title: Liu Chuanzhi

text: Joyvio announced on 30 March 2014 that it had acquired a 60 percent share of Hangzhou Longguan Tea Industrial Company for about 30 million yuan or about US$4.83 million. Longguan was previously a fully state-owned enterprise operating under the jurisdiction of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Longguan produces Hangzhou's famous Longjing tea. The company had sales of 32.45 million yuan in 2012. According to the company's annual report it has been growing 40 to 50 percent per year. Joyvio has taken over day-to-day control of Longguan. Liu Chuanzhi said he aims to bring innovation and commercial methods to the tea industry. Liu said that Joyvio would invest in other well-known tea brands and related products.


title: Liu Chuanzhi

text: After graduating from high school in 1962, Liu applied to be a military pilot and passed all the associated exams. Despite his father's revolutionary credentials, Liu was declared unfit for military service because a relative had been denounced as a rightist. In autumn of the same year, Liu entered the People's Liberation Army Institute of Telecommunication Engineering, now known as Xidian University. Due to his political and class background, Liu was deemed unsuitable for such sensitive subjects and assigned to study radar. During his studies Liu received an introduction to computing.


title: Liu Chuanzhi

text: Liu was labeled an "intellectual element" during the Cultural Revolution. In 1966, he told his classmates that the revolution was a terrible idea and was sent to a state-owned rice farm near Macau in Guangdong as a result. From there he was sent to a farm in Hunan dedicated to reform through hard labor. Liu returned to Beijing where he took up a post in 1970 as an engineer-administrator at the Computer Institute that had earlier developed the Number 104, Number 109, and Number 111 mainframe computers. Liu worked on the development of the Number 757 mainframe computer. In 1984, he resigned to become a cadre in the personnel office of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He remained there until he co-founded Legend in 1984.


title: Liu Chuanzhi

text: Unlike many other Chinese business leaders, Liu has often spoken out on political issues. Liu has criticized others' tendency for silence. He said, "when it comes to the inappropriate actions the government takes, businessmen don't have the courage or capacity to go against them; second, they lack the social responsibility to care for the whole world and what they do is to 'mind their own business.'"


title: Liu Chuanzhi

text: During an interview with "Caijing" in October 2012, he advocated for what he called "elite selection" of political leaders. He said, "I'm not sure how practical it would be to have universal voting in the near future. I hope the country's leaders could be elected by the elites of the society." Liu is also deeply concerned with the rule of law. He said, "My biggest worry is an unlawful world. I tell my employees to be careful all the time; don't disrespect the government or bribe anyone - even so, I'm still not at peace because there are always some corrupt individuals coming along to cause problems."


title: Liu Chuanzhi

text: In December 2013 Liu expressed optimism about economic reform in China. He said, "Now if the market is to play a central role and the government only plays the referee, only you will decide if you are going to win the race."


title: Liu Chuanzhi

text: As of 2002, Liu served as vice-chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce. Since 2004, Liu has served as director of the Computer Technology Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Liu was a delegate to the 16th National Congress of Chinese Communist Party and a deputy to the 9th and 10th sessions of the National People's Congress, China's highest legislative body.


title: Liu Chuanzhi

text: Liu has been named "Asian Businessman," one of the "Global 25 Most Influential Business Leaders," and many other awards. He received Second National Technology Entrepreneurs Gold Award in 1990. He was named a Model Worker and Man of Reform in China, both in 1995. He was named one of the "Ten Most Influential Men of the Commercial Sector" in China in 1996. Liu was named one of the "Stars of Asia" by "BusinessWeek" magazine in 2000. In 2001, Liu was selected by "Time Magazine" as one of the "25 Most Influential Global Executives." In 2012, "Forbes" named Liu one of the 10 most important business leaders in China.


title: Liu Chuanzhi

text: Liu is a member of the China Entrepreneurs Club (CEC). The CEC was founded in 2006. Its purpose is to strengthen the sense of social responsibility among China's young entrepreneurs.


title: Liu Chuanzhi

text: Liu was born in 1945 in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, where his paternal grandfather was head of a traditional Chinese bank. Liu's grandfather sent his father, Liu Gushu (), to study in Shanghai. Liu Gushu abandoned scholarship and passed an exam for employment with the Bank of China. Liu Gushu was a "patriotic capitalist" who worked secretly for the Communist Party before the revolution of 1949. He became a senior executive with the Bank of China and later became a patent lawyer and chairman of the China Technology Licensing Company. Liu Chuanzhi's maternal grandfather served as finance minister for the warlord Sun Chuanfang. After the Communist victory in 1949, Liu's family moved to Beijing, where they lived in a traditional courtyard home located on a hutong in the Wangfujing area. Liu's father continued his work with the Bank of China and joined the Chinese Communist Party. Liu's father developed a reputation as an honest and skilled banker.


title: Liu Chuanzhi

text: Liu is married and has three children. Liu's daughter Liu Qing () is an alumna of Peking University. Liu Qing joined Didi Chuxing as chief operating officer in July 2014 after working at Goldman Sachs for 12 years.


title: Eastern Columbia Building

text: The Eastern Columbia Building, also known as the Eastern Columbia Lofts, is a thirteen-story Art Deco building designed by Claud Beelman located at 849 S. Broadway in the Broadway Theater District of Downtown Los Angeles. It opened on September 12, 1930, after just nine months of construction. It was built at a cost of $1.25 million as the new headquarters and 39th store for the Eastern-Columbia Department Store, whose component Eastern and Columbia stores were founded by Adolph Sieroty and family. At the time of construction, the City of Los Angeles enforced a height limit of , however the decorative clock tower was granted an exemption, allowing the clock a total height of . J. V. McNeil Company was the general contractor.


title: Eastern Columbia Building

text: The edifice is easily spotted from the Interstate 10 - Santa Monica Freeway, as well as many other sections of downtown, due to its bright "melting turquoise" terra cotta tiles and trademark four-sided clock tower, emblazoned with the word "EASTERN" in bright white neon on each face of the clock.


title: Eastern Columbia Building

text: The building is widely considered the greatest surviving example of Art Deco architecture in the city. It is one of the city's most photographed structures and a world-renowned Art Deco landmark.


title: Eastern Columbia Building

text: The building has been characterized as the "benchmark of deco buildings in Los Angeles" and as one of the "grand dames of Art Deco Streamline Moderne in Los Angeles". Historian Robert Winter called the building "a shining example of Southern California's golden age of architecture". Los Angeles Times critic Christopher Hawthorne declared it "one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture in the city". Past president of the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles, Rory Cunningham, referred to the building as "one of the premier Deco buildings in the country". Ken Bernstein, director of the Office of Historic Resources for the City Planning Department, has stated that "The Eastern Columbia Building is unquestionably one of the signature Art Deco buildings in all of Los Angeles" and he selected it as one of the city's most beautiful buildings. The Eastern Columbia is lovingly referred to as the "Jewel of Downtown" and the "Art Deco Jewel of the West".


title: Eastern Columbia Building

text: The Eastern Columbia was listed as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 294 in 1985. "The property meets the criteria for HCM designation because it reflects the broad cultural, economic, or social history of the nation, state, or community. It has become a visual landmark and is representative of the vitality of Los Angeles' retail and commercial core."


title: Eastern Columbia Building

text: The Eastern Columbia Building is built of steel-reinforced concrete and clad in glossy turquoise terra cotta trimmed with deep blue and gold trim. The building's vertical emphasis is accentuated by deeply recessed bands of paired windows and spandrels with copper panels separated by vertical columns. The façade is decorated with a wealth of motifs—sunburst patterns, geometric shapes, zigzags, chevrons and stylized animal and plant forms. The building is capped with a four-sided clock tower emblazoned with the name "Eastern" in neon and crowned with a central smokestack surrounded by four stylized flying buttresses. The sidewalks surrounding the Broadway and Ninth Street sides of the building are of multi-colored terrazzo laid in a dynamic pattern of zigzags and chevrons. The central main entrance has a spectacular recessed two-story vestibule adorned with a blue and gold terra cotta sunburst. The vestibule originally led to a pedestrian retail arcade running through the center of the building.


title: Eastern Columbia Building

text: The building was created to house the then-separate Eastern (furniture and homeware) and Columbia (apparel) department stores both owned and managed by Adolph Sieroty, who had founded his Los Angeles retail concern as a clock shop at 556 S. Spring St. in 1892.


title: Eastern Columbia Building

text: At opening in 1930, the building had 275,650 sq. ft. of floor space. The first four floors and mezzanine were shared by Columbia and Eastern stores, with Columbia on the 9th & Broadway corner. From the 7th floor and up the floors were all Eastern. It was arranged as follows:


title: Eastern Columbia Building

text: In 1940, the company started advertising as the Eastern-Columbia Department Store. In 1950, the store expanded to cover the entire side of the block from Broadway to Hill Street.


title: Eastern Columbia Building

text: In 1957, the company closed the Eastern-Columbia stores in its downtown flagship building, along with branch stores on S. Main St., Central Ave., Whittier Blvd., and in Long Beach. (It kept the Eastern stores in Bakersfield, Fresno, and Sacramento, and its Columbia store branches in Huntington Park, Lakewood and Long Beach.) The Eastern Columbia Building was refitted as office space targeted at the wholesale apparel industry.


title: Eastern Columbia Building

text: In 2004, plans were made to convert the building into condominiums. On June 23, 2005, the long-defunct clock tower was reactivated in a ceremony with city and preservation leaders to celebrate the building's 75th anniversary. Developer KOR Group, in conjunction with Killefer Flammang Architects, completed a two-year $80-million renovation of the building in 2006, turning the property into 147 condominiums, with interior redesign completed by the firm Kelly Wearstler Interior Design These live/work lofts showcase the timeless details of the early 20th century along with modern upgrades. The project earned California Construction Magazine's Best Redevelopment in 2007, McGraw Hill's Best Redevelopment of '07 Award, and the 2007 Multi-Housing News Adaptive Reuse Award. The Eastern Columbia Lofts earned a 2008 Los Angeles Conservancy Preservation Award. The building is a participant in the Mills Act Historic Property Contracts Program.


title: Eastern Columbia Building

text: Since 2015 the building has been at the center of a political dispute over a proposed adjacent project, the 26-story Alexan Broadway project at 9th and Hill Streets, that has faced some opposition because of concerns that it would block views of the Eastern Columbia and its landmark clock.


title: Eastern Columbia Building

text: Actor Johnny Depp acquired five penthouses in 2007, totaling a combined of space. In 2016, billionaire Ronald Burkle sold a three-story penthouse within the Eastern Columbia for $2.5 million, among the highest prices ever paid per square foot for a residential unit in the Historic Core district.


title: Eastern Columbia Building

text: The building sits in the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles, which is rich in historic architecture, and which has largely maintained its historic integrity, due in large part to hard fought preservation efforts, the 1999 Adaptive Re-Use Ordinance, and Councilmember Jose Huizar's "Bringing Back Broadway" initiative.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Doctor Psycho is a fictional character appearing in DC Comics publications and related media, commonly as a recurring adversary of the superhero Wonder Woman. First appearing in "Wonder Woman", issue #5 (1943), written by Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston, the character would become one of the Amazing Amazon's most persistent enemies, reappearing throughout the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Modern Age of Comics.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Over the decades, Dr. Psycho has undergone several minor updates as comics continuities have shifted and evolved, though his distinctive physical appearance has remained largely faithful to artist Harry G. Peter's original 1943 design. After DC Comics rebooted its continuity in 1985 (in a publication event known as the Crisis on Infinite Earths), Wonder Woman, her supporting characters and many of her foes, were re-imagined and reintroduced. Prior to this reboot, Doctor Psycho demonstrated a command over the occult and was able to harness supernatural energies to project illusions. Since his Post-Crisis reintroduction, the character has been presented as an extremely powerful telepath and telekinetic. Despite these changes, Doctor Psycho has consistently been portrayed as a misogynistic person of short stature who suffers from mental illness (ranging from mild obsessiveness to full-blown dissociation).


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Doctor Psycho made his animation debut as a regular in "Harley Quinn", with his voice provided by actor and comedian Tony Hale.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: The character of Doctor Psycho was created by William Moulton Marston, creator of Wonder Woman and author of her original adventures, as an allegory of the folly of abnormal emotions such as misogyny and other hatreds, as well as to be another embodiment of what he called "less actively developed men" (emotionally misaligned) who needed emotional reform by a love leader (Wonder Woman). William Moulton Marston's creation of Doctor Psycho drew upon his interest in metaphysics and spiritualism. Marston, a psychologist, created Doctor Psycho as a murderous psychopath with an intense hatred of women. The character was partly inspired by actor Lon Chaney ("Man of a thousand faces") and partly by Marston's undergraduate advisor Hugo Münsterberg, who was opposed to women's suffrage and feminism, and was into metaphysics. Doctor Psycho was also one of several villains created for Wonder Woman who were occultists, beguiling the masses for their own self-enriching purposes.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: As Wonder Woman's rogues and supporting cast were largely jettisoned during the period that Robert Kanigher wrote and edited the issues, Doctor Psycho remained one of the few villains to appear in the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Age adventures. The character was also one of the few such villains to be modernized in the early issues of the post-"Crisis on Infinite Earths" Wonder Woman.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Doctor Psycho first appears as a pawn of the Duke of Deception. God of War, Mars, enraged that women were gaining power in Earth society and potentially threatening his ability to engulf the world in war, ordered Deception to discredit women. Deception called upon Doctor Psycho to set about eliminating women from the war effort.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Doctor Psycho, known as Cyril Psycho was revealed in flashback to have been a medical student who was frequently humiliated by his peers. He discovered that his fiancée Marva Jane Gray was in love with college athletic champion Ben Bradley. Bradley removed him as a rival for Marva's affections by stealing $125,000 worth of radium from the college lab and hunching down in disguise so that Marva would think she saw her diminutive fiancé as the culprit.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Convicted on the basis of Marva's testimony, Psycho seethed behind bars for years, planning his revenge while developing an intense hatred of all women. Upon his release, he tortured and killed Bradley, who falsely confessed that Marva was his willing accomplice. Psycho then kidnapped and tortured Marva, hypnotically compelling her to marry him, and then subjecting her to daily occult experiments.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Learning that he could use Marva as a medium for summoning ectoplasm he could use at will to fashion and animate human forms around his own misshapen body, he created a new career for himself as an occultist and sham psychic who developed a following of millions.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: At Deception's urging, he used his fame as an occultist to campaign for eliminating women from the war effort by creating an ectoplasmic form purporting to be the spirit of George Washington, claiming that women were hindering the war effort. He also disguised himself as Colonel Darnell of Military Intelligence to frame female staff of military intelligence for espionage.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: With the aid of Steve Trevor and the Holliday College girls, Wonder Woman disrupted his plot but was forced to let him go, unable to prove any of his crimes in a court of law. Doctor Psycho fixated his pathological hatred of women into fantasies of revenge against Wonder Woman.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Freed from Psycho's influence, Marva joined the WAACs and helped Wonder Woman expose Nazi saboteur Stoffer, who had disguised himself as General Scott.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Psycho was eventually imprisoned but escaped by faking his own death, kidnapping Marva and then his former secretary, Joan White, to use as mediums for his ectoplasmic power. He attempted to court Etta Candy in a disguise, but his cover was blown by Etta's suitor Oscar Sweetgulper and he was returned to prison.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: In the Golden Age, Psycho's brother Ironsides was a brilliant geologist who was also a villain. Ironsides invented the Iron Giant's disguise. He did not, however, display any superpowers.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Psycho eventually realized that he could use Steve Trevor as a medium. Kidnapping Trevor, he fashioned an ectoplasmic dream of power from Trevor's unconscious mind and became the powerful "Captain Wonder", who teamed up with the Silver Swan to destroy Wonder Woman. His powerful form was destroyed when Trevor awakened from his slumber.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: When the Monitor was testing heroes and villains in the run-up to the Crisis on Infinite Earths, he set up Doctor Psycho to retrieve ectoplasmic machinery from military intelligence and to fight with several of Wonder Woman's other rogues, but they were defeated by the combined might of Wonder Woman and Etta Candy, who used the ectoplasm machine to create a superpowered version of herself patterned after Wonder Woman.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: "Post-Crisis" Dr. Psycho is introduced as Edgar Cizko, a telepath with the ability to enter and sometimes shape other people's dreams. Psycho was enlisted by Circe to create disturbing dreams for Wonder Woman's close friend, Vanessa Kapatelis, with the result that Wonder Woman would be forced to separate herself from her closest allies. This was part of a plot intended to leave Wonder Woman isolated and create widespread public fear of her fellow Amazons. Psycho later helps warp Kapatelis' damaged psyche to turn her into the new Silver Swan.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Dr. Psycho's plans are foiled and he subsequently spends some time as a patient in a mental facility, confined to a padded room and a straitjacket. Several members of the time-lost Legion of Super-Heroes were in telepathic range. When Saturn Girl mentally shouts for a lost member, this awakened Dr. Psycho enough for him to attack several staff members and flee. The call brought him to the Legion, whom he also attacks.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: In the "Villains United" miniseries leading up to "Infinite Crisis", Psycho has surfaced as a core member of Lex Luthor's Secret Society of Super Villains. Working with Talia al Ghul, he recruits many supervillains for the Society, and is rejected and successfully rebuffed by Catman. He threatens to have Catman kill himself. The presence of the man's loyal pack of lions convinces Psycho that he might be eaten if he forces Catman to harm himself. This rejection angers him, causing much grumbling for some time afterwards. He also spends time working with Deathstroke in order to capture one of the Marvel Family. Other members of the Society realize that Psycho is trying to mentally influence them. Unaffected, they brush it off as something to be expected.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: After the events of the 6th issue of "Infinite Crisis," Psycho travels with Warp to free Doomsday from captivity near the center of the Earth. He takes control of Doomsday, and uses him to spearhead a supervillain assault on Metropolis. The villains lose this battle.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: One Year Later, Doctor Psycho is arrested and put on trial with Kate Spencer (Manhunter) as his defense attorney. Following his arrest, he is abandoned by the Society. During the trial, he uses his mind-controlling abilities to make Spencer dream of herself dressed as Wonder Woman in a scene reminiscent of the Roman Colosseum. Before the trial verdict could be revealed, his powers are returned to him as a result of his ties to the Society who had constructed the machine that was blocking them. He uses his telepathy to hold the people in the courtroom hostage.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: This forces Spencer to try to put on her uniform but she instead reveals herself to Doctor Psycho as Manhunter. Psycho then makes Kate put on her suit, but drops his guard to sneak a kiss with her, resulting in him being stabbed in the stomach and head. This causes him to forget about Kate's alter-ego and lose his powers.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Doctor Psycho has lately been shown still in a position of authority with the Society in the "Secret Six" miniseries. He has been working with former enemy Cheshire for Vandal Savage and hiring various villains to put out hits on other Secret Six members. In the final issue of "Secret Six" (December 2006), he is stabbed repeatedly and seriously injured by the Mad Hatter.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: He resurfaced with his powers restored and amplified by Circe in the Wonder Woman series beginning in 2006. He was assisting Cheetah and Giganta.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: On the cover of "Justice League of America" vol. 2 #13, it shows Doctor Psycho as a member of the latest Injustice League.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: During the "Final Crisis" storyline, Genocide was sent to the DMA (Department of Metahuman Affairs) Headquarters to retrieve Doctor Psycho, who is held captive there.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: In September 2011, "The New 52" rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Doctor Psycho first appears in "Superboy"; a con man psychic who practices seance, using his telepathy to steal identities of customers in Manhattan. The purpose of this guise is to hide from the H.I.V.E., who are hunting those with telepathic abilities. He first encounters Superboy after hearing about aliens in the city. His astral form is unintentionally pulled into Superboy's mind, who is fighting Plasmus.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: After learning of Superboy's origin, which remains unknown to Superboy, he attempts to befriend him. The two are attacked by agents of H.I.V.E, which they defeat. They form an alliance against the organization. During their investigation, they run into a girl with psionic powers named Sarah, her powers manifest into a being called Decay; she had been previously experimented on by the H.I.V.E.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: He later appears in "Teen Titans" vol. 4 #11, where he is on the Metropolis prison talking with Psimon. Then he appears in "Teen Titans" vol. 4 #13, where he is trying to get Raven's powers, but he accidentally looks into her mind, where he sees her killing him.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Later during the "Trinity War" storyline, Question gives Superman a newspaper clipping stating that Doctor Psycho was sighted in Khandaq the day when Doctor Light was killed. This causes Superman, Question, and the Justice League to go after Doctor Psycho. Superman, Question, and the others arrive in Pittsburgh to confront Doctor Psycho. Martian Manhunter looks into Doctor Psycho's mind and learns that he was sent to Kahndaq by the Secret Society, but did not do anything to control Superman's mind.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: During the "Forever Evil" storyline, Doctor Psycho is among the villains recruited by the Crime Syndicate to join the Secret Society of Super Villains. Then he appears in "Justice League" vol. 2 #29, where he is sent by the Society, along with the Fearsome Five and Hector Hammond, to fight against Cyborg and the Metal Men. He ends up being defeated by Gold.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: After the events of "DC Rebirth", Doctor Psycho's history had been altered. Using his illusions to pose as a scientist for A.R.G.U.S. named Dr. Edward Carne, Doctor Psycho was first seen after Vanessa Kapatelis was defeated and brought into custody by Wonder Woman. As Doctor Carne, Psycho told Wonder Woman that when Vanessa woke from her comatose state that he would be there for her.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Doctor Psycho later appeared as a member of the Cabal alongside Per Degaton, Queen Bee, Amazo, and Hugo Strange.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Later, Doctor Psycho was one of several powerful psychics kidnapped by Amanda Waller to hack into Brainiac's mind.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: In the "Watchmen" sequel "Doomsday Clock", Doctor Psycho is among the villains that attend an underground meeting held by the Riddler, where they talk about the Superman Theory.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Doctor Psycho is a skilled occultist and utilizes psionic powers to traumatize or terrify those who stand in his way. In two original appearances, he hypnotizes his victims to draw ectoplasm into the physical world, which Psycho shaped into various disguises.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: In "The New 52" continuity, Doctor Psycho possesses psychokinetic capabilities, although Edgar has stated that he had possessed every one of them imaginable. However, he does not have the enough energy required to use his abilities in their fullest capacity. He can overcome this weakness by siphoning mental energies from other individuals with psionic powers, such as Superboy.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Doctor Psycho appears in the second story from "Wonder Woman '77", a series based on the Wonder Woman TV series, though he did not have any appearances in that television series. The doctor escapes a mental institution and abducts Wonder Woman. Using his telepathic machines, Doctor Psycho convinces Diana that she is no longer Wonder Woman. The superheroine escapes his mental labyrinth and defeats Doctor Psycho and his illusions, returning him to the mental institution.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Doctor Psycho appears as a primary antagonist in the second volume of "" by writer Grant Morrison and artist Yanick Paquette. This version of the character is of average height and named Dr. Leon Zeiko, a hypnotist and pick-up artist who manipulates Wonder Woman.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Doctor Psycho appears in the tie-in comics of "" under the identity of Dr. Jackson Alpert, who's working for a C.I.A. project called MKUltra, where they used psychotropic drugs to experiment on human beings without their knowledge or permission, all because they wanted to control people, but Alpert wanted to set them free, bring them to the next level of evolution. Because of this disagreement, he left the C.I.A. project and joined the "Hairies" on The Farm in New York, where he conducted his experiments on people with the chemicals developed by him in his lab, but their experiments went awry, turning them into wild, violent creatures, disgusting Bekka, the Wonder Woman. Thanks to Bekka's crystal gems created by her Mother Box, Doctor Psycho advanced in his experiments, but his misrepresented goals turned people in his lab into monsters. Despite this he founded The Eternity Institute in Switzerland and all he'd achieved—the extraordinary advances in science, medicine and technology—over the next forty years Alpert became a notorious recluse, never being seen in public and secretly harvesting DNA of the Justice League. He was the one who created the Forever People, claiming to be the result of his efforts to develop humanity and lead them to a new world of peace and order, devoting to wipe out disease, poverty and war. But beneath all a veneer of goodness and altruism lay the essence of a greedy man, and in his dying days, evolved into Imperiex using DNA of the League and the Forever Formula. He was defeated and Bekka killed the evil doctor with her sword.


title: Doctor Psycho

text: Doctor Psycho appears in "Dr. Psycho's Circus of Crime", by Paul Kupperberg and published by Capstone as part of their "DC Super Heroes" line of illustrated children's books.


title: Thomas Telford

text: Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotland, as well as harbours and tunnels. Such was his reputation as a prolific designer of highways and related bridges, he was dubbed "The Colossus of Roads" (a pun on the Colossus of Rhodes), and, reflecting his command of all types of civil engineering in the early 19th century, he was elected as the first President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a post he held for 14 years until his death.


title: Thomas Telford

text: Telford was born on 9 August 1757, at Glendinning, a hill farm east of Eskdalemuir Kirk, in the rural parish of Westerkirk, in Eskdale, Dumfriesshire. His father John Telford, a shepherd, died soon after Thomas was born. Thomas was raised in poverty by his mother Janet Jackson (died 1794).


title: Thomas Telford

text: At the age of 14, he was apprenticed to a stonemason, and some of his earliest work can still be seen on the bridge across the River Esk in Langholm in Dumfries and Galloway. He worked for a time in Edinburgh and in 1782 he moved to London where, after meeting architects Robert Adam and Sir William Chambers, he was involved in building additions to Somerset House there. Two years later he found work at Portsmouth dockyard and – although still largely self-taught – was extending his talents to the specification, design and management of building projects.


title: Thomas Telford

text: In 1787, through his wealthy patron William Pulteney, he became Surveyor of Public Works in Shropshire. His projects included renovation of Shrewsbury Castle, the town's prison (during the planning of which he met leading prison reformer John Howard), the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Bridgnorth and another church, St Michael, in Madeley. Called in to advise on a leaking roof at St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury in 1788, he warned the church was in imminent danger of collapse; his reputation was made locally when it collapsed 3 days later, but he was not the architect for its replacement.


title: Thomas Telford

text: As the Shropshire county surveyor, Telford was also responsible for bridges. In 1790 he designed a bridge carrying the London–Holyhead road over the River Severn at Montford, the first of some 40 bridges he built in Shropshire, including major crossings of the Severn at Buildwas, and Bridgnorth. The bridge at Buildwas was Telford's first iron bridge. He was influenced by Abraham Darby's bridge at Ironbridge, and observed that it was grossly over-designed for its function, and many of the component parts were poorly cast. By contrast, his bridge was wider in span and half the weight, although it now no longer exists. He was one of the first engineers to test his materials thoroughly before construction. As his engineering prowess grew, Telford was to return to this material repeatedly.


title: Thomas Telford

text: In 1795, the bridge at Bewdley in Worcestershire was swept away in the winter floods and Telford was responsible for the design of its replacement. The same winter floods saw the bridge at Tenbury also swept away. This bridge across the River Teme was the joint responsibility of both Worcestershire and Shropshire and the bridge has a bend where the two counties meet. Telford was responsible for the repair to the northern (Shropshire) end of the bridge.


title: Thomas Telford

text: Telford's reputation in Shropshire led to his appointment in 1793 to manage the detailed design and construction of the Ellesmere Canal, linking the ironworks and collieries of Wrexham via the north-west Shropshire town of Ellesmere, with Chester, utilising the existing Chester Canal, and then the River Mersey.


title: Thomas Telford

text: Among other structures, this involved the spectacular Pontcysyllte Aqueduct over the River Dee in the Vale of Llangollen, where Telford used a new method of construction consisting of troughs made from cast iron plates and fixed in masonry. Extending for over with an altitude of above the valley floor, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct consists of nineteen arches, each with a span. Being a pioneer in the use of cast-iron for large scaled structures, Telford had to invent new techniques, such as using boiling sugar and lead as a sealant on the iron connections.


title: Thomas Telford

text: Eminent canal engineer William Jessop oversaw the project, but he left the detailed execution of the project in Telford's hands. The aqueduct was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009.


title: Thomas Telford

text: The same period also saw Telford involved in the design and construction of the Shrewsbury Canal. When the original engineer, Josiah Clowes, died in 1795, Telford succeeded him. One of Telford's achievements on this project was the design of Longdon-on-Tern Aqueduct, the cast-iron aqueduct at Longdon-on-Tern, pre-dating that at Pontcysyllte, and substantially bigger than the UK's first cast-iron aqueduct, built by Benjamin Outram on the Derby Canal just months earlier. The aqueduct is no longer in use, but is preserved as a distinctive piece of canal engineering.


title: Thomas Telford

text: The Ellesmere Canal was left uncompleted in 1805 because it failed to generate the revenues needed to finance the connecting sections to Chester and Shrewbury. However, alongside his canal responsibilities, Telford's reputation as a civil engineer meant he was constantly consulted on numerous other projects. These included water supply works for Liverpool, improvements to London's docklands and the rebuilding of London Bridge (c. 1800).


title: Thomas Telford

text: Most notably (and again William Pulteney was influential), in 1801 Telford devised a master plan to improve communications in the Highlands of Scotland, a massive project that was to last some 20 years. It included the building of the Caledonian Canal along the Great Glen and redesign of sections of the Crinan Canal, some of new roads, over a thousand new bridges (including the Craigellachie Bridge), numerous harbour improvements (including works at Aberdeen, Dundee, Peterhead, Wick, Portmahomack and Banff), and 32 new churches.


title: Thomas Telford

text: Telford also undertook highway works in the Scottish Lowlands, including of new roads and numerous bridges, ranging from a 112 ft (34 m) span stone bridge across the Dee at Tongueland in Kirkcudbright (1805–06) to the 129 ft (39 m) tall Cartland Crags bridge near Lanark (1822).


title: Thomas Telford

text: In 1809, Telford was tasked with improving the Howth Road in Dublin, to connect the new harbour at Howth to the city of Dublin as part of wider plan to improve communication between Dublin and London. The milestones that are a feature of this route from Howth to the GPO on O'Connell Street still mark the route. He also drafted the first design of the Ulster Canal. Irish engineer, William Dargan, was trained by Telford.


title: Thomas Telford

text: Telford was consulted in 1806 by the King of Sweden about the construction of a canal between Gothenburg and Stockholm. His plans were adopted and construction of the Göta Canal began in 1810. Telford travelled to Sweden at that time to oversee some of the more important initial excavations.


title: Thomas Telford

text: Many of Telford's projects were undertaken due to his role as a member of the Exchequer Bill Loan Commission, an organ set up under the Poor Employment Act of 1817, to help finance public work projects that would generate employment.


title: Thomas Telford

text: During his later years, Telford was responsible for rebuilding sections of the London to Holyhead road, a task completed by his assistant of ten years, John MacNeill; today, much of the route is the A5 trunk road, although the Holyhead Road diverted off the A5 along what is now parts of A45, A41 and A464 through the cities of Coventry, Birmingham and Wolverhampton. Between London and Shrewsbury, most of the work amounted to improvements. Beyond Shrewsbury, and especially beyond Llangollen, the work often involved building a highway from scratch. Notable features of this section of the route include the


title: Thomas Telford

text: Waterloo Bridge across the River Conwy at Betws-y-Coed, the ascent from there to Capel Curig and then the descent from the pass of Nant Ffrancon towards Bangor. Between Capel Curig and Bethesda, in the Ogwen Valley, Telford deviated from the original road, built by Romans during their occupation of this area.


title: Thomas Telford

text: On the island of Anglesey a new embankment across the Stanley Sands to Holyhead was constructed, but the crossing of the Menai Strait was the most formidable challenge, overcome by the Menai Suspension Bridge (1819–26). Spanning , this was the longest suspension bridge of the time. Unlike modern suspension bridges, Telford used individually linked iron eye bars for the cables.


title: Thomas Telford

text: Telford also worked on the North Wales coast road between Chester and Bangor, including another major suspension bridge at Conwy, opened later the same year as its Menai counterpart.


title: Thomas Telford

text: Further afield Telford designed a road to cross the centre of the Isle of Arran. Named the 'String road', this route traverses bleak and difficult terrain to allow traffic to cross between east and west Arran avoiding the circuitous coastal route. His work on improving the Glasgow – Carlisle road, later to become the A74, has been described as "a model for future engineers."


title: Thomas Telford

text: Telford improved on methods for the building of macadam roads by improving the selection of stone based on thickness, taking into account traffic, alignment and slopes.


title: Thomas Telford

text: The punning nickname "Colossus of Roads" was given to Telford by his friend, the eventual Poet Laureate, Robert Southey.


title: Thomas Telford

text: An Act of Parliament in 1823 provided a grant of £50,000 for the building of up to 40 churches and manses in communities without any church buildings (hence the alternative name: 'Parliamentary Church' or 'Parliamentary Kirk'). The total cost was not to exceed £1500 on any site and Telford was commissioned to undertake the design. He developed a simple church of T-shaped plan and two manse designs – a single-storey and a two-storey, adaptable to site and ground conditions, and to brick or stone construction, at £750 each. Of the 43 churches originally planned, 32 were eventually built around the Scottish highlands and islands (the other 11 were achieved by redoing existing buildings). The last of these churches was built in 1830. Some have been restored and/or converted to private use.


title: Thomas Telford

text: Other works by Telford include the St Katharine Docks (1824–28) close to Tower Bridge in central London, where he worked with the architect Philip Hardwick, the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal (today known as the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal), Over Bridge near Gloucester, the second Harecastle Tunnel on the Trent and Mersey Canal (1827), and the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal (today part of the Shropshire Union Canal) – started in May 1826 but finished, after Telford's death, in January 1835. At the time of its construction in 1829, Galton Bridge was the longest single span in the world. Telford surveyed and planned the Macclesfield Canal, which was completed by William Crosley (or Crossley). He also built Whitstable harbour in Kent in 1832, in connection with the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway with an unusual system for flushing out mud using a tidal reservoir. He also completed the "Grand Trunk" after James Brindley died due to being over-worked.


title: Thomas Telford

text: In 1820, Telford was appointed the first President of the recently formed Institution of Civil Engineers, a post he held until his death.


title: Thomas Telford

text: He was Initiated into Freemasonry in Antiquity Lodge, No. 26, (Portsmouth, England) in 1770. This lodge no longer exists. He was a founder member of Phoenix Lodge, No. 257 (also in Portsmouth). Telford designed a room within the George Inn for the lodge. In 1786 he became an affiliate member of Salopian Lodge, No. 262 (Shrewsbury, England).


title: Thomas Telford

text: "On the 23rd" [August 1834] "Mr Telford was taken seriously ill of a bilious derangement to which he had been liable … he grew worse and worse" … [surgeons] "attended him twice a day, but it was to no avail for he died on the 2nd September, very peacefully at about 5pm. … His old servant James Handscombe and I were the only two in the house" [24 Abingdon Street, London] "when he died. He was never married. Mr Milne and Mr Rickman were, no doubt, Telford's most intimate friends. … I went to Mr Milne and under his direction … made all the arrangements about the house and correspondence. … Telford had no blood relations that we knew of. The funeral took place on the 10th September [in Westminster Abbey]. … Mr Telford was of the most genial disposition and a delightful companion, his laugh was the heartiest I ever heard; it was a pleasure to be in his society."


title: Thomas Telford

text: Thomas Telford was buried in the nave of Westminster Abbey; a statue was erected to him nearby, in St Andrew's Chapel adjoining the north transept.


title: Thomas Telford

text: Throughout his life Telford had a great affection for his birthplace of Eskdale and its people and in his will left legacies to the two local libraries at Westerkirk and Langholm.


title: Thomas Telford

text: Telford's reputation as a man of letters may have preceded his fame as an engineer: he had published poetry between 1779 and 1784, and an account of a tour of Scotland with Robert Southey. His will left bequests to Southey (who would later write Telford's biography), the poet Thomas Campbell (1777–1844) and to the publishers of the "Edinburgh Encyclopædia" (to which he had been a contributor).


title: Thomas Telford

text: His ability and perseverance may be understood from various literary compositions of after life, such as the articles he contributed to the "Edinburgh Encyclopædia", such as Architecture, Bridge-building, and Canal-making. Singular to say the earliest distinction he acquired in life was as a poet. Even at 30 years of age he reprinted at Shrewsbury a poem called "Eskdale", … Some others of his poems are in my possession.


title: Thomas Telford

text: Another example, later in Telford's life, was "To Sir John Malcolm on Receiving His Miscellaneous Poems" (1831).


title: Thomas Telford

text: Telford's autobiography, titled "The Life of Thomas Telford, Civil Engineer, written by himself", was published posthumously in 1838.


title: Penny Singleton

text: Penny Singleton (born Mariana Dorothy McNulty, September 15, 1908 – November 12, 2003) was an American actress, singer, dancer and labor leader. During her 60-year career on stage, screen, radio and television, Singleton appeared as the comic-strip heroine Blondie Bumstead in a series of 28 motion pictures from 1938 until 1950 and the popular "Blondie" radio program from 1939 until 1950. Singleton also provided the voice of Jane Jetson in the animated series "The Jetsons" from 1962 to 1963.


title: Penny Singleton

text: Behind the scenes, Singleton served two terms as president of the American Guild of Variety Artists, and testified before a Senate subcommittee in 1962 on the union's treatment of women variety workers.


title: Penny Singleton

text: Singleton was born in Philadelphia to Bernard J. "Benny" McNulty and Mary Dorothy McNulty. She began performing professionally as a child, and only completed sixth grade in her schooling.


title: Penny Singleton

text: Singleton sang at a silent movie theater, and toured in vaudeville as part of an act called "The Kiddie Kabaret". She sang and danced with Milton Berle, whom she had known since childhood, and actor Gene Raymond, and appeared on Broadway in Jack Benny's "The Great Temptations". She also toured nightclubs and in roadshows of plays and musicals.


title: Penny Singleton

text: Singleton appeared as a nightclub singer in "After the Thin Man", credited as Dorothy McNulty. She was cast opposite Arthur Lake (as Dagwood) in the feature film "Blondie" in 1938, based on the comic strip by Chic Young. They repeated their roles on a radio comedy beginning in 1939 and in guest appearances on other radio shows. As Dagwood and Blondie Bumstead, they proved so popular that a succession of 27 sequels was made from 1938 until 1950, with the radio show ending the same year. Singleton's husband Robert Sparks produced 12 of these sequels. Also in 1950, she had her own program, "The Penny Singleton Show", on NBC radio.


title: Penny Singleton

text: Singleton held top billing in "Go West, Young Lady" (1941), over her male co-star, Glenn Ford. Only two other female stars (Dorothy Page and Jane Frazee) were top-billed singing cowgirls at the time. She provided the voice of Jane Jetson in the 1962–63 animated series, "The Jetsons".


title: Penny Singleton

text: Singleton was active in union affairs as a vocal member of the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA). She was elected president of the AGVA in 1958–1959, and again in 1969–1970. Her union membership was suspended in 1962, when she was accused of slandering some of the union's officers, and she countersued. Singleton was reinstated as a union member in 1963, after the dispute reached a legal settlement.


title: Penny Singleton

text: She testified on the exploitation of women in variety work, and the union's shortcomings in representing those workers, before a United States Senate subcommittee in 1962. "I charge here and now that the exotic and strip artists have been abandoned and made outcasts by the very union to which they pay dues for representation and protection," she announced to the subcommittee.


title: Penny Singleton

text: In 1967, she led a successful month-long strike by the Radio City Rockettes for better working conditions. During her presidency, she led negotiations with the Disney on Parade show (NAWAL Productions) during a variety artists' strike in the 1970 Disney on Parade (DOP) show – a joint venture between Walt Disney and NBC, and one of the most successful touring arena shows ever, with tours all over the world. With over 100 cast members, she led a slowdown in the performance in Hershey, Pennsylvania, followed by a walkout in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and a settlement the next week in Houston, Texas.


title: Penny Singleton

text: The issue was purportedly that the 16" support stage used by the dancers was cut from the show to reduce trucking costs. The stage, which was laid down on the arena floor without the support, caused the dancers to reportedly get shin splints. The strike was settled and the show went on in Houston.


title: Penny Singleton

text: Singleton married Laurence Scroggs Singleton, a dentist, in 1937; they divorced in 1939, although she kept his surname. She remarried, to Robert C. Sparks, a Marine Corps officer and film producer, in 1941. They remained wed until his death in 1963. Singleton had two daughters, Dorothy and Susan. She was both a lifelong Catholic and Democrat.


title: Penny Singleton

text: For her contributions to both radio and the motion-picture industry, in 1960, Singleton was honored with two stars during her induction to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her star for radio is located at 6811 Hollywood Boulevard, and her film star is at 6547 Hollywood Boulevard.


title: Penny Singleton

text: On November 12, 2003, Singleton died at the age of 95 of respiratory failure in Sherman Oaks, California. She was buried at San Fernando Cemetery.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: ReBoot: The Guardian Code is a Canadian teen drama science fiction live-action/CGI-animated television series produced by Mainframe Studios. Originally announced in 2013, the first ten episodes debuted on Netflix worldwide (excluding Canada) on March 30, 2018. YTV aired all twenty episodes from June 4 to July 5, 2018.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: Four teenaged gamers, who are members of an online game's highest-scoring team, meet in person on their first day at Alan Turing High School. Their enrollment was arranged by Vera, an artificial intelligence who has recruited the team as "Guardians" to physically enter and protect cyberspace. Early in the series, Vera is given a human body and locked out of cyberspace, so she enrolls as an exchange student. The Guardians battle the Sourcerer, a human hacker. Dark code is the Sourcerer's primary weapon against the world's computer systems. After his initial run-in with the Guardians, the Sourcerer reactivates the computer virus named Megabyte, the main antagonist of the original "ReBoot", to help him from inside cyberspace.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: On October 3, 2013, Rainmaker announced the development of a new "ReBoot" television series alongside the reintroduction of the Mainframe company brand for its small screen productions. Speaking to Canada.com later that month, Rainmaker's president and Chief Creative Officer Michael Hefferon stated that the show wouldn't be the same as the "world of technology has changed drastically in the 20 years from when "ReBoot" first started" and cautioned that the original show's characters would likely be limited to cameo appearances. He then said that the company planned to pitch the series in February, with the hope of getting YTV on board as the broadcast partner.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: In November 2014, Rainmaker revealed the show would be called "ReBoot: The Guardian Code". The following May, "Deadline" reported the series would be a live-action/CG-animated hybrid distributed by The Weinstein Company. On June 8, 2015, Corus Entertainment, owners of YTV, ordered a 26-episode first season, stating that the series was created by Hefferon and confirming the details of the "Deadline" story. Shortly after, various characters from the original series, including Bob, Dot, Enzo and Megabyte, were confirmed to appear in the series, though focus had shifted to a group of four teenagers recruited into protecting cyberspace by the Guardian program V.E.R.A. The four teens were named as Austin, Parker, Trey and Tamra. A poster showcasing Austin in his guardian form was released. Commenting on the inclusion of live-action material in the series, Hefferon stated, "I talked with broadcasters around the world. The one [resounding] thing — and I hate to break it to the fans — was nobody wanted the reboot of what [the show originally] was. Nobody was willing to buy it." He later added that two thirds of an average episode would be animated content. At the time, the series was planned for a late 2016/early 2017 launch.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: Casting calls for the series went out in May 2016. They listed a shoot date between August and November of that year in Vancouver, British Columbia, with YTV attached as the broadcast partner and the episode count reduced to 20. Production was delayed with filming taking place in British Columbia in February and March 2017.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: On March 28, 2017, Corus confirmed the information revealed in the casting calls and announced the show's executive staff and main cast. Worldwide distribution, licensing, and merchandising rights had moved to Corus's Nelvana Enterprises with YTV set to debut the series in 2018. A mobile virtual reality experience and digital trading card game were confirmed to be in development. Rainmaker's parent company Wow Unlimited Media reported that the first 8 episodes of the series had been delivered to broadcast partners in the third quarter of 2017, with the remaining 12 scheduled for the fourth quarter of that year.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: "ReBoot: The Guardian Code" is modeled, rigged, and animated in Autodesk Maya, and rendered in 4K resolution using Unreal Engine 4. Hefferon stated that using Unreal gave them an advantage in speed: "Some of these shots could have taken 3 to 13 hours in a traditional pipeline, per frame," whereas Unreal rendered each frame in seconds or minutes. It also easily allowed the crew to reuse animation assets for the virtual reality tie-in.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: Ty Wood, Sydney Scotia, Ajay Parikh-Friese and Gabriel Darku were cast as group of teenagers who enter Mainframe to protect the virtual and real world from viruses such as Megabyte.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: Three voice actors from the original series reprise their voice roles in this series: Michael Benyaer returns as Bob, Kathleen Barr as Dot and Shirley Millner as Hexadecimal. Timothy E. Brummund replaces Tony Jay as Megabyte due to the original actor's death in 2006.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: A trailer for the series and the virtual reality experience debuted on February 21, 2018. The first ten episodes debuted on Netflix globally, excluding Canada, on March 30, followed by ten more episodes on September 28 as a "second" season. All twenty episodes aired on YTV in Canada between June 4 and July 5.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: Following the debut of the show's first 10 episodes on Netflix, the official "ReBoot: The Guardian Code" YouTube channel uploaded a series of 10 one-minute virtual reality shorts. Similarly, YTV released a series of live-action shorts featuring the characters from the show alongside the Canadian broadcast. A number of these shorts are directly tied to events in the series.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: A free-to-play mobile game, titled "ReBoot: The Guardian Code – Code Hacker" was released for iOS and Android devices on March 22, 2018. Developed by A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. Digital, the game is a match-5 puzzle title that features audio detection technology allowing users watching the YTV broadcast to unlock in-game cards. A web-browser version was also hosted on the official website for the series, as well as on YTV's site. As of January 5, 2022 the mobile game is no longer on the Google Play Store.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: On February 21, 2018, an official trailer was released. It was not well received; by March 10, 2018, the trailer had reached 12,000 dislikes and 983 likes on YouTube.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: On February 25, 2018, the French website Codelyoko.fr, a fansite for the TV show "Code Lyoko", published a negative review of the trailer. The review accused "ReBoot: The Guardian Code" of plagiarizing "Code Lyoko", as the trailer showed many similarities to "Code Lyoko"s premise and characters. Shamus Kelley from "Den of Geek!" also noticed the similarities, claiming that ""ReBoot: The Guardian Code" is going for the whole "Code Lyoko" thing" and added that "There isn't a single reference to the old series outside of the term Guardians. It feels more like a teen drama with elements from "Code Lyoko" and "Super Human Samurai [Syber-Squad]"." Another concurring opinion came from "Digital Spy" writer Jon Anderton, who claimed that the original show "took place inside a computer system and there was no schoolkid element, making "The Guardian Code" more similar to 2000's series "Code Lyoko" (or "Tron", to use a more mainstream example)". Shortly after the trailer's release, "Code Lyoko" co-creator Thomas Romain responded to the official "ReBoot: The Guardian Code" Twitter account, stating, "Wow you really liked "Code Lyoko", didn’t you?" "The Guardian Code" has also been seen as a derivative of "Zixx", an earlier CG/live-action TV show Rainmaker helped produce.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: Reviewing the first ten episodes of the series for "Collider", Dave Trumbore had mixed feelings, giving the show a 2-star rating. While he praised the performance of Hannah Vandenbygaart, the character interactions and most of the visual aesthetic, he felt the show's animation was of poor quality for a 2018 series. He criticized the writing, acting and camerawork, saying that it is "stuck in the mid-'90s." His biggest issue was the show's pacing, commenting that the series took too long to introduce emotional moments and callbacks to the original show.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: Emily Ashby awarded the show 3 stars in her review for Common Sense Media. She felt the show had a number of positive role models for kids and while the series wasn't educational in nature, its use of technology could spur interest in STEM fields.


title: ReBoot: The Guardian Code

text: Shamus Kelley of "Den of Geek!" was especially critical of the tenth episode. Describing it as "one of the worst episodes of television" he has ever seen. He derided the decision to include a character mocking fans and felt the cameos from the original characters were superficial. Conversely, io9's Charles Pulliam-Moore found it to be the only episode of the first ten to be worth watching. Calling it "legitimately fantastic," he enjoyed the appearance of characters from the original series and said "you can get away with not watching the rest of the season, jumping to the finale, and actually having a good time."


title: New Girl (season 1)

text: The first season of the American television sitcom "New Girl" premiered on Fox on September 20, 2011, and concluded on May 8, 2012, consisting of 24 episodes. Developed by Elizabeth Meriwether under the working title "Chicks & Dicks", the series revolves around offbeat teacher Jess (Zooey Deschanel) after she moves into a Los Angeles loft with three single men, Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Winston (Lamorne Morris). Jess's best friend Cece (Hannah Simone) also appears regularly. The show combines comedy and drama elements as the characters, who are around 30 years old, deal with relationships and career choices.


title: New Girl (season 1)

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the season holds an approval rating of 84% based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 6.83/10.


title: New Girl (season 1)

text: The site's critical consensus reads, "Zooey Deschanel's offbeat style gets a worthy showcase in "New Girl", and while it can get awfully cutesy at times, the show benefits from witty writing and a strong supporting cast." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the season a score of 66 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: New Girl (season 1)

text: Fox Home Entertainment released season 1 on DVD in region 1 on October 2, 2012 a week after the second season premiere. The three disc set includes deleted & extended scenes, audio commentary for three episodes, a gag reel, three featurettes and alternate jokes. A sneak peek to "Ben and Kate" is also included in the DVD.


title: Halloweentown High

text: Halloweentown High (also known as Halloweentown 3) is a 2004 Disney Channel Original Movie that premiered on Disney Channel on October 8, 2004, for the holiday of Halloween. It drew 6.1 million viewers for its premiere. It is the third installment in the "Halloweentown" series.


title: Halloweentown High

text: One year after , Marnie Piper prepares to begin a new school year. She asks the Halloweentown Council to work toward openness between Halloweentown and the mortal world. She proposes bringing a group of Halloweentown students to her own high school in the mortal world. The council is initially apprehensive, mostly due to the legend of the Knights of the Iron Dagger: a fanatical order of knights who wanted to destroy all things magical. The Halloweentown High Council, however, agrees to accept the plan after Marnie mistakenly bets "all the Cromwell magic" that her plan will work. If she does not prove she is right by midnight on Halloween, then her entire family will lose their magical abilities. Marnie, regretting what she said to the council, wants to cancel the program she has made, but her grandmother Aggie opposes, saying that they have nothing to fear.


title: Halloweentown High

text: The Halloweentown students arrive and are magically given human appearances to disguise their true non-human natures. School begins with Marnie acting as a tour guide for the exchange group, claiming they are from Canada. Aggie substitute teaches so she can be available in case of need. Cody, a new student, shows a romantic interest in Marnie.


title: Halloweentown High

text: While Aggie proves unable to teach any subject effectively, the Halloweentown students keep to themselves, hiding in the refuge that Aggie magically creates for them in a remote student locker. Marnie gradually encourages the students to join sports teams, school activities, and to make new friends.


title: Halloweentown High

text: Marnie's progress is interrupted by a warning that appears to be from the Knights of the Iron Dagger, then by a magical incident at the mall that results in the Halloweentown students assuming their natural appearances in public. This is followed by a break-in at the secret magical locker and the disappearance of Cassie.


title: Halloweentown High

text: Meanwhile, Marnie's developing relationship with Cody parallels an unexpected romance beginning between Aggie and the school's principal Phil Flannigan. Aggie suspects Cody of being the cause of the trouble and tries to convince Marnie to halt their relationship, but Marnie in turn suspects Flannigan. They eventually discover that Flannigan is the Knight in question; he was told prior to the students' arrival that he was the last of the Order.


title: Halloweentown High

text: Edgar Dalloway, head of the Witches' Council and father of one of the students, is the real root of their problems. He wants to keep Halloweentown isolated from the mortal world, and used Flannigan to ensure the failure of Marnie's project. This, he hoped, would cause a negative reaction in Halloweentown and keep the portal between Halloweentown and the mortal world closed.


title: Halloweentown High

text: The Halloweentown students use the school's Halloween carnival to improve mortal attitudes toward magical folk. Their haunted house depicts the ordinary lives of creatures that have typically been seen as monsters in the mortal world, including displays like the "Monster Tea Party" and ogres "picnicking in their natural setting", which winds up boring the carnival goers. Meanwhile, Marnie's mother Gwen uses a Witch's Glass to hunt down Cassie.


title: Halloweentown High

text: At the school carnival, Dalloway launches magical attacks against the mortal students by bringing the inanimate monsters in the haunted house to life. The ensuing panic spirals beyond Marnie's and Aggie's ability to contain the monsters. Flannigan incites a mob to corner the Halloweentown students. Cody tames the crowd, the students reveal themselves, and the crowd accepts them for who they are. Flannigan also renounces being a knight and accepts Aggie.


title: Halloweentown High

text: Dalloway claims the Cromwell magic and explains that his son Ethan helped with most of the things that happened, but Gwen has shown the evening's events to the Halloweentown High Council. They return the Cromwell magic, Gwen returns with the imprisoned student, and the Council imprisons Dalloway in another Witch's Glass taking his disagreement with them as a form of resignation and taking the families magic.


title: Halloweentown High

text: The portal between Halloweentown and the mortal world opens inside the haunted house, and crowds of children from Halloweentown cross over to enjoy the carnival together with children of the mortal world. Marnie flies off for a romantic broom ride with Cody. While flying over the carnival, they kiss.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure is the first video game in the "Skylanders" series. It is a 3D action-adventure platform game that is played along with toy figures that interact with it through a "Portal of Power" that reads their tag through NFC and features the voices of Josh Keaton, Darin De Paul, Dave Wittenberg, Keythe Farley, Audrey Wasilewski, Joey Camen and Kevin Michael Richardson.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: It was released in October 2011 for North America, Europe, and Australia for Microsoft Windows and OS X, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. For Japan, it was released on July 12, 2013, where it was published by Square Enix, for the Wii, PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: Activision announced that as of June 3, 2012, the game had been the top-selling console and handheld video game worldwide for 2012. As of March 31, 2012, Activision has sold over 30 million "Skylanders" toys, and sales were expected to exceed $500 million by the end of the year. A direct sequel, "", was released in 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Wii U. It is the only Skylanders in the series to have a Microsoft Windows and OS X release.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: This version of "Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure" is more of an action platformer than its console counterparts. Players have to complete levels by gathering crystals, which let them unlock more levels. Each level is littered with crystals, obtained by going towards the end of the level, or by completing a variety of tasks, such as defeating a certain number of enemies, or finding items. Whenever the player finds a crystal, an enemy awakens and a time limit starts. They have to defeat enemies, and get clocks in the level to get more time to ward off the chasing enemy. Unlike other versions, characters can make a jump, and a double jump. This version of the game is set in a different realm in Skylands called the Radiant Isles, and a different force of darkness is faced under the command of Hektore. Unlike the console versions, the starter pack for the 3DS version comes with the Skylanders Ignitor, Stealth Elf, and Dark Spyro.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: Players take on the role of a Portal Master, who can control over 30 different Skylanders, including the purple dragon, Spyro, by placing their figurines on the "Portal of Power". These heroes are the protectors of an amazing, mysterious world, but they have been ejected from their world by the sinister Dark Portal Master known as Kaos, and now, they are frozen and shrunken down on earth as toys. Due to the lack of magic in the human world, the skylanders are petrified, and only the players of "Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure" can get them back into their world. Once back in their home world, the skylanders embark on a fantastical journey where they will explore mythical lands, battle menacing, outlandish creatures, collect treasures, and solve challenging puzzles as a part of the quest to save their world.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: There are 32 standard characters and 8 different elements under which characters are classified. The 8 elements are "Magic, Water, Tech, Fire, Earth, Life, Air," and "Undead", with four Skylanders for each element"." When the character figurines are placed on the "Portal of Power" peripheral, they appear in the game. The "Starter Pack" has three characters to start with – Spyro, Trigger Happy, and Gill Grunt. Each character has specialized statistics in areas such as health and speed. The player can also find hats for the characters, which further affect statistics. Special Elemental Gates require a Skylander with the corresponding element to pass through. With two players, only one player needs to be controlling a Skylander of the correct element.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: In addition to the standard character figures that are available for purchase, there are also limited edition Gold, Silver, Crystal, Chrome, and Glow-in-the-Dark versions of certain characters.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: The game begins with a village in Skylands being ravaged by a massive tornado. A small, bookish fellow named Hugo mentions the destruction of the "Core of Light" and an individual called "Master Eon". A Skylander is sent down to the village by the player and proceeds to save the villagers.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: Following the rescue, the player is introduced to the Ruins and some of the game's backstory is explained. The Portal Masters and the Skylanders had protected Skylands from "The Darkness" for as long as anyone could remember. Master Eon, the last good Portal Master in Skylands, and his Skylanders guarded the Core of Light, a great machine that enriched the world and repelling The Darkness, the ultimate force behind all evil. However, Kaos, a Dark Portal Master who attempted to destroy the Core of Light in the past, returned from his banishment in the Outlands to destroy the Core to rule Skylands as its emperor, knowing that Eon has grown weaker with age. The Skylanders fought against Kaos' minions to protect the Core of Light. Just as they were winning the battle, Kaos initiates "Plan Z" by unleashing a mysterious creature that successfully destroyed the Core, allowing The Darkness to take over and causing the Skylanders to be banished from their world. As the Skylanders were drifted farther away from the magic of Skylands, they began to shrink until they reached Earth, where they were turned into toys as a result of that world bearing no magic. Master Eon did survive the destruction of the Core of Light, but in doing so became a spirit without a physical body which means he couldn't fight Kaos and the Darkness. He and the Skylanders then awaited for the arrival of a new Portal Master until one finally arrived: the young player, who finds the Skylanders.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: To restore the Core of Light, however, the player must collect several mystical objects. They must bring back The Eternal Source of each of the eight elements, and for every source there is also an artifact which must also be recovered. This is no small task, as Kaos is quick to notice and sends all of his minions out to destroy the new Portal Master and the Skylanders. Despite his best efforts (among them creating dark copies of Skylanders), Kaos fails to stop the player and the Core of Light is restored. Humiliated and weakened, Kaos and his assistant Glumshanks retreat to the Outlands, Skylands' most desolate area. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, the player and the Skylanders journey to Kaos' Fortress, where they engage in a massive battle against the Dark Portal Master, his dark Skylanders and the Hydra, the beast responsible for the Core of Light's destruction and Master Eon's transformation to a spirit.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: In the end, Kaos is defeated. While he is unconcerned about being banished again, Eon informs him that he is being banished not to the Outlands, but to Earth. Hugo gladly sends Kaos to Earth, where he becomes a petrified figure similar to the trapped skylanders.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: Toys for Bob was given the opportunity to revive a Vivendi franchise, and they chose the "Spyro the Dragon" franchise. Paul Reiche III noted: "attempts to revive broad-audience mascot franchises haven't seen predictable success in the game industry. Just creating a new Spyro game after the traditional fashion was unlikely to work" and reinventing the character as a "really gritty, strange otherworldly Spyro" didn't seem like a promising idea. Reiche says he had considered integrating technology with toys and games for a while, and it was the kind of concept that was so outlandish that it was the most promising idea the team sketched out for the brand.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: The game's original working title was "Spyro's Kingdom" from June 2009. The game was originally going to be a mature Spyro game with a much darker tone, that also included blood, but the developers of Toys for Bob lost their enthusiasm and felt that this direction did not feel like "Spyro". They spent six months on a variety of different directions with Spyro, and with the time and budget given by Activision.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: Executive producer Jeff Poffenbarger stated that the game is geared more towards younger gamers who have no prior knowledge of the Spyro character.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: To enable the game to work with the toys, the base of each toy contains an RFID chip which communicates wirelessly with the portal when in near proximity to inform the game which toy is currently active. The RFID chip also retains several key stats including gold, level and upgrades purchased and won through gameplay. Due to the use of RFID, the toys are portable between supported platforms while retaining their stats, allowing players to use their characters in other player's copy of the game with all upgrades in place. Additionally, two figures can be placed on the portal simultaneously, for cooperative or versus play.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: The game's original score was written primarily by Lorne Balfe, with some additional compositions by Andrew Kawczynski and Pete Adams. The main theme was written by Hans Zimmer.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: The game's main story was penned by Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen, both of whom worked on Pixar's original "Toy Story" film. The game was originally revealed to be exclusive for the Wii, and was intended to be released in 2010. However, the game would get delayed, allowing the developers to add features such as saving data to the toys, more polished content and story, and ports to additional platforms. Due to this, the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, MacOS, and Windows ports run on different engines than the Wii version.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: According to the Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bathia, "Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure" "is testing apparently very well with kids", who are the game's target audience.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: Nickelodeon of Europe and Activision had worked together to help sponsor a tour called Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure Live to help promote the game, ranging from September 10–11 at Liverpool, Williamson Square to September 17–18 at London, Westfield Stratford.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: Japan eventually finally saw a release of this game, being handled by Toys "R" Us and Square Enix and was released for the Wii, PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS and the region has also received a unique Wii U port exclusively (instead of having an Xbox 360 release), being released on July 12, 2013, which was nearly two years after its release in the western regions, thus making this the first Spyro game to be released in Japan in almost 10 years, since .


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: "Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure" received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: "GameSpot" gave it a 7.5 out of 10, praising its family-friendly gameplay and role-playing-style character progression, but criticized the lack of online multiplayer, the cost of buying a complete set of figures, the arbitrary inclusion of Spyro, and the unreliability of the Portal of Power peripheral. "Nintendo World Report" gave the game a 9 out of 10, praising the Wii version for its gameplay and production values, and the Nintendo 3DS version for its accessibility to younger gamers and overall design.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: "Destructoid" gave the game an 8 out of 10 saying, "It's not the most complex game on the market, but the innovative gadgetry and authentic thoughtfulness on the part of the developer stands out in a market so used to churning out the same old crap." "IGN" gave Skylanders an 8 out of 10. Skylanders was nominated for two Toy Industry Association awards: 'Game of the Year' and 'Innovative Toy of the Year'.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: "Giant Bomb" reviewer Jeff Gerstmann gave the game four out of five stars, stating ""Skylanders" is probably aimed at kids, but whatever. I am a legal adult...and I think it's still pretty cool."


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: During the first quarter of 2012, "Skylanders" was the third most profitable game in North America and Europe, including sales of accessories and figures. According to Activision's internal estimates, sales of "Skylanders" toys exceeded those of the number one action figure line at the time, Star Wars.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: Over 30,000,000 "Skylanders" toys have been sold worldwide. Toy sales from the first game were twice to 3 times higher than Activision had originally expected, prompting the making of a sequel.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: As of December 2012, the Skylanders franchise sold more than $500 million in retail sales in the U.S., inclusive of accessory packs and figures. In 2012 alone, Skylanders: Giants, the sequel to Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure—the #1 best-selling kids' game of 2011—generated more than $195,000,000 in U.S. sales.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: Activision announced a sequel, "", which was released in October 2012. A Web game called "Skylanders: Universe" was created as well but was discontinued on 29 April 2013. A second sequel, "", was released in October 2013. A third sequel, "", was released in October 2014. A fourth sequel, "" was released in September 2015. A fifth sequel, "" was released in October 2016.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: On May 3, 2012, an illustrated novel titled: "Skylanders: The Machine of Doom" has been released on eBook applications, that is set as a canon prequel to the first Skylanders game. It was written by Cavan Scott under the pen name, "Onk Beakman". Later novel adaptions under the "Skylanders: Mask of Power" series were written following a year after the first book's release; they are set after the events of "The Machine of Doom" and are also prequels to the first Skylanders game. The eighth and final book in the "Mask of Power" series was released on May 3, 2016.


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: A comic series created by IDW Publishing is associated with the Skylanders franchise with events that take place in between the games starting with "Skylanders: Trap Team".


title: Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure

text: Activison had commented on the possibility of a "Skylanders" movie and TV series as something that they could see themselves looking into in the future. While Activision confirmed on May 30, 2013, that there were no plans for a Skylanders movie adaption nor a TV series, on November 6, 2015, they announced the opening of Activision Blizzard Studios, who are in the process of developing "Skylanders" into a film and television series; the latter being called "Skylanders Academy", which was released on Netflix on October 28, 2016.


title: 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

text: The 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide football team represented the University of Alabama in the 2019 NCAA Division I FBS football season. This was the Crimson Tide's 125th overall season, 86th as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and 28th within the SEC's Western Division. They played their home games at Bryant–Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and were led by 13th-year head coach Nick Saban.


title: 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

text: The defending national runners-up, Alabama began the season ranked second in the AP Poll, and were the favorites to repeat as SEC Champions. The Crimson Tide won their first seven games of the year handily, and rose to first in the AP Poll. They were ranked third in the season's first College Football Playoff rankings heading into an anticipated match-up against second-ranked LSU, which Alabama lost 46–41. The next week, Alabama lost starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to a season-ending hip injury in the game against Mississippi State. They finished the regular season with a 48–45 upset loss to cross-state rival Auburn.


title: 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

text: With a regular season record of 10–2, Alabama was not selected for the College Football Playoff for the first time since the inception of the format in 2014. The Crimson Tide were also not invited to a New Year's Six bowl game, making this the first season since 2010 that Alabama was not selected to a NY6 or BCS bowl. They were instead invited to the Citrus Bowl, where they defeated Michigan.


title: 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

text: Tagovailoa, at the time of his injury, was considered a candidate for the Heisman Trophy and was on pace to break his own NCAA FBS passer rating record. He was replaced by backup Mac Jones for the remainder of the season. Running back Najee Harris led the team with 1,224 rushing yards and 20 total touchdowns, tied for the SEC lead. Receivers Jerry Jeudy and DeVonta Smith were both named All-SEC. On defense, the team was led by first-team all-conference players linebacker Anfernee Jennings and safety Xavier McKinney. Nine Alabama players were selected in the 2020 NFL Draft, including No. 5 overall selection Tua Tagovailoa.


title: 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

text: In 2018, Alabama went undefeated in the regular season and won the 2018 SEC Championship Game over Georgia. The Crimson Tide entered the College Football Playoff as the number one seed, winning the semi-final played at the Orange Bowl over Oklahoma before falling to Clemson in the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship.


title: 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

text: Seven Alabama players with remaining eligibility declared early for the 2019 NFL Draft. In addition, 14 seniors from the 2018 team graduated.


title: 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

text: Alabama's 2019 recruiting class consisted of 27 recruits, 15 of which enrolled early. Alabama had the highest ranked class in the nation according to 247Sports.com and ESPN, and had the second best class behind Georgia according to Rivals.com. The class was ranked No. 1 by the 247Sports Composite, which aggregates the ratings of the major recruiting services. Headlining the class were consensus top-10 recruits Antonio Alfano (defensive end), Trey Sanders (running back), and Evan Neal (offensive tackle).


title: 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

text: The 2019 Crimson Tide held spring practices in March and April. The 2019 Alabama football spring game, "A-Day" took place in Tuscaloosa, AL on April 13, 2019, at 1 p.m. CST with the White team beating the Crimson team 31–17. Freshman WR John Metchie III was named A-Day MVP after hauling in five catches for a game-high 133 receiving yards. White team QB Mac Jones led all passers, completing 19 of 23 passes for 271 yards.


title: 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

text: The 2019 SEC Media Days were held July 15–18 in Birmingham, Alabama. In the preseason media poll, Alabama was voted the overwhelming favorite to repeat as West Division Champion and SEC Champion.


title: 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

text: Alabama announced its 2019 football schedule on September 18, 2018. The 2019 Crimson Tide' schedule consists of 7 home games, 4 away games, and 1 neutral site game for the regular season. Alabama will host four SEC conference opponents Ole Miss (rivalry), Arkansas, Tennessee (Third Saturday of October) and LSU (rivalry) and will travel for four SEC opponents to South Carolina, Texas A&M, Mississippi State (rivalry) and arch-rival Auburn for the 84th Iron Bowl to close out the SEC regular season on the road. Alabama is not scheduled to play SEC East opponents Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt in the 2019 regular season. The Crimson Tide’s bye week comes during week 6 (on October 5) and week 10 (on November 2).


title: 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

text: Alabama's out of conference opponents represent the ACC, C-USA, Independents and Southern. The Crimson Tide will host three non–conference games which are against New Mexico State of the FBS independents, Southern Miss of the Conference USA and Western Carolina of the SoCon to close out the regular season and travel to Atlanta, GA for Chick-fil-A Kickoff to host Duke from the ACC.


title: 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

text: Alabama was selected to face Michigan in the 2020 Citrus Bowl on New Year's Day. The last time Alabama faced Michigan was during the regular season in 2012 when the Tide beat Michigan 41-14. Alabama defeated Michigan 35-16 in the 2020 VRBO Citrus Bowl on January 1, 2020 to close out the season at 11-2 overall. For nine straight seasons, the Crimson Tide has won 11 or more games.


title: Loudness

text: In acoustics, loudness is the subjective perception of sound pressure. More formally, it is defined as, "That attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which sounds can be ordered on a scale extending from quiet to loud". The relation of physical attributes of sound to perceived loudness consists of physical, physiological and psychological components. The study of apparent loudness is included in the topic of psychoacoustics and employs methods of psychophysics.


title: Loudness

text: In different industries, loudness may have different meanings and different measurement standards. Some definitions, such as ITU-R BS.1770 refer to the relative loudness of different segments of electronically reproduced sounds, such as for broadcasting and cinema. Others, such as ISO 532A (Stevens loudness, measured in sones), ISO 532B (Zwicker loudness), DIN 45631 and ASA/ANSI S3.4, have a more general scope and are often used to characterize loudness of environmental noise. More modern standards, such as Nordtest ACOU112 and ISO/AWI 532-3 (in progress) take into account other components of loudness, such as onset rate, time variation and spectral masking.


title: Loudness

text: Loudness, a subjective measure, is often confused with physical measures of sound strength such as sound pressure, sound pressure level (in decibels), sound intensity or sound power. Weighting filters such as A-weighting and LKFS attempt to compensate measurements to correspond to loudness as perceived by the typical human.


title: Loudness

text: The perception of loudness is related to sound pressure level (SPL), frequency content and duration of a sound. The relationship between SPL and loudness of a single tone can be approximated by Stevens's power law in which SPL has an exponent of 0.67. A more precise model known as the "Inflected Exponential function", indicates that loudness increases with a higher exponent at low and high levels and with a lower exponent at moderate levels.


title: Loudness

text: The sensitivity of the human ear changes as a function of frequency, as shown in the equal-loudness graph. Each line on this graph shows the SPL required for frequencies to be perceived as equally loud, and different curves pertain to different sound pressure levels. It also shows that humans with normal hearing are most sensitive to sounds around 2–4 kHz, with sensitivity declining to either side of this region. A complete model of the perception of loudness will include the integration of SPL by frequency.


title: Loudness

text: Historically, loudness was measured using an "ear-balance" audiometer in which the amplitude of a sine wave was adjusted by the user to equal the perceived loudness of the sound being evaluated. Contemporary standards for measurement of loudness are based on the summation of energy in critical bands.


title: Loudness

text: When sensorineural hearing loss (damage to the cochlea or in the brain) is present, the perception of loudness is altered. Sounds at low levels (often perceived by those without hearing loss as relatively quiet) are no longer audible to the hearing impaired, but sounds at high levels often are perceived as having the same loudness as they would for an unimpaired listener. This phenomenon can be explained by two theories, called "loudness recruitment" and "softness imperception".


title: Loudness

text: Loudness recruitment posits that loudness grows more rapidly for certain listeners than normal listeners with changes in level. This theory has been accepted as the classical explanation.


title: Loudness

text: Softness imperception, a term coined by Mary Florentine around 2002, proposes that some listeners with sensorineural hearing loss may exhibit a normal rate of loudness growth, but instead have an elevated loudness at their threshold. That is, the softest sound that is audible to these listeners is louder than the softest sound audible to normal listeners.


title: Loudness

text: The "loudness" control associated with a loudness compensation feature on some consumer stereos alters the frequency response curve to correspond roughly with the equal loudness characteristic of the ear. Loudness compensation is intended to make the recorded music sound more natural when played at a lower levels by boosting low frequencies, to which the ear is less sensitive at lower sound pressure levels.


title: Loudness

text: Loudness normalization is a specific type of audio normalization that equalizes perceived level such that, for instance, commercials do not sound louder than television programs. Loudness normalization schemes exist for a number of audio applications.


title: Loudness

text: Historically Sone (loudness "N") and Phon (loudness level "L") units have been used to measure loudness.


title: Loudness

text: A-weighting follows human sensitivity to sound and describes relative perceived loudness for at quiet to moderate speech levels, around 40 phons.


title: Loudness

text: Relative loudness monitoring in production is measured in accordance with ITU-R BS.1770 in units of LKFS. Work began on ITU-R BS.1770 in 2001 after 0 dBFS+ level distortion in converters and lossy codecs had become evident; and the original Leq(RLB) loudness metric was proposed by Gilbert Soulodre in 2003. Based on data from subjective listening tests, Leq(RLB) compared favorably to numerous other algorithms. CBC, Dolby and TC Electronic and numerous broadcasters contributed to the listening tests. Loudness levels measured according to the Leq(RLB) specified in ITU-R BS.1770 are reported in LKFS units.


title: Loudness

text: The ITU-R BS.1770 measurement system was improved for made multi-channel applications (monaural to 5.1 surround sound). To make the loudness metric cross-genre friendly, a relative measurement gate was added. This work was carried out in 2008 by the EBU. The improvements were brought back into BS.1770-2. ITU subsequently updated the true-peak metric (BS.1770-3) and added provision for even more audio channels, for instance 22.2 surround sound (BS.1770-4).


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: Marlow (; historically Great Marlow or Chipping Marlow) is a town and civil parish within the Unitary Authority of Buckinghamshire, England. It is located on the River Thames, south-southwest of High Wycombe, west-northwest of Maidenhead and west of central London.


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: The name is recorded in 1015 as "Mere lafan", meaning "Land left after the draining of a pond" in Old English.


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: From Norman times the manor, parish, and later borough were formally known as Great Marlow, distinguishing them from Little Marlow. The ancient parish was large, including rural areas north and west of the town. In 1896 the civil parish of Great Marlow was divided into Great Marlow Urban District (the town) and Great Marlow civil parish (the rural areas). In 1897 the urban district was renamed Marlow Urban District, and the town has been known simply as Marlow.


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: Magna Britannia includes the following entry for Marlow: "The manor of Marlow, which had belonged to the Earls of Mercia, was given by William the Conqueror, to his Queen Matilda. Henry the First, bestowed it on his natural son, Robert de Melhent, afterwards Earl of Gloucester, from whom it passed, with that title, to the Clares and Despencers, and from the latter, by female heirs, to the Beauchamps and Nevilles, Earls of Warwick. It continued in the crown from the time of Richard III's marriage with Anne Neville, until Queen Mary granted it to William Lord Paget, in whose family it continued more than a century; after which, it passed, by purchase, to Sir Humphrey Winch, in 1670; to Lord Falkland in 1686; to Sir James Etheridge in 1690; to Sir John Guise in 1718; and to Sir William Clayton in 1736. It is now the property of Sir William Clayton bart. a descendant of the last purchaser".


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: Marlow owed its importance to its location on the River Thames, where the road from Reading to High Wycombe crosses the river. It had its own market by 1227 (hence the name Chipping Marlow), although the market lapsed before 1600. Marlow's status as a regional commercial centre was present even before the first bridge in this area was built in the 13th century due to the settlement acting as an inland port.


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: A 14th century hall, known as '"The Old Parsonage"' built in Marlow on St Peters Street is currently the oldest inhabited building in Buckinghamshire.


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: From 1301 to 1307, the town had its own Member of Parliament, and it returned two members from 1624 to 1867.


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: Marlow is adjoined by Marlow Bottom, a mile to the north. Little Marlow is nearby to the east along the A4155 Little Marlow Road and Bourne End is further along the same road. To the south across the Thames are Bisham (home of Bisham Abbey) and Cookham Dean, both in Berkshire.


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: There has been a bridge over the Thames at Marlow since the reign of King Edward III. The current bridge is a suspension bridge, designed by William Tierney Clark in 1832, and it was constructed by 1835. It was a prototype for and is twinned with the much larger Széchenyi Chain Bridge across the River Danube in Budapest.


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: The Junior Wing of the Royal Military College, which is now based at Sandhurst, was once based at Remnantz, a large house in West Street, built in the early 18th century.


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: The Hand & Flowers, the first gastropub to hold two Michelin stars, is located on West Street. It is one of several local pubs serving award-winning beers brewed locally, in Marlow Bottom, by the Rebellion Beer Company.


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: The A4155 road runs through Marlow town centre, with the A404 lying one mile to the east, the M40 motorway further to the north, and the M4 motorway to the south.


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: Marlow is served by a railway station which is the terminus of a single-track branch line from Maidenhead. The train service is known as the Marlow Donkey, which was the nickname given to the steam locomotives that once operated on the line. There is also a pub with the same name, located close to the railway station.


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: Bus services are provided by Arriva Shires & Essex to neighbouring towns, including High Wycombe, Henley-on-Thames and Reading.


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: There are two tiers of local government covering Marlow, at parish (town) and unitary authority level: Marlow Town Council, and Buckinghamshire Council.


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: Marlow Town Council was established in 1974 as a successor parish to the former Marlow Urban District Council, which had been created in 1896. The urban district council had been based at Court Garden House since 1934, and the town council continues to be based there. Between 1974 and 2020 the town was also included in the Wycombe District, based in High Wycombe. The county and district councils merged in 2020 to become the unitary Buckinghamshire Council.


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: Marlow is divided into three wards for electing town councillors: North & West, South and South East. There are a total of twelve Marlow Town Councillors elected from these wards. The wards have seven, two and three seats respectively. Since 2011, the Town Council has been entirely Conservative with several councillors "double-hatting" across town and county council. The town forms a single ward with three councillors for electing councillors to Buckinghamshire Council.


title: Marlow, Buckinghamshire

text: In the 2021 local elections, a group of independent candidates contested eleven out of the twelve seats. They worked under the banner "Independents for Marlow" and were inspired by similar actions in Frome and other places, part of the "flatpack democracy" movement. None were successful and all twelve seats were held by Conservatives.