Lucius Cassius Dio or Dio Cassius was a Roman statesman and historian of Greek and Roman origin. He published 80 volumes of history beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy; the volumes documented the subsequent founding of Rome, the formation of the Republic, the creation of the Empire, up until 229 AD. Written in ancient Greek over 22 years, Dio's work covers 1,000 years of history. Many of his 80 books have survived intact, or as fragments, providing modern scholars with a detailed perspective on Roman history. Lucius Cassius Dio was the son of Cassius Apronianus, a Roman senator and member of the gens Cassia, born and raised at Nicaea in Bithynia. Byzantine tradition maintains that Dio's mother was the daughter or sister of the Greek orator and philosopher, Dio Chrysostom. Lucius is identified as Dio's praenomen, but a Macedonian inscription, published in 1970, reveals the abbreviation, "Cl." Claudius. Although Dio was a Roman citizen, he wrote in Greek. Dio always maintained a love for his hometown of Nicaea, calling it "his home", as opposed to his description of his villa in Italy.

For the greater part of his life, Dio was a member of the public service. He was a senator under Commodus and governor of Smyrna following the death of Septimius Severus. Dio was proconsul in Africa and Pannonia. Severus Alexander held Dio in the highest esteem and reappointed him to the position of consul though his caustic nature irritated the Praetorian Guards, who demanded his life. Following his second consulship, while in his years, Dio returned to his native country, where he died. Dio was either the grandfather or great-grandfather of Cassius Dio, consul in 291. Dio published a Roman History, after twenty-two years of research and labour; the books cover a period of 1,400 years, beginning with the tales from Roman mythology of the arrival of the legendary Aeneas in Italy and the founding of Rome by his descendant Romulus. The work is one of only three written Roman sources that document the British revolt of AD 60–61 led by Boudica; until the first century BC, Dio provides only a summary of events.

From the time of Commodus, Dio is circumspect in his conveyance of the events that he witnessed. The version of Dio's work that survives today is quite composite since his history does not survive in its entirety: The first 21 books have been reconstructed based on fragments from other works as well as the epitome of Zonaras who used Dio's Roman History as a main source. Scholarship on this part of Dio's work is scarce but the importance of the Early Republic and Regal period to Dio's overall work has been underlined. Books 22-35 are sparsely covered by fragments; the books that follow, Books 36 through 54, are nearly all complete. Book 55 contains a considerable gap, while Books 56 through 60 are complete and contain events from the defeat of Varus in Germany to the death of Claudius. Of the 20 subsequent books in the series, there remain only fragments and the meager abridgement of John Xiphilinus, a monk from the 11th century; the abridgment of Xiphilinus, as now extant, commences with Book 35 and continues to the end of Book 80: it is a indifferent performance and was made by order of the emperor Michael VII Doukas.

The last book covers the period from 222 to 229. Dio's work has been deprecated as unreliable and lacking any overall political aim. However, this Roman historian has received a thorough reevaluation and his complexity and sophisticated political and historical interpretations have been highlighted; the fragments of the first 36 books, as they have been collected, consist of four kinds: Fragmenta Valesiana: fragments that were dispersed throughout various writers, scholiasts and lexicographers, were collected by Henri Valois. Fragmenta Peiresciana: large extracts, found in the section entitled "Of Virtues and Vices", contained in the collection, or portative library, compiled by order of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus; the manuscript of this belonged to Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc. The fragments of the first 34 books, preserved in the second section of the same work by Constantine, entitled “Of Embassies.” These are known under the name of Fragmenta Ursiniana, as the manuscript in which they are contained was found in Sicily by Fulvio Orsini.

Excerpta Vaticana by Angelo Mai: Contains fragments of books 1 to 35 and 61 to 80. Additionally, fragments of an unknown continuator of Dio identified with the 6th-century historian Peter the Patrician, are included. Other fragments from Dio that are associated with the first 34 books were found by Mai in two Vatican MSS.. The annals of Joannes Zonaras contain numerous extracts from Dio. Dio attempted to emulate Thucydides in his writing style. Dio's style, where there appears to be no corruption of the text, is clear though full of Latinisms. Dio's writing was underpinned by a set of personal circumstances whereby he was able to observe significant ev

Ani: A Parody is a play with music written by Matt Lang and Nick Lang with music by Clark Baxtresser and Pierce Siebers. The musical parodies Star Wars. "Ani" was the childhood nickname of Anakin Skywalker. The musical was performed between August 10, 2014, at Stage 773 in Chicago, Illinois, it ran for a total of 22 performances, was performed in repertory with The Trail to Oregon!, both being produced by StarKid Productions. The group uploaded the musical in its entirety to YouTube on October 31, 2014; the musical's cast recording was released on iTunes the same day. The cast recording reached #4 on Billboard's Comedy Albums the week of November 22, 2014; the story takes place shortly before the events of the 1977 film Star Wars. A voiceover plays over of an announcer narrating the win of Ani at a pod race. An Imperial officer comes in and prompts him, calling him "Lord Vader". Vader turns around and tells the officer to call him "Ani"; the officer asks Ani how he's doing and Ani replies that he was looking out into space, thinking about the good old days.

He wistfully adds that the thing about the good old days is that you don't know that you're in them until they're gone. Ani asks why he came around and the officer tells him that he's late for a meeting with other Imperial officers; the Imperial officers, lead by Moff Jeffrey Tarkin discuss their plans for the Death Star. Ani and Jar Jar begin training for the Boonta Eve. Mara goes to Jabba's palace to audition for the dancing slave girl position but is ridiculed and denied an audition for having no previous experience. Tarkin takes Emily to the Mos Eisley cantina for drinks. There they meet Obi-Wan Kenobi, shocked to hear that Ani is still alive after he defeated and left him for dead years prior. Tarkin is contacted by Palpatine and he and Emily leave the cantina to take the call. Palpatine has been informed by another general of Ani's goal to race, demands Tarkin to bring him back to the Death Star. Tarkin refuses and hangs up. Tarkin and Emily share a romantic moment after Tarkin charms Emily with romantic lines Ani gave to him.

Meanwhile, Obi-Wan forms an alliance with Sebulba to kill Jar Jar. Obi-Wan appears at Jar Jar's residence. Jar Jar dies in a hospital with Ani being there for his final moments. Ani decides to give up on racing on the fear he may be targeted next but is convinced otherwise by Tarkin and Mara, who remind Ani of his dream. On the day of the race, Sebulba sabotages Ani's pod by removing the power coupling; the race commences. Ani and Sebulba appear to be evenly matched until Ani's pod runs out of power and Sebulba knocks into him, causing him and his pod to crash into the side. Palpatine confronts Ani at the crash site and apologizes for not understanding Ani's passion in pod-racing, he reactivates Ani's pod with his force lightning. Ani punches him in the nose, winning the race shortly after. Boba Fett, Ani's friend, is able to secure Mara an audition for a slave girl position through his connections to Jabba. Ani and Emily are there to watch Mara's audition, she gets the cast celebrates with a reprise of the musical's first song.

Every actor played various characters as part of the ensemble. Ani received mixed reviews. TheForce. Net said of the "non-musical musical" concept, "The music and lyrics, despite being wonderfully penned by TalkFine, don't seem to be as effective off-stage as they would have been on-stage," criticising the production design and describing the script as "not Nick & Matt Lang's best". Observation Deck praised the humor. Hypable's Danielle Zimmermann praised the portrayal of Jar-Jar Binks, Nick Lang's portrayal of Obi-Wan, calling the show "cleverly written and a lot of fun." Lists of musicals StarKid Productions official website StarKid Productions on YouTube

---This is a list of media in Red Deer, Alberta. Until August 2009, Red Deer was served by a local television station, CHCA-TV channel 6, carrying programming from Canada's E! network. CHCA closed on August 2009 due to economic troubles endured by its parent company, Canwest. All of the city's other television services are rebroadcasters of stations from Edmonton. Red Deer is not designated as a mandatory market for digital television conversion. Channel 4: CKEM-TV-1, Citytv Channel 8: CFRN-TV-6, CTV Channel 10: CITV-TV-1, GlobalAfter CHCA dropped its longtime affiliation with CBC Television in 2005, Edmonton's CBXT set up a rebroadcaster in Red Deer. Radio-Canada outlet CBXFT operated a rebroadcaster there, both stations had been available for decades on cable in the city, they were shut down with the CBC's other rebroadcasters in 2012, meaning Red Deer residents need cable to watch CBC and Radio-Canada programming. Cable television in Red Deer is served by Shaw Communications, who operates a local community channel under the "Shaw TV" name.

Discounting Shaw TV, Red Deer, with a population approaching 100,000, is one of the largest standalone urban centres in Canada without a local TV station. Red Deer Advocate Red Deer Express Todayville: A digital local news platform launched by the former VP of CFRN-TV-6. RdnewsNOW: Launched as an independent online video news start-up founded by a former CHCA-TV staffer, it is now part of the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group, sharing news resources with CHUB-FM and CFDV-FM