish Johar says "We gave "Shor in the City" a tight release of around 500 screens across the country and the film found appreciation. It grossed around ₹3.85 crore in just 4 days and adding the revenue from non-theatrical rights, the whole investment on the film has been more than recovered."


title: Shor in the City

text: "Shor in the City" nett. grossed ₹2.89 crore in India. "Shor in the City" also opened poorly at around 10–15% in 475 cinemas(500 screens) in India. It was estimated that the film has advantage of low costs which should be recovered but theatrical business may not be much.


title: Shor in the City

text: Nikhat Kazmi of "The Times of India" awarded it four stars out of five and stated "With a zany screenplay (Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK), excellent cinematography by Tushar Kanti Ray and peppy music by Sachin-Jigar, "Shor in the City" is another breaking-norm film from Ekta Kapoor".


title: Shor in the City

text: Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it three and a half stars and wrote ""Shor in the City" belongs to one of those rare categories of movies with sensibilities that would not only entice the festival crowd and the cinema literate, but also lure the ardent moviegoer."


title: Shor in the City

text: Aniruddha Guha of the "Daily News and Analysis" gave it three stars and said ""Shor in the City" is the kind of reassuring film you yearn to watch amid, well, what 'Bollywood' has to offer every week. Also, it articulates something you have only probably thought before – 'Karma IS a bitch.'"


title: Shor in the City

text: Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN awarded three and a half stars saying "A delicious mix of quirky humor, gruesome violence, and surprising sensitivity, "Shor in the City" works on the strength of its smart script and consistent performances from its ensemble cast."


title: Shor in the City

text: Rediff awarded the film four stars and said "Raj-Krishna's Shor in the City robotically registers itself in Indian cinema's history."


title: Shor in the City

text: Anupama Chopra of NDTV gave the movie four stars and wrote ""Shor in the City" is a terrific film. It’s surprising and disturbing and has a vein of rich, dark humor coursing through it."


title: Shor in the City

text: Shubhra Gupta of the "Indian Express" gave it a three star rating and commented "What makes "Shor in the City" an instant clutter-breaker is its darkly comic treatment. It makes you smile because its humour comes from within. It’s not grafted. And it’s got heart : we feel for the characters."


title: Shor in the City

text: Tushar Joshi of MiD DAY gave it a four star rating and wrote "Loaded with humor, sarcasm and wit. That truly is the beauty of the makers who succeed in arresting you with their tales. The spectacular climax is easily one of the best written in recent times."


title: Shor in the City

text: Karan Anshuman of Mumbai Mirror gave it a four star rating, saying "Three stories, eleven days, myriad layers, believable characters, fine performances, spirited direction, taut script, momentary explosions of originality."


title: Shor in the City

text: "Shor in the City" was officially selected for the Busan International Film Festival and the Dubai International Film Festival in 2010. The film won the Best Director Award for Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK at MIAAC in New York.


title: Shor in the City

text: . Two songs from Harpreet were taken from his Sufi compilation called "Teri Justujoo" released by Sony in 2008. Lyrics are penned by Sameer and Priya Panchal. "Shor in the City" Soundtrack Tops The Charts in few days. The song Karma Is a Bitch is influenced from Ida Maria's Bad Karma.


title: Black Metal (Venom album)

text: Black Metal is the second album by English heavy metal band Venom. It was released in November 1982, during the great flourishing of metal music in the UK that was the new wave of British heavy metal, and is considered a major influence on the thrash metal, death metal and black metal scenes that emerged in the 1980s and early 1990s.


title: Black Metal (Venom album)

text: Although the album lent its name to the latter subgenre of heavy metal, today it is still debated if the album's music is thrash metal or black metal. AllMusic has described it as "extreme metal", while Moynihan & Søderlind in their book affirm that the album "carved in stone some of [black metal's] essential features". Nevertheless, its lyrics and imagery were a major influence on the early Norwegian black metal scene.


title: Black Metal (Venom album)

text: After the release and general positive reception to the band's debut album, Venom had established themselves as pariahs of the metal world. With the band having built a strong fan base in Europe following a series of successful shows, Venom would return to the studio to record their follow up sophomore effort. With vocalist and bassist Conrad "Cronos" Lant having gained more experience in the studio as an engineer, as well as the band developing a better understanding of their identity allowed Venom to better sense what they were looking to accomplish in the studio.


title: Black Metal (Venom album)

text: As with most of Venom's early material, much of the writing was left to Lant and Dunn. Two of the songs on the album, "Buried Alive" and Raise the Dead", were written in the late 1970s and were originally intended to be on the band's debut album, however the band felt that they were unable to do the songs justice at the time of those demo recordings. Early versions of these songs can be heard on the band's 1979 Church Hall rehearsals recording, with original vocalist Clive Archer. "Buried Alive" was originally less than a minute long, and the remainder of what would be the rest of the song was used as the first half of "Raise the Dead" but with different lyrics. The band decided to rework these two songs with the final recording having "Buried Alive" extended and the ending transitioning into "Raise the Dead". With Lant's experience in the studio he took a very hands on approach with recording "Buried Alive". For the intro of song, the band was looking to mimic the sound of earth being shovelled onto a coffin during a burial service while a priest delivers a prayer, but they failed to capture the sound they were looking for by cutting cabbages. So they decided to bring in a cardboard box and mud, then put microphones in the box and used spades to shovel the mud into the box onto the microphones.


title: Black Metal (Venom album)

text: The title track, an ode to the extreme metal genre, opens with the sounds of a chainsaw which the band created by clamping down some large steel plates and then brought in a real chainsaw into the studio which they used on the steel plates to create the sawing sound effect. In the process, Lant stated that all of the saw's teeth broke in trying to achieve this effect. Another song on the album, "Countess Bathory", was written when "Abaddon" was late for a session, so Dunn began jamming some new riffs while Lant would work the lyrics out. The band's roadie came in the room and began drumming for them, and soon after "Abaddon" would come in and tried to make up a new drum pattern, but Lant and Dunn felt the roadie's drum pattern worked best. Lant also explained the origin of the song's opening riff, saying that it was inspired by the opening theme song of the children's show "The Magic Roundabout". The opening riff would then purportedly go on to influence the main riff of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit".


title: Black Metal (Venom album)

text: The final track on the album is a preview of the title track for what was to be the band's third album, "At War with Satan". A concept album that Lant started working on originally when he was still in school that tells the story of the battle between Heaven and Hell and with the latter coming out on top. Lant thought it would be interesting to put a teaser at the end of the record as a warning to fans of what was to come. The album was recorded in just 7 days, with Lant working long hours recording alongside the studio engineer and then mixing the tracks on his own.


title: Black Metal (Venom album)

text: The album's tracks have been described as being composed of "speed, catchy speed, rhythmic explosions and cutting riffs", as well as being characterised by "a rough low-budget production like a gig in the cellar". Much like "Welcome to Hell", "Black Metal" also maintains a very unpolished and underproduced sound due to the label's time constraints as well as Lant's desire to get the "heaviest sound I could get" on tape.


title: Black Metal (Venom album)

text: Lyrically the band continues to explore Satanic themes ("To Hell and Back", "Leave Me in Hell", "Sacrifice", "Heaven's on Fire") and witchcraft ("Don't Burn the Witch"). Other themes include nightmare scenarios ("Buried Alive", "Raise the Dead"), horror mythology ("Countess Bathory") and adolescent sexual fantasies ("Teacher's Pet").


title: Black Metal (Venom album)

text: The album cover was designed by Cronos in black and white, originally done in Tipp-Ex, shows the face of a demon with a pentacle on its forehead. An inverted cross is on the left horn and the inscription 666 on the right horn. Above the head of the demon's face is the band's wordmark logo reading "Venom" and the album title at the bottom in gothic characters separated by the bottom of the demon's face with the word "BLACK" on the left and "METAL" on the right. On early copies of the album the title was written in black on black in relief, therefore only observable against the light, while the following prints have the title written in white characters. On the back of the cover there is also an apparent anti-piracy icon with the inscription: "Home Taping Is Killing Music … So Are Venom".


title: Black Metal (Venom album)

text: The album was released in Great Britain on 1 November 1982 on NEAT Records. Included with the first album prints was an insert with the lyrics of the songs in gothic characters and a mini-poster in black and white depicting the members of the group. "Mantas" is portrayed posing next to a motorcycle with a wall of Marshall amplifiers in the background; "Abaddon" is locked up behind the rusted steel bars of a secret-style cell in a medieval castle; and "Cronos", armed with a ritual dagger, is kept on a leash by a woman who is wearing a leather jacket but is naked from the waist down. The NEAT Records label on the second side of the original vinyl had color variations of silver, blue, green and red.


title: Black Metal (Venom album)

text: The album was released to massive acclaim from the metal underground as well as garnering overwhelming praise from mainstream critics as well, and has since gone on to be recognised as one of the most influential metal albums ever released. "Sounds", much like in their 1981 review of "Welcome to Hell", gave yet another perfect five-star review of "Black Metal". Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic gave the album a near perfect 4.5 out of 5 stars, and points to the title track, "Raise the Dead" and "Acid Queen" as "proto-thrashing classics", "Leave Me in Hell" as "surprisingly complex", "Teacher's Pet" as "unusually goofy" and "Bloodlust" and "Countess Bathory" as "absolute classics" stating that ""Black Metal" is right up there with its predecessor". Martin Popoff of "Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal" gave the album eight out of a possible 10 stars in his November 2005 review.


title: Black Metal (Venom album)

text: Jonathan "Jonny Z" Zazula, a small time importer from New York, concert promoter and co-founder of Megaforce Records, ordered several boxes of "Welcome to Hell" from Neat Records to sell at his record stall in a shopping mall. Soon after "Jonny Z" ordered more and asked Neat if Venom were interested in doing shows in the States. The band wasn't sure how they would get their pyros to put on a proper show to the States as well as trying to find an opening act, however, an importer friend of Lants showed him a bootlegged video of a new band from San Francisco where the guitarist was wearing a Venom shirt, Metallica. Venom played two shows at the Staten Island Paramount Theatre with Metallica opening for them on 22 and 24 April. On the second night, considerable damage was done to the venue when explosives and a fireball from the pyrotechnics created a four-foot hole in the stage and the fireball shot across the building coming to rest in the upper balcony. Lant had also dealt several blows to his own speakers, destroying his stacks. When the technician assessed the damage done, the total cost for repairs amounted to "666" dollars. After successful shows in the States Venom was already planning their return to America before they had even left.


title: Black Metal (Venom album)

text: The band returned to Europe and was set to headline Aardschokdag, an annual Heavy metal festival held in the Netherlands, in June 1983. However, their equipment had been impounded by U.S. Customs in New York following their shows with Metallica in April. As a result, the band was forced to withdraw from the festival and also had to cancel their planned European tour. Venom was replaced by Accept, but still decided to show up to Aardschokdag and signed autographs stage side and also went onstage before Accept began their set to apologise to the 9000 fans for not being able to perform. Although they didn't play, they still received one of the largest receptions of the night. With no tour and plenty of time to spare, Venom and manager Eric Cook decided to embark on a promotional tour in France where the band was interviewed on Metal radio shows and participated in in-store autograph sessions.


title: Black Metal (Venom album)

text: Robert Dimery included the album in his book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". Dimery wrote that "Black Metal" is the "perfect parody", which had "shocked many critics and parents... Only few could have imagined that this would create a 'true dark subculture'". In 1998, it was voted 52nd among the "100 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" by readers of British magazine "Kerrang!".


title: Black Metal (Venom album)

text: Numerous artists have cited "Black Metal" as a major influence on them, spawning many cover songs from the album by bands including Dimmu Borgir, Mayhem, Blitzkrieg, and Cradle of Filth. Drummer Jonas Åkerlund, of Swedish extreme metal band Bathory, cites the track "Countess Bathory" as the inspiration for the band's name. Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo has the band's wordmark and demon face tattooed on his lower back. He also lists "Black Metal" as one of his "five essential metal albums". Anselmo stated:


title: Black Metal (Venom album)

text: The title track was featured on the soundtrack of the 2005 video game "Tony Hawk's American Wasteland".


title: Scarlet Lady

text: Scarlet Lady is a cruise ship owned and operated by Virgin Voyages. She is the inaugural ship for the cruise line and was delivered on 14 February 2020 by Fincantieri of Italy. She was initially set to debut on 1 April 2020. She operates exclusively as an "adults-only" ship for guests aged 18 and over, sailing mainly four- to five-night Caribbean itineraries from Miami, Florida.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: On 4 December 2014, founder of Virgin Group, Richard Branson, announced that Virgin Group was forming Virgin Cruises with the backing of Bain Capital, and revealed plans to build two new cruise ships.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: On 23 June 2015, Virgin Cruises announced that it signed a letter of intent with Italian shipbuilder, Fincantieri, for three cruise ships that could each accommodate approximately 2,800 guests and 1,150 crew for seven-day Caribbean voyages. The three-ship order reportedly cost US$2.55 billion, with the first ship scheduled to begin operating in 2020. The order's contract for the ships was formally signed on 18 October 2016, the same day Virgin Cruises rebranded as Virgin Voyages"."


title: Scarlet Lady

text: On 20 July 2018, Virgin Voyages revealed the name of the first ship as "Scarlet Lady", in honor of sister brand, Virgin Atlantic's, second plane.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: Temporarily billed as "Virgin I" and known in the shipyard as "hull number 6287," the first ship for Virgin Voyages began construction with the steel-cutting ceremony at Fincantieri's shipyard in Sestri Ponente near Genoa on 22 March 2017.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: On 31 October 2017, the ship's keel-laying and coin ceremonies were held. On 20 July 2018, the dock was flooded for the first time to allow two hull sections to be connected. The ship was assembled from 399 sections.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: On 8 February 2019, "Scarlet Lady" was floated out from the shipyard. Interior outfitting work began upon the float out.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: "Scarlet Lady" performed two rounds of sea trials in November 2019. She set off from Genoa to Marseille between 15 November and 18 November and sailed in the opposite direction for her second round between 27 November and 30 November.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: "Scarlet Lady" was completed and presented by Fincantieri on 13 February 2020 and formally delivered to Virgin Voyages on 14 February 2020 in Sestri Ponente. the ship was scheduled to be christened in Miami on 19 March 2020, but the christening was postponed, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: The ship's debut and inaugural festivities were all impacted by the pandemic and the cruise line's subsequent suspension of operations.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: "Scarlet Lady" began by hosting media and travel industry representatives on stops in Dover and Liverpool before continuing her re-positioning voyage to North America. Virgin Voyages had prepared preview events in New York City, but cancelled them due to the pandemic, so the ship repositioned to Miami instead.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: Upon her arrival in Miami, "Scarlet Lady" was scheduled to perform two pre-inaugural voyages in late-March 2020. Her first was scheduled from 26 to 29 March and her second from 29 March to 1 April. Both three-night sailings would embark from Miami and visit Virgin Voyages' new private island resort, The Beach Club at Bimini, located on the Bimini islands in the Bahamas.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: On 12 March 2020, Virgin Voyages had announced an initial postponement of the ship's inaugural season, with the pre-inaugural sailings which were slated to begin on 15 July 2020. However, these were cancelled in May 2020.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: "Scarlet Lady" was originally scheduled to sail her maiden voyage on 1 April 2020, visiting Key West and "The Beach Club" at Bimini, which was initially postponed in March 2020 to 7 August 2020. In May 2020, the cruise line announced that the ship would not begin operating until 16 October 2020.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: On 23 June 2015, Branson initially announced the first three ships in the fleet would be based at PortMiami for week-long, round-trip Caribbean itineraries, with the first ship beginning operations in 2020. In January 2019, Virgin Voyages released details of "Scarlet Lady"'s itineraries, with revisions from earlier plans. She was now scheduled to sail shorter itineraries, performing four-to-five-night round-trip Caribbean cruises to either: Havana, Cuba, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, or Costa Maya, Mexico. All voyages would include a stop at The Beach Club at Bimini.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: In June 2019, in response to the United States' government ban on passengers from entering Cuba via passenger and recreational vessels, Virgin Voyages swapped out all visits to Havana with calls to Key West, Florida. It also added a fourth itinerary option to visit Cozumel, Mexico on five-night sailings, and added two seven-night holiday sailings to Puerto Plata and San Juan, Puerto Rico. All voyages will retain their visits to The Beach Club at Bimini. "Scarlet Lady"'s deployment schedule was expected to continue through 2021.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: On 31 October 2017, Branson and president and CEO of Virgin Voyages, Tom McAlpin, revealed that the company's first ship would be exclusive to adults, requiring that all guests be ages 18 and over. McAlpin explained that this move was made to appeal largely to travel professionals within the more premium market looking for an "elevated" experience. Chief Commercial Officer of Virgin Voyages, Nirmal Saverimuttu, also attributed the decision to the company's aim to target "people who would not typically consider a cruise holiday" and might be interested in a "cooler" and more "intimate" setting.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: On "Scarlet Lady", Virgin Voyages bundles all passengers' fares as one price per cabin, as opposed to pricing each voyage per guest. Consequently, prices appear higher than those of Virgin's competitors. Virgin explained that all fares would cover dining charges, fitness classes, internet access, and gratuities, among other offerings, but expenses incurred from alcoholic beverages, retail, and shore excursions would be charged separately.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: The ship does not include any buffet or dining rooms, and instead, houses approximately 20 different dining and drinking establishments. Other venues include a multi-function theater and an onboard tattoo and body piercing parlor.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: "Scarlet Lady" has a total of 1,408 passenger cabins and 813 crew cabins for a maximum capacity of 4,400 passengers and crew, which can accommodate over 2,770 passengers and 1,160 crew. Of the 1,408 passenger cabins, there are 78 suites, 1,030 balcony cabins, 95 window cabins, and 105 inside cabins. She is equipped with balconies on 86% of her cabins, with 93% of the cabins featuring an outside view. The ship's livery consists of a silver hull, red funnel, and tinted windows, and also includes the Virgin "mermaid guide" figure featured on sister brands, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: "Scarlet Lady" has 17 decks, a length of , a draft of , and a beam of . She is powered by a diesel-electric genset system, with four Wärtsilä engines, producing . Main propulsion is via two ABB Azipod XO units, having a combined power output of 32MW (43,000hp). The system gives the vessel a service speed of and a maximum speed of . Wärtsilä also provided the ship's navigation systems, a hybrid scrubber system to remove sulfur dioxide from the exhaust, and a selective catalytic reduction system to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. The ship partially produces her own energy through a production system that uses the waste heat from her diesel engines.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: In February 2021, it was announced that Scarlet Lady would be equipped with satellite internet connectivity from SES using the O3b medium Earth orbit satellites to provide passengers with free ultra-fast, low-latency onboard wi-fi internet access.


title: Scarlet Lady

text: On 22 May 2020, it was reported that a 32-year-old male Filipino crew member of "Scarlet Lady" had been found dead in his cabin. Virgin Voyages confirmed the man's death was not related to the coronavirus, and the United States Coast Guard confirmed that he had died from "apparent self-harm." "Scarlet Lady" sailed into PortMiami later that day, where the body was disembarked.


title: Digital economy

text: The digital economy is a portmanteau of digital computing and economy, and is an umbrella term that describes how traditional brick-and-mortar economic activities (production, distribution, trade) are being transformed by Internet, World Wide Web, and blockchain technologies. The digital economy is variously known as the "Internet Economy", "Web Economy", "Cryptoeconomy", and "New Economy". Since the digital economy is continuously replacing and expanding the traditional economy, there is no clear delineation between the two integrated economy types. The digital economy results from billions of daily online transactions among people, organizations (businesses, educational institutions, non-profits), and distributed computing devices (servers, laptops, smartphones, etc.) enabled by Internet, World Wide Web, and blockchain technologies. The digital economy is rapidly evolving into an Internet of Things (IoT), and could not exist in its current form without the Internet.


title: Digital economy

text: The digital economy is backed by the spread of information and communication technologies (ICT) across all business sectors to enhance its productivity. Digital transformation of the economy is altering conventional notions about how businesses are structured, how consumers obtain goods and services, and how states need to adapt to new regulatory challenges. The future of work, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, is also contributing to the digital economy. More people are now working online, and with the increase of online activity that contributes to the global economy, companies that support the systems of the Internet are more profitable.


title: Digital economy

text: The Digital Economy also referred to as the New Economy, refers to an Economy in which digital computing technologies are used in Economic Activities.


title: Digital economy

text: The term "Digital Economy" came into use during the early 1990s. For example, many academic papers were published by New York University’s Center for Digital Economy Research. The term was the title of Don Tapscott's 1995 book, "The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence".


title: Digital economy

text: According to Thomas Mesenbourg (2001), three main components of the digital economy concept can be identified:


title: Digital economy

text: Bill Imlah states that new applications are blurring these boundaries and adding complexity, for example, social media and Internet search.


title: Digital economy

text: In the last decade of the 20th century, Nicholas Negroponte (1995) used a metaphor of shifting from processing atoms to processing bits: "The problem is simple. When information is embodied in atoms, there is a need for all sorts of industrial-age means and huge corporations for delivery. But suddenly, when the focus shifts to bits, the traditional big guys are no longer needed. Do-it-yourself publishing on the Internet makes sense. It does not for a paper copy."


title: Digital economy

text: In this new economy, digital networking and communications infrastructure provide a global platform on which people and organizations devise strategies, interact, communicate, collaborate, and search for information. More recently, "Digital Economy" has been defined as the branch of economics studying the movement of "zero marginal cost intangible goods" over the Internet.


title: Digital economy

text: The definition of Digital Economy (or similar concepts) is not harmonized across governments, businesses, and international organizations. According to the OECD, the Digital Economy can be defined in three different approaches:


title: Digital economy

text: Bottom-up definitions define the Digital Economy as the aggregate of a specific indicator for a set of industries identified as actors in the Digital Economy. Whether an industry is considered an actor depends on the nature of the products (narrow) or the proportion of digital inputs used in production processes (broad).


title: Digital economy

text: Hence, from a bottom-up and narrow perspective, the Digital Economy is "all industries or activities that directly participate in producing, or crucially reliant on digital inputs." For instance, McKinsey adds up the economic outputs of the ICT sector and e-commerce market in terms of online sales of goods and consumer spending on digital equipment. While this definition is adept at measuring the impact of digitalization on economic growth, it only focuses on the nature of output and offers an incomplete view of the Digital Economy's development.


title: Digital economy

text: In a bottom-up and broad perspective, the Digital Economy is "all industries using digital inputs as part of their production process". Examples of digital inputs include digital infrastructure, equipment, and software but can include data and digital skills.


title: Digital economy

text: Top-down definitions identify broad trends at play in the digital transformation and define the Digital Economy as the result of their combined impact on value creation. These include such spillovers as changes in labor market demand and regulations, platform economy, sustainability, and equality.


title: Digital economy

text: Unlike the bottom-up definition, the top-down definition has units of analysis extending beyond firms, industries, and sectors to include individuals, communities, and societies. While the latter definition is more inclusive, the IMF notes that it is subjective, qualitative, and open-ended, thus limiting meaningful comparative analysis.


title: Digital economy

text: To reconcile the bottom-up and top-down definitions of the Digital Economy, Bukht and Heeks stated that the Digital Economy consists of all sectors making "extensive" use of digital technologies (i.e. their existence depends on digital technologies), as opposed to sectors making "intensive" use of digital technologies (i.e. simply employing digital technologies to increase productivity).


title: Digital economy

text: Gig work is labor that consists of temporary and flexible jobs usually done over delivery apps and rideshare services such as Grubhub, Uber, Lyft, and Uber Eats. It can be desirable to those who want more flexibility in their schedule and can allow workers to make additional income outside of their traditional jobs.


title: Digital economy

text: Most gig work supplements workers' traditional jobs. The full size of the gig economy and number of workers is not yet known. Katz and Krueger estimated that only 0.5% of gig workers make most of their income off of platforms like Uber, Lyft, Grubhub, and DoorDash. Since these workers are considered independent contractors, these companies are not responsible for giving its workers benefits packages like it would for regular full-time employees. This has resulted in the formation of unions between gig and platform workers and various reforms within the industry. Blockchain and Tokenized equity-sharing gig economy platforms or applications are being developed to accelerate the gig economy as a full fledged digital economy contributor using new technologies.


title: Digital economy

text: The information technology (IT) sector of the U.S. now makes up about 8.2% of the country's GDP and accounts for twice its share of the GDP as compared to the last decade. 45% of spending on business equipment are investments in IT products and services, which is why companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and Dell have grown from $12 million in 1987 to more than half a billion in 1997.


title: Digital economy

text: In the U.S. in the 1990's, the Clinton Administration proposed "The Framework for Global Electronic Commerce". It contained the promotion of five principles used to guide the U.S. government's actions towards electronic commerce so that the digital economy's growth potential remains high. These five principles include the leadership of the private sector, the government avoiding undue restrictions on e-commerce, limited government involvement, the government's recognition of the Internet's unique qualities, and the facilitation of e-commerce on a global basis.


title: Digital economy

text: A digital platform operator is an entity or person offering an online communication service to the public based on computer algorithms used to classify content, goods, or services offered online, or the connection of several parties for the sale of goods, the provision of a service, or the exchange or sharing of content, goods, and services.


title: Digital economy

text: Cryptocurrencies are built on blockchain technology. Blockchains consist of networks of individual nodes running on the computers of individuals or companies that together provide a system to confirm cryptocurrency transactions. Cryptocurrency transactions are validated by miners with proof-of-work coins such as bitcoin, or by other holders with proof-of-stake coins, such as Cardano. Each miner's validity is checked by other nodes for correctness. Large US companies began taking cryptocurrency as a form of payment in 2014, but do not accept all coins. In 2021, Tesla began accepting Bitcoin (BCH) then later stopped because of the large energy consumption and environmental damage involved in mining.


title: Digital economy

text: A Non-fungible Token (NFT) is data, a form of digital art, that are stored on Blockchain, which can be sold as a type of crypto currency. Many investors are purchasing NFTs due to the popularity promoted by several celebrities using them as profile photos, including such as Reese Witherspoon, Eva Longoria, Shonda Rhimes, Serena Williams, and many more. NFTs art sold as a piece of artwork that is completely unique and the owner of the NFT owns the piece of artwork.


title: Digital economy

text: The widespread adoption of ICT combined with the rapid decline in price and increase in the performance of these technologies, has contributed to the development of new activities in the private and public sectors. These new technologies provide market reach, lower costs, and new opportunities for products and services that were not needed before. This changes the way multinational enterprises (MNE) and startups design their business models.


title: Digital economy

text: The Digital Economy was estimated to be worth three trillion dollars in 2010. This is about 30% of the S&P 500, six times the U.S.’ annual trade deficit or more than the GDP of the United Kingdom.


title: Digital economy

text: It is widely accepted that the growth of the digital economy has widespread impact on the whole economy. Various attempts at categorizing the size of the impact on traditional sectors have been made.


title: Digital economy

text: The Boston Consulting Group discussed "four waves of change sweeping over consumer goods and retail". In 2012, Deloitte ranked six industry sectors as having a "short fuse" and to experience a "big bang" as a result of the digital economy. Telstra, an Australian telecommunications provider, describes how competition will become more global and more intense as a result of the digital economy.


title: Digital economy

text: In 2016, the Digital Economy represented $11.5 trillion, or 15.5% of global GDP (18.4% of GDP in developed economies and 10 per cent in developing economies on average). It found that the digital economy had grown two and a half times faster than global GDP over the previous 15 years, almost doubling in size since 2000. Most of the value in the digital economy was produced in only a few economies: the United States (35%), China (13%) and Japan (8%). The EU together with Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway accounted for another 25%.


title: Digital economy

text: The digital economy has had a substantial impact on retail sales of consumer product goods. One effect has been the fast proliferation of retailers with no physical presence, such as eBay or Amazon. Additionally, traditional retailers such as Walmart and Macy's have restructured their businesses to adapt to a digital economy. Some retailers, like Forever 21, have declared bankruptcy as a result of their failure to anticipate and adapt to a digital economy. Others, such as Bebe stores have worked with outside vendors to completely convert their business one that is exclusively digital. These vendors, such as IBM and Microsoft, have enabled smaller retailers to compete with large, multi-national established brands.


title: Digital economy

text: Both development and exploitation of intangible assets are key feature of the digital economy. This investment in and development of intangibles such as software is a core contributor to value creation and economic growth for companies in the digital economy. In early 2000, companies started substantially increasing the amount of capital allocated to intangibles such as branding, design and, technology rather than in hardware, machinery or property.


title: Digital economy

text: Advancements in information and communication technologies (ICT) have significantly reduced the cost associated with the organization and coordination of complex activities over a long period. Some businesses are increasingly able to manage their global operations on an integrated basis from a central location separate geographically from the locations in which the operations are carried out, and where their suppliers or customers are. Consequently, it has allowed businesses to expand access to remote markets and provide goods and services across borders.


title: Digital economy

text: The Digital economy relies on personal data collection. In 1995, the Data Protection directive (Directive 95/46/CE, art.2), defined data as "any information relating to a natural person who can be identified by reference to his identification number or to information which is specific to him". At that time, this regulation emerged in response to the need to integrate the European market. By adopting common European data protection standards, the EU was able to harmonize conflicting national laws that were emerging as a trade barrier, inhibiting commerce in Europe. For this reason, GDPR and its predecessor were viewed as internal market instruments, facilitating the creation of a digital, single market by allowing an unhindered flow of data within the entire common market.


title: Digital economy

text: Due to its ability to bridge the information asymmetry between supply and demand, data now has an economic value. When platforms compile personal data, they gather preferences and interests, which allow companies to exert a targeted action on the consumer through advertising. Algorithms classify, reference, and prioritize the preferences of individuals to better predict their behavior.


title: Digital economy

text: Via free access to platforms in exchange for the collection of personal data, they make the content non-rival. Thus, the intangibility of content tends to give a collective natural aspect to this information accessible to everyone, to benefit public good by creating a digital public space. The McKinsey Global Institute Report (2014) notes five broad ways in which leveraging big data can create value for businesses:


title: Digital economy

text: In 2011, the Boston Consulting Group estimated that personal data collected in Europe was worth 315 billion euros.


title: Digital economy

text: The Network effect occurs when the value of a product or service to the user increases exponentially with the number of other users using the same product or service. For instance, WhatsApp provides a free communication platform with friends and contacts. The utility to use it relies on the fact that a substantial part of or friends and colleagues are already users.


title: Digital economy

text: The Digital market can be labeled a ‘multi-sided’ market. The notion developed by French Nobel prize laureate Jean Tirole is based on the idea that platforms are ‘two-sided’. This can explain why some platforms can offer free content, with customers on one side and the software developers or advertisers on the other. On a market where multiple groups of persons interact through platforms as intermediaries, the decisions of each group affect the outcome of the other group of persons through a positive or negative externality. When the users spend time on a page or click on links, this creates a positive externality for the advertiser displaying a banner there. The digital Multinational enterprises (MNEs) do not collect revenue from the user side but from the advertiser side, thanks to the sale of online advertisement.


title: Digital economy

text: The outcomes of these intertwined and combined effects tend to lead to the formation of dominant market positions, also called digital monopoly or oligopoly. In this sense, digital platforms such as the GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon) can be considered as first movers - large companies that introduce a service or a product on an immature market, allowing that company to establish strong brand recognition and service loyalty.


title: Digital economy

text: Given its expected broad impact, traditional firms are actively assessing how to respond to the changes brought about by the digital economy. For corporations, the timing of their response is of the essence. Banks are trying to innovate and use digital tools to improve their traditional business. Governments are investing in infrastructure. In 2013, the Australian National Broadband Network, for instance, aimed to provide a 1 GB/second download speed fiber-based broadband to 93% of the population over ten years. Digital infrastructure is essential for leveraging investment in digital transformation. According a survey conducted in 2021, 16% of EU enterprises regard access to digital infrastructure to be a substantial barrier to investment.


title: Digital economy

text: Access to digital infrastructure is increasing across the European Union, with the great majority of homes now having access to broadband.


title: Digital economy

text: Some traditional companies have tried to respond to the regulatory challenge imposed by the Digital economy, including through tax evasion. Due to the immaterial nature of digital activities, these digital multinational enterprises (MNEs) are extremely mobile, which allows them to optimize tax evasion. They can carry out high volumes of sales from a tax jurisdiction. Concretely, governments face MNE fiscal optimization from companies locating their activity in the countries where tax is the lowest. On the other hand, companies can undergo double taxation for the same activity or be confronted with legal and tax vagueness. The Conseil National du Numérique concluded that the shortfall in corporate tax gain for Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook was worth approximately 500 million euros in 2012.


title: Digital economy

text: According to 55% of businesses surveyed in the European Investment Bank's Investment survey in 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the demand for digitalization. 46% of businesses report that they have grown more digital. 34% of enterprises that do not yet utilise advanced digital technology saw the COVID-19 crisis as a chance to focus on digitisation. Firms that have incorporated innovative digital technology are more positive about their industry's and the overall economic condition in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. There is, however, a discrepancy between businesses in more developed locations and less developed regions.


title: Digital economy

text: Businesses in poorer regions are more concerned about the pandemic's consequences. Companies in affected areas anticipate long-term effects on their supply chain from the outbreak. A bigger proportion of businesses anticipate permanent employment losses as a result of the digitalization transformation brought on by COVID-19.


title: Digital economy

text: During the pandemic, 53% of enterprises in the European Union that had previously implemented advanced digital technology invested more to become more digital. 34% of non-digital EU organizations viewed the crisis as a chance to begin investing in their digital transformation. 38% of firms reported in a survey that they focused on basic digital technologies, while 22% focused on advanced technologies (such as robotics, AI). Organizations that invested in both advanced and basic digital technologies were found most likely to outperform during the pandemic.


title: Digital economy

text: After the COVID-19 outbreak, the number of non-digital enterprises that downsized was also greater than the share of non-digital firms that had positive job growth. Non-digital companies had a negative net employment balance.


title: Digital economy

text: In Europe, 31% of people work for companies that are non-digital, compared to 22% of people in the United States. This is also due to the fact that the European Union has many more small businesses than the United States. Smaller businesses are less digital, which has repercussions for the employees they hire. Non-digital enterprises tend to pay lower wages and are less likely to create new employment. They have also been less inclined to train their employees throughout the pandemic. Enterprises in the EU have lower adoption rates for the internet of things than firms in the US. The variations in adoption rates between the European Union and the United States are driven by the lower use of technologies connected to the internet of things.


title: Digital economy

text: The Digital Economy uses a tenth of the world's electricity. The move to the cloud has also caused the rise in electricity use and carbon emissions. A server room at a data center can use, on average, enough electricity to power 180,000 homes. The Digital Economy can be used for mining Bitcoin which, according to Digiconomist, uses an average of 70.69 TWh of electricity per year. The number of households that can be powered using the amount of power that bitcoin mining uses is around 6.5 million in the US.


title: Digital economy

text: A cashless society describes an economic state in which transactions no longer use physical currency (such as banknotes and coins) as the medium. Transactions which would historically have been undertaken with cash are often now undertaken electronically.


title: Digital economy

text: This has become a topic of increasing interest in today's society as digital or virtual currencies for transactions become more common. This is also an important part of the digital economy.


title: Digital economy

text: One nation moving towards achieving this idea of cashless society is El Salvador, who became the first country to adopt Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that only exists digitally, as legal tender in the country. While technical issues occurred in the rollout, El Salvador's President Nayid Bukele, a supporter, noted that it would generate investment interest in the country, as well as providing access to approximately 70% of citizens who lack access to "traditional financial services." The effect of increased energy use from mining bitcoin on carbon emissions in El Salvador has yet to be seen.


title: Digital economy

text: The Digital Single Market (DSM) was included as part of the Single Market Act initiatives adopted by the European Commission (EC). The question had already come up earlier in 1990 and was brought up again later in 2010, emerging at a sensitive moment in the post-crisis of 2008, and used as a catalyst for action. The crisis created opportunities to place the Single Market upfront in the European agenda and was aimed to resolve two issues: financial supervision and economic coordination.


title: Digital economy

text: This gave a new dimension to the Market. The proposal for the DSM had been made under the strategy of the Commission entitled "Digital Agenda for Europe" in the political guidelines of the second Barroso Commission and pointed out the need to eliminate barriers in order to implement the European Digital Market as an attempt to relaunch the Single Market. This strategy was similar to the one used for the Internal Market in 1985 and focused on one of the weaknesses of the latter, namely the fragmentation of the national digital market. Building on the Monti report, the communication 'Towards a Single Market Act' detailed 50 proposals to reform the SM by the end of 2012. But the DSM was only adopted in 2015 and the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and the Council was made in September 2016.


title: Digital economy

text: The DSM is presented as a key priority in the economy of Union, even if there were several attempts to deepen the integration, there are still obstacles remaining. The creation of the DSM constitutes a catalyst to resolve several issues, and was supposed to have a widespread multiplier effect throughout sectors across the EU. The EU Commission faced several obstacles. The commission acts in a way to deeply transform the Single Market. However, the EC lacked political support to enhance the impact of its decision.


title: Digital economy

text: The issue of the low salience was a causal factor explaining the limits of the commission's commitment to reform the single market. Even though the member states approved the DSM, and the definition for the DSM was accepted by European institutions as a key priority, only one proposal was adopted at the end of 2012. Despite being a priority in the SMA I & II, legislative initiatives failed due to the high cost of implementation measures. Also, there were its potential ‘blockbuster for economic gains’  and the protest of citizens against sovereign debt countries' rescue and bank bail-outs. The slow adoption of the proposal is partly due to member states’ protectionist temptations after the economic crisis. Each state wanted to put forward its preferences and legislation concerning this field.


title: Digital economy

text: With regard to artificial intelligence (AI), the Commission adopted various initiatives with no meaningful coordination. The more pervasive the digital ecosystem becomes, the more sector-specific regulatory framework may need to be merged into general regimes.


title: Digital economy

text: Though the Commission used the crisis as a window of opportunity, it did not allow it to go further in implementing a high transformation of the Single Market. The crisis context pushed the political actors to move forward to better manage the crisis, but did not permit it to fully implement the DSM.


title: Digital economy

text: One of the key priorities of the EU is to guarantee fair competition. Yet, within the Digital Market, the competition may be distorted. With more exertion of network effects comes higher barriers to entry (difficulty for a new entrant to enter the market and compete) in the market. Vertical or horizontal mergers and acquisitions take place in closed ecosystems. In order to limit this problem in the digital ecosystem, the EU aims to qualify certain firms as either as an "abuse of dominant position" or a "cartel" which are against the competition prosperity within the Single Market. Digital companies such as the GAFA prosper thanks to their various free services that they make available to consumers, which appear beneficial for consumers, but less so for firms in potential competition. It my be difficult for regulators to sanction firms such as GAFA, due to the jobs and services they provide worldwide.


title: Digital economy

text: Certain challenges may exist for regulators. One example is in identifying and defining platforms. Member states lack coordination, and may be independent of the regulator, who can not have a global vision of the market. Also, tax evasion of digital MNEs has become a growing concern for most of the European governments, including the European Commission. Attracting foreign investment is less and less seen as a relevant reason to implement tax cuts. Aside from the fiscal revenue shortfall, this issue has taken a political turn in recent years since some people and politicians feel that, in a time of financial crisis, these highly profitable firms do not contribute to the national effort.


title: Digital economy

text: The Digital Market is characterized by its heterogeneity. The European Market is in a difficult position to compete with other advanced countries within the Digital World (such as US or China). There are currently no European digital champions. The European Digital Market is divided in regulations, standards, usages, and languages. The member states cannot meet the demand, or support innovation (R&D), due to the fact that the digital environment is by nature global. As noted by the European parliament, taxation on Digital Market could bring about 415bn euros to the EU economy, and be considered as an incentive to further deepen the EU integration (EP opinion's 2014).


title: Digital economy

text: The EU controls ex-post (in the case of abuse of dominance for example) and seems to be very cautious in term of concurrence (exclusive competence). The EU sanctions cartels’ behavior and examines mergers in order to preserve competition and protect small and medium enterprises (SMEs) entering the market. Within the digital market, mergers often create digital firm dominance, thus possibly preventing European equivalents. Moreover, regulation could in theory protect people working in the digital sector or for the digital sector (such as Uber drivers, a case recently in France), which could present opportunity. However, the EU may need to be cautious with regulation in order to create barriers at the market entry.


title: Digital economy

text: In 2017, the EC fined Google €2.42 billion for abusing its dominant position as a search engine by giving an illegal advantage to Google Shopping. The EC aimed to pave the way to relieve firms suffering from its abuse of dominant position. Moreover, it sought to prove that the EC's strategy does works and companies may be fined at high rates.


title: Digital economy

text: The Digital Economy has been a concern for the Juncker Commission concern since the 1st Barroso Commission. Yet, it is only under the Juncker Commission that the strategy of the DSM was adopted on 6 May 2015 as it was ranked as the second priority out of the 10 priorities for the new Commission's mandate. Throughout this document, the DSM emphasized 3 policy pillars:


title: Digital economy

text: As a key priority for the newly President-elect Juncker, he made Andrus Ansip, the vice-president of the Commission, in charge of the DSM. The decision to approach the DSM from a different point of view is also because the digital space is in constant evolution with the growing importance of online platform and the change of market share. The DSM was a priority because of its economic importance; the total of EU e-commerce reached 240 billion € in 2011, and out of that 44 billion were cross-border trade between member states.


title: Digital economy

text: In 2020, the digital economy continues to be a top priority for the EC, and belongs once again to the agenda of the Commission president. Margrethe Vestager has been designated to be the vice president in charge of one of the six priorities of the EC, called "A Europe fit for digital age". The priority is elaborated as follow, EC is working on a digital transformation that will benefit to everyone. These goals are set to open up new opportunities for businesses, to boost the development of trustworthy technology, foster an open and democratic society, enable a vibrant and sustainable economy, and help fight climate change and achieve the green transition. The strategy of digital economy is included in a wider strategy for the future of Europe. However, as explained on the EC's website, the aim to become a global role model for the digital economy fit within the EU's goals for decades, as it is the aim in the environmental field. However, the EU had to review its aim in this field, and becomes a 'Leadiator'. It is possible that in the Digital Economy, the EU has to behave and evolve in the same way, because the champions of the digital sector aren't European, which creates a handicap in the way the EU refrain from legislating. The EU cannot restrict the offer to its citizens, because digital leaders are not mainly Europeans. One objective of the single market is to make available the better quality at the better price, and propose a better choice to its citizens.


title: Digital economy

text: As explained earlier, the digital economy is based on computing technologies. A rise in new businesses results in greater business connectivity throughout the world. What's referred to as a 'new type of economy' emerges. The rapid spread of ICT all around the world has led to the development of new kind of products and services, that has changed the way business is done. The Digital Economy represents today 15% of the global world GDP. It is relying on personal data, which has been regulated by the EU's directive of 1995, which had the goal to integrate EU within the Digital market. Digital Single Market has been for long a priority for the EU and has beneficiated of the 2007 crisis as a window of opportunity to act. However, it's said the mandate of the EC is thin, to the heterogeneity of the market, and the fact that the EU has to act ex-post. As a result, member states lack coordination. The goals of the Single Market concerning consumers is to offer a panel of choices at a better price. Yet, the leaders of the Digital market may not necessarily be European. Due to the network effect, barriers to European businesses that want to enter within the market remain even higher. Dominant position harbored by US big tech platforms do not give a wide possibility of maneuver combined with the volatility of the market.


title: Digital economy

text: The digital economy is also qualified as "intangible capitalism" which fosters inequality and social division. In 2017, Haskel and Westlake published "capitalism without capital" which raises concerns about policymakers’ inability to tailor from the transition of the traditional economy to the New Economy based on intangible assets. From the mid-2000s onwards, companies have been investing more in ‘intangibles’ such as branding, design, and technology than they have in machinery, hardware, or property.


title: Digital economy

text: Many businesses' key assets are primarily software and data (such as Uber), rather than physical. Other business rely on branding to help them stand out from the crowd. Pharmaceutical companies have vast budgets for marketing as well as research and development.


title: Digital economy

text: In traditional production, marginal cost decreases with volume due to economies of scale and learning curve effects. For digital products and services, such as data, insurance, e-books, and movies, this effect is magnified, because after the first unit, production costs for each additional unit are virtually zero. As the proportion of the world's economy that does not fit the old model keeps getting larger, it has implications for a wide range of policies.


title: Digital economy

text: The intangibility of assets may widen the gap between small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and multinationals enterprises (MNEs). On the one hand, the current bank system struggles to value and monitor immaterial assets. Historically, when a company went bankrupt, banks could recover their money by selling the physical assets such as buildings, machinery, etc. Yet, if the intangible assets drop, those assets can not be sold easily as the value of the company goes down. As a result, SMEs are more reliant on venture capital which is different from bank financing. The easier access to resources allow MNEs to benefit from synergies of the intangible assets. For instance, in creating the iPod, Apple combined MP3 technology with licensing agreements, record labels, and design expertise to produce the product. This ability to combine technologies and then scale up to help these companies to increase their dominant position on the market.


title: Digital economy

text: The digital economy has accelerated the spread of global value chains in which MNEs integrate their worldwide operations. These advances, coupled with liberalization of trade policy and reduction in transportation costs, have expanded some advantages of businesses in all sectors. For example global value chains in which production processes can be geographically dispersed in locations around the world to take advantage of the features of local markets. It is easier for firms to implement their activities where there are low wages and to coordinate their activities from countries with high wages.


title: Digital economy

text: The rise of online platforms raises concerns in terms of legal questions about social security and labor law. Gig workers are generally classified as ‘independent workers’ (with temporary, off-site, autonomous contracts) which challenges the application of labor and occupational health and safety law. As a result, online platforms encourage the flexibilization of jobs and a higher volatility of the labor market, as opposed to traditional companies. Gig economy companies such as Deliveroo and Uber hire self-employed drivers who sign a contract with the digital platform while the way they work is similar to a regular employee statute. Yet, for the first time, in March 2020, France's top court (Cour de Cassation) ruling acknowledged that an Uber driver could not qualify as a ‘self-employed’ contractor because he could not build his clientele or set his prices, establishing a relation of a subordinate of the company.


title: Digital economy

text: Digital platforms rely on 'deep learning' to scale up their algorithm's capacity. The human-powered content labeling industry is constantly growing as companies seek to harness data for AI training. These practices have raised concerns about the low-income and health-related issues of these independent workers. For instance, digital companies such as Facebook or YouTube use ‘content monitor’, contractors who work as outside monitors hired by a professional services company subcontractor, to monitor social media to remove any inappropriate content. Thus, the job consists of watching and listening to potentiallydisturbing posts that can be violent or sexual. In January 2020, through its subcontractor services society, Facebook and YouTube have asked the ‘content moderators’ to sign a PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder) disclosure after alleged cases of mental disorders witnessed on workers.


title: Married at First Sight (Australian season 6)

text: The sixth season of "Married at First Sight" premiered on 28 January 2019 on the Nine Network. Relationship experts John Aiken, Mel Schilling and Trisha Stratford all returned from the previous season to match 10 brides and 10 grooms together. Halfway through the experiment, the experts matched another 2 brides and 2 grooms together.


text: The experts had to decide on a controversial request by Dan and Jess who wanted to leave their respective "spouses" but remain in the experiment as a couple. The experts allowed the couple to leave their previous matches and stay in the experiment as a new couple.As a result of the decision, an online petition garnered thousands of votes to have the show cancelled.