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Discworld (video game)

Discworld is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Teeny Weeny Games and Perfect 10 Productions and published by Psygnosis. It is based on Terry Pratchett's novels of the same name. Players assume the role of Rincewind the "wizzard", voiced by Eric Idle, as he becomes involved in exploring the Discworld for the means to prevent a dragon terrorising the city of Ankh-Morpork. The game's story borrows elements from several Discworld novels, with its central plot loosely based on the events in Guards! Guards!

Pratchett was originally reluctant to grant a licence for a game based on his novels, after the commercial failure of a video game adaptation of The Colour of Magic in 1986. Gregg Barnett, the game's designer, managed to persuade the writer through offering, alongside an initial design concept, to faithfully recreate elements from the novels. As part of his desire for a large adventure for CD-based computer systems and opening up a new potential market for similar video games, he convinced Pratchett to create an original story that would offer a game based on the entire series rather than an adaptation of one book. Development included incorporating a British cast of comedians to voice several of the game's characters.

The game was originally released in 1995 for MS-DOS, Macintosh and PlayStation, with a Sega Saturn version released the following year. Discworld proved more popular with European gamers than those in North America, with reviewers praising it for its humour, voice-acting and graphics, but criticising its gameplay and difficult puzzles. A sequel, Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!?, was released in 1996.

Gameplay
Discworld is a third-person point-and-click graphic adventure game. In each location in the game, players can examine and interact with people and objects, picking up and using items to acquire other objects or solve puzzles to remove obstacles. Conversations focus on Rincewind using one of four topics with characters: Greet; Sarcastic or Joking; Question; and Vent Anger. Additional topics may sometimes appear related to a subject that Rincewind learns during the course of the game, with the character interacting with a variety of people during the game, including Archchancellor, the Dibbler, the Librarian, and Death.

Items found in the game can be stored in one of two inventories: Rincewind's pockets, which can store only four items at any one time; or in the Luggage. To progress the story, which is divided into four acts, Rincewind must find key items needed to advance, requiring visiting a multitude of locations; some around Ankh-Morpork, and other outside the city and around the Discworld, all of which are accessed via an overworld map for each region whenever the player leaves a location to visit another (some become accessible when players learn of them).

The PlayStation version is compatible with the PlayStation Mouse, as well as the standard PlayStation controller. The Japanese Sega Saturn version is also compatible with the Shuttle Mouse.

Plot
A secret brotherhood summons a dragon from its native dimension, so as to cause destruction and mayhem across the city of Ankh-Morpork. Rumours of the dragon's rampage across the city reaches Unseen University. Since the Archchancellor wishes the involvement of at least one wizard in the matter, Rincewind is summoned to handle the problem. After acquiring a book to learn what is needed to track the dragon to its lair, Rincewind searches the city for the various components needed to assemble a dragon detector and brings them back to the Archchancellor. After the Archchancellor lets slip that the dragon's lair is stocked with gold, Rincewind snatches the dragon detector from him, searches the city, finds the lair, and takes all the gold within it. Just before he leaves, the dragon stops him and requests his aid in removing the brotherhood's hold upon her, claiming they are using her for evil and are planning to make her go on a major rampage.

To do this, Rincewind is told to discover who they are, and recover a golden item from each, since these items are what they use to control the dragon. Learning that a book about summoning dragons had been stolen from the library at Unseen University the night before, Rincewind gains access to L-Space, allowing him to journey into the past, witness the theft, and follow the thief back to the brotherhood's hideout. After gaining entry in disguise, Rincewind learns that each member holds a role in the city — Chucky the Fool, the Thief, the Mason, the Chimney Sweep, the Fishmonger, and the Dunny King — and seeks to change the city so they can have a better future for themselves. Acquiring their golden items, Rincewind brings them to the dragon, only to learn it will not return to its dimension but seek revenge on the brotherhood before coming after him. Wishing to stop this, Rincewind decides to prevent the summoning book from being stolen, by switching it for one that makes love custard. In his efforts to be recognised for stopping the dragon, Rincewind gets into an argument with the Patrician over the existence of dragons, summoning the very same one back to Discworld. An annoyed Patrician tasks Rincewind to deal with it.

Learning that a hero with a million-to-one chance can stop it, Rincewind searches for the right components to be that hero, journeying across the city, the Disc, and even over the edge, to find the necessary items, including a sword that goes "ting", a birthmark, and a magic spell. With the components acquired, he returns to the city's square, where Lady Ramkin, the owner of a local dragon sanctuary, is tied to a rock to be sacrificed to the dragon. Despite having what is needed to combat the dragon, Rincewind fails to stop it, and so seeks out an alternative method. Taking a swamp dragon called Mambo the 16th, and feeding him hot coals and a lit firecracker, Rincewind tries again, but Mambo stops working when he becomes infatuated with the dragon. Rincewind then throws a love custard tart at the dragon. The dragon falls in love with Mambo, and the two fly off to perform mating dances. Rincewind heads to the pub for a pint to celebrate the end of his adventure.

Development
Terry Pratchett was pleased with the 1986 interactive fiction game The Colour of Magic, but criticised its poor marketing. He was reluctant to grant Discworld licences due to concern for the series, and wanted a reputable company who cared about the property. Other video game companies had previously approached Pratchett seeking a licence. One such company was AdventureSoft, and their failure to obtain a Discworld licence led to the creation of Simon the Sorcerer, which took inspiration from the Discworld series of books.

When the creative director and designer Gregg Barnett sought out the Discworld licence, he intended to show Pratchett that he cared about Discworld, rather than seeking money (Barnett stated in an interview that Pratchett was more invested in how the intellectual property would be treated than money ). During negotiations, he offered to design the game before signing a deal. He did so, and Pratchett agreed. Gregg stated that the design showed respect for Discworld, and that was what persuaded Pratchett. This took roughly six months, and Pratchett was impressed with a demonstration of Rincewind using a broom to get the Luggage off the top of a wardrobe. Perfect 10 Productions developed an engine, which was developed in a separate location to "keep the code clean". The dialogue was refined by Pratchett. The character design was based on Barnett giving his interpretation of characters to a character designer who had worked for Disney. He stated that they "went a bit slapstick on it". The backdrops were painted manually and digitised.

Pratchett originally wanted the game to be based on The Colour of Magic and for the team to work in succession through the series, but Barnett believed that would be detrimental, and thought that it was difficult to make a game based on just one book (he also said in an interview that he was more interested in the Discworld itself than any particular book, and that this was so the story would not be restricted to a narrative thereof ). He explained that they wanted to license all of Discworld. An original story was made, taking elements from various Discworld books, particularly The Colour of Magic and Guards! Guards!. Barnett stated that the team had "effectively written a complete film script for the game". The game introduced a new character: a practising psychiatrist (known as the psychatrickerist ). Pratchett initially objected to this, but later added his input, and the character became a retro-phrenologist. Barnett stated that he wanted to create Discworld as a flagship game for CD-based systems, and thought the Discworld licence was "100% suited".

Barnett stated that he wanted to improve the British comedy by hiring voice actors with "British talent". John Cleese was his first choice for Rincewind, but he rejected the offer saying that he did not do games. Pratchett wanted Nicholas Lyndhurst for Rincewind because he was physically based on his Only Fools and Horses character. Eric Idle was cast as Rincewind, who was tweaked to make him more like Idle from Monty Python. Other voice actors include Tony Robinson, Kate Robbins (who voiced every female character), Rob Brydon, and Jon Pertwee. Barnett wanted Christopher Lee as Death, but was unable to afford him. Brydon had already been recorded when he offered to voice Death. Barnett initially believed that Rowan Atkinson "would make a great Death". According to Barnett, they were all "friendly, professional, and funny", and Idle was recorded during day-long sessions in Los Angeles.

The concept art and background layouts were produced by Nick Martinelli, who, according to Barnett, was "an excellent art director from the animation industry". These were illustrated and coloured by a professional team. Barnett stated that he was "intimately involved" with the graphics in the concept stages and initial production, but later stepped back.

The game was originally due to be published by Sierra On-line. Their engine was obtained and worked on, but due to costs for another project, they cancelled all external development. An advert in Computer Trade Weekly attracted interest from companies such as Electronic Arts and Psygnosis. The latter approached Perfect 10 Productions and would not leave until a deal was signed. Psygnosis had offered Pratchett "a big cheque", which he refused. Discworld's engine was rewritten from scratch afterwards.

The game was officially announced by September 1993 and slated for a Christmas release the following year. It was released in 1995 for the PC, PlayStation, and Macintosh. The Saturn version was released in Europe on 15 August 1996, and in Japan on 13 December 1996.

The game was released on both floppy disk and CD-ROM, with the CD version featuring a fully voiced cast of characters. For the Japanese PlayStation and Saturn releases, all voice acting was redone by a prominent Japanese comedian, a major selling point for the game in Japan. A port had been under way for the Philips CD-i in 1996, and had entered its final stages of development, but was never released. A 3DO Interactive Multiplayer version was announced to be in development and slated to be published by Psygnosis during E3 1995, however this port was never released for unknown reasons. In an April 2020 online interview, former Perfect 10 Productions/Teeny Weeny Games member David Swan stated that Atari Corporation approached the company in regards to a potential conversion of Discworld for the Atari Jaguar CD, however no actual development started on the port beyond discussion phase due to market issues and low install base of the platform. A Sega CD release was also advertised but never published for unknown reasons as well.

Reception
Discworld was a "massive hit" in Europe and the United Kingdom, according to director Gregg Barnett. However, the game was less successful in the United States. It received generally positive reviews. The humour and graphics in particular were widely praised, but some thought that the difficulty was too harsh. It tied for third place in Computer Game Review's 1995 "Adventure Game of the Year" award category. The editors noted its "good voice work" and "very nice animation", and praised its humour. In 1996, GamesMaster ranked Discworld 78th on their "Top 100 Games of All Time." In 1998, Saturn Power listed the game 91st in its Top 100 Sega Saturn Games.

Entertainment Weekly praised the voice-acting of Eric Idle, but criticised the PlayStation version, saying that it was difficult to navigate without the PlayStation Mouse and that the text was too small. In their review of the PlayStation version, Electronic Gaming Monthly similarly commented that the PlayStation mouse is required for full enjoyment, but highly praised the voice acting, humour, and graphics. Scary Larry of GamePro, in contrast to EW and EGM, said the standard joypad "works just as well" as the PlayStation Mouse. He praised the humorous graphics, extensive voice acting, and script which "will leave your sides aching from laughter", but found the gameplay too simplistic and lacking in challenge. He recommended it for players who were open to less serious gaming. IGN called Discworld challenging and long, but criticised the long loading times. The reviewer of Joypad (magazine) described the game as "very beautiful" and said that the PlayStation version has more colours than the PC version, but disliked the difficulty and the size of the save game files.

Sega Saturn Magazine cited overlong dialogues, poor graphics, and "largely non-existent" animation, but complimented the variety of locations to visit and their mediaeval backdrops, and described the dialogue as "jokey" and "sarcastic". The magazine's Japanese namesake agreed with this assessment of "British" humour by describing it as ironic and amusing. Mean Machines Sega reviewers believed the Saturn version had lost some authenticity, and thought that the gags were not funny, but complimented the storyline.

Reviewing the PC version, Coming Soon Magazine's reviewer believed that the graphics are colourful and liked the humour, but criticised the way the dialogue was handled. David Tanguay of Adventure Classic Gaming described Discworld as "one of the funniest adventure games ever made", but recommended that players use a walkthrough. Computer Gaming World's Charles Ardai praised the humour and believed the writing was true to Pratchett. PC Gamer's reviewer praised the speech, believing it greatly improved the humour, and also complimented the difficulty, saying the game cannot be completed within days. His criticisms included the overuse of dialogue in the first act, saying most of it is irrelevant to the story, and also thought the control system "falters in certain areas". He stated that Discworld is "a worthy contender" to Sam & Max and challenged the hold LucasArts had on the point-and-click genre. The graphics and animation were criticised as "merely average" by Christopher Lindquist of PC Games, although he claimed that fans of Pratchett "won't mind" the game and described it as "A smart, funny--and long--gaming tribute" to the series. The Macintosh version was described by Génération 4 as "the gag of the year!"; the reviewer liked the humour and decoration, but criticised it for only being compatible with Motorola 68000-based systems. Adventure Gamers praised the voice acting, graphics, humour and story, calling it "a wonderful game", but noted that "it stops short of being a classic simply due to its sheer difficulty and the unwieldy nature". Adventure Gamers also called the music "serviceable at best, and fairly forgettable". In 2009 Eurogamer's Will Porter reviewed the game retrospectively, praising the game's cartoonish graphics and voice-acting, but criticising its puzzles and noting that "Discworld commits every point-and-click crime you'd care to mention" (such as "obtuse puzzles"). The game was reviewed in 1995 in Dragon by David "Zeb" Cook in the final "Eye of the Monitor" column. Cook praised the "exceptional" animation and art, as well as the "faithful" conversion of Pratchett's work to a video game, but criticised the testing and quality control as "crappy". Next Generation recommended the game for fans of Douglas Adams or Monty Python.

Entertainment Weekly's Darren Franich in 2010 called the game an "underrated point-and-click gem", saying that it was one of the games he wanted on the PlayStation Network. In 2013, Retro Gamer cited Discworld as an example demonstrating that British developers produced a disproportionately large number of overly hard video games.

title: Discworld (video game)


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Prefectures of the Central African Republic

Since 10 December 2020, The Central African Republic is administratively divided into 20 prefectures (préfectures, Sango: kodoro kômanda-kôta) and the capital city of Bangui, which is an autonomous commune (commune autonome, Sango: kôta-gbata).

Each prefecture is governed by a local assembly called General Council (Conseil Général), presided by a Prefect (Préfet). The prefectures are further subdivided into 71 sub-prefectures.

Prefectures are all named after major rivers passing through their areas:

 * Ubangi, Nana, Mambéré, Kadeï, Lobaye, M'Poko, Ombella, Sangha, Kémo, Ouaka, Kotto, and Mbomou all flow into the Congo River.
 * Pendé, Ouham, Gribingui, Bamingui, Bangoran, and Vakaga all flow into the Chari River, and then into Lake Chad.

(Basse ("Lower") means downstream, and Haut or Haute ("Upper") means upstream.)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Annona

Annona or Anona (from Taíno annon) is a genus of flowering plants in the pawpaw/sugar apple family, Annonaceae. It is the second largest genus in the family after Guatteria, containing approximately 166 species of mostly Neotropical and Afrotropical trees and shrubs.

The generic name derives from anón, a Hispaniolan Taíno word for the fruit. Paleoethnobotanical studies have dated Annona exploitation and cultivation in the Yautepec River region of Medicoto to approximately 1000 BC. Plants of the genus have several common names, including sugar-apple, soursop, anona, chrimoya and guanabana.

Currently, seven Annona species and one hybrid are grown for domestic or commercial use, mostly for the edible and nutritious fruits; several others also produce edible fruits. Many of the species are used in traditional medicines for the treatment of a variety of diseases, though their efficacy has yet to be validated scientifically. Several annonaceous species have been found to contain acetogenins, a class of natural compounds with a wide variety of biological activities. The first complete genome for a species in this genus (Annona muricata) was published in 2021.

Description
Annona species are taprooted, evergreen or semideciduous, tropical trees or shrubs. The plants typically grow in areas where air temperature does not drop below 28 F, especially Cuba, Jamaica, Central America, India the Philippines and Calabria (southern Italy). However, they have also been known to grow in certain parts of the Andes mountains in South America and in Florida.

The woody trunks have thin bark that has broad and shallow depressions or fissures which join together and are scaly, giving rise to slender, stiff, cylindrical, and tapering shoots with raised pores and naked buds. Leaf blades can be leathery or thin and rather soft or pliable, bald or hairy.

The flowering stalks rise from axils, or occasionally from axillary buds on main stems or older stems, or as solitary flowers or small bundles of flowers. Usually, the three or four deciduous sepals are smaller than the outer petals that do not overlap while in bud. Six to eight fleshy petals are arranged in two whorls—the petals of the outer whorl are larger and do not overlap; inner petals are ascending and distinctively smaller, and nectar glands are darker pigmented. The numerous stamens are ball-shaped, club-shaped, or curved and hooded or pointed beyond anther sac. Numerous pistils, attached directly to the base, are partially united to various degrees with a distinct stigma, with one or two ovules per pistil; the style and stigma are club-shaped or narrowly conic.

One fleshy, ovate to spherical fruit is produced per flower. Each fruit consists of many individual small fruits or syncarps, with one syncarp and seed per pistil. Seeds are bean-like with tough coats; the seed kernels are toxic.

Pollination occurs via Dynastid scarab beetles, which appear to be basic generalists within the genus Annona. Those species of Annona which are more morphologically derived, as well as all Rollinia spp., possess reduced floral chambers and attract small beetles such as Nitidulidae or Staphylinidae.

Toxicology
The compound annonacin and dozens of other acetogenins contained in the seeds and fruit of some members of Annonaceae such as Annona muricata (soursop) are neurotoxins and seem to be the cause of a Parkinson-like neurodegenerative disease. The only group of people known to be affected by this disease live on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe and the problem presumably occurs with the consumption of plants containing annonacin. The disorder is a so-called tauopathy associated with a pathologic accumulation of tau protein in the brain. Experimental results published in 2007 demonstrated for the first time that the plant neurotoxin annonacin is responsible for this accumulation.

Selected species
There are 169 accepted Annona species, as of April 2021, according to Plants of the World Online.

 * Annona acuminata
 * Annona acutiflora
 * Annona ambotay
 * Annona angustifolia
 * Annona asplundiana
 * Annona atabapensis
 * Annona aurantiaca
 * Annona bullata
 * Annona cacans – araticum-cagão
 * Annona cascarilloides
 * Annona cherimola – cherimoya
 * Annona chrysophylla – graines
 * Annona conica
 * Annona cordifolia
 * Annona coriacea
 * Annona cornifolia
 * Annona crassiflora – araticum do cerrado, marolo
 * Annona crassivenia
 * Annona cristalensis
 * Annona cubensis
 * Annona deceptrix
 * Annona deminuta
 * Annona dioica
 * Annona diversifolia
 * Annona dolichophylla
 * Annona ecuadorensis
 * Annona ekmanii
 * Annona foetida
 * Annona fosteri
 * Annona glabra – pond apple, alligator apple, monkey apple
 * Annona globiflora
 * Annona haematantha
 * Annona haitiensis
 * Annona hypoglauca
 * Annona hystricoides
 * Annona jahnii
 * Annona jamaicensis
 * Annona longiflora
 * Annona macrocarpa auct.
 * Annona macroprophyllata
 * Annona manabiensis
 * Annona moaensis
 * Annona montana Macfad. – mountain soursop
 * Annona muricata – soursop, graviola
 * Annona nitida
 * Annona nutans
 * Annona oligocarpa
 * Annona paludosa
 * Annona papilionella
 * Annona pittieri
 * Annona praetermissa
 * Annona purpurea – soncoya
 * Annona reticulata – custard apple, bullock's heart
 * Annona rigida
 * Annona rosei
 * Annona salzmannii – beach sugar apple
 * Annona scleroderma – poshe-te, cawesh, wild red custard apple
 * Annona sclerophylla
 * Annona senegalensis – African custard apple
 * Annona sericea
 * Annona spraguei
 * Annona squamosa – sugar apple, sweetsop
 * Annona stenophylla
 * Annona tenuiflora
 * Annona tomentosa
 * Annona trunciflora

Hybrids

 * Annona × atemoya – atemoya

Insects and diseases
Annona species are generally disease-free. They are susceptible to some fungi and wilt. Ants may also be a problem, since they promote mealybugs on the fruit.

 * Insects

 * Braephratiloides cubense (annona seed borer)
 * Bepratelloides cubense (annona seed borer)
 * Morganella longispina (plumose scale)
 * Philephedra n.sp. (Philephedra scale)
 * Pseudococcus sp. (mealybugs)
 * Xyleborus sp. (ambrosia beetles)
 * Ammiscus polygrophoides
 * Anastrepha atrox
 * Anastrepha barandianae
 * Anastrepha bistrigata
 * Anastrepha chiclayae
 * Anastrepha disticta
 * Anastrepha extensa
 * Anastrepha fraterculus
 * Anastrepha oblicua
 * Anastrepha serpentina
 * Anastrepha striata
 * Anastrepha suspensa
 * Apate monachus
 * Bactrocera spp.
 * Bephrata maculicollis
 * Brevipalpus spp.
 * Ceratitis capitata
 * Cerconota anonella
 * Coccoidea spp.
 * Coccus viridis (green scale)
 * Emanadia flavipennis
 * Gelwchiidae spp.
 * Heliothrips haemorphoidalis
 * Leosynodes elegantales
 * Lyonetia spp.
 * Oiketicus kirby
 * Orthezia olivicola
 * Phyllocnistis spp.
 * Pinnaspis aspidistrae
 * Planococcus citri
 * Saissetia nigra
 * Talponia spp.
 * Tenuipalpidae
 * Tetranynchus spp.
 * Thrips

 * Fungi

 * Armillaria (oak root fungus)
 * Ascochyta cherimolaer
 * Athelia rolfsii
 * Botryodiplodia theobromae
 * Cercospora annonaceae
 * Cladosporium carpophilum
 * Colletotrichium spp
 * Colletotrichium annonicola
 * Colletotrichum gloeosporioides
 * Diplodia natalensis (dry fruit rot)
 * Erythricium salmonicolor
 * Fumagina spp
 * Fusarium solani
 * Gloeosporium spp
 * Glomerella cingulata
 * Isariopsis anonarum
 * Monilia spp
 * Nectria episphaeria
 * Oidium spp
 * Phakopsora cherimolae
 * Phomopsis spp
 * Phomopsis annonacearum
 * Phyllosticta spp
 * Phythium spp
 * Phytophtora palmivora
 * Phytophtora parasitica
 * Rhizoctonia noxia
 * Rhizoctonia solani
 * Rhizoctonia spp
 * Rhizopus nigricans
 * Rhizopus stolonifer
 * Salssetia oleare
 * Uredo cherimola
 * Verticillium spp (wilt)
 * Zignoella annonicola

 * Nematodes

 * Cephalobidae spp.
 * Dorylaimidae spp.
 * Gracilacus spp.
 * Helicotylenchus spp.
 * Hemicycliophora spp.
 * Hoplolaimidae spp.
 * Meloidogyne incognita spp.
 * Pratylenchus spp.
 * Paratylenchus micoletzky. Rhabditis spp.
 * Tylenchorhynchus spp.
 * Xiphinema americanum

 * Algae
 * Cephaleuros virescens
 * Cephalosporium spp.
 * Paecilomyces spp.

 * Diseases
 * Fruit rot

title: Annona


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Chyna

Chyna (born Joan Marie Laurer; December 27, 1969 – April 17, 2016) was an American professional wrestler, fitness model, bodybuilder, author, actress, adult actress and television personality.

She first rose to prominence in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)) in 1997, where she was billed as "The Ninth Wonder of the World" (André the Giant was already billed as the eighth). A founding member of the stable D-Generation X as the promotion's first female enforcer, she held the WWF Intercontinental Championship (the only female performer they wrote to do so) twice and the WWF Women's Championship once. She was also the first woman to participate in the Royal Rumble match and King of the Ring tournament, in addition to becoming number one contender to the WWF Championship. She is considered one of the biggest stars of the Attitude Era. With singles victories over several prominent male wrestlers – including multiple-time world champions Triple H, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho and Jeff Jarrett – she left what WWE called "a lasting legacy as the most dominant female competitor of all time". After leaving the WWF in 2001, she wrestled sporadically, with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in 2002 and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in 2011. The latter was her final appearance in the ring.

Outside of wrestling, Chyna appeared in Playboy magazine twice, plus numerous television shows and films. She was considered a sex symbol. In 2005, she was a cast member on VH1's The Surreal Life, which led to several other celebrity reality appearances on the network, including The Surreal Life: Fame Games in 2007 and Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew in 2008. Chyna was also known for her tumultuous relationship with fellow wrestler Sean Waltman, with whom she made a sex tape released commercially in 2004 as 1 Night in China, which won a 2006 AVN Award for Best-Selling Title. She starred in a further five pornographic titles, including AVN's 2012 Best Celebrity Sex Tape, Backdoor to Chyna.

In 2019, Chyna was posthumously entered into the WWE Hall of Fame as a member of D-Generation X, making her the first woman to be inducted as a part of a group or team.

Early life
Joan Marie Laurer was born in Rochester, New York, on December 27, 1969.

Her parents divorced when she was around four years old. She had three stepfathers and one stepmother. She said her first stepfather threatened suicide at one point, while her biological father had a problem with alcoholism and once accidentally stabbed her mother in the thigh with a butcher knife. From 1973 to 1983, she, her siblings and her mother moved several times.

As a child, Laurer learned to play violin and cello. She later said that in seventh grade she was sexually kissed by a much older teacher who worked at her school. At 13, while attending Penfield High School, she began purging after she ate. She left home at 16 when her mother tried to force her into a drug rehabilitation facility and lived with her biological father. That year, she began working out, and because her abdominal muscles were so strong, she did not feel any pain when she developed an ovarian tumor. She finished her last year of high school in Spain.

Laurer attended the University of Tampa, graduating in 1992 with a major in Spanish literature. She studied French and German there (she could converse in either language) and said that during this time she was raped by two men after getting drunk at a party. She was a member of the ROTC. She originally wanted to use her knowledge of foreign languages to work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation or Drug Enforcement Administration. She subsequently joined the Peace Corps and was assigned to Guatemala.

After returning from abroad, she held several jobs: a cocktail waitress in a strip club, singer in a band, and a 900-number chat line worker. In her mid-to-late 20s, while living in the Florida Keys, she took a six-week class to train as a flight attendant. On the way to her first flight, she was in a car crash and spent four days in the hospital. When she recovered, her sister Kathy helped her get a job selling pagers; they both also worked as belly dancers.

After college, Laurer began to regularly enter fitness competitions. In 1996, she competed in the New York City regional level of the Fitness America competition. Because of her large size compared to the other women, she usually finished in last place.

Early career (1995–1997)
Laurer trained at Wladek "Killer" Kowalski's professional wrestling school in Malden, Massachusetts. Her first match was in 1995 against a male wrestler dressed as a woman. While attending the school, she also worked for various independent promotions as Joanie Lee. Some of her earliest matches were set up by The Fabulous Moolah.

Laurer met World Wrestling Federation (WWF) performers Paul "Triple H" Levesque and Shawn Michaels after a professional wrestling show in 1996. After watching tapes of her matches, they decided to bring her into the WWF as a bodyguard. Vince McMahon, owner of the WWF, initially did not want her to join the company because he did not believe the audience would find a woman beating up men believable. While waiting for the WWF's decision, Laurer was approached by World Championship Wrestling (WCW), who wanted her to be the sole female member of the New World Order. She initially accepted the offer, but later turned it down when Shane McMahon, Vince McMahon's son, informed her that she was about to be hired by the WWF. However, Kowalski said that he got Laurer hired by the WWF after introducing her to Shane McMahon and telling him of WCW's interest in her.

D-Generation X (1997–1999)
Laurer made her WWF debut on February 16, 1997, at In Your House 13: Final Four; her character emerged as a plant from a ringside seat, choking Marlena while Goldust was in the ring with Triple H. The next night, she appeared on Raw and bearhugged Marlena. Her original role in the promotion was as the laconic enforcer/bodyguard for D-Generation X, which was founded by Shawn Michaels and Triple H. She often helped them (then, a rising villain) cheat to win by physically interfering in matches by executing her trademark low blow to the groin. She was later given the ring name "Chyna", an intentionally ironic moniker; fine china is delicate and fragile, a sharp contrast to her character. Offstage, however, the male wrestlers were hesitant at first to let a woman be seen overpowering them.

During her time in D-Generation X, she was put in a romantic storyline with Mark Henry, member of the rival stable Nation of Domination. It started in August 1998 after The Rock ordered Henry to kiss Chyna to humiliate her, during which she fought back. Henry would chase her romantically, eventually threatening her with a storyline sexual harassment demand over one of her beatdowns if she didn't go to a date with him. Chyna accepted and eventually reconciled with him, becoming his on-screen girlfriend and ally. However, in January 1999, she revealed it was all a ruse to humiliate Henry.

A week after her storyline with Henry, Chyna was the 30th entrant in the Royal Rumble, becoming the first woman ever to enter the eponymous match. In the match she eliminated Mark Henry before being eliminated by Stone Cold Steve Austin. The day after it, she turned heel by betraying Triple H and aligning herself with his enemies Vince McMahon and Kane. She teamed with Kane at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre pay-per-view against former allies X-Pac and Triple H. At WrestleMania XV, she turned on Kane in his match by attacking him with a chair, appearing to rejoin DX. Chyna and Triple H, however, turned against DX later that evening when they helped Shane McMahon defeat DX member X-Pac. The duo became part of The Corporation and later Shane McMahon's Corporate Ministry. Following the dissolution of the Corporate Ministry, the villainous Chyna remained at Triple H's side. They split up later that year.

Intercontinental Champion (1999–2000)
In June 1999, Chyna became the first woman to qualify for the King of the Ring tournament. She was also the first woman to be the number one contender for the WWF Championship, but lost the spot to Mankind before SummerSlam in August. Later that year, she became a fan favorite again during her long feud with Jeff Jarrett. She challenged the British Bulldog to a match on the October 4, 1999, Raw, and defeated him. At Unforgiven, she had a match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship against Jarrett, which she lost. She defeated Jarrett for the title at No Mercy in his last WWF match, a Good Housekeeping match on October 17, in the process becoming the first and only woman to win the Intercontinental Championship. She also gained the services of his valet, Miss Kitty. Laurer said that Jarrett demanded (and received) $300,000 from Vince McMahon to lose the title cleanly to a woman. His contract had expired on October 16, and he was therefore not contractually obligated to appear on the pay-per-view. If he had not appeared, the WWF would have been criticized for false advertising, and the title's lineage would have been broken.

Chyna then feuded with Chris Jericho over the belt, defeating him at Survivor Series, but losing the title to him at Armageddon. They faced off again in a match on the edition of December 28 of SmackDown!, which ended controversially with both wrestlers pinning each other. As a result, then "head of authority" Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley declared them co-champions. At the Royal Rumble, Jericho and Chyna defended the title against Hardcore Holly in a Triple Threat match to determine the Intercontinental Champion, which Jericho won. Chyna's "co-champions" reign is no longer recognized by WWE and is now considered a continuation of Jericho's second Intercontinental reign. Afterwards, Chyna briefly teamed with Jericho.

Storyline with Eddie Guerrero and Women's Champion (2000–2001)
Not long after losing the Intercontinental title, Chyna became the onscreen girlfriend of Eddie Guerrero. Originally villains, they became fan favorites during the summer of 2000, with Guerrero dubbing her his "Mamacita". They faced Val Venis and then-rookie Trish Stratus in an intergender tag team match at SummerSlam with the Intercontinental Championship on the line. Chyna won the match, but lost the belt two weeks later to Guerrero in a Triple Threat match with Kurt Angle. They officially split in November 2000 after Chyna, in storyline, found Eddie cavorting in the shower with two other women.

At the same time, Chyna posed nude for Playboy magazine's November 2000 issue. It was also worked into a WWF storyline (based, in part, on a real-life legal feud between the WWF and the socially conservative Parents Television Council), in which it drew the ire of the Right to Censor (a group of morally conservative wrestlers). Shortly after, Chyna began a feud with Ivory, a member of the Right to Censor, over the Women's Championship. It culminated in a storyline at the Royal Rumble where Chyna appeared to reinjure her neck while performing a handspring back elbow. To convince the audience she was injured, color commentator Jerry Lawler left the commentators' booth and entered the ring to check on her condition, something he had not done since the in-ring accident that killed Owen Hart in 1999. When she returned from the "injury", she won the Women's Championship from Ivory at WrestleMania X-Seven in a squash match. She also defended her title against Lita at Judgment Day in 2001. She soon vacated the title, however, as it was her final WWF match.

She left the WWF on November 30, 2001, several months after she had been taken off of television. Various accounts of her departure have circulated over the years. Behind the scenes, her former real-life boyfriend Paul "Triple H" Levesque began a relationship with Stephanie McMahon; Chyna said the pair began seeing each other before she and Levesque had broken up. In a 2002 interview with The Baltimore Sun, she indicated that the breakup with Levesque had nothing to do with her leaving WWF and that she left to pursue an acting career. Jim Ross, then Executive Vice President of Talent Relations, reports that it was "mutually agreed" to let her WWF contract expire in order for her to explore other career options. In a 2015 interview with Vince Russo, she said that after a meeting with Vince McMahon about the Stephanie McMahon situation, she was sent home and later received a fax telling her that she was not needed anymore. After her death, her sister said that in 2001 she was offered a new WWF contract with a minimum salary of $400,000 per year and the potential for substantially higher income via merchandising and pay-per-view appearances, but she refused to sign a contract for less than a base salary of $1 million per year. Ross later confirmed this account, characterizing the demand for $1 million per year as "outrageous" and unrealistic, leaving WWF officials reluctant to negotiate with her despite her fan popularity.

Japan (2002)
After the end of her WWF career in 2001, Chyna made her way to Japan in 2002 where she had a relatively brief but productive stint with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Her first appearance was at the New Japan Thirtieth Anniversary Show, refereeing a bout between the Steiner Brothers and Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kensuke Sasaki. On August 8, 2002, Chyna defeated woman boxer Chika Nakamura for Universal Fighting Arts Organization, beating Nakamura in the first round by TKO. In September and October 2002, she wrestled several matches for the promotion. After losing to Masahiro Chono on October 14, 2002, Laurer performed her final match on October 26, teaming with a fake Great Muta played by Troy Enders in a loss to Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kenzo Suzuki. Despite working with the biggest names like Masahiro Chono and Hiroshi Tanahashi, Chyna could not break out as a relevant player for NJPW.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2011)
During the May 3, 2011, tapings of the edition of May 12 of Impact!, Chyna made her Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) debut, introduced by the returning Spike TV network consultant Mick Foley. He introduced her as Kurt Angle's business associate (she had been previously referred to as his "Mistress") and tag team partner at Sacrifice, where they would face Jeff Jarrett and Karen Jarrett. During the taping she also took part in a battle royal, from which she eliminated Jeff. At Sacrifice on May 15, Chyna submitted Karen for the win in the mixed tag team match. She left TNA shortly after, making Sacrifice 2011 her final wrestling match.

Playboy
Laurer modeled nude for Playboy in the November 2000 issue. In 2002, following her departure from the WWF, she appeared in a second nude pictorial. She also filmed a Playboy adult documentary, Joanie Laurer Nude: Wrestling Superstar to Warrior Princess, which followed her on the set.

Literature
In 2001, Laurer released her autobiography, If They Only Knew. It spent time on The New York Times' bestseller list.

Television and film
Laurer appeared on The Howard Stern Show in 2000, where she claimed she "made [an ass] out of [her]self." She also appeared in 3rd Rock from the Sun as Janice, a police officer who briefly dated Harry Solomon, and in several Stacker 2 commercials. She was a presenter at the MTV Video Music Awards.

In 2001, she was a guest on a special celebrity edition of Fear Factor. She lost in the final round of the competition to Coolio. She provided her voice for stop-motion animation renditions of herself in Celebrity Deathmatch and Gary & Mike. The next year, she was reportedly up for a part in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, but lost the role to Kristanna Loken. She hosted Robot Wars: Grand Champions in 2002, and appeared on the celebrity game show Hollywood Squares in 2003.

Laurer appeared as Lulu in Sevendust's music video for the song "Enemy" in 2003.

In early 2005, she debuted on The Surreal Life with housemates Da Brat, Jane Wiedlin, Adrianne Curry, Christopher Knight, Marcus Schenkenberg and Verne Troyer. On the show, she drank heavily, appeared nude, and got into an argument with her ex, Sean Waltman. She remained friends with Adrianne Curry after the show and made a brief cameo on her reality show My Fair Brady. She also appeared on The Surreal Life: Fame Games, which began airing on VH1 in January 2007. Filming took place in April 2006 in Las Vegas. She was eliminated from the show in the seventh episode.

Also in 2006, Laurer appeared in Just Another Romantic Wrestling Comedy and Illegal Aliens, the latter of which was the last movie featuring Anna Nicole Smith. On Cristina's Court, a syndicated court-themed reality show, Laurer appeared in an episode originally airing July 14, 2007, in a civil dispute against a breeder of teacup chihuahuas. Judge Perez ruled in her favor and awarded her $4,000.

Adult films
Laurer made her adult film debut with the 2004 video 1 Night in China. Laurer and Sean Waltman approached Red Light District Video to distribute the homemade video, which was released in 2004. Laurer appeared in her second adult video, Another Night in China in 2009. In 2011, she starred in her first professional pornographic film for Vivid Video, Backdoor to Chyna. She also starred for Vivid as She-Hulk in their parody of The Avengers, released in May 2012. A spinoff feature centered on the She-Hulk character, She-Hulk XXX, was released to video in April 2013.

In one of her final YouTube videos before her death, she said that she'd had no ambitions to go into porn, but was "making lemonade out of lemons" after the video of her and X-Pac was released "without her permission".

Personal life
Laurer's breast implants were custom-made for her after her first implants were ruptured during a wrestling match. She had also complained to her plastic surgeon that their largest implants did not suit her frame as she desired. The custom implants became the model for the Chyna 2000s, now marketed to large-framed women and female bodybuilders. Laurer said she paid $6,000 for them.

From 1996 until 2000, Laurer dated fellow wrestler Paul "Triple H" Levesque. They initially hid their relationship from their co-workers because she felt people might think she "[slept] her way to the top". They also lived together for some time. There is some debate as to whether Levesque started his relationship with Stephanie McMahon while still with Laurer. However, after Laurer's death, her sister Kathy Hamilton told Bleacher Report that while Levesque "was very good to Joanie", the couple disagreed about future family plans (Levesque wanted children and Laurer did not), and that Laurer's addictions and mental health problems also contributed to their breakup.

Beginning in 2003, Laurer had a tumultuous relationship with fellow wrestler Sean Waltman. They were engaged for a period in 2003, then broke up, then became engaged again, a pattern that continued for the next two years. In 2004, they released a sex tape which was filmed in 2003. Eager for a repeat success, the company that released Paris Hilton's celebrity sex tape obtained the footage, edited it, and released it under the name 1 Night in China. It sold over 100,000 copies, with Laurer and Waltman earning a share of the profits. Laurer, however, maintained that she did not earn any money from the release. In January 2005, she was arrested for domestic assault after allegedly beating Waltman in front of his children.

On February 8, 2007, a visibly upset Laurer appeared on Larry King Live to speak about her friend Anna Nicole Smith, who had died earlier that day. Laurer said that she "knew it was coming" because of how the media ridiculed Smith, and she drew parallels between the plight of Smith and herself. However, the wife of the CEO of Trim Spa, Monique Goen, stated that Smith did not consider Laurer a friend.

After leaving the WWF, Laurer was unable to use the name "Chyna" because of its trademark. She began using the name "Chyna Doll" for public appearances. In November 2007, she legally changed her name to Chyna.

She also had problems with substance abuse. She said that her "life was spinning out of control" around the time she made the sex tape. In January 2005, Waltman said that she was battling drug and alcohol addiction, as well as mental illness. Days after the domestic dispute between Waltman and Laurer, it was reported in the New York Post that she had removed her clothes and jumped into a fish tank in a New York nightclub. That month, she made another appearance on The Howard Stern Show, where she was described as "slurring her words, contradicting herself and launching into random tangents that were impossible to follow." On the program, she said she did not want to do drugs anymore, but said that if a line of cocaine was in front of her, she would do it. After her appearance, she entered a facility specializing in depression recovery, and decided to stop drinking. In early 2008, she appeared on the VH1 reality TV show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, but said on the show that she did not consider herself an addict. On December 27, 2008, she was rushed to the hospital after her birthday party, where she was found unconscious with cuts on her arms.

Laurer had a strained relationship with her family. She last saw her mother at the age of 16, and she said that her father was never able to get over her decision not to pursue a career in law enforcement with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She also alleged that her father took out several student loans in her name without her knowledge, leaving her with $40,000 in debt. On an episode of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew in 2008, Laurer said she had a bad relationship with all of her family members, including her siblings. In September 2010, Laurer was hospitalized after overdosing on sleeping medication. Laurer later re-established a good relationship with her mother; her father died on May 15, 2014.

From early 2012 until mid-2015, Laurer taught English in Japan. She converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while there.

Death
On April 20, 2016, Laurer was found dead at her home in Redondo Beach, California. She was 46. Her manager Anthony Anzaldo was concerned when she did not post updates or content to her usual social media outlets for several days, and subsequently found her body in her apartment. Initial police reports stated that she appeared to have died of either an accidental drug overdose or of natural causes. Anzaldo suggested that any overdose was accidental, saying that she was prescribed drugs, but tended to use them improperly.

Her brain was donated to science to study the effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). However, the brain had naturally decomposed to a point where it could not be definitively determined whether Laurer had CTE. A memorial service was held in Los Angeles on June 22, 2016. Among the attendees were wrestlers Melina Perez, Rob Van Dam, Sean Waltman and Johnny Mantell; actors C. Thomas Howell and Barry Williams; Dennis Hof, owner of the Bunny Ranch; and singers Coolio and Baby Bash, who also performed during the memorial. Chyna was cremated and her ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean.

A report of her autopsy was released in December 2016 which determined that she died on April 17 of an overdose of alcohol, combined with the anxiety drugs diazepam and nordazepam, painkillers oxycodone and oxymorphone, and sleeping aid temazepam.

Legacy
Numerous commentators have credited Chyna as being influential to women's wrestling and one of the biggest stars of WWF's Attitude Era. Commentator and former WWE official Jim Ross called her, "the distinctive athlete [who] was to WWE what Ronda Rousey has been to UFC", while E! News said that she accomplished more in her near-decade career than any other woman. Others praised her as a feminist icon who defied gender norms; Dawn Heinecken, a professor of women's and gender studies at the University of Louisville, wrote in 2004 that "She was demonized as a feminist who challenged male dominance ... Her latest, and most popular incarnation was that of a sex symbol". She was the first woman to compete in the Royal Rumble match and is the only woman to have held the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Luke Winkie of Sports Illustrated listed her as the 79th greatest wrestler of all time, while WWE named her the fourth greatest "Female Superstar in Modern WWE History" in 2021. Beth Phoenix credits her with "breaking down doors" in the industry, and Kimber Lee credits Chyna as her motivation for entering wrestling. In 2017, WWE Hall of Famer Tammy Sytch said Chyna should be inducted into the Hall of Fame, stating: “I believe she really opened up the doors for women's wrestling; not for Divas, but for the women's wrestling industry. She was wrestling men and it was believable because she was such a big personality, such a huge human being, and she should be rewarded for what she did.“

The day following her death, a post on WWE.com expressed sadness about it and featured a video of her winning the Women's Championship. After years without acknowledging Laurer, WWE played a posthumous tribute video on the April 25 episode of Raw. A short memorial article was also published on Howard Stern's official website, lamenting her death and describing her as "fan favorite [with a] great sense of humor about herself."

Columnist Mike Mooneyham of The Post and Courier stated after Chyna's death that it was "an oft-asked question" as to when she would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Jim Ross said that Chyna had an "overwhelming desire" to be inducted during her lifetime. On February 9, 2015, during a WWE Network podcast with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Paul Levesque mentioned that Chyna deserved to be in the Hall of Fame but that her career in pornography prohibited it. In interviews shortly after her death, Levesque said that she "definitely warranted" a place in the Hall of Fame and Stephanie McMahon said she was sure Chyna would be inducted but did not know what year it would happen.

Chyna was announced as an inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2019 on February 18, 2019, as part of D-Generation X. Levesque spoke to ESPN of the "complexities" he mentioned on the 2015 Austin podcast, but after describing her in-ring accomplishments he said she "100 percent deserves" the honor. Although she was being inducted as part of a group, Levesque said that she deserved to be inducted a second time as well for her individual career. Shawn Michaels also endorsed the idea of her being inducted a second time, stating: "Of all the people in this group, and D-Generation X as a whole is deserving, but I don't think there's anybody that would argue that [Chyna] is not the most deserving of [an induction]."

Posthumous documentary
On April 20, 2017, a trailer was released for Wrestling with Chyna, a special documentary featuring Chyna's life from almost her very beginning, to after she left the wrestling business, to her last days of life. On June 16, 2021, Vice TV aired the documentary with exclusive interviews from friends and family members and her manager Anthony Anzaldo.

Championships and accomplishments

 * AVN Awards
 * Best-Selling Title (2006) - 1 Night in China
 * Best Celebrity Sex Tape (2012) - Backdoor to Chyna
 * International Wrestling Federation
 * IWF Women's Championship (1 time)
 * Ladies International Wrestling Association
 * Rookie of the Year (1998)
 * Professional Girl Wrestling Association
 * Rookie of the Year (1996)
 * Pro Wrestling Illustrated
 * Ranked No. 106 of the top 500 wrestlers of the year 2000 in the PWI 500
 * World Wrestling Federation / WWE
 * Houston Royal Rumble (1999)
 * WWF Intercontinental Championship (2 times)
 * WWF Women's Championship (1 time)
 * WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2019) – as a member of D-Generation X
 * Ranked No. 4 of the top 50 Greatest WWE Female Superstars of all time (2021)

title: Chyna


text:
Talk:AutoLISP

Shouldn't the link to the FAQ or to the newsgroup added? The AcadWiki maybe. --User:ReiniUrban

AutoLISP in other products
Do we need to list IntelliCAD based products as having AutoLISP functionality when IntelliCAD is already listed? There are two products already listed and there are many more that could fall into this. HughMillard 13:51, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Errors in sample code?
There is some sample code in the Features section of the article. I hope someone with recent AutoLISP experience can clarify these points. 85.23.32.88 (talk) 19:51, 21 June 2008 (UTC)
 * The comments above the defun forms suggest that the things being defined are macros. In Common Lisp, these would be called functions.  Does AutoLISP terminology differ on this point?
 * One of the comments ends with "without command-line interface exposed" and the other with "with command-line interface hidden". Don't these mean the same thing?  IIRC, the "c:" prefix turns a symbol into a command that can be run from the AutoCAD command prompt without Lisp parentheses.  So I would expect the defun c:hello_world to expose a command-line interface and the defun hello_world to hide one.
 * Does (= (type a) 'INT) really work? In Common Lisp, the = function is only for numbers; to compare symbols, one uses EQ instead.  The AutoLISP FAQ also mentions an EQ function.
 * Does (mapcar '(lambda (x) (princ (b x))) a) really work? IIRC, in AutoLISP of AutoCAD 10, the form (lambda (x) (princ (b x))) returns the list ((x) (princ (b x))), which can then be called as a function.  If you quote the whole thing, then the lambda symbol is left in the list; is the result still callable?

Comments
with this result 678 (6 7 8)
 * I agree that the comments should not use macro
 * I also think that "without command-line interface exposed" and "with command-line interface hidden" should be changed.
 * (= (type a) 'INT) works fine in AutoCAD
 * This example I think would be better

 * "The language was appropriated (stolen)[citation needed] by Autodesk for use in AutoCAD Version 2.18 in January 1986" it is now. See this blog interview with John Walker. "And here was this thing called XLISP that was written by a fellow named David Betz who was, at the time, an employee of Digital Equipment Corporation in Massachusetts. And it was this tiny little PC LISP interpreter. Pure interpreter. And because he was an employee of Digital Equipment, their policy at the time was that, if you did any work on your own, you could either give it to them or you could put it in the public domain. He put it in the public domain. So that meant we were free to use it without any royalties or encumbrance."

Jimmy Bergmark (talk) 20:20, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

title: Talk:AutoLISP


text:
The Hunted (2003 film)

The Hunted is a 2003 American action thriller film directed by William Friedkin. It stars Tommy Lee Jones as a retired civilian contractor and SOF Trainer, who is tasked with tracking down a former student of his played by Benicio del Toro who has gone rogue; Connie Nielsen also stars.

The film was released on March 14, 2003. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $46 million against its $55 million budget.

Plot
The film begins with U.S Army Sergeant First Class Aaron Hallam, a member of Delta Force, fighting as part of a unit in the Kosovo War. He single-handedly assassinates a genocidal Serbian military leader, and is awarded a Silver Star. However, Hallam is left wracked with PTSD, combat stress reaction, and nightmares due to the atrocities he witnessed.

Years later, in Silver Falls State Park, Oregon, Hallam encounters two apparent deer hunters with expensive high-powered sniper rifles. He accuses them of not being genuine hunters due to using scopes and guns. The two men pursue him, but are outmatched by Aaron’s tactics and traps, and are brutally murdered.

Meanwhile, L.T. Bonham, a former civilian survival and combat instructor for spec ops soldiers, lives in a secluded cabin deep in British Columbia. He frees a white wolf from a snare trap, treating its injury, then locates and knocks out the man who set it in a bar, warning his friends not to use them again.

Sometime after, L.T. is approached by the FBI, who enlists his aid in apprehending the perpetrator of the killings. Bonham agrees and joins the FBI task force led by Abby Durrell. Arriving at the crime scene, he proves that one man with a knife was responsible for the hunters’s deaths, not several men with hatchets as previously believed by the agents. L.T. convinces Abby to let him track the killer on his own, but she insists that he take an FBI radio.

Bonham discovers Hallam's personal effects in a small cave just before the assassin appears, and recognizes him as one of his students. Hallam asks Bonham why he never answered the letters he sent, but L.T. demands to know why Aaron killed those hunters. His protege explains that he believes the men were “sweepers” sent by the government to eliminate him. Bonham fails to talk Hallam into surrendering, and the two come to blows before Hallam is tranquilized and taken into custody by the FBI who tracked L.T’s radio.

During his interrogation, Aaron is un-cooperative, rambling about the slaughter of chickens, and only wants to talk to Bonham, who urges him to remain silent about his black operations. L.T, when questioned by Abby, admits that his father (an Army Colonel) prevented him from joining the military after his brother died in the Vietnam War to avoid losing another son. He followed his Dad’s footsteps and took up tracking, before being contracted by the Armed Forces.

The FBI is then forced to hand Hallam over to three of his fellow JSOC operators led by Dale Hewitt, who arrives with a letter authorizing taking possession of the prisoner. Hewitt tells them that Hallam lost control during a post-Kosovo mission, killing numerous innocent civilians, and can’t stand trial because his military assignments are classified. While being transported, Aaron manages to kill the operatives and escape.

L.T. hears news of the crash and immediately travels to the scene along with the FBI. Bonham and Durell go to the house where Hallam’s former girlfriend, Irene Kravitz and her daughter Loretta reside, suspecting her of sheltering the fugitive. Abby tries to convince her to give him up, while Bonham discovers Aaron in an upstairs bedroom. The two have a tense stand off and stare-down, but he flees out of a window when Abby shows up to detain him. L.T. follows, and narrowly dodges a car Hallam steals from his partner’s garage. Later, Durell and Bonham discover Hallam’s effects in a wooden compartment, along with a letter accusing L.T. of sending men to kill him, confirming his paranoid mental state.

Relentlessly pursued by the FBI, Bonham, and the Portland Police Bureau, Hallam flees into a sewer, where he ambushes and kills Harry Van Zandt, Abby’s Boss, and her friend and partner Bobby Moret. He later hides on a Portland Streetcar. When L.T. boards it looking for him, Aaron takes a hostage at knifepoint in order to escape. He climbs to the top of a bridge and when cornered by a helicopter, leaps into the river below.

Abby, devastated and wanting revenge for her fallen colleagues, intends to deploy the full force of the FBI into the woods in search of Hallam. Bonham protests this, asserting that sending more agents after Hallam will only result in further bloodshed, and unsuccessfully argues that he is the only one who can stop the renegade soldier he trained.

Resurfacing upstream, Hallam crafts a knife out of reclaimed metal, as Bonham taught him. Meanwhile, L.T. crafts a knife out of stone and enters the wilderness alone to find Aaron. Bonham is caught by one of Hallam's traps and is thrown down a waterfall. He meets Aaron at the bottom, and they engage in hand-to-hand combat. The two sustain severe injuries, and L.T.’s knife is broken, but he gains the upper hand and fatally stabs Hallam in the heart with his own knife just as Durell and the FBI arrive.

Bonham, mostly recovered, returns to his home in British Columbia. He rereads and then burns Hallam's aforementioned letters that express his concerns over what he experienced during his service. The movie ends with L.T. standing on his porch and staring out into the snow-covered forest.

Production
The film was partially filmed in and around Portland, Oregon and Silver Falls State Park. Portland scenes were filmed in Oxbow Park, the South Park Blocks, the Columbia Blvd Treatment Plant, and Tom McCall Waterfront Park. The technical adviser for the film was Tom Brown Jr., an American outdoorsman and wilderness survival expert. The story is partially inspired by a real-life incident involving Brown, who was asked to track down a former pupil and Special Forces sergeant who had evaded capture by authorities. This story is told in Tom's book, Case Files Of The Tracker. Chapter 2 of this book, "My Frankenstein," describes Brown's tracking and fight with a former special operations veteran.

The hand-to-hand combat and knife fighting in the film featured Filipino Martial Arts. Thomas Kier and Rafael Kayanan of Sayoc Kali were brought in by Benicio del Toro. They were credited as knife fight choreographers for the film.

Box office
The box office for the film was less than its reported production budget of $55 million. The Hunted opened on March 14, 2003, at #3 in 2,516 theaters across North America and grossed $13.48 million during its opening weekend. It went on to gross $34,244,097 in North America and $11,252,437 internationally markets for a worldwide total of $45,496,534.

Buena Vista International handles the distribution in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Netherlands and parts of Latin America.

Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International handles Finnish & Swedish theatrical distribution through its then distribution partner Nordisk Film.

In United Kingdom - Redbus Film Distribution handles distribution under the name Helkon SK. It was released on 6 June 2003 (despite being renamed to Redbus on 6 May 2003).

Critical response
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.

Many reviewers noted striking similarities to First Blood, with which this film was unfavorably compared. Rolling Stone called it "Just a Rambo rehash." While there was some praise for the cinematography and the action scenes, much criticism was directed at the thin plot and characterization, and the general implausibility. Rex Reed of the New York Observer called it a "Ludicrous, plotless, ho-hum tale of lurid confrontation." The UK magazine, Total Film said the film was "scarcely exciting to watch."

However, the film also received praise from other high-profile critics, particularly for the fact it kept the special effects and stunts restrained. For example, Roger Ebert said, "We've seen so many fancy high-tech computer-assisted fight scenes in recent movies that we assume the fighters can fly. They live in a world of gravity-free speed-up. Not so with Friedkin's characters." He reviewed the film on his own site and scored it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars. Time Out London was also positive saying, "Friedkin's lean, mean thriller shows itself more interested in process than context, subtlety and character development pared away in favour of headlong momentum and crunching set pieces."

title: The Hunted (2003 film)


text:
Provinces of Burundi

Burundi is divided into eighteen provinces, each named after their respective capital with the exception of Bujumbura Rural.

Burundi's provinces and communes were created on Christmas Day in 1959 by a Belgian colonial decree. They replaced the pre-existing system of chieftains.

In 2000, the province encompassing Bujumbura was separated into two provinces, Bujumbura Rural and Bujumbura Mairie. The newest province, Rumonge, was created on 26 March 2015 from portions of Bujumbura Rural and Bururi.

In July 2022, the government of Burundi announced a complete overhaul of the country's territorial subdivisions. The proposed change would reduce the amounts of provinces from 18 to 5, and reduce the amount of communes from 119 to 42. The change needs the approval of the National Assembly and the Senate to take effect.

title: Provinces of Burundi


text:
Bizarro (comic strip)

Bizarro is a single-panel cartoon written and drawn by American cartoonist Dan Piraro and later by cartoonist Wayne "Wayno" Honath. The cartoon specializes in surrealist humor and at times is slightly cryptic in its humor. The creator often includes hidden symbols in the drawing which refer to inside jokes or other elements.

Publication history
Launched January 21, 1985, the panel appears daily in 350 markets throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. Initially syndicated by Chronicle Features, it moved to the Universal Press Syndicate in 1995 and then King Features Syndicate in 2003.

On January 1, 2018, Piraro's friend and colleague Wayne "Wayno" Honath took over creative duties on the daily strip, with Piraro continuing to do the Sunday strip. Honath had collaborated on writing the strip since 2009, and drew it for a few previous stretches.

Characters and story
Bizarro offers an eccentric, exaggerated and, as the name implies, bizarre look at everyday life. Piraro described it as "about the incredibly surreal things that happen to all of us in our so-called 'normal' lives." The situations are surreal, yet often plausible. Some cartoons involve celebrities, while others make reference to themselves or characters from comics or animation (such as Superman and Gumby). Comics critic Tom Heintjes described Bizarro's themes, cryptic aspects and expansion into performance art:
 * Piraro has taken his panel in directions simultaneously surreal and topical. In a comic universe where world-weary talking dogs exist alongside nihilistic housewives, Piraro gives his cartoons heft by skewering his own bêtes noires: wasteful consumerism, environmental destruction, corporate greed and sheeplike people, to name a few. (He also espouses animal rights in his work, for which the Humane Society honored him in January with its Genesis Award.) Though his humor is never didactic, Piraro's work is remarkable in its unwillingness to pander, even when the occasional panel borders on the inscrutable. (For example, he once used the Etruscans as a punchline; if you skipped history class that day, tough.) The 54-year-old Kansas City, Missouri, native has also begun participating in the nascent vaudeville revival with his one-man Bizarro Bologna Show, an entertainment potpourri into which he incorporates puppetry, song, ventriloquism, mind reading and drawing (not to mention slides of Bizarro cartoons too blue for newspaper publication). Creatively restive, Piraro also produces fine art, some of which uses the Catholic imagery that he was exposed to at parochial school.

Hidden symbols
Most Bizarro cartoons since 1995 include one or more of these elements hidden somewhere in the cartoon:
 * an eyeball (the Eyeball of Observation),
 * a piece of pie (the Pie of Opportunity),
 * a rabbit (the Bunny of Exuberance),
 * an alien in a spaceship (the Flying Saucer of Possibility),
 * the abbreviation "K2" (referring to Piraro's children Kaitlin and Killian),
 * a crown (the Crown of Power),
 * a stick of dynamite (the Dynamite of Unintended Consequences),
 * a shoe (the Lost Loafer),
 * an arrow (The Arrow of Vulnerability),
 * a fish tail (The Fish of Humility)
 * an upside down bird (the Inverted Bird)
 * Olive Oyl, or the abbreviation "O2" (the Mighty Oyl) (first occurrences in May 2017)
 * a smoker's pipe (the Pipe of Ambiguity), added 01/01/2021

As of 2008, Piraro indicates how many symbols are hidden in each strip with a number above his signature.

Awards
The strip and its creator have received several awards, including the National Cartoonists Society's Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award (1999, 2000 and 2001). They were nominated for the NCS Reuben Award each year from 2002 to 2010, finally winning in 2010.

In 2005, Piraro was seen in the 75th anniversary edition of Blondie.

title: Bizarro (comic strip)