Entertainment Down to Earth for Empedocles Quiz

Answer: The Day the Earth Caught Fire

"The Day the Earth Caught Fire" (1961) was the title we were looking for. Val Guest directed this apocalyptic movie. Edward Judd played a divorced, alcohol addicted journalist (named Peter Stenning), sent out on odd jobs. When the USA and the USSR tested their atomic bombs simultaneously, the weather worldwide started showing irregular patterns. Peter was sent to the meteorological office to collect some data and comments, and started on bad footing with Jeannie Craig (role by Janet Munro). Later in the movie the quarrelling Peter and Jeannie fell in love. Soon afterwards the scientists discovered the earth was tilted by the nuclear experiments, and they decided to launch a series of nuclear explosions in Siberia to try to remedy the situation. The end of the movie is unclear whether the earth was saved or destroyed in the process.
"Between Earth and Sky" (2018) was an American mystery drama starring Peter Sarsgaard and Mireille Enos.
"Here on Earth" (2000) was an American romantic drama with Chris Klein and Leelee Sobieski.
In "The Man from Earth: Holocene" (2017) we met a 14 000 year old immortal professor (played by David Lee Smith) and some of his students (including Vanessa Williams).

Answer: The World at War

"The World at War" was a 26 episode documentary from 1973-1974 with archive footage and interviews with various people, including for instance Albert Speer (German Minister of Armament), Anthony Eden (British Foreign Secretary) and Toshikazu Kase (member of the Japanese cabinet secretariat).

It examined some episodes of the war from both the Axis and the Allied point of view, and also zoomed in on some hitherto neglected areas (such as the life at home in the battling or occupied countries). "World of Dance" (2017-2020) was a dance competition. "Boy Meets World" (1993-2000) was a sitcom about a teenage boy. "As The World Turns" (1956-2010) was a long soap opera about two families in a town in the US Midwest.

Answer: Phileas Fogg

Jules Verne has written about several fantastic voyages. Indeed, the collection of the fifty-four novels Jules published during his lifetime is named "Fantastic Voyages".
Phileas Fogg was the protagonist in "Around the World in Eighty Days". He started his trip with his manservant Passe-Partout, and was tracked down on the entire journey by Inspector Fix, who suspected Fogg had robbed the Bank of England. In India Fogg rescued the young widow Aouda from the ritual sati (self-immolation), and she went with the others to continue the journey.
When Phileas Fogg and company returned to London, they thought they'd lost the wager, until Passe-Partout picked up the newspaper and saw the date. The trio arrived just in time to collect the prize.
Otto Lidenbrock was the protagonist in Verne's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" (1864). He was a German professor who travelled underground from an Icelandic volcano to the Italina volcano Stromboli.
Impey Barbicane was one of the three men who, according to Verne's novel, went "From the Earth to the Moon" (1865).
And according to Jules Verne once again, it was Captain Nemo who travelled "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea" (1869-1870).

Answer: The Baddest Woman on the Planet

Rousey (born 1987) started her career as a judoka, and won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Then she retired from judo and started a career in Mixed Martial Arts. In 2012 she signed for the Ultimate Fighting Championships and won the world title six consecutive times.

In 2018 she moved on to professional wrestling at the WWE, where she held the title for over half a year. In the promos for her appearances, the comment reads "the baddest woman on the planet". "Eater of Worlds" was one of the nicknames given to Windham Rotunda. "The Underdog of the Underground" refers to Rami Sebei. And several male WWE champions have called themselves "The Best in the World", including Bryan Danielson (aka Daniel Bryan or Dynamic Dragon), Tyson Smith (ring name Kenny Omega) and Leati Anoa'I (known as Roman Reigns).

Answer: Doom II

The "Doom" franchise was one of the most successful series of first-person shooter games. The company id Software released "Doom" in 1993 and the first sequel "Doom II: Hell on Earth" in 1994. The plot of the first game was about a US marine left on one of the moons of Mars and fighting off a multitude of demons, zombies, and other hellish creatures. In the second game, the action took place on the Earth instead of Mars, but there were more and harder foes to defeat.
The fantasy world created by JRR Tolkien inspired several video games, produced and commercialized by various developers and publishers. Some subtitles contain the word "Earth": "The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth" (2019) by Asmodee Digital as well as the Electronic Arts publications "The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth" (2004) and "The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II" (2006).
"Call of Cthulhu" was intended to be a video game franchise of several games loosely based upon the fantasy novels by HP Lovecraft. But the developing studio Headfirst spent so much time and money on developing the first game ("Dark Corners of the Earth") that it went bankrupt before releasing other games.
"Inherit the Earth" had anthropomorphic animals on a quest. The first instalment was subtitled "Quest for the Orb" (1994), but in the next 25 years no sequels were made because of a continuing quarrel between the developing studio and the publisher.

Answer: Michael Jackson

"Earth Song" was first sung in 1995 by Michael Jackson and was included in his studio album "HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book 1". Its lyrics meditate on the disastrous influence of man's actions on animal diversity and the future of the earth. The melody mixed elements of blues, opera, gospel and pop songs.
The song rose to the top places in the UK and German hit charts, and the single sold more than 1,000,000 copies in both of these countries.
Bjork recorded "Earth Intruders" in 2007. Elvis Presley sang "Earth Boy" on a record of 1962. And Belinda Carlisle came up with "Heaven is a Place on Earth" in 1987.

Answer: The Thing

Ben Grimm was one of the Fantastic Four, a group of astronauts who were exposed to cosmic radiation on their first mission in space. As a result, they developed superpowers - with Ben gaining the powers related to earth, most notably as The Thing - a walking piece of orange massive rock, almost invulnerable and with great strength.

But his "heavy" responsibilities also almost excluded any romantic adventure. Chon Li was Aardwolf, a werewolf. Henry Camp was Bulldozer, a criminal with superhuman strength. Kyle Brock was Earth Lord, a former police officer transformed into a mighty accomplice of the Egyptian god Seth.

Answer: Hieronymus Bosch

Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) made this intriguing triptych. The left panel is clearly set in the Garden of Eden, as God presents Eve to Adam. The rest of the panel is filled with animals: exotic animals such as a giraffe and an elephant on the background, a number of more familiar animals on the foreground (including a rabbit behind Eve's foot, a cat dragging a caught lizard, a magpie...). The centre panel shows dozens of nude people enjoying themselves sinfully: some are depicted with oversized fruits or drinking from large jugs and thus are symbol of gluttony, other have been painted while committing the sin of lust with each other (adultery) or with animals (bestiality), one woman carrying cherries in her hair symbolizes pride, and so on. The right panel has the inevitable conclusion: the sinners are tortured in the most gruesome way by devilish creatures.
Arcimboldo (1526-1593) made mannerist interpretations of the four elements. His painting "Earth" seems from afar a man's head turned to the right, but in detail you'll find dozens of land animals: a lion and lioness, an elephant, various kinds of deer... It is now in a private collection.
Jan Breughel the Elder (1568-1625) painted "The Earthly Paradise", which you can also admire in the Prado. It shows a forest landscape, with many fruits (perhaps quinces) as well as a few animals (parrots, a monkey, a deer, one or two curlews...)
Michelangelo (1475-1564) left us many biblical scenes in the Sistine Chapel. One of the ceiling paintings is titled "The Separation of the Earth from the Waters", but it shows us only God busy performing some act and four nude figures looking on. Neither the earth nor the waters are in this painting.

Answer: Wunderland, Kalkar, Germany

The construction of the nuclear plant in Kalkar (on the Rhine, about 15 km from the Dutch border) was hampered by many problems, and the population protested vehemently against this project. So the nuclear plant was never made operational. A Dutch entrepreneur bought the whole terrain and the installations and transformed it to an amusement park, including a climbing wall on the outside of the cooling tower and a swing ride inside the cooling tower. Wunderland Kalkar opened in 2016.
Disneyland, Anaheim (California) opened in 1955 on a vast expanse of former agricultural terrain (mostly orchards with oranges and walnuts).
World Chocolate Wonderland in Beijing opened in 2010. All its attractions are related to chocolate: for instance a chocolate model of the Great Wall, a chocolate car, chocolate clothing...
Wonderland City, Sydney is a now defunct amusement park. It opened in 1906 on the site of the previous Bondi Beach Aquarium, but had to close down in 1911.
Empedocles would classify all these amusement parks as "earth", because the word land refers to a tract of earthly terrain.

Answer: "Dido and Aeneas" by Purcell

Henry Purcell (1659-1695) was one of the first opera composers to use English libretti. "Dido and Aeneas" is still regularly performed and may be his best known opera. The story (based upon Virgil's "Aeneid") tells how Aeneas, one of the few Trojan survivors, stranded in Carthage. Dido, queen of Carthage, fell in love with him, but the gods ordered Aeneas to pursue his voyage. Dido had a pyre erected and as Aeneas sailed away, she sang " When I'm laid, I'm laid in earth // May my wrongs create no trouble, no trouble in thy breast // Remember me, remember me, but ah, forget my fate // Remember me, but ah, forget my fate." Then she stabbed herself and threw her on the lit pyre.
In Giuseppe Verdi's "Aida" the male hero Radames was condemned to be buried alive in a vault. When he discovered his beloved Aida in the tomb, they sang "O terra addio" ("Farewell, o Earth").
In "Don Pasquale" by Gaetano Donizetti the title character sings "Cerchero lontana terra" ("I will find a land far away") when he is forced to give up his beloved Norina.
The very long libretto of Wagner's "Siegfried" contains the following lyrics sung by Brunnhilde: "O Siegfried! Herrlicher! //Hort der Welt! //Leben der Erde! //Lachender Held!", which I would translate as "O sweet Siegfried ! // Stronghold of the World ! // Life of the Earth ! // Smiling Hero !"