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2005–06 Chilean general election

General elections were held in Chile on Sunday, 11 December 2005 to elect the president and members of the National Congress. None of the four presidential candidates received an absolute majority, leading to a runoff election between the top two candidates — Michelle Bachelet from the Coalition of Parties for Democracy and Sebastián Piñera from National Renewal — on Sunday, 15 January 2006. Bachelet was victorious with 53.49% of the vote. She succeeded President Ricardo Lagos on 11 March 2006, for a period of four years, after Congress reformed the Constitution in September 2005 and reduced the term from six years.

Electoral system
The president was elected using the two-round system. All of the 120 seats in the Chamber of Deputies were contested, while 20 out of 38 seats in the Senate were up for election (even-numbered regions and the metropolitan region). Deputies serve for a period of four years, while senators serve for a period of eight years. Reelection is permitted.

Michelle Bachelet (Socialist Party of Chile)
Bachelet, who led in every major poll, served as Health Minister before President Lagos named her as Chile's first female Defense Minister in 2002. She was supported by the Coalition of Parties for Democracy, which has governed Chile since 1990. The coalition groups four parties: the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), the Party for Democracy (PPD), the Socialist Party (PS), and the Social Democrat Radical Party (PRSD).

Up until May 2005 two candidates vied for the coalition's nomination: Soledad Alvear (PDC) and Michelle Bachelet (PS). A primary was scheduled to be held on 31 July 2005, to choose the nominee. Political polls in Chile indicated that either candidate would trounce the right-wing Alliance nominee Joaquín Lavín in a two-person race. The political atmosphere changed, however, when another Alianza candidate came to the scene: businessman Sebastián Piñera from the center-right National Renewal. This led, among other reasons, to the withdrawal of Soledad Alvear from the Concertación nomination on 24 May 2005.

Tomás Hirsch (Humanist Party)
Hirsch, a Humanist, ran as his party's nominee for president for 1999 obtaining 0.5%. On this election he ran with the support of the political pact Juntos Podemos Más (Together We Can Do More), which is made up mainly of the legally constituted Communist and Humanist parties plus other political groups and social organizations. In previous elections the candidates presented independently by the pact's parties were consistently in third place, behind the two major coalitions, and holding poll numbers in the single-digit level.

To elect a single candidate a national public survey was held on 28 May 2005. On 5 June 2005, an assembly elected Humanist Tomás Hirsch as their final candidate. Other pre-candidates included: Julián Alcayaga (Committee for the Defense of Copper) and Nicolás García (Block for Socialism). Two candidates withdrew before the survey and gave their support to Hirsch: Tomás Moulian (Communist) and Manuel Jacques (Christian Left). One candidate withdrew before the assembly: Jorge Pavez (Social Force).

Joaquín Lavín (Independent Democratic Union)
Lavín ran as the Alliance's nominee for president in 1999, losing in a tight 2000 runoff to Lagos. Considered for a long time prior to the 2005 election as the Alliance's unique candidate, as the contest drew nearer, however, his public persona began to lose credibility, perhaps due to a mediocre mayorship of the Santiago municipality the previous years, and his candidacy began to lose steam, to the point that it was called into question. RN, the Alliance's other party, decided to compete with Lavín with a candidate of their own (Piñera), breaking up the Alliance's unity in the election.

Sebastián Piñera (National Renewal)
Piñera was proclaimed a candidate by the National Renewal party on 14 May 2005. His nomination caused discomfort within the Independent Democratic Union (UDI—its fellow coalition party member), as both parties were supposed to support Lavín as the single coalition candidate. A primary proposed by UDI to elect a single candidate representing the Alliance was rejected by RN. Piñera's nomination was welcomed by the public and won quick support in opinion polls.

Rejected candidacy
The independent Mapuche candidate Aucán Huilcamán registered his nomination on 12 September, but it was rejected three days later by the Electoral Commission (Servicio Electoral) due to his failure to obtain the minimum number of signatures required by law for an independent candidacy. Huilcamán appealed using the argument that in the past parliamentary election there was a law created specifically to help the candidates of the Christian Democracy Party re-register their candidacies. After the support given to Huilcamán by other candidates, the government sent a bill to Congress, with immediate discussion, to extend the time of registration; a bill that would have also helped 17 other candidacies that were rejected by the Electoral Service. Nonetheless the bill was rejected by a lack of quorum, denying Huilcamán a possible place in the ballot.

Parliamentary election
The Chamber of Deputies prior to this election was composed of 62 CPD deputies (23 Christian Democrats, 20 PPD, ten Socialists, six PRSD and three independents), 57 APC deputies (31 UDI, 18 RN and eight independents) and one independent (off-pact).

The Senate prior to this election was composed of 38 directly elected senators and nine non-elected senators (institutional senators, or senators for life). Among the elected, 20 seats are held by the CPD (eleven Christian Democrats, five Socialists, three PPD and one PRSD) and 18 by the APC (six independents, six UDI and six RN). A constitutional reform in 2005 eliminated non-elected senators starting on 11 March 2006, the day the newly elected senators were sworn in.

Of the Senate seats being contested, eleven were held by the CPD (ten Christian Democrats and one Socialist) and nine by the APC (four independents, three UDI and two RN).

Debates
There were two scheduled debates between the presidential candidates during the first round, both including all four candidates. A third televised debate was dismissed by the respective campaign teams. However, during the second debate, Tomás Hirsch said he was open to a third debate.

The first debate, titled Foro Presidencial: Chile 2005, organized by the Latin American station CNN en Español and the local Canal 13, took place on 19 October, at 10 p.m., at Espacio Riesco in Santiago. It ran for one hour, giving each candidate ten minutes to answer seven questions, giving priority to national issues. There was no studio audience. It was hosted by Glenda Umaña (CNN en Español) and Constanza Santa María (Canal 13).

The second debate took place on 16 November at 10 p.m., at the CasaPiedra venue in Santiago. It was organized by Anatel (National Television Association), and was broadcast by Canal 13, TVN, Megavisión and Chilevisión, with TVN in charge of production. Running for one hour and 40 minutes, a question was asked to each candidate by a panel of four journalists. The four candidates were seated behind desks on stage, instead of standing at podiums as they had done in the first debate.

Prior to the second round, Bachelet and Piñera held a televised debate on 4 January 2006, which was organized by Anatel and broadcast by the four main over-the-air television channels. A Time Research poll showed that Bachelet was the winner of the debate with 49%, against 41% for Piñera. On the other hand, another poll, by El Mercurio-Opina, showed that Piñera won the debate with 43.3% of the preferences against 42.9% for Bachelet.

Piñera offered Bachelet to hold a second debate before the election, to discuss regional issues, but this was rejected by Bachelet's campaign team. Bachelet also turned down a radio debate with Piñera.

Opinion polls

Opinion polls released after Sebastián Piñera's entrance and Soledad Alvear's withdrawal showed Michelle Bachelet leading the right-wing candidates (Piñera and Joaquín Lavín) by a wide margin, but below the 50% plus 1 vote needed to win the election, a situation that would lead to a runoff in which, according to the same polls, she would comfortably defeat any of the two right-wing candidates. Some analysts commented that in some of these polls Bachelet would indeed have obtained an absolute majority in the first round, if blanks were discarded and undecided votes were evenly distributed among candidates. However, later opinion polls released nearer the election showed a decline of Bachelet in favor of Piñera and Tomás Hirsch, showing more clearly that the election would be decided in a runoff.

The first opinion poll released after the first round, published by El Mercurio-Opina on 18 December, had Bachelet with 42.8%, Piñera with 37.5% and 19.7% undecided. Later opinion polls showed similar results, except for one poll showing Piñera above Bachelet by 1%. The polls released showed on average that Bachelet maintained an advantage over Piñera above 5%, but with a large number of voters (18%) still undecided or that would not declare a preference. If this last percentage was removed from the vote, then Bachelet, the polls showed, would have won the presidency by a margin above 7%, which was accurate with the final results of the election.

President

The first government announcement regarding election results came at 6:30 p.m. local time (21:30 GMT), and included information from around 12% of polling stations counted. Subsequent preliminary results were announced during the day by the Interior Ministry undersecretary and published on a special Internet site. These results indicated that the election was to be decided in a runoff on 15 January 2006, in which Michelle Bachelet would face Sebastián Piñera. Official and final results, validated by the Electoral Tribunal (Tricel), were published on the Diario Oficial (official gazette) on 27 December 2005, and made the runoff election official.

On election day, at 9:30 p.m. local time, before the third preliminary results were announced, Joaquín Lavín conceded a second-place defeat in the election and said he would support Sebastián Piñera in the runoff election. Later in the day, JPM candidate Tomás Hirsch said he would nullify his vote in the upcoming runoff; an opinion which was objected by the pact's Communist wing, which said they would support Bachelet if five proposals delivered to her were accepted and incorporated into the candidate's government program; these proposals dealt with changing the electoral system and granting workers more rights.

The runoff election between Michelle Bachelet and Sebastián Piñera took place on 15 January 2006.

Final results were announced on 30 January 2006, by the Electoral Tribunal. They indicated that Michelle Bachelet won the presidency with 53.49% of the votes classified as valid, 51.98% of the total votes cast, and 45.28% support of registered voters.

Sebastián Piñera conceded defeat immediately following a government announcement made on election day that included results from 97.52% of ballot boxes counted.

Elected members
Elected candidates appear in bold. (R) indicates candidates running for re-election. Strikethrough names indicate candidacies rejected by the Electoral Service (Servel).

Chamber of Deputies
Source: Tricel/Servel.

Senate
Source: Tricel/Servel.

Election timeline

 * 5 January 2005: Former president Eduardo Frei declines a possible presidential candidacy.
 * 14 January 2005: Soledad Alvear defeats senator Adolfo Zaldívar in an internal primary, and is proclaimed presidential pre-candidate by the PDC.
 * 24 April 2005: Michelle Bachelet is proclaimed presidential candidate by PRSD.
 * 27 April 2005: Alvear and Bachelet hold a televised primary debate in Hualpén.
 * 14 May 2005: Sebastián Piñera is proclaimed presidential candidate by National Renewal.
 * 24 May 2005: Alvear declines her presidential pre-candidacy.
 * 5 June 2005: Tomás Hirsch is proclaimed presidential candidate of pact Juntos Podemos Más.
 * 19 June 2005: Joaquín Lavín is proclaimed presidential candidate by the Independent Democratic Union.
 * 30 July 2005: Bachelet is proclaimed presidential candidate by PDC.
 * 21 August 2005: Bachelet is proclaimed presidential candidate by PS and PPD.
 * 7 September 2005: RN candidate Sebastián Piñera officially registers his candidacy for president.
 * 8 September 2005: CPD candidate Michelle Bachelet officially registers her candidacy for president, as does UDI candidate Joaquín Lavín.
 * 11 September 2005: Deadline for voters to register.
 * 12 September 2005: Deadline for candidates to register and official start of campaigning. During the day, independent candidate Aucán Huilcamán officially registers his candidacy for president, as does JPM candidate Tomás Hirsch.
 * 15 September 2005: The Electoral Service (Servel) rejects the candidacy of Mapuche leader Aucán Huilcamán.
 * 19 October 2005: The first televised debate among all candidates takes place.
 * 11 November 2005: The free televised campaign time begins with candidate receiving five minutes each; street ads are allowed.
 * 16 November 2005: The second televised debate among all candidates takes place.
 * 6 December 2005: Bachelet cancels her final campaign rally after five of her supporters are killed in a bus crash.
 * 9 December 2005: Official campaigning ends at midnight; electoral publicity is no longer allowed.
 * 11 December 2005: Election day. Voting begins at 7 AM local time (10:00 GMT).
 * 26 December 2005: The Electoral Tribunal (Tricel) publishes the final and official results of the first round election.
 * 27 December 2005: First round results are published on the Official Gazette.
 * 1 January 2006: Electoral campaigning for the runoff election begins. Each candidate receives two and a half minutes of free television airtime.
 * 4 January 2006: The only televised debate between the two runoff candidates takes place.
 * 12 January 2006: Official campaigning ends.
 * 15 January 2006: Runoff election takes place. Socialist candidate Michelle Bachelet is elected president.
 * 30 January 2006: The Tricel publishes the final and official results of the runoff election.
 * 30 January 2006: President-elect Michelle Bachelet announces the members of her cabinet.
 * 11 March 2006: President-elect Bachelet is sworn in by the National Congress in Valparaíso.

title: 2005–06 Chilean general election


text:
Talk:Patrick Bateson

PNAS article
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Unlimited Saga

Unlimited Saga is a 2002 role-playing video game developed and published by Square (rebranded as Square Enix in 2003) for the PlayStation 2 as the ninth game in the SaGa series. It was released in 2002 in Japan and 2003 in North America and Europe; its European version was published by Atari Europe. The story follows seven characters as they explore mysteries connected to the Seven Wonders, artifacts left by an ancient civilization said to be capable of triggering a golden age. Battles carry over the skill-based levelling systems and nonlinear structure of earlier SaGa titles, with an exploration structure similar to a board game.

Production at Square's Product Development Division 2 lasted two years, involving a staff of fifty people. Several staff members returned from earlier entries including series creator Akitoshi Kawazu as producer and director, designer Kyouji Koizumi, and composer Masashi Hamauzu. The characters were designed by newcomer Yusuke Naora, with veteran artist Tomomi Kobayashi contributing promotional art. Kawazu wanted to get back to the basics of game design and evoke the style of the earliest SaGa games, placing focus on the battle system and having several elements mimic tabletop role-playing games. The graphics were designed in partnership with Adobe Systems to create a combination of 3D models and 2D artwork.

Unlimited Saga was first announced in 2002, and was supplemented with several guidebooks that detailed its systems and explored the game world's lore. It was a commercial success in Japan, selling over half a million units in that region; it sold a further 130,000 in the West. It saw a polarized response between Japan, where it was met with praise, and the West. In English reviews, the music was met with general praise, while its graphics and unorthodox gameplay saw mixed to negative reactions. Feedback from the title influenced the production of both Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song and SaGa: Scarlet Grace.

Gameplay
Unlimited Saga is a role-playing video game where players take on the role of seven different protagonists, playing through the narratives in a nonlinear style. Gameplay is split between two modes; town exploration that includes story sections and interacting with facilities, and exploring environments while encountering enemies and environmental hazards. Town facilities are represented with icons on an illustrated background, with selecting an icon opening the facility and potentially triggering a story section delivered in a comic book style. During the game, players will explore towns which can be used to gather information and purchase goods to aid them on their journey before exploring outside environments and dungeons. Specific services in towns include the Blacksmith, which sells and forges weapons and accessories. A scenario-specific Carrier's Guild has a ranking system, raised by performing delivery missions. The party can either save at a town, or perform a quick save while exploring. Upon exiting town, the party is either transported to the area of a quest, or can select previously explored areas on a world map.

Dungeon and environmental exploration plays out in a style similar to a board game; the player character is represented as a static sprite on a map that is revealed as the player explores, with unexplored areas being named with a series of question marks. Each move or action being equivalent to a turn. While exploring, an illustration in the top right hand corner of the screen shows the environment the party is in. The goal of missions in these areas is to reach a goal, either a story event, another town, or some other location within the map. The amount of turns taken by the player is recorded. Some missions have turn limits, with the player being returned to a town if they reach that limit. Moving into a new part of the map can trigger an event such as a battle or trap, or hold an item the party can search for and retrieve. While unlocking chests or avoiding traps, the player triggers the Reel, an options wheel that spins until the player halts it, triggering an action. Enemies shift position with each turn, and some spaces have hiding areas allowing the party to avoid battle if they choose.

When a battle is triggered, the party is unable to flee, either having to defeat the enemy or be defeated in battle. During battles, a player party of up to five on-screen characters fight enemies in a themed arena. The player is given five turns per round, with actions selected for up to that many characters per turn. Characters have two types of health: Health Points (HP), which is used for skills and special abilities, and Life Points (LP), which is their underlying health and is lowered if their HP bar drops to zero. If the scenario protagonist runs out of LP, the game ends and must be restarted from the last save. Both HP and LP are fully recovered when the party reaches a town, and can be recovered to varying degrees outside battle by resting for a turn. While HP level can rise, each character's LP level is set from the game's beginning. As in exploration, the Reel system plays a part, with the player's chosen icon on the Reel impacting the type and power of a character's move. The player can choose to have five individual actions, or "Hold" the action so they are chained together to create combination attacks. Combination attacks can be triggered by a single character using multiple skills or attacks in one turn, or multiple characters chaining their attacks together. An attack chain can be broken by enemies if their attack phase comes in the middle of the party's turn.

While characters do not earn experience points in battle, completing missions can increase a character's maximum HP, weapons have unique abilities, and skills are unlocked by equipping different types of items to a character's growth tree at the end of a mission. New weapon techniques can also be learned during battle at random. Weapons have a limited durability, and after a set number of uses will break and become unusable. Durability can be raised by using certain items, or reworking the weapon at the Blacksmith. Magical abilities called Arts are learned by characters with tablet items. If an Art is used in battle, players will be invited to invest points into raising the power of that Art, unlocking an Art's use with a weapon. Withdrawing points from the Art will cause the character to lose their higher abilities. Some character types can use spirits called Familiars, which are element-themed spirits equipped to characters who can perform specific skills.

Synopsis
Unlimited Saga takes place in an unnamed fantasy world. Scattered across the world are the Seven Wonders, giant structures from a time called the "Golden Age" linked to an ancient battle against chaotic forces. Key to the world's backstory is Iskander, a warrior king who conquered half the known world and founded a capital bearing his name near one of the Seven Wonders. In the game's backstory, the Seven Wonders were created as research devices by the Arcanians, a race created as the original humanity by the world's Creator. Their experiments in the Seven Wonders were with Chaos, a dangerous energy force. Chaos's influence prompted the Creator to destroy the Arcanian's civilization, banishing Chaos and causing the Creator to vanish. In the present, the Seven Wonders are attributed the power to bestow a new Golden Age.

The storylines follow seven different characters—Laura, Judy, Ventus, Ruby, Mythe, Kurt and Armic—who each face a person using the power of the Seven Wonders. Laura is a former pirate who after the death of her husband finds new meaning protecting a wandering prince. Judy is a young witch-in-training who goes on a quest to save her grandfather after he is trapped in a mirror by an old rival. Ventus is a courier looking for the man who killed his brother years before. Ruby is the powerless sister of a fortune teller who ends up caught in her affairs. Mythe is a lady's man who becomes smitten with the picture of a mysterious woman. Kurt is a former noble knight who defies his family to find adventure and discover the truth behind a curse gauntlet he wears. Armic is a laid-back, slow-witted member of the Chapa people sent to find the items necessary for a rain-making ritual as his people are suffering from a prolonged drought.

In Ruby's scenario, the party includes the now-immortal Iskander, who became an omnipotent being through learning the Creator's secrets from Arcanian survivors. A key event in the game is the Festival, a celebration in memory of Iskander and his immediate successors Lord Dixon and his wife Regina. All the characters come together and can interact during this period. Each scenario reveals the antagonists to have been tempted, directly manipulated by, or be intent on using the manifested Chaos, which the chosen protagonist defeats and banishes once again.

Development
Unlimited Saga was developed by Square, which handled development for multiple role-playing series including SaGa and Final Fantasy. Development lasted two years, and involved a staff of around fifty people from Square's Product Development Division 2. Many of the staff were veterans of the SaGa series. Series creator Akitoshi Kawazu produced and directed, Kyouji Koizumi returned as battle designer from the Romancing SaGa games, and recurring staff member Jyunichi Shinomiya acted as lead writer. As with other games in the series, Kawazu chose a non-traditional way of designing the game. He stated, "As far as Unlimited Saga is concerned, we said let's tackle the basics of game design once again. We didn't try to emphasize the realistic details, but rather symbolize, and cut out the parts we didn't need. We thought, let's dare to do a 'not express' thing and we calmly [stuck] to that route." Despite the non-traditional approach, the team built on their previous game development structures when creating Unlimited Saga. During its early production, it was planned for an unnamed handheld console. When production of that console was cancelled, production was moved to the PlayStation 2. Unlimited Saga saw the series' debut on that platform.

The game's art director was Yusuke Naora, who had just finished work on Final Fantasy X. After completing his work there, Naora was considering leaving Square and going overseas to study art to keep up with other artists coming into the industry, but was unable to for unspecified reasons. At this point, Kawazu invited Naora onto the production team. Naora accepted, as he "wanted to try new things" within the SaGa series. The character designs were created by Naora, with additional character and monster artwork by Yuichi Shiota and Toshiaki Matsumoto. Naora was originally only assigned as background designer, but Kawazu wanted a "challenging" design for the characters, so requested Naora to design them. Regular series artist Tomomi Kobayashi created character art for the game based on Naora's design. While working from another artist's work, Kobayashi put her own spin on the designs, creating the illustrations around the primary color of each character. The visual theme for the cast was "flowers", with each character being given a key colour based on a flower.

For the graphics, Square partnered with Adobe Systems to create "Sketch Motion" during battles. Using programs such as Photoshop and After Effects, hand-drawn 2D designs were combined with 3D models to create a unique hybrid look. The style of the opening movie, which featured the lead characters depicted using cel-shaded graphics like a "moving watercolor", was suggested by Naora. The CGI opening, a first for the SaGa series, was animated by Square's dedicated studio Visual Works. The animation lead was Takeshi Nozue, who would later work on several notable Visual Works projects including Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. The use of Adobe tools managed to cut down on production time for the visuals and opening, as the layers and effect filters made previously labour-intensive aspects of animation easy.

When designing Unlimited Saga, Kawazu wanted to go back to the mechanical roots of the early portable titles, deciding to create a game that focused almost entirely on its battle system. The "Reel" system was based on rolling a dice in a tabletop role-playing game. The board game-like gameplay and progression was intended by Kawazu as an evolution of his work on Wild Card, a role-playing game for the WonderSwan. The decision made Unlimited Saga stand out from the rest of the SaGa franchise, which were traditional role-playing games. While there were internal worries about the gameplay's unconventional tone and abstruse nature, Kawazu used his seniority within Square to produce the project. The basic narrative structure of seven major threats facing the world was created by Kawazu early in production, with the finer details being included later. Iskandar was to have been an eighth main character, confronting all the threats and joining the narrative together, but Kawazu scrapped the eighth narrative and incorporated existing concepts into Ruby's narrative. Kawazu thought up Ventus's narrative after seeing the narrative and gameplay concepts for The Bouncer.

Music
The music was composed by Masashi Hamauzu, while synthesizer programming was done by Ryo Yamazaki. The two previously collaborated on the soundtrack for SaGa Frontier 2 after the departure of previous series composer Kenji Ito. Because the game uses streaming audio, it was possible for the sound team to use real acoustic instrument sounds in place of a synthesizer. Three pieces, including "March in C", were written for full orchestra. Live recording of ensembles of tracks such as "Feel Uneasy About the Wonders" and "Battle Theme IV" pitted solo instruments against one another to create what Hamauzu considered a Latin sound. The ending vocal piece "Soaring Wings" was written specifically for singer Mio Kashiwabara. Unlimited Saga features five-channel surround sound support from Dolby's Pro Logic II. The game's soundtrack consists of 58 songs spanning two discs. It was released on January 22, 2003. Due to fan demand, the album went through two reprints.

Release
Unlimited SaGa was announced by Square in July 2002. The game was one of five selected to form part of a promotional lottery campaign by Sony, where two random players of each title would go on journeys to areas of the world similar to settings in the games. For Unlimited Saga, the reward would have been a trip to Rome due to the shared presence of ancient city ruins. Due to tensions between the United States and Iraq at the time and the consequent risks of a terrorist attack, the campaign was cancelled. It was a prominent and popular addition to the 2002 Tokyo Game Show. The game released in Japan on December 19, 2002, by Square. It launched in a standard edition and a Limited Edition with unique artwork, which included a special booklet about the game's world and a soundtrack CD. Shortly after the game's release, Square finalized its merger with Enix to become Square Enix.

Unlimited SaGa was Square Enix's first release in South Korea, published on June 19, 2003, by the local branch of Electronic Arts. The game was fully localized with native text and voice acting. The ending theme "Soaring Wings" was also localized under the name "Nalgae", performed by Yonshin Pak. The new song was supervised by Hamauzu and Yamazaki. Hamauzu did not have Pak imitate or emulate the original song, but worked with her to adapt it into Korean, changing its tone and allowing her to sing at a comfortable pitch. Recording for "Nalgae" took place in April 2003.

A number of books were published by DigiCube. Unlimited Saga Material Collection: Lead to the Destiny, an artbook containing illustrations from Kobayashi, was released on December 12 prior to the game's release. Unlimited Saga: The First Guide Book for Beginners released parallel to the game, covering the opening of each scenario. Unlimited Saga: Visual Arts Collection released on February 14, 2003, containing reproduced in-game artwork and designs. A full guidebook containing gameplay tips and staff interviews, Unlimited: Saga - Book of Disassembly, was released by Studio BentStuff on March 28. It was a highly extensive book, and included additional backstory and a novella written by Benny Matsumaya. Its comprehensiveness was due to fan feedback in Japan about the abstruse elements of the game and its world. A set of postcards and posters was released by Square via DigiCube's distribution service. Unlimited Saga was originally connected to the setting of the anime series Final Fantasy: Unlimited, but these plans were shelved during production. Kawazu later said that many of the similarities were coincidental due to his work on both projects.

A Western release was announced in February 2003. The game was among those shown by Square Enix at the 2003 Electronic Entertainment Expo, alongside a number of other titles including Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, and Drakengard. In North America, the game was published on June 17, 2003. To promote Unlimited Saga in North America, Square Enix held the "Hall of Valor" contest beginning on the game's release date and ending on July 27. It consisted of three challenges where players would have to send in answers to difficult questions related to the game. Prizes included products by electronics manufacturer Denon. The European version was released on November 7, 2003, by Atari Europe. Unlimited Saga Collector's Edition was released in Europe and included a bonus DVD titled Eternal Calm Final Fantasy X-2: Prologue. The English dub was recorded by A.D. Vision. Actress Tiffany Grant, who voiced one of the protagonists, said it was unusual for video games to be voiced in the Houston area where A.D. Vision was based, and it only happened because Square Enix hired A.D. Vision for the dubbing. The dub was directed by Kawazu and Kyle C. Jones.

Reception
Unlimited Saga entered the Japanese sales charts at number 3 behind Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, selling 196,471 copies, and ended the year with over 270,000 copies sold in Japan. By the end of Square Enix's fiscal year in May 2003, the game had sold 560,000 copies in Japan. This made it the second best-selling title from their 2002 library behind Final Fantasy X-2. For selling over half a million copies, Sony Computer Entertainment awarded the game a Gold Award during the 9th Annual PlayStation Awards on June 29, 2003. In the West, the game sold a further 100,000 units in North America, and 30,000 in Europe.

The game has seen a polarised response in Japan and the West; while Japanese press gave it high scores and praise, many Western critics gave it middling to low scores compared to earlier SaGa titles. Review aggregate website Metacritic showed a negative reaction from Western reviewers. The battle system saw opinions ranging from mixed at its implementation, to frustrated with its complex nature. Several critics noted the game's experimental nature. The graphics also met with a mixed response due to their implementation, though several lauded their quality. By contrast, the soundtrack and visuals met with general acclaim.

Famitsu lauded the title for its new mechanics, which challenged the role-playing player base, and awarded it the publication's Silver Award. 1Up.com felt the game was too unforgiving for beginners due to a lack of in-game tutorials and steep learning curve. Electronic Gaming Monthly was very negative, with the three reviewers all faulting the gameplay, with one citing it as unfair for players. GamePro disliked both its non-linear structure and control scheme, which made exploration harder for the reviewer. Brad Shoemaker of GameSpot summed up the game as "the flawed sum of its disparate parts", citing a lack of cohesion and polish in its gameplay and presentation, and finding the story lacking.

Christian Nutt of GameSpy was extremely negative about the game, calling it one of the worst RPGs he had played in many years, faulting almost every element of the title. IGN's Jeremy Dunham said that the title was not for everybody due to its gameplay experimentation. Martin Kitts of PlayStation Official Magazine – UK was more forgiving of the game as he felt it was aimed at an audience who enjoyed a challenging experience, but still felt it was too abstruse and difficult for casual gamers, saying it would have worked better on the original PlayStation. Nich Maragos, writing for GMR, felt that the game had promise, but was undermined by poor execution on several of its mechanics and concepts.

Prior to its release, Unlimited Saga was recognized by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association in its Game Awards Future category at the organization's annual event. RPGamer called Unlimited Saga the "biggest letdown" of 2003 in their annual RPGamer Awards. GamesRadar called it the 25th Worst Game Of All Time. In 2012, 1Up.com would include Unlimited Saga on its list of "Underwhelming RPGs with Overwhelming Soundtracks", with writer Bob Mackey calling it "a shame" that the music was likely neglected due to the game's divisive mechanics. In a 2015 article on the SaGa series for USGamer, Jeremy Parish cited Unlimited Saga as the game where Kawazu took his board game influences and unconventional style to an extreme.

Legacy
Speaking about the game's mixed reaction in the West, Kawazu attributed it to expectations for a more traditional role-playing experience. The mixed reactions and internal wishes from staff would also lead to Kawazu developing Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song, a remake of Romancing SaGa for the PS2, with Naora returning to redesign the cast for the remake. Due to Kawazu's commitments to other projects within the company including the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles subseries, Unlimited Saga was the last original SaGa title for twelve years. That next title, SaGa: Scarlet Grace, was partially built by Kawazu using feedback from Unlimited Saga. Following the remastered release of SaGa Frontier, Kawazu stated that a remaster of Unlimited Saga was being considered.

title: Unlimited Saga


text:
User:D.o~enwiki

http://www.systemsbiology.ie/

title: User:D.o~enwiki


text:
Twin Bridges

Twin Bridges may refer:
 * Twin bridges, a pair of parallel bridges

Inhabited places in the United States

 * Twin Bridges, California
 * Twin Bridges, Montana
 * Twin Bridges, Missouri, the former name of Evergreen, Missouri
 * Twin Bridges, Nevada

United States

 * I-10 Twin Span Bridge, between New Orleans and Slidell, Louisiana
 * Bi-State Vietnam Gold Star Bridges, a pair of twin bridges that cross the Ohio River between Henderson, Kentucky and Evansville, Indiana
 * Queensway Twin Bridges, Long Beach, California
 * Thaddeus Kosciusko Bridge, north of Albany, New York
 * Twin Bridges (Danville, Indiana), listed on the NRHP in Indiana
 * Twin Bridges (Philadelphia), Pennsylvania
 * Twin Bridges-West Paden Covered Bridge No. 121, a historic wooden covered bridge Columbia County, Pennsylvania
 * The Twin Bridges or I-74 Bridge, connecting Bettendorf, Iowa and Moline, Illinois

Other places

 * Ponts Jumeaux (French for Twin Bridges), Southern France

Other uses

 * Twin Bridges State Park, northeastern Oklahoma
 * Twin Bridges Trailhead, near Strawberry, California

title: Twin Bridges


text: Category:310 deaths

title: Category:310 deaths


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Tina Maze

Tina Maze (born 2 May 1983) is a retired Slovenian World Cup alpine ski racer.

Career
Maze is the most successful Slovenian ski racer in history with a career that culminated with two gold medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics. She was awarded the title of the Slovenian Sportswoman of the Year in 2005, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015, and with her four medals she is the most decorated Slovenian athlete at the Winter Olympics.

Maze started her career as a giant slalom specialist, but later competed in all five alpine skiing disciplines. She is one of seven female racers who has won in all five World Cup disciplines and one of three to do so in a single season. Maze is the 2014 Olympic champion in downhill and giant slalom and the 2015 world champion in downhill and combined. She was also the world champion in giant slalom in 2011 and super-G in 2013.

Maze won a total of 26 World Cup races during her career, and won the World Cup overall title in 2013. In that season, she won 11 races and tallied a record number of World Cup points – 2414, beating the previous record of Hermann Maier of 2000 points from the 2000 season. She also won the super-G and giant slalom titles, and finished first in the combined event (although no globe was awarded) and finished second in slalom and downhill. Maze also improved Maier's previous record of podium finishes in a single season (22) with 24 podiums.

Early years
Maze made her World Cup debut at age 15 in Slovenia in January 1999, in a giant slalom race at Maribor. During her early World Cup seasons, Maze competed in slalom, giant slalom, and super-G, but scored World Cup points only in the first two disciplines. At the 2001 World Championships, Maze's best result was a 16th place in slalom. In January 2002, Maze won her first podium, a second place in giant slalom in Maribor. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in the United States, Maze finished twelfth in the giant slalom in her Olympic debut at Park City, Utah.

2003–2004 seasons
On 26 October 2002, Maze won her first World Cup race at the season opener in Sölden, Austria. She shared the giant slalom win with Nicole Hosp of Austria and Andrine Flemmen of Norway in the first-ever a three-way tie in a World Cup race. Maze finished the 2003 season on the 38th place in the overall standings with 190 points, all in giant slalom. At the 2003 World Championships, she finished 5th in giant slalom.

In the 2004 season, Maze scored one podium, a runner-up position in giant slalom, and finished 33rd in the overall standings with 244 points. She scored her first points in super-G and started competing in downhill races.

2005–2008 seasons
The 2005 season was a successful season for Maze as she won 3 giant slalom races and scored two super-G podiums, both 3rd places. She finished the season 10th in the overall standings with 650 points: 366 in giant slalom, where she finished fourth. At the 2005 World Championships Maze finished sixth in super-G and 10th in the combined.

In the 2006 season, Maze won one giant slalom race and two more podiums, a third place in giant slalom and a runner-up position in super-G. She finished the season 14th in the overall standings with 525 points and scored World Cup points in all disciplines for the first time. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Maze competed in the giant slalom and super-G events, where she finished 12th and 39th, respectively.

The 2007 season was not as successful for her as the previous two seasons, with only 3 top 10 finishes. She finished the season 30th in the overall standings with 268 points. At the 2007 World Championships, Maze's best result was a 14th place in super-G.

In February 2008, Maze won her first downhill in St. Moritz, Switzerland, which was the first downhill victory won by a Slovenian female skier. It was also her first non-giant slalom victory. She finished the 2008 season 28th overall with 287 points.

2009–2010 seasons: The breakthrough
Following the declining results in the 2007 and 2008 seasons, Maze decided to break with the national ski team and founded her personal "Team to aMAZE" with her coach and partner Andrea Massi. This move turned out to be a decisive step in Maze's career as her results began to improve significantly. In the 2009 Alpine Skiing World Cup, Maze scored two wins, both in giant slalom, in Maribor, Slovenia, and in Åre, Sweden. She also won three more podiums, finishing second in downhill and was third twice in super-G. At the 2009 World Championships in Val-d'Isère, France, Maze won a silver medal in giant slalom, her first medal in a "big competition." In that race, she was only 15th after the first run but excelled in the second, "because she was angry." In addition to the silver medal, Maze finished 14th in the downhill and fifth in the super-G. Maze concluded the 2009 season sixth in the overall standings with 852 points, her best result to that date. She also finished third in the giant slalom standings.

In the 2010 season, Maze won one giant slalom race and had runner-up finishes in slalom and giant slalom. That season, Maze had fifteen top 10 results and finished fourth in the overall standings. Again, she finished third in the giant slalom standings.

Maze was the flag bearer for Slovenia at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She won two silver medals – in super-G and giant slalom at Whistler. These were the first silver medals at Winter Olympics for independent Slovenia (athletes only won bronze medals before 2010). Maze was fifth in the super combined, ninth in slalom, and 18th in downhill.

2011–2012 seasons
Maze began the 2011 season strong with several good results and podiums. That season, she won the first races in her career in super combined (Tarvisio, Italy) and slalom (Lenzerheide, Switzerland). She finished on podium six more times. Maze finished the 2011 season third in the overall standings with 1139 points.

At the 2011 World Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, Maze won the silver medal in the super combined and the gold medal in the giant slalom. She finished 5th in the slalom and downhill, and 11th in the super-G.

The 2012 season was a very interesting one as Maze had no victories but had ten podium finishes. She finished the season second in the overall standings with 1402 points, behind Lindsey Vonn of United States.

2013: The record breaking season
Maze started the 2013 season with a win in giant slalom in Sölden, Austria. She then won the 2nd giant slalom in Aspen, United States, followed by two wins in St.Moritz, Switzerland, both in giant slalom and super combined. She then won again in giant slalom in Courchevel, France making it 4 wins out of the first 4 races in this discipline. She collected 11 podiums till the New Year, with five wins, two 2nd and four 3rd places, gaining a sizable lead in the overall standings. She also broke the records for most points in a calendar year (2,180) and most podiums (19) in a calendar year. Her first victory in super-G on 13 January 2013 in St. Anton made her a member of the small group of all-event winners in alpine skiing. On 26 January, Maze finished second in giant slalom in Maribor to clinch her first World Cup title in GS, then won the slalom the following day.

On 24 February, she won the second super combined of the season in Méribel, France, and secured the overall World Cup title with nine races remaining. Despite having the most points in super combined standings, the crystal globe for this discipline is no longer awarded due to a lack of events.

On 1 March, Maze finished second in super-G in Garmisch, her 19th podium of the season, breaking the previous ladies' record. The next day, she won the downhill to record a win in all disciplines in a single season, previously accomplished by only two female skiers. In this race, Maze also surpassed 2,000 World Cup points in a single season and therefore broke Hermann Maier's record from the 2000 season, which was exactly 2,000 points. The last downhill race of the season at the World Cup finals was cancelled, so Maze finished as runner-up in the downhill standings, a single point behind Lindsey Vonn, whose season had ended in February after a knee injury at the World Championships. The last super-G race was also cancelled and Maze won the super-G title. In the last race, a giant slalom on 17 March, she gained her eleventh victory of the season and finished with a record 2,414 points.

Maze broke various statistical records in this season. They include the highest number of podiums in a single season (24, record previously held by Hermann Maier (22) and by Hanni Wenzel and Pernilla Wiberg for ladies (18)), highest number of top 5 finishes (31, previously Hermann Maier and Pernilla Wiberg (24)), highest number of points after first 10 races (677, previously Katja Seizinger, 643), highest percent of possible points won (69%, previously 61% by Pernilla Wiberg), and the highest point difference to the second-placed skier (1313, compared to 743 for Hermann Maier and 578 for Lindsey Vonn). In fact, Maze collected more World Cup points than second and third skier combined. Maze finished on podium in all Giant slalom events of the season, a feature previously achieved only by Vreni Schneider in the 1989 season. She is also the only woman to remain at the top of the overall ranking throughout the season – a feature only achieved at men's Cup by Bode Miller. In addition to the overall title, Maze won the super-G and giant slalom titles, finished at the top of the combined list by winning both races in the season, and finished second in the downhill and slalom listing. The titles went to Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, respectively. She also came extremely close to sweeping all 6 titles, losing the downhill title to Vonn by a mere 1 point with the seasons final race cancelled due to bad weather, and where Maze would have needed only a top 15 finish to pass the injured Vonn. Shiffrin needed to beat Maze in the seasons final slalom race to steal away the season slalom title from points leader Maze, and overcome an over second deficit on Maze after the first run to do so.

Maze came to the 2013 World Championships in Schladming, Austria, as a favorite. At the time, she was the leader in the World Cup standings in three of the five disciplines (giant slalom, super-G, and super combined), second in slalom and third in downhill. Several former alpine skiers stated that she is capable of winning a medal in every single discipline. In the first race at Planai, Maze won the gold medal in super-G and three days later won the silver medal in super combined. She then finished seventh in downhill, won another silver medal in giant slalom, and took fifth in slalom.

In October 2013, Maze was awarded the Skieur d'Or Award by members of the International Association of Ski Journalists for her record-breaking performances during the previous season, thereby becoming the first Slovenian skier to receive the honour since its inception in 1963.

2014 season
Maze started the 2014 season less successfully, with one victory and three more podiums before the Winter Olympics in February. The decline in results was partially attributed to the change of the coach from the previous season, when Walter Ronconi replaced Livio Magoni. In January 2014, Ronconi was replaced by Mauro Pini, who, according to Maze's team, brought a positive change to the team. Following the Olympics, Maze won two more podiums, two third places. At the end of the season, she was completely exhausted and finished the last races with difficulties, having fulfilled her goals with two Olympic gold medals. She won a third place in the downhill standings and finished 4th overall.

At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Maze finished fourth in the super combined at Rosa Khutor. The second event was the downhill, where Maze tied for first place with Dominique Gisin of Switzerland. This was the first gold medal for Slovenia at any Winter Olympics and the first time that a gold medal was shared at an Olympic alpine skiing event. Maze finished fifth in super-G, won another gold in the giant slalom, and was eighth in the slalom. Following her Olympic success, Maze was nominated for the Laureus Award for the second year in a row.

2015 season
The start of the 2015 season was stronger than the previous year's for Maze. Winning three races and four additional podiums, Maze came to the 2015 World Championships in Vail / Beaver Creek, Colorado, United States, as the overall World Cup leader and was, as in 2013, seen as a potential candidate to win a medal in all five disciplines. She took silver in the super-G race, continued with winning gold both in downhill and super-combined and then finished 5th in giant slalom and 8th in slalom, what was her best overall performance at World Championships.

Following the World Championships, Maze was tired and did not finish any of the two races in Maribor, which meant that she started to lose advantage over Anna Fenninger. Final races of the season were a close battle between Maze and Fenninger. Maze won six more podiums until the end of the season and was leading 18 points in the overall standings before the last race but Fenninger won the last giant slalom and defended her overall title from the 2014 season. Maze finished the season second, with her second-highest number of season points. She also finished third in the slalom, super-G, and downhill standings. At the end of the season, Maze hinted that she may retire from competitive sport in the following months.

Retirement
In May 2015, Maze announced that she would take a break from the sport for a year, not competing in the 2015–16 season and focusing on her studies instead. On 20 October 2016 in Sölden, Maze announced her retirement from competitive skiing. She officially concluded her career on 7 January 2017 at the giant slalom race in Maribor, at the venue where she made her World Cup debut in 1999.

Season titles
4 titles (1 overall, 1 giant slalom, 1 super-G, 1 super-combined)

Season standings
Place (points)

Race victories

 * 26 wins – (4 DH, 1 SG, 14 GS, 4 SL, 3 SC)
 * 81 podiums – (11 DH, 17 SG, 28 GS, 17 SL, 6 SC, 2 PSL)

Personal life
When not competing or training abroad, Maze lives in Črna na Koroškem. She is in a relationship with Andrea Massi, who is also the head of Maze's team. In November 2017, they announced they are expecting a child together. She gave birth to a girl in February 2018.

In 2012, Maze recorded a pop-rock single My Way Is My Decision, produced by Raay.

During the year-long break from competing, Maze concluded her studies at the Faculty of Education, University of Maribor, obtaining an elementary school teacher degree.

Awards

 * Crystal globes in combined have not been officially awarded for 2013 season. However, athletes still get their medals.

title: Tina Maze


text:
Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard

Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard FRS (8 April 1817 – 2 April 1894) was a Mauritian physiologist and neurologist who, in 1850, became the first to describe what is now called Brown-Séquard syndrome.

Early life
Brown-Séquard was born at Port Louis, Mauritius, to an American father and a French mother. He attended the Royal College in Mauritius, and graduated in medicine at Paris in 1846. He then returned to Mauritius with the intention of practising there, but in 1852 he went to the United States. There he was appointed to the faculty of the Medical College of Virginia where he conducted experiments in the basement of the Egyptian Building.

He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1854.

Later life
He returned to Paris, and in 1859 he migrated to London, becoming physician to the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic. There he stayed for about five years, expounding his views on the pathology of the nervous system in numerous lectures which attracted considerable attention. In 1864 he again crossed the Atlantic, and was appointed professor of physiology and neuropathology at Harvard. He relinquished this position in 1867, and in 1869 became professor at the École de Médecine in Paris, but in 1873 he again returned to America and began to practice in New York City. While in New York, his daughter, Charlotte Maria was born.

Finally, he went back to Paris to succeed Claude Bernard in 1878 as professor of experimental medicine in the Collège de France, and he remained there until his death, which occurred in 1894 at Sceaux, France. He was buried in Paris at the Cimetière du Montparnasse.

Brown-Séquard was quite a controversial and eccentric figure, and is also known for claiming, at age 72, rejuvenated sexual prowess after subcutaneous injection of extracts of animal testis. Thousands of men tried the therapy. The endocrinologist Robert B. Greenblatt wrote that this therapy could not have possibly worked because, unlike the thyroid gland, the testes do not store the hormones they produce and, therefore, obtaining a therapeutic dose of testosterone directly from animal glands "would require about one-quarter ton of bull's testes." It was later confirmed experimentally that his method did not yield active amounts of testosterone. The positive response by many men is now thought to have been a placebo effect, but apparently this was "sufficient to set the field of endocrinology off and running."

In 1886 Brown-Séquard was elected to the Board of the Sugar Club. He also was a member of the Royal Society of London.

Works
Brown-Séquard was a keen observer and experimentalist. He contributed largely to our knowledge of the blood and animal heat, as well as many facts of the highest importance on the nervous system. He was the first scientist to work out the physiology of the spinal cord, demonstrating that the decussation of the fibres carrying pain and temperature sensation occurs in the cord itself. His name was immortalised in the history of medicine with the description of a syndrome which bears his name (Brown-Séquard syndrome) due to the hemisection of the spinal cord, which he described after observing accidental injury of the spinal cord in farmers cutting sugar cane in Mauritius.

Far more important is that he was one of the first to postulate the existence of substances, now known as hormones, secreted into the bloodstream to affect distant organs. In particular, he demonstrated (in 1856) that removal of the adrenal glands resulted in death, due to lack of essential hormones. At age 72, at a meeting of the Societé de Biologie in Paris, Brown-Séquard reported that hypodermic injection of a fluid prepared from the testicles of guinea pigs and dogs leads to rejuvenation and prolonged human life. It was known, among scientists, derisively, as the Brown-Séquard Elixir. A Vienna medical publication quipped dismissively: "The lecture must be seen as further proof of the necessity of retiring professors who have attained their threescore and ten years."

Brown-Séquard's research, published in about 500 essays and papers, especially in the Archives de Physiologie, which he helped to found in 1868 along with Jean-Martin Charcot and Alfred Vulpian, cover a very wide range of physiological and pathological subjects.

In the late 19th century Brown-Séquard gave rise to much controversy in the area of supposed inheritance of acquired characteristics. In a series of experiments on guinea pigs extending from 1869 to 1891, Brown-Séquard observed that a partial severing of the spinal cord, or a complete severing of the sciatic nerve, was followed after a few weeks by a peculiar morbid state resembling epilepsy. The offspring of the animals operated on were frequently decrepit, and a certain number showed a tendency to the so-called epilepsy. Some scientists considered these observations evidence for Lamarckian inheritance. However, Lamarck himself had rejected the inheritance of characteristics acquired by means other than their exercise or atrophy in response to environmental stimuli. His experiments are now considered anomalous; alternative explanations for his observations have been suggested. One proposed explanation was that the experiment showed a disease being induced in the parent and transmitted to the offspring.

title: Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard


text: Category:285 deaths

title: Category:285 deaths


text:
Shoebox Zoo

Shoebox Zoo is a fantasy TV series made in a collaboration between BBC Scotland and various Canadian television companies. It is mostly live-action, but with CGI used for the animal figurines. It was first broadcast in 2004, by CBBC. The series was broadcast in the United States by the Showtime network and in Jamaica by CVM Television.

Series overview
The series was conceived by then-BBC Scotland director Claire Mundell and television director Justin Molotnikov in 2002, and then further developed by Brian Ward. The series was co-produced by Toronto-based company Blueprint Entertainment, founded by John Morayniss, who previously worked at Alliance Atlantis, where he helped produce another CBBC programme Ace Lightning. The series consists of twenty-six episodes, split between two seasons made up of thirteen episodes each. The titular Shoebox Zoo were computer generated by Alias Systems Corporation, the characters designed with Celtic mythology and artwork in designs.

Setting
Shoebox Zoo mixes Scottish, Celtic, and later, Native American mythology. The first season is set primarily in Edinburgh and other historic locations, while the second season moves to Denver, Colorado, though the season was shot in Canada. The series' protagonist, Marnie McBride, an eleven-year old Scottish-American girl moves to Edinburgh with her father Ross following the unexpected death of her mother Rosemary. On her birthday, Marnie receives a shoebox containing four carved toy animals from a junk shop owner. Marnie discovers she can magically bring the toys to life, referred to collectively as the Shoebox Zoo. The four are in fact humans transformed into toys by their master, Michael Scot, an immortal alchemist and wizard, for stealing his magical codex, the Book of Forbidden Knowledge.

In the series' backstory, Michael Scot lived in 12th century Scotland, where he crafted the Book of Forbidden Knowledge, containing his scholarly work on alchemy and magic. However, the book contained black magic forged from Michael's pride and ambition. He created the series' antagonist, Juan Roberto Montoya de Toledo, a shapeshifting homunculus, using the book's magic. However, Toledo was rejected by Michael, inspiring him to seize the book's power and conquer the world. Michael's four students - Edwin, Bruno, Ailsa, and his own son Wolfgang - steal the book to hide it from Toledo, though Wolfgang takes it out of spite towards his negligent father. The book is lost, Michael transforming the four into toys and putting them to sleep until a prophesied Chosen One, identified as Marnie, possesses magic to awaken them and find the book.

The second season further expands the backstory. After being lost at sea, the Book of Forbidden Knowledge washed ashore in Colorado in 1811, discovered by Marnie's ancestor Angus McBride, an explorer, who gave the book to the local Lakota people led by Chief Stonebear in exchange for marrying his daughter. Discovering the book's magic to be evil, Stonebear and other chieftains made preparations to destroy the book, casting it down the Falls of Faith, and designed the Arrow of Truth and Bow of Wisdom to vanquish its magic. The book disappeared into history once again, though Stonebear's descendants were aware of its location in the Denver forests.

Synopsis
The first season begins with Marnie McBride's eleventh birthday. She and her father Ross visit a junk shop, where the shopkeeper gives Marnie a shoebox containing four carved toy animals. Marnie awakens the Shoebox Zoo from their centuries-long slumber and begrudgingly accepts to quest to find the Book of Forbidden Knowledge and transform the toys back to humanity. Michael watches over her from Tantallon Castle, his ancestral home, while Toledo serves as an antagonistic force, aided by McTaggart, actually a mole working for Michael. Toledo poses as John Roberts, Marnie's schoolmate, but his identity is exposed. Wolfgang, jealous that Marnie became Michael's heir apparent, sides with Toledo to act as a spy. Marnie's late mother Rosemary serves in a pivotal role throughout the first season, once considered a potential chosen one by Michael when she briefly owned the toys, but did not possess the magic to awaken them. However, Rosemary appears as a ghost in the series, possessing knowledge of the book and events of the past.

Marnie and the toys follow a series of clues across Scotland, eventually discovering the book hidden in the University of Edinburgh's library. Wolfgang is revealed as a spy, but betrays Toledo upon making amends with his father. Toledo assaults Marnie's home, accompanied by Los Contrarios, evil twins of the Shoebox Zoo fashioned by Toledo's magic. However, when they are destroyed and Marnie refuses to surrender the book, Toledo retaliates by casting Wolfgang into a fire, killing him. Marnie eventually discovers the book is in fact a copy, designed to contain Toledo's magic. Toledo is seemingly defeated, and Marnie experiences a vision, learning the real book was sent out to sea and lies somewhere in the United States of America.

In the second season, Marnie and the Shoebox Zoo fly to Denver, Michael and McTaggart aiding them from afar. Marnie stays with her maternal grandparents, and is aided by her best friend Kyle Stone, a descendant of Chief Stonebear. Kyle's grandfather, Nathaniel, the spiritual medicine man of the Lakota people, aids Marnie, along with Hunter, a Native American spirit who can manifest in a horse-shaped ceremonial dancing stick. Michael learns of a second prophecy in which the book will be obtained by the malevolent Dawn Queen, who will use its magic to corrupt mankind. Toledo rises as a ghost, murders Michael, transforms a captured McTaggart into a weasel, and possesses the Dawn Queen's mortal self, Aurora Dexter, an ambitious television medium. Needing clues to find the book, Ailsa suggests contacting Marnie's mother in the afterlife. However, Marnie is slowly corrupted by the book's magic and plots to use it to resurrect her mother altogether.

Marnie summons Wolfgang's ghost to lead her to the book's location, taking her to the Falls of Faith. Edwin and Ailsa free McTaggart who battles Toledo but is sent plummeting down the falls to his death. Marnie finds the book beneath her grandfather's woodshed, containing an electric generator which channels the book's energy, but Toledo steals it. Aurora, now the Dawn Queen, restores Toledo's body but enslaves him. Marnie makes the decision to destroy the book using the Bow of Wisdom and Arrow of Truth, but the toys fear losing their one opportunity to regain their humanity. Aurora and Toledo plot to unleash the book's magic on live television.

Marnie resurrects Wolfgang to complete a binding spell designed to suppress the book's magic, and the group confront Aurora, using the Nathaniel's sacred bundle to weaken her magic. Marnie then teleports herself to the Falls of Faith, firing the Arrow of Truth down it, which destroys the book, Toledo, and frees Aurora from her evil persona. At the end of the series, Marnie, now twelve years old, leaves the Shoebox Zoo in the same junk shop her mother found them in years before. In the closing moments, the series' narrator approaches and awakens the toys for his own unseen quest.

Main characters

 * Vivien Endicott-Douglas as Marnie McBride, the main protagonist. An 11-year old American-Scottish girl who moves from Denver, Colorado to Edinburgh following her mother's death, Marnie discovers she has magical powers and is the Chosen One, destined to find the Book of Forbidden Knowledge. At first moody and reluctant to take on her role, Marnie embraces her destiny, coming to terms with her mother's passing. Shoebox Zoo was Endicott-Douglas' first acting role in television.
 * Jason Connery as Ross McBride, Marnie's widowed father who works as a librarian at the University of Edinburgh.
 * Connery also cameos Angus McBride, Marnie's ancestor, who marries Stone Bear's daughter in 1811.
 * Peter Mullan as Michael Scot, an eleven-hundred year old wizard and alchemist, and Wolfgang's estranged father. Based on the historical figure, Michael created both the Book and Toledo in his pursuit for power, corrupted by his own dark intents, leading to many of the events that set up the series' backstory. Although cantankerous, he is wise and mentors Marnie in both magical and personal issues, coming to acknowledge his own sins in the process.
 * David McKay as William McTaggart, Michael Scot's loyal manservant, cursed with immortality for his part in the Book's theft and loss.
 * Tony Donaldson as Professor Juan Montoya de Toledo, the series' antagonist. A shapeshifting homunculus created by Scot, Toledo seeks to acquire the Book to conquer the world and prove his superiority to his creator. He is suave and manipulative, but short-tempered and sociopathic. Due to his shapeshifting abilities, Toledo takes on the form of several disguises, including:
 * Maxi Moffat as John Roberts, Marnie's classmate.
 * Kirsty Elkin as Dr. Joanna Robertson, a psychiatrist.
 * Yudii Mercredi as Kyle Stone, Marnie's friend of Lakota descent. Kyle is a descendant of Chief Stone Bear, possessing his own powers called "horse magic", destined to succeed his grandfather Nathaniel as the local medicine man.
 * Gordon Tootoosis as Nathaniel Stone, Kyle's grandfather and a medicine man.
 * Natascha Girgis as Aurora Dexter, an antagonist in the second season. A television medium from Valentine, Nebraska, Aurora is destined to become the Dawn Queen, a malevolent entity who is prophesied to use the Book's dark magic to corrupt mankind. Toledo possesses her to ensure the prophecy comes to pass.
 * Rik Mayall as Edwin, the pompous, self-proclaimed leader of the Shoebox Zoo, transformed into a metal toy eagle. His name and inability to fly is a nod to Olympic ski jumper Eddie the Eagle.
 * Alan Cumming as Bruno, a kind-hearted though woolly-minded toy bear made of stone.
 * Siobhan Redmond as Ailsa, a cynical and distrusting golden toy adder.
 * Simon Callow as Wolfgang Scot, Michael's son, transformed into a wooden toy wolf, who carries a deep resentment towards his father.
 * Callows also voices Hunter, a free-spirited Native American spirit who materialises in a horse-shaped dancing stick. He repeatedly introduces himself as "Sunkwaki, Spirit of the Horse Dance, son of Wakangli, war horse of Chief Inkpaduta, loyal servant of Wakan Tanka, etc."
 * Bill Paterson as the Storyteller, the series' narrator. In the final episode, it is implied this unseen character inherits the Shoebox Zoo as their next master.

Recurring characters

 * Krystina Coates as Laura, Marnie's best friend in Edinburgh.
 * Sean Joseph Young as Stewart, a school bully.
 * Fergus Nimmo as Dougie, a school bully, who eventually becomes Marnie's friend.
 * Kelsey Collins as Becky Dexter, Aurora's daughter.
 * Paul Coeur as Bobby Campbell, Marnie's maternal grandfather.
 * Valerie Ann Pearson as Dorothy Campbell, Marnie's maternal grandmother.
 * Sammy Simon as Chief Stone Bear, Kyle and Nathaniel's ancestor, who hid the Book in the Denver forests.
 * Frances Low as Ms. McKay, Marnie's teacher in Edinburgh.
 * Dorothy Duffy as Ms. Arnot, a fellow teacher.
 * Sanjeev Kohli as Mr. Kasmani, the bungling headteacher of Marnie's school.
 * Nathaniel Arcand as Cousin Henry, Kyle's relative.

Episodes
The programme was first broadcast on 21 September 2004 on BBC One, and the last episode was shown on 27 November 2005.

Series 1:
 * 1. 'The Magic is Awakened' (21 September 2004)
 * 2. 'Friend or Foe?' (28 September 2004)
 * 3. 'Echoes of the Past' (5 October 2004)
 * 4. 'A Guide for the Perplexed' (12 October 2004)
 * 5. 'The Inner Sanctum' (19 October 2004)
 * 6. 'A Strange Birthday Party' (26 October 2004)
 * 7. 'A Little Knowledge' (2 November 2004)
 * 8. 'Mother's Footsteps' (9 November 2004)
 * 9. 'Where the River Flows' (16 November 2004)
 * 10. 'The Sign of the Unicorn' (23 November 2004)
 * 11. 'Where Four Elevens Meet' (30 November 2004)
 * 12. 'Los Contrarios' (7 December 2004)
 * 13. 'The Day of Reckoning' (14 December 2004)

Series 2:
 * 1. 'Across the Great Ocean' (16 October 2005)
 * 2. 'The Balance of Power' (23 October 2005)
 * 3. 'Snakes Alive' (23 October 2005)
 * 4. 'The Pow Wow' (30 October 2005)
 * 5. 'Hunter to the Rescue' (30 October 2005)
 * 6. 'Coming of Age' (6 November 2005)
 * 7. 'Wild Horses' (6 November 2005)
 * 8. 'Bumps in the Night' (13 November 2005)
 * 9. 'The Eagle Has Landed' (13 November 2005)
 * 10. 'The Arrow of Truth' (20 November 2005)
 * 11. 'The Cry of the Wolf' (20 November 2005)
 * 12. 'The Falls of Faith' (27 November 2005)
 * 13. 'Beyond the Beyond' (27 November 2005)

Locations
The series makes good use of its Lothian setting, with significant locations including the University of Edinburgh library, Tantallon Castle, Boroughmuir High School and St Giles Cathedral, while Toledo makes his base in the clock tower of the Balmoral Hotel. Many interior sets were built at the Castle Brae Business Centre (formally Castlebrae High School) in Edinburgh. The second season was filmed in Alberta, Canada.

title: Shoebox Zoo


text:
Sega AM2

Sega AM Research & Development No. 2, (セガ第二AM研究開発部) previously known as SEGA-AM2 Co., Ltd., (株式会社SEGA-AM2) is a video game development team within the Japanese multinational video game developer Sega. Yu Suzuki, who had previously developed arcade games for Sega including Hang-On and Out Run, was the first manager of the department.

AM2's first game produced was 1992's Virtua Racing, followed by the highly popular Virtua Fighter and Daytona USA. Through the remainder of the 1990s, they developed more arcade titles and focused on fighting and racing games. AM2 was placed under the management of CSK Research Institute in 2000, and a year later became SEGA-AM2 Co., Ltd. Their development of Shenmue was over budget and cost millions of dollars, and despite positive reviews and good sales was unable to become profitable.

Suzuki was promoted and left AM2 in 2003; Hiroshi Kataoka became the head of AM2. A year later Sega was acquired by Sammy Corporation and AM2 was merged back into Sega. Since, the team has continued work on arcade games such as Border Break and the Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA series, as well as smartphone games in Japan. Several games produced by Sega AM2 have influenced and innovated the video game industry from a technical and developmental perspective.

Precursors to AM2: Yu Suzuki and Studio 128
Yu Suzuki joined Sega in 1983 as a programmer. At the time Suzuki joined Sega, there was only one development division at the company. In his first year, he created a 2D boxing game called Champion Boxing for Sega's first home game console, the SG-1000. According to Suzuki, the executive staff at Sega found the game so impressive that they released it in arcades as-is by simply installing an SG-1000 into an arcade cabinet. He was promoted to project leader while still in his first year at the company. Suzuki's next project was the motorcycle racing game Hang-On. To accomplish his desire to make a 3D game despite technological limitations at the time, he specified the design of Sega's new Super Scaler arcade system board, which utilized 16-bit graphics and sprite-scaling. Hang-On was very popular at launch and sold well for Sega. Suzuki's success followed with additional titles Space Harrier, Out Run, and Enduro Racer. He and his team relocated to "Studio 128", a more private location where After Burner and Power Drift were developed. He also worked on development of G-LOC: Air Battle and the R360 arcade cabinet. Developer Toshihiro Nagoshi joined Sega in 1989 as a designer with Suzuki's team.

Establishment of AM2 and years as a department
Some time after the release of Power Drift, Sega began to separate the amusement division into the Amusement Machine Research and Development teams, or AM teams. Suzuki was made general manager of Research and Development No. 2, or Sega AM2. According to Suzuki, Sega employed approximately 600 people in research and development, and that AM2 began as a group of around 100 people. He has also stated the reason for this separation was the advent of advanced computer graphics technology. Around the time of AM2's formation, Suzuki's team moved back into the main office, then to an annex a short walk from the office. Even so, Suzuki worked with a desire of secrecy, so much so that Sega president Hayao Nakayama was denied entry on one occasion.

The first project developed by AM2 was Virtua Racing. While development began with 10 people on Virtua Racing, it finished with 25 workers on the project for a year, and the Model 1 arcade system board on which it runs took approximately three years. AM2 also ported the game for the Sega Genesis. Next Generation stated that AM2 "single-handedly chang[ed] the perception of polygons in a gaming environment" with Virtua Racing.

After the release of Virtua Racing, AM2 split into two teams; one began work on Virtua Fighter, while another started on Daytona USA. According to Suzuki, he wanted to develop a game with multiple joint movements, such as a soccer or rugby game. Finding that the Model 1 was not powerful enough to handle this many motions, Suzuki resorted to a game with only two moving characters at a time. With the massive success of Street Fighter II in the industry at the time, he made the decision to make a 3D fighting game to compete. In developing the game, Suzuki identified the need for the game to be realistic, yet fun to play. Virtua Fighter became a huge success in Japan, and its Sega Saturn port sold at a nearly one-to-one ratio with the console itself. For Daytona USA, Nagoshi was director and chief designer, while Suzuki served as producer. The concept for the game was suggested by Tom Petit, head of Sega Enterprises USA, as a way to debut Sega's new Model 2 arcade system board. Sega mandated that Daytona USA had to be better than Ridge Racer, a game made by Namco. To accurately depict Daytona International Speedway, the developers used satellite imagery and sent staff to photograph the track; Nagoshi walked a full lap to get a feel for the banking in the corners. Daytona USA was released in Japan in August 1993, and worldwide in March 1994. AM2 ported the game to Saturn in April 1995. The Saturn port was a launch title in the West. Daytona USA was highly popular in arcades, and the twin cabinet was one of three 1995 recipients of the American Amusement Machine Association's Diamond Awards, which are based strictly on sales achievements. In a 2002 report, Sega reported it to be one of the most successful arcade games of all time.

Over the course of the remainder of the 1990s, Suzuki's primary concern in arcades were the Virtua Fighter series and working as a producer for other titles. Subsequently, AM2 released Virtua Cop and Virtua Fighter 2 for the Model 2. Produced in twelve months, Virtua Fighter 2 was an even greater success in Japan than its predecessor. In a 1996 interview, Suzuki stated in an interview his philosophy to be not an imitator, but a pioneer in the arcade industry. He also described the palm tree logo of AM2 as representing reliance and peace of mind. Further titles developed in the end of 1990s included Virtua Cop 2, Fighting Vipers, Daytona USA 2: Battle on the Edge, and SpikeOut. Daytona USA 2 and SpikeOut made use of the Model 3 system board.

AM2 of CRI and SEGA-AM2 Co., Ltd.
In April 2000, CSK Research Institute (CRI) took management over AM2. CRI was a subsidiary of CSK Corporation, which was Sega's parent company at the time, and had previously published Aero Dancing. The new division became known as "AM2 of CRI", and Suzuki remained in charge. Also in 2000, Sega restructured its arcade and console development teams into nine semi-autonomous studios headed by the company's top designers. Sega's design houses were encouraged to experiment and benefited from a relatively lax approval process. During the development of Shenmue, Nagoshi requested and was granted his own studio, leaving AM2.

AM2 developed what Sega hoped would be the Dreamcast's killer app in Shenmue, a "revenge epic in the tradition of Chinese cinema." The action-adventure game involved the quest of protagonist Ryo Hazuki to avenge his father's murder, but its main selling point was its rendition of the Japanese city of Yokosuka, which included a level of detail considered unprecedented for a video game. Incorporating a simulated day/night cycle with variable weather, non-player characters with regular schedules, and the ability to pick up and examine detailed objects (also introducing the Quick-time event in its modern form ), Shenmue went over budget and was rumored to have cost Sega over $50 million. Originally planned as the first installment in an 11-part saga, Shenmue was eventually downsized to a trilogy. According to Sega of America president Peter Moore, Shenmue sold "extremely well", but the game had no chance of making a profit due to the Dreamcast's limited installed base. The high amount Shenmue went over budget was also a factor in the game's lack of profitability. Its sequel, Shenmue II, "was completed for a much more reasonable sum". In addition to the mixed reception for Shenmue, IGN's Travis Fahs stated that "the [Dreamcast] era wasn't as kind to [AM2] as earlier years"—citing (among others) F355 Challenge as an "acclaimed" arcade game that "didn't do much at home", and Genki's port of Virtua Fighter 3 as inferior to the arcade version, "which was already a couple years old and never as popular as its predecessors." The Virtua Fighter series would experience a "tremendous comeback" with the universally acclaimed Virtua Fighter 4—which saw a console release exclusively on PlayStation 2. In Japanese arcades, Virtua Fighter 4 proved to be highly influential with its VF.NET system, paving the way for arcade games with network features. The quest mode of Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution on PlayStation 2, used AI mined from players in Japan playing through VF.NET.

In 2001, AM2 of CRI was renamed to SEGA-AM2 Co., Ltd. After serving as a producer on Virtua Cop 3 and OutRun 2, Suzuki left AM2 on October 1, 2003, in order to start a new studio with Sega, called Digitalrex. He was promoted to non-executive board director. Hiroshi Kataoka was placed in charge of AM2. Kataoka, who had led research and development at AM2 for a year, had worked on numerous projects for Sega and Yu Suzuki's division as old as Space Harrier to Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution. Makoto Osaki became AM2's head of development, reporting to Kataoka. At the same time as the changes, a number of Sega's studios were merged. However, AM2 did not merge with any other studio.

Merge into Sega and years since
During mid-2004, Sammy Corporation bought a controlling share in Sega and created the new company Sega Sammy Holdings, an entertainment conglomerate. Since then, Sega and Sammy became subsidiaries of the aforementioned holding company, with both companies operating independently, while the executive departments merged. Prior to the acquisition by Sammy, Sega began the process of re-integrating its subsidiaries into the main company, which was completed by October 2004. Sega would also restructure the development studios again, consolidating the divisions further into the Global Entertainment, Amusement Software, and New Entertainment R&D divisions. AM2 continued to develop games after the merger. Virtua Fighter 5 was released in 2007. An upgrade, Virtua Fighter 5 R, was released the following year. The last release of the Virtua Fighter franchise was the console port of Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, the final iteration of the game. Ghost Squad, in the style of Virtua Cop, received an arcade and a Wii release in 2008. AM2 has developed games for the Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA series, as well as a number of free-to-play smartphone games in Japan, such as Soul Reverse Zero. Some titles have been developed for consoles as well, such as Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Mega 39’s for Nintendo Switch. AM2 became involved with the Hatsune Miku license with items for Virtua Fighter 5 R and the racing game R-Tuned: Ultimate Street Racing. When the PSP game Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA was in development, it was decided that AM2 would develop an arcade version as well as develop the holographic imagery for Hatsune Miku 's live concerts. The visuals for these projects were based on the Virtua Fighter 5 engine. Makoto Osaki called this period the most stressful for him since Shenmue. A major success for AM2 has been the Border Break franchise. The game was partly developed because the development team felt envious of the Virtua Fighter 5 team and wanted to develop a competitive game as well. The arcade release in 2009 was continuously updated, with releases Border Break Union in 2012, Border Break Scramble in 2015, and Border Break X in 2017—with a PlayStation 4 version released in 2018. In 2019, Border Break celebrated its 10th Anniversary. Other titles from AM2 to get long-term support in arcades are Quest of D, Sega Network Taisen Mahjong MJ, and Shining Force Cross. Hiroshi Kataoka likened the basic enjoyability of these network-based arcade games to those of an MMO, but collectible cards and a community differentiated these from the usually solitary MMO experience on PC. According to Sega Amusement International CEO Paul Williams, these type of core games are only possible in Japan due to Sega owning their own chains and being able to kickstart an online infrastructure. The latest effort, Soul Reverse, was born out of the desire to create a fantasy version of Border Break. It lasted a year, launching in 2018 with its network features shutting down in 2019. The game was not well received by the Japanese arcade player base. It took four years to produce. Currently running arcade games with AM2 staff working on them are KanColle Arcade, Fate/Grand Order Arcade as well as an updated version of Virtua Fighter 5, Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown, co-developed with Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.

As of 2014, Hiroshi Kataoka was still in charge of AM2. Currently he is an executive for Sega supervising arcade engineers and the technology backend of games developed at the engineering division.

Games
AM2 has several arcade and video game series they develop, including Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter, OutRun, Virtua Cop, Virtua Striker, Fighting Vipers, and Shenmue. Other titles developed by the studio include Scud Race, Sonic the Fighters, 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker, F355 Challenge,  Outtrigger, and Soul Reverse. AM2 has also developed smartphone games in Japan. Of AM2's games, the Virtua Fighter series is "the highest grossing game in Japan arcades." The Hatsune Miku: Project Diva series has sold over 6 million units as of 2018. As of March 2012, the game Border Break has grossed JP¥8.1 billion from arcade machine sales, equivalent to more than US$100 million.

Journalists have praised AM2 as having a "legendary" status in game development, in particular under Yu Suzuki. According to Aaron Souppouris of Engadget, AM2 in the past developed games that defined their genres, and called the department Sega's "most-storied division". While lamenting the changes in development focus in recent years, Souppouris called the Hatsune Miku series "admittedly excellent". In 1995, Edge called Suzuki "the legendary head of AM2, Sega's core coin-op operation". Also in 1995, Next Generation stated that AM2's unusual repeated success came from its ability to release high-quality games on a regular basis. IGN's Travis Fahs stated that "[f]or as long as SEGA has had internal studios, AM2 has been the favorite son of the arcade division... Without AM2, SEGA would not have been able to dominate the arcades the way that they did." Video game journalist Ken Horowitz has stated that AM2 became the most well-known of Sega's in-house development teams and that the studio produced "ground-breaking classics".

title: Sega AM2